Doomsday Hunter 2, page 5
part #2 of Doomsday Hunter Series
“Whoa, whoaaaa there, little lady.” The man held up his hands to try and slow her down. “You and I both know darn well I can’t sell those things in this store.”
“This is a weapon’s store, correct?” Natalie questioned as she gave the man a sassy look. “What kind of a weapon’s store doesn’t sell the best assault rifles ever made?”
“The kind that wants to keep their license,” Raymond chuckled. “The only assault rifles we stock are the DC 582s.”
“What about shotguns?” Natalie continued. “You must have some Benellis or Brownings or Remingtons, right?”
The man just shook his head. “I’ve got DC Double-Barrels, DCAs, and Single-shot Deltas.”
“Let me guess,” the Scavenger sighed. “Your pistol selection is limited to a bunch of guns I’ve never heard of, too?”
“I mean, everybody’s heard of the Troski-45,” Raymond noted. “It’s the standard-issue pistol for police and the military.”
“Hold on… ” I spoke up. “What does the ‘DC’ in those guns refer to?”
“Deltacorp,” Raymond explained as he looked at me like I’d grown a third ear. “What else could it be for?”
Holy crap. I knew Deltacorp essentially had a monopoly on the software industry in this universe, but it was manufacturing weapons, too?
No wonder Dr. Merrick’s AI wanted to take over all of the company’s systems.
He would literally have the whole world at his fingertips.
“I guess I’m still confused,” Natalie grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest. “I get these are the top of the line weapons, but why don’t you have the older stuff, too? Surely there are collectors out there who want the vintage guns.”
“You two aren’t from around here, are you?” Raymond chuckled. “As much as I hate it, too, these are the only firearms we’re allowed to sell in these parts. They’re the only ones that have the instakill switch programmed into them by Deltacorp. You know, the one that allows the authorities to shut down the weapons with the push of a button.”
“That sounds like a terrible design flaw,” I admitted.
“I’m right there with you, brother,” the man agreed, “but I’m trying to make an honest living here, so I’ve gotta play by the rules.”
I turned to Natalie and waggled my finger so she would follow me.
“Quick sidebar,” I ordered her, and then we stepped away from the counter and out of earshot of the man.
“We shouldn’t buy anything from here,” Natalie warned me. “Weapons that can be shut down by Deltacorp? Those are the last things we’d want if we intend to charge into the building and destroy its precious AI. Dr. Merrick would render them useless before we even had a chance to take aim.”
“I’m not sure what other options we have,” I sighed. “The guys at Design by Delta made it sound like this was the only place that sold weapons in this area.”
“There’s got to be another way.” The Scavenger shook her head. “Even without the whole ‘remote shutdown’ issue, these are weapons I’ve never handled before. I don’t know anything about their accuracy or how many bullets each magazine holds… It would be a huge risk.”
“Could we do it without guns?” I offered. “Surely we can get some knives--”
“It will depend on how close to Doomsday we are,” Natalie interrupted. “If Dr. Merrick’s AI is still relatively harmless, we might be able to sneak into Deltacorp without much bloodshed. However, if he’s already the bloodthirsty tyrant Dr. Nash claimed he is? We might be going up against military-grade drones. A knife isn’t going to do anything against one of those.”
“You could have just said ‘no,’” I joked and ran my fingers through my hair with a sigh.
It didn’t look like we had much of a choice. We needed guns, and this guy had them.
The only question was if they were going to be effective when push came to shove.
“Tell you what, guys… ” Raymond called out. “Come over here for a second, would ya?”
Natalie and I looked at each other cautiously, and then we approached the counter.
“Do you have any of those weapons I described?” the blonde woman asked once more.
Raymond pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something onto it.
“Like I said, lady,” he explained as he slid the note over to us. “I’m not allowed to sell anything else.”
We both looked down at the note.
Cameras all over. I know a guy who might be able to help.
“Is that so?” I played along with the charade. “Well, fine. If we wanted to buy one of your weapons, what would it cost? Also, what do you currently have in stock?”
Raymond pulled the piece of paper back toward him and began to write once more.
“We’ve got everything!” he proclaimed. “What exactly do you need it for?”
“Personal protection,” I explained. “My wife and I here are new to this area, and we just want to make sure we’re safe. Also, we want to be as subtle as we can, so we don’t draw attention to ourselves and make people suspicious.”
I mean, it wasn’t a lie.
“In that case, I think you’ll want one of the Troski’s,” Raymond said as he placed the paper down before us. “Let me go get one outta the case.”
The dealer walked away to let us ponder his words, and we immediately looked down at the paper.
Five hundred up front, and another five hundred after delivery. If you need a sidearm, he can get you a pair of Sig Sauer P365s. They’re lightweight and easy to conceal. He only deals at midnight, at the park down on the tenth block of Holt street. If you want in, give me the five-hundred right now. I’ll give you one of these guns, and then you toss it the second you’re out of here.
I looked up at the Scavenger and saw she was on cloud nine.
“I’m not familiar with that weapon,” she admitted, “but it sounds like it’s right up my alley.”
“Here ya go!” Raymond announced as he placed the small, white metal pistol down onto the counter. “The best one I got.”
I hesitated for a moment. This guy was a licensed arms dealer with Deltacorp, so how did I know this wasn’t just a ruse? How did I know he wasn’t going to just take our five-hundred dollars and then laugh while we both were chased off by the police?
Then again, this guy was our only lead on an untraceable weapon. On top of that, if these things were really as regulated as he was claiming they were, I didn’t know if we had another choice. Then there was the fact he was offering to break the law and sticking his neck out for us.
We needed weapons, and this was the best option we had at the moment, so I guess it was a deal.
I walked over, picked up the gun, and pretended to look it over.
It was much lighter weight than any handgun I’d held before, and it felt like it was almost made out of cheap plastic. There was a thumbprint scanner at the end of the hammer, and underneath that was a tiny screen.
“I love it!” I lied. “How much?”
“Five hundred,” Raymond continued the charade.
“Five hundred it is, then.” I smiled as I set the gun back down onto the counter and then pulled five hundred-dollar bills out from my pocket.
Raymond gave me a knowing nod as he picked up the money, rapped on the cash register, and then placed it inside. Then he gave me some sort of tablet to sign.
I filled it out with a fake name, handed it back, and then watched as he entered the information into the system.
“Congratulations,” he announced. “You are now the proud owner of a brand new Troski-45!”
I picked up the gun, slid it into my waistband, and nodded to the man behind the counter.
“Thank you,” I said. “You have no idea how much this means to us.”
“No problem.” Raymond winked. “I just hope you’re satisfied with your purchase.”
I concealed the gun in my waistband, and then Natalie and I waved farewell to our unlikely ally. We walked out of the gun store, found a nearby trash can, and then looked around to make sure nobody had seen us.
Then, once the coast was clear, I tossed the Troski-45 into the trash.
“Whew.” I whistled as I began to walk away. “That was a rush. I’m not sure I like this whole ‘megacorporation owns everything’ timeline.”
“That’s why we were sent to change it,” Natalie reminded me. “So, what do we do now?”
“We go find a place to crash,” I explained as I looked back over my shoulder. “We snag a hotel, relax for a bit, and then go find our guy around midnight.”
The Scavenger caught up to me in no time flat, and then we walked arm-in-arm down the streets of the unfamiliar city.
We had a date with a shady arm’s dealer, and I personally couldn’t wait.
Chapter 4
“There are so many choices,” Natalie huffed as she leafed through the stack of brochures we’d picked up from Utopolis’ tourist center. “Like, seriously, does the ranking system use ‘one star’ as a high or a low? What does ‘complimentary wifi’ even mean?”
“Maybe I should be the one looking at those,” I chuckled as I picked up a few of the leaflets. “Considering you didn’t even know what a hotel was until a few days ago.”
After our little conversation with the gun store owner, Natalie and I had decided to head out and grab a bite to eat before we went any further. Along the way, we passed by the Utopolis Tourist Center, so I swung inside and picked up a few leaflets about hotels in the area we could look into.
Then we walked on a bit further until we came to a small fast-food establishment called Harry’s Hamburgers, and I simply could not resist the call. The damn things cost twenty dollars apiece for a meal, but it was the best we could do in the current situation.
“These taste stranger than the hamburgers you’ve given me, Hunter,” Natalie noted as she bit into her half-eaten cheeseburger.
“That’s because I made mine by hand,” I chuckled. “These things probably have been sitting in the back frozen for days, if not weeks. Hell, if it’s anything like the fast food joints in my universe, they probably don’t even cook them on the grill.”
I recognized some of the brand names on the brochures as I flipped through. The Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt were apparently still a thing in this future dimension, though it seemed like they had some new competition in the form of two new companies, “Deltamiles” and “The Loft.”
Of course, Deltacorp had its dirty mitts in the hotel world, too.
“What do you think, Hunter?” Natalie questioned through a mouthful of french fries. “I used to see crumbled signs for the Hilton and Marriott all the time when I was traveling through the Fallen Lands. I don’t know much about their quality, but I’m assuming they were pretty good considering they were all over the city.”
“They are,” I admitted, “but if I’m being honest, I think I want to try something new. Obviously Deltamiles is out of the question. Knowing their Orwellian mindset, they’ve probably got all sorts of cameras and microphones set up in the rooms so they can spy on their guests.”
“Orwellian?” the Scavenger questioned as she nibbled away at her food.
“It’s a book,” I explained. “One of the scariest and most important books ever written, especially when we’re dealing with this sort of a timeline.”
“I’ll have to put it on my reading list.” Natalie shrugged and then took a sip of her soda. “I’m just now finishing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I absolutely looooove that nurse character.”
“Uhhhh… ” I raised my finger in protest. “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to like Nurse Ratchet.”
“I know she’s an evil bitch.” Natalie grinned. “But she keeps the book interesting. You never know what she’s going to do next, and I absolutely love it. I like to think I live my life that way… ”
I gulped harshly at the thought, but I simply played it off like I was still eating my hamburger.
“Just as long as you don’t try to smother me in my sleep, okay?” I joked.
Natalie just leaned over the table and purred into my ear.
“I’d never do that,” she whispered. “You can sleep tight when I’m around. Especially after we’ve made love.”
My pulse quickened at the thought of making love with my beautiful blonde wife. In fact, that just gave me one more reason to pick out a hotel quickly and then get there as soon as possible.
The sooner we got ourselves settled in, the sooner we would have time for other activities.
“The Loft,” I nearly choked on my fries. “We’re going to stay at the Loft. Provided they have a vacancy, of course.”
The two of us finished up our meals, tossed our trash into the incinerator on the way out, and then headed out into the street.
“That really hit the spot,” Natalie admitted as she rubbed her belly happily. “I think little Hunter enjoyed it, as well.”
“Ohhhh, boy,” I chuckled, “please don’t tell me you’re going to have cravings for this place. Because I definitely can’t do any late-night runs to another dimension to pick them up for you.”
“We’ll see,” the blonde woman teased, “I know you’d do anything for me… ”
“Well, yeah,” I agreed, “but only as much as the laws of space and time will allow it!”
I looked down at the pamphlet for The Loft and scanned it until I found an address. Sixteen-hundred Morel Way.
Now, how the hell were we going to get there?
We didn’t have any sort of GPS or smartphone with a “maps” feature, and we definitely had no clue where we were in the city.
Maybe we could call a cab? Was that still a thing in this dimension?
I stepped out close to the street, raised my hand above my head, and extended my finger.
Several drivers shot me dirty looks as they drove by, but nobody seemed to understand what I was getting at.
“What are you doing?” Natalie mused with a sly grin.
“Trying to hail a cab,” I explained. “Usually, in my dimension, it’s as easy as what I’m doing right now.”
Finally, there was a small, black and white vehicle with a checkered strip down the side that rolled to a stop before us. The window rolled down, and a skinny woman wearing a driver’s uniform glanced out at us.
“Are you trying to call a taxi?” she questioned. “Because nobody’s going to stop and help you if you’re standing there doing the Golden Brotherhood salute.”
“The what?” My eyes narrowed.
“Oh dear.” The taxi driver shook her head. “You’re definitely not from around here. Hop in.”
There was a mechanical clicking noise, and the passenger side back door of the car popped open. Natalie and I slipped into the vehicle, got cozy in the black leather seats, and then both gasped when a seatbelt automatically wrapped around us diagonally.
“What is this?” Natalie demanded.
“They’re called seatbelts, honey,” the driver chuckled, “they’re there so you don’t end up splatted on the side of the road if we crash. Now, where to?”
“The Loft hotels,” I stated firmly.
Instead, the woman just looked back at me in the rearview mirror with skepticism plastered on her face.
“You’ll have to be more specific, dear,” she prompted. “There are about five Loft Hotels in this city.”
“Oh, uh… The one that’s closest to here,” I announced. “Sixteen hundred Morel Way.”
“Sixteen hundred Morel Way, coming right up!” the driver proclaimed, and then she pulled on the stick and put her car into gear.
She signaled to merge back into the horrific traffic, and we sat there for a solid ten minutes before she was finally able to inch her way out into the road. Then, once we were out and on our way, the woman in the driver’s seat looked back at us once more.
“So, just for further clarification,” she mused, “I wouldn’t go around making that sign you made with your hand. I know back in the old days it was how you hailed a cab, but nowadays people just associate it with the Golden Brotherhood.”
“I’m pretty ignorant,” I admitted. “What’s the Golden Brotherhood?”
“Where are you from, exactly?” the driver questioned. “I’ve never met a single person who wasn’t familiar with the Golden Brotherhood. You know, the massive cyberterrorist organization that tried to hack Deltacorp a few years ago?”
“Holy crap.” I whistled. “They tried to hack Deltacorp? What on earth were they looking for?”
That was a straight-up lie. If Dr. Nash’s algorithms were true, then I already had a pretty damn good idea what terrorists would be looking for at Deltacorp.
“Who knows?” The driver shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say it was something to do with Deltacorp’s first dealings with the military. Or maybe the fact that they have data on literally everybody as well as access to most of the firearms in the United States? Either way, their attack was unsuccessful. But if you go around waving their salute like that, you’re gonna get yourself in a world of trouble.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I chuckled. “I definitely won’t be doing that again.”
“Just for future reference,” Natalie spoke up, “what is the best way to call a taxi around here?”
“With the Utopolis Taxi App, of course,” the driver explained. “You just pull it up on your smartphone and press the button, and then we come right to you.”
“But what if you don’t have a smartphone?” I questioned.
“Seriously?” the woman in the front laughed. “Who doesn’t have a cell phone?”
“We don’t,” I stated nonchalantly. “Hence why we were trying to call the cab the old-fashioned way.”
Our driver looked back at us with an expression that told me she was still trying to tell if we were serious or not. Then, after a long pause, she shook her head.
“I guess if you don’t have a cell phone you just stand on the corner and scream ‘taxi’ as loud as you can,” she mused. “Eventually, somebody will stop.”
Well, that certainly wouldn’t make me look like a fool at all.
