Stephanie Steele
Chapter 2

Steele was Paradise City Police Department’s maverick. A rule breaker. Her appearance was beguiling. Men and women were attracted to her in equal measures. She was beautiful of that there was no doubt. But the most striking thing about her was her piercingly bright sapphire eyes. Cold and bitter but cool and calculating. She wasn’t interested in all her admirer’s, hell, she could have anyone she pleased and more. She was an android and like many models like her she was build for pleasure. The pleasure of humans. She had been upgraded to feel pleasure, to feel pain and every other emotion and that had led to her falling in love with one woman, Uma. But now Uma was dead. Killed by Leon to warn her off. Leon the rapist of young girls, abuser of children, a child killer. And now she was close. After two long years of tracking the sick bastard she was here in the same building as him. She knew it. She could sense he was close. But first . . .

Two heavies came running, alerted by the doorman and all the mayhem. They sent a hail of bullets towards Steele. Bullets which were harmless to her. One caught her in the temple, tearing skin but instead of killing her dead the bullet ricocheted off, the tear revealing metal beneath that beautiful face. The metal casing of an android! But this was not just any common or garden android. This was the most ruthless detective on the Paradise City force. She’d dispensed countless thugs like the two before her. The body count she’d left behind in these kinds of situations would make a pile ten feet high and four feet wide and these two fuckers were going to be on top of that pile real damn quick.

Two shots took each man down. But they weren’t dead yet. Steele was toying with them, making them squirm a little. She planted a hefty boot on one of the thug’s throats, squeezing the final drops of life out of him.

“Where’s Leon?” She growled at him. She knew he wouldn’t talk, but she had to try. More children’s lives depended on her. She was using her normal female voice now. No need for the deception any more.

A shot to the head finished him off. The other guy was bleeding badly but still made it to his feet. A hail of bullets cut him down, but they weren’t from Steele’s blaster. A third guy had been hiding in an office and just now had stepped into the corridor spraying bullets everywhere and taking out his own man. Steele launched a boot into his stomach and he crashed backwards through the door he’d just appeared out off, hitting the far wall and collapsing on the floor in a crumpled heap.

Steele left the third guy who must have been the office manager as he looked like he’d never fired a gun in his life and was little threat. He held the shot blaster like it was going to bite him. She kicked open the first room door she came to, blaster aimed and ready. A half naked man cowered on the floor, his flabby belly dripping over grey boxer shorts, which quivered as he sobbed.

“Please, I couldn’t help myself.” He sobbed, raising a blood stained hand in a defensive posture.

Steele held the blaster on him as she examined the naked fifteen year old girl spread-eagled on the bed, her face beaten to a bloody pulp, her features swollen and unrecognisable, her long blonde hair matted with her own blood. A young life extinguished in such a brutal and sickening way. It twisted Steele’s wiring. Her anger rose and she turned back to look at the pathetic fucker on the floor with the nameless dead girl’s blood on his guilty hands.

“I couldn’t help myself either.” His blood spattered the magnolia wall. The bullet shattering his skull and blowing chunks of brain matter everywhere. Steele didn’t stay to take in her latest kill. She exited in a hurry, hoping that her next one would be that bastard Leon.

In the next room Steele found an even younger girl. A slim raven haired thirteen year old curled naked in a foetal position on a grimy bed. Her wrists were handcuffed. A hazel eye peeped through her long hair and Steele knew this one was alive. She’d saved this one, but her tormentor, her abuser, had already left. Then she saw it. A red heart stamped on the girl’s thigh. In the middle of the heart the one name that made her non-existent blood boil. Leon.

Steele’s memory bank flashed back to that same calling card on Uma’s thigh. The dark beautiful skin of her Indian lover Uma lying naked in a back alley, police cruiser headlamps displaying her for all the world to see, like some freak show in a shop window.

The night it happened they’d been going to go to Uma’s favourite restaurant, The Sun of the East in China town. She couldn’t eat food herself but she wanted to treat Uma as they hadn’t had a night out in a while. Work was always her excuse. It was a genuine excuse but she’d decided she would make the time for her. She hadn’t been able to get her on her phone since the previous evening. Nothing unusual with Uma. She was always busy so would often turn her phone off.

She’d got back to her apartment around six and had decided on a quick shower to rinse off the stink of the city, clean herself up for Uma, for what would inevitably turn into a night of passion. They hadn’t made love for nearly a week and she was hoping Uma’s thoughts were in tandem with hers. In fact she knew they were, her last message had said as much – Looking forward to eating the meal, and YOU!

She had just come out of the shower when the call came through. It was Detective Walt Simmons and he sounded sombre and she knew it was bad news, sensed it in his voice. What she didn’t and couldn’t have known was what he would say next. His words struck her like a bolt of lightning – “There’s another body. Steele, it’s Uma. I’m so sorry.”

Steele shook the thoughts from her head and came back to reality. She’d missed him. She’d missed her best opportunity to catch Leon. She touched the stamp on the thirteen year olds thigh. It smudged under her thumb. “Leon!” It was still wet. He couldn’t have left but seconds ago. She spun on her heel.

Steele picked up the office manager by his lapels, held him against the wall and flashed her detective’s badge in his terrified face. “Who’s Leon?”

“Who? I dunno any Leon.” He said with a quivering voice.

Steele pinned one of his hands to the wall and shot off two of his fingers. The manager just looked at his shattered hand, trying to register what he was seeing. That all happened in the split second before he felt the pain. Then he heard screaming. It was him. He was screaming.

“Remembering now?” Steele spat and let him fall to the floor, trying to stop the blood pumping from two stumps where there used to be fingers. “Where is he? Who is he?”

“Please, he’ll kill me. I can’t . . . He’s a powerful man. He has more power in this city than you can imagine. More than you. More than the police chief. More than the mayor. No one can touch him.” The manager cried.

Steele lifted one of her hefty boots and pushed it into his groin, pressing hard. “You got the balls to tell me where I can find him?”

The fucker resisted. Steele pressed harder into his groin. The manager screamed like a howling child. The ache between his legs was excruciating. “Please . . . I’ll tell you.” He squealed. The pain just too much to endure any longer. Steele removed her foot and he signed with relief. “His name is . . .” The Manager’s head exploded in a shower of blood before he could say Leon’s name.

Steele spun fast towards the door and the blast and just caught a glimpse of the assailant’s raincoat disappearing along the corridor. Steele was after him in a flash.

She exploded from the office firing rapidly and so fast was her speed that she hit the wall opposite, bouncing off it. Keeping her balance she took off down the corridor still firing. The shots missed their target as he disappeared around a corner. Chips of plaster filled the air where the bullets had pinged the wall.

The rear door of Archie’s Bar exploded outwards and the polished shoes of the assailant fled towards a waiting cruiser. The cruiser took off at speed and it was only the disappearing tail lights amidst the trailing pall of smoke which Steele caught as she burst from the building into the darkened alley, blaster in hand. Steele fired off a couple of rounds towards the glowing lights but it was already too late. She’d lost her best chance of catching Leon. Now he’d be on his guard. He’d disappear for a few months and the trail would go cold again.

“Damn it!” She yelled. She knew she may never get this close again. Ten seconds. That’s all she’d been behind him. Ten fucking seconds. If she’d just checked that room first. If she hadn’t gone into that other room and wasted valuable time taking that other sick bastard out. Then she remembered. Perhaps, there was one hope. Perhaps there may be a clue after all.

The thirteen year old was still where she’d left her. Handcuffed and in the foetal position. Too afraid to run. Too afraid to do anything but lay there and wait for him to come back. But it wasn’t him that came back. It was Steele.

The detective sat on the bed next to the girl with the same coloured hair as her and tried to reassure her. “Hey, it’s alright.” The girl lunged at Steele. Her hands poised to strike the massive android. She was too slow. Steele’s reflexes were just too fast for her little arms and Steele batted them away easily. The girl shrank again. “Sorry honey. I didn’t hurt you did I? It’s okay, I’m a cop.”

The frightened girl looked up and noticed Steele’s shoulder wound. It crackled and sparked. “You’re an android.” The girl said in a small voice.

Steele gently scooped the girl in her arms and stood her on the floor. She took the dirty bed sheet and wrapped it around her tiny naked form, kneeling before her as she did so not to appear too imposing. “That bother you?”

“No.”

Steele took her blaster from its holster. The girl took a frightened step back. Steele grabbed the link between her handcuffed wrists and aimed the blaster at it. “Keep still or I may shoot you.” Steele warned and one shot from the blaster was all it took to free the girl’s hands. “What’s your name?” Steele asked in a gentle voice.

“Mia.” The girl softly said and sniffed back a tear, pulling the bed sheet tighter.

“This is very important Mia.” Steele looked her straight in her hazel eyes then said. “Can you describe the man who did this?’”

If she knew what Leon looked like she’d have her witness. A first description of Leon. The girl seemed too afraid to say. Perhaps she was so traumatised that she just couldn’t remember.

“Did you get a good look at the man Mia?” Steele held her breath, waiting for her answer.

Mia didn’t speak. Didn’t say a word. Just timidly nodded.

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