Dopplegänger

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Doppelgänger

VII.

Mustachio hid his face behind a copy of the New York Times opened to the international arts section. He periodically glanced around looking for suspects. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Astro entering the station's main plaza, but then realized that he was seeing his ghostly double. “Tobio?” he gasped silently to himself.

Tojo entered the station wearing a pair of aviator style mirrored sunglasses. He ignored the no smoking signs and took a few puffs on a cigarette before dropping the fag to the ground to extinguish it under his shoe. The Asian boy didn't have very long to wait as Astro entered the plaza via the passageway from the Lexington Avenue subway line. Tojo recognized the boy robot immediately by his dark pointy cowlicks that were a remarkable copy of his own auburn locks. “We finally meet.” he muttered to himself as he took a long route towards Astro to sneak up on him from behind.

“Don't turn around!” Tojo said holding a blunt object against Astro's back. “I wouldn't want to have to injure you.”

Astro didn't turn his head, he'd already spotted Mustachio standing in the crowd between a newsstand and a ticket booth. “Hakase Ochanomizu had better not be harmed or you'll be the one injured!” Astro replied.

“Listen, Atom.” Tojo said, “I've got an EMP pistol held against you so don't try any heroics or I'll drop you right here! Your Professor is quite fine, in fact at this moment he should be enjoying a nice snack courtesy of Mr. Sankaku. Now please just turn about and head back toward the IRT subway entrance. I'll be right behind you with this little robot taser on a hair trigger, so don't make any sudden moves.”

Astro nodded his head and slowly turned to head back the way he had come. Higeoyaji rolled up his newspaper and stuffed it into his jacket pocket and followed the two boys, being careful to keep just far enough back to remain unnoticed.

The platform of the 42 Street-Grand Central station of the IRT Lexington Avenue line was crowded, despite the 90 second headway between arriving express trains. Astro stood just behind the movable metal platform extensions, as the PA speakers continuously warned passengers to stand clear of the moving platforms. The headlamps of an arriving uptown express train illuminated the rails which reflected the light upwards into Astro's eyes. He felt Tojo jab him in the back with the EMT gun as a reminder, just as the train started to brake. The two boys found themselves standing exactly in front of a set of doors as the eleven car train squealed to a halt. The metal grates of the platform extension moved a foot and a half forward to close the gap between the subway train and the curved platform, just a split second before the doors opened. In typical New York style, most of the passengers waiting for the arriving train didn't wait for those on board to get off before trying to barge their way in. Astro was more courteous and waited for the out going crowd to thin out before making his way into the train, followed by his doppelgänger.

Mustachio waited to see which car the two boys got onto before boarding the one behind them. He made his way to the 'storm door' between the two cars and monitored them though the window from the southern car.

Astro was too short to reach the strap hanger attached to the ceiling of the car, so he held onto one of the upright poles. Tojo braced himself against the trains lurching by spreading his legs for a wider stance. The express train quickly picked up speed, flying past several local stations before entering the 59th street station. Tojo pulled Astro toward the doors and took a half step out of the train. Mustachio quickly made a move to exit his car, but didn't see the boys on the platform. Too late, he realized he'd been faked out. Tojo pulled Astro back into the train just as the doors closed. Mustachio tried to put his arm between the closing panels of the door to get back into the train, but didn't have the strength. Rather than risk being smeared against the walls of the tunnel, he gave up on the idea of hanging onto the outside of the train. As the next to last car started to pass by him, he noticed that the buffer gates between the last two cars were damaged, leaving a sizable gap. The agile Tokyoite detective took a flying leap, and manged to wedge himself between the cars. Holding on to the edges of the car, he got a foothold onto the small platform just outside the storm door of the next to last car. He grabbed the handle and entered the train, with a great sigh of relief.

Higeoyaji was now four cars behind his subjects, and he ran quickly though the crowded train to reach the car where the two boys were riding. “Sumimasen” he repeated each time he bumped into someone in his haste to reach the middle of the train before the next station. The train was now slowing down as it approached the 86th street station. Once again Tojo pulled Astro towards the door, only this time the two of them ran though the turnstiles and headed toward the street. Mustachio followed them, panting heavily trying to catch his breath.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Tojo lead Astro into an office building on 86th street, about a half a block west of Park Avenue. They took an elevator up to the top floor of the building and entered an office suite. The complex was barren, with few desks or any of the usual office furniture one might expect in such a place. There were quite a few computers however, several dozen high powered rack mounted IBM blade servers, and a number of 17” screen laptops.

“You any good at hacking?” the boy asked Astro.

“I've got a computer brain you know.” the boy robot answered.

“Well DUH!” Tojo sneered. “but are you any good at code breaking?”

“Never tried.” Astro replied.

“Doesn't matter.” Tojo answered, “I'm good enough. You're only the brawn of this project anyway.”

“What do you want from me, and more important, where is Ochanomizu Hakase?” Astro demanded.

“If you thought I was going to bring you to where we've got the professor sacked you're dumber than I thought.” Tojo told Astro. He walked over to one of the laptops and quickly moved the mouse and typed some commands onto the keyboard. A Skype like connection opened up, and Professor Ochanomizu's face appeared on the screen. Astro moved in front of the laptop.

“Astro, where are you?” the professor asked. “Are you OK?”

Astro could see from the professor's face in the web cam view that he was unharmed. “I'm OK, Hakase. I thought I was being taken to see you, but not directly I guess.”

Tojo pushed Astro away from the computer, and looked into the web cam. “Both of you will be fine, at least if Astro cooperates with us.” the boy told the professor. He shut down the video link. “Mr. Sankaku will be here soon and he'll explain exactly what we want you to do. In the meanwhile, you need to study these blueprints.”

Tojo opened up a PDF file he and Kim Sankaku had assembled from documents stolen from the federal computer networks. “Memorize these maps and plans.” Tojo told Astro. “You'll need to know the layouts of the underground passageways when the time comes.” He pushed Astro into a chair in front of the computer. “I'll be back soon. Don't even think of trying anything, this room is monitored and I'll know if you move from this spot. So will Sankaku-San, and that won't be good for your Hakase!”

Astro pushed the computer mouse around as he scrolled though the documents. The blueprints covered several different layers of a vast underground network of railroad tunnels, passageways, water viaducts, steam pipes, and wiring conduits. It was a civil engineer's nightmare, New York City's secret underground infrastructure. It didn't take Astro very long to discover what Tojo and his boss were interested in. The network of tunnels that comprised existing tracks of the subway system, and unused tunnels never put into service, one of which linked up with the river and the sub-sub-sub basement of a bank vault somewhere in the midtown area. It didn't take a genius to figure out what these clowns had in mind. Astro memorized every detail of the plans. He wanted to get on line and try and dig up more details of the area outside of the scope of the blueprints, but he didn't dare get caught doing so. Ochanomizu's life could be in jeopardy if was caught.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Higeoyaji ran up the stairs from the subway and emerged into the squalid sunlight that filtered down between the tall buildings on either side of Park Avenue. He looked up and down the street but didn't immediately spot which way the two boys had run. He ran towards 86th Street and quickly looked east and west along the two way thoroughfare. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Astro's cowlicks on the back of the head of a figure entering a building about halfway up the block to his west. He ran towards the building but by the time he got there the boys had already taken an elevator upstairs. He had now clue as to what floor, the elevator made several stops on the way up, they could have gotten off anywhere. “Damn, now I wish I had a cellphone!” Mustachio muttered to himself. As much as he didn't like the idea, he realized it was time to contact the police.

Inspector McClane was sitting in the back of the squad car being driven downtown from a meeting up in The Bronx. He wasn't used to not driving his own unmarked car, being chauffeured around in a common squad vehicle seemed degrading to him, but the captain had insisted. The FBI had set up the meeting way uptown to avoid suspicion, now he was heading back to his own precinct to finalize the arrangements for guarding the gold transfer tomorrow.

Mustachio walked down 86th street heading back to the subway when he spotted the police car heading south on Park Avenue. He ran into the street in the path of on coming traffic to wave down the squad car like a taxi cab. The policeman driving the vehicle slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the Tokyoite. McClane rolled down his window and stuck his head and shoulders though it. “Hey old man, are you nuts?” he yelled.

“I need police help!” Mustachio said between breaths. “A good friend of mine visiting this city was kidnapped a few hours ago. I've been trailing the suspect, but lost him in a building just west of here on 86th street.”

“Not a good idea trying to intervene yourself in such matters.” McClane told Mustachio.

“Well I'll have you know that I'm a rather good detective myself, back in Tokyo,” Higeoyaji barked back, “and Professor Ochanomizu is a very good friend of mine, so I had to do something.”

McClane's jaw dropped for a moment. “Did you say Ochanomizu? Now what has that guy got himself into now?” he muttered out loud.

“You know the professor?” Mustachio asked.

“He was a person of interest in a recent museum heist.” McClane said. “Seems a robot kid he brought with him is a dead ringer for the prime suspect.”
Now it was Mustachio's turn to be shocked. “I was just trailing Astro and Tobio here!” he exclaimed.

McClane quickly put the facts together and got a sinking feeling in his gut. “Get in the car!” he ordered, kicking the door open. Mustachio climbed in next to the inspector. “Head west on 86th street!” McClane told his driver, NOW!”

The squad car made a bat turn and headed the half block north on the wrong side of the street, and made a turn onto 86th. “That's the building!” Mustachio said, pointing upward.
McClane yanked out his cellphone and called into the precinct. “I need you to look up an address and see if there is any connection with a Kim Sankaku,” the inspector barked. He then turned to his driver. “Take us back to the precinct.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Dopplegänger

VIII

Inspector McClane pushed a chair over to Mustachio. “OK, sit down and spill the beans.” He said sternly. “What do you know about Astro and Tobio!”

“First of all,” Mustachio said, “Tobio is dead. That boy I saw with Astro must be a look a like. When I saw him the first thing that came into my head was that it was Dr. Tenma's deceased son with Astro, but that makes no sense.”

“That's what I was told too.” McClane replied, “but the results of my investigation seem to lead the facts in a different direction.” The inspector pushed a photograph towards the Tokyoite. “Do you recognize this woman?”

Mustachio stared at the photograph in disbelief. “That's Dr. Tenma's late wife Hoshie.”

“Who's very much alive.” McClane said. “I was able to uncover her trail from Japan to America. She's involved with a known international art thief named Kim Sankaku who I'm now trailing for another reason. And now you just tied Astro and her son together. It sounds to me like the professor's kidnapping was a means of getting hold of Astro. But why?”

“How much do you know about Astro?” Mustachio asked.

“The professor told me he's an advanced robot.” McClane said. “He's certainly human enough to fool most people into believing that he's not a robot.”

“That's all?” Mustachio asked.

“Well, also that the kid was some kind of national secret. I gave the old man my word that I wouldn't reveal his existence on my official reports, if he wasn't involved in any crime.”

“Yeah, well I guess I'll have to tell you just how secret Astro is.” Mustachio sighed. “I know who this Kim Sankaku is, and he's one of many criminals in Japan whose plans have been foiled by Astro.”

“The kids worked with the Tokyo police?”

“Let's say he's done some of the work that they should have.”

“Astro's a vigilante?”

“No, I wouldn't call him that.” Mustachio laughed. “But he is a kind of superhero.”

“Don't make me laugh,” McClane said, “You mean like Robin the boy wonder?”

“No, more like Superboy,” Mustachio said.

“What, he can fly and bend steel bars in his bare hands?”

“As a matter of fact, yes he can!” Mustachio said. “Astro is powered by a 100,000 horse power miniature nuclear reactor. He's armed with laser cannons and machine guns. He could lift a skyscraper off the ground. The kid is a one man army when you get down to it.”

McClane's jaw dropped, along with the cup of coffee he'd been holding on too. “Oh my God!” he face palmed. “I think I know what Sankaku's up to!”

“Perhaps you'd better fill me in.” Mustachio said. “I used to be a detective in my younger days in Tokyo. Two of my best friends are involved in this caper of yours, I want to help.”

“OK, now I'm going to have to have you swear to keeping this secret.” McClane said. He locked the door to his office and pulled down all of the window shades. “I've been put in charge of a task force that is in charge of security for a federal gold transfer that takes place tomorrow. They are using the facilities of a local bank to cover this up. Ever since 9/11 the US government has kept huge parts of the national gold reserve outside of the usual expected places such as Fort Knox. They've made secret deals with many private banks to enlarge their vaults, or create new ones deep under the existing ones. Recently a sizable shipment of bullion has been placed in a downtown bank for delivery to a foreign power. I couldn't find anything wrong with the security, but yet something was bugging me.”

“You think Kim Sankaku is moving up in the world to try and heist this?” Mustachio laughed.

“Can you think of a better reason why he'd mastermind the kidnapping of your professor friend?”

“How do you know it was him?” Mustachio' asked.

“First of all the Fed's found his name mentioned in a communication they intercepted from some Korean terror cell they've been keeping tabs on. The Fed's know this cell has been after gold shipments, and so far they've been able to distract their attention. The FBI has been keeping a tail on Sankaku and they've got at least one photograph of him and Hoshie meeting in the street. Then there was this museum heist that the kid pulled off. Finally, Ochanomizu's kidnapping and the fact that Astro is a dead ringer for this Tojo kid, who we know is Hoshie's son. Now take a look at this.”

McClane looked around by instinct before accessing his computer. He brought up a schematic of part of the downtown area and zoomed. “Here are the plans for the bank where the gold shipment is stored. Not in the vault that the customers would see, but here.” The detective clicked on the mouse to access a second page. “Several stories under the bank, deep underground is a secret vault that isn't on any official blueprints. The police and fire departments don't know of its existence, these plans are only in the federal record.”

“You think Kim Sankaku knows about this?” Mustachio asked.

“I'm sure of it.” McClane said. “The feds think that their database has been hacked into. They can't prove it, but they're worried enough to increase security. That's my headache. This Tojo kid, he's been in trouble before hacking into computers. I've uncovered his handiwork checking into that museum robbery. Just how do you think he knew how to disable their alarm system?”

“That part makes sense.” Mustachio said. “Tobio was a genius working with robots, a real chip of the old block.”

“I've saved the best part for last.” McClane said. He clicked on the mouse, and typed on his keyboard. A second set of plans appeared and he overlaid them on top of the first.
“This is part of the uncompleted subway extension that was abandoned years ago.” The Inspector said. “Notice how this tunnel goes right under the bank. It connects to another tunnel that leads toward the Hudson river. They were going to connect the Manhattan subway with either the Staten Island system, or the Path, but it never happened.”
Mustachio watched as McClane zoomed the view in. “It would still take a tunnel boring machine to make the connection between the bank vault and that abandoned tunnel, but if you did break though with a connection, you'd be able to make off with the bullion via the river.” McClane said.

“Yeah, but that gold is heavy.” Mustachio said “It would take a small army to carry it.”

“Or a small, robot with 100,000 HP.” McClane answered.

[AstroBlaster1998]

Good Job I just need to read more and more. This way to good like always. Now I feel like I need the ending. You topped yourself again.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro sat in the back of the small pickup truck. He was blindfolded and his arms and legs were bound by heavy chains. “You sure that robot won't break free?” Kim Sankaku asked Tojo.

“I doubt it.” the Asian boy replied. “He knows what will happen to Ochanomizu Hakase if he causes us any trouble. Besides, those restraints are highly magnetized. Their magnetic field is strong enough to upset his motor controls. He's not going anywhere till I release him.”

“Very well.” Sankaku replied, looking at his watch. “It's almost time. I hope we can keep on schedule.”

The small truck entered the mouth of the tunnel and and headed east. “According to the blueprints we'll be able to go a few miles before the passageway gets too narrow to allow us to turn around and reverse course.” Tojo told Kim. “We'll have to drive backwards for about a mile, and then walk the rest of the way.”

It took them about an hour to reach the point where the tunnel was too narrow to go any further. The last twenty minutes were spent creeping along in reverse. Tojo had pulled the blindfolds off of Astro's head and ordered him to light the way using his eye searchlights. Astro grumbled, but obeyed out of fear for Ochanomizu's well being.
Tojo carried an iPad which he had loaded with the data from the blueprints they had stolen. He carried a high powered location receiver that could pick up the signals from certain government satellites even this far underground. Astro followed behind the boy, his hands still bound together by the magnetic manacles. Sankaku followed behind him carrying an EMP gun which he kept aimed at Astro's head. They walked for another ten minutes when Tojo stopped and carefully looked around him for land marks. He examined the tracking device that he had built, and cross checked its data with the information he'd stored on the iPad. “This is the spot.” He told Sankaku. About 200 yards to the north, and then straight up for a few hundred more.”

“Very good.” Sankaku said. “OK Astro, you know what to do. We're going to release you from those magnetic constraints and you're going to tunnel up into the vault. Don't try anything funny.”

“Wait a second.” Tojo said, walking towards Astro. “Open your chest panel.”

Astro reluctantly complied. Tojo reached inside of Astro's chest and grabbed at the cabling to his central nervous system. He inserted a small device into Astro and attached it to one of the cables leading to Astro's optical cortex. “This little gizmo will tap into your vision. Everything you see will be relayed to my iPad here.” Tojo explained.

“Excellent!” Kim Sankaku said rubbing his hands together.

“I'll be able to talk to you as well, without anyone else hearing the conversation.” Tojo told Astro. “This transceiver is wired directly into you electronic brain.” The Asian boy removed a key from his rear pocket and unlocked Astro from the handcuffs.
Astro flew upwards to the ceiling of the tunnel. He clawed at the roof with his hands and dug while propelling himself forward using his leg jet engines. Like a tunnel boring machine he drilled his way into the bedrock and quickly disappeared from sight, though his progress was obvious from the sound and the pulverized rock that flew out of the opening in the ceiling he'd created.

Astro lit up his searchlight eyes so that Tojo and Sankaku could see the result of his labor on the boy's tablet computer. It took the boy robot only a few minutes to reach the hardened steel floor of the vault. Astro used his digibeam finger tip laser to burn a hole though the chrome steel and popped his head up though the opening. The inside of the vault was dark except for the powerful beams of light from Astro's eyes which reflected a golden color back.

“YES!” Sankaku cried out. “He's done it!”

“OK, Astro.” Tojo relayed though the iPad. “Start carrying the gold bars down here and load up the back of the truck.”

A few minutes later Astro returned carrying the first load of solid gold bars. Tojo watched Astro's every movement on the tablet computer. Astro flew down the tunnel toward where the truck was sitting and put the load of bullion down neatly in the bed of the truck. The springs on the vehicle hardly gave way, but this was only the first layer of cargo. “Are you sure that small truck will carry the load?” Tojo asked.

“I've had the suspension reworked, the transmission modified, and special tires filled with nitrogen mounted.” Sankaku replied. “It will be able to carry as much gold as I require. We'll probably leave some behind, but that doesn't matter.”

Astro returned and re-entered the vault to pick up a second load. He quickly returned with another armful of bars and laid them down in the truck on top of the first load.
“Looks like he'll be finished in under an hour.” Sankaku said, looking at his watch. “We'll be ahead of schedule. Excellent!”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Astro re-entered the vault. Anger burned under his skin, he hated being used like this, but he couldn't do anything, at least not yet. Why hadn't he set off some kind of alarm? Surely the government would have put some kind of security measure in place. Astro quickly scanned the inside of the large room while he gathered up another large pile of the heavy bricks. There was only one way into this vault, through the heavy steel doors at the far side of the room that were still securely locked shut. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of a several inches thick chromium-tungsten steel alloy that would have required a diamond studded saw blade to cut into. Even an electric-oxygen cutting torch would have a tough job on the material and have taken hours of work to penetrate. Of course his own high powered laser had no difficulty melting though, just as Kim Sankaku had known it would.

Still, it didn't make sense that there wasn't some kind of motion detector. What security expert would have been so smug in their dependence on a locked door and 'impenetrable' walls alone? Unless …. Of course, Tojo had been busy hacking on his computer before they left, had he deactivated some level of security just to make sure? Astro scanned the walls of the vault, zooming in closely to get a good look. He did it quickly so that it would appear as a blur to Tojo if he were monitoring his vision at the moment. Sure enough, there were several IR emitters and detectors lining the walls. The detectors were of two kinds, some were tuned to the emitters being a 'break beam' kind of motion detector, others were passive detectors designed to pick up movement of living bodies. The passive units couldn't detect robots, their internal power sources operated at a different heat signature than living beings. The break beam detectors would find him if he'd have interrupted a beam.

Astro switched his vision into the infrared. He could detect no emissions from the security devices, they had been shut down. But wait! Tojo had smugly left the passive detectors on! Astro could see the activity indicators glowing on those! Tojo must have known that they were useless against robots and would ignore him, so he didn't bother to deactivate them. Perhaps there was also a method to his madness here, leaving part of the security system active might not trip an alarm at the other end where they were being monitored.

As he gathered up the final bars for this load, Astro had an idea. He opened his chest panel and felt inside, being careful not to disturb the modification that had been added to him by Tojo. He found the thermal device that Don Tay had given him, and adjusted its settings. [1] The device had come from the evil robot 'Ferno' that the renegade scientist had created. It could cause Ferno to glow with heat, hot enough to nearly melt steel. Astro had been given the device to protect him from the tremendous cold of a freezing bomb he used to extinguish a volcano. He quickly adjusted it to mimic the thermal output of a human body. On his next trip into the vault, he would set off a silent alarm.

[1.]Author's note: Episode #26 of the 1963 Anime, "Don Tay's Infernal Machine" or "Atlas"

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Dopplegänger

IX.

“Burning the midnight oil, Inspector?” FBI agent Erskine asked, as he entered the room.

“You could call it that.” McClane grumbled. “Thanks to Mr. Hiegoyaji here I think I now know the nature of the threat we are facing. In fact, I'm worried that something may be afoot at this very moment.”

“The transfer won't take place until high noon tomorrow when the representatives from the foreign power come to officially take possession of their gold,” Erskine said. “Between the two of us we've got the route covered.”

“Somehow I doubt that the plans of our Mr. Sankaku involve hijacking the shipment in route.” McClane said. “I think when you guys open the vault tomorrow, you're going to find that the cookie jar has been picked clean.”

“That's impossible.” Erskine laughed. “Didn't your read the full spec's on that vault?”

“Yeah I did.” McClane said, turning his laptop around so it faced Mustachio. “Hiegoyaji-san. Can you access the information that you told me about?”

“Yes I think I remember the passwords.” Mustachio said, quickly typing on the keyboard. The Institute of Science's internal web server opened and Hiegoyaji managed to find the secret documents that contained Astro's blueprints. “Got it!” he said. “But I'm going to have to wipe the browser cache when we're done.”

“I totally understand.” McClane nodded. “Here, Agent Erskine, please read this!”

Lewis Erskine scanned the document. He whistled as he read some of the details. “What the hell is this thing!” he cried out.

“That 'thing', as you call it, happens to be one of my best students!” Mustachio said with his arms crossed. “He is an advanced android developed some years ago by the former head of the Japanese Ministry of Science to replace his 'dead' son. That robot was built with enough power and weapons to make him a superhero, a job that he has selflessly performed many times.”

“The thing is, Agent Erskine, this robot, whose name happens to be Astro, is being forced against his will to break into that vault. And if you've read those blueprints, you know that he is totally capable of doing that.” McClane said. “Now it also appears that Dr. Tenma's 'dead' son Tobio, who Astro was built to replace, is actually quite alive and well and living in this city with his mother who is also not as dead as we first thought. The two of them are working for this Kim Sankaku, possibly against their will, perhaps he has some financial hold over her.”

“What I can't understand is why Astro hasn't figured out a way to somehow let us know what is going on.” Mustachio said. “He's usually quite resourceful, and would have figured out some way to contact the authorities.”

“He's under duress because Sankaku is holding Professor Ochanomizu hostage.” McClane explained.

“He'd still find a way!” Mustachio insisted.

At that moment Erskine's cell phone started making a very loud warning sound. The FBI agent pulled the phone from his pocket and quickly tapped on the screen. “It seems you are both right,” he said. “A motion sensor alarm was just triggered in the vault!”


Professor Ochanomizu was sitting in a large padded chair in a well decorated room. There were plenty of expensive paintings hanging on the walls, and quite a few marble and bronze statues on pedestals throughout the room. A tall Asian female wearing a dark lace veil over her face sat in another chair on the other side of the room. She wore thin cotton gloves on her hands, and nervously held a cigarette in a long thin holder in one hand, and a small caliber pistol in the other.

“You're not going to shoot me, are you?” Ochanomizu asked. “Why don't you put that gun away, before it goes off by accident. You're shaking like a leaf!”

“Just be quiet, Hakase,” She said, looking at her cellphone. “Don't make this any harder than it already is.”

“Oh come on,” the professor replied. “I've already figured out who you are. That disguise is paper thin, and I recognize the voice.”

“Damn you Elefun!” she yelled out, and then clamped a hand over her mouth as if to try and take back her last outburst.

“That only confirms it, Hoshie,” he said. “Only my godson and his mother ever called me by that nickname!”

Hoshie dropped the cigarette to the floor and stuffed the gun into her cleavage. She put her hands over her face under the veil and started to sob. “You have no idea what I've been going though!” she said. “Do you know how difficult it was to stand by and watch Umataro mistreat my son? His lawyers and a bought judge handed down an iron clad divorce settlement that left me out in the cold with no visitation rights. I had to stand by while his fame grew. I only heard second hand how smart my son was, and how well he was doing in school. After he went insane and was committed to that mental hospital I was able to reverse that divorce agreement and take over his estate.

But I'd nearly lost it when Tobio had that fatal accident, and I found out how Umataro had cold heartedly pushed him aside and built that, that robot to replace him, only to abandon that too! I tried to commit suicide, which ironically may have been the best thing I'd ever done. Kuro Hazama Sensai saved my life, and he also confided in me that Tobio was still alive. That bastard Umataro had donated my son's comatose body to science, and Dr. Black Jack had found him and revived him. Kuro faked my death by forging the required documents and helped me sneak out of the country with Tobio. But things haven't gone that well for us here.”

Ochanomizu carefully got up out of the chair and approached Hoshie. She saw him move and quickly retrieved the weapon from between her breasts. “No, Hakase! Stay away from me!” she said. “If Kim Sankaku calls me, I'll have to kill you and show him a picture of your dead body, or he'll kill Tobio! He's got me over a barrel, I'm deeply in dept to him for over ¥10,000,000.”

[AstroBlaster1998]

Keep up the good work. Can't wait to find out this ends and deep space ends.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

FBI Agent Erskine stared at his phone. “Only one of the passive motion detectors went off. None of the active ones did. That doesn't make much sense.”

“Astro can see in the IR spectrum.” Mustachio said, “He could have avoided the active sensors if he wanted to, and he wouldn't be effected by the passive ones, his body doesn't have a heat signature like a living being.”

“That makes sense.” McClane laughed. “Erskine, your security system has been hacked.
Tojo must have deactivated the active system but left the passive one active to fool you. With only part of the system disabled, the part that actually mattered, he made it look like the vault was still secure. I bet Astro figured out how to trigger the passive alarm to let us know that the break in is going down.”
McClane took the laptop and quickly brought up the schematics he'd been looking at earlier. “Look, do you see how these abandoned subway tunnels intersect with the bank?”

Erskine nodded. “Yes, but you've got a few hundred yards of solid bedrock you'd have to drill though to reach the vault, and almost a foot of hard steel after that.”

“Which would be like pushing a hot knife though butter for Astro!” Mustachio yelled at him.

Erskine let that sink in for a moment and then face palmed. The FBI agent then dialed his phone and started barking orders. “This is special agent Erskine! We have a code red alert here. Get our forces in place by the river near the abandoned subway tunnel! Also send a squad over to the bullion depositary. We're under attack and we've been breeched!”

The pile of gold bars was now several feet above the sides of the truck bed, and the reworked suspension was almost bottomed out. “I don't think your truck is going to carry any more gold.” Astro told Kim Sankaku.

“Let me see.” Sankaku spoke into the iPad's microphone. Astro gazed at the truck and shared the image with the criminal. “That will do.” Sankaku said. “Let's head out of here.”

Tojo and Sankaku walked back to the truck and got into the cab, Astro sat on the rear bumper. Kim started the engine and put the vehicle into gear. The truck tried move under the tremendous weight sitting in its bed, the transmission moaned and the gears ground. Finally after carefully babying the clutch he managed to get it moving. The floor of the tunnel was unpaved with lots of loose gravel, dirt, and damp muck. It provided poor traction, and the overloaded tires kept sinking into the soft surface.

“Get out and push!” Sankaku ordered Astro.

The effort was even too much for Astro. His feet kept slipping on the ground as he couldn't get enough grip. “Do something Baka!” Sankaku yelled “If we don't get out of this tunnel with our cargo your Hakase is as good as dead!”
Astro tried again to push the truck, but could get no traction. Finally in desperation he grabbed onto the bumper and fired up his leg jets. That did it! Astro had to carefully regulate his power, he didn't want to go too fast with this kind of load.

“Excellent!” Sankaku yelled back. “Keep us going slow and steady.” He put the truck into neutral and let Astro provide all of the motive power.

Inspector McClane flipped a mental coin and joined the contingent of G-men surrounding the area at the west end of the abandoned subway tunnel. There were several places where the tunnel could be accessed from the street, but the one that he was banking on was the one closest to the Hudson river. The FBI placed their agents at each of the possible access places to hedge their bets.

Special Agent Erskine took a few of the cops from McClane's precinct with him, along with the remaining FBI agents and they converged on the bank. Sure enough, just as McClane had predicted most of the gold bullion had been removed from the vault. Erskine quickly doubled back across town to meet up with McClane at the mouth of the tunnel. He arrived to find that he wasn't too late.

“What's the word?” he asked.

“Our men stationed at the eastern access points report they've heard movement in the tunnel heading this way.” McClane told him. “Just as I predicted, they're heading for the river. I'm going to set up a road block just past the mouth of the tunnel. We'll have them surrounded as soon as they exit.”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Erskine agreed. “Order your men stationed to the east to hurry back here.”

“Already done that.” McClane replied. “We got them.”

The pickup truck loaded with the gold bullion rolled along, its suspension creaking under the weight of its cargo. “We're almost at the river now.” Tojo said, looking at the map on his iPad. “We've passed the other access points already.”

“Good.” Kim said. He felt in his pocket for the gun. He didn't know if he'd been double crossed, but he had a few aces up his sleeve just in case.

The truck emerged from the tunnel into darkness. Suddenly the headlights of a dozen police and unmarked federal cars blazed into their eyes. A half dozen more were behind them.

“Give it up, Sankaku!” McClane bellowed from a bullhorn. “We've got you surrounded!”
Kim Sankaku pulled the gun from his pocket and pointed it at Tojo's head.

“Clear a path for me or the boy gets it!” He yelled out the driver's side window. He then spoke to Tojo. “If you value your life, you tell Astro to fly us out of this trap!”
Tojo gritted his teeth and started typing on his iPad to send a message to Astro that he'd already prepared.

Astro saw the police ambush as soon as they emerged from the tunnel. For a moment he was pleased that his plan had worked, then he burned with anger at Sankaku when he heard the man's threat. Suddenly Astro's heads up display activated as Tojo sent him a text message with Kim's demands, and the boy's own plans. It would be dangerous, and the timing critical, but if Tojo wasn't afraid to even suggest it, Astro was willing to go along.

Astro let go of his grip on the truck's bumper and quickly dug a short tunnel into the ground beneath it. He popped up under the vehicle and grabbed onto its frame. He then fired up his leg jets again and lifted the truck into the air, flying it above the road block. Astro headed for the Hudson river where Sanaku had a barge waiting for him.

The cops and the G-men dropped their jaws in astonishment as the truck blasted off the ground and zoomed over their heads. McClane babbled “I'll be a monkey's uncle!”, while agent Erskine looked at Mustachio and demanded “What is that damn robot doing now!”

Sankaku lowered his gun the moment the truck became airborne. He seemed pleased with himself that he was getting away with the crime of the century. He didn't notice the slight turn that Astro had just executed, and the fact that the truck was loosing altitude.

Tojo pushed the window panel behind him open. He braced himself by grabbing hold of his seatbelt, he noticed with satisfaction that Sankaku had failed to belt himself in. He then typed one word on the iPad. “Hai!”

Astro got the message. He turned the truck on its side and started to gain altitude. He reached over and opened the driver's side door of the truck. Gold bars spilled out of the truck's bed and fell into the river. Not restrained by a seatbelt, Kim Sankaku fell out of the truck and made a splash landing into the Hudson. With the bed of the trunk now empty Tojo climbed though the open rear window onto the bed of the truck and jumped. Astro caught him after letting go of the truck, which smashed into the river and quickly sank.