Kod was waiting in a dark alley.
His SUV was at idle.
"Attention vehicles," the Comms Officer announced on the frequency, "police counts five minutes until free help."
"Five minutes!" Kod thought aloud. "They sure don't like us tonight..."
He had three passengers, all androids: Hornet, a white and yellow melee and catch specialist; riding at the back were Nighthawk and White Joliet, identical rangers of a soft white color with blue trim. Each sported an automatic long-barreled rifle.
The police had put up a UM invitation to join into a pursuit that had been lasting for a half-hour with little development. They had tried to apprehend a suspect who supposedly belonged to the New Drags black market gang. The guy ended up bolting away. Police identified an orange, street race upgraded Kasieri Super Canin V. The United Mercenaries had five minutes left before the police would legally allow them to join into the pursuit, as long as new chasers stayed on the police frequency.
"Nighthawk, White Joliet, put yourselves in common mode. You will be referred to as Joliet until further order."
Both androids acknowledged and announced their standby for the next orders.
Kod looked to his left, at the intersection.
"...An engine noise..."
An orange coupé suddenly screeched around the corner, almost wrecking two vehicles in the process. Kod stepped on the gas.
"This is Bastard, I'm movin' in."
"Negative, Bastard." the police answered on its own frequency, "You do not have authorization to engage pursuit yet."
"He's blowing right past me, engaging pursuit. You got a roadblock setup?"
No answer...
"Negative," the UM Comms Officer said on the UM's own frequency. "Target is too erratic to calculate a stable area of operations."
"I'll catch him by force then. Hornet, keep an eye out for traffic. Joliet, shoot the engine once we make contact. Hornet, what's my coefficient?"
"Stock compared, one point twelve. Current compared, zero point seventy-four."
That meant Kod may be as much as twenty-six percent slower than the suspect...
"Add my boostfuel," he said, "how much now?"
"Zero point ninety-eight."
"Good enough!"
He engaged the boostfuel drive. The back of the truck went up in flames coming out of the exhausts. The Canin's driver didn't see it coming; Kod slammed his spiked bumper straight into his mark.
The Canin tried to wiggle out of its spot. Kod pulled a lever, tilting his bumper upwards in an attempt to hook the suspect and hopefully make the rear wheels leave the ground. The truck's center console displayed pressure applied to each tire, informing him of the grip he had on the road.
The two androids peeked out of the moon roof and shot a salvo at the car's engine. The bolts ricocheted off the hood's surface.
A sudden shock, and then a roar. The Canin had freed itself from the spikes and had sped away.
"Shit! Boostfuel!"
The Canin started weaving through heavier traffic, forcing Kod to relax his pace to negotiate the obstacles. He looked in his rear view mirror. The police was trying to catch up but had problems with traffic as well.
The cops' frequency was going frantic.
"Mercenary still in illegal pursuit. Dispatch, you got a roadblock set up yet?"
"Negative, ninety-eight. Still waiting on suspect's predictability."
"We're losing ground here, any way we can get a chopper on him?"
"That's a negative, chopper is unavailable right now."
"He's made contact! He's made contact!"
"Check, check."
"Contact's over, suspect vehicle is slightly damaged."
"Suspect is in a panic, we have evidence of nitro or boostfuel on his vehicle, please approach cautiously."
The Canin eventually reached an onramp and took it to the elevated highways. Little did he know Kod's truck had been tuned to make these its personal playground.
He quickly gained speed and stayed on the tail on his target. With much fewer options than before, the pursuit turned into something more like a highway battle, with the leader trying feints to lead his opponent off-course and embark on a ramp.
Kod kept his distance, applying boostfuel when necessary.
The suspect drove almost too close for comfort to a split in the road, taking a right. The damaged rear bumper had troubled the aerodynamics of the finely tuned car. It kept wobbling as it reached higher speeds. Eventually, the driver relaxed the pedal a little, allowing Kod to steadily catch up and apply pressure.
Things got complicated when the two entered a section under development.
Suddenly, the Canin took a hard right into a service road.
Kod applied the brakes at the last minute. The SUV was too wide to fit in.
"It's one way," Hornet suddenly declared, "down ten feet and behind you. Turn around!"
He spun the vehicle around, turned the boostfuel on and raced for it.
"Keep going straight and jump the turn," Hornet continued, "you should land almost on top of him if he's going as fast as I'm expecting."
There it was. A short straightaway, followed by a turn to the left.
"Joliet! Destroy the wall!"
The two androids shot the unfinished wall, blowing it to pieces right before the SUV made its jump.
His speed was so quick that he only slightly tipped down as he fell...
...and landed right on top of the Canin's rear bumper.
The spikes hooked themselves solidly into the frame. As the truck landed its rear wheels, it lifted the canin's entire body off the ground.
The driver tried activating his boostfuel again, the furious rumble sending both vehicles into a shock. Kod completely lost control, his SUV beginning a dangerous fishtail, much too close to the edge of the unfinished road.
"Shit!"
By the time he stopped, he had one wheel sitting on nothing.
Carefully, he put himself back onto solid ground.
Hornet had already left the vehicle and pointed a gun at the suspect the moment he tried getting out of his car. The cops soon followed, ending the chase for good.
"Joliet, switch out of common mode."
He heard a groan...
"Nighthawk, are you all right?"
"I hate common mode." the android complained. "It hurts."
"Strange... And you White Joliet?"
"Everything went number one, sir." the other android replied.
Kod grabbed his comm.
"CO, I'm coming back, the chase is over and I'm laying claim on the suspect."
"That's confirmed, Bastard. I got a record of the police's conversations. They're fuming. Say you got in there too early for their convenience."
"I wasn't too quick; they were too slow. They can stick their timing up their asses as far as I'm concerned."
The Comms Officer chuckled. "I'll deliver the message. Good night!"
"You know you did something wrong here, right?" one of the division leads scolded. Kod shrugged and leaned back on his chair.
"I wasn't gonna sit on my ass all day, you know. Besides, he was blowing right past me. What better way to end a chase than by starting it as soon as possible..."
"Well, because of you, we've got the cops on our asses and telling us we're steppin' over their turf," a second lead intervened. "Do I need to remind you - again - that you are a division lead like the rest of us, and we have a say in what each other does? Now the whole damn thing's gonna make the news tomorrow mornin'!"
Kod laughed. "No shit! The UM knows how to do its work better than the cops do. Those guys are just a bunch of office workers who go 'round a block six or seven times to make people believe they're patrolling. I think last time one of 'em fired a gun was back during Nova testing in '98 'cause they thought these things were UFOs. How the hell am I supposed to take 'em seriously?"
"You do, and you don't ask question. That's how," said the first lead. "We've talked about your actions quite a lot lately. You need a reality check."
"When I see food in front of me, I pounce." Kod shrugged again. "If I was a resident yes-man like the rest of you guys, I'd be under the floor as far as the hierarchy chat's concerned."
"Would've been better that way."
Mutters of approval from the other leads.
Kod stood up and opened his arms.
"All right then. Those of you who think I'm on the wrong side of the law for doing my job here, raise your hand."
Seven out of ten did, just as Kod was reaching into his pocket.
"I veto that." he announced before slamming something on the table.
It was a golden UM badge, put on marble red and black background.
"I've been promoted to Section Lead of New Colombus for my efforts, plus given a nifty sum of cash. You're now under my orders and I expect them to be followed promptly and efficiently. See the example, follow the example." He took the badge and placed it on his uniform sleeve. "See y'all in a hundred years, suckers."
The room erupted in wild talks. Despite closing the door behind him, he could still hear the other men arguing among each other.
Five minutes later, he had reserved a table at a reputed restaurant on Prisma Street, a practice that would become his habit in the time to come. He left himself some time to go back home and have a shower, and on the way back, called up his teammates to invite them to celebrate along with him. Following that, he'd take it easy for, say... two or three days.
The room was much more luxurious than what Kod had ever seen before. The Sergeants used to gather up on cloth chairs around peeling melamine tables. The Division Leads had a room with a rectangular falsewood table and desk chairs. The Section Leads was the next step up: a dark hardwood table, gold-plated pens, a constant supply of paper, readily available computers and projectors, and ten immense brown leather chairs.
A slightly old, bearded man welcomed him. "Good afternoon, Mr. Naïnsev! Before you sit down, I'd like to inform you of your options at this point of your career. First, you have the opportunity to join the army under the title of Major, with no prior boot camp training or refreshment training. You may also, if you wish, run for the position of Advisor of Defense, the elections for which are due in about three months. Lastly, you can retain your title of Section Lead of New Colombus and join us at the table."
"I'll go for Section Lead." Kod said without any deliberation.
"Great! Have a seat; pick whichever one is free. You're in good hands with us here. I know the Division Leads made a scene about you two days ago but we know better. We appreciate your sense of initiative and your devotion to the Unionized Mercenaries. You're someone who takes pleasure in seeing the profession flourish."
Kod sat down. "Hmm-hmm. So for me to be here, I suppose there had to be someone to free the spot?"
The bearded man nodded. "Naturally. Happens when the Section Lead gets promoted, or when he becomes unable to accomplish his duty. In that case, the previous Section Lead suffered grave injuries to his legs and his lungs in an accident. He's alive and lucid but no longer able to serve the board. Therefore, he's recommended you take his place."
"He knew me?"
"No. He just went through the Division Lead files and selected whichever person he felt was the most appropriate."
"Hmm-hmm!"
The bearded man smiled. "Well, on to presentation. I'm Mr. Nathas Rosser, Capital Section Lead for the UM of Arimast. Going clockwise, there's Mr. Youn, Advisor of Finance; Mrs. Pero, Advisor of Environment; Mrs. Best, Advisor of Transportation; Mr. Gathi, Advisor of Public Relations; Mr. Karl, Advisor of Technology and PR officer for the Department of Technology; you, as the Section Lead of New Colombus; Mr. Rudder, Advisor of Military Operations; Mr. Tavest, Advisor of Law; Mr. Savaris, Advisor of Labor and Industry; and Mrs. Karinta, Advisor of Foreign Relations."
"Good afternoon." Kod said, which was met with a nod of greeting from the Advisors.
Nathas continued: "You and I are not Advisors per se, but our job remains essentially the same: to inform the Governor of the workings of the Unionized Mercenaries of Arimast, and to provide him with constant updates about our situation and our capabilities. As such, we have three people to tend to that job. First, there's the Section Lead of New Colombus, who deals with his work in his section just like any other. Then, there's me, the Capital Section Lead. My job is to give you a helping hand with commandeering of your section, since New Colombus is a hefty chunk to manage and the seat of the nation's UM organization. As such, we'll be working very closely together; you, as the manager of the section, and me as an informal link to the Governor and the main man for all administrative tasks and other desk jobs - as opposed to a Section Lead, who's more of a field commander like the Division Leads, albeit to a much greater scale. Finally, there's the Union Lead, who receives reports from all Section Leads, supervises the smooth operation of the Unionized Mercenaries of Arimast and formally represents the Unionized Mercenaries as a whole in front of the Governor, along with relations with the Unionized Mercenaries of other countries. For instance, New Smirland recently managed to clear the bulk of Reli creatures plaguing their territory thanks to some new beam weapon technology we're due to receive a little later this year. As such, our Union Lead sent his offer to accept foreign UM members here so that we can supply the ever increasing job demands. You'll notice a bunch of Smir Mercenaries joining us during the next few weeks."
"Smir people..." Kod smirked. "What language do they speak?"
"Smir."
"Uh-huh, okay!"
Nathas chuckled. "Don't worry. The Smir language is more like a dialect of the Iist language. They'll adapt really quickly, I'm sure. Now, the Section Lead job involves a schedule that's more organized than what you've known before, so you'll have a bit less time to take up jobs. Fortunately, you get a hefty salary for your services, so you can rely on jobs much less. Your position will also allow you to vote on law bills, have veto power over Mercenary offenses and infractions to the code of good conduct, and may send a suggestion for promotion towards any member of the UM, among other duties. As long as you stick to the schedule, you'll do just fine working with us."