Chapter 9 Max
Max, Maggie and Arnold pulled up to the empty parking lot, Wick Industries building was a four story complex, it was good to do this job on a holiday, it was still a fortress.
The four stories seemed like eight, the over sized sheets of glass and the shear arrogance of the buildings modern style clashed with the more conventional industry buildings around it.
Arnold in the driver seat, remained seated while Max and Maggie got out of the junker, an old diesel guzzling relic it smelled of smoke and things left unimagined. Maggie took a breath of fresh air, “Max, where did you get this rubbish of a Lorry? It smells awful, is that gasoline.”
“No it’s a diesel. The diesel was harder to get than the car was.”
Maggie walked to the bonnet of the car and slipped the sleeve over the license plate. Meanwhile Max pulled a bag out and unzipped it, passed out the masks, a safety precaution if the cameras don’t get erased or destroyed, he looked through the rest of the supplies. Pulled the access card from the pocket and he looked around the empty lot once more. “Arnold, see anyone?”.
Arnold shook his head and pointed to the gate, “Max, thats the loading dock you said the card could get you anywhere? Let’s go in through there, no chance of being seen from the road and you said its over 100 pounds right. I know you could haul it, but I bet they got a dolly for us”.
In agreement they loaded up and Archer drove up to the gate. Time to see if this works or if they will need to bail ship. Arnold took the card from Max and waved the card across the panel. Nothing happened. Again, once more nothing. Arnold looked to Max, well? Before they could respond the security drone dropped down on them, it beeped and spoke, “Display Access Card, comply or this violation will be reported”. Arnold only had the one option before things got messy waved the card at the drone. “Clearance accepted, do you wish to override the lockout on the gate?”. Max chimed in, “Yes, do that”. The gate slide open and the drone flew off. Maggie let out a gasp, relaxed her grip around her firearm, “I thought that was going to get bloody messy, that access card is magic, how did Larissa pull a card like that?”.
“I don’t care, glad it worked. But Arnold, not a good idea using the gate.”, Max said.
The car drove up to the loading dock and parked. They got out. Archer picked the lock and pushed on the door. Max and Maggie stepped inside and waived the badge over the alarm pad. The light turned green. A quick search of the place, Archer found what he was searching for tucked between a few shelves. He returned with the dolly. “See I knew they would have one.” Max and Maggie both glared at him, still not worth the run in with that drone.
Max and Maggie looked over the floor plans. “Look we are here”. “We only have one card, that’s the visitors center they will have a visitor pass dispenser, it is not good to automate everything.” The Headed off to the visitors center to pull more all access passes, one magical swipe of the card and services desk was eager to assist, it was tempting just to ask for the bio printer to be boxed up and shipped. Maggie took off with Arnold down one hall way to look for the security room, Max pulled the dolly behind him down the other to find the lab. He entered the lab. With the expectation that it would be easy to spot, an 8 million dollar machine should stand out right? He looked around. Amazed to find the floor space, a single room larger then his apartment building, stuffed with some fancy machinery he knocked all the clutter off the nearest bench. He almost wished he would have brought a big rig and a trailer. Turning the corner brought him face to face with the security bot. He held the access card up like it would shield him if it came to blows, the bot moved up on him and gave him a simple once over then carted away. Now he was a bit shocked by the card, he looked at the card, thought of Larissa. If she could waltz into places like this all the time no wonder she looked like a million credits.
Remaining calm he watched the machine roll along, backed away from the bot and continued searching. Upon finding the bioprinter he looked at his watch. Damn he spent a while searching for this thing time was running a bit thin. He looked all over the printer. He couldn’t find it. Where was the tag? This must be tagged?. His watched beeped, time to go, his all access pass was about to expire. He disconnected the power and loaded the printer on the dolly he started on his return trip back to the visitors center. Getting back he, met up with Maggie and Arnold, “Well how did it go?” Maggie chipped in “Just as planned, cleaning bots will make a second round tonight, I checked all the bells and whistles, those bots will probably be steam washing the walls when this place opens. And the virus is loaded as long as it works our digital traces should be gone. Who are we doing this for? That access card alone shouldn’t be possible”. Max responded, “Speaking of access cards, I think our time is about out, she said the keys rolled over on timers around her and that this card would only work so many times before it was out. Lets go”.
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Leaving was not as easy, the security bot blocked the hallway and it wouldn’t budge, it was just a surveillance bot, no weapons but it was a boulder beeping very madly at them. Arnold and Maggie hugged the walls to slip by it. Max followed but the printer wedged between the wall and the bot. Max heaved on the dolly and shouldered the bot. He relented and pushed the printer back the way they came. Max stated the obvious. “Doesn’t fit”.
“Come on Max drop the dolly and lets get out of here before the real security shows up.” Maggie said.
Max not ready to give it in just yet yelled, “Get the car to the front”. He dashed back down the way they had come from, dolly bounced behind him.
Arnold and Maggie raced down the hallway to the loading dock. Arnold jumped into the drivers seat. Maggie hopped into the passenger side and slammed the glove box. “Go get his stubborn arse.” The wheels chirped and the car crashed through the gate. Arnold pulled the steering wheel to the right and raced to the front entrance.
Max lumbered down the next hallway, nearing the visitors center he saw the security lights flash from the other hallways. He picked up speed and cut the corner. He dragged the dolly down the stairs to the front lobby.
Max, pulled out his pistol and shot the glass in front of him. He crashed through remnants of the glass, the dolly with the attached printer still in tow.
Maggie yelled, “Pop the trunk.” Max lifted the printer, dolly and all and hefted it into the back. He neglected the trunk latch and jumped into the back seat.
Arnold stomped on the gas petal and the car lurched forward. Max said, “Watch it, I don’t want that printer falling out.” Arnold snipped back, “I’m not worried about the printer.”
The security drone dropped down and fired a taser at the car. A more modern vehicle would have shutdown from the shock, but the diesel just kept going. The car took a hard turn, the bot hung on until it slammed into a light pole. Max looked out the back watched the broken drone drag behind. He grabbed the baseball bat and swung at the cable until the line breaks.
Only few blocks down, outside of Wick Industries property, they stopped at a more modern vehicle. Max lifted the printer from the cars boot to the trucks bed. Arnold lit a cigarette, taking a drag he threw it into the car. He took out another cigarette and lit that one for himself. The junker blazed up as they calmly drove away.
Clara
***
Max dragged the dented printer into the garage. Sweating from the hard work and breathing hard he lets go of the dolly not as carefully as he intended.
Clara watched the printer as it wobbled, worried that it will tip over, “Max, what did you do? What’s the point of stealing it if you break it in the process?”
Clara ran over to the printer inspected the dents and scratch marks.
Max says, “Nice to see you too. Things did not go as planned.” He turned around to close the garage door, checked that no one had followed him. He turned back to Clara, “Im sure it will work, you can fix it if you need to, you can fix anything.”
Clara said, “Not with out parts, help me set this on the workbench so I can see how badly you broke this.”
Clara and Max lifted the machine up and set it on bench and Clara began to unpack a box full of cables, liquids and inkjet heads. She fired the printer up and ran a test moving the various print heads back and forth. The fourth print head stuck and the machine made a grinding clicking noise. Trying to cancel the test she finally yanked the cord from wall. She glared at Max and picked up a screw driver and began to loosen the panel.
In side she saw the fourth and fifth print heads had fallen off their tracks, the sixth print head looked like the track is bent. Cannibalizing the sixth print head she started repairing the fourth and fifth print heads. Max saw that it might take a while backs away slowly and headed to the garage door.
Three hours later, Clara found him at the dinner table eating a sandwich. Clara dropped a small collection of loose parts and a larger piece on the table. “Max, it’s nearly useless for our purposes. This large piece is the centrifugal stage, I need that for a fully automated process. This small piece doesn’t look like much the cheaper print’s don’t have this.”
Max waved his hands downwards, said, “I have a guy who knows printers and he can get you some high end equipment and spare parts.”
The guy walked into the garage, he stank of weed and doesn’t look that bright, his hairs shaggy and he’s wore a wrinkly shirt. Max introduced Gerard to Clara.
Max said, “This is Gerard, sharpest pot farmer on the street.”
Gerard showing little interest to this point looked at the printer on the bench, “Wooo, man is that the Wick Industries large batch full cycle printer? This things capable of DNA synthesis, gene insertion, fermentation, electron microscope. It replaces a full chemistry lab. Sick. Terrible name, but the 9th marvel of the world.”
Gerard pulled his glasses out of his shirt pocket and inspected the machine closer, rubbing his hands over the case, “Man, I could make some killer new MJ strands using this.”
Gerard pulled the panel off and inspected the main components. “Yeah this will be no problem getting this running. I think I have the parts I need in the van.”
Clara initially worried about the machine and put off by Gerard’s appearance hovered and paced. She realized pretty quickly that Gerard wasn’t a complete idiot when he started typing out DNA sequences from memory to feed into the machine.
Clara, curious asked “What’s the sequence’s you just entered.”
Gerard, looked to Clara, “Thats my secret sauce, custom microbes, special made to fertilize the weed.”
Clara looked at her watch, “Gerard thanks for coming, I appreciate the tune up. Why don’t you use it some more, tell me how it how it does.”
She ran out the garage and looked at her watch, “Shit, I’m trying to be late. Max make sure you don’t break it again and lock up the garage when you go!” She headed off for another round of training with Olly.
