StarFall Comics
A Division of Pullemouttayerhat Productions
A Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of StarFall Innovations
Proudly Presents:
Swamp Patrol
#8: Information Age
cover: An eagle skimming the surface of a river clutching a flare in its talons.
Carter Stevens scanned several networks as he hung suspended in his tank, the information being instantly processed and stored by the multitude of computer connections hooked directly into his brain. Despite the constant input of thousands of megabytes per minute his organic brain did not register it. This then was his fate, he realized. He was doomed to spend the rest of his life as a human computer.
"Good morning Mr. Stevens."
It was Dr. Jerome Kay, the maniac who had done this to him, lied to him about being able to save his wife's life. Impotent fury raged in his chest, and he continued to process data.
"What's so good about it?"
The voice that Dr. Kay had equipped his audio output system with sounded dull and mechanical, a very bad imitation of HAL.
"Why Mr. Stevens! What's so good about it? Everything, of course!" Chuckling to himself the not-so-good doctor indicated a panel with a wave of his hand. "Your vital signs are stable, absolutely perfect in fact! The information you've been pulling down from the military networks is of excedingly great value, and it is yet to be discovered that you have breached their security measures! How could the day not be good?"
"You betrayed me, Kay, made me into a Frankenstein monster. You stole my life."
"I suppose I should see about adjusting your voice to produce some sort of emotion, dear Carter. You sound absolutely dreadful. Mechanical, almost. Do try to be a sport and fetch that file on the Human-I-Form Armour, wouldn't you?"
If his tear ducts had not been neutralized by the fluids swirling around him, Carter Stevens would have cried as he could not refuse.
Brilliance Fontain sighed as he threw up another target. Ted Stolid's shot punched through it, leaving a smooth bored hole in the block of wood.
"Yer getting better, kid," Brill complemented, looking around for a sturdy piece of metal. Not finding any, he pulled out another piece of wood. "But this time, bounce a bolt of whatever the hell that energy of yours is off this into the ground."
"That's impossible!" Ted exclaimed.
"Do it!" Brill simply held up the wood, angling it. Taking a deep breath, Ted fired... and punched a hole through the wood.
"Oooh-kay... let's try that again."
"I don't know about you, Shelly," Donna stated, as the two wandered around the Hamilton Street Mall, "but I'm getting an itch for some action."
"Donna Valin, if you go bloodhound on me here and now and go howling through Radio Scrap, I'll kill you."
"Wrong action. I mean, whatever happened with those weird robberies? Whatever happened to Alley Cat? Why haven't we heard anything out of Caruthers in the last few days?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. You've got a point, tho. It is kinda odd that he hasn't even stopped over after his shift just to razz us about getting into something we shouldn't."
"Well, I'm gonna stretch my wings. I'll meet you later at the movies."
"Be careful. Remember what happened last time you did that. Couldn't find anywhere to revert."
Smiling, Donna waved and headed off for the nearest culvert she could find.
"At least somebody's got their abilities under control," Shelly muttered, heading into an electronics shoppe.
"So she still hasn't spilled what she knows?" Frank asked.
Massaging his temples, Caruthers took a drag from his coffee mug before answering.
"Hasn't said a thing except that she '...has her professional pride to consider...'. How about your group of thugs? Found anything we haven't?"
"No. Donna tried following Alley Cat's scent back as far as she could, but it went cold before we got anywhere. Shelly's been running scans through every database she has access to..."
"You mean that she can break into."
"...Yeah, cute. The rest of us have been trying to get Ted's powers under control."
The two men sat in silence for a while, not really thinking about the strange robberies or Alley Cat's connections.
Pete wiped the grease off his hands and answered the phone.
"Sumner Street Automotives. How may I...?"
"Shut up and listen, punk. I can give you the dirt on those robberies I committed, and point you in the direction of the sleaze who never paid me for those jobs. Do not try recording or tracing this call, I'm using a pay phone. If you're interested, meet me under the Union Street Bridge at midnight."
Pete stared at the reciever for a while after Alley Cat had hung up, then dialed Caruthers' office number.
"Thought I told you not to call this line," Caruthers grumbled. "I don't care if you can tell me where Hoffa's buried."
"Inspector, c'mon! This is important!" Pete said. "Is Frank there?"
Looking at Frank, Caruthers told Frank who was on the line.
"He's on his way home, kid. Now get off my line."
Frank pulled the Jeep up to the curb, and went into the garage office, where he found Ted, Brill, and Pete arguing over something.
"Did I miss anything?" he asked.
"Frank! Big news, dude! Alley Cat just called and wants us to meet her at midnight under the Union Street Bridge. Said she'd finger the guy who paid her to rip off all that stuff."
"Slow down, Pete. Tell me exactly what she said."
"I just said what she said. We gonna go get the goods, or what?"
"I'm not certain we should," Frank replied after moment of thought. "You remember how she attacked Brill, so this might be a trap."
"Still, we could get a major thug sent up the river," Ted interjected.
"We'd best wait until Donna and Shelly get here," Brill advised. "Wouldn't want to jump the gun on a possible snafu."
"What, situation's normal all f..." came a voice from the doorway.
"Hi Donna!"
"Wrong again, Ted. Thought you knew the difference between my accent and your girlfriend's."
Frank explained to Shelly what had transpired in the last hour, and she threw in her voice with Pete and Ted's. "Go for it."
"Mr. Stevens! Must I punish you again? I thought we understood that sending out bottled messages was not in our best interests."
Looking at Dr. Kay, his form distorted by the curve of the cylinder, and caught himself before his thoughts were translated to sound by the neuro-relays. He hated Kay more than he had believed himself capable and would have downloaded any number of systems destructive viruses by now, if he weren't himself afraid of death.
"Mind your own business, Kay. I'll see to my own interests."
"No. That simply will
Turning his back to Carter Stevens, Jerome Kay looked over the files that his unwilling accomplice had downloaded for him. Yes, the plans for the newest of the stealth vehicles had come through without the slightest bit of trouble. If he weren't so intent on his own plans, Dr. Kay could become a very wealthy man in mere minutes.
Unnoticed by the depraved technologist, however, Carter had become quite accustommed to his neurological bond with the innumerable networks he was being forced to access. Bit by bit, he transmitted a simple binary code to several outside computers. Perhaps, if the individuals operating them weren't merely cranks or fiction writing dreamers, at least one would respond to his plea for help.
"So where is she?" Donna groused. Being stuck up on a rafter under a bridge was not her idea of a fun time, but her eagle form made her perfect for in case the team needed a quick distraction. With her enhanced sight she watched as the mouse she had been tracking nearly got killed by another one.
"Donna, you paying attention?"
Shifting her beak to a more mallible shape, she replied, "Yes, Frank. And this is getting ridiculous. It's 12:05 and our perp's a no-show. Can we please leave now? I've got a test I didn't study for tomorrow."
"You volunteered for this, kid. Stick it out for another ten minutes, then we'll split."
"Hey, cut out the chatter guys!" Brill radioed. "I think she's coming."
Scanning the area, Donna saw a woman in dark clothing moving along the river bank not far from where Brill was positioned.
"She's maybe 50 yards to your south, Brill," Donna affirmed. "Wait! She's stopped."
The woman reached into her jacket and pulled out a small package. fixing it securely to a piece of wood, she lit off a magnessium flare, tied it down, and sent it floating.
"Go fetch, kiddies!" she yelled through a bullhorn, then fled back the way she had come.
Cursing under his breath, Frank radioed Donna.
"Got it, boss man." With that, she swooped down to skim the river surface. As she neared the drifting flare she shifted her claws into hands and extended the length of her legs. Snatching the package from the small raft, she swung back toward the shore and dropped it on the passenger seat of Frank's Jeep.
"Good work, people." Frank complimented. "Let's head in."
Browsing through her e-mail, Shelly's eye caught a message titled "Help needed immediately! Please act now!"
"Joy. More spam. Well, let's see what this 'stevens@fsi.net' luser wants."