When she reached the living room, she caught sight of the man lying on the kitchen floor. She screamed. “Oh God, that’s my husband! He killed my husband! That murdering bastard, he killed my man!”
“Don’t worry, lady,” said one of the uniformed officers. “We’ve got him. He’s under arrest.”
One of the cops grabbed Patrick’s left wrist and twisted it down and back. Patrick tried to fight back, and realized that, like the knife attack, the BERP suit couldn’t resist a gradual application of force. As long as the force wasn’t sharp or powerful, it would not activate.
“Relax your arm, pal,” the cop ordered. “Don’t resist or we might have to hurt you.” Another cop pushed his fingers under Patrick’s jaw, pressing the nerve. The sharp pain made him see stars. Another tried unsuccessfully to kick the backs of his knees to get him down, which would give them more leverage. He realized they were easily overpowering him, and in a moment they’d have the handcuffs on him.
“Don’t touch me,” Patrick said, fighting to keep his voice steady and his emotions under control. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll come along peacefully, but don’t try to hurt me.”
“Then stop resisting and put your hands behind your back,” an officer ordered.
“You don’t need handcuffs on me!” Patrick shouted. “I’ll come along peacefully. Let me loose!” They almost had him-one man was on each arm, and he was tiring quickly.
“That’s not how it works, buddy. The handcuffs are for our protection. We’ll take ‘em off as soon as we’re sure you’ll cooperate with us. They won’t be on long, and they won’t hurt as long as you don’t try to resist. Relax, bud. We put cuffs on everyone. It’s routine. Don’t panic over it. Before you know it it’ll be over with. No one wants to get hurt…”
“Then let me go and I’ll do whatever you-”
“Dump him!” someone shouted. Pepper spray hit the front of his helmet. The environmental system only allowed a whiff of it to enter the helmet, but the irritation muddled his thinking. He was scared. All four cops were on top of him now, dragging him backward. He landed flat on his back with a hard thump. A forearm was pressed against his throat, a knee was shoved in his groin, and they were trying to pull the helmet off…
… and when Patrick hit the floor, the electrical surges that had been quiescent for the past several minutes shot back with full force. Patrick screamed, a deep-throated, electronically amplified howl. The uniformed cop with his knee in Patrick’s groin got an armored knee to his midriff and was saved from a broken left rib cage only by his Kevlar bulletproof vest. He cried out but kept on fighting until the second knee crashed in. The two plainclothes cops had hold of Patrick’s arms, pinning them down with the full weight of their bodies so he couldn’t move-but his head was free. Using his legs for leverage, he head-butted one cop, then the other. Blood spattered, but they held firm until Patrick was able to work his right hand free. That was enough-a simple swat at one of their faces made the guy feel as though he’d been hit with an iron skillet. The last cop landed a couple of blows to Patrick’s head and rammed his knees into his rib cage, but every blow was like hitting a brick wall, and he finally let go of his prisoner. Both he and Patrick rolled to their feet.
The cop drew his sidearm and aimed it at Patrick. “Freeze, asshole!” he shouted. “Don’t move!”
Patrick held up his hands again. He did another system self-test and noticed he now had a problem. Power was discharging more quickly now-the levels were down to one hour remaining, and it had only been minutes since he checked it last. There was no way of telling if the suit would protect him against more gunshots. Time to get out of here.
“All right, listen,” Patrick said. “I am telling you guys the truth. I am on your side. I blew the door in and came in here because I knew you were doing a surveillance on the place but couldn’t enter unless you had probable cause or saw a crime actually take place. I’m not going to hurt you unless you try to arrest me.”
“All right, all right, we won’t touch you,” one of the plainclothes cops said. He still had his gun drawn, but held out his left hand as a sign of good faith. “If you say you’re on our side, that’s good. We won’t try to hurt you either. Just answer a few questions for us, how about that? I gotta remind you that you have the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and the right not to answer questions unless your attorney’s present. Do you understand what I’ve just said?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” the cop said. “There’s no reason why anyone has to get hurt. We’re just doing our jobs. If you’re innocent, if it was justifiable, everything will be fine here. But you gotta cooperate with us. Why don’t you start by taking off the helmet?”
“The hell I will,” said Patrick. “You’re trying to delay me until more backup units arrive.” He scanned the police channels accessible through the new VHF system in his helmet comm system. “Two units, the sergeant, and a fire unit are on the way now. I’ll be long gone before then…”
“Don’t you try to leave, buddy,” the cop said. “You’re a murder suspect. You look like you’re carrying a weapon in that backpack, and you hit one of my officers and almost knocked him cold, so you’ve got a weapon hidden on you. If you try to run, we can shoot to stop you. We’ll kill you if we have to, but we don’t want to do that. Just stay put. Don’t move.”
Patrick made another systems check: power down to forty minutes remaining, much less than he hoped for but still plenty to get him out of this. “I’ll tell you once more,” he said. “I’m not your enemy. Don’t fight me. These guys who set off all the explosions all over the state are the enemies, not me. We need to work together.”
“Don’t move,” the cop warned again. “You’re under arrest. Don’t move or I’ll shoot!”
He had to get out of there before the reinforcements arrived. He fired his boot thrusters, aiming for the shattered front door. Gunshots-this time hitting on his right shoulder, each impact like an electric cattle-prod to his head and his heart. He hit the broken right side of the door and spun around, landing hard just outside.
A small crowd had collected outside the house. A woman screamed. “Police!” he heard behind him from inside the house. “Everyone, clear the street! You! Freeze! Hold it right there!” And in front of him, no more than fifteen feet away, was another uniformed cop, crouching behind his open squad-car door, lights flashing, headlights dead on him. Patrick dodged left to go around the car. The officer fired two shots. The crowd cried out in horror when Patrick went down, but that was a whisper compared to the reaction when he got back up on his feet.
Warning advisories flashed in the heads-up display inside his helmet. My God! he realized, he was on emergency power. The emergency power setting was for emergencies only-for escaping and surviving, not doing battle. The system was supposed to provide an hour of reserve power, a warning to recharge or leave the battlefield, before reaching into emergency power. He’d never received a reserve power warning, or else it had drained right through that level with one gunshot. His power indicators said he had another thirty minutes of emergency power remaining, but at the rate it was draining with every shot, he knew it would only last a few more minutes.
“Freeze!” called the uniformed cop who had just shot him. “Get down on the ground! Get down now or I’ll shoot!”
There was a sudden soft whoosh! and a short blast of compressed air-and Patrick vanished.
“There he is!” someone shouted. Everyone turned. He had reappeared next to a fire truck responding to the scene almost a half-block away. He got up, turned, ran down Sixty-fifth Street, then disappeared again. Police vehicles gave chase, together with a responding sheriffs-department air unit, but it was no use. The suspect had disappeared.