Apes Chapter 7

 

7.

Officer Judd strolled into the firing zone where the officers are allowed to train on their weapons skill. It was not all only on the rifles and sidearms but there were the three individual chambers for the physical training. That day was her booked session on the skills of personal combat. She was dressed in her overalls and boots. Once she entered the assigned chamber, she was confronted by her assigned partner with the back to her.

“Hi, Jack. Are we…” Judd stopped when she saw her partner was not the one, she booked?

“Hello, Judd? Are you ready?” It was Officer Bernice stripped down to the basic wear of the inner vest and hip-hugging panty. “I would like to spar with you.”

Judd looked at the bustier figure and took to strip down to her inner wears in the locker rooms. She was not an amateur at personal fighting. She took up her fighting stance with the left leg at the rear while both her arms were held up as if to protect the face. The other had done the same and then the fight began. Judd had swung his left leg in a series of kicks while the other blocked it before Bernice did a body turn to lash out with the right leg. The leg hit the other on the face.

“So, we are down to street level.” Judd rubbed at her sore left cheek. She rushed in with a series of punches before she raised her left knee for a midriff attack. Bernice anticipated that and blocked it but she did not foresee the body turn with the right elbow aimed at her face. Bernice fell back with her the blow. She backed several feet and went in with some of her punches and elbows. It was then an elbow made the hit on the left shoulder and Bernice retreated in defense but Judd went in for the left swing of her arm at the face. Her punch took the other by surprise and Bernice went down. She was not down for good when she lashed out with her left leg to kick at Judd in the right shin. Judd went down face down and landed on the other.

“You bitch!” Judd cursed at the other. She then rolled over and heaved in deep breaths while adjusting her inner vest which had were undone.

“Since when have I become yours?” Bernice rolled onto the other and then laid a kiss on the lips. “I thought you were the bitch.”

“Only when I win and now show me why I need you as one.”

Across the city, Lance listened keenly to every word that his uncle the Doctor was uttering then while he handed out the pieces of fruits to the Doctor. The feeding was part of his act when he was with the Doctor. The later held a bad diet of coffee and snacks. The Doctor had trained Astrid to bring those foods.

“Are you saying the last riot was not in your program? Uncle, the evidence was there. The servants went berserk on the moment.”

“It was but I checked the programs. They were subdued by their violent traits. I tried to get a specimen to check but the Enforcers will not allow me to it. I need your help.”

“I can’t. I am not on the Task Force.” Lance protested and then regretted his action to quit it. He should be handling the investigation but the task of working with the Colonel and Bernice turned him off.

“I will try …Wait, what about Bernice? She is on the Task Force?” Lance turned to the Doctor but he saw the shoulders slumped. “She is not talking to you too on her works.”

“Yes, she won’t talk about her works with me. She won’t even have my servant to her unit. She is not …receptive to them. She blamed them for the death of her mother.”

Bernice’s mother was discovered dead with the ape in the unit but the forensic test showed that she died of a heart attack. Bernice had never accepted the results and accused her father of collaborating on the evidence. Since then she had lived separately from the father. That was over ten years ago.

It was then Lance changed the subject to Doctor Lopez.

“Lopez is a member of Julius's team on other projects. I think it was sanctioned by the Council but he won’t share with me the tests. I suspect that he is programming the servants to be Enforcers. He felt that if an ape can be a servant it can also be trained to enforce the law. The numbers of Enforcers are fewer now since the last revolt of the Blocks.”

The revolt was five years ago when the inhabitants of the units in several blocks decided to fight their neighbors for more rations and space. The isolated event soon erupted into a full-scale riot and then the unlawful took advantage of it. What was a simple altercation with some fistfights then became a war when weapons were distributed? The Enforcers moved in to stop the war and were soon fighting on equal terms in weaponry. The enemies were united under a group who was called the Dark Ones but the leaders were never apprehended. The war lasted over a year and with two-third of the Enforcers lain dead or wounded but they stopped the war. That was not the unfortunate outcome for there were rumors that the weapons distributed were from the Enforcers’ armory. And they were not sonar rifles but the deadly projectile ones. The accusations went out and then it was stopped by the Council who sat on the verdict that the armory was breached and the weapons were stolen but most of the Enforcers did not believe it. It was then the elite sniper team was formed and given the authority to act with needed action that may prevail in the situation. It was a kill squad then.

“I heard the rumors that the new Enforcers were all trained to kill like those snipers. So, are you telling me that the servants will be taking over our other tasks?” Lance sighed. He can’t picture the gorilla handling the dispute of two humans and may conflict with their core program which was not to harm any humans. In the handling of disputes sometimes Lance has to use force to resolve some of the disputes and that involved some harm to the human. He had broken the arms of some perpetrators to stop a fight especially one that deadly and may harm him in the fight.

“The servants can’t be Enforcers. They may get hurt, and in my research, pain may override their program. It’s a natural process of the mind to react with irrational signals when the pain was induced. The servant may lose control of its behavior and react in kind when hurt. “

Lance could only nod then to the findings. He had responded to earlier calls when servants have exerted their anger on its owners. When that happened, the clear call was to terminate the servant. In his findings, he had also discovered that the owners have mistreated the servants and hence the tolerance level was exceeded with the other reacting in anger. There were a few such cases in the city and there were alerts to the public to avoid doing such acts or they will be punished. The general call was; ‘if the servant misbehaves, call us for retrieval and replacement’. It was like replacing faulty parts but no one adhered to that. A servant was still expendable in their mind.