**** Elysium 1986 ****

The enormous magnification of the binoculars gave her a clear view of the entrance to the company grounds, even from the flat roof of the parking garage a short distance away. She fished the walkie-talkie out of her backpack and pressed the talk button. Of course, she had disinfected it thoroughly beforehand.
“Can you hear me?” she asked into the microphone. It grated unpleasantly, and then someone spoke.
“Please, radio discipline must be observed, who is speaking?” a voice said.
“Yuri, you idiot, it’s me!” hissed Abigail, annoyed.
“Me who? Who is me? Don’t know Yuri,” it spoke on the other end of the line. Abigail sighed deeply and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“All right, all right! … Little Baby Owl to Heroes of Steel, do you read me?” she said impatiently.
“Heroes of Steel here, go ahead. What’s up, Little Baby Owl?” the walkie-talkie creaked. Tonight she would simply put a pillow over his face to end his life, the programmer had decided. And it would be a pleasure for her. But first there was work to be done. She picked up the binoculars again and looked through them.
“They have two guards with machine guns and body armor at the gate, checking all vehicles coming in. But not the ones going out. That plays right into our hands, doesn’t it?” she relayed. It took a moment for the next answer to come.
“Yes is very good. Have another hour or so to get sausage transporters. Hope to get one with big plastic sausages on roof because very cool looking and appetite stimulating. Please keep watching, let you know when we get there,” Yuri’s distorted voice rang out.
“No problem, I’ll wait here for your signal. I won’t starve. I brought strawberry yogurt,” Abigail replied, digging into her backpack for the jar and spoon. She loved the one with the waving cartoon strawberry on the front of the package and had quickly grabbed two this morning.
“Don’t eat too much yogurt or you’ll have to go to the bathroom. Undercover we can’t go to bathroom, too dangerous,” it came from the speaker.
“Going to the bathroom after you is dangerous enough for me at home, old stink bomb! Baby Owl out!” hissed Abigail, ending the conversation and grumbling as she unscrewed the yogurt jar.

Harry glanced at his watch and then at the intersection. They had studied the route from the nearest Wiener Productions location to Branch 2 in advance. If the van took the fastest route, it would almost certainly have to come through here to avoid the difficult side streets. Fortunately, it wasn’t too busy at this time of day, as the heaviest rush hour traffic wouldn’t start again until around 3 p.m. He and Yuri stood casually leaning against the wall of a house, coffee cups in hand. Across the street, Ralph was parked, waiting for their cue.
“What time now?” asked Yuri, stroking his leather jacket. A button had almost fallen off. With a small movement, he pulled the loose piece off and put it in his pocket.
“Almost 11:30,” Harry replied, a little nervous now and looking around again. He hoped that this hastily devised and audacious plan would actually work. The whole thing was a little too reckless and too public for his taste, but what could he do? He had no better idea.
“We are lucky, today with advertising sausage on roof,” Yuri remarked, pointing with his chin in the other direction of the road. Sure enough, the catering company’s van was coming down that way!
“Excellent,” Harry said, adjusting his slightly worn dark brown trench coat, under which he had hidden his katana. Then he scratched his head and then his nose. Ralph, who had been watching the two the whole time, understood the gesture and started the engine of the agency van that was slowly rolling up. The van got closer and closer to the intersection. This has got to work, Harry thought, clenching his teeth. He waited another second, then another. Then he formed the thumb and forefinger of his right hand into an O and raised his hand above his head. In response to this gesture, Ralph pushed the car’s accelerator all the way to the floor, and the rear tires began to smoke. The agency car picked up speed and roared the short distance to the intersection, ignoring the fact that the light was red. Harry and Yuri held their breath, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. Ralph let go of the accelerator and pulled the handbrake, bringing his car to a stop in the middle of the intersection. The approaching van braked loudly and squealed, and the two cars behind it did the same. At least there was no rear-end collision. The vehicles had stopped, now they had to move quickly. Harry and Yuri pulled two cloth masks from their pockets, pulled them over their mouths and noses in a flash, and ran toward the intersection. While the driver of the van had rolled down the window and shouted angrily in Ralph’s direction, his passenger was nearly scared to death when Harry tore open the door of the van on his side with a single movement. Yuri jumped into the open door and in the same motion pulled the pistol from the back of his pants and held it to the passenger’s head.
“Don’t move and shut up, then nothing happens today. We just want to borrow a car, no one has to get hurt,” he shouted to the two men in the cab. They immediately raised their hands.
“All right! Don’t shoot, I don’t want to die over a car full of fucking hot dogs!” the driver yelled. Meanwhile, Ralph had already gone around the next corner and turned off his car. Then he ran back to the intersection, panting.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” he cursed as he rounded the corner. A few frightened passersby were already running toward him, eyes wide with terror, having overheard the robbery and now fleeing. As far as he could tell, no one in the area had thought to jump into the nearest phone booth and call the police. Good. Very good, in fact. No, bad. Very bad, in fact.
“Damn it!” growled Ralph, who suddenly saw a completely unexpected police car barreling toward the intersection from the right. “This wasn’t part of the plan…” He immediately slowed down and took cover behind a nearby billboard. What to do now? If he waited here and watched the whole thing, he might still be of some use.

“Big shit coming!” Yuri shouted to Harry, pointing in the direction from which the police car was approaching. Harry, who had actually been on his way around the hood of the van to open the driver’s door, stopped now. Yes, it was true, the shit was coming. This plan had been a disaster from the beginning. Now they would have to improvise.
“Knock them out, I’ll take care of the cops!” he yelled to Yuri. The police car screeched to a halt and the doors opened. Harry ran as fast as he could and drew his katana.
“Man, don’t hit me, please!” the passenger in the car screamed in fear as he heard Harry’s command loud and clear.
“Fine,” Yuri growled curtly, grabbing him by the neck with an iron grip and squeezing, causing the man to fall forward unconscious a second later, hitting his forehead on the glove compartment. “Now you, come here,” he said calmly but firmly to the other man, who could only comment on his impending knockout with a desperate “fuck”.
“Drop your guns now and put your hands in the air,” one of the two police officers shouted while they were still getting out of the car. In a hopeless situation, it’s always good to do something unexpected. It’s hard to counter a move you can’t anticipate. As Harry ran, he saw that the driver’s side window of the police car had been rolled down. The policeman was now standing in the street, his hand reaching for the gun on his belt. Harry took the measure and jumped, putting all his eggs in one basket. He jumped, jerked the hilt of his sword forward with the pommel, leaped through the open car window, and rammed the hilt into the policeman’s stomach with full force as he flew. The policeman was knocked over, and with a deep “oof,” he expelled all the air from his lungs and fell to the ground, Harry rolling over on top of him. Immediately, he scrambled back up and took cover next to the fender of the car. The policeman he had landed on was instantly knocked unconscious by the tremendous blow to his stomach. It took Harry a moment to get his bearings after this feat. He hadn’t broken anything in the jump, all parts were still attached. Then he felt something hard against his neck.
“That stunt wasn’t bad, asshole, now throw the sword away or I’ll splatter your head right here on the asphalt,” it growled behind him. The other cop… he hadn’t been quick enough, hadn’t seen him coming. Harry gritted his teeth. If he had run his colleague through with the blade, he would have been dead by now, then the other one would have shot, he was sure of it. It was this small detail, this one split-second decision that had probably saved his life. But was that the end of it? He dropped the sword, the blade hitting the asphalt with a singing sound. A second later, the policeman was knocked off his feet, a short scream, a shot went off, fortunately into the sunny midday sky and not into Harry’s head. He heard the remaining cars at the intersection make hasty turns and drive away. Then he turned. He looked up at Ralph’s grinning face. The old punk was holding his own gun, apparently having knocked the policeman down from behind with the handle.
“Get up, this is where it really starts!” he shouted encouragingly to Harry. No sooner said than done. Harry looked around, the intersection was deserted. From the looks of it, the patrol car had really just happened to be passing by and hadn’t called for backup before entering the scene. Yuri came up to them and had the two drivers of the van over his shoulders, one on the left and one on the right.
“Where to put them?” he asked dryly.
“Well, in the dumpster with them, just like in the North Quarter,” Ralph laughed, pointing to a dumpster that was indeed near the intersection.
“Good,” Yuri confirmed and marched off. “Garbage collection don’t work well in town here, but dumpsters everywhere.”
“Grab one of those suckers, too,” Ralph grinned at Harry, lifting the policeman who was lying directly in front of him. Harry stared at his comrades as they headed for the dumpster.
“Aw, shit…” he said with a sigh, and then began dragging the policeman he had knocked unconscious behind him. Once the four men were inside the dumpster, Yuri closed the lid and tied the locking rings from the outside with a piece of wire he had luckily found on top of the trash.
“Now, I’m going to move the police car to a side street, and then we’ll get started, boys. Put your diapers on now!” yelled Ralph as he walked back to the van. Meanwhile, several other cars drove through the intersection, slowly passing the van and the police car. None of them stopped.

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