From: coram@ed.ecn.purdue.edu (Kevin C Coram)
Subject: Angels in Paradise Chapter Three
Reply-To: coram@ecn.purdue.edu (Kevin C Coram)
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 18:32:04 GMT

                           Angels in Paradise
                 Chapter Three: Watch where you're going!

     The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a
     day . . . 
          -- Voltaire, "Zadig"

==================================================================
     In a dark room, a man dialed a number from memory.  After a
few rings, it connected.  "It's me . . . Listen up.  The Trouble
Consultants have arrived.  They are on their way out of the Council
Building right now.  Eliminate them."

                        *        *        *

     At the door of the building, Chuck unselfconsciously held the
door open for the Angels, raising him in Yuri's esteem.  "That's my
car there at the curb.  It's only a few minutes to police
headquarters.  I'm sure you'd like to begin as soon as possible"
     Kei and Yuri hardly heard him.  They were too busy arguing
over who would get to sit up front next to "the handsome."  As the
three reached the top of the steps leading away from the door, a
black car came speeding around the corner.  It came to an abrupt
stop across the road from the group.  As the three looked up in
surprise, a man popped out of the far door, rested a rocket
launcher on top of the car, and opened fire.  With a loud FOOMPH,
the entrance behind them exploded, spraying glass and steel in all
directions.  The concussion knocked them down the steps.  Kei and
Yuri jumped up unhurt as the car sped away; the reinforced polymer
armor they always wore over their uniforms had protected them from
the worst of the explosion.  The armor may have been almost
invisible, but it was effective.
     "Bastards!  Let's get them!" Kei shouted.  She and Yuri dove
into the nearest car, which happened to be Chuck's.  "You drive. 
I'll ride shotgun!"
     "Why do you always get to do the shooting?" Yuri griped as she
started the car.
     Chuck raised his head as the Pair tore off in hot pursuit. 
"Wha . . . ?  Hey!  That's my car!!!!" he shouted fruitlessly.
     "Turn left!  They went down that road," Kei snapped to Yuri.
     "I saw."   Yuri took the corner a little too sharply, causing
several onlookers to dive for cover.  She reached up, pulled some
of her hair into view, and frowned at it.  "Grrr!  I think they
singed my hair."
     "That's nothing.  I think I broke a nail."  Kei retorted
offhandedly.  About to continue, she broke off, nearly dropping her
gun out the window, as Yuri hastily swerved to avoid a car pulling
out of a parking space ahead.  "Yuri!  Both hands on the wheel!"
     Yuri sped around another corner, and spotted the black car
ahead.  "Kei," she shouted, unnecessarily.  Kei laughed gleefully
as she leaned from the window and tried to shoot the fleeing car. 
Her shots all went wide, as Yuri was being forced to dodge the
dozens of grenades being dropped from the windows of the black car.
     "Hold still, Yuri.  How am I supposed to get him with you
driving like a drunkard?"
     "You'd know more about that than me.  Who was it that almost
got us arrested because she didn't know enough not to drive after
that party?  Hey!  What's he doing?"  The guy with the rocket
launcher had climbed halfway out of his window.  Before Yuri could
continue, he had fired another missile at the Pair.
     Yuri swerved into the other lane, forcing several cars off the
road.  She glanced at Kei, and was relieved to see that she had
ducked back into the car.  The rocket roared past, and destroyed a
fancy restaurant just as a well dressed couple left.  Yuri checked
her rear-view mirror.  "Opps.  I hope they are all right," she said
in a small voice.
     Kei leaned back out the window and squeezed off a few more
shots.  "Yippeeeee!" she exclaimed as she managed to knock the
weapon from the terrorist's hands.  "Yuri!  Red light!" Kei shouted
suddenly.
     The driver of the black car wasn't as observant.  The car sped
into the intersection ahead as a shuttle bus was going through it. 
The bus clipped the front of the black car, causing it to go into
a spin.  Another car, one of the big luxury models, slammed into
the rear end of the black car, crushing the smaller car between
itself and the bus.  There must have been explosives in the trunk
of the black car; it went up in a *huge* ball of fire, taking the 
bus and luxury car with it.
     Yuri managed to skid sideways to a stop shy of the
intersection.  She looked at Kei in shock.
     "That bus wasn't full, was it?"  Kei asked.
     Yuri looked ill.  "I think it was, Kei."
     "That's what I thought too.  Shit."


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| "Don't tell me I'm nuts.  I know.  It keeps me sane."                    |
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