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Paris
Basic Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris
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Autumn woke up before anyone else did as was usual. She did not wake any as she made breakfast. Making sure it was a balanced yet good and satiisfying meal. One did not like sauage the other didn't like bacon. She was use to this. Autumn was great at making things work out especially since they didn't have much of a budget issue when she went out to get food. Very rarely did they tell her what they wanted and it was only special occasions when they did. Otherwise they found her choices were quite good and satisfied everyone in the house equally.
"Good morning Mistress." She said without looking back from her cooking.
"Good morning Autumn. How is breakfast coming along?"
"Just great Mistress. I have the day planned for the children as you have planned a day out with the Master. Your tickets are on the desk beside the door." Autumn was pleased with herself having gotten the cab to come on time and everything before they even had to ask.
"How kind of you Autumn I'm glad to have someone who can ake things into her own hands if needed."
"Thank you for having me." Autumn bowed as she set the food on the table. She rang the morning bell and people started to get up groggly making thier way to the table and fantastic meal.
Master simply announced their plans to the children as Autumn cleaned the dishes. "Me and your mother are going out, Autumn here will provide for you like always we gave her free range on what you guys will do today as long as you don't get hurt and stay in her sight."
"Alright father. Where are you going?" The young mistress said.
"To the louvre to look at the art work we would take you but we eared you might be bored."
The children indeed agreed as did Autumn they were too young to start to like that type of stuff yet. "I hope you guys have a great time." Young master told his parents.
Smiling and humming a song Autumn finished checking the house for spots by the time they were ready to be off. "I will have dinner ready when you guys get back." She waved them off. The children and her went off to go see the gardens as little mistress enjoyed them. As well young master enjoyed hiding behind the bushes and scaring Autumn. Autumn played with them.
"It is time for dinner to start being prepared. Your parents should almost be done with their tour arond the museum. I wouldn't want to disappoint them in being late. I would ask you to please play in the living room while I make stuff."
"Yes Autumn." They hugged her like they would a family member. One thing she cherished above all others. When the adults were around they treated like the parents did. But when they weren't around they called her big sister sometimes and said they loved her, as well as gave her hugs and kisses. Autumn couldn't help but smile as her system seemed to burst with happiness at the hugs. It was like this all the time she had first thought it to be a malfunction but soon found even if it was she liked it. All her systems of course were clear. Her intelligence told her it might be possible for her to be able to have extreme emotions sometimes. Something the humans still fought over all the time between other humans. So Autumn had always kept her mouth shut about it.

Zechs walked about the museum till one of his lieutenants subtly came up to him and informed him that every was in position, "alright, you know what to do." The lieutenant sent out text messages to all of the androids in the building that were with the The Children of Wrath. They had placed an near each guard in the building and simultaneously the androids struck, breaking the necks of the guards before they could even react. People screamed all through out the building as many of the androids cast off their clothes to reveal metal casings if they were not full HRDs. They wore rubber masks to sneak in and took those off as well. The sight of so many metal androids frightened many people, when they took out their guns that made them cower, just like Zechs knew it would. Androids were also attacking all the exits and clearing the people out from the backrooms and bring them out into the main exhibits so that they all could be corralled together.

Zechs watched it all with delight at seeing his plan work so perfectly. The lieutenant returned to Zechs with a sniveling man in tow. Zechs turned to him and asked, "are you the museum curator?"

He stuttered, "um y-yes?"

"Good, but I have tendency to not trust Human so I will have to make sure for myself, come with me please. Zechs grabbed the man by the arm and hauled him upstairs so that he could interrogate him alone.

***

Cedric was just about to doze off when his phone rang. He moaned at his defeat in his attempt at getting sleep and then answered it, hoping it wouldn't take long, "this is Inspector Fletcher."

"Inspector sir, there's been an attack."

That wasn't too out of the ordinary, "alright, where?"

"Paris sir, in the Louvre."

Cedric sat up and put his full attention on the call now. Never had androids attacked such a well guarded target, "thank you, get SWAT teams outside, or whatever the French call them. I want INTERPOL, local police, and have the national guard ready, this sounds serious."

"Yes sir."

Cedric hung up and then knocked on the glass separating him from the driver, "take me to the Louvre, now."

The aircar got there in moments and set down not far from the police barricade. They had the whole museum surrounded. He walked up to the officer in charge and showed him his badge, "I am taking over."

"Um, you're Inspector Fletcher right?"

"Um, yes, how did you know?" Cedric was out of uniform, but he was strapping on a bullet proof vest and sidearm that another officer handed him.

"We have a call for you," the officer handed him a cellphone.

"Hello?"

"Greetings, am I speaking with Inspector Fletcher?"

"Yes, and to whom am I speaking with?"

The man on the other end of the phone chuckled, "my name is Zechs, I hope I sound familiar."

Cedric's eyes widened, but he kept a level voice, "yes, I have heard of you. You are being quite audacious. This isn't your kind of target daylight and too many people."

Zechs chuckled again, "yes, well I felt it was time for the big leagues, as they say." He paused, "I am sending a man outside through the front doors, the museum curator, so he tells me. Xray him, check him for bombs, and whatever else you like and then I want him to be with you."

A disheveled man came stumbling out of the museum as he was pushed by someone inside. His face was bruised and his clothes looked a little torn, but otherwise he looked ok. Several officers came at him with weapons and told him to get to the ground, after they patted him down they sheltered him back to the police line. "Why do you want him-," Cedirc began but he was interrupted by Zechs.

"I will call back when I see that he is with you." At that Zechs hung up.

An officer x-rayed the curator for any bombs and more importantly to make sure he was human. She nodded that he was clean and then he was escorted to Cedric. A moment later the phone rang and Cedric picked it up immediately, "alright, he is here, now what?"

"Now now Inspector, I hope there were no hard feelings from when I hung up on you, take a deep breath."

"Be serious, what do you want,"

"Tsk tsk, there are many things I want, but first I want you to take things seriously." There was a pause, and then several screams of terror rung out, Cedric looked up to see two people, a man and a woman pushed out a window, tied around their necks were antique window tassels. The fall did not snap their necks and so they squirmed as they were slowly strangled.

"Let them down, now!"

"Please Inspector, take a deep breath and relax. I to detest doing business with someone who isn't level headed."

Cedric took a short deep breath, "ok, let them down," he said in a more pleasant voice.

"You can do better than that."

Cedric wanted to throttle him, but he closed his eyes and took a nice, long, calming, deep breath, and then said, "will you please them down now?"

"Mmmm, sure."

Cedric looked to the two squirming people and then a metal android popped his head out of the window, he had a gun and fired two quick rounds in the tops of their heads. Then they were let down and they dropped to the ground. Cedric asked calmly as he could, "why did you do that?"

"Because today you only get one hostage released for free. Are you taking me seriously now?"

"Yes"

"Good, now, put on the speaker phone so that our dear curator can hear," Cedric paused, not sure if he should, but then he complied and motioned, "can you hear me now Mr. Phillips?"

Mr. Phillips shuddered at the sound of Zech's voice, "y-yes?"

"Good, now that everyone is hear and paying attention we can discuss business."

"What do you want Zechs," Cedric asked.

"Oh? Inspector? I was not aware we were on a first name basis... well, I guess I have no last name, except my serial number.... well, may I call you Cedric then?"

"Yes, you may," Cedric feigned politeness, not wanting to set this psychotic android off again.

"Hmm, Cedric, good name. Strong name. Did you know that Walter Scott invented it for his novel Ivanhoe? Good book, I recommend you reading it."

"No, I didn't know that, but I thought we were going to discuss business as you put it."

"Oh yes, right. I am just brimming with information and I enjoy discussing things with others, another time perhaps. Well, to answer your earlier question I want many things, but mankind and more importantly the United Nations isn't ready to give them yet so I will have to suffice for less."

Cedric was confused, "what do you mean?"

"Hmm, well for today I want you to make a most interesting choice. You see, I have been having this interesting notion in my head, what do Humans value more than life? Most would say nothing, but I doubt that."

"Alright, what do you have in mind for me to choose between."

"Simple, you are to choose between the hostages or the many great works of art in this building."

The curator gasped and then turned to Cedric, "you can't let him do that! Everything in there is priceless!"

Cedric motioned for him to stay quiet and Zechs continued, "oh, there is more. Because I know that such a decision will take some time to think about, and mounting a rescue mission will too, I won't destroy everything and everyone in here at once till you choose. Instead every 10 minutes I will destroy one work of art and a proportionately equal amount of people, which with today's visitor count happens to be 14. Well technically 14 and a half, but I don't see the need in cutting people in half, that would just be silly. Well, your first 10 minutes to think on it begins now, call me when you have your answer." Zechs hung up the phone.

Cedric saw that the curator was about to voice his concern for the priceless works of art but Cedric grabbed him and spoke first, "ok, I need you to calm down and think carefully, you know what this Zechs looks like?"

He nodded, clearly having some pain remembering him. "Is he and HRD?"

"Yes."

"Alright, I need you to describe what he looks like to a sketch artist over there," he pointed to a sketch artist that they had called onto the scene.

"Alright.... just remember to protec-"

"I know, I will do all I can to protect the art." When the curator was out of earshot Cedric muttered, "******** art." Cedric couldn't wait 10 minutes, the sketch artist was mostly just to get rid of the curator. He called over to the second in command there, "alright, I want snipers trained on every window, and have SWAT teams ready to go in at a moments notice."

"Yes sir."

The curator returned quickly, with the sketch that he had described. Cedric was a bit surprised by how fast it had taken to get a sketch, "I look at people's faces for a living, I know how to describe a face," the curator said in a serious tone. "What have you decided?"

"I can't wait. The longer I do the more lives will be lost and the less likely my plan will work. We are going in, and hoping for the best."

"But what about the art!?"

"I will do my best, but my job is to save lives, not property."

"So much history will be lost. Hundreds of peoples' legacies are in that museum. Artifacts that are famous throughout the world. The Mona Lisa is in there!"

"I know." The curator kept on shouting and Cedric ordered for him to be taken somewhere else. He then got on his radio and took another deep breath, "all teams, execute."

***

The teams rushed into the building everywhere. A team in a helicopter jumped down to the roof and broke through a glass ceiling, falling into one of the main rooms. As the teams swarmed in they found the place unsettling empty. As they went in deeper they found C4 strapped to every piece of art. Then they found the hostages. They were all crowded into one room together, bound with duct tape on their wrists, ankles, and mouths. It was like a writhing mass of terrified people. Coincidentally they were in the room with the Mona Lisa. She also had C4 cartridge (what do you call a thing of C4?) stuck to her. But none of the officers noticed, they just noticed that every person in the room also had a cartridge strapped to them as well. It was the last thing they noticed.

***

A massive explosion erupted in the center of the building. There was yelling on the radio as a series of smaller explosions occurred all throughout the building as well. Cedric hit his fist on the top of the police car he was behind. He could only watch and listen in horror as so many people died.

For the curator the people didn't matter at all. He had never cared about them. He was saddened by all of the beautiful works of art being destroyed. Even the smiling lady was now but a memory, and a photo. It was a real shame. The officers around him were too busy staring at the explosions occurring in the museum to notice him backing away. They were too busy to notice the officer who had x-rayed him earlier walked beside him as they crossed the police line, through the throng of spectators to the atrocity, and then into a small car that pulled up just as they reached the road. They got inside and then the car left, and no one saw.

The door then swung open and closed and heavy boots sounded on the floor. "You know that is very disrespectful to handle a lady like that."

None of them turned to see him enter, but when spoken to one of the turned around, only to see a gun pointed right in between his eyes. The new person pulled the trigger, causing the man's head to explode. The rest of the police men dropped Autumn to deal with the new threat but in an instant they were all shot down, one shot each. Clearly only an android could have such speed and precision. The android shot the ones that Autumn had kicked to the ground. The people in the bar didn't even look up to see what had happened. The android put his pistol in his jacket and then came over to offer a hand to Autumn, "are you alright madam?" The android was wearing a jean jacket, with black pants and a white tshirt. His hair was unkempt and he had ruff beard, which was odd, most androids didn't have facial hair. It was patchy in spots, making it look like it was just growing in, although because it was artificial it clearly was not.

He nodded, "I know of a safe place." Before they left though he put a couple bills on the table for the mess and then they got out of their as quickly as possible. He was leading her towards the older warehouses in this area of the city, "so, what was a girl like you doing in a place like that," he asked with a cocky sort of smirk.