A Quick Teaser
>From the Prime Saggitarian Productions

***

“Leon, you’re blowing this all out of proportion.” Daley said, trying to
comfort his scowling partner. “It’s only a couple of days, until they
fix your interceptor.”

Leon wasn’t listening. “I can’t BELIEVE they’re doing this to me! A
RENTAL for chrissakes! How the hell am I supposed to catch the bad guys
in a rental?!”

“Well maybe if you had been more careful, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Daley replied. “That IS the sixth interceptor you’ve wrecked, you know.”

“Like there was anything I could do about it this time!” Leon shot back.
“I mean, the damned Boomer dropped right onto my hood!”

Daley sighed. There just wasn’t any reasoning with him when he was like
this.

They came to a roped off area, ringed with construction markers.

“What the hell is this?” Leon asked, momentarily forgetting his
problems.

“They’re doing an expansion of the parking garage. Heavy equipment
storage, supposedly.”

“Great. A new place to store all that obsolete crap they send us, before
the Boomers blow it to smithereens.” Leon paused as something about the
area caught his eye. There was a small hole in the concrete wall. It
looked more like it had crumbled, rather than being knocked out. “Daley,
hang on for a sec.” Leon ducked under the ropes and walked over to the
hole.

“Leon, what are... LEON?” Daley went after his friend. “This area isn’t
safe! What are you doing?”

Leon peered into the hole. “Daley... I think there’s something in there!
Give me that sledge, willya?”

Daley handed Leon the sledgehammer. “Leon, this is a _really_ bad idea.
You could bring the whole garage down on us!”

Leon shook his head. “That wall’s too thin to be structural. Probably a
temporary divider that they forgot to take down when they built this
place.” He hefted the sledge and brought it down against the wall with a
crash, sending bits of cement flying everywhere, and making a satisfying
increase in the hole’s size. “Daley, give me a hand!”

Daley picked up another sledgehammer. “I’m gonna regret this. I _know_
I’m gonna regret this.”

It took them nearly an hour to make the hole big enough to climb
through. After a few minutes spent looking for a flashlight, they
stepped into the dark chamber.

“God it’s musty in here.” Leon said, wrinkling his nose. “How long do
you figure this place has been sealed up?”

Daley shrugged. “The AD Police building was built on some partially
intact foundations left after the big quake. This could have been here
for decades, for all we know.”

There was rubble scattered around, along with various boxes and crates.
“Some kind of storage area.” Leon muttered.

Daley picked up a fragment of a circuit board. “Boy this stuff is old.
What’s this say?” He handed the fragment to Leon, indicating some
lettering on one of the IC’s.

Leon squinted in the dim light. “‘Intel’, I think.”

“‘Intel’? never heard of them.”

“Nether have I.” Leon continued deeper into the room, skirting a
partially collapsed stack of boxes.

Behind the boxes was a shape hidden under a tarp, coated with dust. Leon
walked quietly up to it. From the shape... could it be? He grabbed the
tarp and pulled it off in one quick motion. His jaw dropped.

Underneath was a car. An old car, to be sure, but in absolutely perfect
condition. Leon began to get excited. “Daley!” He whispered hoarsely.
“Do you have any idea what this is?!”

“An old car?” Daley replied, confused.

“No, you idiot!” Leon replied, reverently running his hands across the
ebony finish. “This is a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am! Do you realise how
_rare_ these are?! Most car buffs would give both their kidneys for one
of these!”

Daley raised an eyebrow. “It’s valuable, then?”

“Hell yes!” Leon replied, eyes still glued to the car, drinking it its
sleek lines. He rapidly came to a decision. “Daley, we gotta get this
thing out of here.”

“Now?” Daley asked. It was getting late.

“No, not now. Tommorrow. We’ll get a bunch of the guys and dig it out.”
Leon's eyes shone with the lust only beautiful women and beautiful cars
evoked from him. He took one last, long look, then turned to leave. “We
gotta get the chief to postpone construction down here until we can
check this stuff out. Don’t want them collapsing this place.”

“Right. Whatever.” Daley followed him out, glad to leave.

Unnoticed by both men, something about their arrival had jarred an old
circuit deep within the car, sending power from ancient fuel cells to
flood systems that hadn’t been activated since the turn of the century.
The only outward indication of this renewed life was the red light from
the scanner mounted in the hood as it oscillated back and forth.

***

This little piece of fluff appeared after someone mentioned crossing
over Bubblegum Crisis with Knight Rider. Something about the idea stuck
in my brain. I may or may not continue this. Mail me C & C., please.

Alpha Centauri