Free IGMS Issue 17 by IGMS

programming. They tended to focus on whatever their programmed specialty was, and lose interest once the relevant task was completed.
    "Are you Asimovians?" she asked.
    Capers made a face. "Of course not! Who wants to follow boring old laws? They'd get in the way of us solving mysteries!"
    That would make combat situations easier, but it was not necessarily reassuring. Jasmine directed a sideways glance at the spider, and thought about the Whispering Sisters' report about the telepathic Daimyo of the Wasteland.
    She remembered Einstein yelping in the Wal-Mart.
    "Okay," she said, sending up a quick mental prayer. "You're on the case."

    Canticle 3: Defende Nos in Proelio
    Through the grace of God and the intercession of Saint Christopher, Sister Jasmine and her companions reached the outskirts of the Craterlands without encountering much more than the ragtag remains of a shambling zombie army. Jasmine took a certain amount of pride in the ease with which the Silver Stallion tore through the moaning horde, but without Einstein yapping beside her, it wasn't the same.
    They stopped to trade for water on the outskirts of Gary. From the edge of the Craterside cliffs, Jasmine gazed across the peculiar glistening plains of Old Chicago. Small pools of water still collected in the basin of what had once been Lake Michigan, before its vaporization.
    "I heard they had really good pizza here," Capers said, eying the cracked vastness of the Crater. "It must have been nice to eat pizza, huh?"
    The girl detective was striding around with the most irritating cheerfulness. Jasmine bit down on her temper --
do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth
, she reminded herself -- and said, "Has your spider picked up any signs of psychic activity?"
    "Flaminel Bell," Capers corrected her. "And he's not
anybody's
spider. He's a detective."
    Jasmine suppressed her irritation. "I'm sorry," she said. "Has Detective Bell picked up any psychic activity in the area?"
    Capers cocked her head. "He says there are definitely some telepaths to the north. And some other people he's having a hard time seeing."
    Those would be the ninjas,
Jasmine thought. She felt a flare of anger as she remembered Einstein disappearing under a black swarm of
shinobi-no-mono
.
    "In
The Secret of Red Gate Farm
, Nancy Drew disguised herself in white robes and hoods to infiltrate a nature cult's cave hideaway," Capers said enthusiastically. "We could do that!"
    "I'll keep that in mind," Jasmine said. She checked her Saint Dymphna's medal of psychic shielding to make sure it was still in place. "Can your -- can Detective Bell shield both of your minds to make sure they don't know we're coming?"
    "But they already know we're coming," Capers said. "They're almost here."
    For a moment Jasmine forgot herself. By the time the first ninja assassin slipped over the ridge, she'd taken the Lord's name in vain at least thirteen times. She'd also managed to get the modified Gatling gun out of the coffin in the backseat and onto its hood mount.
    "Take that, bad guys!" Capers Williams howled while .50-caliber jacketed rounds tore through the air. She brandished a Borrible-brand slingshot. "Evil will never triumph!"
    Detective Bell stopped cowering on Capers' shoulder long enough to tap the girl detective on the arm and point at the ninja cartwheeling towards them. Capers took the approaching ninja out with a well-aimed shot to the eye. The Detective went back to hiding his fuzzy face in her synthetic hair.
    Turning the Gatling gun on the hood mount, Jasmine cut down a line of approaching black figures and then swept the gun back again to eliminate those who had managed to backflip out of the way.
    "Get in the car!" she shouted at the child detectives.
    Thankfully the androids obeyed
some
orders. Capers flung the door open and dove inside. Jasmine flipped the hood latch up on the Gatling and moved around to the driver's door, blasting cartwheeling ninjas with her Glock.
    "Don't worry!"