Free Project Venom by Simon Cheshire

loud clangs came from the kitchen, followed by angry cries. The cafe’s cashier, perched on a stool close to the street, was arguing with an American over his bill. The diners and tourists paid no attention to any of it, and carried on eating and talking.
    Vinski pointed to the hollow finger, amazed. “You created this just to transport the goods to us?”
    “Actually, I’ve had it for quite a while,” said Seede. He didn’t tell her that he’d used it several times in the past, to sell the company’s secret formulas to foreign rivals.
    Vinski scanned the phial using an app on herphone. The results caused her face to pale. “The specs he sent us were correct,” she muttered, a tremble in her voice. “This is so toxic it’s off the scale.”
    Seede clipped the fake finger back on to his hand, and stood up.
    “Nice to do business with you,” he said. “Goodbye.”
    “
Adios
,” smiled Hernandez.
    Seede picked his way around the tables and back out into the street.
    Hernandez whispered to Vinski, “I placed a guy at the airport. Seede arrived alone. Too tight to really buy protection, I guess. Not so clever after all.” He pointed to her smartphone. “Make sure someone hacks his account, gets the money back.”
    Outside, Nero and Morph got ready to leave Seede’s jacket. “Nero to SWARM,” said Nero. “Confirm pursuit.”
    “Confirmed,” said Queen Bee. “Track the phial, leave Seede. We can deal with him later.”
    The robots slipped away from Seede as stealthily as they had hitched a lift on him. Theydropped to the pavement and quickly moved into the gutter, where they were less likely to be spotted.
    Neither of them detected any unusual activity in the street. The armed EBLS terrorist on the roof of a nearby block of flats was too far away to alert their sensors. He ended his phone call from Hernandez and took aim with his automatic rifle.
    Three loud cracks echoed along the street. People paused in alarm, looking around for the source of the noise.
    Seede halted in mid-step. For several seconds, he stood motionless. He looked down. Three circular red stains were growing across his white cotton shirt. His shoulders slumped, his knees buckled, and he pitched forward, landing with a smack on his face. He was dead before he hit the ground.
    “Leave him,” said Nero. “He’s not our concern any more.”
    People in the cafe were either trying to see what was going on in the street, or else getting up and rushing outside. The robots hurried overto the table near the back, where Seede had been sitting.
    Hernandez and Vinski were gone. So was the Venom.

CHAPTER NINE
    “Scan!” said Nero.
    “The kitchen area shows two more humans than were there a minute ago,” said Morph. “They must be escaping through the back of the cafe.”
    The robots scuttled at high speed into the kitchen. They were just in time to see Hernandez and Vinski leaving through a back door.
    Three cooks in heavily stained chef’s whites were too busy arguing with each other and attending to their sizzling pans to care what else was going on around them. The robots hurried through the pot-clanking, steam-filled kitchenand emerged into a dark, narrow alleyway. Walls dotted with lichen rose high on both sides.
    Hernandez and Vinski were approaching a people carrier parked at the far end of the alley. Nero and Morph caught up with them as the terrorists climbed inside. Hernandez snapped orders in Chinese to a man in the driving seat.
    The car pulled away at speed. The robots were clinging tightly to the mud-splashed rear wheel arch, the tyre spinning just centimetres below them. The rumbling roar of the car’s tyres against the road echoed around them. It was beginning to shower with rain. Water droplets sprayed off the wheels.
    “My internal energy cells are running a little low,” transmitted Morph.
    “Mine too,” said Nero. “We must watch out for opportunities to recharge. We don’t know how long we’ll need to track