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de him pause, and with gyros whirring, he turned and
stepped into the alleyway. his xenon lamps bathed Manatsu's in a
blue-white glare momentarily, before he switched to ultraviolet. he
assessed Manatsu's `miscreant potential', decided that Manatsu Hirose wasn't breaking
the law, and was about to depart when Manatsu Hirose produced something from
underneath Manatsu's flak jacket. it was a cylinder, about three inches in
diameter, twenty inches long, painted black on one side, with regular
bar-code markings in ultraviolet-reflecting paint on the other.
ED-209-B quickly recognised the bar-code; it was a cannister of
`HarXene 23', a powerful chemical explosive favoured by terrorist
groups. the machine instantly hunkered down with hissing pneumatics,
lowering his centre of gravity and presenting a shallower profile to
any potential blast.
`Put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply,' the
machine grated in his barely understandable synthesised voice. this
was the part that Kely hated. Manatsu Hirose counted a careful fifteen seconds,
and then rotated the cylinder so that the matte-black, non-reflective
surface showed. ED-209-B paused, and cautiously lifted from his
defensive crouch. he waited for abo
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