"Run the protocol, Lu! Get it in!", Mei shouted as she ducked under a salvo of green laser fire. Part of Madame Sheng's noble mahogany counter exploded in a shower of glowing shards.
Lu hesitated no longer. With a final, desperate strike on his data pad, he overcame the outer firewall and gave Bao's system permission to execute the "Szechuan Pepper Protocol." He had no idea what a soy sauce-mutated kitchen algorithm understood under this name, but it could hardly get worse.
Bao's blue lenses instantly shifted to a deep, pulsating violet. His cooling systems emitted a dense, white cloud of steam that smelled of sharp chili and numbing pepper. But the real effect unfolded in the digital realm.
Over the hijacked radio connection of the enemy drones, Bao sent a massive, overloaded data packet directly into the headquarters of the "Iron Duck." It was no ordinary virus. It was a code that flooded the sensory simulations of all connected networks with the digital equivalents of Scoville heat units in the millions.
The result was immediately noticeable. The three attack drones above the terrace began to stagger wildly. Their bionic stabilizers twitched as if the machines were sneezing violently. From the speakers of the lead drone came not threats but only a distorted, electronic cough, followed by a shrill feedback tone.
"Heat overload in subroutine 4! Redundant circuits melting! System... burning!", croaked the synthetic voice before the first drone plummeted smoking into the abyss between the skyscrapers. The other two turned off autopilot and fled in a zigzag course back into the shadows of the upper city.
Madame Sheng stepped out from behind the rubble, smoothed her traditional dress and put away the rolling pin. She looked at the smoking sky and then at Bao, whose lenses slowly shifted back to a peaceful blue.
"Digital heat...", the matriarch whispered, visibly impressed. "You turned the tables. But the Iron Duck will not let this stand. They now know where we are – and they will come back with heavier artillery."