Shattered Truth

by Michael Anderle

  Jia walked a bit quicker to get to Erik’s side. She might prefer backup in the dangerous situation, but there was no way she would allow her partner to risk his life while confronting criminals.

  Having a partner’s back, even when he might be acting rashly, was what she defined as being a good partner. Her old partners wouldn’t have had her back when it wasn’t dangerous.

  The seedy truth of the city demanded direct confrontation, and without Erik, she would have never been able to do that. No matter what happened, she would be grateful.

  Unless he got her shot here. Then she would probably be more annoyed than grateful for a week, minimum.

  They approached the front door, Erik pulled out his badge and clipped it on his belt. Jia did the same before they stepped toward the door, which slid open. A group of men bathed in gaudy red-tinged light was spread among the large round black tables.

  They turned their heads toward the detectives and scowled. No one pulled any weapons, but there was plenty of room to conceal them under their suit jackets.

  Jia resisted the urge to draw either of her pistols. While she liked Erik as a partner, she couldn’t deny she was picking up some of his more questionable habits and instincts.

  A weapon always escalated a situation, and Erik’s suggestion that a stun pistol might even make it worse had stuck in her mind.

  A light-haired man at a center table pointed at the door with a weary look of disappointment. “This is why we lock the freaking door.” He looked at those sitting close. “I told you idiots that. You’re morons, every one of you.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You two get out of here. This place is closed.” His eyes dropped, taking in the badge.

  Erik offered a merry grin in response. “This is just my month for poor customer service.” He edged toward the closest table, risking a quick glance at the base.

  Jia followed his eyes. The table didn’t look bolted down. That could be helpful if trouble started.

  Yup, she was definitely thinking like him.

  The light-haired man narrowed his eyes. “You have no idea who we are, do you?” He gestured toward the badges. “I would have expected more of the cops, but I don’t recognize you two. That doesn’t have to mean anything. Big department.”

  “You’re the Prospectors,” Erik replied. “And since you’re doing all the talking, you’re probably Lucius Canna, and we’re looking for you.”

  “I see. Somebody doesn’t know how to keep their mouth shut.” Lucius glared around the room at his men, disgust spreading over his face. “As for you, cop, if you know all that, why are you being such an idiot?”

  Jia stepped beside Erik, her arms loose at her sides and a slight frown on her face. She pointed to her badge. “As you noted, we’re police officers. Specifically, we’re Detectives Lin and Blackwell of the NSCPD. We have a few questions for you about extortion, assault, and the attempted murder of a police officer by your subordinates.”

  “Oh, that’s who you are. Anyway, I don’t know anything about what you described.” A mock-puzzled look took over the man’s face. “I wouldn’t ever spend time around such dangerous and antisocial people. I’m a law-abiding citizen.” He lifted his hands, palms up as he looked around. “We’re all law-abiding here, aren’t we, boys?”

  The gathered men laughed, but none went for their weapons. Amused looks replaced their earlier scowls.

  “I’ve contacted the local EZ once more using Detective Lin’s voiceprint,” Emma transmitted. “They still insist they’re en route. Lies are always so disappointing when they’re obvious. You would think humans would be good at lying since you’ve had enough practice. You’ll need to handle these thugs by yourself.”

  “We just have a few questions, Canna,” Erik explained. “You’ve been identified as the leader of an organized crime group that has been linked to some pretty serious crimes Uptown. That was where you screwed up. You shouldn’t have started pushing around people in a tower without being sure you had everyone under control. There doesn’t have to be trouble. You come along nice and quiet, and there won’t be. You make trouble, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.” He shrugged with a bored expression. “You know who we are, so you know our rep and what happens to people who go up against us, including your men who already did. That was just me by myself. Now I’ve got my partner. Far as I’m concerned, odds are about three to one in our favor, if not four to one.”

  Jia wasn’t sure if that level of braggadocio was necessary, but she tried to back him up with her attempt at a cocky grin.

  She caught a quick reflection in a mirror. She looked more crazed than confident.

  Lucius shook his head, his face twisting into a scowl as he gestured toward Erik. “Get a load of this cop. He comes to me and all but spits in my face.” He snorted. “Can’t you hear? I don’t know anything about the garbage that happened Uptown. I live and work on the ground.” He stood, his scowl replaced by a feral smile, and scratched his cheek. “I’m not going to admit to anything about guys trying to kill cops, but I’ve heard of you two, and I know you’re way out of your jurisdiction. Some of the generous and hard-working police I know probably won’t appreciate you coming down here making trouble. Maybe you should fly back up to your sky castle, cop.”

  Jia scoffed. “We’re members of the Shadow Zone Task Force.” She looked around. “This entire area is our jurisdiction now.”

  “Shadow Zone Task Force?” Confusion flashed across the man’s face. “What? I haven’t…” He looked at his men and they all shrugged, not a hint of understanding on their faces.

  “Looks like they’re not keeping you in the loop, Canna,” Erik observed. “If you come with us right away, it will look better for you. The guy we already arrested is going to sing eventually. You might as well get an early start on cutting a deal.”

  Lucius motioned for his men to stand. They all complied, glaring at Erik and Jia.

  “See, here’s the thing.” Lucius sighed and shook his head. “The guy you have? He should go away to some prison way off-planet because it’s stupid to kill cops. Stupid to kill anyone you don’t have to. It’s bad for business. But here’s how things are going to go down. The local cops will arrive, and I’ll tell them how two drunk cops with delusions of grandeur came in here and started a fistfight, despite this place being rented out for a private function. We had no choice but to defend ourselves.” Lucius smiled at his men. “Right, boys? Isn’t that what’s going on?”

  “Emma?” Jia whispered. Even a corrupt cop or two wouldn’t let police officers be hurt right in front of them. Canna and his men didn’t scare her, but if they could resolve the situation without violence, it would be for the best.

  “Backup is still allegedly en route,” Emma transmitted directly to the detectives. “Again, I question their veracity.”

  Lucius pointed at Erik and patted his jacket, revealing a lump. “I’ll make you a deal, Detective. You don’t draw, we don’t draw. That way, you at least have a fighting chance. Not much of one, but a chance.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Jia insisted. “You’re threatening police officers.”

  “No, I’m defending myself from two people who didn’t identify themselves as cops,” Lucius responded in a playful tone.

  Jia rolled her eyes and touched her badge. “What’s this? Is it something I ordered?”

  He smiled. “As far as anyone knows, especially because of problems with our security cameras that will come up soon, your badges were in your jackets, and you were trying to shake us down for money. I’m sure my local friends can come up with evidence that shows that. Nobody has to die here, but I need to teach you a little respect.” Lucius spread his arms out wide. “People need to understand that the Prospectors won’t be pushed around like the Gray Circle.”

  Jia took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Annoyance, not fear, covered her face. “This is your last chance to surrender.”

  “Don’t draw,” Erik suggested. “We can take them.
”

  Jia tried not to look at him like he’d lost his mind, which only made the expression that much more pronounced. “It’s a trick.”

  “Nope. It’s not. Guns complicate things. I’ve done well throughout my career because I know when to practice restraint. I’m sorry about what happened Uptown, but that’s a different situation.”

  Lucius flicked his wrist toward Erik. “Teach these two cops a lesson.”

  The other men grinned in anticipation and started pushing chairs out of their way. They didn’t charge the detectives, instead taking plodding, deliberate steps in some feeble attempt at intimidation. Jia’s heart rate kicked up, and it took all her self-control not to go for either of her guns.

  Erik gave Jia a sideways glance. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

  “Right now?” she asked. “No offense, but your timing is positively atrocious.”

  “If everything in your personnel file is true, you should be decent at hand-to-hand. Why didn’t you mention it? I meant to ask you the other day when I was looking over some stuff.”

  “You think you have time for a chat?” Lucius asked.

  “Mother insisted Mei and I receive proper instruction,” Jia admitted, ignoring Lucius and his men. “It’s not relevant. I have a stun pistol, and it’s rare that I’m going to have to hit someone otherwise. I’ve never struck a person in self-defense before, all just sparring.”

  Lucius barked a laugh. “Listen to you two. You really think we’re going to hold back because you’re cops? I’m surprised you haven’t run yet. I’ve had enough. Boys, finish this.”

  “Why run when you can do this?” Erik lunged toward the table and grabbed it with his left hand. With a strained grunt, he pulled the table up, spun, and threw it before the Prospectors could react.

  The table smashed into two men at chest level with a sickening crunch and they collapsed with groans. Erik and Jia were sprinting a second after the initial throw. Their remaining confused opponents rushed toward Erik.

  He met the first one with a punch from his right fist before backhanding a man with his enhanced left arm, sending him flying. Two men hesitated at the sight before attempting to flank them but ignoring Jia cost them as she slammed a foot into the back of one man’s knee and sent the other to the ground with a quick throat strike. She finished off the first man with a kick to the side of his head.

  “Huh,” Erik mumbled after glancing at her results. “You can fight.”

  “Punching and kicking people is barbaric,” Jia insisted as she blocked another man’s blow with a grimace before her palm strike sent him staggering back. “And it risks seriously injuring people.” Her follow-up spinning kick knocked him out. “We really should be stunning people; you should start carrying a stun pistol.”

  “Don’t you think a spinning kick was a bit…” he dodged a punch, “I don’t know, showoff-y?” Erik’s uppercut launched a Prospector onto a table, and his elbow destroyed the face of another. “As for a stun-pistol, I don’t need one.”

  Both detectives downed their remaining opponents with quick stomach-head combos so close together it looked like they had choreographed it.

  “I wanted the power,” she answered.

  Lucius, pale, stood, blinking at his groaning and unconscious men, his eyes bugging out. “What the…”

  Erik grinned, canvassing the downed hoods one last time. “That was fun.”

  Jia shook out her hands. “Necessary, maybe. Fun?” She yanked out her stun pistol and pointed it at Lucius. “You should have left or surrendered when you had the chance.”

  “I-I…” Lucius slowly raised his hands above his head. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t lay a finger on you.”

  She pointed the gun at the guys nearest his feet. “You ordered your thugs to beat us.”

  “Y-you don’t know who you’re messing with,” he stammered. “You should let me go. Just arrest a few of these guys for show.”

  Erik knelt to apply binding ties to the nearest downed man. “Don’t know who we’re missing with? Seems like it was the opposite situation, Canna.”

  “I’ve got connections,” Lucius insisted. “I’ll be out soon, and you’ll be off the force.”

  “Nope.” Erik stepped over one body to another and bound the man’s hands. “We’re going to take you with us and let the locals have all your boys here. Hey, Emma, anyone coming?”

  “Yes, they’re close now,” Emma replied, this time audible to the entire room.

  “Better late than never.” Erik snickered. He reached over to a table that hadn’t been touched, snagged some sort of sweet and sour meat, and popped it in his mouth, the sweet and salty taste hitting his palate. “Mmm, that’s good.”

  Jia glared at him, raising an eyebrow.

  Lucius looked around with a confused expression. “Who is Emma? You got another partner out there? That why you were so cocky?”

  “Something like that.” Jia waved her pistol. “Don’t worry about her. Turn around. Lucius Canna, you are under arrest. All Article 7 rights apply. Do you need these explained to you?”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  October 3, 2228, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Police Enforcement Zone 122 Station, Office of Captain Alexander Ragnar

  Jia’s hand went over her mouth to hide the yawn as she entered the captain’s office beside Erik.

  The captain sat behind his desk, an uncharacteristically grim look on his face, but there were no data windows up around him. He had expressed support for their arrest of Canna, but perhaps he had changed his mind. Erik hoped that wasn’t the case, but he could only worry about the things he could control.

  Despite all the corruption and danger swirling around him since his return to Earth, he was chipping away at crime in the metroplex while slowly piling up clues about the massacre in Mu Arae.

  In the days since the arrest, things had been quiet. Almost all of the Prospectors had taken plea deals in a desperate attempt not to end up transported to some desolate moon or halfway-terraformed planet far across the UTC.

  The Prospector survivor from the original garage confrontation had already signed a statement fingering Lucius Canna as giving the orders in the extortion racket, not only for Miguel’s place but several others. Whatever influence the gang had wielded vanished, and Shadow Zone local cops suddenly found reasons to mass-arrest the bulk of the remaining members.

  The Prospectors’ attempt to take over for the Gray Circle ended ignobly barely after it had started.

  Erik had discussed it with Jia. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that didn’t mean some new organization wouldn’t try to move in and grow. She also wasn’t naïve enough to believe that taking down a couple of organized crime groups would solve all the crime in the Shadow Zone, but at least it was a beginning.

  The criminals would eventually understand that they didn’t get to buy off a few officials and cops and run free anymore. Earth might not be paradise, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t work toward that. He could agree with that logic.

  He noticed Jia eyeing his mouth, a small smirk playing at the edges of her lips.

  Erik reached up and wiped the beignet crumbs off his face. “Huh. Didn’t know those were there.” He turned. “You needed to see us, Captain?”

  “I’ve got good news and some potentially bad news,” Captain Ragnar explained, spreading his hands and setting them on the desk. “I always like the good news first, but what’s your choice?”

  Erik shrugged. “I don’t care either way. You always have to deal with the bad news in the end.”

  Jia folded her arms, her brow furrowing, chewing a lip in thought. “I suppose I prefer the good news first if we have a choice.”

  “I already told you good job on Canna and his gang, but it doesn’t end there,” Captain Ragnar continued. “He was able to get in and out of the Shadow Zone, and based on what he said to you, he had local help. I was worried that the bad cops might be able to slither away, but C
anna’s singing now, and several cops who were taking bribes have been arrested. CID’s handling most of the investigation because of the continuing concerns about local criminal influence on the police, but from what they’ve passed along, everyone’s throwing everyone else off the tower to save themselves. Getting rid of the old chief was a good start on the corruption at the top, but this is a major victory for the pervasive low-level corruption that’s been crippling law enforcement in the metroplex, and especially in the Shadow Zone.” A satisfied smile joined his pleased tone.

  “I’m not going to complain, but why is this happening now?” Jia asked. “Why didn’t more of this happen when we took down the Gray Circle, or even after the arrest of Esposito?”

  Erik yawned. “Those things are contagious.” He shook his head to clear it. “She’s got a point. These corrupt cops obviously didn’t start taking bribes once the Prospectors rolled into town. I know IA and CID got a few after that, but not enough. I’ve told Jia, it’s one of the reasons I’m leery of calling in backup.”

  “Understood,” Captain Ragnar replied. “And what you’re saying is true, the reason being most of the dirty cops were smart enough to lay low, and the Gray Circle seemed less willing to give up their cop helpers.” He smirked. “I guess there is a little honor left among thieves, but these Prospectors aren’t even loyal to each other. Sad, if you ask me. I can at least respect a criminal who lives by some sort of code, but what’s the point of a gang who doesn’t even have your back?”

  Jia lifted her chin. “That’s all well and good, but you mentioned bad news?”

  Erik chuckled, unsurprised that Jia wanted to get right to it without even basking in their victory. She wasn’t there to be patted on the head. Nope, she was there to find and destroy non-socials like assault infantry sweeping an occupied sector.