Ana hated to leave Roy unattended and empty handed. The man was kind enough when he didn’t drown his brain with alcohol, and he always put on a cheerful expression to greet her whenever he saw her. Such a gesture was rare in the neighborhood, and Ana appreciated the man’s amicable personality. Even more, he often fed them tidbits of information regarding the local gang conflicts and latest gossip so Ana and her partner could better anticipate where they needed to be for their night patrol. She’d since learned giving him money was a mistake—he’d just spend it on the bottle and admitted doing so. To compromise, Ana brought him food each night, and he kept one eye on the streets for her.
“Yeah, I suppose he isn’t going to be of much help.”
She stood and stared down at Roy.
“Come on, Ana,” Miguel said. “Not much more we can do.” He pointed one finger toward the street, and the drone buzzed ahead. “Lead.”
They walked in silence. Ana’s mind raced between thoughts of the man they’d found shot and Roy. She’d joined Baltimore PD in the hopes of helping clean the city up, return it to the prosperity it hadn’t harbored in more than a hundred years. But each night responding to calls in McElderry Park, her lofty goal seemed to drift further away.
“Do you think he was right? Or just drunk?” Miguel asked.
“He was definitely drunk, but what do you mean? Are you asking about the missing homeless people Roy was talking about?”
Miguel nodded. “I know we haven’t gotten any calls to support Roy’s claim, but the man hasn’t lied to us before, has he?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Ana wondered if Roy was right—if people were disappearing off Baltimore’s streets. And if they were, why? If he was right, if it wasn’t just a drunken misstatement, she prayed he wouldn’t vanish like he’d claimed the others had.
“Think we should investigate? Put down a little groundwork?” Miguel asked.
Ana lifted her shoulders in an uncertain gesture. Their assignment dictated they patrol the area and respond to dispatch, not necessarily that they go search for trouble. But she liked the idea of having a concrete goal, something to keep their minds occupied. “I suppose so.” She pictured the dozens of other officers patrolling areas riddled with crime like the one they traversed now. Officers in patrol cars, officers on foot with security drones like them, and neighborhoods where Baltimore PD sent only drones because the attacks against live personnel were so common. Yet even where they stood now, she could see the skyline filled with skyscrapers towering over Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a beacon of prosperity between the disheveled communities around it. “But I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
Her comm card buzzed red and vibrated. An incoming transmission crackled through their earpieces. “Unit ninety-five.”
“Check,” Ana said.
“Reports of a two-forty-two in progress. One assailant, one vic on the corner of East Monument and Rose.”
“Battery in progress? We can begin there,” Miguel said, and they sprinted off.
Chapter 3
The drone cornered onto another street of brick apartment buildings and sidewalks lined with bare trees. A small group of people clustered around a door stoop, and the drone stopped above them. The crowd scattered when the drone’s white lights aimed down at a huddled form on the ground.
Ana bounded toward the person. Not another body, not so soon.
The man was curled up. A small glimmer of relief washed through Ana when she saw him shivering. He was still alive.
“Miguel, call for paramedics. We need an ambulatory drone on scene.”
Miguel barked into his comm card as Ana gestured to the drone to readjust its lighting. The bot hovered over her shoulder and directed a thin beam of light at the man’s face.
His cheeks were dark and puffy, one eye already swollen shut. Blood trickled from his bent nose and the corners of his mangled lips.
“Sir, I’m a police officer. Can you hear me?”
The man coughed, and his good eye, his right one, blinked open. Ana watched as his pupil contracted in the intense light from the drone. At least that was a good sign.
“I’m hurt... that beast,” he said.
“Help is on its way,” Ana said. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I was attacked,” he managed.
Miguel stepped near them, his stunner drawn. He surveyed the now-empty streets. “I don’t see anyone.”
The man brought one shaky hand to his head, groaning as he did. “Guy was fast.”
He tried to straighten, and Ana stopped him. “Hold on. Don’t go anywhere. You might be injured.”
Moving his fingers and rotating his feet, the man shook his head. “He clobbered me. Good.”
“Can you tell us why?” Ana didn’t expect an honest answer, but she asked the question anyway. Just once, it would be nice to get a lead, to get an inkling of what was happening on these streets. She’d be overjoyed to see their efforts and constant presence out here encourage someone to support them—or at least, not to completely eschew their interests in alleviating crime.
The man laughed. “Wish I knew.”
Ana shot him a look she used to show people like this she’d heard the line before.
He held up a trembling hand. “Honest, ma’am. If I knew, I’d say so.” He drew himself up and cradled his head in his hands. “Oh, god, my damn head.”
“Can you at least tell me what happened?” Ana asked.
“Guy came up to me, ranting and raving. No idea what he was saying.” He winced and held the side of his head. “Told him to settle, calm down.” He waved to the apartment behind him. “I’d just stepped out to get a drink. That’s all, ma’am. And this guy tells me they’re after him.”
Miguel arched an eyebrow. “Who’s after him?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know. I asked him, and he just got angry. Then bam!”
The wail of sirens pierced the night.
“Paramedic squad’s almost here,” Miguel said. “Sir, can you tell us what this guy looks like?”
“Big, smelly. Face looked a bit deformed. Like a bulldog or something. Wasn’t wearing nothing but his shorts.”
Ana arched an eyebrow and shared a look with Miguel. Just like the man they’d found shot.
“I’m being real honest, officers. Trying to help ya’ll out.”
Blue and red lights flashed across the apartment building windows. An ambulatory drone lowered from the sky and landed next to Ana. Its top opened like a toolbox, revealing a menagerie of emergency medical equipment.
She grabbed a couple of sterilizing sprays. “Close your eyes.”
“Already one half the way there.” The man chuckled, pointing to his bad eye.
Ana sprayed the sterilizing solution and dabbed a bandage to clean the man’s dried blood. An oozing laceration revealed itself on his left cheek, and she applied a bioglue to temporarily close the wound. “Should be good to go until the paramedics arrive.”
“Can’t I go sleep this off? I’m feeling better already.”
“If you’ve got a concussion, lying in your bed isn’t your best option,” Miguel said. “Got leaking brain fluid or something, right?”
He looked to Ana for reassurance. Just because she had earned a minor in biology with her criminal justice degree before entering the police academy, Miguel seemed to think she was a qualified doctor. She’d merely hoped to use her inclination for science to one day snag a spot as a Bio Unit detective. “Pretty much. Did you happen to see where this guy ran off to after he attacked you?”
The man laughed again. Ana was impressed by his apparent good nature despite the attack. She couldn’t be sure whether this guy was crazy or just resilient. “No idea. Felt his fist, then I believe I went down cold. But even if I did know, you couldn’t catch this guy.”
The wailing sirens intensified and then stopped when Miguel waved down the ambulance. A pair of paramedics burst out the back of the vehicle and rushed toward them.<
br />
“Your drone beat you here again,” Miguel said, a grin across his face.
The paramedics ignored his jibe, and Ana gave them a rundown of the events before their arrival. When she finished, the paramedics examined the man.
“We’ve got it from here,” one said. She glanced at Miguel. “You can go file your paperwork and grab a doughnut.”
Miguel rolled his eyes.
“Thanks, officers,” the vic said and gave them a mock salute. “You guys be safe out there.”
“Wait,” Ana said. A thought struck her. “Why did you say we couldn’t catch the guy that knocked you out?”
“He was too damn fast. Like cheetah fast. Big old muscles.” The man chortled. “Nah, not like a cheetah. More like a goddamn elephant moving like a Corvette. Funniest thing I ever saw until I realized he was headed toward me.”
Again, Ana caught Miguel’s eyes. She didn’t share the man’s humor and neither did Miguel. The attacker was an enhancer—and apparently a mentally unstable one to boot. A person like that, a person with godlike strength and superhuman powers, was dangerous enough. Add a bit of unpredictability and paranoia to the mix... She shuddered. Tonight was going to be a long night.
Chapter 4
“What do you make of all this?” Miguel asked as they meandered down the sidewalk.
“Enhancers running around in the cold half naked... I’m not sure what I can make of this.”
Miguel counted off on his fingers. “Find one dead, and another commits a random attack. I mean, I wouldn’t normally connect the two events—half the thugs around here abuse gene mods.”
“Right, but the fact they were underdressed for the cold... unless there’s a new mod rolling through the streets to regulate body temp.”
“Could be.”
Ana shot a furtive glance down a set of stairs leading down from the sidewalk to an open door. Loud music pounded from the basement-level bar. Hell, maybe that’s what drove Roy to drink. Too much craziness to even attempt applying rationality to the happenings of this disheveled community.
“Okay, so if we can believe that last guy, then we have one crazy enhancer roaming the streets. But what about the first enhancer? Why do you think he was shot?”
Miguel chewed his lip, considering her question. “Don’t know. You think someone shot him in self-defense? If he was just as unhinged... hell, you know people aren’t afraid to pull out a gun around here.”
“Maybe,” Ana said. “But the second enhancer allegedly said someone was after him, right? What if someone wanted to kill them?”
Miguel shook his head. “Are you suggesting someone is hunting half-naked enhancers?”
The motivations for killing an enhancer could be anything from gang violence to a biocontraband trade gone wrong or some kind of sick game in which enhanced humans were the prey. She couldn’t think of a viable reason not requiring a fair bit of speculation. “I don’t have a damn clue what I’m suggesting, but I’m also not sure how to explain any of this.”
“The beauty of the whole situation is we don’t have to. It’s not our job—it’s for the detectives.”
“Screw that,” Ana said, picturing Roland’s smug expression and demeaning attitude. She’d love to show the detective she was more than capable of doing her job—and it might attract the attention of Lieutenant Conway, head of the Bio Unit, putting her one step closer to becoming a Bio detective. “How great would it be if we could wrap this up before Roland?”
“Do I sense a bit of envy?”
Ana gave him a slight shove, and Miguel almost careened into a tree.
“Fine, fine,” Miguel said. “It would be just wonderful if we beat them to the punch.”
“Question is, where do we start looking for a second enhancer?”
As if reading her mind, dispatch called through their earpieces to address Ana’s concern. “Officers, please respond to a two-forty-two in progress on Montford and McElderry. Reports of a white male, approximately six feet tall, physically attacking bystanders.”
“Locate,” Ana said to the drone. And for the third time, she found herself sprinting after their floating metal compatriot. Her wish had been granted, but she wasn’t sure if she was prepared for confronting a live, unstable gene modder. She didn’t have time to consider the question for long.
They turned a corner, the drone still leading, and a cacophony of voices greeted them. Loud bellows and curses carried across the street. Ana dodged between parked cars and ran toward the fray. Half a dozen apparent gang members engaged in hand-to-hand conflict, contrasting with the reports from dispatch.
She drew closer and realized it wasn’t an even-handed fistfight. One shirtless man, muscles bulging, his face bulbous and wrinkled, picked up another and threw him into the windshield of a nearby SUV. Another man tried to sprint away, but the muscled man grabbed him by his shirt collar and tossed him into the street. The victim’s body slid across the asphalt.
“Ambulatory squad,” Miguel barked into his comm card. “Two or three, now.”
“Crowd control,” Ana yelled at their drone and pointed at the street melee. The bot flew above the group. She and Miguel plugged their ears and turned away as the bot unleashed a series of loud screeches and flashing lights to disorient the brawlers. Most of the men ran or hobbled away, but the large man in the center reached up and grabbed the drone. He curled his fingers around it and crushed it. Flinging it away, he turned toward Ana and Miguel.
“Shit,” Miguel said. He took out his stunner as the man’s face scrunched into a snarl. He appeared every bit the bulldog their early vic had described, and for a fraction of a second, Ana wondered how the man had escaped this brute with only a battered face and potential concussion.
Ana too withdrew her stunner. The hulking enhancer swatted Miguel’s stunner away. Ana fired.
A blue arc of electricity hit the man’s body, and for a moment, he slowed. The charge could paralyze a normal man, but the enhancer merely trembled before a loud yell erupted from his mouth. He reached out with one hand and picked up Miguel.
“Let me go!”
The enhancer drew back his arm, preparing to launch Miguel.
Ana flicked up the intensity on her stunner. She shot another bolt at the man. He didn’t fall unconscious as she’d hoped, but the pain and electricity coursing through his body led him to release Miguel. The officer crawled away backward, stumbling to get back to his feet. He withdrew his gun.
“No,” Ana barked. “We need this guy alive.”
She notched up the intensity again on her stunner as the enhancer turned toward her. His bloodshot eyes dilated wildly and his head shook, caught in an uncontrollable tremor. He huffed and charged at Ana. She fired once more.
The intense stab of electricity hit the man. His limbs locked up, his body paralyzed. Momentum carried him forward, sliding across the asphalt, and Ana jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the freight train of a man.
Jaw clenched, the enhancer twisted his neck enough to see Ana. She expected rage to fill his bloodshot eyes, expected to feel the hot intensity of anger radiating from him.
Instead, his gaze met hers with all the fear and trepidation of a puppy expecting a cruel kick to the ribs. Her heart caught in her throat as she lowered her weapon. She approached him cautiously. The man hadn’t fallen unconscious, yet his muscles still appeared locked by the electrical signals interfering with his normal nerve impulses.
The stench of body odor wafted up from the man as if he hadn’t showered in weeks. Ana crouched just out of arm’s reach from him.
Miguel held out his plastic zip-tie cuffs. “These aren’t going to work, are they?”
“Not likely.”
Chapter 5
The night seemed to be turning into an endless churn of emergency situations, followed by the arrival of paramedics and CSI teams. Ana wondered what the hell she’d done to deserve a shift like this and yearned for the sunlight creeping over the horizon to signal the night’s end.<
br />
But instead of orange and yellow light, red and blue lights once again filled the streets as the paramedics tended to the mangled forms of the injured. Another two officers joined Miguel and Ana with high-strength flex-polymer cuffs to secure the enhancer for transport back to the city’s lockup. Snow had also begun to fall and cover the scene in a delicate white dust.
“We got an identity on this guy?” Miguel asked.
Ana held a comm card in front of the enhancer’s face. His muscles were still locked, but his eyes twitched nervously. The card scanned his facial features, and a hologram image of the enhancer glowed in the air. The mug shot holo showed a man with a creased face, yet not near as swollen and wrinkled as the man at their feet now. “Brian Lamont. Guy’s been arrested for public inebriation, verbal assault, loitering. Nothing physically violent, though. No home address.”
Miguel arched an eyebrow. “Homeless?”
Ana nodded. “Fits the description of the enhancer we were looking for, too.”
The enhancer’s eyes, still wide with fear, darted about. His lips trembled before he said something in a low voice.
“What’s that?” Ana knelt near the man.
Miguel placed a hand on her shoulder. “Careful. He might be cuffed, but I wouldn’t trust it.”
Lamont’s voice cracked. “They’re here. I hear them.”
“Who’s here?” Ana asked.
The man’s body shook, his eyelids peeling back wider. “They’re coming for me. They’re coming again. Going to take me away.”
“Who?”
“The doctor, the needles. They’re here!” The enhancer rose to his feet, his body persevering against the electrical shock that should’ve kept him down. One of the officers fresh to the scene bounded over.
“Sir, remain seated.”
“They’re here!” The enhancer bellowed and turned to look down the street. Ana followed his gaze but saw no one. The enhancer stepped forward, and the other officer brought him down with another shock. This time, the man went unconscious.
The Black Market DNA Series: Books 1-3 Page 78