First Day, Worst Day
W.U. NorthWest Sprawl, Upper Level, 2124
Investigator Hitomi Raven beamed at her reflection in the mirror of her little apartment. She looked quite snappy her brand new suit, its dark navy with white stripes crisp and clean, showing off the rigor of her training and her dedication to duty. She snapped a salute at her reflection and giggled, wanting to jump up and down for joy. She had made it through the academy, and was now a full Investigator for the Allied Terran Territories Special Police Force. She had never been to this particular city before, her new assignment, but the past day here seemed like a normal enough Western Union megacity. Hundreds of thousands of glittering spires housing millions of people, a dozen artificial levels separating various districts…. she could hear maglev trains and various other vehicles zooming faintly around outside her window. She looked herself over one more time, checking that everything was just perfect. Her very long black hair was done up in a neat bun behind her hat, She had her standard issue sidearm and other equipment on her belt, all cleaned and checked, her uniform was crisp and shiny, and her face was beaming with pride and eagerness to prove herself. Her parents had both been Investigators, and all of her grandparents had been ‘cops’ (as they used to be called) way back in the day. She was very proud to keep the family tradition going. Satisfied with her appearance, she patted her cat on the head, who meowed happily at her, and strode confidently out of her apartment. The automatic doors locked and sealed behind her, and she wandered the vast halls of the federal Arcology to get down to the actual police headquarters.
The long fashionably dark Art Deco style W.U. architecture of the building pleased her, taking in the beautiful faux black marble and ornate wood work, the dark leather of the furniture, the little highlights of brass and other metals in startling but beautiful contrast to the subdued colors. The floors were illuminated rather than the ceilings, which gave a much softer light look, but one she rather liked. It helped her feel calm about this, her first day as a real investigator. She could barely contain her excitement, her mind wandering to all the various adventures this job would bring, all the good she could do to help keep the world a sane and stable place…
Granted, most of what was traditionally considered “police work” was actually done autonomously these days. Traffic was controlled by computers, and millions of robots and cameras and all sorts of automated systems kept the general riff-raff in check. But the Investigators and famed Special Agents were here to keep the peace and enforce the laws where a system wasn’t enough and actual man-power (or, woman-power, or AI-power, or alien-power, or whatever, that was a bit of a vague notion in this era) was required. Solving the crimes with wits and sagacity, serving warrants, …being a modern day Sherlock Holmes and walking justice department was the new code of conduct for the special police forces of the A.T.T. And Investigator Hitomi Raven couldn’t be more excited to get started.
She walked up to the big double doors of the police headquarters, which were large and imposing faux dark wood with bits of elegant brass filigree to add a hint of sophistication. After taking a moment to collect herself, she took a step forward, was recognized by the system, and the big doors swung open before her.
Most of what she saw were hundreds of people at desks and shouting and running around, the busywork of police business. But she ignored this as best she could and walked straight back to her new supervisor’s office. He was a stocky man with a bushy mustache that concealed half his face, and seemed to sweat a lot more than any given situation or the temperature-controlled artificial environment should allow. She took her place next to the rest of her graduating class (at least, the ones who had been assigned here) and waited patiently for whatever was to come next.
The police Commander, Walters, was flicking through various screens on his desk and wall. He turned when she entered, and grunted in acknowledgement. “Well, now you’re all here. At last.” he said gruffly. Hitomi suppressed a scowl. She was barely twenty seconds late! She sighed as she realized this probably didn’t matter. Late was late. Instead, she said nothing but snapped to attention with the rest of her group. “Well,” Commander Wallace began, wiping a trickle of sweat from his brow. “You’re all here. Congratulations on making it through the academy. But I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, though I required to do so anyway by goddamn regulations: that it only gets harder from here.”
There were a few exchanged glances between the recruits. The academy had been brutal, and had a wash-out rate of over 80%. Their attention snapped back to his bushy face as he continued to speak.
“However, we won’t be letting you run amok just yet. For the first few weeks or months, depending on your progress, you will be paired up with a Special Agent for a partner. They will be your C.O. for the duration of this trial period. You are to afford them every courtesy and try, if possible, to learn how to do this job right. Is that understood?”
There was a chorus of shouted affirmative replies. Commander Wallace grunted again. “Hah, well, we’ll see, won’t we.” He flicked his wrist and a door Hitomi hadn’t noticed behind him slid open, and about two dozen people came out. If Raven had thought her uniform was sharp, she felt positively disheveled next to these people. Their crisp black suits, long black overcoats and stern expressions were quite imposing. She also noted curiously many of them had a tie or pocket square that was the color of their homeland’s flag: blue for the west, red for the east. The police were part of the Allied Terran Territories and oversaw all jurisdictions both on and off-world, but it was curious to see a glimmering of jingoism permeating the otherwise uniformity of these Special Agent’s outfits. “These are Special Agents, the ones who will be assigned to babysitting and mentoring you lot until you’re ready to make it on your own with a normal Investigator partner.” The Special Agents all looked around the room at the fresh-faced recruits, and then walked up to their assigned partners. “They have your missions already. Go with them, and try not to kill anybody or get killed, okay?” There was silence at this remark. “That was a joke, recruits.” He said flatly.
A chorus of half-hearted laughs met him this time, and he seemed mollified. “Go on, get out of my office.” He grunted with a wave of his hand, returning to his work.
Hitomi looked around to see which agent was headed towards her. After a moment she spotted him, and then wondered why she hadn’t noticed him immediately. He had lime green hair, the punk color tempered somewhat by the very nice and professional style it had been cut into. He was what many called a ‘hafu’, like Hitomi herself: a mix of caucasian and asian races. He strode up to her, long coat rippling slightly with the breeze of his movement. “Investigator Hitomi Raven?” He asked, his tone formal but his face surprisingly warm.
Hitomi clicked her heels and saluted. “Reporting for duty, sir.” She replied sharply.
“Angus Honda.” he said, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you. Well, let’s get right to it, shall we? You ready to go?”
“Yessir.” She replied promptly, and swiveled on her heel to follow him as he strode out of the office, his long coat billowing behind him like a cape.
Hitomi had to jog a bit to keep up with his long strides, wondering what her first assignment would be. “You’re probably wondering what our first task will be together, Investigator.” He said over his shoulder.
Bang on, of course. “Yes sir.”
“Well, I’ve been investigating a kidnapping case. We have a warrant to search the premises of a suspect.” He glanced back to see her wide-eyed expression, eager for more. “…So we will serve that warrant and conduct a search.”
Hitomi nodded. “Ideal outcome?”
“Ideally? We find the kid, and arrest the occupant as a suspect.” he said as they waited for an elevator to take them to the motor pool. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot lightly as they waited. “My investigations indicate there should only be up to three people there, so, shouldn’t be too hard, if they do try to resist.”
Hitomi’s almond eyes widened slightly at this. “A firefight?”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” He said as the maglevator took them down a few dozen stories. “But if it does, you have a standard issue sidearm, correct?”
“Yes sir.” Hitomi chirped.
“Then reload now with the non-lethal beanbag rounds. Just to be safe.” He checked his own weapon as Hitomi drew her police issue G-72 and reloaded with the backup magazine as instructed. She noted curiously that her new mentor’s weapon wasn’t like her own.
“Can I ask… Where’d you get that, sir? It’s not standard issue.” Hitomi asked, trying to sound politely interested rather than accusatory.
Angus grinned at her. “Oh, when you reach Special Agent you’re allowed some liberties with equipment. I picked this up for myself after I found the G-72s to be lacking.” He grinned wider as he lifted his pants leg slightly to show her a holster strapped to his calf. “And I picked this up when I got sick of getting disarmed. Or running out of ammo.”
Hitomi’s eyes widened even further. “You ran out of ammo?” She glanced down at her side arm. It held 48 caseless rounds in a large magazine. She couldn’t imagine needing more than what she currently carried. “…must have been a hell of a fight.” She finished weakly, feeling her knees wobble slightly.
Special Agent Honda chuckled and holstered his weapon. “yeah, it was. Well, when the shit really hits the fan, we call in the SWAT, anyway. But, still, being prepared has kept me alive this long.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” Hitomi said quietly, staring at him.
“See that you do. Thinking ahead, and thinking outside the box. The two best things I could possibly teach you.” he said with a surprisingly warm smile.
They arrived in the motor pool, got in a car and he — or rather, the city’s computers — drove them off into the heart of the city. Hitomi watched out the windows as the city zoomed by, the thousands of glittering spires of civilization sparkling around her in the foggy morning, and watched as they went deeper and deeper into the heart of the vast metropolis. After a few minutes of silence her mentor cleared his throat awkwardly. “If you don’t mind,” he said hesitantly, “I’d like to dispense with at least some levels of formality. If we’re going to be partners for a few months, we ought to be friends, or, at least, friendly.” She didn’t reply to this at first, so he continued, “So, call me Angus. Special Agent still when we’re in mixed company though, of course.”
“Hitomi.” She replied suddenly. “Call me Hitomi, Angus.”
“Can do, Investigator.” He said with a smirk.
She smiled back at him and did the pat down check of her equipment, the one she had practiced a million times. ID, gun, cuffs, flashlight, emergency kit… everything was there.
“Well, we’re almost there, so I’ll fill you in a bit. Broadstone Power’s CEO’s child was abducted three days ago. The security footage was mostly corrupted by some sort of jammer, but we managed to get what appears to be the image of a woman off the cameras. We linked that to some facial recognition and list of known enemies, came up with a name. A miss Simone Dunois, recently fired for insider trading. When we presented these finding to the father, he confirmed she was a likely suspect. So, we’re going to check that out now.” he paused as they pulled up to a relatively small apartment building, maybe only 20 stories, though it was built almost on the lip of one of the massive artificial levels that segregated the city. she could see even more towers and cars and people and… thriving vigorous life far below, and tried to stop her knees knocking at the sudden sense of vertigo and mild acrophobia. “Hopefully, we go in, present the warrant, look around and ask some questions. Best case, we find the kid and arrest the woman. Realistically? I think we’ll find something suspicious and bring her in for further questioning. Use minimal force, we need these people alive, especially the kid. Also heard she is married, so, be aware of that too. Might be a second suspect in the house.” He checked his weapon one more time and shot her a glance. “You ready?”
“Yep.” She said shortly, steeling herself for what was to come.
“You’ve got the bean bags loaded?”
“Yep.”
“You’re nervous, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
“You don’t talk much when you’re nervous, do you?”
“Nope.”
He chuckled. “Well, let’s do it then.” And got out of the car.
Hitomi followed suit, and walked with him up to the building. A few people in the lobby and parking lot gave them curious glances as they approached, but looked away as they lost interest. He pulled out his badge and held it up the scanner, which after a moment clicked to let them in. They walked through more traditional Western style Deco halls, though these were not as… fresh… as the ones in the federal arcology. Signs of wear and tear were evident in peeling vinyl floors and paint, but it was still a fairly nice place. They took the maglevator up to the top floor, where there was a modest penthouse. “Well, here goes.” Angus said under his breath, and then rapped sharply on the door with the back of his knuckles. “Miss Dunois?” He said loudly.
After a moment the door creaked open a fraction, and they could see several chain locks on the door between them and the inside. Then a woman’s face swam into view. “Yes?” She said, her dark eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Angus held up a document for her to see through the gap. “We have a warrant to search the premises.” He said, his voice calm and steady, the trained voice of an A.T.I.B. agent. The Allied Terran Investigations Bureau were the voices of reason in this crazy world.
The door slammed shut, and they could faintly hear muffled shouting from behind it. They waited for a moment to see if she would unlock it. She didn’t. Angus sighed, and drew a different weapon from within his coat. This one was comparatively huge, still small enough to hide on his profile, but gigantic in comparison to Hitomi’s little pistol. He leveled it at the door frame, and pumped a few rounds into it which cracked the stone and sent the door flopping limply inwards with a crashing thud that was nearly as loud as the booming rounds that sent it falling.
Hitomi realized she had pressed her hands over her ears, and stared at her mentor in shock. He grinned at her, the huge bore of the gun smoking slightly. “See kid? Always be prepared. Some eight-gauge depleted uranium shot will kick the crap out of just about anything close range.” He peered inside the room, a cloud of dust from the shattered stone and splintered door making him squint a bit. “Just be careful what you hit on the other side.” He advised.
Hitomi shook her head briskly to clear it and drew her weapon, following her mentor inside, sweeping the room with her muzzle. “Clear.” She called out.
“They must have retreated to another room.” Angus said, and walked towards a door. Just then, a woman came whirling around a hidden corner, swinging a large kitchen knife and screaming madly. Angus managed to block it with his gun, and then elbowed her in the side of the head and tackled her to the ground. “This isn’t her,” He grunted, struggling to contain the hissing ball of angry woman beneath him. “Check the rest of the house. Go!”
Hitomi left him to deal with his assailant while she pressed onwards. She opened a few doors cautiously, finding nothing of particular interest. A bathroom, some sort of closet full of fancy coats, another bathroom, what looked like a dining room… Eventually she found a closet door that, when opened, revealed a terrified little boy tied to a chair in the dark. She holstered her gun and pressed a finger to her lips. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. It’s all over now. It’s okay…” she cooed softly, flicking out a knife to cut him loose. She saw his eyes widen and glanced behind her just in time to dodge a wild swing from a lamp wielded like a club by their suspect. She dodged a few more crazed blows, backing away from the child to make sure he didn’t get hurt in their struggle. She backed towards the entrance, Angus looking up to see her fight. He drew his pistol but hesitated, not wanting to accidentally hit his new partner by accident. He had cuffed the other woman to a couch, and Hitomi’s panicking mind for some reason decided to point out to her that both women were surprisingly hip in their fashion, totally up with the latest trends. Low-slung tight black pants accented their cloud white crop-tops, a variety of bracelets, choker necklaces, and other jewelry added some class to this otherwise street look, a look which was topped off with jauntily angled ‘newsboy’ caps, though the jaunty angle may actually have been the result of the fighting.
Angus was trying to find an opening to help his new partner, but was distracted as the cuffed suspect lashed out with a high heeled foot that caught him full in the groin. He grunted and bent over, fending off more vicious kicks.
Hitomi meanwhile continued to back up, and then took a chance and took a leap backwards, over the fallen door to try and put some space between herself and her assailant. She took this precious sliver of time to draw her weapon again. “Stop! Or I will shoot you!” She barked. The beanbag rounds wouldn’t (or, at least, shouldn’t) kill, but they would leave a bruise the size of a dinner plate and certainly knock the wind out of someone. She realized the room was actually mostly a veranda, open to the air with a fairly beautiful view of the city. She could hear the wind whistling softly around them, and the hustle and bustle of life below. It seemed strangely calm, a peaceful thing in this deadly situation. But when the woman raised the lamp-club again Hitomi fired, only managing to hit her shoulder. The woman bucked from the impact, clutching her injury for a moment, and then screamed and lunged forward towards the new Investigator.
Raven’s training kicked in, judo-flipping the attacker over her shoulder, just as she had done a thousand times in the academy.
…And sent Simone Dunois right over the railing behind them.
The Doppler scream of the suspect was joined moments later by a mix of screams from various people down below, just after the barely audible thud and splat noises.
Raven winced as her C.O. turned slowly to stare at her, his glare almost burning a hole in the top of her head as she looked at her shoes.
There was a very pregnant pause, during which she could hear more screams and the distant wail of emergency vehicle sirens. The other woman broke the silence. “You bitch! You killed my wife!”
Angus shot a glare at the frothing woman on the couch, but then turned his gaze to his new partner. “I hate to side with this… individual, but that wasn’t the plan, Investigator.”
Hitomi continued to look at her shoes, and eventually holstered her weapon. After another pause she said quietly, “I’ll go get the kid.” She left without looking at her mentor, not wanting to see his face.
She went back to the closet where she had found the boy, cut him loose and let him hug her while he cried for a moment. Then she led him by the hand out to the veranda where the other two were waiting for her.
“Well.” Said Angus flatly to the remaining suspect. “I guess that concludes the search portion of our warrant. Mrs. Dunois, You are under arrest for kidnapping, aiding and abetting a kidnapper, and assault on a federal officer.” he said as he pulled her up from the couch and marched her out of the building, ignoring her screaming and swearing. Hitomi could see his muscles bulging slightly under his tailored suit as he struggled to contain the struggling criminal.
Silently, Hitomi took the boy by his hand and gently led him out the room, deciding to take a separate maglevator back down, just in case. She stood with the boy, still holding his hand reassuringly, and a tickle on the neck made her realize some of her long silky hair had come undone from the bun she had pulled it into this morning. She itched her neck where it tickled, and led the boy out to the parking lot, squeezing his hand gently. A few minutes later a police van had arrived to take the suspect and boy away, and Hitomi found Angus sitting on the steps leading up to the building. He was silently smoking a cigarette, staring out at the cityscape. He glanced up at her as she approached, and patted the stair next to him. She sat and looked out at the bustle of the city with him in silence.
After a moment he spoke. “So… that didn’t go quite as planned.” He said dryly.
Hitomi looked at her shoes again, not sure what to say. Her previously shining new boots were scuffed and coated with a film of dust from their struggle. A hand appeared in her vision, holding a cigarette. “Oh, uh, no, thanks. I don’t use any chemicals.” She said, as politely as she could.
He snorted, which surprised her. “You will.”
“Pardon?”
“Most of us do. It… helps.” He waved his other hand vaguely, the smoke trailing after his cigarette in lazy swirls. “Helps things not get too… heavy.” He looked at her closely, and after a while she took the cigarette. He lit it for her and then continued talking, but returned his gaze to the cityscape, ignoring her spluttering cough and trying not to smile as she wiped a bit of ash off her formerly shiny new suit. “It’s a hard job, what we do. But it’s a good one. It’s good to know you’re one of ‘the good guys’. It’s just… It can get hard, doing bad things to bad people, as bad as they may be.”
“Which, the acts or the people?” Hitomi said wryly, surprising herself.
He chuckled softly. “Does it matter? You’re going to see and do a lot of shit in this job. You… find ways to stay sane in the face of it all.” They both smoked quietly for a minute before he continued. “…Despite our desire to get the perp alive, that was a pretty spectacular flip.” He said, grinning around his cigarette.
She chuckled weakly. “Well. The penalty for kidnapping is execution anyway, right? I just saved a bunch of messy paperwork.”
“By making a mess on the sidewalk instead.”
“Exactly.”
He grinned at her. “See? You’re learning. You saved the kid, you defended yourself in a fight, you acted correctly and with good intentions, and you’re developing a sense of humor. All good things.” He patted her on the back, and she felt the surprising weight of his arms, realizing he must have a lot of augmented wetware in his flesh. But she appreciated the gesture all the same.
“This is what Commander Wallace meant by it only gets harder from here, huh?”
“Yep.”
“But… you think I did a good job, in spite of the… accident?”
“Yep.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Nope.” He waved the hand with the cigarette by means of explanation.
“Ah. So you don’t talk much when you’re smoking.”
“Yep.” He smirked at her and offered her another. “Nor will you, I suspect.”
“You might be right.” She said softly.
“And you might find yourself smoking more often than not, in this job.”
“Possibly right again.” She said. There was a pause, and she continued, “was this a fairly typical mission, would you say?”
He considered this. “I’ve had some go better. I’ve had some go worse. So… on the whole, yeah, pretty average.”
She took the proffered second cigarette now. “Then, yeah. I think I’m beginning to see what you mean.”
“What else is a mentor for?” He said wryly.
She smiled faintly and puffed on the cigarette, watching the city go on as usual around them. Eventually she spoke up again. “So… now what, we go home for the day?”
He snorted hugely, and then coughed up a bit of smoke. “Hardly. The day has just begun.”
She stared at him. “You’re kidding.” She said flatly.
“I am not.” He looked sideways at her. “And you thought the academy’s 80% burn out rate was bad?”
Hitomi wasn’t sure what to say to this. Eventually she managed. “…Is it worth it?”
He blew a long stream of smoke out into the air and dropped the cigarette butt to the ground, where a tiny robot hiding in a concealed panel in the road zoomed out to scoop it up and then zoomed back to it’s little slot. “Yeah. It is. We saved a child’s life today, and I’ve lost count of the lives I’ve saved.” He sighed. “Hold on to that. It’s important. It helps you sleep at night, when you lose count of the lives you taken, too.”
