NOVEL FROG Chapter 31: Familiar Names
Sapphire and I sat in the break room going over what had happened in the apartment before and after. I had decided not to take the advanced weapons training, much to Mr. Knight's disappointment.
She of course looked flawless and had changed into a new outfit. This time the jacket and pants she wore were made of black silk with a powder blue shirt and pearl earrings. “Well that about wraps things up.” She said, closing her briefcase. “The police will keep the investigation open for the mandatory seventy-two hours but my contacts tell me that it's pretty much a foregone conclusion.”
“They dropped it that quickly? Was it because of what happened with Ragdoll and Marmalade?” I asked, wondering what was going to happen to the two cops and what the fallout for me would be.
She nodded. “Yeah, probably. It also helps that it was a pretty clear case of self defense. The headshots on the downed intruders wasn't a good look. But they were armed and I don't think anyone is going to raise a fuss about two dead assassins. That and apparently there is a new gang war brewing so they have their hands full…”
“Gang war?” I frowned. Did we even have gangs in Porto?
Sapphire smiled. “Oh yes. Details are slim but last night someone started dropping bodies and things got worse from there. The Cutters lost a lot of senior leadership and so did Los Dientes. The two have always hated one another, which makes sense because the Cutters are hund supremacists and Los Dientes are mostly katzen. Nobody knows exactly what is going on or why they decided to start killing one another, but it's getting pretty bad.”
“Fuck me, an actual gang war.” I sat back in my chair, realizing that I had dodged a bullet by not starting my new job. Of course I immediately felt like a piece of shit for being such a coward.
“Yep, peace can only last for so long before people decide to find other ways to divide things up. I would recommend holding off on wearing a badge until this simmers down a bit. Marmalade got his head blown off early this morning coming out of a strip club.”
“Marmalade is dead? Sure he was a piece of shit but why would anyone kill him?”
“Because he was dirty as hell and everyone knew it, the magnificent bastard.” She took a sip from her stimulant cola and made a mock toast. “The gangs are wiping out dirty cops on the opposition’s payroll and you could get caught in the crossfire. So maybe keep your head down for a bit. Plus, they aren't going to have time to train you properly if they are running around with their tails on fire.”
“I should be out there.” I said. “They need all the help they can get.”
“Yeah, but they don't deserve it.” Sapphire said as she crushed the can and tossed it over her shoulder into the recycling. I blinked, that was the same thing I saw Rook do last night. Just a casual throw without looking, like it was no big deal. Was she running combat wetware too? And if so, why?
Apparently she misread the expression on my face because she decided to elaborate. “Look, I know you want to help people and that is great. So do most cops. But Porto PD is so corrupt that the number one cause of death for cops there… is other cops.”
“I didn't have to put a camera in your office to know that Ragdoll was going to try and steal something. That is just something those two do, it's part of their routine. They steal whatever they can before the crime scene techs come in to photograph everything. And the people that complain get harassed into silence. The same with cops who speak up.”
She mimed pulling a trigger. “Mess with the money and someone puts a bullet in the back of your head. I hear it is so bad that they brought in a new captain to try and get things back on course.” She snorted. “Apparently he was so unpopular before he even arrived that they paid some local muscle to try and take him out at the airport.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Four dead and three wounded. Though I probably shouldn't be surprised, Wolfgang Sacher does have a certain reputation.”
“Wait… what?” I said, shocked and a little excited to hear the familiar name. “Wolfgang Sacher is at Porto PD? Old Iron Hand is alive… and he's here?”
“Yes, do you have any particular connection to him? I mean, you both are humans but I didn't think you would be familiar with one another…” Then she connected the dots. “Ah, yes. He was one of the first human police officers. I remember now. I see why you would want to meet him.”
“Yeah, he was one hell of a detective. I always assumed that he died after he retired.” I shook my head. “What a small world.”
—
Time crawled slowly forward as I waited to hear that Simon's negotiations had finished. Eventually with nothing better to do I decided to take a nap. But as I drifted off to sleep something strange happened. I felt a connection forming between my wetware and a nearby node.
Once the link was stable a message appeared in my mind without tone or inflection, it was simple, pure text. There wasn't a wetware identification number. The user sending it was only identified with a handle, @LAST.
I hadn't heard of anything like this before. The boneyard was blocking all outside communication so I couldn't be accessing an external net. Then again, the Gravekeeper hadn't had any problems getting to me. So maybe it wasn't as secure as I thought.
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No, that was impossible. Grandfather had been dead for nearly two decades.
I felt a certain sense of apprehensiveness about the way it said “Undone”. It hasn't said it couldn't be changed, it had said or couldn't be undone. That made me stop and consider.
I didn't like any of this but I had to know.
There was a pause.
Oh fuck. That was not good. I tried to exit out but I was locked in. A new message came through.
I said, trying to feel my way through the program for some kind of exit or off switch.
I felt a shiver of panic as something latched onto me with an iron grip and started to pull me down into the darkness. I felt my mind stretching like taffy as I tried to escape the gravitational pull of whatever was holding me.
I lost all sense of self in the darkness and once again became nothing.