With my head still spinning a bit from the beer earlier and Ani's scent lingering in my nose I almost missed the car parked in front of my apartment building. I knew it had to belong to the Bone Syndicate because nobody here could ever hope to afford something that nice.

The arrogance and stupidity of it struck me and I watched dumbfounded as the gangster in the driver's seat casually smoked a cigarette without a care in the world. He hadn't even bothered to park out on a side street, he was directly in front of the building itself.

That offended me so I leaned the dolly with the gas cylinders up against a wall and stalked towards the car. I could hear him talking on the phone as I approached.

"Yeah, he's close." Said the big Möhin, his arm dangling out the open window. The thick gold chain on his wrist threatened to scrape the black paint of the sedan he occupied. "I'll grab him and bring him to you shortly."

I froze in place as the gangster hung up. How did they know I was nearby? Then I remembered my collar had a tracker built into it. Technically it should have been disabled since I was off duty but apparently someone in the Syndicate had a police tech on their payroll who could reactivate my gear. I looked down at my sidearm and almost swore. Apparently they could deactivate other things too.

The happy blue light on the grip of my gun that designated me as an authorized user had turned an ugly shade of amber. That was fine. I had other weapons.

I looked around but nobody seemed to be paying attention to me or the gangster in the car. In fact, they were actively avoiding looking in our direction.

I crept in closer, making sure to stay downwind. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cable saw. It consisted of nothing more than two handles connected by a meter and a half of thin serrated metal cable. But as the gangster was about to find out, it made one hell of a garotte.

The gangster didn't notice me. He had a cigarette in one hand and his phone in the other when I reached into the car and looped the metal over his head. I didn't give him a chance to strangle to death, that would take too long. Instead I put both feet against the car door and kicked backwards with all my strength in an attempt to break his neck.

There was an audible gurgling sound like wet rags being forced down a pipe and I fell flat on my back. At first I thought the cable must have broken. Then I realized rather dumbly that no, the cable was still intact. I had merely decapitated my victim by accident.

Hot arterial spray washed over the inside of the windshield as the gangster's headless body jerked and twitched. By the time he was finally still I was already riding the elevator up to my apartment.

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I reflected on things as I lugged my equipment down the hallway. They were tracking my collar. That meant my original plan to booby trap the apartment wouldn't work unless I could find some way to fool them into thinking I was still inside. I could cut it off but they would know something was wrong when it stopped reporting my vital signs.

The door two apartments down from mine opened and a young Katzen female stepped out into the hallway, her left leg seemed weak and she was cradling one arm. She looked at me and froze when she saw my uniform.

"Get the fuck out of here." I growled.

The Katzen prostitute bolted down the hallway like hell itself was after her. Apparently John was beating on hookers now. I fingered my collar and felt the beginnings of a plan coming together. I had done some research on John after his wife's suspicious disappearance a few months ago. According to him she left to go back to Döbi. But immigration hadn't flagged her passport and nobody had seen or heard from her since.

From what I could tell John had no living next of kin. Both his parents were dead and his in-laws would hardly mourn the person who mercilessly beat then murdered their daughter. According to local rumor John had been seen dumping something in the river around the time his wife disappeared. But the police weren't going to arrest someone on a rumor, not when it was just a dead or missing Döbian. It seemed fitting that I should be reminded of his presence now.

I wheeled the dolly with the gas cylinders into my apartment and went to pay John a visit. I knocked on the door, timidly like I was a prostitute that had accidentally left something important behind.

The door burst open to reveal John in all his drunken fury. He was ethnically Döbian but he had been born here in Möhi and barely spoke the language of his parents.

He looked at me in confusion. "What the fuck do you want?"

I smiled, pretending that I wasn't covered from face to balls with other people's blood. "I apologize for my appearance but I thought you would like to know, seeing as it has to do with your wife. They finally found her."

His confusion bloomed into barely contained terror. "What?" He backed away from me slowly.

"Your wife, Moira." I explained as I followed him into the apartment. "I've come to reunite you."

John looked at me and a wave of relief seemed to wash over him. He knew I was lying, there was no way we had found his wife alive. That would have been impossible, seeing as he had murdered her just months prior. But what he didn't realize was that it was part of a test, one which he was about to fail horribly.

"My wife is dead, asshole." John snarled, his breath reeking of beer and tooth decay. He was either too drunk or too stupid to keep his story straight.

"Oh, I know." I said cheerfully as I reached for my baton and smashed it viciously into his solar plexus. John collapsed to the floor gasping from the unexpected blow. Apparently he could dish it out but not take it.

"Like I said before, I've come to reunite you." I explained before I rained blows down on him with my baton. I beat him until he was too hurt to do anything except cry and bleed.

Then I grabbed him by the neck and dragged him into my apartment. I needed him alive for what came next. The Bone Syndicate would be looking for a Döbian and who was I to deny them?