I wish I could say that we were fully equipped and ready to go. I wanted to stomp a backstabbing doctor into the linoleum floor. Unfortunately, reality didn’t quite live up to our expectations. Tiara hadn’t managed to secure any weapons for Baxter or me. This was particularly disappointing, as I was actively being pursued by a well-connected and heavily armed group. Instead of an arsenal I had hoped for, all I had to rely on was a single PDA that was shared between Baxter and me.

When I expressed my disappointment, Tiara reminded me of the hardships I had endured in the Under-rails and assured me that there wouldn’t be a repeat of that scenario. She emphasized the effectiveness of the electromagnetic jammer attached to my new belt, which “hopefully” would prevent my pursuers from tracking my location. To anyone observing me, it would appear that I vanished within the Order Precinct.

Allocating the necessary resources to arm two civilians for what essentially amounted to a Q&A session with a local suspect would have been a bureaucratic nightmare, drowning us in paperwork and excuses. Being on duty without a weapon always made me feel vulnerable, even though I wasn’t being compensated for this visit. Dealing with unscrupulous members of society, regardless of their station, meant being on constant alert. Too many things go wrong, and they go wrong regularly.

Tiara led us up the spire from the depths of the precinct, and during the ascent, I sipped the last of my synthetic coffee and synchronized my mediband with the loaner PDA she had provided. As we ascended in the exposed lift tube, the view beyond the fiberglass was breathtaking, with the sunlight fading as we approached the Mantle.

The mediband seemed to be taking an eternity to sync with the PDA.

With her back against the lift’s wall, her eyes shut, and her arms folded, she projected an air of unspoken weariness. I gave her the space she needed and spared her the conversation. Baxter stayed close to me, quietly observing the diminishing figures of people, vehicles and buildings as the lift continued its ascent.

“This week has been a pretty bad week, hasn’t it?” Baxter sounded reflective in his tone.

I nodded.

His features drooped.

“Look, Don… I need to come clean.”

I gave him a side look as I sipped what was left of the now cold synfee.

He looked down at his hands as he gripped the side bar against the window.

“When Tiberus had you locked in that room. When we came in…”

He paused and gave me a quick look before looking away.

“When you came in?” I insisted.

He didn’t respond, but he did grip the bar tighter.

I was about to press him, and pat him on the shoulder, but he interrupted me.

“I’ve almost lost you five times in as many hours. It just got me thinking… about what you said earlier.”

I scratched the fur on his shoulder and lightly patted a couple times in the same spot. “Listen, I still owe you a steak when we are done. Don’t worry about it Baxter, we can brush up after we deal with Dr. Holste.”

“Hospital.” Tiara coughed.

“After I get an actual checkup in the hospital.” I corrected.

Baxter paused for a bit as if he really wanted to say something.

“Do you really think this is over once we get with Holste?”

I dismissed him with a wave of my hand and a shake of my head.

“No way. Holste is a pawn in this. Whoever has him in their pocket is the person I would like to have a chat with.”

“Do you think…” Baxter cocked his head to the side with an inquisitive look.

He caught himself, then leaned close and whisper in my ear, “Do you think all this leads back to Temple?”

“I can hear you just fine Baxter…” Tiara added, still with her eyes closed, still leaning against the wall, and still with her arms folded. She sounded impatient.

Baxter gave me an “oh crap” look. His ears and tail drooped as he did his best to shrink. I returned him a deadpan stare in response, shaking my head slowly side to side.

“I know all about Temple. Donovan apprised me of the situation, which is why we are all heading to the hospital now.”

Relief immediately washed over Baxter as he sighed.

The view outside disappeared as the lift entered the upper levels of the precinct. I held up the PDA to Tiara.

“This thing has yet to connect. Are you sure you got me a good one?”

She pointed to my belt.

I rolled my tongue across my top teeth and bit my lip, nodding in a condescending fashion, for not thinking about the darn jammer at my waist. I sheathed the PDA to my hip mount, folded my arms, and leaned back to the window on the side bar.

“Alright.” I asked, with a beckoning hand gesture. “What do we know about this hospital. I am not familiar with it beyond my medically induced stupor, and one room.”

Tiara held up a finger.

“First, Dr. Holste’s office is on the second floor, and his work shifts tend to be afternoons, which leaves us little to thirty minutes or so to make it to the hospital before he will probably be making his way home.”

I frowned.

“Then we could hope that we catch him returning to, or already in his office for our little chat.”

Tiara nodded.

I opened my hands in a matter-of-fact gesture.

“So how much freedom do we have in this interrogation? Do I get to be Bad Cop?”

She pointed accusingly at me.

“You are not an officer. So no, you do not get to be “Bad Cop”.”

I folded my arms and gave her a squinted eyed defiant glare.

“I really want to be Bad Cop…”

“No…” She gave a lazy smirk.

I shrugged.

“Then where does that leave us? What if he doesn’t want to talk? We can’t very well let him leave or give him an opportunity to call anyone he may be connected to.” I paused, “Unless of course you somehow worked magic and got G.O.D. network traffic bugged regarding his communications.”

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The lift dinged. Baxter begrudgingly tilted his head, while I secured our new leash to his knew collar. The tether gave a familiar magnetic pull, and I turned the dial to provide the longest range possible for the system.

Tiara frowned as she watched.

“No, I did not manage to take care of that. Those sorts of things require a warrant, time, and an official case built against the target.”

As we exited and moved down the hall, Tiara checked her rifle.

“As it stands, this is strictly sanctioned investigative work. I am your escort to make sure you get the information you need… Legally. We will cross that bridge when we get there.”

“What if Holste runs?” Baxter added.

I gave him a smirk.

“Then you get to give chase. Those questions need to be asked so make sure he doesn’t leave the building, or have a chance to call anyone.”

Baxter thought for a bit as we rounded a corner to another hall heading out to the main lobby of the precinct’s Mantle entrance. He shrugged and looked to Tiara, “Is Holste augmented in a way I should be aware of?”

“His augs are there to assist with his focus, and surgeries. You won’t see him jumping out of three-story windows, chasing trains, or throwing dumpsters.”

I gave Baxter a lite backhand to his chest.

“You’ll be fine. Just chase the doctor, get him good and winded, catch him before he exits the building.” I prodded him on the shoulder, “And make sure he doesn’t call anyone. This belt keeps me invisible so to speak. I don’t want his handler knowing I am on my way when we get our info.”

Exiting the precinct was refreshing. Despite having to shield my eyes every time I came up to the mantle for some air, the sunset was amazing. I loved the temperature, and the cool breeze. My mediband showed 18:33 upon exiting the precinct, and it took a solid twenty-four minutes before arriving to the courtyard of Lincoln’s Reach Hospital.

Those were the longest twenty-four minutes I had experienced in a while. Contrary to the security of having Tiara and Baxter with me, I still found myself checking over my shoulder and observing everyone we passed in the streets with suspicion they probably felt was unwarranted.

Typically, an Order operative wielding a weapon is an intimidating thing. Tiara was in her casual attire in what amounts to an undercover uniform. Her badge was not in plain sight for all to see, so far as anyone who was not “in the know” was concerned, we looked like a trio of battle-ready combatants. I still wore my shot-up combat fatigues, Baxter wore his banged-up combat armor, and Tiara looked like a pristine and clean, albeit tired, citizen of the mantle. A citizen carrying a standard Order issued assault rifle.

Like a gentleman, I opened the left door for both Baxter and Tiara to pass through. As we entered, I almost erupted into laughter. There was good reason for the casual observer to either move out of our way or find the nearest escape somewhere else. It only lasted a moment before Tiara flashed her Halo-beacon for all to see.

She spoke loudly, “Everyone stay calm. We are with the Order, and we will be in and out of here momentarily when our task is complete.”

The reactions of the people in the lobby were not the reason I almost laughed out loud. Of all the people to be standing in the lobby; Dr. Holste leaned against the counter toward the back of the lobby by the halls and elevators, with a clipboard, discussing whatever was on the clipboard, with a grey-haired older woman. As Tiara calmed the folks in the lobby, both Baxter and I approached the good doctor. At first, he took notice of Tiara, but it did not take long before he saw me, and that was the funny thing.

As his jaw dropped, so did his clipboard. He was pale, looked like he was staring at a ghost, and I could not help but smile. He knew what he did, there was no mistaking it. I could guarantee that he was not expecting me to return. I wanted him to know I knew what he knew, and without prompting, Baxter’s snarl added to the impact of my silent message.

I shouted pointedly at the doctor, “Holste! We need to talk!”

Confirming that I was in fact real, Holste turned, knocked over a woman and almost fell to the ground himself as he bolted down the leftmost hall. As much as it would have given me pleasure to chase him down, but I was not thrilled to chase him down. I sighed, and diverted my travel path to the nearest site map on the wall near the counter Holste was standing by when we arrived.

I turned Baxter’s leash off and made a two fingered gesture toward the fleeing doctor. Baxter shrugged his shoulders and said, “Got it…” before taking off in a casual jog after him.

I marked a few locations on the touch screen of the site map. The layout moved and shifted revealing a few locations that the west wing would eventually open into, but for the most part it looked like the only place Holste would have been able to run to was a route to the basement level of the facility or loop back around to the lobby. My bet was that Baxter would route him to the basement, where he would loop around to the elevators.

I figured he would probably hope to take the elevator back up and escape either to a different wing of the facility or simply out into the city where he would not necessarily get away from me but manage to alert whoever wanted me dealt with. The site map displayed an ETA at ten minutes to reach the lifts below from the route most likely taken down the wing. Taking a mental note regarding how fast Holste had bolted down the hall, I assumed he would probably be downstairs and to the elevator in a few minutes less if Baxter ran into no issues during his chase.

After checking my mediband to mark the time, I noticed that the rather terrified nurse on the other side of the counter was staring at me, uncertain of what to say or do. I gave her a smile and asked, “Ma’am do you have any headache medicine that you could get me back there?”

She did not reply but continued to give me an uncertain look.

I rolled my eyes and held my mediband up to the reader at her station, “Small dose, just enough to take the edge off. I have a prescription coming my way but have yet to collect it. I will pick it up when I get back.”

She made a subtle motion to back out of her station before I scolded, “Look, you heard the lady! We are with the Order, on business. Just get the medicine. I will pay for it when I get back, and we will be gone before you know it.”

She nodded uneasily and pulled up some information on a view screen in her station.

The lights dimmed and a skull piercing chirp sounded that made my head hurt. Red holographic lines projected onto the floors and walls directing everyone to safe exits throughout the lobby, and panic grew amongst the people sitting and standing around. The safe assumption was that Holste activated the fire alarm system to distract Baxter. I hated the annoying chirp of those alarms on good days, I hated Doctor Holste even more given the circumstances.

“Tiara can you get that?!” I shouted.

She didn’t respond to me specifically. Holding her fingers to her right ear, she shouted a few code numbers as she made her way to a door alongside the nurse’s station. I pointed to the nurse I was talking to and said, “Small dose! I’ll be right back!” before heading off to the lifts across the lobby. The door opened as soon as I made a service request. I entered and spoke my request for basement level one, loud enough to be heard over the chirping.

Lifts typically function off a heat sensor when a fire is present in a building. If the sensors detect heat and damage to a floor, then the lift will not allow you to move to that floor until the sensors read that things are under control. In the case of the lift, I stood in, there was nothing happening, so it lowered me to the basement floor without any issue. My head pounded with each chirp of the alarm as I stepped out of the elevator into the darkened hallway. Several people were making their way to the lifts, a few moving past me to enter. I announced that it was a false alarm and was met with a lot of confusion and banter amongst themselves.

Checking my mediband, I had a few minutes before I should have expected Holste to approach. I followed the route past a few people and rounded a corner down the hall before I found a maintenance closet. The crew must have left the door open at the sound of the fire alarm, so I moved the rotary floor cleaner that was left out of the way.

The chirping fire alarm went silent, and Tiara’s voice could be heard over the announcement system, “Everyone stay calm. Someone illegally tampered with the fire safety system of the facility. Stay where you are, the buildings systems will resume their normal functions momentarily.”

I silently mouthed the words, “thank you” as I took a secure position around the corner of the hall. I pressed myself up so I would be out of sight and kept watch down the hall for what I hoped would be an incoming Doctor Holste. It did not take long at all for Holste to come into view. Baxter had run him pretty well. He already looked winded and barely able to keep his pace. I pulled back and waited for him to approach.

One breath, two breaths, and a third as the doctor’s raspy huffs drew closer and closer.

Baxter chastised him, “I’m not going to let you leave this building Holste!”

Baxter paced him easily, and Holste ran as hard as he could to get away, his breath sounding more and more panicked and forced as he ran. I knew the feeling. His lungs must have hurt by now. He had probably never run that hard. Part of me felt bad for what I was about to do to him, but then I put what he did into perspective, and all my pity and remorse evaporated.

As Holste approached the corner, I lurched around and planted the bend in my arm across his throat. His feet flew forward and up into the air as I slammed him to his back on the ground. He was dazed so completely that he was unable to struggle as I pulled his body by his armpits into the maintenance closet. I threw him up against the wall as Baxter arrived into the doorway.

He looked a little miffed.

“What was that for Don?!”

I arched a thumb to my chest.

“Bad cop.”

“But I thought Tiara said no…” Baxter questioned.

I thrust the leash into his chest.

“Go get Tiara, she is in the Lobby.”

He took his leash.

“Can I at least watch?”

I pointed down the hall toward the lift.

“Tiara! Now!”

He rolled his eyes and made his way to the lift at a brisk pace. I promptly returned my attention to the now terrified, wheezing doctor as he forced himself as far back against the wall as possible. I gave him a menacing glare, and shut the door behind me.

Red Holographic lights dimly illuminated the closet. As I approached, Holste made a pleading gesture with his outreached hand.

“Please! Kenter, I can explain!”

I growled and cracked my knuckles.

“Trust me Doctor. With the day I have had today, you are going to do a lot of explaining.”