Ragdoll froze. He was considering his options. He moved forward again as if he was in a trance. I could see what was about to happen and there would be blood everywhere. His life was over anyway, why wouldn't he want to go out in a blaze of glory? Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Sparky standing in the doorway to the bedroom with his carbine ready to fire.

"Wait!" I called out, finally breaking the silence. "That couch is a Genevieve Geneva hand made custom creation! Don't ruin it!"

"You're worried about your couch?" Ragdoll asked, looking at me like I was some strange alien creature he had just noticed. But he had stopped reaching for the weapon. "All this is happening and you're worried about your fucking couch?"

"My aunt made it for me." I replied, leaning into the feeling. This was what I needed to do if I wanted to stop what was coming. "It has rabbits on it."

"Oh…" Ragdoll said, sitting back. He looked over at Marmalade. "It has rabbits on it. Did you know it had rabbits on it?"

"Is that what they are?" Marmalade asked, picking up a cushion and inspecting it. "Would you look at that?"

The detective walked over. He stood in front of the coffee table, getting between the officers and their weapons. "Get the fuck out of here." He said.

"We can tell when we're not wanted." Ragdoll said, standing up and moving towards the elevator. Marmalade followed behind him, not saying anything.

"Hey Ragdoll." I called out. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

He stopped and looked back. "What the fuck do you want now, human?"

"I want my fucking pen back." I said, holding out my hand.

Ragdoll pulled the pen out and inspected it. "That is a nice pen." He admitted before tossing it over to me.

It was a poor throw but I still caught it. I handed it over to Sapphire for evidence.

"And the diamond necklace." Sapphire said.

"Yeah, sure." Ragdoll reached into his front shirt pocket and looked at the necklace he had pilfered. "It's not like it matters anyway." He said as he tossed it onto the floor. "Now if you are done I'm going to crawl into a bottle for the night and I'm pretty sure Marmalade is coming with me."

We watched them get in the elevator and leave. Detective Inspector Chowder gave me a look like he was reconsidering his original impression based on this new data. "You're that human who wants to be a cop, aren't you?" He asked.

I nodded. This was something he would be able to find out easily enough.

"Don't." He said. "It's a fucking terrible job filled with shitty people and when everything comes together and you catch a bad guy despite of all the shit holding you back, someone like her comes along and sets them free."

"Then quit." I said, realizing we were so far off the beaten path that even Sapphire didn't know what to say or do. "Retire or go find another job if it's so terrible."

He seemed to consider this. "I would, but there's no job like it." He looked around the apartment that had seen so much violence in one night and almost been the center of a blue on blue gunfight.

"I'm going to make a call to the chief, get this squared away. It's obvious you folks were attacked and acted in self defense. If you were bloodthirsty those two idiots would have gotten their heads blown off. Either way, you have enough dirt on the department to never see the inside of a jail cell."

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He looked at the burned corpse of the katzen intruder. "I'm going to have EOD and forensics go over everything then take the bodies away. As long as I don't find out that you straight up murdered someone my recommendation will be that this was a good shoot."

"So, are we free to go?" Sapphire asked.

"Yeah, just have her leave those bloody clothes behind and have the guards leave their boots. If I think I need their weapons I'll get a court order and come get them." Detective Chowder held out his hand. "And I'll take that thumb drive with the statement. I will need another statement about what you saw here but that can wait until tomorrow."

***

I went back to my bedroom and took off my blood stained pajamas then pulled on some black reinforced jeans and my police boots. For a top I chose my moisture wicking black base layer, the stab vest, and a black t-shirt with a picture of the Mona Lisa wearing a mohawk. Over that went a leather jacket with carefully hidden ballistic inserts sewn into the lining.

The rest of the cops had arrived by now and the apartment was starting to fill up with hund and katzen in blue police uniforms. Rook and Sparky were standing guard outside my bedroom with their carbines slung across their chests and their shoes off. Sapphire was watching everything intently as she waited.

A black helicopter with the King Aerospace logo landed on the helipad. When we got in I started to speak, but Sapphire stopped me.

Ten minutes later we were back at father's factory. A team of hunds with very expensive looking equipment in silver cases were waiting for us on the tarmac. They scanned us as we exited the chopper. When they got to me one of the techs frowned and silently gestured for me to remove my jacket.

He reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a small black device about the size and shape of a cigarette. He tossed it over to one of the security guards who slotted the device into his tablet.

The tech handed me back my jacket and Rook waved for me to keep going. I realized we were headed for the boneyard. Once we were safely Inside Rook let out a breath and rubbed his face with his hands.

"It feels good to be back at home base." He placed his weapons on the rack and hung up his plate carrier. "I could use a shower and about six days worth of sleep."

"You and me both." Sparky agreed as he did the same. "I only gave a liter and I'm fucking exhausted. You're two liters low. You must be half dead."

"At least half." Rook agreed. "I'm going to get some food and find a place to crash out. Those two cops were out of control, I thought for a second that we were going to have another firefight on our hands."

"I swear the police department in Porto gets worse every year." Sapphire opened up her briefcase and handed back our stuff.

"Are the police the ones who put that bug in my pocket?" I asked as I reclaimed my keys and the scarab.

"Probably." Sapphire replied. "Either way your security is going to try and back trace the bug. If they can't do that they'll take it to someplace else and see who shows up." She took a deep breath. "I can't believe what almost happened tonight. Those cops were about to kill each other."

"Marmalade and Ragdoll have always been trouble but the department keeps giving them second chances." I said, slapping the scarab onto the back of my neck and feeling it sync with my wetware. "One of the cadets at the academy told me Marmalade is almost blind but refuses to wear his glasses or get eye surgery and that's why he shot up that taco truck."

"They shot up a taco truck?" Sapphire asked.

"Yep, about three months ago." I followed Rook and Sparky into the break room. Rook had gotten some beef burritos from the freezer and was microwaving them. I watched as he put them onto a plate, waited for him to sit down, then pulled the plate over to me, out of his reach.

"So, you two want to tell me what is actually going on and why I can't contact Simon?" I asked, holding the burritos hostage until I got my answers. I knew that hunds were food oriented and Rook had to be starving after losing that much blood.

"He's fine." Rook reached for the plate.

I moved it just out of reach. "No. That's not good enough. Where is he and what is he doing?"

Rook looked at his dinner and how precariously close to the edge of the table it was. "He's here at the factory working on a very important business deal."

I slid the plate back over to him. "Would that deal be important enough for someone to try and kidnap me?"

"Yes." Rook said before he tore into his dinner.