Jessica sighed as she washed her hands. It had been a rough few days. Starting her second week of more ten hour shifts, Jessica felt exhausted. It wasn’t the patrol, or the petty crimes, or even the constant feeling that the other shoe would drop in anticipation of the Director’s next scheme. No, it was something much more uncomfortable. The bathroom door opened, and a male agent walked in. Jessica was in the female restroom, but this was one of the few private places in the building. The agent, she noticed, was Bound.
To his credit, the man looked equally uncomfortable. He gave a half bow, and mumbled “My deepest regards to the Great Unifier.”
Jessica sighed once more as the Agent nearly ran from the bathroom. Splashing her face she glares at her reflection, trying to imagine King across the sinks from her. King was, of course, the “Great Unifier”. Uniting the Dusk from the splintered kingdoms into one kingdom under King and his rule. Apparently he was popular enough that even Bound who barely surfaced between humans knew who he was and begged, as one Agent described it, that their Bound human give her their deepest regards. It had been so fucking awkward and now almost every Bound has either privately or publicly given their regards, half of them bowing.
Thomas wouldn’t shut up about it. He found senior agents bowing to a trainee fucking hilarious. He even mockingly did the same. Asshole. A funny asshole though. If not for the laughs Jessica might have quit due to how uncomfortable it all was. King, not realizing she would have such a negative reaction to her superiors bowing to her, apologized pretty much immediately. On the other hand, now everyone was giving me looks at all times… not that that’s a good thing, but it is a thing. Either Bound that have become very uncomfortable with her presence or their partners who were confused but were clearly upset with the bizarre incidents.
She even had to have a second meeting with IA about the whole thing. Jessica had just claimed ignorance, and Mr. Trevino let that be the official story. It was all written off as a quality of her Entity, which it was. Jessica heard that the Director tried to use this, but it was shut down before the ripples even reached Jessica so nothing came from it.
She splashed her face with water and dried up. She readjusted her uniform and left the woman’s bathroom. Thomas was on the computer filing some more of the endless amount of paperwork required of him as a TA. Jessica took a moment to plug in and download the BOLO list for the day. She slowly went down the familiar list of names, noting the new entries. Thomas looked up and unplugged the glasses. Jessica did the same.
“Alright, let’s head out.” He said, standing. Jessica followed him past the desks and to the car.
“Ready for patrol?” He asked as he climbed in, Jessica scoffed, “So ready,”
“Well too bad, we don’t have patrol duty.” Thomas said with his signature grin.
Jessica raised an eyebrow, “Ok, so what’s up?”
Thomas smiled, “We’ve got a case.”
Jessica blinked, a case? What case? “What does that even mean?”
Thomas chuckled, “Sorry, I mean that we've been assigned an investigation. Seems there was an incident at a middle school. Some kid was arrested for bringing a dart gun to school and shot a teacher. We’re being passed the case from the enforcers, we got a file which I downloaded, and a list to get through.”
Jessica opened the file. She was slightly surprised she didn’t hear about the incident, then realized why. It happened in Crest Middle School, one of the schools within the City Center. The crime rate was generally higher there and Jessica frowned deeply.
“Why are we investigating this? It looks like a kid grabbed their parent’s gun and shot a teacher. The teacher was knocked out but will recover.” Jessica pointed out. It was a big deal, sure, but no one died. Seemed like pulling agents for this was excessive.
Thomas just smiled, “Read the file.”
Jessica sighed and started from the top.
Sunday 17/04
911 Dispatcher Felipa Costado answered a call from the phone of a female student. The student reported that her teacher had been shot.
Several more 911 calls from various students of Crest Middle School Class 5C confirmed this initial report
Enforcers were dispatched to the scene and immediately identified the weapon, securing an arrest and escorted paramedics to the teacher.
The teacher had been hit with a tranquilizer dart.
Student Miguel Pico, 13, reportedly found the gun behind the school and wanted to teach his teacher a lesson.
Several students gave testimony that the teacher, Maria Paralez, was targeting Miguel.
Teacher Abuse Incident form TAI3 is attached with details.
Miguel Pico was interrogated and the weapon sent to evidence for further examination.
Council Ballistics Expert Roberto Lima assigned for examination.
Miguel Pico brought to temporary detention center Delta
CBE Roberto Lima began examination at 3:34pm 17/04.
Immediate security alert sent as Dart Gun was found to be a decommissioned Agent Standard Dart Gun.
Jessica frowned deeply. “Ah, I see.”
Thomas chuckled, “Yup, the rest of the report is more or less irrelevant. Miguel denied purchasing the weapon, and his glasses location data doesn’t show him leaving school grounds, but it did show that he went around the school in a circle about when he said he found the gun so he’s possibly telling the truth.”
Jessica smiled, “So it’s a mystery then, where the hell did the gun come from.”
“More importantly,” Thomas corrected, “Where is the leak of weapons, and how many are missing.”
Jessica just let that sink in. If a standard issue dart gun had found it’s way into a child’s hands, how many weapons… even hard projectile weapons, had made it into the hands of the city’s gangs. “Shit… this isn’t going to be fun is it.”
“Oh it’s going to be fun as fuck, but we need to keep our glee to ourselves because if a shipment of decommissioned weapons are missing we could be looking at a possible gang war.”
Thomas explained with a laugh, “Something to spice the week up, right?”
Jessica just stared blankly at him until he finally stopped smiling, “It’s basically twice the paperwork with the chance of a shootout while we investigate, maybe a raid if we find the weapons.”
Jessica nodded slowly, then smiled, “Cool, Where to first?”
Thomas sent her an address, “Where decommissioned weapons are held before being shipped to be destroyed. I have agents searching for any discrepancies in the paperwork but I think we’ll have more luck at the disassembly center at the Permanent Detention Center in South End. The prisoners there log and disassemble the weapons to reclaim the materials. If there’s missing guns, that's my first guess.”
Jessica nodded but said, “We should still cover our bases.”
“Same,” Thomas agreed, “So get ready to tour our decommission process.”
Jessica leaned against the door frame as Thomas met with Enforcer IA. The man was wearing a red enforcer uniform, with a black patch on his shoulder signifying his department. He insisted we call him Ted, short for Theodore, which he says he hates being called. Alright, he began talking about the decommission process for damaged or old enforcers and department issued weapons.
“After the weapons are logged by their assigned Agent, they are dropped off here. The agent’s visit is logged, the weapon is tagged and the serial number is put on the decommission list.” Ted explained, “The head of this process is Captain Marcos Sanchos. He handles the logistic paperwork for transporting the decommissioned weapons. The weapons are packed onto crates, and when the crates are filled they are set aside for transport. Two transports a month, armored and escorted south to the disassembly station.”
Jessica nodded along as Thomas asked a few clarifying questions, but generally any discrepancies that could be found here would be in the paperwork. She had to agree with Thomas that it would be too easy finding a leak here, and life isn’t that kind.
Meeting with Captain Sanchos was uneventful, we did a quick skim of the documentation, toured the process directly, and left. Ted walked out with us. Meeting with the desk agent on duty that receives the guns, the armored room where the guns are racked and the racks are put into 3ftx3ft plasteel crates, then the loading docks which are locked and guarded at all times. The entire tour had taken several hours, and they needed to head back to the station and see the results of the investigation by Thomas’s guys.
“What happens if there isn’t a discrepancy anywhere?” Jessica asked.
Thomas shrugged, “That limits the options of where the weapons could come from. Either the weapon was registered, went through the system, and was labeled destroyed without ever physically going through the process.”
“Which would mean a massive amount of both incompetence and corruption, which is unlikely,” Jessica summize.
“Yup, or someone at disassembly is reassembling weapons after being logged and selling them, possibly more than one.”
“Which is far more likely, and will take a lot of time to verify.” Jessica continued, She looked up the population of the detention center in question and sighed deeply, “457 convicted citizens, and 100 detention employees.”
“Which all need to be interviewed, cells and workspaces need to be searched, and until then an order has been sent to cease disassembly work and a lockdown has been enacted, so all the prisoners are gonna be pissed off.” Thomas finished, “I suggest you cancel your weekend, and file an overtime request.”
Jessica sighed, then thought of something, “At least the interviews will be easy.”
Thomas raised an eyebrow, “Yeah? How you figure? Thats over 500 people, most of whom will not be feeling cooperative. We’re looking at two week’s work minimum if we’re unlucky.”
Jessica shrugged, finding the correct forms in her memory and began filling out a draft on a blank note, “What are the chances that a potential leak of nigh untraceable weapons is sufficient circumstance for coercive interrogation methods without injury?”
Thomas gave her a brief side eye, then smiled, “Pretty good, IA updated your forms I assume?”
Jessica smiled, “I’ll be sending a request for the proper forms as soon as we get to the station.”
Jessica smiled as her glasses pinged, “And that’s the sign off.”
Standing and stretching she looked over at Thomas, who had been reviewing the results of the paperwork search thus far. “Any luck on your end?”
Shaking his head he leaned back in his chair, “Nope, looks like the next week or so is gonna be interviewing people.”
Jessica nodded, “I want to start with the staff, if they figure out I’m forcing people to tell the truth the guilty party may try and bolt. Easier for an employee to do so than a prisoner.”
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Agreed, I’ll be sending the request to PDC South, all employees are to be brought in, paid for the day or days the interviews are being held, and no one leaves until we talk to everyone. Someone doesn’t show up, we send out a BOLO for them.” Thomas laid out, then got up himself, “Till then, get some sleep, we get there at 7 am tomorrow.”
“Got it, night!” Jessica waved as she walked out to the bus stop.
Arriving at PDC South at 7am, Jessica had made a quick stop at the station to download the list of approved questions for interrogation. She met with Thomas and together they entered the detention center. Warden Grover was in charge of the center, so we did a quick 10 minute interview with him. He didn’t seem to like the agents much after that.
“Now that this circus is underway,” Warden Grover grumbled in his office, “I have all the prisoners in their cells, full lockdown, not that they like it much. You realize the headache this is causing us right?”
Thomas nodded, “I’m sure it’s no more inconvenient than the unknown number of weapons on the streets of the Grand City,”
The warden narrowed his eyes, “I assure you, it’s not possible for the prisoners to steal weapon parts. I run a tight ship. No leaks. I trust my staff with my life. No leaks. You are wasting your time, and mine.” His gravelly voice spoke to cigarette abuse, and a bad temper.
“We’ll see,” Thomas shrugged, his easygoing tone seemingly annoying Warden Grover to no end.
He shooed them away and a guard led the duo down reinforced cement walls, which was a bit fascinating to Jessica. It made sense once she looked into it last night, reinforced cement was effectively a metal cage surrounded by lime and stones, blocking electronic communication where other replicated materials would allow such signals to pass through easily. The PDC West she was isolated in had the same structure, hence why her glasses had no way to connect to the wider city.
Entering what appeared to be the visitor room, with metal tables and chairs that were bolted to the ground. Gray featureless walls, with only 3 windows in the ceiling giving off some natural light along with the electric lights recessed into the ceiling. The only other piece in the room besides that was a small water dispenser in the corner. It would do.
“Alright,” Jessica said, turning to the guards that led them here, “Want to get this over with?”
They all sat around one of the circular tables, and they began. Thomas set up the camera, while Jessica began recording. As she would need to be asking questions for her ability to take effect, she was taking point in the interrogations under her TA’s supervision. She pulled out the paper warrant allowing for C.I.M.W.I. and the Guard stated clearly that he understood.
“This is Agent Jessica Adams, Bound Department. This interrogation is regarding the potential decommissioned weapons leak. Case # 170344-WL. C.I.M.W.I. has been authorized.” This was how every interview had to start for the recordings to be admissible, and Jessica was not looking forward to saying it every few minutes for a week straight. The interrogation began.
JA: Please state your name and today’s date.
MC: Michele Corino, 19th of April. 2204
JA: Thank you. I will now be using my ability in accordance with C.I.M.W.I.
JA: Michele Corino, Until I inform you explicitly that this interrogation is over, you will answer every question I ask you with the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you understand?”
MC: Yes… Holy shit that’s weird.
JA: Yup, Let’s get into this. What is your name?
MC: Michele Cordino, but I changed it after leaving home for personal reasons regarding my family. Fuck.
JA: Thank you. Noting for the record that the details of the name change are irrelevant.
MC: Can we stop? I don’t like this.
JA: No we cannot. Please don’t try to leave as I am authorized to use my ability to restrain you.
JA: Are you in any way shape or form stealing decommissioned weapons either whole or partial after they have been registered as disassembled?
MC: No.
JA: Are you assisting anyone in the aforementioned crime?
MC: No.
JA: Have you noticed any suspicious behavior, or seen anyone commit such a crime?
MC: I don’t know, sometimes the prisoners get real happy about their work. Nothing explicitly criminal. The prisoners are closely watched.
JA: Do you suspect anyone as potentially commiting the aforementioned crime?
MC: No, my colleagues are good guys, they wouldn’t do something like that.
JA: Ok, Let me see here. Uh…
TE: You’re doing fine
JA: Ok. Have you ever taken a bribe from a citizen either a detainee or a civilian or a coworker?
MC: No.
JA: Is there anything else you wish to inform me of to assist with this investigation?
MC: No, can I leave?
JA: The interrogation is over. You may leave, please send in Jamie Rocco
Thomas turned the camera off and Miss Corino left quickly. Jessica took a deep breath, the sudden nerves that had sucker punched her as she spoke was insane. Thomas passed a little plastic cup of water to her. She drank it as the door opened again and another guard walked in.
Thomas patted her shoulder, “You’re doing great. Just remember this is the easy part.”
Jessica laughed a bit, shrugging off the hand. “Asshole,”
Motioning the guard to sit, the next interview began. It went exactly the same, a few words were changed but the sentiment was the same. Nothing criminal or suspicious. That was fine. Jessica hadn’t expected any of the guards to notice anything. If they had it would have been reported. Even so they needed to get through the list.
“Thank you Mr. Rocco, this interrogation is over. You may leave, please send in Marco Ruben.”
Jessica sighed. Those interviews lasted about 7 minutes, so they should be done by 8pm. At least, done with the guards. If they kept up this pace they could finish the interviews by Sunday. Jessica prayed that they would find the guy responsible before then. She liked her weekends. Mr. Ruben opened the door and Jessica straightened up. The next interview began.
About four hours in, Thomas called a break. Lunch was delivered and Jessica ate her salad quietly. Despite that she wasn’t expecting results with the guards the lack of progress was still very disheartening.
“Don’t look so glum. Do you have any idea how great you’re doing?” Thomas' encouragement was going a long way to get her through this slog.
“I know,” Jessica said without conviction.
“You sure? Because you are two weeks into the job and have been doing interrogations for half a day.” Well… when he puts it that way it is kind of impressive.
“I read from a script, call centers do the same thing.” Jessica countered.
“Not while using an ability. I know that’s not easy.” Thomas argued back. Jessica just sighed. She had stopped correcting people sometime last Thursday. That being said, flexing her authority didn’t really affect her much. She didn’t get a headache at least. Instead of trying to explain that she just took the compliment.
“Thanks, it means a lot. I guess I just feel like we’re treading water.” Jessica admitted.
“Welcome to every investigation ever. The best way I’ve found to solve these sorts of mysteries is just grinding away at it little by little. It isn’t fun but it works more often than not.”
Jessica sighed, stuffing more lemony leaves into her mouth, enjoying the smooth avocado, which had very little difference to its replicated counterpart if she’s being honest. They quickly finished their meals and a guard they had already interrogated took the dishes away. The next few hours were spent finishing up the staff interviews. Jessica’s voice was starting to hurt by the last 10 or so people. It was closer to 9 than Jessica had anticipated, and the dark sky visible through the skylights made the visitor room look a bit unsettling.
“Thank you Dr. Fantina. The interrogation is over. Please send in… no one. Thank God. Please have a good night. You may leave.” Jessica’s relieved tone almost made the head doctor of the center smile, but the feeling of being forced to speak for the last 10ish minutes led her quickly from Jessica’s presence. Fair enough.
Thomas packed up the camera, smiling. “Well done Agent. Want me to drive you home?”
Jessica sighed, a direct ride to her apartment sounded heavenly. She slowly stood and stretched her back. “You’d do that? I can ride the bus from HQ.” She offered.
Thomas laughed, “As if, you look exhausted. I’ll take the bus, you get some sleep. We get to do this all over again tomorrow so you better go straight to bed.”
Jessica joined him in laughing, she was tired, more so than she had been since… ever actually. Who knew sitting in a room asking questions would be so draining. She gladly accepted the offer, and nearly fell asleep on the ride to her apartment. Thomas shook her awake, so not as nearly as she thought. She got out, still in uniform. Shit. She took off the dart gun and body cam. Thomas chuckled and took them. “Good Job today, go get some sleep.”
Jessica dragged herself up to bed. Falling onto the soft mattress fully dressed she just sighed as the day slowly pushed down on her until the world faded away into the warm embrace of sleep.
Jessica yawned, a cup of cheap coffee in her hands as she walked up the HQ stairs at 6am. King had a few pointers, and some requests. She quickly plugged into Thomas’ computer and spent 20 minutes letting records and paperwork flash by. She set them to flash for 3 seconds apiece then move on to the next one. King wanted to help, feeling a bit useless. So Jessica figured him reviewing paperwork for discrepancies on his time was a good way to keep him busy while she interrogated prisoners.
She grabbed her weapon and bodycam and took a bus to the PDC where Thomas was waiting for her once again. They spoke to the warden, who was far more pleasant after having cleared his staff. He sent Jessica the list of prisoners to interview today, it was a good chunk. We had from 7am-7pm to interview as lights out was 9pm and if the detainees were denied their nightly personal time it might start a riot. Jessica wasn’t sure how accurate that was, but she decided the warden knew better than she did and just went with it. Looking at the names and doing a bit of quick math, they should be able to just make it if things went quickly.
Moving to the visitor room once more, they set up and the first prisoner was sent in. The plan was to start with the citizens with a direct hand in disassembly, which was a bit over half of them, then move on to the rest if nothing came up. A large man, well-muscled, wearing the orange jumpsuit of the Detention center was walked in. He was in handcuffs and was escorted by two guards.
“Mr Rocco, Mr Ginos.” Thomas acknowledged the guards.
The handcuffs were briefly undone and secured to the table. Leaving one hand free. Sure, ok. Jessica sighed and began. “Good morning. Please state your name for the record.”
The man narrowed his eyes, “I hear the guards don’t like you,”
Jessica frowned, “I will answer that if you first provide your name.”
“Antonio Rodriguez.”
Jessica nodded, and pulled out the C.I.M.W.I. order. “Do you know what this is?”
Antonio took the paper and read it. Frowning, he handed it back. “Sounds like I’m in for a bit of pain. You do know torture is pretty ineffective.”
Thomas chuckled. Jessica frowned, “You are correct, so we won’t be torturing you. I will be using my ability to coerce you into providing the truth.”
Antonio laughed, “Sounds like torture to me, alright do your worst.”
Jessica almost snapped at the asshole. He was serving those sentences for a damn good reason. Instead she just performed the interrogation, same as all the others. She did take great satisfaction at the suddenly terrified expression as he repeated his name. That satisfaction disappeared as Antonio stood screaming.
“Fuck no. Absolutely not. I refuse. Fuck this!” He began to pull at the handcuffs, when that didn’t work he began to pry at them to open. Jessica had stood and taken several steps back. She looked at Thomas who had also evacuated his chair. The two guards moved forward to subdue Antonio but Thomas raised a hand to stop them.
He simply looked at Jessica and nodded. She took a shuddering breath, and ordered, “Sit down in your chair.”
Antonio sat, and tried to stand immediately. “Stay in your chair until this interrogation is over. You will be cooperative until the interrogation is over.”
Antonio stopped moving, his breathing rapid as he began to panic. “You can’t do this to me! I have rights! None of this is admissible. You can’t do this to me!”
Jessica rubbed her forehead, “Shut up until I ask you a question.”
She walked over and sat down once again. The scared look in Antonio’s eyes was no longer satisfying. She hadn’t seen such a violent reaction to her ability yet, but she should have expected it. She was suddenly hit with the massive amount of guilt for her temper tantrum at the school. How terrifying it must have been to be forced to silently bow at what was, for all intents and purposes, a power hungry Bound.
“The use of my ability is heavily restricted. The order is temporary and I have a list of questions that I am forced to follow. If I ask a question of you outside of the list then you would be correct. The interrogation would be inadmissible. The full list of questions are on the back of the order. Please calm down.”
Antonio just stared at Jessica for a full minute, before he once again grabbed the order and flipped it. He read the list and slowly calmed down. He slid the order back to Jessica and gave a slow nod, now that whatever secrets he was carrying would remain safe. Jessica was half tempted to ask what he was so afraid of but restrained her curiosity. She simply continued with the interview exactly like the ones before. Antonio answered quickly and once he was finished he was allowed to get up and leave, before Jessica thought of something.
“Antonio, you are forbidden from revealing the details of my ability to anyone for any reason.” The order elicited a raised eyebrow from Thomas.
Antonio simply froze, feeling out the limits of the order placed upon him. Without saying anything he left. The entire debacle had taken 15 minutes. That was unacceptable. “Fuck me,” Jessica muttered.
Thomas sighed deeply, “That could have gone better. Good thinking though. If it had gotten out among the detainees about your power that really would have caused a riot.”
Jessica rolled her shoulders, the guards had been under strict orders to say nothing about it to the prisoners, but the prisoners themselves couldn’t be trusted. Which would naturally be more paperwork. Thankfully Thomas was way ahead of her.
“I had a feeling there would be an incident report. I can just copy and paste the same report information on my glasses with the different names. I’ll need a signature to copy and a sign-off from IA but it should be fine.” Thomas reassured her. Thank God for her TA.
The next prisoner was walked in, looking very uncomfortable. “The fuck you do to Antonio. He’s shut up like a fucking clam.” Jessica sighed, preparing for a very long day.