CHAPTER 32: Police Meeting
Detective Ronald Baker was walking down the hallway with large steps. “This could very well ruin my career,” he muttered.
“Slow down. You’re walking too fast,” said tech Jordan Lane, panting while trying to keep up as he sped through the station. Det. Baker knew he was rushing, but the people he would be meeting were not going to be happy with the events of the day.
The day had been a nightmare, from start to finish. First the fiasco with arresting Adam in front of practically the whole school, no warning given to the principal. Although the arrest had nothing to do with him personally, someone had to take the blame. Next, he found out almost the entire precinct had been mind controlled. Then the elf attack. Det. Baker had spent the whole day working the cleanup and facilitating getting the civilians to various hospitals in the area. A call from his captain followed and he was told to gather materials for this meeting. Oddly, the high point of the day was watching teen superheroes fighting in front of him, and knowing they actually stopped any deaths from occurring, even as stressful as it had been in at the time. He had even been surprised at how much their abilities had helped with the clean-up, from clearing the road to finding people, to helping get the people to follow the police, that last one thanks to the police equipment they wore.
“Detective, we’re here,” Jordan said. Det. Baker expected this to be the last day as a detective. He was stalling in front of the door. Unfortunately for him Jordan didn’t show hesitancy and opened the door, walking right in. Det. Baker sighed, remembered Adam’s comments, and then walked in.
Upon entering the room, he greeted the men sitting around the large, solid wood table. It was oblong in shape to fit about 18 people. The room had other seats against the walls, with one wall a large white board, and the opposite wall housing multiple video screens that they could control from the table. One video screen was playing Tom’s interview. It had been all over the local news, and he was sure it would soon be on the national news. The other screen had a paused video of him in the interrogation room with Adam.
“Captain Sanchez. Deputy Chief. Chief Orleo,” Det. Baker acknowledged each in turn. They turned from the screens, which immediately paused, and then pointed him to a chair. A chair far from them. He almost gulped.
“Detective,” said Captain Sanchez. “This is quite a mess.”
“Yes, sir,” he agreed with a sigh.
“Can you give us an explanation?” The captain asked with a wooden face.
“Sir, I haven’t had time to put a report together,” Baker started.
“I don’t believe we have time for written reports,” said the deputy chief, looking up from his phone. “You weren’t a part of the arrest, so skip that, but tell us about what happened in the interrogation.”
“Yes, sir. In the start I wanted nothing more than to put Adam Clemens away for life. I hated him, but the more we talked the more I doubted what was in the case file. Several times I even blanked out, unsure of what I was thinking. I even felt like he was somehow protecting me and I wanted to believe he was innocent. Then my head got really painful and it all went away. The only reason I could remember what happened was because I had been talking to him about it just moments before. Even now it feels foggy. No one else I spoke with even remembers the meeting where we planned the arrest.”
“Is that true?” Chief Orleo asked the captain.
The captain coughed. “Yes. I can’t remember it at all. I just remember a beautiful woman, and someone from the mayor saying he needed to be arrested. But I experienced the sharp pain in my head as well. Everyone involved felt it at exactly the same time.”
“How do you explain this?” The deputy asked the detective.
Det. Baker coughed, not wanting to answer. “Well, Mr. Clemens said we were mind controlled,” Det. Baker answered lamely.
“Yes, we watched the video of it. What did you think of it?” asked the chief.
“I think it was pretty lucky that it broke when it did. A lot of people would have died had he not come to Market Street.”
“Was it?” Asked the chief.
“What it what?” Det. Baker was confused.
“Was it lucky?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did it feel lucky to you?”
“Um, no sir. It felt like Adam knew it would happen. He was too confident and while I knew he was angry, he didn’t act on it or direct it at me. It felt intentional. Plus, when I watched the video it looked like he was concentrating on something else at several points during our talks.”
“Was he in on the brain washing?” Continued the deputy.
“I don’t think he was in on what the beautiful woman did to us. But I do think Mr. Clemen did something to me to help break it. He seemed surprised that breaking it for me did so for everyone else too. I also heard him talking to his friends about the invaders trying to remove him from the field by putting him at odds with authority.”
“I think we’re all getting an idea of how dangerous these invaders can be, but do they have that much concern towards just a teenager?” Asked the captain.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Just a teenager?” scoffed Det. Baker. “Yes, sir. I know you saw his fight from the news, but I don’t think you can appreciate how powerful he is. His group was carrying cars and trucks around like they were a two-man lift. As a group they were very coordinated and had an unnatural effectiveness that originated from him. No one made mistakes, and all orders were followed, even if they sounded ridiculous. Also, looking in Mr. Clemen’s eyes when he gives commands is as intense as watching a volcano explode. None of that takes away his fighting prowess or the fact that he had his neck shot through just last night.”
“Wait, what?” The deputy stopped. “What do you mean about his neck?”
What the detective had dreaded to bring up, but knew he would need to, was at hand. He grabbed a keyboard from the table and typed a web address he had been given by their video guy, Ed. Everyone watched in stunned silence as a blue covered Adam tried to kneel before getting tased twice and then having his neck burst from a gunshot.
“H-how is that possible?” The chief shrieked.
“It has to be fake!” Shouted the Captain. “My officers would not do that!”
“Unless they were brain washed,” whispered the deputy.
“Tech, is that video doctored?” Demanded the chief.
Jordan shook his head. “Detective Baker had me check it before we came over. It showed no signs of being altered, as shocking as it looks.”
“How could Mr. Clemens have been fine today after that happening last night?” Asked the captain, still mortified.
“He said magic healing, though I think it was more than that. We did see some amazing healing by his people at the scene of the incident today,” explained Det. Baker.
“Body cam footage to corroborate?” Asked the deputy.
“Completely missing. Neither the server nor the vest backups have anything. It was intentionally deleted,” said the tech.
“Still, to be able to fight like in the news one day after that wound, however he healed. Did he seem to have hard feelings towards us?” Asked the Captain.
“Kind of. He was angry and impatient in the beginning but calmed when he realized we were brain washed. It’s almost surprising that he wanted to help us, like he has a compulsion to fight the aliens,” said Det. Baker. “It also felt weird that knowing brain washing was involved made him forgive us easier.”
“Could he be other than human?” asked the Chief seriously.
“You mean an alien invader himself?” clarified the deputy, looking over at Det. Baker.
“After what I saw today it all seems possible. He has significant differences to the rest of his group, however I doubt they are aliens. Plus, his anger towards the aliens seems hard to fake. I don’t think he realizes how much of it his face shows when he is talking about them. He wants to kill the invaders. There was no mercy in him towards them.
“Also, his background checks out. I had an officer talk to his teacher and a few other students from his class. They confirmed that when everyone got hit with the [System] he changed more than anyone. No guesses how or why, but we did confirm his identity. At least superficially. I don’t think we have enough of an understanding to go beyond that.” The Chief scrunched his face at the Detective’s answer but gave a hard nod to continue.
“Do you know how much he could hurt us with this video?” The deputy brought up.
“I’m sure he knows it, and this Tom Rhodes clearly did too, based on the interview. He was really pushing that we were working together, and looking into him showed that his father is a lawyer,” explained Det. Baker.
“How much could we expect in a lawsuit?” Asked the chief.
“Between a hostile wrongful arrest, with a whole school of witnesses, near fatal GSW when he was following directions, on video, and the number of people he probably saved today, according to those on the scene, it would be a relatively fast hearing in his favor. We would be looking at multiple millions. He could probably go after the mayor’s office as well since the case file lists them as the false information source. At the least it would be a political killer, since he proved himself a hero today,” said the deputy.
The chief turned to Baker and stared him in the eyes. “How do you think this will play out with Mr. Clemens?”
Det. Baker thought for a few moments. “I don’t think his intention is to blackmail us for money. He’s more knowledgeable about the [System] and invaders than us, and Tom’s claim of him being the strongest human on earth probably holds weight from what I saw. If he wanted something material or money it would be hard to stop him. I think he is looking towards something more dangerous, and he wants the authority to act from us. Think about what’ll happen if the invaders cut the different cities off from each other. How much would money matter then?”
The captain gasped. “I don’t think we’ve thought through this invasion enough from a governmental perspective. The economy would immediately cease to exist. Money would be pointless. We’ve been playing catch up on the panic, focusing on keeping control.”
The chief nodded. “I think we need to find out more from Mr. Clemens.”
“What about a potential lawsuit,” asked the deputy while taking notes.
“Obviously we should settle,” said the chief. “But that’s hard to do quickly enough before he could bring charges to us, and that would cripple the police force, with the bad press we’d get.”
“We should pay him,” said Det. Baker. The others turned and stared at him. “Settlement or not we need to get involved with funding him. Not because of the wrongful arrest or lawsuits. Wrap the money in that as an apology, but he needs funding. Hardware store sledgehammers and machetes are not going to be enough. His group needs better equipment. The arrows from level 12s punched holes in our riot shields and police vehicles. What happens if stronger aliens appear?”
“Hmm,” thought the captain. “Mr. Clemens is still a teenager. Do you think getting a windfall will allow him to stay motivated? Most adults would step away from danger if they could afford to.”
“I think nothing short of his death will stop him,” responded Det Baker. “He knocked out a wall from a building with one swing of a cheap sledgehammer. He charged into a building with three hostiles that had pinned the entire street down. My god, he would take those poisonous arrows like mosquito bites and then cut them out himself, ignoring the poison. He never even asked for a heal, though his group was always there for him. We need to see how far that can take him.”
“Suicidal?” Asked the deputy.
“Definitely not. Supremely confident. He cares too much for what is happening and everyone else. Enough to include them all when he probably doesn’t need to. You didn’t see him force his sister to stab that elf. It was horrifying of him to do but also pained him. He was trying to prepare her for the future. I regret not taking his offer and getting to level 4 myself, though I knew my position enough not to.”
“Doesn’t he seem a little too willing to kill, especially for a typical teen?” Brought up the captain.
Det. Baker didn’t answer with words. Instead, he pulled up the website and played some of the videos of Adam or his group fighting goblins. The brutality of it shocked them all, both the goblins and Adam’s. They saw the progression of the other kids as they were inept and scared at the beginning but quickly improved and adapted. More so than people should. Clearly Adam’s presence held more to it.
The chief made a decision. “Captain, order us some food, and Deputy, get Manchello from legal and Rodgers from financing here immediately. This is going to be a long night.”