Daniel entered the local branch of his bank, feeling nervous. There was nothing wrong with how he’d gained his money and he wasn’t cheating on his taxes, so there shouldn’t have been an issue with the account. He hoped it was just a mistaken red flag over so much money being deposited so quickly. It would be an easy issue to resolve if that was the case. Still, he’d come as soon as he’d heard there was a problem because it was a lot of money.
Even on a weekday during work hours, the bank was busy. Daniel had to wait in line until it was his turn and then explain his situation to a bored male employee behind the counter. They stared at their computer and tapped a few keys before nodding and pointing out where the bank manager’s office was.
Daniel knocked on the door and went inside to find a blonde, middle-aged woman in a business suit. As soon as she greeted him, Daniel identified her voice as the one he’d spoken to earlier on the phone. There was a slight tremor in her hand as she held it out and asked to see some form of ID. Daniel handed it to her and she stared at the card for longer than was necessary before handing it back and telling him to take a seat. Her last words were that she’d be back in a minute. A minute became ten, and then twenty. At that point, Daniel was ready to walk out when the office door opened. It wasn’t the manager, but a group of men in suits. Four of them, to be exact, and none of them looked like they worked for the bank.
“I think you should sit back down,” said the first man through the door. He was tall, blonde and broad-shouldered, though the suit he wore looked a little old. His demeanor and seniority marked him out as the leader. The way he took charge and made a request sound like an order made Daniel suspect that he was law enforcement. The other three men spread out behind him. All in their late twenties to early thirties. Too young to be homicide detectives but fit enough to chase down suspects or coerce a confession through force. Daniel noted that there was a tension in their bodies that suggested they anticipated violence. Perhaps they were even hoping for it.
Daniel had enough problems to deal with and it took all the energy he could muster to not outwardly sigh at this aggressive display. Forcing someone at the bank to call him down here on false pretenses and then ambush him with questions. It was a massive waste of everyone’s time. They wouldn’t believe the truth and any plausible lie Daniel tried to fabricate would be impossible to verify. But what was most tiring was the standard cop posturing they all seemed to exhibit. They expected everyone they encountered to obey their commands without question or delay, no matter how absurd the context was. And the context was just that. Regardless of their tone, Daniel knew that what they’d gotten the bank manager to do was far from legal.
“Nope. I’m leaving,” said Daniel as he stood up. “And I’ll be reporting the manager to the bank’s head office on my way out about this meeting.”
The leader’s eyes narrowed a fraction.
Referencing the bank manager seemed to upset him, though he tried to hide it. Maybe there was a deeper connection there that could be exploited.
“You want to try getting past all four of us?” one of them asked, sounding pleased at the idea.
Daniel seriously considered it. He had a full core and wouldn’t even need Army of One to pull it off. But they might have useful information, so he would hold off on playing that card for now. The first priority was finding out if they were here on official business or not.
“I notice you haven’t identified yourselves,” Daniel said.
“That’s right, and it’s going to stay that way. You’re in a lot of trouble, son,” the leader said, affecting a look of concern. “You’re a person of interest at two different murder scenes and the attempted killing of police officers.”
Daniel grinned. “Oh, is that all?”
Cops hate backtalk or any perceived slight to their authority. Disrespecting them might make them angry enough to make a mistake and let something slip.
“Fuck it, let’s just take him now, Tom!” barked one of the others.
The leader, Tom, shot him a dark look that told him to shut up. As he turned back to Daniel, his sympathetic mask slipped back on. “You don’t seem particularly concerned. An innocent person would be more scared.”
This isn’t my first ambush, Daniel thought. Instead, he said, “actually, I think a guilty person would be more scared of getting caught. An innocent one would be angry about some incompetent plod failing at their job.”
“You motherfucker!” said one of the other men.
So you’re not government agents. Thanks for confirming. These must be the cops who were surveilling Detective Burrows. The ill-fitting suits mean this isn’t official business. I wonder if one of them was there the night John Smith was hurling fireballs out of the back of a speeding ambulance?
“Doing a little after-hours vigilante work, are we?” Daniel asked.
Tom’s jaw tightened. “We work for the city and protect its people from criminals like yourself.”
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Daniel felt like he was getting somewhere by emotionally destabilizing them, but if it came to violence, it would be their word against his. Even with the suspicious way he’d been called here, the police always protect their own. He needed to get out of this room without hurting them.
“Did you come here just to threaten me?” asked Daniel. “Because after I’m done getting that bank manager fired, the police station will be my next stop.”
The one who’d sworn earlier clenched his fists and stepped forward. “You think anyone will trust your word over ours?” he snarled.
Daniel decided it was time to remind them of how they were endangering their careers right now.
“I think you’re either stupid or desperate to pull this stunt,” Daniel said. “You have no evidence and no leads. So you come here hoping to bully something useful out of me? I also think it won’t take me more than twenty minutes to find out the connection between the bank manager and one of you. I mean, the call she placed with me came from the bank’s landline so it would have been recorded. And then there are the security cameras clocking all of you coming in here. How did you think this was going to go?”
Tom put a calming hand on his angry associate’s shoulder and tried to retake control of the conversation. “We’ll be asking the questions here.”
Daniel chuckled. “Right, because you’re the police and you’re here on official business. I noticed that you haven’t asked a question relating to any kind of case.”
“Okay, where were you on the night of the car chase on the field outside of town?”
“There’s a record of my statement down at the station that answers those questions.”
This isn’t getting either of us anywhere. I don’t think they actually know anything, which is why they’re here fishing. But why suspect me or Burrows in the first place? If one of them recognized me from the night of the ambulance chase, they would have come forward and publicly said as much.
“This is a waste of time,” declared Daniel. “I’m leaving. Anyone who tries to stop me is going to regret it.”
All four of them were offended by his threat. Once again, forgetting that they weren’t officially police officers at this moment in time.
“Who the hell are you?” asked one of them.
“Someone who is tired of being harassed,” said Daniel. “But I’m feeling generous. Why don’t we chalk this up to a misunderstanding and go our separate ways? That way, you’ll still have jobs at the end of the day. What do you say?”
One of the men pulled out a set of handcuffs. “I say we arrest him right now and take him somewhere quiet to talk.”
Daniel kept his eyes on Tom. The others were just dumb muscle who would follow orders. He was the one who would decide what happened next. Daniel could see the gears turning in Tom’s head as he calculated whether to take him in right now or let him go and see where following Daniel leads.
“He can leave,” said Tom.
“But sir…”
“He’s right,” said Tom. “We don’t have anything to arrest him with. We could make something up, but do you really want Beth to get in trouble here and risk losing her job?”
The men grimaced at the thought and then parted out of the way. Daniel said nothing as he left the bank. He needed to contact Burrows immediately. Those guys weren’t going to give up, and he had to be warned. Daniel would also have to come up with a new plan because he knew that the next time they met, he wouldn’t be talking his way out of it.
Back in the bank manager’s office, one of the men asked Tom, “do you think that was wise?”
Tom nodded. “We don’t have enough yet to hold him and there still might be other pieces of the device out there that need to be located. Perhaps he and Burrows are working together? Before, I would have assumed he was working for Burrows, but after what we just saw, I’m doubtful.”
“We’ve got Murray tracking his phone and following him,” said one of the others. “If they notice anything, we’ll know.”
“I’ll have to go into the office soon and give an update. Pay close attention to Daniel Porter. He’s already evaded a police security team before and seems to have a habit of disappearing for stretches of time. As long as we stay close, we’ll witness him make a mistake, eventually.”
“I still think we should have taken him here,” moaned one of them.
“What if he’d had a knife on him like last time, Bill? How would you explain getting stabbed when you went to the hospital or in front of the Chief?” Tom asked. “No, we play this smart and gather as much information as possible before making our move. Then we’ll get revenge for the others.”
The other three grimly nodded in agreement. During the ambulance chase, one officer had ended up with severe burns and another had died at the scene. The Metropolitan police detective they’d been sent had been next to useless, and it was clear that whatever technology the criminals were using was not typical. The ambulance disappearing made that obvious for everyone.
There were too many deaths and strange occurrences to treat this like an ordinary case. The Chief Constable didn’t trust outsiders and so before Detective Burrows had even arrived, another team was formed with Tom as the lead investigator. He was given four other men, a discretionary budget, and an order to not reveal his operation to Burrows.
Once they’d gotten reports that a person of interest had, according to local witnesses, suddenly appeared out of thin air, Daniel had become suspect number one. Detective Burrows was added to the list after he sent a suspicious email requesting that Daniel be released from custody with no reason given. The team had seen them meet multiple times since then, but were never able to hear what they said to one another.
The questions were eating Tom up inside. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t find a prior connection between Burrows and Daniel. His best guess was that Daniel must have approached him with an offer at the station and, for whatever reason, Burrows had accepted.
It would have been disappointing if it ended up just being about money, but then again, perhaps whoever these people were, they were willing to share their technology with Burrows. Being able to vanish like magic might have proved too tempting to resist.
During the ambulance chase, they’d recovered a piece of a device that had fallen out while in highspeed pursuit. It didn’t work, but even by looking at it, they could tell the thing was unique. No other pieces were recovered. Not even at the warehouse massacre. Boy, that one had really lit a fire under the Chief Constable. Tom’s budget had been expanded and additional orders were given. Find out what Daniel Porter and Burrows know, recover any pieces of the unique technology they came across, and then kill both of them quietly. As a career policeman, that last part had been harder to swallow for Tom at first. The Chief Constable had then asked him how they were supposed to incarcerate someone who could vanish? Tom didn’t have an answer, but going to visit the hospital where the burned police officer was being held solidified his resolve. He would learn all that he could, and then he would kill Daniel Porter.