Within the police station inside a securely locked side office, a woman was currently experiencing a dressing-down from her superior. The blinds had been closed and an armed police offer had been requested to stand outside of the door to stop any unnecessary interruptions.

The rest of the police department had been briefed to give the office a wide; it had caused a degree of friction within the uniformed officers and detectives. As far as they knew it was an unknown agency with ties to the central government, but no questions had been answered.

An older uniformed officer with a slight stomach and tanned olive skin and a short crew cut was standing nearby the office with crossed arms. He didn’t look annoyed exactly, more tired.

Chris had been standing on the side of the office glaring at the securely locked side office. She hadn’t liked that woman with the eyepatch giving her direct instructions and then the suspect or whatever he was meant to be in the open interrogation room had shocked her a little bit.

When she had asked her fellow officer what charge he had been brought in on they had just shrugged their shoulders and said that was being investigated and was in the process of being discharged. Leaning against the side of the office she crossed her arms and took a breather.

She waved to a nearby uniformed officer and told him that she was taking a quick five-minute break just to give her time to process the scene of the incident. He nodded and got back to his work after letting a nearby sergeant know.

She didn’t like it when she had questions that had no valid answers. It was one of the main reasons that she had signed up to become a cop in the first place. Before her dad was discharged from duty following an incident with a suspected arson attack that her father had suspected was part of a larger fraud deal going on with local criminal elements.

He had become almost consumed in his quest in chasing the insurance company that was the main pay-out for the arson cases. Specific residential blocks of flats in which the leasehold was ending had been burnt down due to a suspected electrical fault. The occasional death was ignored as a freak accident, but Chris’s father was a man who wanted to make sure that the criminal elements of the case were punished for their crimes.

In the end, he had been given a choice between either early retirement and signing an NDA or indictment on the case of providing false evidence and harassment. He had chosen to take the retirement plan and live a life of fishing and painting. The now non-suspected arson cases had continued, and new blocks of flats were being developed on the ashes. All his efforts had been ignored or swept away through legal jargon.

Chris found that she shared a similar trait with her father, once she chose to stick to a particular focus, she wouldn’t give it up. She wanted to know exactly who the man in the interrogation room was and what was going on. An inquisitive, stubborn nature that she was unable to stop would result in her getting into trouble. Not at first, but it would.

There had only been two agents in black suits, a man and a woman accompanied by a middle-aged woman wearing civilian clothing with a distinct eyepatch and an older woman in her late fifties who was dressed in an expensive-looking suit and flat shoes. The three dressed in suits had appeared later after the middle-aged civilian had arrived with instructions to bring three civilians in for questioning.

After a short discussion with the Captain in her main office Officer, Chris and three other uniformed police offers were directly instructed to locate and bring three normal civilians who worked and lived in the vicinity of the city’s main museum back to the station for questioning regarding an ongoing investigation.

One of the police officers Chris had first challenged the agents when they had arrived, and she had a badge flashed at her with the acronym F.O.M.L. with the instructions that they were there to deal with an investigation nearby where a biological outbreak had been detected.

A containment leak from a nearby experimental lab with a focus on stem cell research, it had meant that all locals were to be barred from entering the area as the police were tasked with sealing off all entrances and exits including the crime scene. It had been called an unfortunate incident, highly unusual.

For one thing, there hadn’t been any witnesses or scientists from the lab held responsible for the biological outbreak. It would make more sense if it was a government-funded facility that simply wanted the whole situation to be swept under the carpet. She didn’t want to become like her father and become too focused on dealing with a situation that was clearly under the control of a higher authority. Money is more like this whole incident came down to money.

In this situation Chris found herself tasked with crowd control, keeping away the gawkers and talkers as her dad had once told her. Any media presence within the nearby vicinity would be discouraged and anyone asking would be noted and referred over to the government agents. Questions were strictly discouraged and anyone who had seen either the incident scene or photos had been told to sign a non-disclosure agreement with a paid fixed bonus as a reward for their service.

She had firmly refused the reward although it came with a government commendation. It was provided in the form of additional salary disbursement. Payment would be provided over six months as long as they kept to the rules of the NDA.

Mainly because for her it felt too much like a bribe. Yes, there was corruption but that was for internal affairs to deal with and for her to put off a little bit longer at least until she had been in the service for a decent time. Her father had warned her about the dangers of the job, both from criminals and the temptation of looking the other way to top up your retirement funds.

‘Chris.’

She heard a voice call her name drawing her attention swiftly back to the station. Realising that she had been leaning against the wall for far longer than she had anticipated she felt cramp pains in her upper back and legs.

Stiff, she’d lost track of time thinking. Not the best sign when all she had been told to do was keep quiet and deal with inter-agency cooperation.

‘Chris!’

Looking up and stretching out her arms in front of her she rolled her shoulders back to loosen them out. Her eyes fell directly on one of her colleagues who looked slightly panicked in his eyes.

He seemed more worried than actually concerned. She briefly wondered what the big issue was about, it wasn’t as though the police station was currently under attack by an escaped group of convicts out for revenge. The day would be pretty interesting if it was but sadly no excitement on that scale ever happened to police in reality.

‘Yeah?’

‘You got a special request. It came from the freak that was in the open interrogation room. Don’t know why they left the room open but I’m telling you something was off about that guy. The way that he was looking at me made my skin crawl I’m telling you, the SWAT team should be outfitted to take him into protective custody or an isolation unit. No way are we equipped to deal with someone like that.’

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘Dan…’

The middle-aged colleague who Chris knew vaguely from her time there was normally put at the station front desk and saw little on the street. He’d had the mandatory training but put more time in the office than out dealing with incidents like the alleyway that she’d seen earlier that day.

‘Prison. Or a psych ward. He’d have to be moved with a whole armed squad in a convoy. Even call in the National Guard to make sure that he didn’t bust out and start a city-wide riot of one. His eyes, did you see his eyes? He looked at me like I was an insect. How can he look at a person like that? He...no…it...’

‘DAN!’

The man jumped when Chris shouted out his name. The panicked look in his eyes toned down a little and he ran a hand through his hair as though trying to smooth it down for a better impression.

‘Jeez. I was, I…’

He seemed to realise for a moment that he had been caught in a moment of panic and the words that he had been babbling caught up with his conscious mind. Looking down at his feet, his largish face turned red, and his breathing increased before he put both hands on his head and stood straight up again. Both hands were moving with uncertainty, so he chose to fold his arms and tuck them in tight.

‘Sorry. I’m sorry Chris. I guess something odd just came over me then. Must have been the tacos I ate for lunch. Whew, they were extra spicy. Yeah, that was it. Oh right! I need to tell you about a message from those agents who were here earlier. I reckon the two ladies are in that office having a chat, right?’

Nodding his head towards the office with the blinds shut and a low-level conversation that continued before a thumping noise was heard.

‘Not too happy. Nope. Nope. I think the one with the eyepatch dressed as a civilian is in trouble now. You’re being assigned to a special task force on the orders of the chief, I was asked to tell you in person because I reckon that I’ve worked at this station the longest so far.’

Chris nodded her head. She had a slight headache now given the amount of talking that Dan just gave her. She figured that it was partially down to his age and also the fact that he’d worked at the front station desk for so many years without being promoted.

Now she had a clearer idea why he’d worked in the same position for so long. He was a chatterbox and panicked. Not the best material for a solid street officer. If she was in charge of him then she’d take the same approach and let him work the front desk away from the occasional street disturbances that broke out.

‘Right. Thanks for the heads up, Dan. Do you need to get back to the front of the station now? There should be a few more enquiries that need your urgent attention and tactful thought processes.’

‘Huh? No, I was given a message directly from the Captain. She said that the Chief gave her direct instructions to be passed on to you. Most of the other officers are in a briefing right now and we’re a little understaffed so it was handed over to me to hand over the message.’

Chris clamped her hand on the older man’s shoulder as a gesture of respect. Even if he was getting older and hadn’t been on active duty for quite some time, he still knew to follow the chain of command and do his duty as a police officer.

‘Got it. Dan. You seemed a bit worried about the guy that was brought into the interrogation room. You can tell the Captain when you see her next that the message is received.’

Dan smiled a bright smile at her. At least the best that he could with the various fillings in his teeth. It wasn’t the best or brightest smile that she’d seen but in a police station it was genuine. Chris recalled that the older man was only a few years away from full retirement, the whole package. She flashed a smile back at him.

‘Yeah, I just…huh. I don’t rightfully remember. As you get older sometimes things get a little bit fuzzy. All those perps that get processed through the front desk have blurred into a long line of old black-and-white memories. I remember the eyes of that one guy though, as he walked by me it just felt wrong. Not the eyes of a killer though, not strictly speaking. I’ve seen enough of those over the years. No, I think he was a little bit crazy but the orders to leave him in an open interrogation room unsupervised was even worse.’

Chris frowned at that. Age didn’t always mean you ended up with a bad memory. Genetics and diseases were more likely causes for forgetting.

‘Dan. Did you talk to the perp? You know that standing orders are to leave suspects in interrogation rooms alone and under the direct control of the arresting detectives and senior personnel.’

Shaking his head, he untucked his hands. Shuffled his feet on the floor a little, looked down and then back up again at her. His emotions looked far more settled now judging from the look on his face. His uniform was tight against his slim, almost thin frame. Some police put on weight in the job over the years, Dan was the opposite. He had started as a tall, strong man and gradually began to shrink down a little in size the longer he worked at the police station.

Looking directly at his fellow police officer in the eyes he fixed his gaze as though trying to show her the importance of the matter. His eyes looked slightly off giving the impression that he was under the influence of an intoxicant, and his pupils were larger than normal. Chris didn’t think that it was likely that he had a drug or alcohol problem but given that he had worked on the force for so long these issues as long as they remained low-key often got swept under the rug.

Everyone had their secrets after all the police authority combined with high levels of stress created bad living habits, everyone needed an outlet in some form even if it was only doughnuts and bad coffee.

‘No. When he came into the station escorted by two uniforms, he just gave me this look. Made me feel all strange inside. Sometimes they shout you know or scream and holler. The rough ones feel the need to fight or put up a front for all their buddies watching. Once they get into a cell or an interrogation room all the fight goes out of them. The one who walked in though was calm. Far too calm, he was more interested in the environment.’

‘He sounds like an interesting case. Dangerous perhaps if he was unafraid or had connections if they brought him in without handcuffs.’

‘I never told you that. No, I never described to you that he wasn’t secured. I recall that I told you he was being escorted by two uniforms. How do you know that Chris? Has someone been gossiping again?’

Chris gave him a strong look and raised her eyebrows.

‘Everyone likes to talk in a police station It’s what we like to do. No, I met him in person when I entered his interrogation room, twice. The first time was with Matt, we were told by the Captain to render all possible assistance to that woman in the eyepatch.’

Hag. She was an old hag.

She didn’t like the look of that woman, but Dan would gossip even worse than she did, so she wisely chose to keep her words to herself. Not when the women and her boss were in the nearby office. Walls had ears, and so did listening devices and nearby colleagues. She was old and trying to dress young and fashionable. Ugh. Nothing worse than a woman trying to dress and act cute, not when she was older.

Dan nodded his head. His thinnish frame made his uniform bellow out slightly. He didn’t want any trouble with the Captain, not when he was only two years away from full retirement.

He was interrupted by Chris who had enough chatting and wanted to go to her assigned task force.

‘Where did the Captain say I had to meet the task force?’

‘Oh, I thought that you knew.’

‘Knew what, exactly Dan.’

‘You. You’re the assigned task force. The Captain said that you’re to act as an inter-agency liaison between our local police and the government spooks. You need to directly report to the woman in the eyepatch. Sorry, Ms Nil. You can head straight to the office that she’s using as they’re both currently waiting for you.’

Crap. Sorry, Dad. I did it again.