Harry sat in a surprisingly comfortable chair his leg bouncing nervously. It had been 2 days of chaos since the attack. It was as much a shit show as he had expected it to be. The Commissioner was not happy. Particularly as the Mayor was running for office again this year, and something like this hurt his chances. Which made him unhappy, which made the Commissioner unhappy. He then made the Senior Constable unhappy, who made their lives hell.
But here it was quiet. It was weird.
He had been let into the office building 10 minutes ago, having been given a visitor badge and told to wait.
He was in a conference room of sorts, with clear glass windows on every side, except for the front which had a bank of monitors and whiteboards on it. Whiteboards of all things. He didn’t realise there were any of them left.
He could feel the eyes of everyone as they walked past, like fish in a glass bowl. He was not a fan.
But he was comfy. The entire place looked brand new, with white walls, harsh overhead lights and new flooring.
Protected too.
He had noticed the copious amounts of security on his way in. The obvious kinds like guards with guns, but also hidden turrets as well.
Whatever the case, it was far nicer than the Major Incident Room he was used to. Quieter too. While there were people moving around, there didn’t seem to be that many. At least not for an office this large.
The door clattered open behind him. Turning, he saw Judiscar Sadie. Standing, he greeted her, shaking her hand as she walked past.
"Ahh good, you’re here. No trouble finding the place then? This is Stephan, our infiltration expert and Bobby. He's our combat medic." she siad introducing the 2 men who followed her in.
He smiled, shaking both of their hands. The first, an unremarkable man, gave him a firm but professional handshake. The second guy however, a short, stocky man, tried to crush his hand. Harry gave as good as he got, but he could already tell they were never destined to be friends.
"And of course we have already met, but I am Justiciar Sadie. With the formalities done, let's get to work."
The screens flickered to life as they settled into the seats facing the monitors. Sadie strolled up to the front and started presenting.
"This briefing is on the Major incident at Surrey Quays and the theft at the same location."
"So they are still being treated separately?" Bobby asked.
"Yes. Until we have definitive proof they are linked, we will be pursuing leads separately."
"Do we have any more information on the thefts? I assume we have too much information for the gang."
"Correct. We are still running down information for the attack. And yes. The analysis has been finished on the cigarettes and have matched it to this man." She said. Pointing to the screen where a picture appeared. "A Nico Vale. He has close ties to a Thomas and his crew. Records indicate he is working as their driver."
Harry didn’t recognise them, so assumed they were small time. But better to check. "What are we looking at for the crew?"
"Purely mid-level mercs for hire, with ties to the nomads. Hence the lorry. We have confirmed the tyre tracks match the model they are known to have."
"We have their whereabouts? I can bring them in." Bobby said, sounding eager.
"We have circulated the suspect's description around, but I don’t expect anything to pop. We have a clear photo of them leaving London early yesterday morning, heading North." She said. The monitors changed, showing a clear picture of a flatbed with a container on the back.
"Do we know what was stolen for either robberies?"
The image zoomed in, showing a container number. "Yes. I'll start with the Northern one. We know they stole 5 containers. 4 are unaccounted for, but cross-referencing the number in this image, we know they stole this one container. Which contains car parts and notably, a Neural-Link Synchronisation Core for the Vickers-Challenger 4."
Stephan whispered. "Quite the hall. If they are heading North and enter the Midlands and sell it, we have no chance to get it back. Or find them for that matter. I have some contacts up that way that I can ask around with, but I wouldn’t expect much. Not until they surface anyway. Do you have which nomads they have connections to?"
"Yes. It should be on file… here. The Longboatmen."
Stephan grimaced. "Yeah, a big clan and massive arms smugglers. They range up and down the north east coast. I wouldn’t be hopeful about getting them in for questioning. At least not in the short term."
Sadie nodded. "That was as I suspected. But still, if you could reach out anyway."
"Sure thing Boss."
"That leaves the other half of the crew. Which is part of why I want to see them to ask about them."
"So you still think there were 2 teams." Harry asked. Nothing he had seen come through his department indicated that. But then, most of the attention was on the gang attack and subsequent theft. Not a small burglary on the other side of the port.
Hundreds of dead bodies tended to do that.
"Yes. Thomas's crew is known to be a 4 man team. And the image of them leaving shows all 4 are accounted for. Cameras around the area show there were 8 there that night. So we know there are some unaccounted for."
"What about the footprint impressions? Anything come from that?"
"They are being… ah perfect." Sadie said as another woman walked in. Turning, Harry saw a gothic woman with a choker and high buckled platforms. "This is Julie, our Forensic Specialist. Julie, Harry. Have you got the mocks up for us?"
"You know I do." She said, grinning impishly. "Here." Her eyes flashing gold.
The central monitor flashed and changed. "From the impressions and images, we have their rough heights and weights. And I can confirm with reasonable certainty that there are 4 in the crew.
One thing stood out on the charts. "Their children?" Harry asked. That couldn’t be right, could it?
Julie nodded. "That is what our analysis indicates. That or very small adults. But we feel children are more likely. Roughly between 10 and 16 and by our estimates, unaugmented. Or minimally. The 4th might be, as they were slightly heavier than their profile would indicate, but not by a meaningful margin."
"Why do you think that?" Bobby said. "Any kids pulling a job like that are gonna chipped in up to their eyes. I bet they will see SPAR soon enough."
She nodded. "That would be a normal trend; however, comparing their height and weight, nothing else makes sense. They would have a significantly deeper impression if they were more heavily augmented. I have left a large margin for error since this is the clearest image we have of them."
A new image appeared on the far-right monitor. Harry could see why. It wasn’t very good. A grainy image where the silhouettes were far off in the distance, sitting on the flatbed.
"Is that the best we could do?" Stephan asked.
"Yep. That is the closest we have. It is off an ATM, so the quality is poor. That is the most we can magnify it."
"Have we had any luck tracking the lorry?" Sadie asked.
"We have." A new voice said from the door. A reed-thin man walking in.
"Ahh, Lenny. Perfect timing. Detective, this is Lenny, Lenny Harry. Lenny is our Netrunner."
"Not much of that these days." he said with a self-deprecating laugh, before nodding at him as he walked to the front of the room. "Detective. Now. Let me bring it up. We have been able to track the lorry from where it left the Port to here."
A map appeared on the screen, showing the clear points where the lorry was spotted and a single path marking them.
"It ended here, in this car park." He said, highlighting it on the map. "With a bit of help from Julie and her team, we analysed the lorry and can, with confidence, state the other containers were offloaded here. You can see it entering here and then coming out again a few minutes later."
Why did that car park look familiar?
"How can you tell that. It has a tarp covering the back." Bobby asked.
"True." Julie said. "But the lorry is riding much higher now."
"Makes sense. And no other vehicles came out that could have carried them?"
"Nope."
"And they are not there?" Sadie asked.
"Nope. Uniformed officers drove round and didn’t see anything."
"Could they have been emptied and driven out. What were even in them anyway?" Stephan asked.
"Possible, but unlikely. Nothing came out large enough to carry it all." Julie said.
"And there are no cameras in the car park?" Harry asked.
"Nope." To which Harry nodded to. He hadn't been hopeful. That would have been a rather large oversight. "But the camera across from the car park did have one. We have the recording for the last week and are chasing them down now. But I'm not hopeful."
It suddenly twigged why the car park was familiar. "The tunnels." he said, nodding to himself, it all making sense now.
"Tunnels?" Sadie said sharply.
"Yeah, the Labyrinth. That is a known entrance."
"We have none of that on record." Julie said. Her eyes flashing as she looked.
Harry shrugged. "It might not be noted anywhere, but that car park is a well-known thoroughfare."
"Great, now we know we can get some answers." Bobby said, starting to stand.
Harry burst out laughing at that. "Unlikely."
"Not got the stomach for it?" Bobby said challengingly.
"Hardly. That's a Firm checkpoint. And one of their biggest. Are you really going to fuck with them?"
Bobby opened his mouth, only to close it again, seemingly thinking better of it and sat.
"That complicates it." Sadie muttered. "We could if this was a high enough priority, but a theft doesn’t warrant that. We wouldn’t even be looking into it if it wasn’t connected to the major gang incident."
"Would you be able to get any info from them?" Stephan asked.
Harry tilted his head in thought before shaking it. "Not personally. But I know someone on the force who could ask, but I doubt we would get far. They wouldn’t keep records, or if they did, they would never show us. That would have a huge amount of their comings and goings on there."
"If we pressure them, would they give us the info we needed?"
"Not a chance." Stephan said, shaking his head at Sadie. "Their entire model relies on trust; break that… well, nothing good would happen. And if we hit the checkpoint, we would just have some dead gangers on our hands. If any survived, they wouldn’t give anything up unless you were going to torture them?"
"No, this operation doesn’t require that level of escalation."
Harry's eyebrows raised at the unspoken word that if the job was important enough, she would.
Harry felt like he should be more horrified, but then, he was hardly spotless. He might not be in anyone's pocket, but he had to colour outside the lines a few times to get his man. It was how he got his big break in fact. That was just how the world worked.
"And there's still nothing on the port’s cameras?" Sadie asked, to which Larry shook his head.
"How did the gang get so close to the port anyway?" Harry asked. It had been bugging him. At first he assumed they were offline or not monitored, but that had been disproven. Which meant they should have been spotted hundreds of metres out, giving the security more than enough time to prepare and call for backup.
"That I can help you with." Larry said. His eyes flashed, and he leaned against a table. He was about to start when he hesitated and glanced at Sadie who waved him on. "I have inspected their systems and detected a faint reading. More of a shadow really."
"Really. How?" Harry said. "The department had their own deckhead inspect it and found it uncompromised."
"That’s because I am better." Larry said smugly. "And whoever this hacker is, he's a pro."
"Part of the mercs?" Harry asked.
Sadie shook her head. "No, they have no one on record with that sort of skill set."
"Then it must be one of the kids."
"Kids?" Larry asked.
"Yeah, reports point to them being kids. If you can fucking believe it." Bobby said.
Larry's eyebrows raised. "Then they are someone to keep an eye out for. This kid is good, great even. I only noticed they were there as they were rushing to disable the southern gates' security lights. Otherwise I would have missed them. Even so, I have nothing to go off."
"Nothing? Come on deckhead, you normally have something you can track down." Bobby joked.
Larry sighed. "Nope. None of the data is usable. Be that the cyber modems model information, or even the ICE they used. I only know they were there. And even then, I might have thought it a glitch if not for the events that happened."
"Did they do anything else in there, apart from messing with the cameras?" Sadie asked.
"Good question. And yes. Apart from the cameras which was expertly done by the way, they—"
"What do you mean by that?" Sadie asked.
"Only that they didn’t just loop the feed. Any amateur can do that. No, these were carefully doctored to remove the thieves from the image. See here, they are still updating, as you can see this car go past. Which matches up to other cameras."
"And we can't recover any of that data?" Harry asked.
"Nada. It has been scrubbed from the system, and let me tell you that is not easy to do. Anyway, they also accessed these two databases and made minor edits to this one."
"They changed the storage locations of the containers." Harry said, grunting as he read the files Larry brought up on screen.
Larry glanced at him surprised, but nodded. "Give the man a medal. These 5 container numbers: HLXU 409182, SUDU 884120 6, MAEu 603517 4, HLXU 227549 0 and TEMU 410982 3, to be exact."
"Wait, where should they have been?" Harry asked, remembering the crates in the warehouse. Several of them were on the database and came from the same ship. "That couldn't be a coincidence."
"Warehouse GateMark 7. Why?"
That had to be it. Harry quickly pulled up his notes and sure enough.
"That is where the gang targeted."
"Gang target?" Bobby asked.
"That’s where I found the hidden bodies."
"What was in the containers?" Stephan asked. "Could they have been the target?"
"Maybe… it was basic electronics, turrets and ammo, net chair and a 'Gorgon' Nexus-9." Sadie said.
Harry whistled. That was impressive. That would be a lot of eddies if they could sell that off. Although the heat on the items might make that harder.
"Fuck me." Larry said. "Really? Naa must be bullshit".
Sadie looked sharply at him. "Excuse me?"
Larry winced. "Sorry Sadie. But have you double-checked that is right for the Gorgon?"
She threw him an unimpressed look. "Yes. Why?"
"Because that is the most recent Net Architecture. It has only just come out, developed by Netwatch and is heads and shoulders above the competition. Who ordered it? How even?"
"That would be Vector Robotics." Julie said.
"Well, I could see why they would want to hide that from the customs agents."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Well. First money. Look at their bottom line." Stephan said, waving at the reports on the screen. "They are weeks from going under. Looks like a classic hostile takeover. Their headquarters have been constantly attacked, disrupting their business. Which has allowed Prism Digital to get the stakeholders to agree to a steal of a price."
"But would that have been the target?"
"Well, if they are getting hacked, that net would be a good way to stop it. Combined with the chair, I don’t think many would be able to beat you."
"Which would allow them to stabilise their position." Julie said, nodding. "I am not seeing any connections between Prism Digital and the Los No Muertos, but I will have my team keep looking."
"How do they even have it anyway?"
"No idea, but I can contact Netwatch and ask. With proof that it came here, they will be very interested."
"So do we focus back on the thieves then if they have that?"
They all looked at Sadie. "No. If we catch a break, great, and we will follow every lead, but the gang and corporation that started a war in London are our targets. But put a mark on their files. If they get pinged, I want our team to be the lead. Now, what about…"
---
Harry shifted side to side. The new body armour was digging into him uncomfortably, although he was thankful for it. The days of shootouts were long behind him, or so he thought, and he had no intention of getting shot. He would leave that to the professionals. He wasn’t given hazard pay after all.
“Look lively Harry. This will be fun.” Bobby said, clapping him on the shoulder as he passed. They had clear different definition of fun. He had become a detective to investigate and put criminals behind bars, not to get into firefights, although they had a nasty habit of intersecting.
He was similarly dressed for war and even in the brief time he'd known him, he could tell how excited he was for this. Bobby was definitely a man of action.
Still it wasn’t all bad. He glanced around at the rest of the firepower sitting around him. Half the stuff was top-end mil-spec. He didn’t even recognise some of it. They had pulled out all the stops. According to Sadie, they didn’t normally have this level of support, but with the eyes on the case and the mayor feeling the pressure, they gained all the toys.
His team, as well as several AFO teams, were kitting up. The building was surrounded, with all exits covered. Larry had already hacked their systems and had full control over them. He was thankful they had. Bobby was all for going in with just their team.
Harry had been able to tell that Sadie had been tempted as well. It was only when they saw how well fortified the abandoned factory was, and how many exits there were, did they relent and call for the armed police officers. His argument of their targets escaping proved to be enough.
He set himself up, bringing his rifle up, as part of the containment. Once they were in, he would join the others. Boby and Sadie were breaching of course. But he had been surprised that Stephan was as well.
He hadn't quite voiced his concerns about the lack of perceived armour Sadie was wearing, but she had only smirked at him before brushing it off. Confirming his suspicion that she was heavily cybered up, if not borged up.
A signal was given, and then there was screaming and gunfire as each team breached simultaneously. Shouts of Police and surrender echoed from the building.
"We have a runner." An officer reported, only for a gunshot to sound. "Delt with."
Within minutes, the building was clear and the fighting stopped, but he still had to wait for another 15 before he could enter. Even with the rooms clear, they had to perform a methodical search before forensics could enter the scene.
In that time, the surviving gang members, 7 of them, were walked out and locked into police cars. The other 40 or so weren't so lucky.
He met Sadie and the others in the main factory office, which was a mess. Harry turned his nose up in disgust. The fighting had done a number on the room, with broken furniture and holes in the walls. Not to mention the smashed windows.
But it was the refuse that was worst. A dozen men and women living in close quarters together. It was a fucking pigsty.
He was a few steps into the room when he paused. The room wasn’t right.
It had the right proportions. But he remembered the schematics. Pulling them up, he started investigating the walls. Sadie had noticed his interest and came over. It was the far wall; he was sure of it. None of his scans worked, or even the oldest one, tapping the wall.
But it fit.
Turning to her as she reached him, he said. "There is a false wall here. I don’t know—"
That was as far as he got. The wall burst inwards, showering him in concrete and bricks. He had no time to react as the mantis blades slashed at him.
A hand gripped his collar and dragged him out of the way at the last second. He lost his footing and he slid heavily into the far wall. Winded, he had the perfect view as the borg, mantis blades still extended, charged through the room. Offices threw themselves out of the way, several not fast enough and lost limbs for their trouble.
They lived at least.
Then he was at the wall—not slowing, the borg slammed into and through it, out into the open air. Only a step behind him was Sadie as she flipped out the window after him. Scrambling to his feet, Harry poked his head out the hole, Stephan and Bobby joining him.
Harry was surprised Bobby wasn’t following. It must have shown on his face as Bobby grinned. "It's too late for him. Just watch."
The borg jumped from the roof onto the warehouse's roof next to them and broke the containment, charging for freedom. Each leap looked like he was fighting the earth. But just behind him Sadie flowed along. Moving in smooth, graceful movements, that were clearly more efficient and she quickly caught the borg, locking him in combat.
At first he tried to overpower her, then when that didn’t work, he tried to disengage. That didn’t work either, and with a scream of rage Harry heard from his viewing point, he started frenziedly slashing at her.
She dodged, parried and ducked through them, making it look effortless.
Then he overextended and Sadie twisted, reversing the grip on her blade and decapitating the borg.
His arms kept swinging for a few strikes, like its body hadn't caught up to the fact it was dead, then slowed and finally keeled over.
---
Half an hour later found him in the back of an ambulance, getting his head checked out. "Looks good. You will need a check-up, but I can't detect any lasting damage."
"Thanks doc." Harry said, shaking his hand and standing up.
"Everything good?" Sadie asked, walking over to him. She had cleaned up the blood that had coated her from the borg kill. He still hadn't gotten over it. "Good spot Harry. Although maybe next time, comms me."
He winced. "Can do. Sorry."
"Ahh." Saidie waved him away. "He would have run for it anyway and we didn't lose anyone to him. So I would call that a win."
"Still… Anyway. Thanks for the save!"
"Your most welcome."
Unable to help himself any longer, he asked. "Where did you learn how to fight. They were some sweet moves."
"Ha. That they are. Although if you ever meet the man who taught me, you will see what a master looks like. Daniel makes fighting look like an art form."
"An instructor?"
She shook her head. "Nope. I was just part of his team for a while. One of the scariest mother fuckers I have ever worked with or met. He was a legend on SPAR."
"Past tense…" Harry said hesitantly. Not many made it out of that profession alive. Sadie was one of the rare few he had heard about.
"Naa he's fine. Retired, if you can believe it. Works as a trainer in a gym that one of his mates opened. Apparently found some prodigy."
"So you're still in contact?"
"Distantly. Although it has been a while… anyway. Let's get to it." She said, clapping her hands.
Harry nodded and headed back inside to help catalogue the area. It was going to be a late night. When he reached the main office again, he found Larry interfacing with the main terminals.
"Find anything?" Sadie asked from beside him.
"Yeah it looks like we were right. I have emails from the Senior VP of Mergers & Acquisitions from Prism Digital asking them to steal the Architecture and chair. When they couldn’t find it, they both thought the other had crossed them."
"So the thieves were just a 3rd party then?"
"Looks that way. I will need to get this back to the office for a deeper dive, but it's likely."
---
Harry stacked the last of the case folders together and dropped them into the boxes.
"Done." Sadie clapped her hands in satisfaction. "Well done for a job well done, everyone." She said, grinning at each of them. "Another case successfully closed."
"Fuck yeah!" Bobby shouted. "Beers?"
"I'm down." Stephen said.
"Just one." Larry called.
They pulled out of the office and Harry started to go his separate way; he had a bed calling to him.
"Harry? Where you going? Come on, have a traditional beer with us." Sadie said.
He almost turned it down but shrugged. One couldn't hurt.
So, 10 minutes later found himself in a back room of The Blue Lamp. A well-known police bar.
"Cheers." he said, clinking his glasses with the others.
The conversation lulled for a moment before picking up as Stephan started to talk about football. The others were fans, even Laura, who was a zealous one. Not something he would have guessed.
Harry just leaned back in his seat, enjoying the ambience, when Sadie came back with her second bear. "You did good work Harry." She said, sitting next to him.
"Thanks it has been fun. Even if it didn’t end as well as I hoped."
She grimaced. "Yeah, unfortunately we weren't able to go further than the VP's fall man. It just wasn’t worth the capital at that point. But we fined them a hefty amount and hit their bottom line. That is the most we can do for now. Maybe one day that will change."
"Cheers to that." Harry said with feeling.
She leaned back, studying him. "How would you feel about doing this again?"
"Again?"
"Yeah, like full time."
"What join the task force?"
"Yeah. Come work for me full time."
"Errm, I don’t know what to say."
"Say yes." She said, laughing. "But seriously, I will send over the contract, give it a read and we can speak further tomorrow?"
"Okay, yeah, sounds good." Harry said. He already knew he would do it. This had been some of the most fun he'd had for a while. Not to mention the corruption. If he could avoid even some of that it was worth it… well, as long as it paid well.
It was well more than 1 beer before he left the bar. He found Sadie at the bar, paying off her tab. "Night for me, I will see you tomorrow."
"Get home safe Harry." She said, waving him, before turning back to the barman, who was passing an honest-to-god paper receipt to her.
"Here’s your receipt Miss Shepard."
---
He dumped his keys onto the kitchen table and headed upstairs, very ready for bed. His parents' door was dark and he almost turned into his when he saw his younger brother's light still lit.
Poking his head in, he saw him, face glued to a PC screen. If he were playing he might have told him off, but as always, he was coding. Charlie had watched a netrunner film when he was 6 and had been hooked ever since.
Now, at 11, he was training for his 11-plus exam. He was determined to become a Netwatch agent.
He thought about talking to him, but left it. He was too tired for an argument which was what it might turn into.
Leaving, he flopped face first into his bed.
---
Here we are, the first path to some of the main mass affect characters. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for all the support.