by Leia Howard
Generally, after the central police training at Wir-Kiva, officers are deployed back to their original region, but detectives and sub-chiefs are usually reassigned to another region. The idea is community peace enforcement is better tolerated from officers of the community but investigating crimes is better accepted from detectives of outside regions, leading to less accusation of favoritism. Same with running the regional police as a sub-chief. Helki served as an officer in his Mesa Verde region and in the Hohokam region as a detective. Neither region had dealings with Psycepts. Now, Sheriff Helki oversees Bosque with more than 25,000 Psycept community members in his region. Luckily for him, Liaison Lowell took on the day-to-day operations and case handling of Psycepts, thus serving as a buffer. Liaison Lowell reports to Sheriff Helki, so the sheriff isn’t completely freed from us dreaded Psycepts. The Psycept police unit has specially trained officers and detectives that work with other nations’ police departments to offer aid with investigation services and provide notifications.
Sheriff Helki has limited dealing with the Psycept Police unit and he’s also nominally in charge of the Civilian Support Service workers. Liaison Lowell oversees this much larger operation as well. Non-criminal petitions fall under Civilian Support Service workers that helped the Psycepts.
For instance, Wendy is a PsyWitch and provides healing charms. Not much for the Psycept police to do other than mail out her packages. Another example, the largest category of Psycepts is PsyMovers. This group includes PsyKinetics who use telekinesis to move small objects, PsyPorters who can teleport objects over short distances, and Weather Guides who can manipulate weather patterns. These abilities are cool to have, but don’t have much to do with policework either. PsyKinetics and PsyPorters are often contracted as reserves for the military, serving one weekend a month and three weeks a year. Weather Guides work with the military, but also with water, land, and sky wardens.
There is less than a thousand Psycepts that handle true police cases. PsyChometrists split their abilities between criminal work and work with historians, anthropologists, and archeologists. Sages and PsyMemori such as I handle criminal cases as well. All criminal Psycept cases have police detective case handlers.
Sully is the detective I work with most often, which I like. Wendy and he are twins, but only Wendy was identified as a Psycept. They moved to PsyTown, the Psycept area of northwest Albuquerque, a couple of years after me. For non-Psycept Sully to be eligible to emigrate with Wendy to the Greater Tribe nation, he had to agree to serve in some civil or other service capacity. He liked the idea of being a police officer and chose that as his service. When he was promoted to detective, he was kept in Bosque due to his familiarity with Psycepts. There was precedent as Liaison Lowell was reassigned back to Bosque when he became sub-chief. Bosque has the largest population of non-native denizens in SWACon; it was thought that maybe our division would be less suspicious of his non-native lineage. He was also the first and only non-native SWACon sub-chief. The large non-native settler population is also why Bosque and more specifically, ABQ, was designated the approved Psycept region of SWACon.
When Sheriff Helki was promoted to sub-chief and moved to Bosque, he inherited me as a limited assistant. I just carried over the duties I assumed while working for Sheriff Lowell as he preferred not to overwhelm his administrative assistant, Mark, with the twice-yearly project. My tasks consisted of compiling police data from the Bosque division, writing a comprehensive report, create a presentation of the report, clearing and delegating his schedule for the semi-annual SWACon police conference, and arranging for his transportation and accommodations.
To begin the project, I request the necessary data to use in the reports and presentations from O’ke and Mark. It will take a few days for both to gather the data and drop it our shared document box, but we’re old hands at this so no worries. Next, I open the previous reports and presentations and fiddle with the background, layouts, and fonts to create new templates for the upcoming meeting. It will not do to have the same look as last time, it needs a fresh one. Finally, I pull up what is available on the agenda so far. I pre-book the hotel and car service during the prior meetings, so I make sure the dates haven’t changed. Interesting. The agenda’s general topics are the usual, but I notice a new attendee. War Chief Quanah, head of the SWACon military.
The military is separate from the police, there is a clear delineation of duties. The military was established by the GT nation to protect our borders, and those that served are called rangers. All conservatorships have a military presence, mostly along borders and entry points. The military serves under to the conservatorship War Chief, who dually reports to the Head Chief of the conservatorship as well as the War Counsel that advises the Grand Chief, the leader of Greater Tribes. The only national border we have in SWACon is with Canada, so the largest part of the military is in the Hohokam division. Smaller outposts are along the borders shared with our neighboring conservatorships. For instance, we have fifteen posts along the Llano Estacado border, each post is shared by one SWACon ranger and one Llano Estacado ranger. There are also a few military garrisons strategically placed in the immediate interior borders, they provide supplies and housing for the territorial border posts.
Approved entry points are separate from border posts and are jointly maintained by the conservatorship military and the regional police. The entry points are used for incoming and outgoing people, packages, and letters. There are also a few commercial entry points used to transport goods across the nation. For something from America in the east to get to Canada in the west or vice versa, it must either go through the Greater Tribe nation or through Mexico. Another option is to ship items through the Panama Canal, which is controlled by the Indigenous Peoples of South and Central Americas, an ally of the GT. As our western border is with Canada and our swath of the GT is narrower than up north, SWACon is a busy east-west transnational commercial route. The two entry points along the western border with Canada are extremely busy as each person or container must be inspected prior to entry or exit. The remaining SWACon entry points along the border can be busy, but luckily the intratribal inspections are less rigorous.
The military and police roles are well established and have been for over a century, so I don’t know why the War Chief is suddenly an attendee for the SWACon central police meeting. The police have handled the postal system almost since the inception of the Greater Tribe nation. Anything coming into or leaving the nation had to be inspected, and the police were tasked with doing so. They were also regularly mobile in the interior in the early days, thus carried packages and letters within the nation. It made sense, the tribal members did not post mail nor send packages outside of their tribe that often. So, it would have been the non-native settlers remaining on the land that would correspond as such. To monitor these settlers for possible seditious behavior or acts, everything was inspected. The military was busy patrolling the new national borders and was better positioned to face outward threats. So, adopting ideas from the US and Canada, the police were created to inspect and keep peace within the interior.
As the decades passed and no large or organized rebellion occurred, the heavy intra monitoring was relaxed, while international correspondence continued to be inspected. Finally, after 50 years when the settlers were granted full citizenship in the Greater Tribe, none of their correspondence out was inspected, but some correspondence into the GT still meet scrutiny. However, the postal system continued to fall under the police and they assumed the shared task of manning entry points for each conservatorship with the military. They have a large civilian division that worked behind the scenes, sorting everything.
I think it may have galled The Tribal Collaboration to adopt ideas from the US and Canada, but they realized that good ideas were good ideas, no matter the origin. I believe that’s also why English was selected as the national language. Each tribe speaks their own language and many tribes within a region speak a regional tongue, but to have one common
language spoken by all the citizens is best. French, Spanish, and even Russian was spoken by some of the tribes as a second language. But due to aggressive colonial efforts of Britain and later America, most tribes had at least one English speaker.
Diné, or Navajo, is spoken by a large portion of the residents of Chaco and some of the other three regions. Puebloans are also a large group on the conservatorship, but there are about twenty tribes of Pueblo and they have four distinct family languages separate from one another, and some are even further divided. So, there is no one common language among the Puebloans like there is of the Diné. I am thankful that I did not have to learn a new language prior to immigrating, though I’ve picked up some Kiowa and Tanoan languages spoken by various Pueblo tribes in the area. Being from Texas, my mother felt it was important that we could communicate in Spanish. It comes in handy on SWACon, Spanish is more common than English as the non-tribal language.
Focusing back on the event, through O’ke, I request a meeting with Sheriff Helki. Checking with Sheriff Helki about this development is important. I’ll suggest some presentation changes based on the new attendee. Whatever the case, I’ll let Sheriff Helki figure out what he wants, and I’ll just execute. Enough of this headache, I wrap up my work and pack to leave for the day. I must return to the office at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, so it’s is quitting time for me.
CHAPTER FIVE
I meet Wendy for dinner on Mondays. Sometimes she’ll cook at her place, or I will make something and bring it to be heated up at her place, or we treat ourselves to dining out at a restaurant. Just like my personal office, a persona non grata policy is in effect at my house. Even as a child, none of my family were allowed in my bedroom. I desperately need my own stuff with no possibility of anyone else touching. As horrible as this sounds for factory workers, I love the fact that many items are manufactured or assembled by robots. People think I’m joking, but my nightmare is going to garage, yard, or estate sales, and I dread antiquing.
I hop on my green electric bicycle, strap my laptop case in my rear carrier, and put my helmet on. At the forefront of Green Energy, combustible engines are not often seen on GT conservatorships. Oneida, Llano Estacado’s equivalent of Wir-Kiva, is the chief converter of wind energy. Oneida is the windiest town in North America, and there are wind turbines scattered throughout the area. They harness enough wind energy to power not only Llano Estacado, but also augment the wind energy that SWACon, Cochise, and Southern Plains conservatorships can produce. They also sell their energy to the neighboring states of Texas and Oklahoma, as well as Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri.
In addition to wind energy, the GT produces solar panels and limited hydroelectricity. We use electric-powered light rail and shuttle busses as public transport. Our police use electric cars augmented by solar energy. Residents of the more temperate climates get around on electric bikes fitted with front and back carrying cases. When it occasionally snows in Albuquerque, we either brave the elements on our bikes, carpool, or ride public transportation. I prefer to just deal with the elements, I only live seven miles from the office.
Tonight, Wendy picked a barbeque restaurant, and I’m looking forward to some tender, juicy brisket. Like half of Texans, I can’t abide barbeque sauce; if the meat is not good enough to stand up on its own, then it is not good enough to eat. Wendy, being from New Orleans and raised on all that rich-sauced French Creole food, thinks I’m crazy. We just agree to disagree. She’s been on SWACon for thirteen years, but still misses eating as much seafood as she wants. Once a month, Wendy drags either me or Sully out to Hohokam where she can get somewhat fresh seafood brought in from Canada. For now, I texted her just before I left the office, so she knows I’m on my way. I began to bike the two miles to the restaurant. Usually, I prefer to use my foot pedals, gets my exercise in. However, to make it to the restaurant by 6 p.m. and not be all sweaty, I switch over to the electric-powered battery and make my way to Sunny’s BBQ.
I arrive at Sunny’s just in time. I lock my bike in the bike rack, place my laptop and helmet in an available public locker, swipe my SWACon badge to lock the door, and proceed into the restaurant. I see Wendy and Sully sitting in a nearby booth and smile as I take the seat opposite them. Even though Wendy and Sully are only fraternal twins, they look very similar to me. They both have rich, dark chocolate skin and short, natural black hair. The contrast between their complexions and their hazel-green eyes make their eye color dramatically pop.
Wednesday and Sulien Randolph were seventeen-year old emancipated minors when they arrived on SWACon just over a dozen years ago, shortly after I began to work part-time for Sheriff Lowell. As I was close to their age, Sheriff Lowell asked if I would help them settle into their place and show them around PsyTown. I agreed, and we’ve been friends ever since. Though Sully is a bit reserved like me, Wendy is an effervescent force. It took her a few months to break the habit of casual hugs or absentmindedly touching me, while Sully was happy to greet me with a head nod rather than a handshake. Sully and Wendy were raised by their grandmother, I don’t know their history with their parents. Like most Psycepts of the GT, we do not talk much about the time before we arrived, even amongst ourselves.
Wendy learned her PsyWitch abilities from her grandmother. Somehow, they could infuse their goodwill into charmbags they made. While Wendy’s petitions were mostly for healing charms, she can do other charms too. For instance, she made ‘Keep Away’ arm bracelets for me that deterred people from wanting to casually touch me. I believe that if the US government had only wanted her to make healing charms, Wendy and Sully would have stayed in New Orleans. However, her PsyWitch abilities are not limited to goodwill, she can also infuse ill will into objects. Wendy said her ability to make cursebags was of more interest to the agency that contacted her grandmother than any charmbags she could make. She never went into much detail of her experience with cursebags, but I know that she doesn’t want anything to do with bad juju. Who can blame her?
Sully tested negative as a Psycept, but I’ve always wondered. I don’t believe the test can result in a false positive, but a false negative may be possible. The test looks for a specific sequence in the “junk” DNA segment that was found to be a marker for psychic abilities. The subsequent DNA after the marker indicates the broad psychic category. In general, we fall into groups like touch clairvoyants, precognition, object manipulation, sentientpathy, witches, and a sapient of some kind. So, the test was designed to look for the marker. No false positives, if the marker was present, the psychic ability was there. As for false negatives, people may have abilities, even without the marker. Whatever the case, it sometimes seems like Sully can read minds. Sully’s also good at dealing with high emotions, helping people out of their depressive state, or calming people in a manic or anxious state. Sully is often the detective sent for difficult notifications. I admire Sully’s emotional IQ but wonder how much he enjoys being the detective that can be depended on to give bad news.
Sunny stopped by the booth to pour waters and take our orders. Wendy and Sully are excited because Sunny a special treat for them, barbeque shrimp. Sunny called Wendy Saturday and said she had shrimp arriving today. Wendy immediately messaged me that we were going out for Monday dinner, which I was fine with. Like I said, mmm, brisket. I expect that Wendy and Sully will also get an order to go, they’ll want to savor the barbeque shrimp for another day. We give Sunny our orders and wait for the food to arrive.
“Gray, how’s business goin’?” Wendy asked.
“Very well, we can barely keep up. Next staff meeting will be interesting. We’ll talk about our volume and discuss next steps.”
“I think it’s cool that you solicit your employees’ ideas for business,” Sully said. “When I first became an officer, our sergeant believed in the from-the-top-down way of running a team. As a detective, I like to think I’m open to ideas from the officers. Lowell is super collaborative. I don’t know how Sheriff Helki is, he leaves most consultative work to Lowell. B
ut I heard from others he’s pretty good about listening to suggestions.”
“I am truly glad that I’m a one-woman business,” Wendy said. “I make generic healing charms to sell online. And my jewelry sales are steadily increasing. I’m grateful I don’t have to run a team or facilitate a meeting. That would be how I died. My epithet would read, ‘Here lies Wednesday Randolph. Her life ended the exact opposite way she would’ve wished, Bored to Death’.”
“That reminds me,” I replied. “I need more ‘Headache Be Gone’ charms. They work much better than ibuprofen, plus I don’t have to eat something to protect my stomach. Tommie also wants some ‘Acne Away’ charms. I’ll have her submit the order online, but she wants to know how many you have already prepared. I think she’s gonna put in a bulk order. Her friend’s daughter is turning twelve and the mom apparently wants to be both nice and snarky and include the charms as part of the birthday party attendee giftbag. Also, why do you give out giftbags to people that are attending your birthday party? No one’s ever explained that to my satisfaction.”
“So, no comment on my view of your job, you’re just gonna gloss over that. Cool. I have a coupla headache charms for you. I’ll have Sully drop ‘em off when he sees you next Monday, or you can stop by and pick ‘em up in the next couple of days if you need ‘em sooner. Homecoming wiped my acne supply out, but I can whip up a new batch. Tell Tommie I’ll have a dozen by the end of the week. If she needs more than that, let me know.”
