Shattered Truth

by Michael Anderle

  “What the hell?” The thug backed off and shook out his hand. “Is that a…”

  “My turn.” Erik lunged forward and slammed his forehead into the thug’s.

  The man jerked back and stumbled, groaning and clutching his nose. Two more punches sent him to the ground, his nose crooked and leaking blood.

  “I was nice,” Erik offered. “Since you hit my cybernetic arm first, I didn’t even follow-up with it. I could easily have killed you.”

  He reached into his pocket to pull out a binding tie. When luck messed with someone as much as she messed with him, a man learned to take a hint and be prepared. The downed criminal let out a low whimper as the cop secured his hands.

  With the immediate threat handled, Erik stepped through the open doorway into a long gray hallway filled with closed doors, mostly on the right side before branching off to the left. Voices echoed from a room farther up the hallway. The door was open, and a few shadows were cast into the corridor, but Erik couldn’t see into the room from his angle and distance.

  “What’s taking Carl so long?” asked another man’s voice. “All he had to do was tell someone to go away. How hard can that be, especially for a guy with a face like that?”

  “I don’t know,” replied someone else. “He’ll run whoever it is off soon enough. You know how people are around here. No one wants a confrontation. It’s not like they’re going to ask for the manager when staring down Carl.” He snickered.

  “Go ahead and call for backup, Emma,” Erik whispered. “This will probably get loud and extra-violent.” He pulled out his pistol and walked down the hallway with careful steps toward the open room.

  “Should we check on him?” asked the first man.

  “Nah. You know Carl gets pissy when he thinks we’re disrespecting him. He’s probably taking care of some business.” There was a bit of noise, someone moving. “So, Miguel, we need to go back to our conversation. You apparently think you don’t have to keep paying your protection money? I fail to understand why that is, especially after we were so nice as to negotiate that deal with you to begin with, despite you not agreeing to our simple request. If I didn’t know better, I would say you were disrespecting me. I can’t have that now, can I?”

  “The situation’s different than before,” replied Miguel, his voice shaking. “I made that deal when the cops weren’t looking into things. The cops are going after scum like you now. It’s all over the news. A crackdown. You can’t take money from honest people like us anymore. This isn’t some frontier colony. This is Earth, and we don’t have to put up with this kind of thing.”

  Something thudded, and Miguel grunted. It was the all-too-familiar sound of someone being punched. Erik sucked in a breath.

  The bastards.

  “The cops?” yelled the first man. “SCREW THE COPS! You think you can get out of our deal? Cops can’t help you if you’re dead, moron.”

  “You’re not some big gang,” Miguel wheezed; he’d been punched in the stomach. “You’re just a few guys who think they’re big time. I should have never agreed to it. I bet I’m the only one stupid enough to do it.”

  “Aren’t we the brave man? Oh, you stupid little…” the man hissed. “We didn’t need to tell you who we represent. You just needed to understand you never should have crossed us, and now…” There was another blow, “your death can be used as an example,” and another, “for others!”

  Miguel shouted in pain as more sickening thuds followed. The muffled sounds of other people’s whispers and quiet whimpers followed. Erik growled as he headed toward the door. Someone was going to pay, just not Miguel.

  “What’s that?” asked the speaker. “Go check it out. I shouldn’t have sent Carl to handle it.”

  Another suited thug stepped out of the room. His eyes widened as he went for his gun. Erik put two rounds into him as he pulled out the weapon. The thug fell backward and hit the floor.

  “NSCPD!” Erik shouted and kicked the door wide. He tossed his gun into his left hand.

  The door opened into a large meeting room with several rows of long black tables and matching chairs. A holographic projector sphere hung from the roof. The employees of the garage all sat at two tables in the back, huddled together with terror on their faces.

  A scowling man held a gun to Miguel’s head. The mechanic’s face was bloody and bruised. Another man stood to his side with a gun in his hand, pointing it at Erik and licking his lips.

  The man with a gun smiled at Erik. “Let’s calm down here, Mr. Cop. No reason to get heated. No one has to get hurt.” He shrugged as he eyed his late partner and then glanced at Miguel. “Hurt any worse than they already are.”

  Erik nodded slowly and surreptitiously tapped a command into his PNIU with his right hand. A smart lens targeting overlay appeared, lining up his shots. No reason to take a chance when a hostage was involved.

  These guys were going down.

  “All you have to do is drop your weapons and put your hands on your heads,” Erik advised, keeping them both in view. “Then you don’t have to end up with a bullet in you like the guy who just pulled a gun on a cop. I don’t know if Carl was dumb or smart. He tried to go at me with his hands, but at least he’s still breathing.”

  The one holding Miguel chuckled. “I see one cop and two of us. You think you can shoot us quicker than one of us can shoot you and my little friend here?” He ruffled Miguel’s hair. “All just friends, right? Just discussing business deals. That doesn’t have to end in more people being killed.”

  Erik scoffed. The man didn’t even have the decency to be outraged about his teammate being killed. All he cared about was saving his own ass.

  “See, the problem is I can’t let you hurt him,” Erik explained, a hungry smile still on his face. “It took my…friend time to find him, and I’m going to need his services a lot because I have to deal with people like you so much. You know how it is in Neo SoCal; it’s got everything, but everything’s hard to find.”

  “I heard that friend comment,” Emma whispered in his ear.

  The other man nodded. “Then we’re going to take a little walk with Miguel here, and once we’ve flown our flitters to a safe place, we’ll let him go. That’s fair, isn’t it, Mr. Soldier Cop? Real fair, I think.”

  One of Miguel’s eyelids, now purple-black, had begun to swell. The injury wasn’t anything a minor medpatch couldn’t handle, but Erik’s jaw tightened at the sight. It was just another example of the lie of perfect little Earth, a planet where criminals got away with too much as long as they kept it quiet because the authorities couldn’t be bothered to look bad.

  Granted, the frontier might be more unruly, but at least it was more honest.

  The men had probably bribed some of the local cops. Erik didn’t know and didn’t care.

  He’d let CID and IA handle the bad cops in the metroplex. Miguel had been right about things changing, and the crackdown didn’t just affect gangsters, as had already been proven by the dismissal of the chief.

  Erik’s real problem was more immediate: an innocent life was on the line. The trigger-happy bastards wouldn’t let their hostage go.

  He could see it in their eyes. They probably wanted to kill a cop, too.

  “I’m going to count to three,” Erik announced menacingly. “And you’re going to put your guns down. You do that, and I promise you’ll get out of here alive. You do anything else, you’re dead. You understand?” He nodded at the one holding Miguel. “If you hurt him anymore, you’re also dead. The way I see it, your choice is obvious.”

  “You don’t scare me,” the criminal snarled. “Back off. You think I haven’t killed people?”

  Erik shrugged. “You know I’ve killed people. One…”

  “I’ll take this guy out,” the other man shouted and pushed the gun against Miguel’s head. “Don’t screw with me!”

  Miguel trembled and closed his eyes.

  “Two…” Erik narrowed his eyes. One quick trigger pull and the sel
f-guiding would take over.

  “You think I’m joking?” screamed the criminal. “You stupid cop! Maybe I should kill you first.”

  “Three.” Erik fired. His first shot struck the hand holding the gun to Miguel’s head. The criminal howled in pain and stumbled back, his eyes as wide as saucers.

  Erik’s arm jerked to the side to deliver a second shot into the second criminal’s head. The poor bastard managed to squeeze off a single round before the bullet ripped through him. His attack struck Erik in the chest. Fiery pain shot through his body, but his cybernetic arm didn’t care as it delivered the third and final round into the head of the first criminal.

  The formerly confident man dropped to the ground as Erik stumbled back, gritting his teeth and taking slow, measured breaths.

  He wasn’t having any trouble doing that, so the bullet hadn’t pierced a lung.

  Thank God.

  That was always a fun time. Given the throbbing in his back, he suspected the round had gone clean through, which meant he would need to replace his coat, too.

  “Please tell me backup’s actually on the way,” Erik muttered. He stumbled with a grunt and leaned against a wall, placing a hand on his leaking chest wound.

  “They are about a minute out,” Emma answered. “Judging by your vitals, you should survive until then.”

  Erik chuckled. “Thanks for your concern.”

  “I don’t know if that was a wise course of action, but I can’t deny it was brave.”

  Miguel moved over to Erik, turning to view him with his one good eye. “Detective! We have a first-aid kit here somewhere.” He waved at one lady, who seemed to be able to get herself moving after the gun battle. She hurried out the door. “But I don’t know if it’s good enough.”

  Erik put up a hand. “Cops get shot saving people.” He sucked in a breath and grimaced. “Ohhh, that hurts!” He looked around. “Just part of the job, but It hurts like hell. I’m pretty sure he didn’t hit anything vital. I’ll live, and other cops are almost here. Go out to my flitter. I’ve got high-grade medpatches in there. It’ll automatically open for you. One of those patches should stabilize me until real medical help arrives.”

  “Next repair is on the house,” Miguel announced, his tone almost reverent as he stepped toward the door.

  Erik managed a grin. “If I’d known that, I would have gotten shot saving you yesterday.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jia sighed as she stepped past several uniformed officers gathered on the parking platform. Another group was inside the garage and farther into the building, inspecting things and tagging evidence. Emma had contacted her to recommend she come to the garage, and Jia had rushed over.

  Even if Erik had already handled the criminals, her partner had been shot on his day off, and she needed to be there for him.

  She stopped as she spotted Erik leaning against the side of a parked ambulance, silver medpatches on his exposed chest and a smile on his face, like he’d had a great time despite taking a bullet in a gunfight.

  Jia jogged toward him, her heart pounding despite her attempts to remind herself he was okay.

  He nodded at the medic and walked toward his partner after the medic nodded back. She placed her fingers on her forehead and took a deep breath. Her old partners’ refusal to aggressively work cases had been stressful, but Erik worked her nerves in a far deeper way, despite being a good cop.

  “You’re up and smiling,” Jia observed as she caught up to him. “I hope that means everything is okay?”

  “I’ll live.” Erik pointed to the front patch. “The bullet passed straight through, no major organ or artery damage. It’ll be a day or two before I’m one hundred percent, but the nanites are doing their thing.” He patted his left shoulder. “I’ve obviously taken worse hits in my time. It’s no big deal.”

  “Getting shot isn’t a big deal?” Jia let her incredulity flavor her voice.

  “Yeah. Any fight that doesn’t kill you isn’t that bad,” he told her.

  “That’s an interesting point of view,” Jia replied. “And I can’t believe you got into a shootout on your day off. I don’t know if I should be impressed or aghast.”

  “It’s somewhat my fault,” Emma explained, transmitting aloud from Erik’s PNIU but not activating her holographic form. “I noticed suspicious vehicles, and I informed him. He followed up, and events spiraled out of control.”

  “You were right to tell me,” Erik explained. “I wasn’t planning on getting shot, and I tried to play it cool at first, but if I’d waited much longer, an innocent man might have ended up dead instead of some criminals beating on and preparing to shoot someone.”

  “I’m not suggesting you were wrong to get involved.” Jia sighed. “But no one likes hearing that their partner got shot. I should have been here to back you up.”

  Erik shook his head. “That’s not important. I already had Emma check. The suspects’ vehicles have been tagged several times coming out of the Shadow Zone, but no one’s ever stopped them for not running a transponder. I don’t understand how random gangsters can go to and from the Shadow Zone without getting caught when even we cops need external clearance. It would be one thing if they had found some area where the traffic surveillance had a hole in it, but they were coming straight up, no hesitation at all, according to the records Emma retrieved.”

  Jia shifted from worried to angry. “More local enforcement zone corruption? Bribes?”

  “Probably, but if we take out the criminals, it’ll make it easier for CID and IA to go after any corrupt cops. They’ll probably get desperate and stupid, or the criminals will give them up.” Erik nodded toward a gesticulating man in blue overalls who was chatting with a uniformed officer. A medpatch covered one side of his face. “That’s the owner of this place, Miguel. He told me these guys have been rousting him for about a month. Originally, they came in and said they wanted him to do some illegal mods to their flitters, but he bargained them down to protection money instead because he didn’t want to end up an accessory to any crimes they committed. He was too afraid to report them until he saw the recent news.”

  Jia eyed three hoverstretchers with sheets over them. “Victims or suspects?” She swallowed and prayed for the latter.

  “One guy tried to shoot me, and the other two tried to shoot me and threatened to kill a hostage.” Erik frowned. “I had no choice but to take them out.” He eyed her. “Trust me. I’m going to have to spend days writing up reports about it. I always want the idiots to surrender.”

  Jia pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s not that I don’t understand why you felt the need to use force, but I’ll note had you used a stun pistol, we would have more suspects left to interrogate.” She eyed him. “I still don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with not using a stun pistol.”

  Erik stared at the stretchers with a frown. “When people think they’ll just end up stunned, they’re more reckless because they have less to lose. A real gun means real risk. It makes them more predictable and easier to handle.” He turned to face her. “I learned that from dealing with terrorists and insurgents.”

  “Perhaps.” Jia instinctively patted both of her holsters under her jacket. “Options are good.”

  “Anyway,” he replied, “doesn’t matter. There’s one guy still alive, and he already gave up some information.” Erik’s smile returned, and he pointed to a man slumped forward in the back seat of a police flitter several meters away. “He’s in there. He clammed up almost right away, but not before admitting they’re just the collection team. Their whole gang is newer. Showed up in the metroplex not long before I did, which makes their being able to come and go from the Shadow Zone even stranger.”

  “You’re saying the police should follow up?” Jia raised an eyebrow in challenge. “Or…”

  “We should follow up.” Erik pointed a thumb at his chest before nodding at her. “They’ve come and gone from the Shadow Zone, and we’re on the Shadow Zone Task Force, right?
I think the local EZs will have a hard time complaining about me taking the lead on a case that involved my personal mechanic and me getting shot. They can call it revenge or whatever they want, but it’s not like my interest is coming out of nowhere, and Ragnar’s more than willing to back us.”

  Jia considered that for a moment before offering a slight nod in agreement. “It makes sense, and it’s a valid reason to establish a greater personal presence in the Shadow Zone, which will be useful for future investigations.” She looked around for a moment, taking in all the action. “All in all, we both have a good reason to go into the Zone and investigate this.”

  Erik chuckled. “Oh? Finally getting political?”

  “Let’s just say I’m beginning to realize I don’t have much choice but to be political. You’ve opened my eyes to the world, and I’m trying to adapt to it.” Jia gestured to his medpatch. “Just to be clear, I don’t care how resilient you are or that it didn’t hit an organ. We’re not going into the Zone the same day you took a bullet, even with the medpatches.”

  Erik looked like he was going to object for a moment, then grunted. “Okay. This can wait until tomorrow. We should let the captain know we’ll be following up on it, and we should also make sure the info is passed on to CID in case they know something we don’t.”

  Jia stared at the hoverstretchers holding the covered bodies. “It’ll get worse before it gets better?”

  Erik nodded, and a glint of sunlight flashed in the distance off of a flitter flying by. “That’s my experience.”

  “I want to believe it, but it’s like there was a monster under the bed I never saw, and now the monster is dancing in my bedroom all the time, taunting me.” Jia clenched a hand. “I want to punch it, but I also worry that I’ll just rile up more monsters.”

  “There was a lot of crap that everyone pretended they didn’t smell.” Erik snorted. “And now everyone can’t help but admit it’s there, so everything’s gone crazy. In a weird way, this place is probably one of the worst on Earth that way.”