Shattered Truth

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Erik kept a light grip on the yoke as the MX 60 followed the general flow of traffic. “The reviews of the place are great. They say they have some of the best beignets in the metroplex. The owners are directly descended from a baking family who lived in New Orleans up until about forty years ago. It’s worth checking out, even if it’s farther than our normal place.”

“I think you love beignets more than is reasonably healthy,” Emma suggested. “More even than that stupid gun of yours.”

Erik snickered. “You have no sense of taste. I don’t think I’m going to listen to anyone who can’t taste food.”

“It just means I’m less distracted by pointless sensory data.” Emma huffed.

“Sounds like you’re jealous,” Erik retorted.

Emma sighed. “Spoken like a true human. I am the pinnacle of human technology and ingenuity, and I’m just fine without a sense of smell or taste. Give me access to the appropriate sensors, and I could detect baseline vapor particles far more effectively.”

“Not the same thing as appreciating a nice smell.” Erik grinned at Jia. “Am I right?”

Jia stared out the side window in silence, her gaze distant.

Erik’s grin slowly vanished. “We can go to our normal place if you don’t want to go. I like their food well enough. The coffee’s a little weak.”

“It’s not that,” Jia replied, her voice soft.

“What, then?”

“I thought everything would be different now at the 1-2-2.” Jia kept speaking but didn’t turn her face from the window. “And I understand one difference is that I get to investigate and solve crimes, but there are still so many reminders of the corruption, passive and active, that kept the police weak.” She was quiet for a moment. “It’s too much to ask that everything to be cleaned up, I know, but it’s still annoying.”

“It hasn’t been that long. Habits take a long time to change, and it wasn’t just Monahan establishing those habits. It was the chief, too, and the City Council.” Erik descended to enter a new lane behind a convoy of cargo flitters. “I saw a lot of this in the Army. A unit that’s led by an incompetent commander ends up lazy and incompetent, regardless of how good the individual soldiers are. When the new guy comes in, he has to spend a long time whipping them back into shape.”

Jia sighed, turning to look out the front. “I know it’ll improve, and I know it hasn’t been that long, but I can’t help it. I’m disappointed.”

“Good,” Erik replied, his voice low, his expression serious.

“Good?” Jia raised an eyebrow in confusion as she turned to him. “Why is that good?”

“When you’re satisfied with something, that’s when lazy complacency kicks in,” Erik explained. “And that’s when—”

Their PNIUs came alive, the tiny screech guaranteed to irritate even the calmest individual.

“Attention all units,” relayed a dispatch transmission. “Armed robbery in progress at jewelry store.” The address, complete with grid and internal tower coordinates, followed. “All units in the vicinity of location, respond. Multiple suspects should be considered armed and dangerous. Suspects are employing lethal firearms. Repeat. Suspects are employing lethal firearms.”

Erik didn’t even try to hide the smile that popped up. Training against holograms was one thing, but there was nothing like a live-fire exercise to keep a man in practice.

“Give me some lights, Emma,” he ordered. “And activate the emergency response transponder.”

They might not let him have an EMP, but they still wanted to him to look like a cop when necessary.

“Very well,” the AI offered. “Please try not to damage my body too much.”

“Hey, I’m the one who paid for the flitter, and a little scratch here and there can be handled by the self-repair systems.”

Jia shook her head, her mouth a tight line. “A daylight armed robbery Uptown.”

“Yeah, and we’re close. That makes this easy.” Erik accelerated, moving between lanes. Nearby cars moved to the side or up and down to provide him an easier path, their navigation systems informing them of the emergency response transponder.

“You don’t find a blatant armed robbery in Uptown a little disturbing?” Jia asked. “That’s not the kind of thing Monahan was just ignoring before. It almost never happens. At least, it didn’t before.”

“That’s the thing about stirring up the status quo,” Erik answered, swinging around an i***t in a van-flitter who wasn’t paying attention. “You can get to a better place through the chaos, but some people always try to take advantage of it. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.”

“You’re saying that because of the police reforms and the chief being fired, all of that kind of thing, that criminals are getter bolder?”

Erik nodded. “That would be my guess. If we all do our jobs, it’ll go away as a problem sooner rather than later, and Neo SoCal will end up safer overall.” He nodded at the windshield. “We’re coming up on the address.”

A massive gleaming commercial tower stood in front of them, with both exterior parking platforms and multiple entrances to internal parking garages lower down. Erik adjusted his course, which took them higher and toward one of the packed platforms.

Panicked people streamed out of the tower, rushing toward their vehicles. Flitters would lift off slowly, then suddenly rip away from the platform at high speed. A few people waved their arms at the approaching MX 60. Erik slowed his flitter and approached the platform carefully before landing.

Jia drew her stun pistol and hurried out of the vehicle so fast even Erik was impressed. She pulled out her badge and clipped it to the front of her suit jacket. Erik liberated the TR-7 from its compartment and slapped in a new magazine before exiting. He switched to single-barrel mode. No reason to waste ammo against a few robbers.

At least, not until he needed it.

A woman in a bright pink dress hurried over to them. She gestured toward the entrance doors. “You’re police, right?” She eyed the TR-7, trepidation on her face, before looking at Jia’s badge. “You’re here to stop the criminals, right?”

“Just get to safety,” Erik ordered. “We’ll handle them. Do you know if anyone got shot?”

The woman shook her head. “I just heard the gun. It sounded like a pop, then I saw it. I didn’t see anyone get shot. That’s all I know.” She darted away from the detectives, her face pale.

“It’s time for some swift justice,” Erik suggested. He jogged toward the entrance, staying close to the remaining parked vehicles.

Jia followed him, her eyes scanning the area. “Notice it?”

Erik slowed for a moment before nodding. “There’s no one else coming out anymore. Good. That’ll make this easier.” Jia and Erik darted from flitter to flitter for cover.

A man with a pistol stepped out of the tower. He yelped and fired in their direction, bullets ripping into the parked vehicles. Jia returned fire, nailing him three times with her stun pistol and sending his face on a one-way trip to the hard parking surface.

She was pretty sure he would need some mouth work after that abrupt stop.

The pair approached the door, continuing to use the remaining vehicles for cover, their weapons aimed forward at all times. The glass doors lay open, and a loud alarm trilled from inside. Based on the tower coordinates from the address they’d been given, the jewelry store should be near the entrance. A large bronze statue of a crying, kneeling woman filled the center of the courtyard, a remembrance statue for the Summer of Sorrow, Erik suspected. Tens of millions of people didn’t just die and be forgotten in a decade or two.

Or ever.

Erik flattened himself against the wall and waited for Jia to do the same after she finished applying binding ties to the stunned suspect. “Emma, can you hack the local system here and get me a camera feed?”

“On it,” she replied. “Accessing the system now, but this might take a few minutes.”

“Let’s get going while she’s working on that.” Erik nodded toward the courtyard. “We don’t want our guys to get away before our backup arrives.”

A few update messages on his smart lenses suggested additional police units would be there in about four minutes. It wasn’t a long time in normal circumstances, but it was more than enough time for criminals to load a flitter with small and valuable stones and flee.

He tapped commands into his PNIU to disable the updates, his standard action during tense situations over the previous few weeks. He didn’t need to be distracted in the middle of a firefight.

“Three, two, one…” Erik counted before rushing inside. He headed straight toward the base of the statue and crouched beside its legs. He doubted some random robbers had the gear they would need to blast through a huge bronze statue.

Jia matched his movements as she looked for more criminals. Broken glass littered the floor at a shop in the distance. A man stood near the entrance, pistol in hand and a bored look on his face. He jerked in their direction.

“Who’s there?” the man shouted. “You better get out of here if you know what’s good for you.”

“NSCPD,” Jia shouted back. “Drop your weapon and put your hands on your head.”

The criminal responded with two quick shots, but they bounced off the knees of the statue with a spark.

Erik grunted. “So much for them being smart.”

“If you don’t surrender, lethal force may be applied,” Jia called back. One look from Erik had her amend her statement as she rolled her eyes. “Make that ‘will be applied!’”

“Screw you, cop.” The criminal fired several more rounds. “You’re not taking me down.”

Erik popped up and fired a single shot. The criminal screamed as a bullet ripped through his leg. Jia nailed him with her stun pistol before he hit the ground. Shouts erupted from inside the shop.

“That’s one good thing about criminals around here,” Erik muttered. He advanced toward the store.

Jia took a deep breath as she moved on his flank. “What’s that?”

“They expect everyone, cops included, to roll over for them. Cocky criminals are easy to take down.” Erik finished his statement with another shot at a criminal emerging from the store. The round nailed the man in his right shoulder and he fell backward with a groan, his gun flying from his hand.

Another criminal skidded to a halt and raised his gun, but not quickly enough to avoid Jia’s stun bolt to the chest. He dropped to the ground with a thud. She turned and stunned the previously wounded man.

Erik and Jia moved closer to the entrance. They sprinted to the walls on either side of the shattered front windows. Rows of open display cases resting on thick reflecting metal filled the store, but there wasn’t any glass.

Two more quick shots rang out from an open backroom but missed the detectives. Judging by the sound, the men inside weren’t using anything heavier than the pistols he’d already seen.

“Trying to kill cops is pretty stupid,” Erik shouted. “But if you come out right now, you might survive this.”

The ensuing creative stream of profanities impressed Erik. He hadn’t heard that kind of language since leaving the Army.

“I’ve accessed the cameras for the floor you’re on, but the cameras to the store have been disabled,” Emma reported. “Diagnostics indicate there’s no active feed.”

“That makes sense,” Jia offered. “The cases aren’t broken. There is no way they aren’t bulletproof. That means the thieves needed to hack them somehow, probably through the system. An EMP would just leave them sealed.”

Erik nodded. “Just because they brought a few toys with them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t idiots.”

“Not saying they are, but they are armed criminal idiots.”

“A minor problem.”

“I’ll kill you, cops,” screamed a man from the backroom. “You better get the hell out of here if you want to live!”

Erik set his gun to two-barrel mode. “Lay down cover for me. I’m going to move inside.”

Jia nodded, her face grim. She fired a bolt into the back. The criminals remained out of the line of fire, so she followed up with another couple of shots, producing a pretty light show as part of her suppression fire.

Erik charged through the door and slid feet-first toward a display case. One of the criminals fired in his general direction but was only willing to risk his arm. His bullet went wide and bounced off the hard tile of the store’s floor.

Jia ceased fire and pulled back to the wall. One of the men took his chance to dart forward, shouting as he pulled the trigger over and over. Erik leaned to the side and fired into his knee. The man screamed and tumbled forward as most of his knee disappeared. His partner rushed into the room, his gun at his side.

Erik jumped up and pointed the TR-7 right at the new arrival’s chest. “Drop it,” he barked. “Or don’t, but I doubt you can survive two high-velocity rifle rounds at point-blank range.”

The criminal’s eyes widened at the sight of the huge weapon. He dropped his pistol and slowly raised his hands in the air.

“Don’t kill me,” he pled. “I told them we should surrender, but they didn’t listen to me.”

Erik snorted and nodded at the groaning man now missing a chunk of his knee. “He’s not dead. Not yet. On your knees, and turn around.”

Jia secured the prisoners with binding ties as Erik kept his weapon trained on them.

“Maybe a little overkill?” she suggested with a nod at the criminal with the knee wound.

Erik scoffed. “Nah. Slap medpatches on the holes and he’ll be fine. None of these guys has more than a single hole. No deaths, easy-to-patch injuries. I think they got off lightly.”

“Additional officers have landed and are on their way,” Emma explained. “I’ve sent your location and confirmed the takedown.”

“See?” Erik waved a hand around. “The ambulances will patch these bastards up, and they’ll be nice and healthy for trial.”

The only remaining unwounded and non-stunned criminal groaned and looked at the cops. “Of course, it had to be you two, of all the cops in Neo SoCal.”

“Who arrests you is irrelevant.” Jia folded her arms over her chest. “If you don’t want to be arrested, don’t commit crimes. It’s not that hard.”

Erik and Jia both turned at the sound of thunderous footsteps. A mob of officers sprinted toward the scene, stun pistols and rifles at the ready. A few of them carried actual slug throwers. They swarmed the downed suspects.

“You got this?” Erik asked the officers.

One of them nodded. “We’ve got this, Detective.” He looked at the blood splatters on the floor and walls. “Uh, good job.” His voice wavered.

“There’s something I need to show you back at my body,” Emma reported. “If you’re through ventilating shiny-rock-obsessed idiots.

Erik flipped on his safety and looked at Jia.

Jia nodded. “The important thing is that we stopped them. The uniformed officers and EMTs can handle it from here.”

They wandered back to the MX 60 with all the leisure of a couple taking a stroll in the park, the kind who just happened to bring a heavy weapon with them. Additional officers landed and filtered into the mall.

Erik was just pleased they would be handling the hard work of processing the scene. All he had to worry about were his personal statement and report later. The brass might get a little upset about his excessive force, but everyone above him seemed to be doing their best to stay out of his way, as if his mere presence would end with them being indicted.

He froze as he spotted the MX 60 and gritted his teeth. His heart rate kicked up, and bile rose in his throat. There were several large bullet holes in the side of the vehicle. His flitter had been a victim of the first robber’s wild firing.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Jia walked toward the car and knelt. She ran her fingers over one of the holes. “What about the self-sealing system?”

“There’s internal damage,” Emma explained. “I could force the repair system to activate, but that’s a risk because of the internal damage. You need to take better care of my body. I believe I specifically said this. I can’t believe I got shot. If a bullet struck my actual crystal, it’s not like you could take me to the corner shop for repairs.”

“Damn it.” Erik scrubbed a hand down his face as he looked around before focusing back on the car. “I need to bulletproof the Taxútnta.”

“Is that legal?” Jia pointed to the flitter. “Even the average police flitter isn’t bulletproof.”

“That’s because the bureaucrats are cheap, and it’s mostly legal, from what I’ve seen.” Erik frowned at the holes. “Emma, look around and find a place I can get it done legally and quickly.”

“Legally?” Emma chuckled. “How legal? There’s white, black, and a lot of gray, Erik.”

Erik poked a finger through a hole before he answered. “Light gray, so I can argue my way out of it if necessary.”