The killer detective

12 - A quest

Being broke in this system meant I couldn't even afford a coffee on my way to work. I felt like a complete zombie. After I got woken up by an insanely loud alarm clock, which basically made me jump up on my feet, and after brushing my teeth, I got to know that I was quite tired and hungry. At this point, I didn't have any coffee at home, because I was always buying it on the way to work. It was easier, faster, no dishes... But it also cost points. Just how is my poor life going to be today? I checked myself in the mirror. My hair seriously needed some work done. The only meal left in my flat was some cereal, which had been sitting in my pantry for god-knows how long, and an unopened white yogurt, which was left in the fridge.

I had to skip my usual morning routine, which meant going to my favorite café, where I was counted as an even regular customer. They always gave me a cookie or something. Even though they didn't have membership cards. I sighed while passing by. At least I can be wearing my comfortable work clothes... I was wearing light boots, black tight pants, a white tanktop, and a light denim jacket. A black backpack thrown over just one of my shoulders and a dog tag hidden inside of my tanktop hanging on my neck.

After walking for about half an hour, I finally reached the office. I sighed when checking into the building with my thumb fingerprint. My phone had just gotten a message saying I was seriously running low. My points were down to 50, which meant I couldn't even afford to go back home using public transportation. If I decided to go back home right now, I would have to jog for over an hour. And since they had decided to suspend me, I don't think they would give me the points from the mission anytime soon. I was broke. Probably even more than a homeless person would be. Even Ruinees have to have more points sitting in their pockets for the crack! And they get it from the system for free... Whereas I work hard, making sure everything is running smoothly, as it should be, and I am broke. But that's how it works. Unlike them, I can make money quite easily. They have to wait for their monthly pouring.

Even though the building looked shabby on the outside with even a non-automated door, it still had some security checks installed. If I didn't check in with my fingerprint, an alarm would go off. An alarm going off in this building... That was no joke. Basically, everyone here was armed and they had been trained well to get rid of anyone on sight! Detectives were no joke in our system.

I climbed the stairs to third floor. There I opened the door, which wasn't even locked, to enter a big connected room with at least 20 tables. Open-space working environment. A great way to conceal anything confidential, while most of the papers were usually just falling off of the tables. That's how busy we were with all the bureaucratic paperwork given to us by the Central Register.

"Hey, Alth. You got quite a few requests for the time you were gone. Check the desk." One of the guys turned away from the computer. He got up and stretched while waiting for my response.

"Thanks, Elph." I took the mug of cold coffee he then handed me. I kept sipping the awful cold instant coffee mixed with water while heading straight to my desk in the back of the office. As I was expecting, it was buried under tons of papers. And the only way for me to make money right now was to go through all the papers, stamp and sign the ones I was taking as a job, and process the down payments that came with tiny silver stamps on the papers.

QR codes were long gone when I was born, I only knew these silver stamps, which were getting smaller every couple of years. They had all information needed and it was always activated by finger touch. This way they made sure that non-authorized personnel wouldn't get the money. These papers had quests in them, which were assigned to people by the Central Point Register. Compared to the open quests, these were generally easier and we got less money from them. Whereas the open quests were usually pretty high in difficulty, took sometimes even months or years to fulfill, but had awful loads of money for completion. Also, anyone who managed to complete the quest would get the money.

"All right, let's get to this." I put the coffee mug on the ground next to my desk, which was the only place that had any free space, and took to the papers.

-Target 48 years old, hangout place at the old train station, gang member. High priority request. Down p*****t: 8000 points.-

Damn, at least for such a high-priority quest they should have put more money.! If they think this guy is so harmful to the system, why they don't put more money into this! Scrooges! This isn't even enough for me to work today and just go after this guy!  I stopped looking at the paper and sighed. I was checking the whole office. Everyone was busy with their paperwork and choosing their quests. Before I went on the mission, I didn't have to stay in the office even this long! Someone would have just handed me about three top-priority quests, and I would only turn around and go! But now I need the money. I don't have the luxury to wait for priority-assigned quests. And for open quests, it takes too much time... Now, what does it say... Looks like I'll have to be stalking. And they didn't provide much information, either. This is going to be a pain in the ass, seriously! Let's just do this today and hopefully, I'll be able to get him before tomorrow.

I stamped the paper, signed it, pressed my thumb on the little silver mark, which instantly poured 8000 points into my account. But I had to get more information. I had to browse the city database in the Central Point Register to get more information than was in the sheet. He indeed was seen hanging around the old train station a lot in the evening hours. But that means I will have to go to a dangerous area... They should have given more money for the down p*****t! Seriously!

"Already leaving, Alth? You've been here for only about 3 hours. Playing hooky?" Elph didn't have the heart to not try to have a dig at me. He was always making sure that he knew everything about everyone in the office. We didn't even need to check the security cameras, Elph always knew who came and left at an exact time!

"No way. Check out your stacks. I need to get money. Been pretty low since a mission..." I answered to him, hoping he would stop trying to get on my nerves. In fact, being nosy was a part of his job. He was one of the technicians making sure our office was running smoothly. He came to our office only about a year ago but he was so officious that he knew everything about everyone within the first few weeks.

"That so," Elph nodded his head.

"Yeah. Mind your own business." I slammed the door and went out of the building to another one, which was about 10 minutes by walk. It had our office's storage in it and was better guarded as well. I needed to get changed, get the office equipment and get going. All the equipment (mostly rifles) we had here was high-grade quality under strict licensing with a GPS activated while not being stored. All detectives had their own sets of equipment provided by the Central Register. Thanks to the GPS the Register and customers with approved requests could see where we were.

Hope I don't have to camp out too much tonight. I zipped the jacket and put on a cap, which was tightly sitting on my head. I picked up the rifle case and walked out of the storage. I had to go to the old train station, which was in one of the city suburbs. It was in one of the Better-no-go zones called Ruins. They got their name not only after how they looked inside but also because they were the places for Ruinees. If you wanted to keep your things at you and didn't want to be heavily injured or killed by them, you weren't coming even close to these areas.

The Ruinees, who lived there, were disqualified by the system during the preliminary selection processes. I was selected as a future candidate for an officer army position when I was nine years old at the boarding school. I was lucky. Whereas the people here weren't. But they got housing, food, water, and points from the system for mostly not doing anything. They could do whatever and live however they wanted in their part of the city. They sometimes did easy jobs like cleaning or taking care of the trash in the main town, but other than that, you wouldn't be able to see them there.

Ruinees didn't get a proper education like the rest of us. They were educated only until they were nine. Usually, they didn't pass the tests during that age either. That meant that in the future they were not allowed to own any weapons. As they didn't have anything to do, they did anything. They were getting drunk, they were taking drugs... Many of them even died of an overdose. Coming to the Ruins unprepared could cost anyone their life. Meeting one of the drug addicts, who were usually wielding knives and illegal guns, meant instant death.

I got off of the bus a couple of kilometers away from one of the unofficial entrances into the district. Even from this distance, I could see that the buildings were not well-kept, most of them were crumbling down, windows were missing or the glass in them was broken. Creepy place.

I didn't like coming here. It felt like going into a wild jungle at night. During the day it didn't feel as scary as now when it was already dark. I had been planning this operation for a couple of hours, so I got here later than I had wanted. I wanted to get inside of the ruins while the sun was setting.

Closing the distance to the Ruins, I could see that the street lights weren't working there, either. I gripped the strap of my rifle case stronger as I was walking through the grass. It was rustling with each step I took. The wind is starting to pick up. It will be harder to aim from a covered place if I want to get him... If it gets any stronger and I am inside of a building, it will be hard to estimate the wind! I took a long step in the heavy metal-layered boots. I tried to not step on a pile with a lot of trash. They sometimes had empty injections, which could carry anything in them. Getting infected by hepatitis or whatever these drug addicts could have, wasn't something I would be happy about. I was marching forward, not looking back at the fence with a barbed wire on the top. It had a tiny hole for people to slip in and out. Ruinees had opened it quite some time back and the System still hadn't done anything about it. As I was closing in on the buildings, my breath was getting faster and shaky. My heartbeat was getting faster. This isn't good. I can't get worked up now! I have to stay calm to hit my target!

I pulled the cap more into my face. I didn't need any of these lowlives to see my face. In fact, it would be very unfortunate if anyone saw me here.