My name is Andrew Geczy and my brand is 99% Geek found at 99geek.ca
I'm a writer, writing monthly chapters of novels like episodes of TV shows, releasing them in 4 weekly segments (a teaser and three acts) on Mondays on my Patreon page. Every month it's a different book, over a range of genres, and they sometimes even crossover and connect. At the end of the month the finished chapter is added to the PDFs attached at the bottom of every post.
I also have a pop culture blog that ranks TV shows.
Now playing: Now Watching: Daredevil Season 3 ep 6
Now Listening: Afterbuzz Podcasts (Catching up) Now Reading:
Oh man. That was my worst shift yet. Man. This job is so rough :( and getting rougher. Why is it whenever I join a job suddenly it just gets so much worse. Ugh. Like Tim hortons it was a steady decline. When I started, in Oakville, I was reading on my phone for like hours of the shift. By the end at a different store admittedly, I was busting my ass from beginning to end, and dealing with all night breakfast, and never ending criticisms, and no time even for a normal break.
Here they were telling me things during training like “make sure you bring a book” and “it’s so chill and easy.” And I guess it was for them, but last night was so busy and chaotic, and on top of that the manager had asked me to do some deeper cleaning of a few of the shelves. Which I did without complaint. But that on top of how crazy the night was and things kept going wrong and customers were being really difficult, it left me with out even enough free time to read through my RSS news feed, for the second time in a row that week. And yet I was being told I'd have to be sure not to fall asleep, which I'm like "I got this, that's absolutely not going to be a problem." People telling me I'll be bored, and I'm like "That's not possible. I have so much I can do and work on while I work. This'll be the best job ever." Well I was wrong. Manager comes in in the morning, I tell him what an awesome job I did on the shelf. He's like "Great. From now on I want you to do that every night, for all the shelves." I'm like "Wait what?" So yes, a job that was supposed to be super easy, with a lot of leisure time, where all that was supposed to be expected of me was attentiveness and medium cleaning has now turned into me being expected to tear the entire store apart, clean it down and then rebuild it, every single night. And what choice do I have but to do it? This job is still better than Tim Hortons, and I'm living in fear of being fired, daily. A woman fromt he afternoons was just fired. She was cute, and seemed like a good worker and responsible. Also a geek like me. The manager literally told me "Yeah, I don't know why she got fired, it was the people above me." Like, this is actually happening. I landed the easiest job ever, and before my very eyes it's morphing into another in what has been for me a long line of nightmare jobs.
I cannot stress this enough. I am the most unluckiest person in the god damned world. And I know everyone says that. "Oh I'm so unlucky." But the Geczy luck is unimaginable. Even my ex-girlfriend eventually admitted it. Roommates I had in University. Friends in high school. At least 3 times in my life if not more people have been around me long enough, usually a year or a couple of years, to eventually come to agree with me that yes, I am actually stupid unlucky. Like comics Archie Andrews unlucky, though a lot of time he makes his own luck, with stupid choices. This is worse than that. I'm literally talking about events where I've turned to these people and been like "Do you see what I mean." and they've been like "Yes, you are right. You're legitimately unlucky." Beyond anything they have seen before.
Murphy's law, the suggestion that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, has been a fact of my life for, it seems, as long as I've been alive. And it never stops. I don't know if I'm like building up a shit ton of karma points, like maybe to become rich and famous you have to earn it, and all these Karma chips will just cash in one day for instant stardom and multi-millions. And my life is all just my penance for one day in the future achieving my dreams. I just don't know how much longer I can hold on.
Oh and I got called out for saying “may the force be with you” again. Again! The manager doesn’t care, except he’s said he’s had multiple customers complain about it. And I’d already been curbing that habit after the last manager complained (I had stopped trying not to say it because I thought this location was more chill, but I still was saying it to like 1 outta 30 people as opposed to everyone like I'd made a habit of doing at Tim Hortons). Turns out, saying "May the Force Be With You" and "Live Long and Prosper" as a farewell was the worst habit to ever have, because apparently people hear the words "Live Long and Prosper" come out of the mouth of a friendly, kind, warm geeky kid at a local gas station, and it infuriates them so much they just have to come back during to day and report that disgusting offense to management. Because that makes complete fucking sense, and yet keeps happening again and again. I wonder if Tim Hortons got complaints too, and just never bothered to say anything. It was often strange the things they chose to care about. Apparently here too. Apparently every place in the world has very specific and arbitrary rules for what is and what isn't appropriate. I just, this whole thing is make my head hurt. And it's all so stressful.
I need a Buddha box.
Oh. Also. Daredevil was cancelled.
This is clearly the darkest timeline.
Geekly Weekly TV Rankings ( ➤ for new, 🎈👑🎈 for the winner, 🐍 for the loser):
🎈👑🎈➤South Park ***** Great episode this week. POssibly best episode of the seaosn. All the pieces seemed to fall into place, but more than that, yet again they dealt with issues that are really close to my life. Criticized things in my life I too have spent a long long time thinking about and criticizing. And they came to all the same conclusions I did. Kyle said it best. "Everyone feels anxiety. Everyone feels nervous, or scared to be around people. But you know what they do? They get over it." That was biting. Then in the B story you have the PC babies Crawling around town protesting things, and everyone immediately caves to them, but then also talks down to them like they are babies, while giving them everything they want. I find it hilarious. Just genius. Even if maybe I'm a little bit of a PC baby. I think they are too. I think in a lot of ways this episode was them making fun of themselves, and that why it feels personal to me too. But I'm introspective. I can take criticism. I know I'm not perfect. I can still laugh even when I'm being made fun of. I read something somewhere, reddit maybe? A comment. "The best criticisms come not from hate or ignorance, but from love." I love South Park. I wish I had released the TV rankings yesterday so The Flash could have enjoyed at least one daily in the top spot.
➤The Flash ***** Okay. This probably needs to just have the top spot, because it made me literally cry three times. Like tears streaming down my face ugly crying. Maybe no ugly crying. There was no snot. But I Frodo Baggins cried. You know, wide eyes with that single meaty tear. But like I had a steady stream. It was just the themes. And the little girl. And Nora and her dad. And how much he treats her like she's his daughter when he hasn't even had her yet, and the way Nora had to come to terms with mortality, and she's finally growing and learning, and and, and then weather witch killed her dad with a truck. Lol. Gotta say, Cicada's "sister?" seemed a little too old to want to play with a doll house, or even specifically that dollhouse. Like, maybe on the border, but then you take into account the trauma too, and there's no way she gives a fucking shit about that dollhouse. Especially after showing how perceptive she was at human psychology! Why not get her textbooks to become a therapist?
Arrow ***** Great
episode of Arrow this week. Such a good episode, super intense from
beginning to end. Could have been a finale. Some great fight scenes, a
lot of Diaz posturing, and it was nice to see him die in the end, once
and for all. They killed off a lot of people, in fact, this episode.
This was an episode where things happened. People didn't just talk about
things happening, like THe Gifted. Shit was getting done this episode. 5
stars, but I give it 5 stars with an asterisk. I just watched Daredevil
season 3 episode 4. There is an insane scene in a prison, and this
episode sort of felt like "Hey we can do this too!" And they totally did
it too! They really did, which for CW is super impressive. 5 stars. But
it wasn't as good. Sorry, it wasn't even close. Still, for the show it
was a great episode. Just awesome.
Supergirl ****1/2 That
was a good episode this week. I love how the stories they are telling
this season are very different than the stories we are used to. There's
nothing status quo about any of this and it's wonderfully exciting. The
only drag this week was Lena Luthor. The first scene was such an obvious
foreshadow to how her subplot would end, the whole time I was just
watching the expected pieces fall into place barreling us towards the
poor man's death.
Legends of Tomorrow **** It's
weird because the plot I enjoyed most this episode had nothing to do
with any of the main characters.Watching Ava and Nora and the cute new
girl hang out in a locked down prison was a lot of fun. I enjoy Nora,
and the new girl, and hope we'll see more of them. We don't even need
the Legends anymore. Their story was alright, but I'm getting tired of
Nate leaving every episode, just to still feature just as heavily in the
next episoe. Do we have to hear him say goodbye every time for the last
five minutes of every episode?
Doctor Who **** Good
episode of Doctor Who this week, a twisty story about witches that
ended up being an alien invasion from an underground ancient prison.
Again it did a good job of combining classic Doctor Who storytelling
with modern day social commentary. I've heard complaints from people
that the social commentary is ruining the show, but I don't have a
problem with it at all. The episode was super strong, but most Doctor
Who episodes aren't. I've been critical of every season of the show
since day one. I still love it. A highlight this week was the gay
paranoid king, who apparently had a fancy for da black dick. I was
impressed how much the Doctor's companion just took it in stride. It was
fun. That king had a lot of really fun moments, as shitty of a person
as he was he was fun to follow for an episode. Even when they left it
was a fun little "...where did they go?"
The Walking Dead ****Good
scary episode this week. These whisperers are the most fun thing this
show has done in a while. I enjoyed the episode as a whole, though I had
been spoiled that a death was coming. I was hoping it was one of those
dumb kids, but somehow the dumb kids get away with everything, Henry
gets stuck in prison, Oh and Jesus. Jesus christ Jesus. Also I was
hoping Michonne would like have a sword fight with the guy or something,
but naw he just died in the chaos.
➤Riverdale **** Good episode of Riverdale this week. Not great, the show can be so strangely surreal. And often times it's in the best way possible. And then a single student invites like 12 parents from across the school for a secret meeting, and they all came, learned it was Betty and was like "Alright, you're clearly on to something. We'll hear you out." Yeah right! They'd be like "Get this girl out of my face, these silly games too." They'd act like Hiram. Maybe I'm being too critical, maybe this is all just coming off as stupid cause this G&G cult is so stupid. That said, the twist at the end with Betty at the (indoctrination?) school was crazy. But I could care less about Archie leaving town, so soon after being split up by the jail. Ugh.
➤The Goldbergs ****Alright episode of the show, but like the last time I criticized the Goldbergs, this show is just a bunch of hijinx in a bow, and it certainly was trying to lead the characters anywhere interesting this episode. But the jokes were funny, and it largely worked. I think my favourite aspect of the episode was JTP trying to help Barry with his dad, and especially the one and only voice of reason in the group. Is it Jason Bradley? I can't remember but he was hilarious this episode, and had a surprising lot to do.
➤The Gifted ****It's not that this episode was better than any other episode, it still had all the same faults. But instead of being a better show, they chose the next best thing, and they focused on Lorna for the episode. Lorna and her daughter, and her father (Magneto). It was a great episode if you like Lorna, and I do like Lorna, despite the fact that she's clearly broken. I don't quite get how she was hated in her high school though. I would have thought she was the coolest chick. I'd have been her friend, if she didn't have any. Though she'd probably hate me. It's too bad they couldn't talk about Magneto by name. It's also too bad Michael Fassbender can't turn up for a couple episodes. Not that I think he should want to.
➤Black Lightning ***1/2It was a fine episode of Black Lightning. I'm worried about Jenn, I thought the stuff about the kids was interesting, and the fight against the "Sanjay?" was alright and perfectly watchable. But it wasn't anything to write home about, and it's too bad that one woman was a great villain and they ended up beating her pretty easily. But still, it was a decent episode, and kept my interest. Oh and why did they think electrocuting Black Lightning would be an effective form of torture? That was really dumb.
Star Wars Resistance *** It was an
alright episode this week. I didn't care too much about what was going
on, but it wasn't a bad episode by any stretch. I'm a little confused
though. So did Yieger say that his brother killed his wife and kids in
the crash? Cause if so, I can understand why he wouldn't want to forgive
him... but damn that seems dark.
🐍➤ The Rookie *It's out. Having a bad morning I guess. At least, slept weird, and I just don't have time for bullshit. I say after watching The Flash and crying three times. Like tears streaming down my face. Anyway, this starts with their cruiser turning upside down, and Dark Matter chick is at the wheel, and her trainer is like "That go the way you expect Boot?" cause of course he's some alpha male douchebag, and he's trying to prove to her that she's too soft, and she's trying to prove that though a woman she can be just as strong as a man. Because everyone needs the strength of an alpha male, or needs to aspire to it. We then cut to a dive bar we people start drinking really heavily and talking about how manly they are, and all the manly alpha male douchebag things they do. I'm done. I just came from Legends where 3 women ate cake, and it was beautiful. And this show is not going to take that away from me. ANd no I'm not gay, I'm just not very masculine, and that's okay, except it isn't because of shows like the rookie that maintain that alpha male douchery is what we should aspire to. So anyway, I'm done.
Now playing: Diablo 3 (Switch) Now Watching: Daredevil Season 3 Now Listening: Afterbuzz podcasts Now Reading: Some old shitty comic
I've been feeling melancholy lately. Maybe it's my stress from my finances being so bad I've got a bank calling me like 4 times a day (I'm afraid to pick up) and money just isn't coming in fast enough. Maybes it's the weather, it seems it's dark all day everyday. It sucks, because finally my life has some sense of stability in a lot of ways, and I've had free time, but I've been so bleh about using it. There's like nothing I'm enthused to do. Except smoke. I've been trying hard to quit. This'll be my last pack. I'm going to quit spending money, strict my food to the bare minimum and I'm gonna turn my finances around. Work some five day work weeks. Get myself off nicotine. I have to. It's killing me. In so many ways.
I could have released this yesterday, but I only had the above paragraph, and figured it wasn't worth bugging people just to hear me complain. Which is 90% of these blogs, and everytime I feel shitty about it. Like people will read this and the only thing they'll glean from it is that I'm a very sad broken human being. So I ask the question, even though no one ever responds. What's more important to you. That I release this daily, or that it imparts something of some kind of value. I can imagine a scenario where most of you are here for the Geekly Weekly rankings, and just scroll right past my musings and complaints. In fact that might even be the suggested way to consume these blogs if you asked me. If that's true, and you'd rather get a daily update from me, even if it's largely nothing but I watched some stuff, let me know. It'll make me feel better. Like I'm not wasting everyone's time. Because I don't want to do that. Any suggestions you have for anything I do, anything that I CAN do to be of greater value in your life, let me know and I'm willing to at the very least listen and consider if not outright oblige.
I talked to a commenter on youtube, and I'm not the only one feeling melancholy. struggling. Everyone is, it seems. Be strong. Live long and prosper, and may the force be with you.
I'm off to my second night shift.
Geekly Weekly TV Rankings ( ➤ for new ):
➤Arrow *****Great episode of Arrow this week. Such a good episode, super intense from beginning to end. Could have been a finale. Some great fight scenes, a lot of Diaz posturing, and it was nice to see him die in the end, once and for all. They killed off a lot of people, in fact, this episode. This was an episode where things happened. People didn't just talk about things happening, like THe Gifted. Shit was getting done this episode. 5 stars, but I give it 5 stars with an asterisk. I just watched Daredevil season 3 episode 4. There is an insane scene in a prison, and this episode sort of felt like "Hey we can do this too!" And they totally did it too! They really did, which for CW is super impressive. 5 stars. But it wasn't as good. Sorry, it wasn't even close. Still, for the show it was a great episode. Just awesome.
➤Supergirl ****1/2 That was a good episode this week. I love how the stories they are telling this season are very different than the stories we are used to. There's nothing status quo about any of this and it's wonderfully exciting. The only drag this week was Lena Luthor. The first scene was such an obvious foreshadow to how her subplot would end, the whole time I was just watching the expected pieces fall into place barreling us towards the poor man's death.
➤Legends of Tomorrow ****It's weird because the plot I enjoyed most this episode had nothing to do with any of the main characters.Watching Ava and Nora and the cute new girl hang out in a locked down prison was a lot of fun. I enjoy Nora, and the new girl, and hope we'll see more of them. We don't even need the Legends anymore. Their story was alright, but I'm getting tired of Nate leaving every episode, just to still feature just as heavily in the next episoe. Do we have to hear him say goodbye every time for the last five minutes of every episode?
➤ Doctor Who ****Good episode of Doctor Who this week, a twisty story about witches that ended up being an alien invasion from an underground ancient prison. Again it did a good job of combining classic Doctor Who storytelling with modern day social commentary. I've heard complaints from people that the social commentary is ruining the show, but I don't have a problem with it at all. The episode was super strong, but most Doctor Who episodes aren't. I've been critical of every season of the show since day one. I still love it. A highlight this week was the gay paranoid king, who apparently had a fancy for da black dick. I was impressed how much the Doctor's companion just took it in stride. It was fun. That king had a lot of really fun moments, as shitty of a person as he was he was fun to follow for an episode. Even when they left it was a fun little "...where did they go?"
➤ The Walking Dead ****Good scary episode this week. These whisperers are the most fun thing this show has done in a while. I enjoyed the episode as a whole, though I had been spoiled that a death was coming. I was hoping it was one of those dumb kids, but somehow the dumb kids get away with everything, Henry gets stuck in prison, Oh and Jesus. Jesus christ Jesus. Also I was hoping Michonne would like have a sword fight with the guy or something, but naw he just died in the chaos.
➤ Star Wars Resistance ***It was an alright episode this week. I didn't care too much about what was going on, but it wasn't a bad episode by any stretch. I'm a little confused though. So did Yieger say that his brother killed his wife and kids in the crash? Cause if so, I can understand why he wouldn't want to forgive him... but damn that seems dark.
Now playing: Star Wars Battlefront 2 Now Watching: Achievement hunter vids
Now Listening:Afterbuzz podcasts Now Reading: My novel for release
Sorry I was a little lax with the daily blogs. There hasn't been much in the way of goings on in pop culture since Thankgsgivings. All anyone is talking about is shopping and sales. Two things I can enjoy because I'm broke as shit. I did it to myself of course. The really frustrating thing is that no matter how hard I try to save money, I always end up spending more money than I earn anyway. Not that I can really say I'm trying that hard when I bought DIablo 3, Pokemon Lets GO, and Super Smash Brothers all in the same month. Oh and Hitman 2. Jesus christ. At least I had the foresight not to buy Fallout 76 on sale. Not that I don't think it would be worth it, just that, unlike the other games that I am open to playing right away, Fallout 76 would get added to a list of thousands of games, with little hope of me getting to it in less than a year. And one thing I've learned about grabbing games on big sales. If I don't get to them in years... they are guaranteed to be cheaper by then. Even Nintendo now, thank god, though they used to be the outlier in that regard.
So sorry there hasn't been a lot of blogging going on. On the other hand, there's been plenty of great content for fans of my stuff. I've got a new audio podcast, after finding out my earlier episodes had a big spike in hits. I also finished the monthly chapter and released it to my 1 patreon subscriber. And then I released the chapter for free, alongside the other chapters, right here for everyone to read. Should be right below, I believe. It's all three released chapters of Dakotah Slade, a stand alone spinoff of Urban Fantasy. But not that stand alone, next "episode" they will in fact be sharing a crossover event. Characters from Urban Fantasy will be coming to Dakotah Slade, and then vice versa, and then vice versa again.
If you're new to this blog or me, what I'm talking about is my brand. 99% geek, at 99geek.ca I'm a writer. I write novels, but my goal in life is to write for TV. So I write these novels liek they are seasons of TV shows, with each chapter being a new episode. I have multiple stories, Fantasy, Sci-fi, and Urban Fantasy. Some even have spin offs. Every month it's a different book and genre, and I cycle through, releasing chapters in PDFs to my subscribers, and now in unformatted blog posts here to my non-subscribers. More than money I just want an audience. I just want people to find my work and enjoy it, and become a fan of my characters. I wanna hear feedback, see people gush about their favourite characters, and speculate what could happen next. I might not be a good enough writer to warrant that kind of following. But I want to become one. And I'm either going to succeed, or die trying. So if you want, read my stuff here for free, check out all the awesome Video Game streaming I've been up to (and theres more to come just waiting on Twitch for me to export), enjoy these blogs, my constant twitter feed. Spread the word, speak up, be heard. And if you have the dollar a month to give, that support would mean the world to me, and god knows I need it. My very life depends on it. Even if you aren't interested in reading my stuff, but love my other content. Subscribe on my patreon in support of my other endeavors, then bug me constantly to do more, and I guarantee I'll listen. But give only what you can, and if you can't give anything your time and voice mean so much more to me. Let's make 99% Geek something that can sustain. Let's make it something people can actually enjoy.
Geekly Weekly TV Rankings ( ➤ for new ):
Supergirl*****
I'm sticking with my verdict that this is the best season of this show yet. I mean she fought a mutha-fucking dragon! On main street. For minutes! How did they have the CG budget for that? That was awesome! And Brainiac 5 was so good as well. He had so many awesome moments. I loved his perfect instant cover for secretly investigating the pamphlets, but then that fight scene was something else. Finally, I'm really enjoying Manchester. He's got a lot of charisma, but he's also very broken and brutal, and the show is really not holding back on him torturing people with sharp tools and electricity, or shooting down fleeing thugs in cold blood. I don't know what they are going to do with him yet, because clearly we're not supposed to think what he's doing is good, but damn is the actor fantastic.
Doctor Who *****
Awesome episode of Doctor Who. Legitimately good, well written, intense. classic who feel. fun setting and plot, enjoyable characters played by good actors. Did I mention well written? I made an excuse for this show at the beginning of the season, that it always has charm but it's not always well written. Well we've had some serious actually well scripted hours of television this season, and this is another one. I didn't see the twist coming for who the villain is. I didn't mind the bubble wrap reveal though. I made a joke about never popping bubble wrap again, like how Blink is supposed to make you look at angel statues differently, or you never go in the ocean after watching Jaws. But then the final moment of the episode made me think that was what they were going for as well, which would be the laziest attempt at that ever, considering the reveal wasn't until the final 8 minutes, and it wasn't really used as horror at all. There was really just the one time with Kira where it mattered at all. But okay, as I said, laziest attempt at that sort of "meme" thing I've ever seen, but I don't think that distracts from an otherwise fantastic episode. And the true villain was another great metaphor to our current political climate, a working man feeling like he's being replaced, and the Doctor arguing that the system isn't always broken, sometimes it's the people abusing the system, taking advantage of it. The old man's line "I think the only part of the system that's broken here is you." So good.
Arrow *****
Great week of television, especially if you're a geek like I am. I loved the Laurel-centric storyline, as she learned what it means to be a hero,standing up for whats right even if it's not for a reward. Even when you're hated for it. You do what's right anyway. It was nice having Anitole around again. I don't understand any of DIaz's choices, but better he let Anitole live than be a smart villain and kill the poor Russian. I thought Felicity was compelling, if a little morally ambiguous, and the end was a needed relief. maybe Oliver will finally get free. But that twist. I hated that weasel. I was hoping he'd die, but being evil works too.
➤Titans ***** This was a good episode of the show, if a little cliche. The classic heroes get captured and trapped in insane asylum to be tortured for an episode. It was harrowing, and well done for the most part. I enjoyed when Raven killed that guy, or when Gar killed that guy. Or when Dick killed all those guys. Or when Kory blew up the building. It was a good episode. This show grows on me more and more every week. If this is the future of DC< DC looks good. And they have some of comic TV's best fight scenes too.
The Flash ****1/2 A good episode this week. I'm getting a little tired of Cecile coming on so strong. I get that she wants to be relevant, and she's allowed, but she doesn't have to put it on so thick. "I can be intimidating!" It almost seems like the actress thinks she's in a kid's show or something. It's overacting to the extreme, and it drives me crazy. I know part of her role this season was to hide that Joe West has back issues, and is hopefully seeking treatment. But I'd welcome her with open arms on the team if she wasn't so annoying. I do love Nora though, and her enthusiasm for her mother is delicious. I love Sherloque too. As always Tom Cavanagh is a national treasure, and a highlight of the show. Even though his character has had no reason to exist for seasons now, the fact they keep finding ways to bring him back anyway is most appreciated by me.
Legends of Tomorrow ****1/2 Fun episode this week, and not really trying to be much more. I have to admit that the thread they used to connect Mick with the filmmaking with Japan around the time of Godzilla was thin at best. I actually read a review saying as such and I disagreed until just now when I thought about it. It did throw me a bit, but everything worked out at the end when his warrior woman with three boobs came to life and they made out over the spoils of her victory. Also I enjoyed seeing Ava Sharpe in civilian clothes. She rocked that sweater!
Family Guy **** Funny episode, but it didn't set my hair on fire. I liked a bunch of the Meg jokes, and the references were really on point. Okay maybe my hair smouldered a little. I loved all the deep cuts, that were perfectly aimed for my age group. That GoldenEye scene at the end was priceless.
Black Lightning ****
Good episode of Black Lightning this week, largely content to just spin the wheels it already had in motion. From the producers that brought you "Surprise Gambi's dead!" comes "Surprise, Gambi's alive" and beyond that Anissa's plot helping the gang family was interesting. It quickly grew to be an A plot, but sorta seemed to come out of nowhere, and now fuels the cliffhanger. I'm also starting to warm up to Khaleel, and his relationship with Jenn. And seeing the mom grieve uncontrollably was heartbreaking.
The Walking Dead **** Good episode of walking dead. A little slow, and no bad ass Judith, but I love what they're setting up. I cant wait for the whisperers. And it was nice to see Jesus again, and see him getting along with Aaron, and training him. Michonne needs to chill out, but other than that, next week is looking like it could be the best episode of the season. Maybe five stars?
Star Wars Resistance ****
That was a fun, intense episode of Resistance. I really enjoyed it, and the action, and the character dynamics. I liked getting more time with the engineer, and I liked the way she sort of idolized Sinara. Everytime I hear the name Sinara, though, I think of Agents of SHIELD. And are we not allowed to shoot people in this show. Cause there were multiple times the leader dude could have just saved the main character with a well placed shot, there were so many chances he could have shot the pirates blatantly trying to kill them, and instead they were shooting the guns out of their hand, or dropping the gun to fight them hand to hand. Is there a rule in this cartoon that engineers like them need to have some moral stance about killing murderous pirates? Unbelievable.
Saturday Night Live ***
A very average episode of the show. Not as bad as some episodes this season, but very far from the kind of episodes that make me laugh and laugh until I cried. There were things to chuckle to, but it was still largely uncomfortable barely comedy. Not the best season of this show so far, not by a long shot.
The Rookie **I was really close to dropping this one. I did say after the pilot that I would drop the show if they ever broke up Nathan Fillion and the girl from Dark Matter. Well they did, and my time was limited. But the storytelling drew me in and I held on for the episode. Barely. We'll see about last week.
➤ZNation *There are times when
ZNation is so good, and then I feel bad and guilty because I always
treat it as a lower tier show. As a show that's barely holding on to my
attention. Then an episode like this comes by and reminds me why that
is. It was just boring, and stupid, and frankly a complete waste of
time. The Addy love interest was forced. The cowboy angle did nothing
for me. Neither did them wrangling up zombies. I didn't like the guy
feeding other guys his brains. The Zs hiding in the bushes. Also I don't
really understand in the beginning when the main chick was like "We
gotta figure out what they're putting in these biscuits." Didn't we
already do that? We figured out where they came from, we figured out the
secret ingredient. SO why do they keep asking. And every time it's like
"Oh. It's brains... okay. But no really, what is it? Oh brains. Okay."
And while I'm on it, shitting all over this show that until now has had a
great season, I haven't liked the talker angle at all all season. It's
come across as dumb to me this whole time. The strengths of the show
just usually makes up for it. Oh I even hate Addy's hair covering her
missing eye. Just wear an eye patch like everyone else. Did I mention Charlie's subplot was the worst. I fucking hate this episode so much. The only highlight this episode was the woman in the mask. She's so badass, and sexy, and sarcastic.
Sorry in advanced for the text block. That's the problem with copying from Word to here, it doesn't preserve the paragraph spacing. I could go through and hit enter after each line, easier when I was releasing just two scenes for free a month, but I only have one subscriber on Patreon, and I'm doing this because I want an audience a lot more than because I want money. So I'd like to start offering the full chapters for free here, in the messy formatting if need be, and if you really want a friendly reading experience, you can subscribe at patreon.com/99geek for the properly formatted PDFs. This month I included all 3 chapters of Dakotah Slade so far released, but don't expect that for everything going forward. I try to write my chapters to be at least somewhat self contained, and friendly to new readers, so next month's Adrift Homeless "episode" you'll have to jump into cold, unless you pay the dollar and get access to my entire archived library. Now over a thousand pages of content. Nearing Two thousand even. Stories that crossover. Like the story below. Enjoy the entire text of Dakotah Slade so far, a gift for Thanksgiving. My thanks to you. Without further ado, 99geek.ca presents:
“I hate you!” Dakotah said with a giggle,
holding her glasses in place while clenching her legs together. “You’re the god
damned worst.”
“Mmmf,” came her boyfriend’s muffled sounds
from between her thighs. He replaced his tongue with two of his fingers, and
stood up to kiss her passionately. She was tall, but he was taller, and she’d
have had to go on her tippy-toes had he not sat her on the wooden bar of their
favourite pub. His kiss was deep and passionate, and she could taste herself on
his lips as she drew him into her embrace. She wrapped her long black boots
around his torso, as he continued to play her like an instrument.
“Stop,” she whispered in his ear though she
knew she didn’t want him to. And he didn’t seem to want to either. With a
shudder, she felt an orgasm roll through her body, and felt her juices leak
over the counter and off onto the floor.
“Oh my god!” she said with a laugh as she
could feel her face turn red, and her boyfriend Cale laughed too, grabbing
napkins and a towel to mop it up. “Look what you made me do.”
“I love you so much,” Cale said, kissing
her even while he cleaned up her mess with his hands. She was about to say the
same back at him, affectionately touching his large bare muscular arms
protruding from his sleeveless shirt, but she was interrupted as the bartender
came in from the back.
“You two are still here?” Carol asked, an
older short round Asian lady who ran the bar and made a habit of putting up
with them. She was like a mother figure to them, more than their mothers had
ever been. Dakotah had met Cale in that very bar; Carol had been the one who had
introduced them.
From the moment Dakotah’s eyes landed on
Cale, and locked with his own dark wells, she knew that she loved him at first
sight. She knew, before they’d ever even touched, that her spirit or soul would
be forever entangled with Cale’s, at least for as long as they drew breath. It
wasn’t long after that moment before they were entangling both in spirit and
every other way they could come up with. He filled all her holes, both
figuratively and literally.
“Did you spill a drink?” Carol asked,
spotting the rag Cale had just been using. Crossing the bar he threw out the
napkins and seemed about to correct the bartender.
“Yes,” Dakotah said quickly, glad Carol
hadn’t caught what they’d been up to before she’d come in. She gave a warning
look to her boyfriend.
He answered the bartender’s first question
instead. “We’re waiting for a business associate,” he told her, “He’ll be by
soon, and then we can help you flip the chairs.”
“Will your business associate be wanting a
drink?” Carol asked with a raise of her eyebrow.
“I can take care of it,” Cale told her,
flashing the woman a charismatic grin, a toothy smile that made Dakotah wanna
reach out and kiss him. “You can go upstairs and rest, I’ve got things from
here.”
“I love you,” Dakotah said, reaching her
arms out to Cale from her place still on the bar. He came to her, and they
re-embraced. His comforting warmth was like a safety blanket around her. As
long as she had him by her side she no longer felt afraid.
Love was everything. It was all encompassing
and all consuming. When love grabbed hold of someone, good luck to any attempts
at rationale. Good luck getting out alive. Like John Carpenter’s The Thing,
love tears at a person, rips them to shreds. Murders the person they were. And
then becomes them, or at least some facsimile that looks like them but doesn’t
act quite like they used to.
And then one day it’s just gone. And then
you’re alone.
*
She woke with a start, lifting her head off
the bar where she must have passed out the night before. Her cheek had been
resting on the very spot her butt had sat only one year before. She could still
remember all of it, as if it had been yesterday. How he smelled, how he tasted.
She could still feel his strong arms carrying her to their bed, she could still
feel his warm body pressing against her, enveloping her. Smothering her under
his weight, just the way she liked it.
“You’re awake,” Carol said, coming down the
stairs from her loft above in a bathrobe.
“Did I sleep here last night?” Dakotah
asked groggily, unable to remember anything from the night before as her head
pounded with the king of all headaches. There was still half a pint of beer in
a glass beside her, and she drank it down in one large gulp, feeling the warm
alcohol slide comfortably down her hatch. Her stomach twisted, and her headache
subsided slightly.
“Well if you’re trying to suggest that I
took you home last night, undressed you, put you to bed, then redressed you in
the morning with the same clothes you wore last night and repositioned you at
my bar…” Carol trailed off as Dakotah looked at her expectantly. “I didn’t do
that.”
“Well can I have another?” Dakotah asked,
raising her glass to Carol. She looked around the large empty bar, where Carol
had clearly cleaned up around her. Whatever insanity had happened last night,
there was no sign of it now as the dingy old pub had been reset for the next
night of drunken debauchery.
Carol got behind the bar to set a kettle to
boil, and she crossed her arms as she looked disapprovingly down on Dakotah.
“You still haven’t paid me for all your drinks last night,” Carol told her
surrogate daughter. “Pay me for just one and you can have another.”
Dakotah slid her huge black purse from her
arm, and started rummaging through it. “I’m gonna come into a little money any
day now,” Dakotah insisted, pushing aside her Witchblade comic book and
eyeliner. Her tazer. Empty change purse.
“Like trip over it on your way out the
door?” Carol asked Dakotah with arms still crossed. “Dakotah. I love you. But
I’m cutting you off.”
“Come on,” Dakotah said to herself, digging
her hand deep into her purse. “I only need two toonies and a loonie.”
Carol turned on the TV as Dakotah continued
searching every corner of her unwieldly large bag. The bartender switched it to
the news where a reporter seemed to be doing a story out of their neighbouring
town of Oakville.
“It was at the scene behind me here,” the
reporter said into the camera, standing in front of a dock, “where sixty
vampire children set sail in a large shipping barge off to a new world where
they might live free from the risk of hurting others.”
“Vampires?” Carol repeated, with a shake of
her head. “Fake news is getting worse and worse these days.”
“I believe in vampires,” Dakotah said,
checking her coin purse for a third time in hopes she might find some coins she
hadn’t seen any of the previous times. “People who feed off the social energy
of others. They exist.”
“You also believe in witchcraft and every
conspiracy theory you’ve ever read,” Carol said. “I remain unconvinced.”
Carol returned to her kettle as it whistled
away. The reporter on screen was just finishing her story. “This is Isabol
Teung of Voice News, Signing off. Back to you Brian!”
“Ah hah!” Dakotah exclaimed with excitement
as her finger brushed against something metal. She pulled the coin from her bag
as the door to the bar opened, and she lifted it to the light that streamed in
from the open doorway.
“Damn,” she said. Just a quarter. She
looked past the coin to see two of her friends entering the bar. Brienne and
Alex. She’d gone to high school with them, so many years ago now. They were all
about the same age, and Dakotah had just turned twenty. Brienne had long
frizzled dreadlocks, and she was supporting her boyfriend Alex who seemed to be
feeling unwell.
“Dee!” Brienne called into the bar as she
helped her boyfriend through the doorway. “Help!”
“Brienne!” Dakotah said her name in
greeting, getting up to join them. “Alex! Can I borrow five bucks?”
“Give it a rest Dee,” Brienne said, as
Dakotah took Alex’s other arm. “Something’s wrong with Alex.”
He doubled over against a table and Dakotah
put down a chair for him to sit on. “I feel amazing,” he insisted smiling even
as he was wincing in pain. “I mean except for my stomach.”
“He took something new,” Brienne told
Dakotah.
“What?”
“Some kind of drug,” Brienne continued. “I
told him not to. I swear to god. I was like ‘Don’t take it Alex. You gotta have
scientists like tell us it’s okay first.’ But you know Alex and science.”
Brienne rolled her eyes, obviously very concerned. Alex was more akin to
Dakotah than Brienne. He was open to new experiences, and didn’t believe in the
‘conventional truths’ the government brainwashed society with.
“Carol,” Dakotah called to the bartender.
“He needs some water.”
Alex groaned and doubled over in his seat,
clutching desperately at his stomach.
“What can I do?” Brienne asked him in loud
hysteria, crouching down beside him. “Tell me what I can do!”
“It hurts!” Alex barely managed to utter.
“Feels like my stomach is burn’n up. Oh god it hurts! It hurts!”
Brienne clutched Alex’s hand, tears
streaming down her face. She loved him, they were each other’s entire world.
Dakotah had once had a love like theirs. But love burned like a fire, consuming
everything, eating away until there was nothing left but ash.
Alex’s shirt caught fire. Dakotah couldn’t
see where the flame had originated from, but it seemed to spread from his
belly, quickly engulfing his torso. Brienne screamed, the bright orange flames
lashing at her and forcing her to release Alex’s hand. Both women backed away
from him, screaming as their friend spasmed and writhed in his seat. As loud as
their screams were, it wasn’t enough to drown out his own, an agonizing wail
the likes of which neither would hear quite the like of again.
It took less than a minute before his
screams were nothing but a memory, and a smoking pile of ash was all that
remained of Alex. There was silence in the bar, all except for Brienne’s sobs.
Dakotah inhaled, gasping for breath though she hadn’t even realized she’d been
holding it.
“What the hell was that?” she asked at
last, as Carol picked up her phone. Dakotah heard her finger land three times.
***
Anderson woke up on his couch slowly, his
hand clenching in pain. Remnants of a months-old wound. It was the joints,
specifically the ones that had been broken. His other scars still ached as
well. Two months of recovery, and he still didn’t feel quite the same. He
didn’t think he’d ever feel completely the same again.
His apartment was a disaster. Dirty clothes
littered the floor, mixed with empty potato chip bags and other junk food
wrappers. He had nothing but a bath robe on, and couldn’t even remember the
last time he’d showered. Or what day it was. He turned on the TV to a rerun of
Price is Right. Getting off his ass, Anderson fumbled into his kitchen to cook
himself up a bowl of cereal. Opening the fridge, he smelled the milk,
disappointed it had gone sour. Only a week after its best before date. He’d had
milk last twice that long.
Pouring the Fruit Loops into the cleanest
bowl he could find on a counter littered with dirty dishes, Anderson was just
about to collapse back on the couch and enjoy the comedy stylings of Drew Carry
when his phone went off. He almost spilled his bowl of cereal in his lap as the
loud ringtone blared. He’d not heard the phone ring in weeks. Grabbing his
cellphone from the table in front of him, he took one look at the number on the
screen and answered it.
“Chief,” Anderson said into the phone
before the person on the other end could talk. “Is it time?” He glanced to the
detective badge still sitting in the display case it had been presented to him
in. Untouched.
“I think two months is long enough,”
Sergeant Chief Sue Harrington said on the other end. “I have a case I’m hoping
will be perfect to ease you in.” She gave him an address.
“I’ll be right there,” he said, hanging up
the phone. Getting off his couch once more, he made for the bedroom and opened
his closet to the only clean outfit he had left. A three piece suit.
He sniffed himself. Probably best he washed
up first. And shaved.
Love
is everything. It’s all encompassing and all consuming. When love grabs hold,
good luck to any attempts at rationale. Good luck getting out alive. Like John
Carpenter’s The Thing, love rips you to shreds, murders the person you were.
And then becomes you.
And
then it’s just gone.
“That’s him,” a voice in her ear said, and Sarah
squirmed. She wasn’t used to having a hidden ear piece deep in her ear canal.
She also wasn’t used to walking in heels, especially with so many eyes on her.
She crossed the club slowly, approaching her target in as inconspicuously a
fashion as she could.
“Bartender!” she called, leaning over the
wooden bar. “I’d like a Dackery.”
“I think you mean a Daiquiri,” her target
said, leaning over.
She smiled at the short haired person of
interest. “Hello,” she said trying to put on her best flirt in the five
thousand dollar dress she’d been given on loan. “You look dangerous, what do
you—“
“Cut!” yelled a voice off set. Her target,
a fellow officer of the OPP, sighed and shook his head. “Dangerous?” the
detective in charge said, stepping onto their training set with angry stomping
footsteps. “Are you trying to get yourself tipped off and killed?” She was a
hardened older Asian woman, lead detective of Missassauga’s second precinct.
Sarah dug her finger into her ear, digging
out the earpiece and slapping it onto the table. “I suck at undercover,” she
said to the older woman. “I always have.”
“Then why volunteer?” Detective Jiao
complained angrily, pursing her lips.
“I had to do something,” Sarah said,
kicking off her clumsy high heels. “As long as the Cyclops gang continues
distributing narcotics in our city, more and more poverty stricken kids are
going to throw away their lives.” Jiao gave her a scrutinizing look. “Okay, I
was also hoping having a role in bringing down the gang would finally push my
application forward for detective.”
“I don’t understand, Officer Warley,” Jian
said, her hands going to her hips. “You came with nothing but the most glowing
recommendations from Sue. I can’t imagine any reason you shouldn’t already be
up for detective.”
“I was,” Sarah said bitterly. “And then
‘extraneous circumstances’ happened and my badge, that was meant to be mine,
got given away to a newbie. Some rookie officer fresh out of academy.”
“You mean some man,” Jian said, and she
gave the officer who had been working the scene with Sarah a scathing look.
“What did I do?” the man said, frowning at
both women.
“Go get changed,” Jian said to him with
disdain. She turned back to Sarah. “You can return back to District three and
tell Chief Harrington that we’ll be continuing with our sting without you. You
can let her know that your performance was exemplary, and I merely thought your
investigational talents would be best used distinguishing potential grow-op
sites in your district.”
“Yes Ma’am,” Sarah said to her. She looked
around the wooden training set to find her combat boots kicked into a corner.
“I’ll want that report on grow-op sites by
next Monday,” she said sternly, but with a kind smile. “I’ll tell you the
results of our sting then. Operation Odysseus can be a success if all the
police precincts in Mississauga can just work together.”
***
As soon as Anderson approached the entrance
of the bar, his nostrils were assaulted with the smell of what seemed like very
off bacon. Burnt and rotten, it was a strange mixture the likes of which
Anderson had never quite experienced before.
“Holy hell,” he heard his sergeant curse
angrily, wheeling through the crime scene. He could see her over the shoulder
of the officer blocking entrance to the bar, as she was wheeling towards the
center of the establishment.
Stacy was there, a junior officer who had
failed every exam he needed to pass to ever get a promotion. The oldest junior
officer at their precinct. He was taking pictures of the scene with a large
flash bulb camera. There was a flash as he took another one, along with a loud
mechanical whir.
“I have a reoccurring dream,” Sergeant Chief
Harrington said to Stacy with a chair between them, “this very same thing
happens to me.” Anderson could hear the chief sigh. “Is that a rational fear?”
Stacy looked up from his camera. “I have a
fear of spiders,” he told the chief. “But science apparently says we shouldn’t
kill them. They’re good for the environment or something.”
Harrington shook her head. “Shut up Stacy.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Officer Richards,” the officer at the door
greeted Anderson.
“It’s not officer anymore,” Anderson told
the man, flashing his new badge.
“That’s right I’m sorry,” the man said, and
Anderson didn’t blame him. He couldn’t even remember the officer’s name, a far
worse offense. The man whistled.“Looking
good though, Detective. You’ve got my condolences on everything.” He fumbled to
step aside for Anderson to pass. “I’ve got your back” he said, trying to smile
a disgusting supportive smile, “if anyone gives you trouble.”
“Thanks Officer Coulter,” Anderson said,
reading the officer’s nametag. The man gave him a funny look. It was one
Anderson ignored as he stepped into the bar and took off his sunglasses,
placing them in a pocket inside his suit.
“Detective Richards,” The police chief said
from across the bar, wheeling towards him. She was an older black woman in her
fifties, trapped to a wheelchair because of a wound she sustained in the line
of duty. Anderson had heard multiple stories of how she got paralyzed from the
waist down, and they all contradicted each other. “I wasn’t sure you’d answer
your phone.”
“Figured I couldn’t hide away forever,”
Anderson muttered quietly. The pub seemed mostly evacuated except for a pale
black haired girl at the bar. The establishment had the decor of the kind of
place one would go to pick a fight with a biker. Neon lights on the walls,
traffic signs. Novelty posters. It was exactly the kind of place Anderson would
avoid, the kind of place his old partner used to frequent on the regular.
Before everything happened.
“Eventually we’d stop paying you,”
Harrington said, just passingly enough for Anderson to know she was kidding.
She swiveled her chair around to lead him towards the cordoned off area of the
bar. “You know I wouldn’t have thought of you for this case if I didn’t think
it was your speed.”
“Didn’t think I could handle anything too
hard?” Anderson asked her.
“I didn’t want to throw you directly into
the fire on your first day back,” Chief Harrington said with a frown, giving
Anderson a sideways glance, “considering what you’ve been through --” She
trailed off.
“I’m fine.”
“Gonna feel weird calling you detective,”
Stacy said, looking up from his camera, “Eh Richards?”
“Shut up Stacy,” Anderson muttered.
“Shut up Stacy,” Harrington said at the
same time.
“So you’re gonna give me a case no one else
wants,” Anderson speculated to Harrington. “Something under the radar to test
my effectiveness.” The closer they got to the chair in the center of the
cordoned off area, the worse the smell of burnt bacon assaulted his nose.
“It’s not a test,” Harrington said with a
frown. “It might not even be a homicide. Do you believe in spontaneous combustion?”
Anderson’s mind raced as he mentally sorted
through everything he’d ever absorbed about spontaneous combustion, trying the
best he could to separate the myths from reality. “In warmer climates like
California, the high temperatures can cause trees and compost to seemingly
spontaneous combust.”
Harrington rolled under the yellow tape,
and Anderson followed after her, seeing for the first time the charred ashen
remains upon the seat. “What about people?” Harrington asked.
“Jesus,” Anderson Richards said, covering
his mouth and nose from the smell. “That’s a person?” He realized the chief was
staring at him expectantly. “It’s not nearly as common, I’m pretty sure. What
do the witnesses say?”
“That the victim entered the bar with a
pain in his stomach,” Sue told him. “Collapsed in that chair, and cooked
himself inside out in front of everyone.” She thrust a thumb over her shoulder.
“I left the girlfriend outside with a paramedic. The rest of the customers I
sent home.”
Anderson looked across the establishment at
the pale girl sitting on a stool and draining back shots of whiskey. “What
about her?”
“She’s family!” an elder Asian woman
yelled, coming down the stairs with a full garbage bag.
“That’s the owner,” Harrington told the
detective. “She called it in.” The chief backhanded Anderson supportively in
the stomach. “It’s your case now. You figure it out. Ask some questions, if
nothing comes up just file it under unexplained.”
Anderson wasn’t a scientist. “Don’t I get
the Brain Train for this one?” he asked the chief.
“God no,” Chief Harrington said, shaking
her head and large bushy curly mane of peppered black hair. “If I thought this
case was serious enough to pull them off Odysseus, I certainly wouldn’t have
called you.”
“So this is like a case with training
wheels,” Anderson said as Harrington wheeled past him for the door. “No
offense, I’m just happy to know you have so much confidence in me.” He turned
around to find the chief was already out the door. She was fast in that chair.
“And now I’m talking to myself.”
“I’m still here,” Stacy said with his
camera. “Least now we can see how messed up you are in the head after
everything you went through, without putting other people’s lives in danger.”
“Shut up Stacy,” Anderson muttered. He
hated when Officer Stacy was right. The elderly junior officer got back to his crime
scene photos as Anderson turned around, pulling a notepad from his pocket and
tapping it against his hand.
“I guess I should interview the
girlfriend.” He said to himself. His head was messy with ideas and avenues he
might take in tackling this, but he knew he had to just take things one step at
a time.
“Doon’t do that,” a girl’s voice said from
the bar. “Leave her alone. I knew Alex.” It was the pale girl with long black
hair. He approached her at the bar, quickly scribbling Victim = Alex into his notepad.
“What’s your name?” Anderson asked as he
reached the bar and sat down beside her. She sloppily poured herself another
shot of whiskey from the bottle the bartender had left carelessly with her.
“Dakotah Slade,” she slurred, draining back
the shot in one gulp. He’d never seen anyone throw back straight whiskey quite
that hungrily, not even his old partner. Witness
= Dakotah Slade (Alcoholic?)
“My name is Detective Anderson Richards
with Missassauga’s third district of the Peel regional police.”
“That’s a mouthful,” Dakotah said to him,
giving him a quick glance through the corner of her eye. Now that he was
looking at her, he could see she was beautiful. She had pale white skin, a
sharp jaw line, angular nose, dazzling blue eyes, and a seductively wry smile.
She was skinny, almost unhealthily so, and fitted in a tight corset under her
leather jacket and massive black leather boots. They were like platform boots,
with steel toes and a small flat heel, and they snaked up her leg to her knee.
“How many of those have you had?” Anderson
asked her, his gaze falling on her shot glass as she filled it again.
“Not enough,” she managed to slur before
taking another one. Her eyes seemed to water, and she was already swaying.
Anderson scribbled out the question mark on his pad.
He’d had better get his questions out fast
before she became too intoxicated to be of any value. “My chief said Alex came
in with a stomach ache,” Anderson told the bar rat. “You think that might have
been where the fire sparked.”
“You sound more like a white coat than a
detective,” Dakotah said. “You sure you don’t belong more in a lab?”
“I wouldn’t argue with you,” Anderson told
her. Stomach pains source of flame? “Are
you aware of any food he ate in the last twenty-four hours? Something he
metabolised that might-” he cut himself off, feeling like an idiot. “I don’t
know. Like a litre of gasoline?”
“He was saying something about a new drug,”
Dakotah said, pouring herself another shot. Anderson dropped his notepad in
surprise onto the alcohol soaked countertop.
“You sure?” he asked, picking up his
notepad with disdain. It was properly soaked through. He didn’t need it,
however, to know he was on to something.
“Came in here bragging about it n’
everything.”
He threw aside his notepad. “Well at least
now we have a place to start,” he said, giving her his attention. “What was the
name of the drug?”
“I don’t know,” Dakotah said with a shrug
and a shake of her head. Anderson frowned at her with disappointment. “Brienne
might though.”
“Okay,” Detective Richards said glad to be
done with the bar, and its burnt person smell. “Thank you for your help Mrs.
Slade.” He got off his stool.
“Oh no you don’t,” Dakotah said, turning
around and jabbing her finger into Anderson’s chest. “Detective Richards. She’s
been through enough today.”
Anderson sighed, frowning at the beautiful
pale young woman gently assaulting him with her drunken attitude. “I know how
to talk to a traumatized witness.”
“What,” she said loud and sarcastically as
she passed him to be the first out the door. “Did they teach that at police
school?”
“Yeah actually,” he said with a frown.
He followed her to the door where Coulter
had blocked her way out. “Sorry ma’am, you have to get permission from the
detective on duty before I can let you through this checkpoint. In or out.”
“Let her pass Officer Coulter,” Anderson
told the man, and he caught Dakotah stick her tongue out at him.
Outside the bar, numerous police cars had
made a line in the parking lot, leaving just enough room for an ambulance to
fit through. It was on the back of that ambulance that paramedics were looking
over Brienne.
“Let me do the talking,” Dakotah said to
Anderson.
He shook his head. “Absolutely not,” he
said, but she seemed to take that as an affirmative and continued approaching.
One of the paramedics got off the ambulance to talk to him.
“Is she alright?” Anderson asked the medic.
The paramedic nodded, muscular arms jutting
from his T-shirt. “Who’s she?” he asked.
“A civilian helping me interview the
witness,” Anderson explained.
“That’s oddly irregular,” the medic said.
Anderson shrugged. “She’s a friend. I
thought she could calm the witness down.” When did paramedics start judging
detectives on how they chose to do their jobs?
The medic surrendered with a shrug, and the
detective passed him. Dakotah was already talking to the witness.
“I told him not to take it,” she told
Dakotah. “Said we could just sell it and make some money instead. But you know
what that moron was like.” Brienne had white freckled skin, and long brown
dreadlocks that covered her large ear spacers. “Always chasing the dragon.”
“Ask her for the name of the drug,”
Anderson suggested, joining them at Dakotah’s side.
“Do you mind?” Dakotah asked with a look at
Anderson. She turned back to her friend. “This is the detective assigned to get
justice for Alex.”
“That’s not my exact job description,” Anderson
interrupted.
“Do you know what they called the drug?”
Dakotah asked Brienne. Anderson was impressed how together Dakotah was,
considering how many drinks he’d just watched her consume. In fact, he was
rather impressed she made it out the door without falling over.
“Neither of us did,” Brienne said with a
shake of her head. “We called it Rudolph as a joke, but the guy who sold it to
Alex just said it was something new. Something we’d like.”
“Why Rudolph?” Detective Richards asked the
girlfriend. Dakotah gave him a scathing look.
“It glowed,” Brienne said.
“Glowed?”
“I said I’d talk to her,” Dakotah muttered
angrily.
“Glowed like how?” Anderson Richards asked
Brienne.
“It just glowed,” she insisted. “Like an
amber yellow.” She made a circle with one hand and stuck her index finger
through it. “from inside.”
Anderson crossed his arms. “Who in their
right minds would swallow something that glowed?” he asked rhetorically.
“You obviously don’t know Alex,” Dakotah
said, accidentally using the wrong tense. If she caught her mistake, she didn’t
correct herself.
“Do you know anything about the guy who
sold Alex the drug?” Anderson asked Brienne.
“Maybe where they met,” Dakotah suggested.
Brienne nodded. “We followed him back to
his apartment,” she told them. “I remember Alex remarking the guy was big.
Notably so.”
“Do you remember where his apartment was?”
Anderson asked her. She shook her head.
“No,” she said. Suddenly she straightened
and fished her phone from her pocket. “Wait, maybe.” She started tapping
furiously on her device. “We keep our location data on when we text each other.
There’s no privacy between us.”
She frowned at what she’d just said. “There
WAS no privacy between us.” She slowed, slouched, and her demeanor became
somber as she remembered that the man she loved was dead.
“You know where this is?” she asked
mournfully as she handed him her phone. It seemed to have a location
highlighted on Google maps. “Somewhere in the Erin Mills area?”
“I know the low rise buildings around
there,” Dakotah said, looking over Anderson’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” Anderson said. “So do I.”
Beside them, Brienne started to sob, and
Dakotah stepped forward to give her friend a hug.
“I don’t know what to do with myself now,”
Brienne said, sobbing into Dakotah’s small breast.
“Go home,” Richards told her.
“Try to get some sleep,” Dakotah said,
giving her friend a warm smile with her cute small mouth.
“You should go with your friend,” Anderson
said. “Make sure she’s okay.” He left them at the ambulance, returning to his
car.
“Shouldn’t you have back up?” Dakotah’s
voice said behind him as she hurried to catch up. “I mean, don’t most
detectives usually have partners?”
“I had a partner,” Anderson muttered
bitterly. Unpleasant memories of his partner resurfacing in his mind. “We
didn’t really get along.”
“Then what happened?” Dakotah asked as they
got to his parked blue 1990 Chevy Corvette ZR-1.
Anderson wasn’t sure how to respond to that
question. “Then I got promoted,” he said at last. Going around his car, he
unlocked the driver’s seat.
“Wait,” she said, looking down at his car.
“This is yours?” her gaze fell on the forward lights, ducktaped open. “This
thing is a clunker.”
“It’s old but reliable,” he told her.
Opening the door, he got behind the wheel. She leaned over the passenger side
and looked inside.
“Did the garbage come with the car?” she
asked, observing all the fast food wrappings littered around his car from late
night binges through the drive thru. “Open the door. I’m coming with you.”
“That’s absolutely not happening,” he said,
lowering the passenger window.
“You closed my bar,” she said to him.
“Where else am I supposed to go?”
“That’s really not my problem.”
Placing both hands on the roof of the car,
she lifted her scrawny matchstick legs through his open window, and slid
herself into the passenger seat, clicking her seatbelt into place.
“My friend is dead,” she said firmly.
“because of tainted drugs being sold in MY city. I want to see justice.”
“YOUR city?” Anderson asked her with mock
surprise. “And here I was thinking Sylvia Gray had been mayor here since before
you were born.”
“Was she driving this car?” Dakotah asked
him.
Anderson looked her over, and couldn’t deny
he was attracted to her. There was something about her. It was obvious she was
a complete mess, but a sexy sort of disaster you couldn’t look away from. Maybe
it was the darkness in him, attracted to the darkness in her. Whatever it was,
Anderson was certain she wasn’t about to just get out of his car.
“Fine,” he said at last. “You can come. But
I want you to stay in here if anything happens.”
“Yes!” Dakotah exclaimed excitedly with a
cheer and a pump of her fist. “You know,” she said, “I’ve been in a car with
the police before, but never in the front seat.”
***
It wasn’t until she was all the way back at
her precinct that Sarah noticed she hadn’t taken off the dress they’d given her
for the training scenario. Only now, as everyone’s heads were turning towards
her, did she wonder how she ever forgot. The dress was lacy and shimmered in
the light a royal blue.
“Looking good Officer Warley,” the man
behind the desk said as she stepped into the precinct. He was an elderly
moustached man named Stan.
“Bite me Stan,” she said, giving him the
finger.
Stan frowned. “She’s rude today,” he
muttered to himself.
Sarah made it to her desk and begun typing
up her report to the sergeant. She hadn’t gotten far into Detective Jian’s
plans for Operation Odysseus before two hands planted themselves on her desk.
“Victim of the walk of shame, Officer
Warley?” Derek said, leaning over her. Sarah was pretty sure he was trying to
get a peek down her dress. She covered her C-cup bra with her arm and gave him
a scathing look.
“I was doing undercover training,” she told
him. “Can I help you detective Blake?”
Derek Blake had spikey black hair, that he
obviously spent too much time grooming in the mirror every morning to look just
right. Taking his hands off her desk, he slid one into the grey blazer of his
suit, and popped a stick of gum in his mouth.
“When are you gonna give up this ice queen
act and go on a date with me?” Derek asked, harassing her for what must have
been the millionth time. “One date. Wear that dress and I guarantee it’ll be on
my floor by morning.”
Sarah felt a shudder run through her spine.
“Is that supposed to be a selling point?” She made a face, and tried to ignore
the precinct’s creepiest detective to continue her work.
“Come on Warley,” Blake said. “Don’t be a
prune.”
“You mean a prude?”
Derek leaned in so close she could smell
his breath and feel it against her neck. “I’ve dated every woman who works here
except for you and the chief. What’s the problem? You think you’re better than
them?You gay or something?”
Sarah grabbed a pen on her desk. “How do
you think I knew my first fucking day to avoid you?” she asked him. “I’d sooner
date women than date you. Now back the fuck up before I jam this pen in your
eye.” He didn’t do as he was told.
Instead he frowned and reached his arm
across her keyboard to troll her backspace key. “Why are you always such a
bitch,” he started to say but she didn’t even give him the chance. Springing
from her chair, she grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back, slamming
him face first into her desk and knocking a days old cup of coffee all over the
floor.
There was a quiet clapping, and across the
sea of desks, cubicles and through a glass wall Sarah spotted Makayla in the
science lab applauding her in support. A spattering of claps around the room
joined with hers and quickly died away. The black computer nerd gave Sarah a
nod and returned to her work.
Derek squirmed under her grip, but it was
pretty clear while he’d been busy creeping on women, she’d been spending her
time lifting weights in the gym.
“Let the hell go of me Warley,” he shouted,
and she twisted harder until she got a yelp from him. “I’ll go to IA with
this.”
“Show them the camera footage you mean,” Sarah
asked, looking at the camera pointed right at her. “I guess I came to YOUR desk
to harass YOU, pulled you from your chair, dragged you over here, and slammed
you into my desk.” She leaned in close so that he could feel her breath on his
neck. “You think that’s what the cameras will show.”
She released Detective Blake, his spray on
tan doing little to hide the new shade of white he’d turned. Backing away from
her, he looked down at the coffee she’d spilt on the floor and pointed to it.
“Clean that up Warley,” he said loudly for the precinct to hear. A pathetic
attempt to salvage his dignity in front of his men. “That’s an order.” With
that, he turned his back to her and slunk defeated back to his cubicle across
the precinct.
Sarah returned to her desk, she didn’t even
get the luxury of a cubicle, and was about to get back to her report when a
young junior officer bent down beside her desk to clean up the spill with a
paper towel.
“That was really bad ass,” Claire said,
cleaning Sarah’s mess.
“Did I give you permission to talk to me,” Sarah
snapped, immediately feeling guilty but not being in the mood to be reminded of
her old partner.
“Go easy on her,” he old partner said, Karl
joining them at her desk. Sarah had been Karl’s mentor for years, and the time
had finally come both for him to mentor someone of his own, and for her to
advance to detective. A promotion that still hadn’t come.
“Did I ever go easy on you?” Sarah asked
him, saving her progress before anyone attempted to troll her again.
“I suppose not,” he said with a shrug.
Sarah sighed and offered Claire a hand back
to her feet. She threw out the soiled paper towels in Sarah’s garbage bin.“He ever try anything with you?” Sarah asked,
referring to Derek.
Claire shook her head, obviously knowing
what Sarah meant. “Detective Blake has only talked to me a few times,” she told
Sarah.
“I always try to be nearby anytime we’re in
the station,” Karl added. “At least until she gets used to things around here.”
“Well here’s your first lesson from your
teacher’s teacher,” Sarah told the kid. Claire had blonde hair like Sarah’s but
while Sarah’s was straight and to just under her shoulders, Claire’s was
shorter and curved in a pretty bob at her neck. She had a wide innocent smile
and blue eyes, looked no older than nineteen, though she was apparently twenty
three. Sarah just turned thirty last week.
“If someone told you the hashtag me too
movement meant the end of sexism,” she continued, “Someone lied.”
“Did you hear the news,” Karl said, Sarah’s
words reminding him of something. “The new detective starts today.”
“You’re kidding me,” Sarah said, dropping
her hand on her keyboard. At this rate she was never going to get her report
done. “Is he here? I’ll kick his ass, where is he?”
“He’s not in yet,” Karl told her with a
smile.
“I’ll tell you when I see him,” Claire
said.
“Don’t do that,” Karl told Claire. “Didn’t
you hear her? She said she’s going to kick his ass.”
“Right,” Claire said. “Sorry. So I should
keep them away from each other.”
“Just stay out of it,” Sarah told her. “I’m
sure this new detective is a big boy. He can handle whatever’s coming for him.”
***
“Thanks,” Dakotah said as Anderson parked
his car across the street from the low rise Brienne had pointed out on her map.
“This is the first real meal I’ve had in days.” Anderson looked down at his
half eaten burger and almost polished fries. Dakotah had an interesting opinion
on what constituted a real meal.
“You really think we’re going to just
recognize this guy?” Dakotah asked, finishing off her second burger and
stuffing the rest of her fries in her mouth before she even finished
swallowing. “Also you gonna finish that?”
Anderson motioned for her to take it, and
she did hungrily. “Your friend said he’d be notably large,” Anderson reminded
the black haired goth princess in his passenger seat.
“Right,” she said between large bites.
“Cause I’m sure there’s only one large man who lives in this area.” She shoved
more burger into her small mouth, and ketchup drizzled on her chin. As she
wiped it off, Anderson noticed a small crucifix tattoo on her arm, just on the
inside of her wrist.
“What are you looking at?” she asked him.
Her eyes followed his gaze. “It’s upside down,” she said, giving him her arm.
“It means the devil.”
“But right side up it’s a symbol of
Christianity,” Anderson pointed out, raising her arm.
“It depends on what mood I’m in I guess,”
she said with a shrug. “Angel or devil.” She growled and shook her hair wildly
over her face, giving him a dark look from underneath. With a slight smile, she
stuck her tongue out at him and then kept munching down on her burger.
She looked back at him, her dazzling blue
eyes gazing into his own. Finally he looked away, back out towards the entrance
of the low rise.
“I feel like I should ask what happened
with your last partner,” Dakotah said slowly, finishing off the rest of his
meal. “Not that I care.” She smiled wryly at him again.
“And I could ask,” Anderson countered,
“what you were doing drinking at a bar in the middle of the day.”
“I feel like you just answered your own
question,” Dakotah said quickly. Anderson didn’t say anything. “I was drinking.
Don’t change the topic. What’s your story.”
Anderson watched an old lady leave the
building with her dog, the mutt instantly peeing on the door, apparently
desperately holding it in. “It’s not really that kind of story,” he said at
last, Dakotah waiting expectantly.
“What kind of story?” Dakotah asked,
frustrated. She threw a fast food wrapper at him.
“The kind you tell people.”
“Oh boo hoo,” Dakotah said, pretending to
cry. “Poor me, I’m Anderson Richards and I have two last names.”
“Hey!” Anderson said, throwing the wrapper
back at her. “I bought you lunch.”
“So what,” Dakotah said. “I’m supposed to
be your submissive girlfriend now?”
Anderson crinkled his nose. “Being
someone’s girlfriend doesn’t mean you have to be submissive to them.”
“If you really believe that,” Dakotah said
with a frown. “You’re not like any guy I’ve ever dated.” She clicked on his
radio.
“terrorist attack on the Oakville city hall
today where…” a voice on the radio started to say. Dakotah changed the station.
“News?” she said. “No thank you. Let’s get
some music going here.”
“Look!” Anderson said, noticing someone on
the sidewalk and turning off the radio. He snapped for her attention and
pointed out the windshield at a huge muscular body builder type. “He seem notably
large to you?” The guy was built like a linebacker. He was tall, like over six
feet, and thick. He could have likely given Andre the Giant a run for his
money.
Dakotah looked at where Anderson was
pointing, then did a double take. “That’s one man?” The man turned into the
building, opening the front door and stepping inside.
“He’s going in,” Anderson said. That he’d
gone in the right address was enough for Anderson to think he had the right
guy. “I need you to stay in the car,” he told Dakotah. “If I’m gone a long
time, radio for back up.” He pointed to the CB radio under his dash. “Otherwise
just keep the engine running.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Dakotah
said to him, filling him with confidence. “What are you going to do?”
Anderson opened his car door, and waited
for a car to pass before getting out. “I’m going to follow him and maybe ask
him a few questions,” Anderson assured her, leaning over his door. He closed it
and started across the street.
The apartment building wasn’t more than
seven stories, and looked suited for a lower income. For one thing, a glass
pane on the door was missing, and covered over in cardboard. On top of that,
there was a net that ran along the balconies, either to keep birds out, or keep
people from jumping. Either way, the building looked cheap and tacky.
Inside, the lobby of the building was
sparse, with shoddy misshapen mail cubbies for people’s mail and a hard wooden
bench across from a large mirror. There were two elevators across from the
front doors, and one of the elevator doors was just closing as Anderson stepped
inside the lobby. For a split moment Anderson saw the shape of Alex’s large man
on the elevator just as the doors closed. Anderson hit the button for the other
lift, as he watched the numbers on the first elevator go up.
“He’s in the elevator?” Dakotah asked,
sidling up beside him.
Anderson sighed, though he supposed he
shouldn’t have been surprised. “I thought you said I didn’t have to tell you
twice.”
“You could tell me a thousand times,”
Dakotah said with a nod. “Don’t mean I’m gonna listen.”
“Alright,” Anderson said, noticing a door
to his right. It probably led to stairs. “Call me when you know what floor he
stops on.”
“Wait!” Dakotah called after him as he made
for the door. “My phone is disconnected.”
He turned back to look at her.
“I haven’t paid my bill in months,” she
said sheepishly.
“Use mine,” he told her, throwing her his
iPhone. “Call work phone. Password is 4437.”
“Call work phone?” she said. “Wait you have
two phones?” But the door was already closing behind him.
He rocketed up the cramped staircase,
taking the stairs two at a time. Floor two. Floor three. His phone rang. He
surged past floor four and answered it.
“He’s on six.”
Five.
“I’m there.” Anderson said quietly into his
phone, trying to regulate his breathing as he opened the door into the hallway
on the sixth floor. He just managed to catch sight of the large man as he stepped
into his apartment and close the door.
“I know his room number,” Anderson said,
crossing the hallway, and passing the elevators to the room the man had just
entered. Six zero eight.
“Good,” Dakotah said over the phone. “I’m
joining you.”
“No,” Richard said into his phone as the
elevator behind him dinged. “Go back to the car and stay there until I’m--”
“Too late,” Dakotah said, stepping off the
elevator. “I’m here.”
Anderson flailed his arms in frustration.
“Of course.” He knocked on the door.
The door opened and the large form of the
man they followed filled the frame. Dakotah took a step back, but Anderson
wasn’t about to be intimidated.
“I’m Detective Anderson Richards, and this
is my--” he tried to think of what to call Dakotah. “Civilian. I’d like to ask
you a couple quest--” he was interrupted suddenly by a large hand grasping him
by the throat and lifting him off his feet.
“I’m not going back!” the large man roared
at Anderson, squeezing his windpipe and tossing him into the apartment like he
was a ragdoll.
“Holy,” Dakotah said as Anderson struck a
far wall and smacked the ground hard, “shit.”
“Oomf,” Anderson wheezed as the air was
knocked out of him. Like a moron he tried to get back to his feet anyway and
pull a gun. “Freeze,” he tried to say without air in his lungs. “You’re under
a--” the man grabbed Anderson’s gun hand and crushed it in his large heavy
hands.
Anderson screamed, trying to let go of the
gun, but the man didn’t relent. Anderson was sure he felt a bone in his finger
pop.
“I got him!” Dakotah yelled, jumping on the
man’s back. The man threw her off easily, slinging her into a tall lamp. She
snapped the lamp right in half as she hit the floor. “I don’t got him.”
He turned around then, and kicked Anderson
so hard in the chest that the detective smashed through the closed wooden
bathroom door into the man’s bathroom. He landed heavily on what remained of
the door, taken right off its hinges, and could barely stay conscious as he
watched Dakotah reach for something in her purse.
“That’s it,” Dakotah said, pulling a tazer
from her purse and jabbing the weapon into the big man’s leg. She pulled the
trigger and the large man screamed, spasming out of control from the
electricity before smacking heavily into the ground. Dakotah sat herself
triumphantly atop him, and noticed a cigarette pack on his coffee table.
“Don’t worry,” she said, snatching the pack
of smokes, and lighting one with a lighter underneath it. “I got this.”
Richard tried to get himself up, reaching
out his hand to steady himself, but his hand accidentally dropped into the cold
water of the toilet bowl, touching against something solid. He really hoped to
god it wasn’t poop.
And it wasn’t. Turned out in fact to be a
Ziploc bag. Richard pulled the bag from the toilet and raised it for Dakotah to
see. “Look what I found in the bathroom,” he said, rejoining her in the living
room. The Ziploc bag contained a good twenty or more amber colored dimly
glowing pills. “Now all we gotta do is drag this guy’s sorry ass to the car.”
Dakotah took a drag of her smoke. “We?” she
said and laughed. “Hahaha, no. Honey, I’m too pretty.”
***
“Put your back into it,” The goth girl
said, as the detective dragged the large unconscious man by his wrists to their
car. Cale watched everything from his black SUV parked a couple blocks away,
confident that they couldn’t see his face behind the tinted glass.
Dialing a number on his cellphone, he
brought the phone to his ear. “You should probably expect some company,” he
said to the person on the other end.
Was that her? Of course it was, Cale should
have known he couldn’t put her behind him forever. It would only be a matter of
time before they would be face to face again, and just the thought of that
future moment made his heart race. He could still remember how she tasted, how
she felt.
How she smelt.
***
“Special delivery,” Anderson said, dragging
the unconscious and handcuffed form of the large man into the center of their
precinct lobby. The public area was a large open concept lobby, with a large
desk behind which Stan dealt with walk-in issues. To his left, their right, there
was a gate to access the desks, cubicles, and offices of precinct three. “I
need Interrogation room three prepped.”
“You’re Anderson Richards?” came Sarah’s
voice from behind the gate, and she stepped through to join them. He’d noticed
her a couple times, last time was when he’d been asked if he’d wanted her as a
partner and Harrington had signalled her out through the window of her office.
Apparently the detective badge had been meant for Sarah, and that she’d get the
promotion anyway if he took her as his partner, but after what happened with his
last partner he hadn’t been remotely ready to jump back in with another.
“Damn,” she said, whistling to the perp at
his feet. “You caught that all on your own?” She was almost as tall as he was,
stocky with thick muscular arms. Butch, with a pretty face and blonde hair to
just under her shoulders.
He looked at her suspiciously. “Not exactly,”
he admitted.
“Here,” she said. “I got it.”
“Oh no,” he said, getting between them.
“This is my perp. That means I’m the one that questions him.” He didn’t trust
her, anymore than anyone else at the precinct.
She crossed her arms, her face reddening.
“I get that you don’t want me as your partner,” she said, which wasn’t exactly
true. He didn’t want anyone as his new partner. He hadn’t considered how it
might have come off to her, however. “But you’re gonna need my key to open the
interrogation room.”
With a sigh, he handed the perp over to
her. “Just take him,” he said defeated. “His license says his name is Gareth
Delco. Just let me know as soon as he wakes.”
“Does he have something to do with the
cyclops gang?” Sarah asked him, her face cooling.
“I don’t know,” Anderson admitted. “But
he’s been trying to distribute some new narcotic,” Anderson showed her the
pills. “I’m going to give these scary suckers over to the lab now.”
As Sarah took Gareth from Anderson’s hands,
and Dakotah joined him from outside where she had been finishing her cigarette,
Anderson heard the angry familiar voice of his chief from across the precinct.
“Detective Richards!” she yelled, wheeling down the wide isle between desks to
join him as he stepped through the gate.
“Who the hell was that,” the police chief
asked harshly. “I thought your case was an accidental death.” She spotted
Dakotah come in behind Anderson. “And who the hell is SHE?”
“Dakotah,” Anderson muttered, “meet Chief
Harrington.”
Dakotah waved her hand. “Hullo.”
“Please tell me this is relevant to the
case,” the chief asked Anderson.
“All of it. She’s a civilian assisting me
on the case,” Anderson explained to his boss. “He-man back there might have
pertinent information related to the case, and I need the brain train to
analyze this potentially new narcotic that may or may not be related to the
case.”
Harrington crossed her arms. “Well don’t
let me stop you.”
Anderson led Dakotah through the automatic
sliding glass doors into the Brain Train lab. Their lab was larger than the
cubicles most officers and detectives were stuck with, and also was a little
larger than most walk-in closets. But only by a little. It consisted of mainly
one long work table, cluttered with more equipment and junk than Anderson
thought possible in such a small area.
The three members of the Brain Train sat in
a row along the work table, each working away on at least one or more computers
of their own. “Dakotah,” Anderson said. “Meet Albert Kine, Makayla Davis, and
Glen Spiner. Our Brain Train.”
Bert was a skinny German with blonde hair
and always wore turtlenecks. Makayla was a young black hippie tech expert
freshly flunked out of university after she hacked their mainframe to get one
of her professors fired for being a sexual predator. Spiner was a black
physicist with a very chill attitude.
“Vee are too busy,” Albert said, pouring
contents from one beaker into many smaller test tubes.
Makayla didn’t look at them as she typed
away at her keyboard. “I’m trying to track a target through nine thousand
cameras across the city,” she told them, “and the formula I’ve written to run
the whole thing keeps presenting me with a feedback loop. WHY?” They were
formidable minds when they were apart, but Anderson found in his experience
they worked best when they were focused on one problem at a time together as a
group.
“I’m just playing Minecraft while I wait
for a three dee model to finish rendering,” Spiner told them, pushing back from
his computer screen. “What do you need?”
“It’s apparently a new drug on the street,”
Detective Richards said, showing Spiner the Ziploc bag. “I need to know what’s
in it.”
Before Spiner could grab the bag, Albert
snatched it away.
“I vill take that,” the man said with a
tone of resignment.“Giving it to him
vould be like giving candy to a man with no teeth.” Makayla and Spiner both
looked at him confused. “It is a vaste, yes?”
“Bert,” Spiner said with a shake of his
head. “Jesus man, how many times I gotta tell you your jokes don’t translate to
English.”
Makayla shook her head. “This is why we
don’t have friends,” she said, suddenly spotting Dakotah and turning around
quickly. “Uh hi!”
Harrington entered the lab behind them.
“You think this might be drug related?”
“The evidence so far is consequential at
best,” Anderson admitted to her. “Once I find a solid connection linking this
new drug to the death of Alex, you’ll be the first to know.”
Harrington frowned, pulling Richards away
from the rest of them, as far away as they could get in the small space. “If
Alex’s death is in anyway connected to a new drug outbreak,” she said softly,
“I’ll have no choice but to take you off the case. Sarah is running all gang
and drug related cases, co-ordinating with Precinct two. I can’t have a
detective freshly back from two months leave ruin everything they’re working
towards in catching the Cyclops gang.”
“I’m still really loving that confidence,
chief. I haven’t found any concrete links between my investigation and any
Cyclops gang,” Anderson told his boss. “But until I’ve followed this lead, and
questioned my witness, we can’t be certain of anything.”
Harrington sighed, leaning back in her
chair. “I want a report on my desk Monday morning,” she said. “Before I come
in.”
As Anderson watched the chief leave, Albert
spoke from the microscope where he was examining the pill, “I vont ‘ave
anything useful for a number of hours yet.” Anderson stroked the growing
stubble on his chin.
“You know damn right this drug killed
Alex,” Dakotah said angrily, leaning into Anderson’s personal space.
“Maybe,” Anderson said. Not that it
mattered. If they were right, it only meant the worst case scenario. That the
chief would take their case away. The same thing would happen if he found no
conclusions in seventy two hours. So what was the right play?
“If they take the case away from you,”
Dakotah continued, “I’m not gonna get the chance to avenge my friend.”
Anderson looked at her in surprise. “That’s
what you care about right now?” she nodded. “Not that someone out there is
distributing a drug that could potentially make innocent people explode?” He
frowned. “I’m not about to let them take this case from me.” He turned back to
the Brain Train. “We just have to solve it before the end of the weekend.”
Dakotah nodded again. “Well I’m glad you’re
tackling this rationally.”
Anderson put his hands on the backs of
Makayla and Spiner’s chairs. “Can you guys give me anything?”
Makayla seemed to be absorbing herself into
one of the pills, her gaze turning hollow. “This is some trippy shit,” she told
him. “Where did you come across these?”
“A toilet,” he said quickly, and she
dropped the pill on the table.
“Okay,” Makayla said, wiping her hand with
a wetnap, and smiling awkwardly at Dakotah.
“I can give you some of my initial
impressions on the stuff,” Spiner said, sneaking between Makayla and Bert to
look at one through Bert’s microscope. He then picked one up for presentation.
“Like I can tell you these little things defy the very laws of physics.”
Dakotah crossed her arms, and even Makayla
seemed interested. Bert kept working away at his microscope however, seeming
like he already knew what Spiner was going to say.
“What does that even mean?” Dakotah asked
what everyone was thinking.
“To sustain luminescence,” Spiner explained
to them, “quite like these? They’d have to be consuming an awful lot of energy.
At least proportionally speaking. Whether it be heat or kinetic or
electromagnetic.” Spiner poked the pill in his palm. “These babies aren’t even
hot. They have no fuel. They just glow.” He smiled and gave a small laugh.
“It’s impossible.” The thought of defying the laws of science only seemed to
excite him more.
“I seem to remember reading something about
that,” Makayla said, turning to her computer and typing furiously on google. “A
one of a kind material that surfaced in a recent auction.” She typed away as
Dakotah leaned over her chair. She smiled up at Dakotah who smiled back.
“Here it is,” she said to them, giving
Dakotah another smile. This time Dakotah was too busy reading over her shoulder
to notice. “An item sold two years ago. Had scientists baffled due to glowing
properties that seemed to defy the laws of physics.” She leaned back with a grin.
“Yes yes,” Bert said distractedly. “Ve’re
all so impressed by your eidetic memory.”
“You wouldn’t think they would be so quick
to sell something like that,” Anderson said, leaning over Makayla’s other side.
She seemed only too happy to be their sandwich. “Does the article list a
buyer?”
Makayla kept scrolling. “Scientific
academies across the country put bids in but it was Mayor Sylvia Gray who had
the winning bid with one point five million dollars.”
“Screw me,” Dakotah said absentmindedly.
Makayla looked at the pale goth lady leaning over her shoulder and her gaze
glazed over again.
“Okay,” she said, snapping out of it and
putting her hand to her mouth. “Did I say that out loud?”
Spiner reached over and took Makayla’s mug
away. “No more coffee for Makayla,” he said, taking a sip and making a face.
Anderson straightened, ignoring the nerds.
“Why would our city mayor want a one of a kind rock that’s suddenly showing up
in everyone’s favourite new drug?”
“And how could she afford it?” Dakotah
asked with him.
Anderson looked at her. “Dude,” Spiner said
from across the work table. “She lives in a mansion.”
“Okay but like how? None of this makes
sense. So what are you going to do?” Dakotah asked. “Just walk in and ask her?”
“Why not?” Anderson said. “My badge gives
me permission to do whatever I want.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works,”
Dakotah told him.
“So does that mean you would rather stay
here with the nerds?” he asked, knowing the three of them wore the nerd handle
with pride. “Or you wanna come with me to ask the mayor a few questions.”
“Which means what?” Dakotah asked Anderson.
“You want me to taze her too?” The automatic doors opened, and Dakotah stepped
through first.
“I wouldn’t do that!” Makayla yelled after
Dakotah but she was already gone.
“Wait!” Spiner said to Anderson, getting up
off his stool and approaching the detective. “It’s good to have you back. The
badge suits you, if you ask me. As does the suit. Real sharp Richards.”
“Thanks,” Anderson said. As he turned to
leave Makayla slapped herself in the forehead.
“Damn!” she exclaimed. “I should have asked
for her number!” Her two friends looked at her with disbelief. “What?” she
asked. “Would that have come off as too desperate?”
***
Anderson stepped through the doors of Mississauga’s
city hall, a humble office building, and flashed his badge at the security
agent by the metal detectors. Spotting a sign placing the mayor’s office on the
third floor, he sprinted up the stairs with Dakotah on his heels.
“Couldn’t we have taken the elevator?” she
asked after half a flight.
The mayor’s office was even smaller and
more humble. The walls of the small office were a putrid greenish yellow, like
that of snot, and there was a potted plant in the corner with a seating area
and a few magazines. The mayor’s secretary had a desk by the only other door in
the waiting room, and behind that desk sat a short plump woman with short
reddish brown hair.
Spotting Anderson come in, the secretary
got off her seat, and proceeded around her desk with a Microsoft Surface
tablet. “I’m afraid Mayor Gray is in a meeting right now,” she tried to tell
Anderson but he blew right past her. “Excuse me? Can I get your name.”
He turned around and flashed his badge. “My
name is Detective Anderson Richards and the mayor is going to have to
reschedule. I need to talk to her regarding an ongoing police investigation.”
He turned back around and opened the door
to the Mayor’s private office.
“Wait!” the assistant called after him.
“Before talking to the mayor you must sign a waiver!”
“Sorry,” Dakotah said, following behind
him. “I don’t sign anything I haven’t read first. And I don’t read anything
that doesn’t have pictures.” That made the assistant stop for a moment.
The office was also quite unlike what
Anderson was expecting. Small and humble like the waiting room, it was also
dark. The windows were covered and all the lights were off except for a number
of candles.
“It’s quite alright Jane,” the mayor said,
an elderly woman with long silvery grey hair. Her voice was rasp but melodic.
“I knew the detective was coming.” The mayor sat in a large chair behind a
simple uncluttered desk, adorned like the rest of the office with a number of
simple candles. She signalled for them to sit down at the two chairs in front
of her desk. “Please Detective Richards. Sit down. You as well Mrs. Slade.”
Behind her on the wall hung what Anderson could only describe as a wizards
staff right out from Lord of the Rings.
Dakotah looked confused. “You heard of me?”
she asked, sitting down. She pointed around the room. “Aren’t all those like a
fire hazard or something.”
“I don’t fear fire,” the mayor said,
smiling at Anderson who had made a point not to sit. “Detective?”
“I’d rather stand,” Anderson said. “I
thought you were in a meeting.”
The mayor nodded. “I was. You came at the
perfect time. They just left.”
“How?” Anderson asked. “There’s only one
door into this office.”
“They didn’t use the door,” the mayor said
with a smile. “Is there something you’d like to ask me about Detective?”
Anderson frowned. “I’m led to understand
you’re in possession of a very rare substance.”
The mayor nodded. “I’m in possession of
many,” she said, pressing something on the underside of her desk. A hidden safe
in the wall beside her staff opened with a click. “I believe you’re referring
to this one however.”
She reached behind her, and opened the door
of the hidden safe for them to see. Inside was a large amber glowing rock
shaped roughly like a basketball sized football. “I think you’ll find the rock
to be completely intact, exactly the same weight and size it was when I bought
it. Were I to be mixing it into street drugs, you would certainly be able to
tell.”
Anderson was done questioning how the mayor
knew so much about them and what they’d been up to. “What’s the alternative,”
he asked, choosing to just go along with it, “that your one of a kind rock
isn’t so one of a kind?”
The mayor smiled, crossing her fingers in
her lap. “It is an unimaginably vast universe, Detective Richards.”
Anderson sighed. “Alright,” he said. “Well
as the world leading expert on this stuff, what can you tell me about it?”
The mayor looked at both of them and licked
her lips. “Jane,” she said after a moment of silence. “Bring me a glass of
water.”
“Right away Ma’am,” Jane yelled from the
other room.
“I can tell you,” Mayor Gray said, leaning
forward against her desk, “that I wasn’t the only collector of unusual items
looking to get their hands on this rock.” She smiled grimly at them. “But
perhaps it best I start with a story.”
Anderson and Dakotah traded a glance.
“There are those who believe that in the
beginning of time another force besides just science ruled the physics of our
world. A force much akin to what we call magic.”
Richard looked at his new friend again. “I
changed my mind Dakotah,” he told her. “I want you to taze her.”
She didn’t seem to be paying him any mind,
suddenly absorbed in the mayor’s crazy fantastical tale. “Magic?” Dakotah asked
the mayor with wonder.
The mayor smiled. “They say something
happened thousands of years ago that stripped our planet of that encompassing
magical force,” she continued to explain, “and now all that remains are bits
and pieces of items that contain mere remnants of that old power.”
It seemed Dakotah was eating up every word,
but Anderson wasn’t buying it. “What does this have to do with our mystery
substance?”
“There’s a group,” Sylvia Gray continued,
“known as the Tempus Cult, that believes a time traveller from the past will
come to our present day and bring all that magic with him. They hope to use a
mineral just like mine in a ritual alongside that time traveller to return
magic to everyone on Earth."
“Wow,” Dakotah said. “Can you imagine me
with magic?”
Anderson crossed his arms. “But we’re just
talking about stories and legends.”
Sylvia Gray nodded. “But if someone who
believed in these stories got a hold of some of this substance,” she inhaled
dramatically, “who knows what they might try to do with it.”
Jane came into the room, and handed the
mayor a glass. Sylvia Gray took it with thanks, and drank deeply. “I believe
I’ve told you two enough,” she said with a smile at them. “If I’m not mistaken,
you have a suspect back at the precinct you need to question. Perhaps he can
help you further.”
“How do you know so much about our
investigation?” Dakotah asked Mayor Gray as she was getting up from her chair.
“I’m sure you meant his investigation,” the
mayor said with a smile. “It’s my city.I make a habit to know as much about the goings on within it as I can.”
She gave Anderson a nod goodbye. “Remember what I’ve told you and look into the
Tempus Cult.”
“Oh we will,” Anderson said forebodingly.
“And if need be, we will call on you again.”
Dakotah slapped him heavily on the
shoulder. “I think she gets it dick,” the goth woman told Richards. “You coming
or do I get to drive the cop-mobile this time?”
*
Once they were gone, Jane returned to the
mayor’s side.
“I don’t get something, Ma’am.” She said to
punctuate the silence.
“I’ve told you time and again,” Sylvia Gray
said to her assistant. “Call me Sylvia.”
Jane gave a quick forced smile. “I can’t
figure out why you didn’t just tell them the truth,” she said, not allowing
Sylvia Gray to change the topic.
The mayor crossed her arms and leaned back
in her chair. “I don’t think he was quite ready to listen,” she told Jane. “At
least, not quite yet. It’s just his first day after all. Let’s see how much
trouble he can get himself in.”
Next
Time on Dakotah Slade Paranormal / Detective at www.patreon.com/99geek Chapter 2: Detective Anderson Richards goes all in with a gamble that might
not just put his own life in danger, but Dakotah’s life as well.
Next
Month: The Aldonn Chronicles at www.patreon.com/99geek July 2018 Chapter 6: With Edward and Aldonn still recovering from the events that
ended the last act, Frankie decides to take it on herself to warn the Mage
Council of Lee’s impending war. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that they
aren’t interested in her help.
August
2018: Isabol Tseung Voice News Chapter 1 of 5
September
2018: Adrift Homeless Chapter 6
October
2018: Dakotah Slade Paranormal/Detective Chapter 2
Previously
on Dakotah Slade Paranormal/Detective:
Dakotah Slade is a broken love-lorn women who has spent her
entire life falling for the wrong kind of men. Men who use her, men who abuse
her. Men who dominate her, hurt her, and then leave her when they’ve had their
fill. Most recently she fell in love with a very dangerous man named Cale, and
it was a love that burned passionately until it was gone. Wallowing in her
grief and self-pity, she’s spent months at her favourite bar on an alcoholic
bender, spending what little money she had left. It was there she remained,
until one day her friend stepped into the bar and spontaneously combusted. Now
she’s teamed with similarly “broken” rookie detective Anderson Richards to get
to the bottom of a new threat in their city of Missassauga Ontario Canada.
The victim’s girlfriend, Dakotah’s friend Brienne, told the
unlikely duo that Alex had ingested some kind of glowing drug before the
incident, and she led them to his dealer, a large elephant of a man named
Gareth. He resisted, but together they were able to take him down, and
unconscious they dragged him back to the precinct to cool off. Finding drug
samples in his home, they got their “brain train” to analyze the pills, and the
three nerds found them to defy the very laws of physics. Sharing that
astounding attribute with a recently auctioned space rock bought by the mayor
of the city, they visited the mayor who gave them an unbelievable tale of
magic, a once ancient force on the world long gone extinct, and a cult who want
to bring it back. They left her office having hit a dead end.
When
you live with someone long enough, they become part of you. When they leave
it’s like they’ve taken a part of you with them. Like a hole has been torn in
your heart. They leave remnants of themselves behind, reminders of the life
you’ve lost. Their cup still on the table. The plushie you gave them last
Easter left behind carelessly. Their side of the bed. Each one is a dagger
tearing the hole in your heart wider and wider.
And deeper.
“We’re there,” Anderson’s sharp voice cut
loudly through Dakotah’s passionate dream. She tried desperately to cling to
it, Cale’s naked body thrusting into her as her hands rubbed against his shaven
head. She could taste him, she could feel his girth inside her, smell his
breath on her skin.
It took a moment for her to remember whose
car she was in, and snorting she startled to attention. “I’m here,” she
insisted groggily. “I’m okay.” She looked around, trying to take in her
surroundings through the windshield. “Where are we?”
It appeared they were in a parking lot, but
all the vehicles around them were cop cars.
“We’re at the station,” Anderson told her
with a raised eyebrow. “You sure you didn’t want me to drop you off at home?”
He asked, and she remembered their conversation prior to her passing out. No,
she wasn’t going to be left behind. She was going to see this through.
“I’m awake.” She insisted.
“Well you’re not snoring anymore,” Anderson
admitted with a small shrug. “So that’s a plus.”
Dakotah gave him a dark look. “I don’t
snore.”
*
“I need to talk to you about Anderson,”
Sara said, stepping into Police Chief Sue Harrington’s office. She’d finally
managed to change out of that fancy dinner dress she’d been wearing from her
undercover training, trading it in for activewear sweatpants and a T-shirt she
had in her locker. At least now all the male officers weren’t harassing her
with their eyes every time she passed their desks.
Chief Harrington’s office was wide, with
wooden panelling on the walls filled with trophies and awards from the woman’s
long career on the force. She also had a large ornate desk, with rounded edges
that were easy to circle around. There was a lot of space in the office, and
not much clutter. The windows all had electric shutters the chief could control
by remote control.
“Detective Richards?” Chief Harrington
asked Officer Warley as she glanced up from her paperwork. “Again, Sara?”
“Is this a bad time?” Sara asked, standing
at attention in front of her commanding officer’s desk.
“It’s always a bad time.” Harrington said
with a frown, leaning back in her chair. “If this is about why he got the
detective badge over you, I don’t want to hear it.” Harrington shook her head,
and crossed her arms. Her black peppered hair fell loose from its usual tight
bun. “If you want your promotion, convince him to take you as his partner.”
“This isn’t about that,” Sara insisted. The
chief looked at her darkly, and Sara buckled. “This isn’t JUST about that.
You’re going to get him killed. Or his new friend.”
Chief Harrington sighed, rubbing her hands
over her face. She looked tired. Worn down. “Detective Richards is a special
case,” she told Sara.
Sara frowned. “I’ve been hearing that a lot
lately,” she said, not wanting to let up. “Shouldn’t a detective solve cases,
not be one?”
“Funny play on words,” Harrington shot
back, “but as usual the truth is many swathes more complicated.”
Sara slammed her hands on the desk, leaning
over it so her face was closer to the Chief’s. “There’s always a hundred
excuses for why a woman gets passed on a promotion for a man.” She raised one
of her hands and balled it into a fist. “I have worked SO hard. You don’t know
how much I’ve had to compensate, and sacrifice, and compromise.” It always felt
like she was handicapped somehow, just because she was a woman.
Harrington wheeled her chair back from the
desk, so Sara could glimpse her useless paralyzed legs. “Don’t lecture me about
compensating or compromise,” she said in a stern angry tone. “You couldn’t
possibly fathom the depths of MY sacrifices.”
Sara finally backed down. “I’m sorry
Ma’am,” Sara said, feeling guilty. She knew how little her boss liked to bring
attention to her injury. “I didn’t think.”
Harrington rolled back under her desk, and
leaned against it. “Do you know what happened with Anderson and his last
partner?”
“Maybe,” Sara admitted. “I mean there’s
rumours and whispers around the precinct. Even precinct 2 was talking about
it.”
Harrington nodded over Sara’s shoulder. “Close
the door.” As Sara straightened to do as she was told, the blinds on the
windows began to turn shut, bathing the office in darkness.
*
“I can show you the bodycam footage if you
like,” Anderson smiled smugly as Dakotah followed him into the precinct. He
could see that he was getting under her skin. “It records audio and
everything.”
“You don’t have a body cam on you,” Dakotah
insisted, and Anderson pointed to a pin on his tie.
“Plain clothed detectives get a more subtle
one when they’re in the field,” he explained. He could tell she wasn’t amused.
“Isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”
Dakotah insisted. Anderson pointed to cameras around the precinct. As he did,
he noticed Harrington’s door was closed. She was probably in a meeting. Good,
best she not bug him anymore about trading off his case.
“We’re being watched at all times,” he
explained to Dakotah. “And not just here, all over the city.”
“So the dystopian future is here,” Dakotah
reasoned. “We’re already fucked.”
“The thing you have to remember,” Anderson
said as he flashed Stan his badge and stepped through into the back of the
precinct from the visitor lobby. He held the swinging divide open for her to
step through after him. “it’s not like we have the money or resources to pay
the number of personnel it would take to watch everyone one to one. No one has
that kind of resources, you’d need billions to watch the other billions, and
who would watch those billions. And what would be the point?”
“So that’s supposed to comfort me,” Dakotah
argued. “No one is gonna watch me in the shower, because everyone’s probably
too busy.”
“Even if someone was trying to follow the
comings and goings of individual people, what would be the point?” Anderson
argued back. “Unless you did something wrong, what reason would someone have to
abuse the system in such a way as to track random citizens. Could the system be
abused by authorities trying to solve a crime, or by political leaders spying
on the activities of each other. But I really don’t think someone out there is
wasting their time tracking the comings and goings of a twenty something
alcoholic bar rat. Again I ask, what would be the point?”
“I can think of a few,” Dakotah said as
they stepped through the glass doors into the Brain Train lab.
“As far as these bodycams are concerned,
the footage is stored on a server and no one even sees it, unless someone has a
need to look it up,” he explained to Dakotah. “It’s not like we have an
overwatch keepings tabs on us twenty four hours a day.”
“But then there’s also an overwatch keeping
tabs on us twenty four / seven,” Makayla said from across the small narrow lab
where she seemed to be observing some red liquid in a beaker. It looked like
blood. “And they don’t need bodycams to do it. But every camera helps.” She
pointed to her laptop, where a piece of tape was covering her webcam.
“I’m trying to get her off conspiracy
theories,” Anderson warned the young geek. “Don’t encourage her.”
“I think ‘encourage her’ is the only thing
you can rely on Makayla to do,” Spiner said from behind a computer. Spiner
could have been Makayla’s older brother, with similar wild hair, black rimmed
glasses, and dark skin. But there was no relation. And the one person who had
asked them once if there was, got a long ten minute lecture about how even suggesting
so was very racist.
“Is our prisoner awake?” Anderson asked
Spiner.
“Who knows,” replied the third member of
the brain train, Albert.
“They don’t tell us anything,” Spiner
explained, slouching over his computer. “We just run their numbers and tap on
our keyboards like this.” He blindly started slapping his keyboard.
“Did you guys get yelled at from the boss?”
Dakotah asked, with a giggle.
“Not exactly,” Albert said. “Apparently vee
ask too many questions.”
“They’re just in a bit of a slump,” Makayla
said. “Problem with authority or something. They’ll be back to normal by
tomorrow.”
“You don’t have a problem with authority?”
Dakotah asked her with a raise of an eyebrow.
Makayla shrugged, pouring the blood red
substance from one beaker into another, and setting it to boil on a bunsen
burner. “Naw,” she said. “I’ve had people asserting their authority on me my
entire life. It just sorta rolls right off now. I smile, say, uhuh, and then go
back to what I was doing like nothing happened.”
“So what are you doing?” Anderson asked
her. “Testing a sample for a case?”
“Naw,” Makayla said as she slid a mirror
over the beaker to catch the condensation. “It’s actually the red wine I bought
last night. It’s really good, and was only fourteen dollars a bottle.” She slid
the mirror out as she captured a couple droplets, and quickly slid the droplets
under a microscope. “If I can figure out its composition, Bert is confident he
can recreate the brew.”
“I was gonna say,” Dakotah nodded her head.
“I thought he was the chemist.” She pointed to Albert.
“Chemistry and Biology, my dear,” Albert
said from his slump beside Spiner.
“But we all dabble in each other’s fields,”
Makayla told Dakotah. “Here and there.”
“I’m sorry I asked,” Anderson admitted.
“What about the pills Albert? Do you have a composite report for the glowing
rock yet?”
“It vas actually quite hard,” Albert said,
lazily lifting a file beside him as if to hand it to Anderson, but they never
got close to connecting before his arm dropped. “I had to separate the chemical
components of the rock from all the trash it was mixed with.” Albert tapped his
hand on the file. “You really shouldn’t take one of zese. Anyvay, I finally
managed to collect a big enough sample to test. Based on every initial veading,”
Albert explained dully the contents of the file, “both composite und spectral
analysis, it’s a rock.”
Anderson dropped his outstretched hand.
“Just a rock?”
“Und normal everyday rock,” he insisted. “A
lot of silicon dioxide. Nothing spectacular to note at all.”
“Cool,” Dakotah said with a shrug. “So why
does it glow?”
“Put in ze plainest English,” Albert told
her, “it doesn’t.” He crossed his arms. “Based on my findings, ze thing is
unexceptional at best.”
Anderson lifted one of the pills from their
table. It still had the small amber glow, almost like a translucent NY-Quill
had sex with the amber from Jurassic Park. He showed the pill to Albert. “Um…”
“Yes,” Albert nodded. “Vell, obviously my
findings veren’t completely accurate.”
“Obviously,” Anderson muttered under his
breath, dropping the pill on the table. “What about the Tempus Cult. Has anyone
heard that name before?”
“Tempus is the Latin word for time,” Spiner
piped in from his side of the desk, where he was resting his chin in his hands.
“That’s something,” Anderson said with a
snap. “What else?”
“That’s all I’ve got,” Spiner said with a
shrug, “It’s Latin for time.”
“It’s not bad,” Detective Anderson Richards
heard Dakotah whisper to his side. He turned to see she was tasting Makayla’s
wine, “but you can barely taste the alcohol.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing…”
Makayla whispered back, though Anderson could hear them both.
Detective Richards crossed his arms. “For a
team called the Brain Train, you’re not exactly holding up to your reputation.”
Spiner just shrugged, demoralizingly. “What
did you get out of the mayor?” he asked with little interest.
“Her rock was intact,” Anderson said,
pacing. He seemed to be the only one motivated and focused on the task at hand.
“Which only goes to mean there’s more than one in play.”
“Also she fed me some bunk tale about a
legendary source of energy that’s been extinct for thousands of years. I can’t
‘member the rest, It was really a kind of boring story, and it doesn’t help us
with our case.”
“There vas something,” Albert argued. “The carbon
dating came back putting ze collected rock particles to be about four thousand
years old. Not necessarily exceptional for a rock. Vather young in fact. I
vasn’t even going to mention it, but then your story.” He gestured to Anderson.
“For the record, it’s just a damned story,”
he told the Brain Train, all three of them looking at him expectantly now, “and
it wasn’t even mine. It was from that bedtime-story-reading-grandma of a mayor
we have.”
“I voted for her!” Spiner voiced his
complaint. “I take offense to that.”
“She believes in magic,” Anderson told
Spiner.
Spiner crossed his arms. “Some people say
love is the strongest magic of all.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,”
Makayla said from the other side of the lab, looking longingly at Dakotah, but
quickly averting her gaze to her beaker as Dakotah looked up.
“Trust me,” Dakotah told her. “That magic
comes with a price.”
“Alright,” Anderson said, stepping back
from them so far that the automatic glass doors behind him opened. “You muse on
that for a while,” he told Spiner, “while Albert can run more tests on the rock
fragments he collected. Makayla can do some research on the Tempus Cult…” she
looked up at him as if she didn’t want to.
“That means tap tap tap,” he said, miming a
keyboard.
“Yeah, fine,” she muttered with irritation.
“After this.”
“Meeeeeanwhile,” Andersonsaid, dragging the vowel as he eyed her.
“Dakotah and I are going to pay a visit to Popeye the Sailor Man in
interrogation room three and see if he wants to tell us where he gets his
spinach.”
“We are?” Dakotah asked, looking up from
Makayla’s wine experiments.
“Richards!” a woman’s voice yelled through
the open door behind him. Anderson turned around and stepped into the open
precinct. Across their entire workspace, Sara had noticed his back and called
to get his attention. “I need to have a word with you!”
Anderson crossed his arms again. “Does that
word have to be across the entire precinct?”
“I know everything, Richards,” Sara yelled
back impatiently. Everyone’s heads turned to face her, everyone in the precinct
listening in on their conversation with transparent interest. “I’m sorry about
your partner, I really am,” she outstretched her arms, “but I’m not like him.”
Why was Sara suddenly trying negotiate some
kind of peace with him? Something had changed. “You,” he said, trying to read
her face. Where had she just been coming from? Based on the angle of her body
she had probably just been coming from the very place he was headed to. “You!”
he repeated angrily. “You already talked to my suspect didn’t you?”
“Don’t be mad,” Sara said, lifting up her
key. She stepped between the cubicles. “The chief gave me five minutes.”
“You bitch,” Anderson swore, everyone’s
heads turning in his direction. Someone in the room audibly gasped. “You’re
trying to take my first case out from under me.” He snatched the key card from
her outstretched hand.
“Stop being a stubborn ass and listen to
me,” Sara insisted. “We can share our information. You can trust me, God
dammit.”
Anderson raised an eyebrow, giving her a
disbelieving look. He started towards the interrogation rooms, happy to see
Dakotah had his back.
“You’re in over your head Anderson!” Sara
yelled after him. “And SHE doesn’t even have police training! You’re gonna get
yourself killed! And your skank too!”
“Excuse me?” Dakotah said, stopping in her
tracks.
“Fuck,” Sara swore. “I didn’t… I say the
wrong things when I get upset…” She pinched the bridge of her nose, massaging a
possible headache. “I’m trying to treat you with sympathy and restraint here.”
She yelled past Dakotah at Anderson. He turned around too, the same
disbelieving look on his face.
“Really?” Dakotah said. “This is sympathy
and restraint?”
“Fucking stay out of this,” Sara said
sharply at her, desperation in her tone. Dakotah shrugged, and caught up with
Anderson.
“I think I can conduct my own interview
with the suspect, Officer Warley.” Anderson waved for Dakotah to follow him.
“Come along Dakotah.”
“This conversation went a lot different in
my head!” Sara called after him. “Can’t we just start over?”
“Good night Sara,” he yelled back to her.
As they turned into the corridor they could
still hear her screaming. She really couldn’t control herself.
“You can’t turn the fucking page and forget
about me, Anderson!” There was a pause. “Detective Richards! DON’T WALK AWAY
FROM ME!”
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL STARING AT!”
“Maybe psycho Barbie has a point,” Dakotah
said, as Anderson unlocked interrogation room three.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,”
Anderson told her, choosing to forget Sara existed, much as she’d suggested.
They sat down side by side at the table.
“She probably already told your captain about the drug connection,” Dakotah
reasoned to him in a whisper. “Which means this is no longer your juris-thingy.
“Chief Harrington isn’t going to just take
this case away from me,” Anderson insisted. “Not yet. She promised me till
Monday. And out of respect, she’ll give me that.”
“Right,” Dakotah nodded deliriously. “Lets
just end the drug trade on a weekend. What do you want to tackle next week,
world peace?” She frowned. “You know who might be able to help you actually
succeed at your goal? Officer Jennifer Aniston back there. I mean, am I even
allowed in here? Or is this just another thing you’re gonna get in trouble for
on my behalf?”
“You may not be a cop,” Anderson hissed at
her. “But at least I can trust you. Or at least I can trust your current
motivations.” He crossed his arms in stubborn finality. “And civilians sit in
on interrogations all the time.”
“What is it with you and trust?” Dakotah
threw a thumb over her shoulder. “Why not take Serious Sam out there as your
partner? A goody two shoes like you, she’d be just what you need.” Dakotah
frowned. “What the hell happened with your partner to make you distrust cops so
much? Protect and Serve, remember. They’ve all given the hypocritical oath.”
Dakotah stopped for a moment. “Or was that just doctors?”
Her eyebrows furrowed with thought. “But
why would a doctor need to protect and serve?”
“Do you two love birds need a minute?”
They both turned in their seats,
acknowledging the suspect handcuffed to the other side of the table for the
first time since they’d come in.
The large incredibly muscular man named
Gareth flexed against his tight handcuffs. “I told the other woman everything I
know,” he explained. “In return she said I was gunna git a full pardon. Is that
not happening?” He looked from Anderson to Dakotah and then back again. “Cause
if it ain’t I’m gonna break out of my handcuffs here an’ make you two lovers
kiss until your skulls cave in.” His handcuffs creaked noisily as he pulled
against them as if to make his point.
Anderson leaned close to Dakotah, his eyes
not moving from Gareth. “He’s bluffing.”
The detective leaned forward on his seat.
“Mister Gareth Delco, I’m afraid my associate did not have the proper clearance
to grant you your request.”
“This is bullsh—“ Gareth started to say,
stretching his restraints to their limits.
“However,” Anderson said quickly, hoping
the man wouldn’t do something they’d all regret. “I’d be happy to consider your
full pardon if you tell me everything you told her.”
“Ya want me ta tell ya where ta find my
distributor?” Gareth asked them, a smirk forming on his lips.
“Your drug killed my friend,” Dakotah said
darkly. “Burned him alive from the inside out. It’s the least you could do.”
Gareth’s smirk dropped to a frown. “What do
you mean it burned him alive?”
“Oh my god,” Dakotah said, reading
something in his expression. “You’ve had some.”
“And you didn’t know what was in it,”
Anderson reasoned with her.
“What it do to your friend?” Gareth asked
Dakotah with concern.
“We haven’t been able to figure out, yet,”
Anderson explained, sharing a look with Dakotah, “exactly what… caused the
reaction that… killed Alex.”
“This is why you never ingest anything ya don’t
know what it is,” Dakotah warned Gareth too late. “Never.”
“Look we can talk to the people who
concocted this stuff,” Anderson tried to reason with the man. “Maybe they have
some kind of cure. But we’re not going to get anywhere until you tell us where
to find your supplier.”
“Distributor,” Dakotah corrected him
quickly.
“Whatever the next level up is,” Anderson
said with exasperation.
Dakotah raised her hand. “It’s like you’re
here,” she told Gareth, raising her other hand just a little higher. “And they’re
here.”
“I think he gets it.”
“Would you both stop?” Gareth insisted with
frustration. “If I tell you the address will you leave me alone?”
“Yeah,” Dakotah said with a friendly nod.
“That about covers it.”
Gareth tapped the baber in front of
Anderson. “It’s a little off Mississauga road. A Thirteen forty two Sunflower
Avenue.” Anderson quickly wrote down the address.
“Bingo,” the detective said, grabbing the
paper from the table. “Let’s go.”
“Yeah!” Gareth yelled at him as they got
out of their seats. “Get a room you two lovebirds! Come on back when you gotsa
cure for old Gareth Delco.”
“Hey,” Dakotah said, shoving a finger into
Gareth’s face. “I don’t love. I have two modes. I hate, and I tolerate.”
“Your modes rhyme,” Anderson muttered.
*
Sara watched them leave the room through a
one-way glass mirror. “Dammit.”
“They got more out of the witness than
you,” Chief Harrington said from her wheelchair beside Sara, though it was
already obvious.
“They had more time,” Sara argued, fully
aware she was just making excuses for herself.
“It was easy for him,” the chief explained,
“because he had a partner he could work off of.”
“She can’t be his partner,” Sara insisted.
“She’s not even a police officer.”
Chief Harrington looked at her watch. “For
now I’m going to indulge his hunches,” she made her decision. “And when he puts
this all in his report on Monday, I’ll assign him to work with you at clearing
this mess up once and for all. I trust you can all find a way to work
together.”
“How do you know he’s going to wait for
Monday?” Sara asked.
“He’d be crazy to tackle this address on
his own,” the Chief said, clearly tired. “The sun has gone down, Officer
Warley. Give it a rest. I’m going home for the weekend. I’ll see you on Monday,
Detective Richards’ report in my hands.”
The door closed behind the Chief’s
wheelchair, and Sara was alone. Something the chief said rang in her ears.
“He’d be crazy to tackle that address on his own.”
“What if he IS crazy?” Sara asked out loud,
but no one heard her.
***
“I know this is going to sound crazy,”
Dakotah whispered to Detective Richards as they abandoned his car, and she
followed him along the dark sidewalk to the dark suburban home. “And I know I’m
clueless when it comes to police procedurals,” she wondered if she meant
procedure, but she kept going, “but shouldn’t we call for back up or
something?”
“If you try and use some clever metaphor to
suggest Officer Warley again,” Anderson muttered under his breath, “I’m going
to leave you in the car.”
“You mean Wonder Woman on PMS?” Dakotah
asked him.
He looked at her.
“I don’t even know what a ‘She-Ra’ is, but
in my mind under ‘She-Ra’ I just picture her.” She liked getting under his
skin, and watching him squirm.
“We don’t need back-up,” Anderson told her,
leading them off the sidewalk into the darker front lawns, “because we’re just
doing recon.” Dakotah lit a cigarette as she followed behind him. “This is it
up here.” She took a puff, and tried to hide the glow of the cherry in their
chosen shadows.
“We’ll scope out the area and put it all in
the report,” Anderson explained, And Dakotah was impressed they were still
keeping it to the book. Some kind of book. Somewhere. Maybe.
“Come on,” Anderson said, motioning for her
to stay close. They creeped up the front lawn of what Dakotah hoped was the
right building, she’d already forgotten what number Gareth had said. He brought
them along the side of the building, and dropped to a crouch below a window.
Dakotah leaned over him, trying to stay as low as she could without trying too
hard.
“I’m just saying,” Dakotah continued. “Like
her or not, I’d feel safer with pink ranger covering our back.”
“Quiet,” Anderson warned. “There’s people
inside. I only agreed to bring you with me because you said you could be like a
ninja.”
Dakotah took a puff of her cigarette as
Anderson tried to peer inside.
“Are you smoking?” Anderson whispered
harshly as he crouched back down. “How is that stealthy?”
“Calm your tits Solid Snake,” she argued
quietly. “I didn’t exactly realize we were going all Metal Gear Solid when I
lit this thing. I’ve got like five more puffs.”
“I don’t even get your reference.”
Dakotah took another puff, not wanting to
waste her smoke. Sure she didn’t pay for it, having stolen them from Gareth’s
apartment, but they were still valuable to her. They were good quality smokes.
Belmonts.
“Well I don’t get where it’s written you
can’t smoke while being stealthy.”
Anderson shrugged sarcastically. “I dunno,”
he said. “They’ll smell it?”
Dakotah looked at her smoke. “I didn’t
think of that.” As a smoker she often forgot how much her smokes smelled to
people who didn’t smoke.
Anderson tried again to peer through the
window, and this time Dakotah tried with him, pressing her cheek against his.
His skin was warm against hers. She always felt cold.
They seemed to be packing everything they
could into boxes, not just the product, but the equipment too. One skinny
middle aged man in a brown robe was just finishing packing a telescope away in
a box. A taller woman also in a brown robe that didn’t even cover her ankles
grabbed a pile of files from the nearest table to their window, and she ran the
papers through a paper shredder.
Anderson and Dakotah lowered from the
window.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how you make
drugs,” Dakotah told Anderson. She took another puff of her smoke.
“They must know they’ve been compromised,”
Anderson told her. “By Monday this place will be empty and they’ll be all set
up in their new headquarters.”
Dakotah was about to ask what he wanted to
do about it when a car pulled up on the driveway. Anderson glared at Dakotah’s
cigarette, and with one last puff she stomped it on the ground. A large woman
got out, as they pressed against the side of the building, and from what
Dakotah could see this woman was even more built than the blonde inside. They
were all wearing the same brown robes but this massive newcomer also carried an
equally massive sword on her back.
“These people don’t dress like any gang
I’ve ever seen,” Dakotah muttered under her breath to Anderson. There was a knocking
around front, and the woman was let inside. Anderson put his finger to his
lips, again cautioning Dakotah to be quiet. Ever so slowly he lifted up the
window just a crack so they could hear what the three strangers were saying
inside.
“Patricia?” a female voice said through the
window. “What in the hells happened to you?”
“Hells?” Dakotah mouthed to Anderson. He
put a finger to his lips again and she shot him a glare.
“Oakville didn’t go quite the way we
planned Esther,” the woman with the sword spoke. “What’s going on here? What
happened to our Mississauga operation?”
“We’re moving,” the male in the room spoke
at last.
“Progress is hours behind,” Esther told the
woman, “but we’ll be long gone before authorities show up.”
“How do you know you were compromised?”
Patricia asked them.
“Our liaison in this region,” the man said.
“He didn’t say when they would raid. He just said he was sure they’d be
coming.”
“Which means they could still be days
away,” Dakotah heard Esther’s voice interrupt.
“Or they could be right on top of us,” the
man insisted.
“You know Davion,” Esther muttered. “Always
the optimist.”
“We can’t have our Mississauga operation
mess up Dalish’s primary agenda,” Davion insisted to them. “Not when everything
is so close.”
“Trust me,” Patricia’s voice could be heard
saying. “He’s doing a fantastic job messing that up all on his own. I hear he’s
got quite a mess at the headquarters. I thought I’d wait it out till things
were cleaned up.”
Anderson backed away from the window just
in time to catch Dakotah about to light up another smoke.
“Seriously?” he hissed at her.
“I’m like a ninja,” she insisted. “Just
with cravings.”
Anderson unfastened his holster, and pulled
out his pistol, shifting off the safety.
“Oh, getting serious now, are we?” Dakotah
asked as she followed him sneakily around the side of the building. “You know,
I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I got one of those.”
“Not a chance in hell,” Anderson hissed.
“I think you mean hells.”
“Besides,” he continued like she hadn’t
interrupted him, “I only came with the one. Lock up is very careful how much
firepower they allow solo officers to rent out.”
They came to the back of the house, where a
sliding glass door opened to a white kitchen. A smaller window was already
open, and Dakotah could swear she could hear Beyonce. As they moved closer to
the kitchen entrance, Dakotah spotted a young latino, with a thin moustache and
dressed in the same brown robes. He seemed to be listening to headphones, but
damn were they loud.
“There’s only one of them in the kitchen,”
Anderson muttered under his breath. “I say we breach here.”
“Breach?” Dakotah repeated. “How? We don’t
have back up, remember? Cause we were just supposed to be on recon.”
Detective Anderson Richards shook his head.
“The mission isn’t recon anymore. We have to move in now.” He quietly opened
the kitchen entrance. “Just cover my back.”
“With what?” Dakotah hissed after him. “My
tazer?” she pulled it out of her bag anyway, holding it at the ready as if it
were a gun too.
“I forgot you had that,” the detective
said, patting her on the shoulder. “See,” Anderson said with a smile. “this is
all going to work out great.”
“I found love in a hopeless place!” the
latino sang out as they snuck into the kitchen. It seemed the song on his iPod
had changed. It also seemed that he had finished packing the box he was working
on. He turned to place it on a pile, and Anderson grabbed Dakotah, pulling her
under the kitchen table.
They were so close, Dakotah could feel
Anderson’s face nustle into her hair.
“You smell nice,” he told her, his hands
seemingly extra careful not to wander from her shoulder.
“I haven’t showered in two days,” she
whispered back coyly. Above them, the man in robes turned to pack a new box.
They silently crept along the tiles, harder
for Dakotah in her large black clunking boots, and swung around the kitchen
island to straighten up beside him on either side. The Latino man looked first
at Dakotah, and then turned to Anderson who raised his gun at the man’s face.
Dakotah reached up and pulled the earbuds from the man’s ears.
“Tell us where you’re taking the
merchandise,” Anderson whispered at the robed man. “or I’ll shoot you in the
head.”
“And then I’ll taze your balls,” Dakotah
hissed from behind the man.
Anderson dropped his pistol to his side.
“Actually just the balls thing,” he said with a grin.
“I can take you there,” the man told them,
his voice hushed as Dakotah pointed her tazer at his groin. “to the holding
facility.”
“What, through your army of goons?” Dakotah
asked with a shake of her head. “That sounds like a bad idea.”
The man reached his hand into his pocket.
Dakotah put her tazer closer to his crouch but he pulled out a simple set of
keys. “You don’t understand,” he told them as he fumbled with the key chain. It
seemed to have a hundred keys on it, at least. Filled to almost bursting. “It’s
just right through here.” He stepped away from them towards what looked like
the pantry.
“You sure about that?” Anderson said
confused.
The man reached the pantry, sliding a key
into the lock that didn’t look at all suited for a pantry. When the door
opened, however, there seemed to be a large cave inside, much larger than that
side of the building would allow. And the cave was filled with guns.
“What is this place?” Anderosn asked, looking
through the door as the man they’d captured stepped through and turned around. “Do
you have licenses for all of these?”
“It’s not for you,” the man said with a
wave. “Goodbye.”
He closed the door with a click.
“Hey!” Anderson yelled angrily, opening the
door after him only to find a completely ordinary pantry, filled with cereals
and fruit by the foot. “What the hell?” The detective asked, stepping into the
pantry confused. He placed his hand against one of the walls. “Where did the
kid go?”
There was a click behind Dakotah and she
turned in time to see the robed kid they were just threatening step through the
kitchen entrance carrying a shotgun.
“Shit!” Dakotah yelled at Anderson. “He’s
over here and he’s got a gun!”
Anderson raised his pistol and fired
multiple rounds into the robed man, and he dropped heavily without getting a
shot off.
“How the hell did he do that?” Anderson
asked as they both came around the kitchen island, and he approached the body.
The man’s shotgun was strewn to the side.
“You sure he’s dead?” Dakotah warned.
“They can teleport,” Anderson told her.
“Not survive three shots to the chest.” He nodded down the hallway where he was
pretty sure he heard noise. “Now they know we’re here.”
Dakotah stepped carefully around the body
and grabbed the man’s shotgun as someone stepped into the hallway, a gun
pointed at them in the kitchen. Anderson was ready for him, however, and shot
him twice, the man thumping into the doorway and sliding down.
“We should go back,” Dakotah said as they
slid to either side of the hallway entrance.
The woman Esther peered around into the
hallway from a distant room, and fired shots across the hallway at the kitchen.
“What,” Anderson yelled at Dakotah, “like
out the window?”
Dakotah shrugged. “Sure,” she said. “Call
for help!”
“Fine,” Anderson seemed to relent to her.
“You go do that,” he said, firing shots back as others joined Esther in the
hallway. “Sara even, if you must. I have to stay and figure out what’s going on
here.” He fired another shot, and his gun pinged empty. He pulled back to
reload as the pantry door opened, and a man in brown robes stepped through
carrying a machine gun.
Dakotah turned her shotgun on him, and
pelted him with a blast, knocking him onto the counter. The force of the recoil
was enough to launch Dakotah back into the fridge, bouncing off and leaving a
dent. Her hair fell in front of her face, and she grinned despite the pain.
“That felt good.”
Anderson finished reloading his gun,
cocking the chamber back into place. “Seriously Dakotah,” he insisted. “Go
back.”
He creeped down the hallway, and she
followed behind him with her shotgun at the ready. “God dammit,” she swore,
desperately wishing she could do as she was told. “You really need a fucking
partner. So I don’t have to be risking my life like this.”
They came upon the room they’d been spying
on earlier, and both Esther and Davion stepped out.
“Freeze!” Anderson yelled at them, pointing
his pistol in their direction.
Dakotah tried to peer into the room, but
there was no one else there. “Where’s the woman with the sword?” Dakotah asked
them, and the two cultists seemed to glance to each other.
“She left when she heard trouble,” Davion
told them sternly. “Left us to clean up the rest of this mess ourselves.” He
turned towards the basement stairs.
“I said FREEZE!” Anderson screamed at the
top of his lungs, loud enough to make Dakotah wince.
“Take care of them,” Davion muttered
uncaring as he trudged down the stairs away from Anderson’s outstretched gun.
The detective eyed the cultist woman who
seemed to be giving Dakotah a similar look. Dakotah frowned.
“You got this?” Anderson asked her.
“Sure,” Dakotah muttered, very
unconvincingly. “I got Officer Sara Warley’s larger cultist twin, you go for
that other robed fuck.”
Anderson rushed down the stairs after the
seeming cult leader, while Dakotah stood her ground.
“You got me?” Esther asked, smaller than
the third woman who had been there, but still a good bit more intimidating than
Dakotah. She began to take off her robe, baring her large muscular arms bulging
out from a tight sports bra.
“Uh,” Dakotah muttered with a gulp. “Isn’t
it against your oath to take that thing off?” She gulped again. “Or something.”
“The only oath I made was to kick your
ass,” Esther muttered, pounding her fists together.
“Oh shit,” Dakotah said, raising her
shotgun. “That was a good line. Too bad I have all the delivery.”
She tried to pull her trigger, but Esther
grabbed the barrel of the gun, and pointed it into the ceiling. Before Dakotah
could do anything else to defend herself, Esther had planted a heavy hit into
her gut. Dakotah reeled back gasping for breath, but Esther didn’t let up.
Another punch hit her like a brick to the face. Another cannon of a fist
blasted Dakotah across her jaw and she was pretty sure she felt a tooth loosen.
There was also blood. She definitely tasted
blood. And on the third hit she was sure she heard a crack.
She was down, crawling on the floor and
trying desperately to get away from Esther. “Jesus,” Dakotah muttered, spitting
blood. “You win.”
Esther picked her up by her shirt and threw
her into the hallway wall, smashing her through a wine cabinet and then tossing
her effortlessly back into the kitchen.
“I give up,” Dakotah muttered, desperately
grasping at the kitchen island to get to her feet. “I surrender, you bitch.”
Esther clicked on the stove, and laughed at
Dakotah. Dakotah tried to raise her fists in defense, but Esther just reach
past to grab Dakotah by the throat and bring her to the glowing stove.
Dakotah was on her knees at Esther’s side,
bleeding on the tiles beneath her, her broken glasses eskewed on her face. She
spit blood onto the kitchen tile and grinned up at the much stronger woman.
“Fuck you bitch,” she goaded gleefully. “No matter what you do to me, it won’t
be any less than I deserve.”
Esther slammed her head into the side of
the oven, cracking her skull and ringing her ears. Her vision blurred and
shifted like she were under water, and she almost didn’t even feel her cheek
get pressed against the stove element. But she felt the searing pain as her
skin melted. And she heard herself scream.
*
Detective Anderson Richards stepped out
from the stairs into a cold dark dingy stone hallway that seemed to run under
the building. As he stepped underneath overhanging cobwebs he noticed a faint
glow, but as he turned the glow faded away. Then it returned.
“Explosive charges,” Anderson muttered to
himself. “The OPP aren’t going to find an abandoned house here on Monday.
They’re gunna find no house here at all.”
“That’s right, Detective Richards,”
Davion’s voice came from the end of the hallway. “You might as well come out
here. You’re outgunned.”
Anderson continued down the hallway, and
stepped through the opening into a small room filled with dusty bookcases that
lined the walls. The only light came from candles on a small desk, and on the
walls between the shelves. Davion was standing behind the desk, two armed men
behind him, and a heavy cast iron door behind them.
“As is usual from you, Detective Richards,”
Davion gloated, “You’re far too late finding the corruption right under your
nose to do anything but fail.”
“How do you know so much about me?”
Anderson asked him, surprised the man even knew his name, let alone so much of
his past.
“The Tempus Cult has people everywhere,”
Davion explained gleefully. “Now really, detective, I don’t have time to tell
you ALL our plans. Come on Esther.”
Anderson turned in time to see the large
cultist Ester step into the opening behind him and drop Dakotah’s mangled form
on the ground at her feet. The pale black haired woman looked dead.
“Your forgot this upstairs,” Esther said,
sneering at Anderson.
“Dakotah!” Anderson yelled at her.
“I’m just gonna lie here in a bloody mess
for a while,” she muttered, and Anderson’s heart started beating again.
Esther stepped around the desk to join
Davion and the other robed men stepped through the metal door to places
unknown.
“Goodbye Detective Richards,” Davion said,
as Esther stepped through the iron cast door and he moved to follow her. “I
trust we won’t meet again.”
Anderson charged for Davion as fast as he
could, diving over the desk as the door shut closed with a loud boom. Anderson
grabbed the door and ripped it open, but what he found on the other side was
less than helpful.
“Stone,” he said out loud so Dakotah could
know. Just a flat stone wall on the other side of the door. “Dakotah—” he
called her name.
*
Cale watched the house from his SUV,
waiting for her to escape.
“Come on,” he muttered, waiting and
waiting. This wasn’t going to be the end of her. Not his Dakotah.
The house exploded, debris soaring out in
all directions as the walls buckled and the second floor caved in on itself.
The whole building collapsed, crushing down on the concealed basement, forever
destroying any evidence of the operation in a fiery inferno.
Next
Time on Dakotah Slade Paranormal/Detective at www.patreon.com/99geek in 2019
1x03: We’ll finally learn what happened in Anderson’s past with his ex-partner.
And we’ll delve more into Dakotah’s past with Cale. And you can look for
Makayla to cross over in January’s episode of Urban Fantasy setting off a three
part crossover event that will include episode 3 of Dakotah Slade. After
Makayla and maybe Sara show up on Urban Fantasy, Andrew and Mike will crossover
onto Dakotah Slade, and then Makayla will crossover again in the next episode of
Urban Fantasy. Will they be sharing vital information about the Tempus Cult,
and working together to take them down? Stay tuned to find out.
Next
Month on Adrift:Homeless at www.patreon.com/99geek in December 2018
1x07:There’s a lot more to Project
Rebirth than just finding a crew. A lot of hard choices will have to be made.
Kat and her team finally get inside the ancient ship to salvage. Sara gets to
lead her first briefing. Jack and Tameka still have to prove themselves. And
will Alec manage to escape his father, and his father’s scary friends?
January
2019: Urban Fantasy 1x07 *Start of Crossover 1/3
February
2019: Aldonn Chronicles 1x07
March
2019: Isabol Tsueng 1x02
April
2019: Dakotah Slade 1x03 *Crossover 2/3
May
2019: Adrift Homeless 1x08
June
2019: Urban Fantasy 1x08 *End of Crossover 3/3
July
2019: Aldonn Chronicles 1x08
August
2019: Isabol Tseung 1x03
If you made it through all that, be proud of yourself. That was 56 pages of content right there. Post below in victory of your achievement.
