Desperate Measures Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Four

July 17, 2230, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Commerce Tower 122

Jia emerged on the parking platform with a bright smile and a bag filled with dresses in her hand. She didn’t normally go on shopping sprees right after returning from a life-or-death confrontation with genetically engineered monsters overseas, but until Alina contacted them again, her time was her own, and she needed some new outfits for outings with her sister.

The new Mei Lin approach to life might only be temporary, but Jia suspected the more time she spent acknowledging her sister, the longer it might last.

Mei had left a message talking about spending more time with Jia at a variety of places, not just strange restaurants. Jia was amused to realize that many of the places and events Mei mentioned, ranging from galleries to limited-engagement arts performances, were conveniently still expensive and associated with status. The distance between the old and new Mei was smaller than Jia might have thought from the restaurant experience.

She wasn’t one to judge. Jia might be looser than when she first met Erik, but she couldn’t say she was a fundamentally different person. More importantly, Mei seemed happier, and that was what Jia cared the most about. Before, her older sister had never acted as if she enjoyed life.

On some level, that had always hurt Jia, but she had never known how to

help

her.

Jia wandered through the rows of densely parked flitters on the platform, smiling like a drunken idiot. Her entire life was absurd. She hid the truth about her work from her friends and family, despite it being important to the safety of the UTC.

She tried to imagine how her mother would react if she knew the truth. On the one hand, she would disapprove of anything excessively dangerous, and Jia’s work was certainly that. On the other, being able to tell friends about how her daughter was playing a key role in defeating a conspiracy threatening the UTC would be worth bragging rights at dinner parties and clubs. Jia decided it would be a tie as she imagined what her mother would say.

“My daughter helped destroy an entire army of genetically engineered monsters this week

.

Last I heard, your daughter was passed over for promotion.”

As Jia approached her parking row, she slowed with a frown. Chinara had yet to schedule her wedding.

Jia didn’t know when she would be needed ahead of time, so she could be on some space station blowing up cyborgs the day of her friend’s nuptials. She hoped it didn’t come to that, but there were realities that came with working as a contractor for the Intelligence Directorate. It was hard to maintain a personal life and defend the UTC at the same time.

She halted when she spotted a suited man crouched a couple of flitters over from hers. He was tapping his PNIU and running a small black cylinder over the door. It was hard to be a former detective and not recognize an electronic lockpick. It was a tool for criminals who lacked broader hacking skills. He was nicely dressed for a criminal.

Jia shifted the bag to her left hand and gripped the stun pistol inside her jacket with her right. “Excuse me, sir.”

The man froze. She waited for him to respond. This didn’t have to get violent. That was on him.

“Might I ask what you’re doing?” Jia called.

“Something’s wrong with the lock,” he replied, not looking her way. “My mechanic gave me this tool to get it open when it happens. He told me to fix it, he needs a part from some specialty factory on Mars. Something about some particular mineral they have there. This is the last time I buy this model.”

Jia rolled her eyes. “A part from Mars?”

The man slowly turned around. He tucked his lockpick into his pocket and folded his hands behind his back. The roguish smile and nice suit made her want to believe him, and if she were some naïve office worker who didn’t think crime happened outside the Shadow Zone, his lie might have worked.

“Let me ask you something,” Jia continued. “Do you even know whose car that is?”

“I just told you.” The man gave her a pleading look. “It’s my car. There’s a problem with the lock.”

“The thing is, there are stories you could have come up with, ones that might have made me want to let you go.” Jia shrugged but kept her hand on the pistol inside her jacket. “You could have told me something ridiculous, and I might have believed it.”

“Ridiculous?” the man asked, his tone incredulous.

Jia nodded. “Like the flitter belonged to a mobster who was threatening your sister, so you had no choice but to steal it or something stupid like that. Trust me, I’ve run into some odd things in my time.”

“You look kind of familiar.” The man narrowed his eyes. “Have we met?”

“No, I don’t believe we have.” Jia smiled, enjoying the anonymity. “Which is a good thing for you, given your profession.”

“Cargo logistics?” The man blinked. “Uh, sorry, lady. I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re kind of making me nervous, so I’m going to have to ask you to keep going before I call the cops.”

“The cops?” Jia laughed. “Seriously? You go ahead and do that.”

“I’m not trying to be a jerk, but Neo SoCal isn’t as safe as I used to think.” He sighed. “Terrorists and criminals. They even tried to assassinate the police chief. How do I know you’re not a terrorist?”

Jia’s smile vanished. She was done playing games with this idiot.

“Move away from the car,

sir

,” she ordered.

“This is your last chance before I call the cops,” he replied. “Initiate Emergency—”

The man ducked and whipped a stun pistol out from behind him. Jia threw her bag in front of her and yanked out her own gun. The man fired, the bright bolt of the stun pistol striking and scorching the bag. He better not have damaged her dresses.

Jia fired two quick shots before her bag hit the ground. One bolt struck the would-be flitter thief’s hand, sending his pistol to the hard platform. He pitched forward, groaning when the second shot nailed him in the head. His eyes rolled up, and he fell on his back, drooling.

She marched over to the stunned thief, tucked her pistol back into her holster, and grabbed a pair of binding ties from her pocket. Drones swirled around her, flashing holographic red emergency warning lights.

“You are under arrest,” Jia recited. “All Article 7 rights apply. Do you need those explained to you?” She pulled the man onto his stomach and bound his hands. “Oh, wait. You’re stunned, and I’m not a cop anymore.” She chuckled. “Sorry, kind of fell back into old habits. I’m so used to everybody in my day job trying to kill, not just stun. It was actually rather refreshing.”

The stunned thief remained on the ground, drooling and immobile, other than the slight rise and fall of his chest.

Jia stood and dusted her hands. “But that’s pretty brave.” She pointed at a drone. “You were trying to steal a flitter in broad daylight.” She rubbed her chin. “You don’t seem like a total idiot, so you must have timed the drone patrol patterns.” She tapped at her lips. “That has to be it. I think if you were good enough to hack drones, you could have hacked your way inside this flitter, but today was not your lucky day.”

The piercing wail of a siren sounded like it was getting closer. The drones must have observed the firefight and alerted local security, which in turn called the police.

Jia turned toward the drone, smiled, and waved. She wanted it to get a good look at her face to speed up the facial recognition process. Relying on fame didn’t sit comfortably with her, but she didn’t want to spend the day at the local enforcement zone filling out witness statements.

She waited as the siren grew louder and louder. Soon she could see the spinning red and blue lights of the police flitter. She raised her arms and dropped to her knees in case the patrol officers had no idea who she was.

The police flitter landed and two uniformed officers stepped out, neither with their weapons drawn. A loud groan sounded from the stunned thief.

One of the uniformed officers shook his head at Jia. “You don’t have to do that, Detective Lin. We’ve got him shooting at you on a drone feed already. It was clearly self-defense.”

Jia stood and dusted off her pants. “It’s Miss Lin these days. I’m not with the NSCPD anymore.” She inclined her head toward the groaning man. “If you check his pocket, you’ll find an electronic lockpick. He was trying to steal that flitter when I spotted him.”

The officer tapped his PNIU and frowned. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He nodded at his partner. “She just nailed the Shadow Bandit.”

The other office laughed. “Really?”

“The Shadow Bandit?” Jia frowned. “Is he some sort of syndicate enforcer?”

“No, ma’am.” The officer shook his head. “Nothing so nasty. He’s a Shadow Zone scumbag who has been using stolen codes to come and go from the Zone. He steals flitters Uptown, then takes them down there and swaps out the transponders to hand off for sale. This guy’s been a freaking terror for the last few months.”

His partner grinned. “We all had a pool on who might catch him. Not just our EZ, almost every EZ in the city. People were saying he was some sort of super-Tin Man, using special hacking skills.”

“I think he mostly had good attention to detail.” Jia shrugged. “And a stupid amount of courage.”

“There you go. Lady Justice is out for a walk, and she bags a big one while we’re picking our noses at lunch.” The officer yanked the Shadow Bandit to his feet and turned the groggy man’s face toward Jia. “You’re looking at the best cop the NSCPD ever had, you sneaky bastard. Sucks to be you.”

The Shadow Bandit let out another quiet groan, and his head lolled forward. The officer shoved him toward his patrol flitter while his partner walked over and shook Jia’s hand. His partner opened the back of the flitter and pushed the criminal inside.

“You should come back to the NSCPD, Detective Lin. We need you. You and Blackwell are legends. We could

use

more legends.”

“You’re fighting the good fight.” Jia inclined her head toward the police flitter. “All I did was get lucky.”

He waved and headed over to join his partner. After a final salute from the front seat, they killed their emergency lights and lifted off.

Jia watched the flitter until it disappeared in the distance. She’d spent most of her childhood dreaming of being a police officer, only to step away after a couple of years on the job. Her current work was important, but no one could know about it. Its very nature prevented it from working as a public deterrent.

There were days she missed being a police officer and the clarity that came with going after people for breaking the law. She missed having the open support of the entire department rather than having to attend clandestine meetings and travel in disguise as she hunted the agents of the conspiracy who pretended to be upstanding members of society.

The conspiracy would eventually fall.

Everyone from Erik to Alina felt that way. The anti-conspiracy forces hadn’t won every battle, but they’d won all the important ones, including stopping the Hunter ship. What came after that?

Jia wanted to be with Erik, but she wasn’t a woman who could sit around doing nothing. Erik had made it clear he also wanted to be with her, but neither seemed to have a firm handle on work. It wouldn’t be insane to go back to the NSCPD.

At the same time, Neo SoCal, despite its size and population of a hundred-million, suddenly felt too small. Call it arrogance or ego, but she wasn’t sure stopping local criminals would satisfy her anymore.

“Oh, well,” Jia whispered. “I’ve got time to figure it out.”