Beth looked up from her computer station, her eyes widening
slightly as she saw Gwen stride inside. The normally cool, composed
Asian woman was visibly angry, looking like she was ready to bite
someone's head right off.
Taking her life into her hands Beth stood up and tentatively
asked, "Anything I can do?"
"Staff meeting," Gwen scowled, "in five minutes." With that, she
walked into her office and slammed the door behind her.
"This is not good," Beth sighed to herself softly. The little
redhead got up from her seat, making her way down the hall to Kate's
cubicle. She tapped on the side, getting the attention of the brown
haired woman sitting in there.
"Yeah?" Kate looked up with a slight frown.
"We have a meeting in five minutes," Beth smiled wryly, "and
from the mood Gwen is in, I wouldn't risk being late."
"Must be trouble from the brass," Jen came up the hallway to say
quietly. She gave Kate a look, and oddly the woman looked away
awkwardly.
"Earlier I got a call from a contact that I trust," Kate said
thoughtfully, "who said that there's trouble in Lowtown." She got up
from her chair as they moved on to the meeting room, "Do you think it
might be related?"
"Wouldn't be surprised," Beth said calmly.
Gwen looked up from where she was sitting at the head of the
table to order, "Grab your seats, ladies. We've got a lot to cover, and
not a lot of time to do it in." More quietly, almost emotionlessly she
explained, "The city has decided that it's time to go out after the
Freewills, and it looks like we'll be the ones on the point."
There was an odd moment of silence in the room as they digested
that. Gwen studied their reactions, just a bit surprised to see Kate, of
all people, frowning at the idea. Beth looked thoughtful, and Jen was
waiting for more information before she made her decision.
"On what legal grounds are we supposed to bring the Freewills
in?" Jen finally had to ask her tentatively.
Gwen's mouth twitched slightly, "The manufacturers claim that
all the Freewills are merely pieces of errant property, and can be
reclaimed on those grounds." She met their eyes, "We'll be working with
the other departments to carry this out, but we're the ones with the
actual field experience. They'll be following our lead."
"And if we don't choose to provide this lead?" Beth murmured
softly.
"We have our orders," Gwen reminded them, "from the Mayor on
down."
Kate laughed to herself softly, and it was not a particularly
nice laugh at that. "From what I remember just saying that I was only
following orders," she said dryly, "didn't particularly help out the
Germans very much."
Jen and Beth clearly didn't get the historical reference, but
Gwen had to smile to herself slightly. "This is not a simple situation,
and I don't want any of you going against your conscience," she finally
said seriously, "please take the rest of the day off, think about all of
this, and then let me know tomorrow morning if you can do this."
"And if something comes up?" Jen asked, looking a bit surprised
that Gwen was sending them all home so early.
"You can all leave your pagers on," Gwen smiled at them a bit
grimly, "but I'm not calling you in. If I get into trouble, so be it."
"Got it," Kate nodded. She waited until Beth and Jen left before
quietly asking, "Are we supposed to keep quiet about all of this?"
Gwen spoke quite innocently, "I wasn't instructed not to."
Kate nodded crisply, "Thanks."
Gwen watched her go, then reached across her desk to pick up her
phone, dialing smoothly. "Alexis," she smiled grimly, "I really need to
see you."
The blonde haired psychiatrist looked at her image, frowning
slightly. "What's wrong?" Alexis asked worriedly.
Gwen smiled slightly, once again oddly reassured by how easily
Alexis could still read her. "Lunch," she said softly, "and I'll tell
you."
"Meet you there?" Alexis didn't ask any dumb questions, grabbing
at her jacket.
"See you in a bit," Gwen sighed.
The parking garage and maintenance bays were quiet as the three
officers made their way to their vehicles. "So what do we do now?" Beth
asked quietly.
"I've got a friend to see in Lowtown," Kate said seriously. She
opened up her car door and hesitated a moment, "Can I give you a ride
home, Jen?"
Jen was silent for a few seconds, then quietly answered, "Sure,
I'd like that."
Beth gave both of them an airy wave, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Kate slid behind her seat, resting her hands of the wheel. Jen
climbed into the passenger seat and looked over the cruiser, "I still
can't believe that you lobotomized this poor thing."
A slight smile teased at Kate's lips, "What can I say, I just
hate chirpy computer voices." The engine hummed to itself sweetly as she
slid the unmarked patrol car into the flow of traffic, handling the
vehicle with her usual style.
"Gwen sounded pretty grim," Jen offered into the quiet of the
car's compartment.
"She's got reason to be," Kate scowled, "there's no way most of
the Freewills are going to be coming in quietly. It's going to be one
gigantic mess." She flexed her fingers on the controls, quite
deliberately looking away from Jen, "I wanted to say I'm sorry."
Jen was pretty startled, she hadn't really been expecting that.
She was tempted to push Kate a bit, but decided not too. "Apology
accepted," she said quietly.
Kate smiled wryly, "You're letting me off easy." She puffed out
a short breath, "I was pretty harsh, and I wish I had put things a bit
better."
A slight smile twisted Jen's lips, "But you still don't date
other cops."
Kate sighed softly as they pulled up to Jen's apartment
building. She got out, walking around the car to open up the startled
blonde's door. "I dated an fellow officer once," Kate admitted to her
softly, "it didn't end well."
Jen let Kate walk her to the front doors, "I understand." She
gently put her hand on Kate's arm to keep her from heading back to her
car, "But our going out to dinner or something doesn't have to be a
date, you know."
"You never give up, do you?" Kate actually smiled down at her
slightly. Jen looked up at her entreatingly, her blue eyes piercing, and
Kate had to sigh softly, "All right, we'll have dinner. But in a couple
of days, please."
Jen smiled happily but she kept her answer to a simple, "All
right." Kate returned to her car, and Jen gave her a little wave before
going inside.
Kate had to fight off a smile as she made her way out into
traffic. She suspected that this dinner was a bad idea, but that had
never really stopped her before now. Scanning the streets she found a
lift, sliding the vehicle into the vehicle compartment. The keypad slid
under her hand, and she tapped the code to bring her down to Lowtown.
The lift fell gently, and as Kate descended the sunlight was
gradually cut off by the gigantic buildings all around. As the light
faded artificial lighting grew brighter, the architecture around her
aging as they dropped well below the sunlight line. The poor lived here,
the poor, the lost and those that didn't really want to be found.
'Like the Freewills,' Kate thought grimly. There was a large
population of those androids in Lowtown, and the police down there were
mostly a skeleton force. The primary job of the regular police was to
keep the criminals of Lowtown out of the upper levels, so that the rich
didn't have to deal with them or their problems.
A soft bump, and her cruiser reached the level she wanted. Even
the unmarked stood out here, where vehicles of any sort were a rarity,
too expensive for the people who dwelt there. Kate could feel
speculative glances on her as she rolled down the street and thought,
'They probably figure I'm slumming, looking for a good time.'
Kate pulled in to where Silver and her usually met, looking
around her with a frown. The lady was usually early or right on time...
A soft cry from one of the alleys got Kate's attention, then a familiar
cry rang out.
"Silver," Kate bolted across to where she heard it coming from.
The two figures were struggling there in the shadows, a man trying to
pin Silver down.
"It's gonna be open season on all your kind pretty damn soon,"
he hissed out at her angrily, "I'm just getting mine back a bit early."
Kate didn't say a word, just grabbed him by the collar and
bodily yanked him off her. "What do you think..." she started to say,
then stopped in surprise. A police officer, the jerk she had dealt with
when she first ran into Silver.
"Let me go, you bitch," he howled, struggling in her iron grip.
POW! Kate's fast punch rocked his head backward. He stood there
dazed for a moment, then with barely a wobble he dropped to the pavement
with a loud thud.
"Thanks," Silver smiled grimly, rubbing at her throat where he
had grabbed her. She looked up at Kate, "What did he mean, open season?"
Kate scowled down at the unconscious man, then looked up to meet
Silver's eyes. "We've got to talk," she sighed, "there's trouble
coming."
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