Race

belonged to a group called DesiThugz. They primarily sold drugs to high school students in Scarborough. The third individual…” Now we were at the Asian guy….“Goes by the name of Kong, but we do not have any relevant information on him.” Aldrich turned back to us. “My guess would be he worked with the Chinese Triad, but that would only be a guess.”

Aldrich nodded to Garnett. Garnett placed another sheet of paper on the board. The paper contained four letters: RACE.

“Radical Association of Criminal Ethnicities,” Aldrich said. “Hence, welcome to this new task force: Operation Anti-RACE.”

Aldrich paused and let everyone digest this new wave of information.

“We believe this group was started right here in Toronto. The organizers are from this city- your city. We believe this organization will expand within weeks, even months. It will move to other major cities in Canada. Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, all over. It could even expand to the United States. Our mandate is to quickly search, locate, and shut down this group. The pressure is on us. If this group expands there’s no telling where it’ll go. Right now, this group is small.”

A hand shot up. Carlos Herrera. “What does this group deal in?”

“A very good question and I’m glad you asked it,” said Aldrich. “Gangs prefer to have a niche in the market and they protect this niche. The Italian Mafia deals in gambling and prostitution; Colombian Cartels: cocaine; Jamaican Posse: crack; Chinese Triads: Heroin. They don’t and won’t allow anyone to enter their market. When a new group tries to enter their turf, there’s a war. Gang wars are part of their business. RACE knows and understands this very well. They’re not interested in marijuana, crack, cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy or any of the existing drugs. No.

“They’re interested in creating their own niche. They want to be the sole providers of a new product. They want this new product to be bigger than ecstasy. Our sources, which I’ll mention shortly, tell us that this new drug will be sold like a pill, similar to ecstasy. Which means, once manufactured and distributed, the drug will be harder to catch.”

Aldrich took a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

This was way too much information for me. I needed a day.

“As you all know, the two major stock-market busts in Canada were Nortel and Bre-X. You take the first letter of Nortel and the last letter of Bre-X and you get N-X, or on the street it might come to be known as Nex.” Aldrich picked up a manila folder and retrieved a sheet from it. He glanced at it briefly and then spoke again. “Once swallowed, Nex takes immediate effect. Sources say it explodes inside the human body, similar to how the finances of Nortel and Bre-X did in the stock market. The human nervous system then becomes paralyzed or numb for a short period, maybe seconds, maybe minutes. But for that brief moment, the user will feel such relaxation that I cannot possibly describe it without having experienced it myself.

“Such a drug can be compared to a painkiller. But it is not. It’s far more dangerous. The sudden shutting of the nervous system can cause heart attacks or seizures. Also, the human system eventually becomes resistant. It takes more and more pills to get that sudden effect. Slowly and gradually the human body begins to lose sensation. The mind and body eventually become anaesthetized, where the habitual users die a slow and horrible death.

“It’s like a person who has Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and multiple sclerosis all at once.”

I listened attentively. This was serious. What the hell was I doing here?

A hand shot up. Clara Terries. “Who are the target users?” she asked.

“Everyone,” answered Aldrich, as if he was proud of this knowledge. “Anyone can use it to cope with stress,” Aldrich continued. “A CEO, who is putting in seventy hours a week, stressed out; he might take a pill. A single mother, unable to handle three children and two jobs, might take one. Teenagers who just want to experiment might take a few and in doing so get addicted. Movie stars, athletes, singers, anyone might be enticed to use it.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Simon Nemdharry.

Aldrich crossed his hands behind his back. “One of our undercover officers stumbled upon RACE. At that time the drug squad was maximized in its resources. New investigations were not a priority. But this undercover officer was resilient. He felt that this new discovery could pose a real threat. I authorized the officer to investigate. In a span of four months he began to uncover the inner workings of RACE. They were working on something big. Nex.”

With a hand raised, Simon Nemdharry said, “Will the undercover officer brief us?”

“No. There will be no direct contract with the officer,” replied Aldrich.

Simon Nemdharry waited. We all waited for an explanation.

Aldrich said, “We will continue our investigation. I know and understand that most of you, except for Detective Beadsworth, are not familiar with drugs and narcotics and, if it were up to me I would wait until the probe into the drug squad was completed before establishing this unit. But, time is not on our side. We believe RACE will bring out Nex into the market within the next few weeks. Once out it’ll be very difficult to control. The chief has requested that this task force be setup and officers outside of the drug squad be brought in.

“Two weeks ago we received information that prototypes of Nex were produced in the basement of a house in Mississauga. Officers were sent in but found nothing. RACE had moved their laboratory. We believe they are relocating every few weeks until they have a fully potent and effective product.

“With the internal probe filling the front pages of the newspapers, we cannot let any information regarding this team be known to the public. You are not to contact any officers of the drug squad regarding this unit. This is a classified investigation. You are to report directly to me. Detective Garnett will be assisting me during the investigation and in certain situations he’ll be accompanying you.”

He looked at the clock and then at us. We were all beat. Or, at least I was.

“You’re dismissed for lunch. We’ll go over certain things afterward.”

I looked at my watch. It was after twelve. My stomach was making ghoulish noises.

Everyone prepared to leave.

“Before you go, pick these at the front,” Garnett said, holding papers in the air. “These forms state that you agree to be part of this new unit. Human resources has requested that they be filled out. A technicality. Bring them back after lunch.”

They all lined up. I waited till the end. I went up and Garnett’s face turned foul. I slowly picked up the forms. He was staring at my every move.

“Officer Rupert,” I heard Aldrich say.

I faced him. It’s Rupret, you blonde pompous jackass.

“Sergeant Motley spoke highly of you,” Aldrich said.

I bet he did.

“I like you,” Aldrich said.

I didn’t like the sound of that.

“You’re young.”

Uh?

“Imaginative.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to fully understand what was coming out of his mouth.

“Creative.”

Where was he going with this?

“Bold.”

He had lost me.

“You posses the qualities this unit requires.”

Oh, right. Why didn’t you just say that?

“That is why you were chosen. Contrary to what Detective Garnett believes,” Garnett turned his head away, “I think you did the right thing. You showed initiative. Your instincts told you something wasn’t right and you acted. Foolish-procedures are procedures-but gutsy. There will be a lot demanded of you here and I hope you are prepared for it.”

I nodded, not sure what to say, and left. I went out into the hall and saw the other members gathered together.