“Hm. The Vigilante Patriot, I presume?” he asked, as the black-clad figure stepped forward, airgun raised. “Why are you here?”
“You’re in the way, Ashton,” the figure said with an electronically-distorted voice; he suddenly recalled the defenders that had once emerged from the shadows to protect him from the old-IPD goons, and the special suit they all wore – so similar to one that Adrian Mott, master of disguise, had had in his kit duffel. Those suits had become part of the special-ops inventory of equipment, and no one had thought to compare the actual inventory to the requisition forms… mostly because no one had ever seen the Vigilante Patriot and lived to tell about it. “You’re a good man, but it won’t do. I can’t let you stand in the way of my work.”
“I don’t know that you have a lot of choice,” Ashton said, as the ten members of The Team also stepped out of the shadows. Interspersed between them were a dozen or more Imperial Guardsmen, led by General Daggert himself, and including David Mercer, now back in his Guardsman uniform. “You seem to be surrounded.”
“NO!” the Vigilante Patriot cried, raising the airgun and firing at Ashton before spinning and trying to run.
Ashton twisted, deliberately taking the projectile in a shock plate and diving for the pavement, as The Team plus fourteen opened fire.
The Vigilante Patriot fell, face-forward, as a copious pool of blood formed beneath it.
Dominick Ashton pushed himself to his feet and brushed off. Then he walked over to the body of the vigilante, as the others stood and watched. He nudged the body over, onto its back, bent and pulled away the cowl.
The white face revealed was that of Investigator Level One Donna Law.
“Well, at least we know how she was getting to the information,” Carter said during the very subdued debrief the next day. “Never mind why certain key bits of evidence seemed to get lost.”
“Yeah, she had access to pretty much all of our equipment,” Stone agreed.
“Hell, equipment, information, networking, all of it,” Peabody grumbled.
“We need to tighten up some things, I think,” Ashton decided.
“No shit, and I’ve already started the process,” Carter declared. “I’m sort of glad you didn’t have to insist that everyone do the lie detector thing again, though. But,” he added, “maybe we should have, and done it sooner.”
“Maybe,” Ashton said. “But everybody has to do it when they come in; you’d figure that was enough.”
“Eh. People change,” Peterson pointed out. “Shit happens, and it messes with people’s heads. Maybe once isn’t enough. Maybe it’s something we need to do every five years or so. Or hell, every year. I dunno.”
“Me neither,” Carter sighed. “I swear, I think I have to modify the regs at least once per quarter...”
“I’d love to know what turned her,” Stone said then. “I would have sworn she was a great new hire.”
“Me, too,” Peabody agreed, “and I’ve had some experience with that.”
“She may have been, to start,” Quan said. “Only… something… happened.”
“We’ll probably never know,” Ashton said.
“You all did well, though,” Daggert said. “It took time, and you had very little to work with, but you narrowed down the suspect pool, then drew out your perpetrator.”
“I just couldn’t believe it was someone inside our own organization... again,” Carter admitted. “I was starting to have nightmares of the IPD reverting to the old guard.”
“Me too,” Ashton admitted.
“Listen,” Peabody said, earnest, “if I’d needed to do another lie detector chair session, I’d have done, Nick. I totally understand what you and Lee are saying, and I agree. To be honest, I think anybody who wasn’t willing would be suspect anyway.”
“Yeah, on one hand I can understand what you’re saying, Win,” Ashton said, “but on the other hand, after years of working as an honest cop, and then a body effectively gets accused of being a crooked cop? And has to prove they’re honest? I can see somebody getting offended at that.”
“Me too,” Carter agreed. “Which is why I’m glad we didn’t have to do it. I’m proud of the people who work under me, and I’m proud of the department we’ve built. Though I think I’ll call in Elliot and give him a little stern talking-to; he was too favorable to the way the Vigilante was operating outside the law. I just wish I understood what drove Donna Law to do what she did.”
“Huh. Law,” Peterson interjected. “Ironic name.”
“Isn’t it, though? Like Nick said, we may never know, Lee,” Ames reminded him. “I’m just glad we were all on the ball so Nick didn’t get shot.”
“Well, I did take the projectile she fired in the shock plates,” Ashton confessed. “I got a little bruise on my shoulder, but it isn’t nearly like another one I can recall.”
“No. Shit,” Ames declared, emphatic.
“Now let’s go see about some regular burglars,” Quan decided. “For a change.”
“Amen,” came the choral response.
Some few weeks later, Ashton got a special message.
To: DXA
From: General Brian Daggert
Subj: Previous conversations
Nick,
I know at one time we discussed the possibility of sending, let us say, various children off-site, potentially offworld, along with some adults to mind them. That possibility has come and gone. While the DP did intend to do so, we struck first, and harder. I’m sure you’ve been seeing that on the news feeds, but you may not realize that they never had a chance to get close. So you and your family can stand down. I think – I hope – the worst is past.
More, I have hopes that the war is finally over.
~Brian
Heads Up
“IPD New Headquarters, Investigative division. Inspector Ashton here. How may I help you?”
“Nick, this is David Mercer, Imperial Guard. It’s been a while. Do you remember me?”
“Of course, David! Wow, it’s been months!”
