Gary barges into District-Three HQ and quickly makes his way to the elevator.

“Gary!” a voice yells out from behind him as he steps into the elevator, he turns and the look of concentration on his face dissolves to one of surprise.

“Davey ‘fucking’ Givans what the hell are you doing here down in the pits of the Districts?” Gary says as he and Davey embrace.

“I’ve been reassigned to Three.”

“You’re fucking kidding me? How does someone get reassigned from Divisional to a hell hole like this?”

“They request it.”

“Seriously? Divisional get that boring for you?”

“Come on Gary, cut the shit, you know me, I always liked to keep myself involved in the day to day bullshit of this job. Divisional was good for a while, but the politics of it all interferes in what I love about the job.”

“What, getting shot at by Zerker’s and junkies?”

“Exactly,” Davey says with a laugh. “So how’s everyone? It’s been way too long since we all sat down and had a few drinks.”

“Everyone is doing fine, Fontaine is still running his shithole of a bargain store and taking anything else he can on the side, Jonah is working the private sector as a security officer, among other things and Patterson is off-world somewhere, making the stars safe for us all.”

“Off-world?”

“Yeah some bullshit hush, hush, expedition back to the failed colonies.”

“He always was a sucker for aliens.”

“Yeah, he may finally live out Fontaine’s dream of having sex with one.”

“How did Andrew take it?”

“All I’ll say is, he sent him a dead rat as a going away present, and apparently, according to Fontaine, he hid a fish in Patterson’s luggage.”

“Sounds like he’s settled a lot since I last saw him.”

Gary laughs, “You could call it that, although I think it might be because he’s getting married, again.”

“Again?”

“It’s a long story, which I’m sure he’ll drive you crazy with when we all sit down,” Gary says with a laugh. “So where have you been assigned to in this shithole?” he says as the doors open, and they both step out.

“Same floor as you.”

Gleeson makes his way towards them with a glowing smile on his face, “Davey great to see you,” he says as they shake hands.

“Superintendent, it’s been too long, how’s Doris?”

“She’s good, you’ll have to get your arse over for dinner soon, away from all these pompous rules and regulations,” He replies as he looks towards Gary. “I would’ve liked to talk to you before Davey arrived but, as usual, your ability to get side-tracked interfered again.”

“Sorry, you wouldn’t believe where my day ended up.”

“Somethings never change,” Davey says.

“Why change perfection,” Gary says with a smile.

“I know you’ve got your hands full so I won’t keep you boys any longer than I need to,” Gleeson says. “To help Davey assimilate himself into District-Three I am partnering you two together.”

“No offense to Davey, but I work better alone.”

“Not anymore, and I expect you to lay off using Fontaine, it makes all of us look bad,” Gleeson says.

“We had a deal remember?”

“Deals are what they are, this is an order.”

“Don’t worry about me, I can handle myself, I’ve kept the rust from setting in at Divisional, so you won’t need to carry me like a rookie,” Davey says with a smile.

“Guess I really don’t have much of a choice do it.”

“There is no such thing as a choice here, now get Davey up to speed on your case files and get to work,” Gleeson says. “And one other thing before you boys leave, I just wanted you to know as of next week Chief Inspector Stapleton will be replacing me here as District Superintendant.”

“You got the promotion? That’s great news, Doris must be over the moon, and I know mum and dad would be,” Gary says as he shakes Gleeson’s hand.

“Thank you son, yes, Doris has already started ordering more shit we don’t need, you should have seen her, I swear her eyes lit up like dollar signs when I told her of the promotion,” Gleeson says with a laugh. “Now get out there and show me the results I know you two are capable of.”

Gary looks at Davey and the smile drops from his face, “OK, for starters we don’t have time to sit back and scratch our arse, so I hope you came prepared to jump right in?”

“I’ve been ready for this since Gleeson accepted my transfer, I’m ready to get back to basics,” Davey replies, Gary stops and faces Davey.

“I’m never going to understand why you wanted to come to this shit hole of all places. You earned your position at the top, you did the yards and played the games, so I hope you’re not on some sort of suicide run because I don’t have time to carry you.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about with me Gary, I’m here to get my hands dirty and make a difference, like we always talked about, Divisional doesn’t care about doing the right thing, cleaning the streets, putting the shit where they belong, the just sit there and dip their fingers in all the shit they can. Look, really, all I can tell you is I need this as much as you do.”

Gary stands there for a few moments before he hands Davey a datapad, “Here’s the file on our current case, four children aged between six and eleven were found in Milwaukee Park early this morning. Each of the children suffered fatal stab wounds to their upper torso and chest, and none of them showed any signs of defensive wounds, or fear for that matter, we’re running with the idea that drugs were used to placate them,” he says quickly, Davey opens the datapad and then quickly closes it.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Davey says softly, Gary stops again and rips the datapad out of Davey’s hands.

“Look we don’t have time for you to be sick,” Gary says. “The children showed signs of some sort of white powder on their mouth and nose, and Danny, Three’s head forensic coroner, believes its MercuryFour. Junkies don’t even touch that shit anymore, so we’re dealing with a sick puppy if that’s the case,” he looks back at Davey who is white as a ghost. “You never were one for the grisly stuff, still this is new.”

“Sorry, I’ll be fine, this is just unexpected.”

“Trust me, Three has no room for weak stomachs. Not like Divisional, now are you going to be ok or not? We’re going to see Danny for the autopsy results, so that means the morgue, and more than likely the bodies, do you think you can handle it?”

“I’ll be fine, I’m feeling better now.”

“Grab a drink of water and follow me,” Gary says pointing Davey to a water cooler.

 

#

 

“Danny this is Detective Sergeant Davey Givens, he’s joining us here in this hell hole for a while, Davey and I go way back to training days,” Gary says. “Davey this is Danny Halifax, the best coroner you can work with in Three, or any other District for that matter.”

“You’ve got one hell of a guide, if he doesn’t get you killed, you’ll learn a lot,” Danny says shaking Davey’s hand.

“I have a feeling that’s on the cards, but he did save my life more times than I can remember when we were based out in the wastelands, so I’m hoping he’ll keep up the tradition,” Davey replies.

“Don’t make me regret any of those times, or you’ll have more than a feeling,” Gary says. “What have you got on the kids Danny?”

“It’s what I didn’t find that’s upsetting,” Danny replies as he pulls a drawer out of the wall, laying on the metal table is one of the children from earlier. “There are no defensive marks on any of them, they never put up a fight, not one of them. But even more disturbing is that there’s also no trauma marks around the entry points.”

“So what you’re saying is that these kids didn’t fight back at all?” Davey asks.

“From what we can see at the moment, the answer is yes.”

“So, it was more than one attacker?” Davey asks.

“No, there was only one attacker that I am sure of, the results show that all the entry points were the same depth and from the same angle, the chance of there being more than one attacker is very unlikely, there would be too many variations, here there are none.”

“What sort of person would do such a thing to a child?” Davey asks.

“You’d be surprised what some people are capable of down here in Three, it’s nothing like when we were based in Five, that place was a cake walk compared to the shit we deal with here, that’s why Delta Holding’s grows another level every five months,” Gary says. “What about the white powder, is it MercuryFour?”

“Sharon is still doing some final work on the samples we pulled from the kids and the crime scene, she should be able to give you full details on it all.”

“Ok, we’ll head over to trace and see what she’s turned up,” Gary says. “I’ll let you know if I need anything else from you Danny.”

“You know where to find me,” Danny replies. “Oh, and good luck Davey, I hope you last.”

“You’re not the only one.”

 

#

 

A few silent minutes later they arrive at the trace labs, “Sharon this is Detective Sergeant Davey Givans,” Gary says.

“Welcome to the club Davey, I hope he’s being nice to you?”

“I’m too scared to complain in case he takes me out the back and puts a blaster to my head,” Davey replies with a smile.

“Enough with the smart arse routine guys,” Gary says. “Sharon, Danny tells me you should have the results from the multiple homicides ready for me?”

“You mean the children, horrible thing to happen to someone so young, but on a positive, your killer left his DNA all over them.”

“You’re going to tell me you’ve got an exact match as well aren’t you?”

“Marcus Allison.”

“Marcus Allison?” Gary says. “That name sounds familiar.”

“Up until eight months ago Allison was a District officer,” Sharon says. “He was dismissed after he was caught using illegal drugs while working a case, it was in the news quite a bit at the time from memory. The media were like vultures over the case because it was shown Allison was high on whatever he had managed to score that day while he was involved in a shootout that killed three innocent bystanders, and it was shown that Allison was the shooter.”

“He avoided not being sent to Delta Holdings?” Davey asks.

“It was his impeccable record that saved him a trip to the freezer, twenty-one years on the force, five hundred and sixty-eight arrests and not one problem, not up until that event anyway.”

“Do we have a current address for him?” Gary asks.

“No, by the looks of things he just up and disappeared after he was dismissed.”

“Fuckers still around by the looks of it, what about the white power?” Gary asks.

“Danny was correct in his assumption, the powder used was MercuryFour.”

“Fuck, I really thought even dealers were too smart to sell that garbage.”

“That’s the general consensus these days, it’s been over two years since we’ve had a case dealing with MercuryFour at Three anyway, but it’s not just us, the last reported case involving MercuryFour was almost eighteen months ago.”

“Which District?”

“Eight.”

“Does it say who the officer’s involved with the case were?”

“Detective Inspector Simon Steedman was lead, but he’s no longer stationed in Eight, he’s leading task force Johanna at Two.”

“Johanna, they’re a drug-related task force right?” Davey asks.

“That’s correct, Johanna has been in place for a little over a year, and it’s a waste fucking of time,” Gary says.

“I’ve seen their results and could not agree more, Steedman was the wrong guy for the job but someone upstairs shoehorned him into the position,” Davey replies. “So we off to Two?”

“Two it is,” Gary says in agreeance. “Let’s see if our old friend Steedman can help us out with some information, he might have something on known MercuryFour suppliers.”

“There’s one last thing I thought you’d like to know, the MercuryFour found on the children is exactly the same as the MercuryFour from the last recorded bust, right down to its sub-atomic makeup. It’s either from the same batch as the one Steedman recovered, or it’s the MercuryFour that was recovered in the bust he made eighteen months ago,” Sharon says. “And at that time Steedman’s partner was Marcus Allison.”

“The plot thickens,” Gary says as he turns to Davey with a smile. “Two, here we come, bring your baseball bat Davey Boy, because we’re going to cause trouble uptown.”

 

END OF ACT II