Dirty Work: Volume 2

Story Five - Nostalgia - 4

He got out of his kar with a clown's smile plastered onto his face. He walked up the steps to the Region 76 Police Headquarters with all the poise of someone wearing stilettos for the first time. 'I didn't think you'd actually change your mind.'

'I didn't,' I said. 'I'm doing a friend a favour.'

Mansi slapped me hard on the collarbone. 'There's the old schoolmate I know. Always ready and raring to get stuck in.'

I scowled at his hand and had to clench my fists to stop the shiver of repulsion from getting out of control. 'Touch me again and I'll punch you so hard you'll be looking out the back of your head.'

For the first time since he'd rung my doorbell his smile faltered. He stepped back a pace. 'So what've you got to show me?'

I reluctantly took out a plastic bag with the dishcloth inside. 'I've done some legwork for you. No need to mention me in your reports; I'll let you take all the credit as usual.'

Mansi took it and inspected the cloth. 'Blood?'

'Not Wolsal's. From three different individuals, with traces of Demithaline.'

'Was never good in science. Explain it to me.'

I know you weren't. You weren't good in anything except mental torture.

'It's found in certain high hallucinogens, specifically ones where you've got a certain amount of control over the visions.'

'You can decide what trip you have?'

'Your intelligence has improved over the years, I see.'

He looked me in the eyes and I stared him down. 'Watch it, Xayne. I just have to turn you around and you go walking into a holding cell.'

'On what charge? Telling the truth?'

He was ready to retaliate, but I stopped him. 'You now know as much as I do. Anything else you'd like to try and arrest me for before I leave?'

He shook his head. 'I guess you're free to go.'

I nodded and shoved into him on my way past. 'I'm so sorry,' I said with venom. 'I didn't see you there.'

I was sure he was itching to slap me in cuffs for anything he could think of, but with cameras all over the station, there were no reasonable grounds he could hold me on. On the ride over I'd double checked the laws on sarcasm, and as far as I could see, calling someone an asshole was still free speech.

I stopped outside the Magna station, considered a moment, and then headed off in another direction. I should just head home and be done with it. But I started this, and there was no way I was letting him take all the credit.

***

The shacks of Vallen Street were exactly what I thought they were. Barely able to stand on their own feet, they leant against each other in their misery. Dirty rain from blocked gutters dripped slime from crooked windows like bleary mascara. This was the street of Celestria's damned. I promised to never again complain that the heating in my flat cut out occasionally, or that the neighbours were too loud sometimes, even if I could hear them ecstatically praising their gods at five in the morning whilst bouncing on the bed.

I did my best to wander down the road as non-descript as possible, though that was never going to be possible. Eyes peered from the shadows and doors were locked three times over. You can't go anywhere without being seen anymore. Privacy is an illusion.

I made it to the other end of the street with my life intact. Nothing about it suggested anything sinister, just downright depressing. I considered my next course of action. With a quick check of the local area on the Halo-Core, I headed off down the road.