HAWK

CHAPTER EIGHT: JAILBIRD (1/5)

The ride to the police station was uncomfortable.

The two officers had cuffed and stuffed Kas in the back of their car, an old and abused vehicle that was unnecessarily small and hot. The smell of dried vomit wafted towards her from the sticky carpet and settled in her mohawk.

'Nearly there,' the female officer said on Kas's left. The two officers were sitting directly opposite Kas, though they were separated from her by a nanomesh partition which not even Remi's carbon knife could have cut through. The officers didn't look at her once during the trip but stared out of their respective windows, watching the crumbling city roll by like an old movie stuck on repeat. Kas had checked their vests but saw no names. She did see their nightstrikers, however, strapped securely to their sides.

Nightstrikers were police standard on most planets and quite effective weapons; she knew because she'd trained with them a few times back in the academy. They didn't look like much, just very thin black sticks, super lightweight but packing one hell of a punch. A single whack to the body with one of those and the impact pulse would shake your internal organs like jelly. If the pain of the impact wasn't bad enough, the subsequent sickness more than made up for it. Their cores were also anti-magnetised to the officers' carbachrome vests, making it impossible for someone to grab one and use it against them. If you tried, you'd just end up bashing a cushion of air while the defending officer proceeded to use your body as a punching bag.

The cruiser eventually slowed to a halt outside a big cube of a building that Kas assumed was the YKPD headquarters. The walls were grey, the windows mirrored. It was as if the architect had actually designed it to be depressing.

The male officer opened his door and stepped out while his partner turned to Kas and aimed two tired eyes in her direction.

'We'll do this nice and slow,' she said. 'I'll stay behind you while my partner walks in front. You follow his footsteps and stay at least five paces behind him. You deviate from that, you'll be getting a knock on the head with one of these.' She touched a hand to her nightstriker. 'Understand?'

Kas gave the smallest nod possible.

'Good. Let's move.'

Kas's door slid open and she shifted out of her seat. She stepped out onto the pavement and was for once relieved to be out in the smoke-filled air of Yun-Ko. The male officer began walking towards the building. Kas waited until he was five paces ahead before following.