Obsidian Detective Read online

  Where were the patrol officers? She glanced at the two drunk young men, both in their early twenties, sitting at the edge of the parking lot. They snickered to each other. It was supposed to be a fun night at a club with her girlfriends, but the idiot drunks had ruined that by going after a security guard.

  She looked at two women standing to her side. Both wore amused smiles, and both were around her age.

  One was an athletic blonde in a tight blue knee-length dress, the other a tall, dark-skinned woman in an orange dress, her hair done up in dozens of small braids. Jia completed the triad with her own body-hugging red dress with a thigh-length skirt.

  She’d accessorized with a black choker and dark knee-high boots, and one other small addition: her badge, now clipped to the top of her dress.

  Jia’s purse hung over her shoulder, the weight of the stun pistol inside comforting.

  “I’m sorry, Imogen.” Jia sighed. “I’m sorry, Chinara. I know it’s been a while since we last went out together, and then…” She gestured to the drunks. “This sort of thing happened, but as a cop, I’m always on the clock.”

  Imogen shrugged, a few of her light curls bouncing with the movement. “It’s okay. It’s kind of fun to see. I’ve never seen anyone arrested before.”

  Chinara laughed. “Drunks are drunks. It’s not that entertaining.” A faint Yoruban accent colored her words. “But it’s a little more interesting than seeing them try to hit on women in the club.”

  Jia frowned at the men. “I can’t believe you. You punched a security guard? Who does that?”

  One of the men grinned. “Hey, if I had known I’d get a hot chick to come and pay close personal attention to me, I would have punched someone a long time ago.”

  “You’re right.” The other man nodded, a chuckle escaping his lips. “Hey, Officer Hotness. Maybe after this is all over, you can go out on a date with one of us.” He tilted his head toward his friend sitting next to him. “I’m way smarter than him. You should go out with me.”

  The other drunk snorted. “If you’re so smart, why I am the one who has a Ceres internship coming up? Huh?”

  “Screw you, man. I don’t need Ceres.” The first drunk nodded toward his friend. “See? You don’t want to go out with this guy, Officer Babe. He’s all up in his head about how special he thinks he is.” He burped loud and long, not noticing Jia’s lips press together as he let it out. “But it’s nothing. He’s going to be a small fish in a big pond. This is why it’s smarter to avoid the big boys. You can get noticed better at a subsidiary or a smaller corp. My father taught me that.”

  Jia rolled her eyes. “First of all, shut up. Second of all, my name isn’t ‘Officer Hotness.’ It’s Detective Lin, and I don’t think you two realize the trouble you’re in. You just committed felonious assault, and being drunk is no defense.” She gestured to her friends. “And you ruined our night. We haven’t been able to get together for a month because of our schedules, so thanks for that, really.”

  Imogen snickered. Chinara shrugged, a disappointed look on her face.

  “Hey, I’ve got a better idea,” the first drunk explained. “That security guy’s fine. He didn’t even have to go to the hospital, right? You should just let us go. We should all go out together. Somewhere other than this boring place.” He wrinkled his nose. “You three are the only hot women in there anyway.”

  Imogen eyed him and Chinara rolled her eyes.

  “Didn’t you hear the part where I told you to shut up?” Jia glared at him. “As soon as the patrol officers show up, I’m handing you over to them, and you’re going to be processed for assault. Then I’m going back to having a good time.”

  The drunk stared at her, his eyes glazed. “Man, for such a hot chick, you’ve got a nasty personality. Am I right, Cyrus?”

  “You’re more than right, John,” his friend replied, his nod placing the appropriate exclamation point on the assertion.

  Imogen turned away, her hand over her mouth.

  Jia eyed her friend, her eyes practically yelling, “You are not helping at all.”

  Jia shrugged. “I’m a detective. I don’t need to be friendly to criminals.”

  John sighed and looked down. “All I wanted to do was have a good time. Do you know how hard it is to land an internship with Ceres Galactic? Especially when you don’t already know someone who works there?” He took a sharp breath and cursed. “No, no, no. I can’t get arrested.” He looked at Jia and swallowed. “If I get arrested, it’ll go on my permanent record.”

  She shrugged. “That’s why you don’t hit people in clubs, but that’s not my problem now, is it? If it’s your first offense, I’m sure the judge will take that into account. It’s not like they are going to sentence you to transportation, so why don’t you just be good and sit there quietly until they come to take you away?”

  John scoffed. “You don’t get it. You’re just some stupid cop. You have no real future.”

  Imogen glared at the man. Chinara frowned and opened her mouth, but Jia lifted her palm to stop her.

  “The police are the line between order and anarchy,” Jia explained. “But whatever you think of me, that doesn’t change the fact that you committed the crime. I’m just doing my duty.”

  The drunk’s face twisted into a frown. “If I get a black mark on my permanent record, I’ll lose my internship, and if I lose my internship, not only will I not get into Ceres Galactic, I won’t get in any decent corp. I’ll end up somewhere worthless.” He stood. “Like being a cop.”

  “You need to sit down right now,” Jia barked. Her hand inched toward her purse.

  Cyrus stood. “Look, it’s not a big deal,” he slurred, waving a hand that nearly turned him around. “None of this a big deal. You ruined everything, Officer Hotness.” His whine set Jia’s teeth on edge. “We would have done what we always do, and that little man would have made a lot of money for not a lot of pain.”

  “What are you saying?” Jia asked with a frown.

  Cyrus rubbed his thumb and index finger together. “That the kind of man who works as a security guard appreciates a little payoff to look the other way. You arrest us, you’re not just screwing us over. You’re also not giving us any reason to offer him compensation for our indiscretions. It’s a win-win for everyone our way. Lose-lose your way.”

  Jia’s jaw tightened. She wanted to walk over and slap both of them, but with the badge came the protocol. “Both of you sit down,” Jia ordered. Her hand edged toward her purse and the pistol inside. “I’m giving you a lawful order.”

  John scoffed. “Oh, yeah, I didn’t think of it before.” He nodded at Cyrus. “It’s obvious.”

  Cyrus blinked a few times. “Oh, yeah. Totally obvious.” He grinned at Jia. “Okay, Officer Hotness, how much is it going to cost to make this go away?”

  Imogen winced.

  Chinara turned away. “They’ve done it now,” she mumbled under her breath.

  Jia stared at the man, refusing to believe what she was hearing.

  Of course, she had heard of bribery, but to encounter it in such a blatant way while at a club sent a tremor of rage through her.

  “I want to be very clear about this,” Jia replied, her voice cold. “Are you seriously trying to bribe me to get out of your assault charges?”

  “Bribe?” John snorted. “That’s not it. Bribe? No, no, no. I wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  The tension she was holding released a bit. “Oh? Good.”

  John shook his head. “Bribes are something corrupt officials on frontier planets take. They’re seedy and uncivilized. All I was suggesting was that we offer some compensation to the security guard for his time and suffering, and give you a little personal bonus for everything you do for the city. Not a bribe.”

  Cyrus nodded his agreement. “Definitely not a bribe.”

  “You have ten seconds to sit down,” Jia snapped. “Or I might have to take severe measures.”

  John and Cyrus turned to look a
t each other.

  “Remember that trip to Malta?” John asked.

  Cyrus laughed. “Oh, man. That place was so…backward. There are probably more people in ten towers here than that entire country.”

  John stared at his friend for a moment. “I meant the second night.”

  Cyrus nodded. “Oh, yeah.” He winked. “I remember. Let’s do it.”

  Both men turned away from each other and bolted in opposite directions.

  Chinara rushed forward, but Jia threw up her palm again.

  “This is a police matter. You shouldn’t get involved.” Jia jerked her head between both men. She had recorded their IDs. She didn’t have to chase them down, and now they would face more charges for resisting arrest.

  Idiots!

  Chasing them or discharging her weapon might place innocent people at risk, but letting drunk, violent men escape would place people at risk as well.

  Cyrus made it a few meters before stumbling over his own feet and face-planting into the back portion of a flitter. He groaned and rolled off the vehicle, his eyes fluttering for a few seconds before he dropped, unconscious.

  His self-defeat at least clarified the immediate course of action for Jia.

  She pulled the stun pistol out of her purse and flipped off the safety. A light hum sounded as the weapon primed itself. She lifted the weapon.

  “On behalf of the NSCPD, I order you to stand down immediately, or you will be fired upon,” Jia shouted.

  John continued running toward a shiny black flitter. He slapped at his belt where his PNIU had been, but the confiscated device, along with his friend’s, sat in a pile by Jia. “Basic request, unlock and start engine,” he shouted.

  The flitter came to life and lifted off the ground. Jia pointed her pistol. All she had to do was pull the trigger. The man wouldn’t die. Her finger wouldn’t move. Jia lowered her arm. She just needed to call him in and not risk unnecessary gunfire.

  John threw open the door and jumped inside. The flitter spun in her general direction and accelerated. The vehicle hurtled straight toward her. Her legs didn’t want to move.

  Her eyes opened in shock.

  An echoing thunderous crack ripped from her right. Before she could process the sound, the flitter’s front left grav field emitter, a thin round disk beneath the vehicle, exploded with a loud pop. The flitter dipped to the side as another emitter exploded. The entire left side of the vehicle dragged along the ground, causing sparks and shredding the side. Another crack sounded, and something struck the front of the flitter and ripped a hole through it. The entire vehicle fell to the ground with a thud, sliding a few more meters before grinding to a halt not far from Jia and her friends, smoke pouring from the front and bottom of the vehicle.

  John groaned inside his car, his forehead bloodied from colliding with his control yoke.

  Jia turned to her friends, hand gesturing toward the building. “Both of you inside. Now. It’s not safe.”

  Imogen stuck out her bottom lip, but Chinara grabbed her arm and yanked her toward the club. Jia let out a sigh of relief. She had no idea what had just happened, but she’d gone from concerned about discharging a stun pistol to someone firing live ammunition.

  Heavy footsteps sounded from Jia’s right. She spun toward the source and saw a heavily muscled gray-haired man advancing toward her, wearing a dark brown duster, a huge four-barrel rifle in his hands. She’d never seen anything so absurd in her entire life.

  Jia snapped up her pistol. “Drop the weapon right now, or I will stun you!”

  Now that he was closer, she could make out more details. The man’s smooth features didn’t go with his gray hair. She’d been around of enough of her parents’ high-society friends to recognize a de-aging treatment.

  A light coating of stubble covered the bottom of his face, and if he wasn’t a terrorist dirtbag, she might have considered him ruggedly handsome.

  The man stared at her for a moment, his mouth curling into a lopsided smile. “Stay out of this, sweetheart. This is police business.”

  Jia scoffed. “You expect me to believe such an obvious lie? Put down the weapon now. I won’t ask again.”

  The man pulled back his coat to reveal a badge clipped to his belt. “Like I said, police business. You could show a little gratitude. I did just save your life.” He nodded at the disabled vehicle.

  Jia shook her head. “He would have stopped. He was just trying to scare me.”

  She gestured to the now-unconscious John, who was slumped over his control yoke. “There’s no way he would actually attempt to murder a detective, and if you’re one of the patrol officers who was supposed to show up, you should have come earlier. And why are you out of uniform and carrying that ridiculous non-regulation weapon?”

  The gray-haired man slung his rifle over his shoulder. “You’re a detective?” He chuckled, thinking back to his conversation with the captain. “Oh, that explains it. I didn’t realize you were a cop. I figured that little tiny gun was something you had bought to fight off muggers.”

  “This is a standard-issue stun pistol for the department,” Jia lifted the weapon. She pointed to the badge clipped to the top of her dress. “And you didn’t know I was a cop? What, you couldn’t look this high?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself.” The man’s gaze dipped to her legs. “Okay, you can flatter yourself,” his focus returned to her face, “but for the record, I wasn’t expecting you to be in a dress. I just focused on the immediate threat of the man trying to flatten you. I take it you’re Jia Lin.”

  He grinned. “Nice to meet you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Who are you?” Jia demanded. “You’re not with my enforcement zone. I don’t recognize you.”

  “That’s because I just started working tonight. Detective Erik Blackwell, Enforcement Zone 122.” The gray-haired cop strolled over to the flitter. He opened the door, and John fell out with a groan.

  The cop knelt and pulled out a bright white strip from a pocket, a binding tie. He set his rifle down and shoved John’s wrists together before slapping the tie down. It grew in an instant and wrapped around the drunk’s wrists.

  Jia let out a strangled laugh. “You’re in my enforcement zone?”

  “Yes. Like I said, I just started.” Erik tapped his PNIU. “This is Detective Erik Blackwell requesting an ambulance for…” He glanced at the downed Cyrus. “Two suspects with minor injuries. Send along a patrol car, too. The primary situation’s been handled, but there’s some cleanup for them to do.” He looked back at her with a slight grin. “You’re lucky I showed up when I did.”

  “Listen, Detective Blackwell,” Jia began. “I don’t know what or where you transferred from, but what you did was totally unacceptable.”

  Erik shook his head. “Local department regulations clearly state that all officers are allowed to discharge weapons, up to and including lethal discharge, in defense of any imminent threats to the lives of themselves, other officers, or citizens. I’d say getting plowed into by a drunk definitely counts as an imminent threat.”

  He grabbed his rifle and stared down at the unconscious John before moving over to Cyrus and slapping on a binding tie on the downed man.

  She pointed around them. “You could have killed someone,” Jia suggested.

  “Could have? Sure, but I didn’t, now did I?” Erik walked back toward her. “Trust me. I wasn’t using armor-piercing bullets. I knew if I hit the emitters or the main vehicle body, the bullets wouldn’t go anywhere else. I’ve taken down a vehicle or fifty in my time.”

  Jia scoffed. “You hit those things because you got lucky.”

  “Luck?” Erik shook his head and patted his gun. “You know what this is?”

  Jia shrugged. “Overkill? A symbol of your enormous ego? A desire to produce something you believe flatters you?” Her eyes glanced down, an unflattering smile on her face as she eyed him back. “Should I go on?”

  Erik snickered. “I like that, but no. It’s a
TR-7 Quad. Four selectable barrels.” He stroked the weapon like a pet. “If I wanted to kill someone, I would flip this to four-barrel mode and open up, draining the mags in seconds. The bullets would have shredded that car like it was a leaf in a tornado.” He nodded at the vehicle. “Or I could have just fired several times into the driver. Instead, I took out the emitters and engine to ground the vehicle.” He grunted. “Not even the fool who was trying to kill you will die. No, trust me, I’m a big believer in luck, but this time, Lady Luck was nowhere around.” He patted his chest. “This was all me.”

  Jia tucked her stun pistol back into her purse. “I pity your new partner.”

  Erik barked a loud laugh. “I think they might be surprised.”

  “Of course.” Jia folded her arms again and frowned, looking at him up and down. “You can’t just… Where did you transfer from?”

  Erik’s raised an eyebrow. “Ever heard of the Obsidian Detective Act?”

  Jia shook her head. “No, that’s... No one has used that law in decades.”

  “It’s still on the books,” Erik answered, looking around at a few of the club patrons who had come out to see the mess. “I took advantage of it.”

  “Oh, I see.” Jia sighed. “What are you?” She looked him up and down another time. “Let me guess. You’ve probably done a few tours out on the frontier or border. However, you haven’t figured out yet this is Neo SoCal, and we have standards and regulations that must be obeyed.”

  Erik looked back at her. “Just told you, so either your hearing is out or you feel it’s unnecessary to listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I didn’t violate a single solitary regulation.”

  Jia glanced between the unconscious men and the damaged vehicle. What if Erik was right, and the man wasn’t ready to stop or change direction?

  She considered the facts. A man bound for a corporation like Ceres Galactic wouldn’t murder a police officer in cold blood, but he had panicked and was driving a vehicle drunk in non-autonomous mode.

  It might have been a mistake.