Jacklyn yawned, raising her arm over her head and checked her watch, only to grimace at the time. Sitting up from the couch, she eyed Andre who was next to her. She grinned and fixed her hair and flicking the side of his head, “Hey, wake up its late.”

  “I’m up.” He snored.

  “You always say that.” She said, popping a few stick of gum in her mouth. She flicked him over and over again until he waved her away, sitting up and checking his phone. He gawked at the time.

  “Shit, it is late!” he said, scrambling from the couch.

  “Yeah, you got that right, thug!” Officer Bennis grouched walking up to the two. He was furiously mashing a tablet device. “While you two were enjoying your beauty sleep, the rest of us were out here losing our minds with the prisoner transfer—which is in about fifteen minutes! I can’t get ahold of officer Strongarm’s unit, and now I’m getting a call that there’s been another police related attack in the downtown metro area!”

  “Isn’t that what Rosa’s for, dumbass?” Jacklyn said.

  “She ran off too!” Bennis exclaimed, mashing the device even harder. “I swear I can’t get anywhere with you government workers!”

  Andre raised an eyebrow, “Lemme guess, chasing a ‘lead’?”

  “I can only guess!” He said, “She just saw an image of a couple homeless men leaving a shelter, then booked it.” He hurled the tablet on the floor, “It’s been one thing after another all night!”

  “She saw a few homeless dudes and lost her shit?” Jacklyn said, “Yep, sound just like her.”

  Andre walked over and picked it up, “Just what were you doing with this anyways?”

  “Well what did it look like?” Bennis asked, hands on his hips. “I’m trying to get into contact with Strongarm!”

  Andre looked through the device, scrolling through the most recent alerts. He saw the coordinates of the downtown metro area and police body and dash-cam footage of three individuals; a large on in a hat, another in a ski cap, and a third who looked younger. He squinted, “Jackie, any of these ringing a bell?”

  The brunette peered at the screen, “Now that I think about it—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Bennis said, stepping in-between the two, “You two can do your thing later. Right now I need to contact officer Strongarm. Now, hand it over.”

  “…”

  “Hey!” the cop snapped, “I’m talking to you, boy!”

  Andre took out his phone and waved it over the device, saving the image. He then held the tablet in front of Bennis’s face, “This tablet?”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  The cop tried to swipe it but Andre was quicker, swiping it to the side and smacking it across the officer’s face, “What’s my name?”

  Bennis growled, “Give it back—”

  Andre smacked him with it again, “What’s my name?”

  Bennis looked over to Jacklyn who simply shrugged, placing a hand behind her ear. The cop looked back to the man, feeling his ears turn hot.

  “A-A-Andr—”

  “Never mind, take it,” he said tossing it far off to the other side of the work room. Bennis shrieked and ran after it, to which Jacklyn started laughing.

  “Andre,” she said, wiping her eye. “The guys on the tablet, are they the same from the phone?”

  “Based on what Alastor said, no. But according to Snow Bunny there was a third guy, remember?”

  “Third guy?” the woman whipped out her phone and squinted, “Damn, this quality is shit.” she said. She froze it at the older looking boy with the shocked face, “This kid with the annoying face?”

  Andre held his phone next to hers with the image of a large man and a man in a ski cap. There was a third individual, the same looking boy with the same looking face. “Found his ass.” He said.

  “Through that cracked screen?” she said.

  “Yep. Him and his posy was last seen headin’ near Centrist Park.”

  “That’s near the homeless shelter.” She said

  “And the bank,” He added.

  “…” The brunette popped a bubble, sucking it back through smirking lips, “Looks like we found our lead.”

  “So it looks like she was right for once.” Jacklyn said, “Don’t tell her I said that by the way.”

  “We did it,” Andre said. He paused, and pumped his fist. “Oh shit we really did it!”

  “Ta, ha. You gonna tell your mom?” Jacklyn asked.

  He nearly choked, “I—U-uh, after we get back.” He looked away, “You know I haven’t talked to her in ages.”

  “You literally write her like, almost every day.”

  He found himself smiling and shaking his head. “You’re a riot.” He looked back at his phone, “Anyways, let’s see where his punk ass’s now.”

  “Yes!” Jacklyn said hopping from the couch and following Andre. They both went to one of the cubicles where the Blue Collar known as Martin kept his head down, hoping they wouldn’t notice him.

  “Hey, you!” Jacklyn said pointing at him. “We need street cams near the Emperial City bank within a twenty block radius.”

  “R-right away!” he said typing away furiously. He pulled up dozens of cameras, “After I got an alarm trigger from the bank, I’ve kept eyes on it but I didn’t know what was happening.”

  “Why?” Jacklyn asked.

  “The bank’s White Collar,” he explained. “And unless we wanna pay a fee, we’re not allowed to inside footage.”

  Andre rolled his eyes, “And the outside?”

  “They went offline about ten minutes ago.” The man said. “But we do have live body camera footage. However…”

  Now Jacklyn rolled her eyes, “Jesus Christ, now what?”

  He could tell the two were growing tense, “I’ll just…let you see for yourselves.”

  The two leaned towards the screen, watching a group of homeless in a standoff with the police. Suddenly, one in a poncho leaped into the air, throwing daggers and taking out all the cameras.

  Jacklyn chewed her gum harder, “They think they’re smart, eh?” she grabbed her phone and dialed furiously, waiting, and waiting.

  “Who’re you calling?” Andre asked.

  “Rosa,” she replied. “But she won’t fucking pickup!”

  “Let me try,” Andre said dialing and waiting. After the last ring he heard her voice.

  “This better be important.” She said.

  “Bet your ass,” Andre said. “Are you at the Emperial City bank?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ok…how’s it looking over there?”

  “…Tell officer Bennis the prison transfer’s going to have to wait.”

  ‘Click.’

  “Huh?” Andre looked at the lost call, “Bitch hung up on me!”

  Jacklyn was about to say something, then saw him get a notification, “Andre, your messages.”

  Andre tapped the image as the two hovered around him. The three’s faces quickly fell in horror.

  “Uh…” Andre said.

  “Hey!” a voice barked. Officer Bennis made his way back to the workroom, his tablet even more damaged than before. He looked at the three, who were glued to the phone. He made a confused face.

  “What’re you all looking at?”