Anarchy in New Enlgand (12 page)

Molly shot to her feet with a spray can of room fragrance, and as the door busted open and Trix rushed in, Molly sprayed the aerosol can of perfume directly into his eyes. Trix let out a loud scream of agony as the liquid burned his eyes. He stumbled back against the wall dropping the Buddha statue onto the bathroom floor, rubbing violently at his eyes. He tried to open his eyes, but it burned more, and he could only make out the outline of Molly. Trix lunged to block the bathroom door so that she had no escape route. He could hear the sirens, they couldn't be more than 5 blocks away, and rapidly closing in.

Molly, seeing her exit blocked, opened the medicine cabinet mirror with full force, slamming it against the wall, and shattering it into pieces. With no time to spare, she grabbed the largest shard she could find, and raised it towards Trix.

Trix heard the shattering of the glass, and the sirens getting closer, but he could still only see in outlines and blurs. As Molly brought the shard of glass down towards Trix, he managed to turn towards the bathroom door, and the sharp piece of glass only grazed his back before ripping into his backpack, filled with the stolen electronics. Molly let out a sharp cry of pain as the glass shard she gripped penetrated deep into her palm. She let go and pulled her hand back, seeing blood spraying out with each beat of her heart.

She watched Trix flee out into the bedroom, and turn running into the living room. Molly sunk down onto the floor of her bathroom, and coddled her severely lacerated hand that was spurting blood, already pooling on the floor, and soaking her shorts. The sirens sounded like they were right outside now, and relief started to pour over her. Molly’s sobs were now a hysterical mix of terror, pain, and happiness upon the arrival of the police.

Trix was stumbling through the living room trying to see where he was going. He saw the bright lights of the cop cars coming through the front windows, and heard the slam of their car doors. He moved as quickly as he could through the kitchen to the back door, bumping hard against the counter on the way. He managed to open the sliding glass door, and escape onto the back porch as he heard Molly's front door burst open as the police broke it down with a battering ram. He was past the bushes running through the neighbor’s lawn by the time another officer came running around the house, and saw the open sliding door.

"We need dogs! Get the Canine units!" The officer’s voice was clear and loud.

As he barked the order, Trix could hear it clearly from the next street that he was now fleeing down. He saw headlights coming around the corner, and took a left turn down another road in the neighborhood to avoid the car. His sight was returning, though his eyes still burned red. Looking over his shoulder, Trix could see a skyship approaching where Molly’s house must have been. He couldn’t tell if it was a medical unit or a police unit. Trix was sprinting down the center of the road, when an SUV came around the corner toward him, and screeched to a halt.

Rolling down the window, the man behind the wheel who looked in his late 60's yelled at Trix, "What the hell do you think you're doing?! I almost hit you, you could have been-" He was cut off by Trix's deep gutted yell, as Trix grabbed the gun out of his waistband, hoping the man would follow his orders, since the gun would not fire.

"Get out of the car!" The drugs were still in his system, but emotion could finally be heard in his voice, though it manifested more as anger than fear on Trix's part. Instead of exiting his vehicle the man inside seemed to duck down, avoiding the path of the gun, while pressing a button that raised the window.

"I SAID-" Trix grabbed the door handle, but it was locked, so he slammed the window with the butt end of his handgun, shattering it in a spider web form, though the pieces stayed in place .".GET. OU-"

BAM! The glass flew out of the car, spraying all over the street. BAM! BAM! Two more shots rang out from inside the vehicle. Trix was still standing, but began to stumble back, feeling immediately lightheaded and more confused than the drugs could account for. He looked down at his body to see two large blood stains spreading on his shirt, and blood squirting out from what must have been his neck. As black closed in from the sides of his eyes, he tried to maintain balance. The older man from the car opened the door, and exited the vehicle with his gun still trained on Trix, but all Trix saw were swirling outlines as the world seemed to turn around him.

The brand new medical nanobots coursing through Trix’s bloodstream rushed to the areas of trauma, frantically attempting to stymie the blood flow, and repair the tissue, but the damage was too great.

Trix was somehow still standing but his face was blank as his useless gun slipped from his hand, and clinked onto the street. As the life left Trix's eyes he took one final step back before his knee buckled, and he fell backwards. Feebly, Trix twitched his right arm in a final attempt to grasp something, and his limp body slammed onto the pavement like a bag of meat, mouth agape, eyes still open, as emotionless as ever.

Molly was a customer of Corner Cop Security, and it was Officer Themis who came to her hospital bed to take her statement and begin gathering evidence for the CCS investigation into the break-in. Being the lead investigator for violent crimes for Corner Cop Security, Themis would not be patrolling until this case was fully investigated and resolved.

Molly's hand and foot had been bandaged, and it was now getting close to midnight.

"Hi Molly, my name is Officer Themis. I know it is tough, but I need to take a statement from you about the break-in."

Molly understood, took a deep breath, and did her best to describe what happened in detail.

"...And the whole time I just kept thinking, he's not here to rob me. He took all my computer devices, and he grabbed some stuff out of the safe, but he didn't even seem to care about the coins or cash. It was like he was there specifically for my devices. And..." Molly brought her hand to her mouth to suppress the desire to start crying again. "And I don't know why he kept coming after me, once he had everything. It doesn't make any sense." She sniffled and a tear rolled down her cheek. Themis was writing this all down on his tablet. "Did they catch him?" Molly asked.

"Oh I thought someone told you. He tried to steal a car a couple blocks from your house. The car owner shot him in the process. He's dead. His name was Trix, he's a drug addict from uptown. Honestly I can't believe it myself, I knew him and this is totally uncharacteristic. We're probing to see if this goes deeper."

"Deeper?" Molly questioned.

"Well, it’s standard; we just want to make sure it's an isolated event. We have seen people do things before when they are desperate for money. Good thing he didn’t make off with all your AtlantiTrade notes. We recovered them with the rest of the stuff he took, you’ll get it back within a few days once it has been processed for evidence. You must have worked a while to save those."

Molly shook her head, looking confused, and after a couple seconds stated, "But I didn’t have any AtlantiTrade notes."

Themis likewise wore a befuddled look momentarily, and made a note on his tablet.

Just then his portable chimed in his pocket to indicate he was getting a call. "Excuse me for a sec. Hello... yes... what, why?... Okay... Okay... try to find an arbiter who will reverse the decision. Thanks, let me know when you get the warrant."

"What happened?" Molly asked concerned.

"Well, we subpoenaed the video records of Trix's adap, but they were blocked."

"Why? Isn't that standard in an investigation, why wouldn't the building owners give up the footage?"

"It wasn't the owners who blocked it, it was the arbiter that their security company uses, Barry Arbitration."

"WHAT?!" Molly practically jumped out of bed, startling Officer Themis.

"You know them?" he asked, eyes wide, eyebrows raised. "Kind of gained a sleazier reputation the last couple years."

"I'm in the process of reviewing BA. They were going to get downgraded, but almost everything I had was-" Molly stopped abruptly and turned pale.

"Was what?" asked Themis, concerned.

"It was all on my devices that were taken," Molly said quietly and slowly without looking at Themis.

Themis didn't want to believe that an arbitration agency would attempt to kill a reporter in order to bury a bad rating, but it
was
strange that the subpoena was blocked, and it did seem coincidental that it was blocked by the same agency Molly was investigating.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this, Molly. I will personally see to it. Until then, CCS will have someone posted outside your room. Try to get some rest."

Molly managed to squeeze out a feeble "Thanks."

As Themis left the hospital, he ordered a tail on Barry, just to cover all the bases.

The next morning Themis decided to drive over to Trix's adap himself to check it out, and hoped that while he was there looking through Trix's apartment, a warrant would be approved by a different arbitration agency for the surveillance records. On the ride over, the speakers were playing a segment about last night's break-in, as crimes of that nature were pretty rare. It was a replay from a live report done the night before, with an attractive woman reporting at the scene.

"The intruder was a known drug addict who appeared to be motivated by his desire to get money to pay for drugs, but why he chose that house, no one knows. One theory is that it was a random act of violence, triggered by a specific mixture of drugs, manufactured in New York City, and distributed by a drug cartel, known to operate in the downtown haven. Here with me is the man who eventually ended the spree of the drug addict known as Trix, after an attempted carjacking. What can you tell us about this tragic event?"

"Well, I told those cops that showed up, I didn't know his gun wasn't working, all I knew was he was aiming it at me and trying to get my car. Well you young folks might not get it, but I still carry my old .38 on me. People think it’s stupid, but they don't remember the days when people had to use ‘em! All you younger folks take this peace for granted, but it hasn't been this way for too long! No sir, I was born just after Food Corp started taking clients outside of their walls, and even then a lot of crimes went unsolved. So how did people deal? Well I'll tell ya, they shot those sons of bitches down on the spot, and why not? You've probably never been hungry in your life, I mean HUNGRY, but I can remember having nothing more than a few berries, and some foraged cattails all day; someone tries to take
that
from you and it's life or death. Sure, I feel bad here, but I did what I had to do; like I said he was pointing a gun at me! And those officers did their job you know, they can't be everywhere, it’s not their fault. They came running up just after it happened – quick response – and..."

Themis arrived at the adap with some stares from people on the streets; there weren't too many cars that drove to this area of the city. Themis parked on the side of the road next to the building, and almost bumped into a couple of well-dressed men in suits with sunglasses as he exited his vehicle. He had to do a double take since they were a little too well dressed for this area of town, and it wasn't particularly sunny either.

Barry Arbitration had approved the warrant to search Trix's apartment, but their rationale for nixing the footage subpoena was that it was not targeted enough, and could incriminate innocent people that live in the adaps. This seemed more like an excuse to Themis, since there was practically no arbitration history of using evidence from one crime to open a case on an unrelated crime.

As Themis walked through the entrance to the building, screens in the wide hallway lit up one by one as he walked, with advertisements aimed specifically at Themis; facial recognition was used by advertisers to save money by tailoring ads to certain types of people.

"The latest poly-melding-elastomer vest from Wilderness Gear will stop an animal bite as easy as it will stop a bullet. Lightweight and versatile…"

"This Sunday, live from the Boston Bay Arena, World Obstacle Champion Leon Green will face off against…"

"Are you getting enough potassium, and other essential metals in your diet? Research has shown that as we age…"

Themis brushed past the advertisements and climbed the stairs to Trix’s second floor apartment. Themis scanned his card – it opened Trix’s door since the warrant had been issued, and access granted to Corner Cop Security. Themis felt a pang of sadness as he gazed around the depressing and filthy room that Trix formerly inhabited. The mattress was bare though some once white sheets were bunched up in the corner between the bed and the wall. Ads had been disabled until a new tenant was found. The trash overflowed with the wrappers of the worst kinds of foods. The sink had dirty water stuck in it, blocked by the food scraps left at the bottom of the sink. Themis wondered what he even thought he would find here.

Walking aimlessly around the room, Themis tried to separate his feelings from the investigation. It depressed him to think that Trix was a wanna-be murderer, and it just did not seem to fit his personality. Almost unconsciously, Themis nudged the bed with his foot to straighten it out and make it parallel with the wall – to add some tiny bit of order to this dishevelled place. When the mattress moved, he saw a currency note sticking out from under the bed. Picking it up, he realized the note was AtlantiTrade, the same ones found in Trix’s possession when he was shot. This showed Themis that Trix hadn’t stolen the currency from another victim, at least not the same night. But no major theft of that magnitude had been reported in the area recently either.