Keeper Hunter

The Security ground cruiser pulled in to the back of a precinct downtown. High razor tipped walls surrounded the rear of the building. A heavy gate opened and pulled apart to allow us entry. Several Security cars were already there. The car rolled to a stop and the two Security Officers got out. I waited in the back glad that I hadn’t been restrained. One of the Security Officers opened the door.

“Out we’ll run you through processing!”

“Is this really necessary? The asshole was going to stab me in the back. I’ve have had enough people trying to kill me lately that I just reacted.”

“Who was trying to kill you?” the other Security Officer demanded.

“Black Stripes.”

“I ain’t heard of any gang called the Black Stripes. They from the Warrens?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I replied. It wouldn’t hurt to get them looking into it. The trouble was they sounded like they didn’t believe me. “They mainly operate within the Confederacy. I wouldn’t be surprised to find some hiding on Earth.” The warehouse on Davenport was full of Imperial made weapons. The fact I’d encountered both Interceptors and a Prowler on Alfheimir meant that they’d come from here in someway.

“Confederacy?” I heard one snort. “Yeah the next you’d be telling us there are pink unicorns.”

I scowled I really hadn’t expected Security would be so clueless about a threat to both the Empire and the Confederacy.

“Move along!” One officer reached to grab my arm but stopped himself at the last minute seeming to remember I was unrestrained. I considered it a wise move on his part I was that ready to attack.

I looked around as they escorted me to the back door. The building was ancient probably built before the AI war. It was a brick and concrete building at least four stories high. I noted the brickwork was cracked and crumbling. The concrete parts of the structure appeared to have been re-rendered more than a few times. Ljufu would have never tolerated her offices in such a state. Then this was Earth in the old and distressed state I’d forgotten about. The interior was as battered as the exterior. It was an ‘L’ shaped room with several doors leading off along the walls. Across from the door was a prisoner booking in desk. A few of the doors looked to me like cell doors and the rest were security-doors with a palm entry system.

The prisoner-processing desk looked as if it had seen better days. The floor was dirty the walls the same. A rusty looking metal bench lined one wall with a steel railing above it to shackle reluctant prisoners while they were processed.

“Sit there,” one of the officers ordered.

I sat as the second Security Officer walked over to the desk. A female Security Officer with her hair in a bun looked up from her terminal she’s been staring at ever since we’d come in.

“What gives?” she said as the officer approached. “She ain’t in cuffs?”

“Victim of an assault but the perp is in ER.”

“Oh I see.” She looked at me. “”You got a name?”

“Gwen Hunter,” I replied.

“Ok ma’am approach the desk.” She indicated a box on her desk. “Place your hand in there. You might feel a pick we’re just going to take a blood sample.”

That was new we never had that in the precinct I’d been stationed in. The same precinct where my father worked. I was glad I hadn’t been taken there.

“What if I refuse?” I asked.

“You get cuffed and we do it anyway,” she replied.

I placed my hand in the box and felt a prick on my finger. “I hope that needle is clean?”

“We replace it every test.” She looked at her terminal. “Tox is clean no drugs,” she stated. She looked at her screen looked at me looked back at the screen. “Gwen Hunter?”

Somehow the way she said it had the two Security Officers drawing their weapons and pointing them at me. I tensed ready to go into action. I wasn’t about to go down without a fight I guess that was my Valkyrie blood calling.

“You, have the face but this says you aren’t.” She waved at the screen she was looking at.

“I am Gwen Hunter, I was born here.”

“It’s not what the machine is saying.”

“And you an Imperial trust a machine?” I hadn’t meant to be sarcastic.

“Who are you?” one of the officers demanded.

“Gwen Hunter, I’ve spent time on Alfheimir they did something to my DNA so I could stay there.” Which was a partial truth. They had done more than that they’d awakened my Keeper DNA.

“Well?” the officer said to the one behind the desk.

“That pans out. It says non-human DNA, It’s not on the watch list.”

I wondered what they meant by a ‘watch list’. The war with the Confederacy was over and we’d made peace. The present Empress wasn’t keen on starting a fight with the Confederacy she was still trying to push back the Orsini. I had my own encounter with the Orsini I’d got lucky.

“Whatever we still got to process her under city ordinance two, one, seven, eight.”

I’d never heard of that one. I’d thought I knew then all. Then I’d been out of the loop for that last four or more years.

“Please remove you comms and any personal items you have. They will be recorded and returned to you if you aren’t charged with an offence.”

I didn’t have much of a choice I handed over my comms bracelet.

“And the silver one?” the desk officer said.

“I can’t unless you have Cell Stitcher handy. It’s molecular bonded and the only way it’s coming off is if you take off my hand.” I added. “Also I wouldn’t do that unless you want the Valkyrie hunting you?”

“What’s a Cell Stitcher?” one of the Security Officers asked.

“Cell Regenerator. It repairs injury cell by cell.” I held up my hand. “I had my hand half blown of. It rebuilt in a month.”

“Bull!” the other officer, said. “You’re talking shit.”

“I’ve heard about that,” one woman behind the desk mused. She gave me a look. “We’ll waver the bracelet. I not sure what the boss will say but it stays.”

“This way,” the first officer snapped.

I followed him further into the precinct.

I was expecting to be put in a cell but the officers took me to an interview room. I’d seen the same a myriad times before. This one was no different just dirtier. I wondered if anyone actually cleaned the place out. Compared to Ljufu’s this was a mess. There was a table supposedly attached to the wall but it was loose. There were four chairs none of then bolted to the floors. Chairs that could be used as weapons in a pinch. I noted all this as I sat in the chair indicated.

“Do you ever get a damn cleaner in here. Ljufu would never have her interview room left in this state?”

“Ljufu,” one of officers stated disdainfully.

“Captain Ljufu Weredale Chief of Planetary Security on Saros.”

“Never heard of Saros?” the other said.

“A world in the Confederacy.”

“What gives, you a Confed?” I saw him glance at his comms.

In truth I was really both thanks to Xenai’s attempt to help me get Vanessa. I know she was trying to be helpful but I still hadn’t got to Vanessa and had no way of knowing where she was now. The trouble was the Black Stripes and the Valkyrie had got in the way. At present my target was the Black Stripes, again another task I wasn’t able to complete I had been exiled to Earth by Admiral Komana. I had to find my way back, find a way around the admiral and find the Keepers. I was extremely worried about them. I did wonder if it was a mother’s concern. Well I had to consider that after what the First Ones had told me?

“Wait here two detectives will be in to interview you soon.”

“What I don’t get a lawyer?” It sounded too much like a set up to me.

“You don’t.”

“You did read me my rights so I’m entitled to call one.”

“Don’t make this difficult. You’ll get a formal warning. That’s the end of it.”

At that both officers left. I was on my own.