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chapter 1 • pilot
"THIS JOB IS EATING ME alive. I can't breathe any more. I spent all these years trying to be the good guy, the man in the white hat. I'm not becoming like them. I am them."
Natalie walked into the shop, ducking under the tape and stopping at the sight of Jake Peralta giving a dramatic monologue to one of the many cameras, "Peralta, what are you doing, weirdo?" She gave him a raised eyebrow as she waited for the owner of the shop to answer some questions.
Jake gaped at her, "I'm doing the best speech from Donnie Brasco, or actually," He turned and looked at the shelves of screens behind him, "Ten of me are doing the best speech from Donnie Brasco." He looked into the camera, "What's up?"
Natalie sighed, "I know where that speech is from." She said, "Just try to act professional?" She turned back towards the shop owner, "So the store was hit about two hours ago. They took mostly..." She looked around at the empty shelves as she took some notes, "tablets, laptops, and cameras—"
She was cut off by a beat playing from the keyboard behind her, and turned around to glare at Jake, who was standing in front of it. He pressed the button again, "Sorry."
Natalie sighed and turned away from him, "I'd like a list of all your employees, whoever had access to the store." She clicked the pen, "I'd also like to apologise for my partner. His parents didn't give him enough attention."
"Uh, detective?"
She looked towards Jake.
"I already solved the case." He said, "We're looking for three white males, one of whom has sleeve tats on both arms."
Natalie walked towards him, crossing her arms as she looked at him in disbelief, "And you know that how?"
Jake lowered his voice as he leaned closer to her, "I had an informant on the inside. He's been here for years. Watching, learning, waiting. His code name?" He backed away and grabbed a stuffed toy from the shelf nearby, holding it up, "Fuzzy Cuddle Bear." He turned the bear around with a grin, "He's a nanny-cam!"
"Oh come on, you just got lucky." Natalie scoffed.
Jake took out the storage card from the camera and plugged it into the port for the televisions, "No, I got here five minutes before you and figured that in this gigantic electronics store, there had to be at least one working camera." He turned towards the screen as the footage popped up, "Oh! Hi bad guys!"
Just as Jake had said, there were three white males, one with sleeve tattoos on each arm. He held up the bear, "You did it, Fuzzy. You busted 'em. It's time to come home." He changed his voice, acting as if he were the bear, "I'm not sure if I can. I've been undercover so long, I've forgotten who I am."
