The Last 0-Day

Chapter 2 - Luciana

I don't need to patch my armor. She pulled on her overjacket without checking its contents; pain flared from the cut on her rib like the Youth stabbed her again. Can't afford another injury... in and out. She left the apartment. The door automatically locked behind her.

Luciana scanned the dusty-orange streets of the Pucker before walking to the station, a renovated church on the corner half a block away. She leapt the five steps and entered the building.

"Morning, Luci." Sheer sat by the front and buzzed her through the gate.

"Morning Sheer, you see the news?"

"Detritus storm, Chief'll be ecstatic."

A high pitch beep pinged their ENT-inserts and they flicked their OPTO-inserts to the message.

'Briefing at 05:00 sharp,' read the subject line. It was the Chief.

"You going to be at that?" Luciana asked.

"My shift's over in five minutes. Someone will have to fill me in. I'm on day five of this one. Any more eugeroics and I'll be seeing shit." Sheer laughed.

"Lucky bastard."

"Can you brief me?"

Fuck. "I'll try, late shift for me too."

"Thanks. And Luci, put some dirt on your face." Sheer rubbed the air over his bald head. "Chief will know you were hit again with you being this clean."

Luciana tapped her temple and pointed at Sheer as she entered the parish.

The nave-turned-office was an empty grid of twelves desks. The holding cell where the altar once stood lay empty. Surprising. Luciana arrived at her corner desk. The top was spotless and organized, showing no signs of the chaos in her apartment. She hung her jacket over the seatback and pulled her tablet to sync with the police systems.

DUI, DWI, and a DD all outside of Chef Wu's. Not surprising.

Two strong-arm robberies of some artists outside of their lofts on the 1300 block, suspects described as Youths with tattoos of clovers on their necks. Morons probably never even saw a clover in their life and still get it tattooed. If only the group I hunt had such easy markings.

Traffic stop for disabling their pilot program turned violent. Officer Chen and Officer Sheer.

The rest of the report was blank.

Sheer didn't mention that. Luciana turned to the front desk, but Sheer was gone. She shook her head. They're getting more brazen, how long until they start killing cops again?

Erik's brown hair and calming smile projected like a hologram in her mind.

I'll get them, Erik, I'm close. She shoved her tablet into her overjacket and headed for the armory closet in the back of the station.

"Wrong way, Gutierrez." Chief David leaned out of the briefing room. A head taller than she was and dressed immaculately; he still had some of his muscle even after years behind a desk.

Shit. Luciana followed her boss into the room. The rest of the station was already seated around the table. Luciana took a seat in the back beside Maus.

The Chief stood in the front of the room as the wallscreen behind him flickered on with a map of the Bowl. "You saw the news this morning," he said. "A detritus storm is forecasted for the end of the week. It snuck up on us all." He turned to spit but lacked a trashcan.