Page 3 of Urban Justice

Chapter 2

As soon asthe safety door locked behind her, Sloane Friday pulled off her hood and removed the mask from her face, finally drawing in a breath of fresh air. The mask’s design had been considerably improved since the first time she’d put it on, but it was still hot as hell under it. Pushing away her mess of deep pink hair from her face, she made her way into the lair’s command center and wasn’t surprised to see her friend and boss, Lance Sorenson, waiting for her.

The Viking of a man scanned his blue eyes up and down her form in that cold, analytical way he had, searching for wounds or injuries, and when he found none, his shoulders dropped a bit.

“I’m fine, big man. Just like each and every other time it’s been my turn to head into the field. It pisses me off that you’d think otherwise, Lance.”

It was early morning, and as usual, the other members of the team who’d been on support had gone upstairs to sleep or gone home as soon as Sloane confirmed that everything was under control and she was heading back to base.

As she moved to the gear area to discard her suit, Lance followed. “Drop the attitude, Sloane. You’re very capable, as much as anybody here, but you’re not invincible. That little trip had a lot of risks and what happened is proof I’m right. Not only that, but if that stranger hadn’t shot the other trafficker, we would’ve had to remove a bullet from you.”

With her body aching from fatigue, she peeled the suit off, not bothered that Lance was scolding her while she was in her underwear. “Our suits act as body armor, so you wouldn’t have had to remove a bullet from me.”

Lance shook his head, touching his side. “I know first-hand that our suits aren’t foolproof. We can’t maintain full mobility and complete protection at the same time.”

With a nod, Sloane examined her equipment to make sure everything was operational before putting it away. “And that’s exactly why we keep the risk to a minimum and prepare as much as we can for each mission. Exactly as we did tonight. As you can see for yourself, there isn’t a single scratch on me, and we have three dead drug traffickers that won’t be distributing their shit all over the city.”

Shit was a light word for something much more dangerous than what could generally be found in Chicago nowadays. The new compound known as Phantom had hit the street less than a month ago, tracking a bloody path through the population. So far, it was mostly addicts who’d been found dead due to an overdose, but what was even more concerning was the number of unexplained deaths they’d finally linked to the strange drug. Every suspicious death was tested for drugs, and in every case, Phantom had been detected. The fact they couldn’t link a reason for the deaths to Phantom both baffled and frustrated the authorities. Some victims jumped off buildings, others threw themselves in front of a train, others simply shot themselves in the head. All suicides, all with Phantom in the victims’ bloodstream, but there was no way of knowing why they’d so suddenly and quickly decided to end their existence.

“We all agreed that with fewer people trafficking Phantom, the distribution will slow as the producer or lab hasn’t given the formula to anybody else. But no one agreed to you trying to trap them underground. How can we support you if we can’t contact you through the comms?”

Sloane shivered. It was apparent Lance hadn’t finished, and she knew she wouldn’t get a shower any time soon, so she put on a pair of sweatpants and a tee-shirt. “It was a spur of the moment decision and the right one. The only way to shut down Phantom is to go up the chain to the source. The only way to do that is to figure out where they’re moving and shipping the drug from. We’ve tried to locate them for weeks, and this was the first time we got them. We suspected the tunnels and they were there, all right. My only intention was to follow them, not to engage, you know that. But you know how valuable it would’ve been if I’d captured one. While I waited for them to return, I decided to explore a little and saw the opportunity to trap them inside. It was a calculated risk and I failed. Satisfied?”

Lance pulled at her hand until she sat beside him. She hated it when the fight drained out of her friend because it meant he was dead serious with what he was about to say.

“I heard your report on the way back and how that man saved you. That wasn’t a calculated risk. It’s sheer luck you aren’t dead. Admit it, you had no idea how many there were or if others were waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. Hell, you didn’t even know the layout. If you’d gone any deeper, you could’ve been trapped for good.”

There was no way she’d admit he was right. Instead, she locked eyes with the blond giant. “Lance, we need to stop Phantom before it drowns the city, and that means taking action. Maybe even dangerous ones. I agree it was risky, but we’ve been monitoring them for quite some time and our only lead on the distribution has been the underground. I swear I’m not voluntarily putting my life or our organization in danger, but don’t ask me not to take advantage of an opportunity when it appears. You know how all this affects me.” Her words sounded strong, but her chest squeezed painfully. It wasn’t time to wallow in the past, and there was so much to do.

Lance patted her knee. “But we still need to think this through. What if one of the men had escaped? We were lucky this time, killing them all and getting rid of the bodies, so no one will suspect their network has been discovered. We’re assuming your mystery man isn’t with them, but I hate not having all the facts.”

So did she. “Any news on that front? I know the entrance I went through doesn’t have any cameras, but what about where my unknown hero fled?”

They stood and headed toward the command center, where Lance brought a chair closer in order to sit at one of the high-tech workstations. “I worked on what I could find, but it’s taken me a bit more time than I hoped. Devin would’ve already found the guy, his address, and what he’d had for lunch by the time I turned on the computer.”

Devin Curtis was Carpe Noctem’s hacker in residence when he wasn’t taking care of his multi-billion gaming development company and Sloane arched an eyebrow. “I’m surprised he’s not here tonight. I thought he didn’t sleep.”

“He had some sort of charity event last night. Just knowing he was forced to put on a tuxedo is enough to make me forget how much I hate doing computer research.”

Lance tapped a few keys, popping up a series of windows. “But while you were finishing up and coming back, I popped a painkiller and got to work. Here’s what I found.”

The camera feed showed an empty street she recognized as one of the avenues to access the underground but hadn’t chosen that one as that entrance was wide open and there was only one street to use as an escape if need be.

“There’s only one camera on that street, at an old repair shop, two miles north of the point of entry. Not a car to be seen from the time you said your guy left. And then...”

Lance trailed off just as an older model black jeep came into view. “It’s the only one that appeared. The next vehicle doesn’t appear for another forty-five minutes. So, my best guess is that’s him.”

Without waiting for her to answer, Lance brought up a new screen, this one zooming in on the license plate. Sloane held her breath, but the moment where the image was at its clearest, a light flashed on the plate, blurring the letters. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

“I know. Bad coincidence, isn’t it?”

At the tone of his voice, Sloane turned to look at his face. “Is there is something you’re not telling me?”

“I thought as a former cop you’d already know about it, but I guess it’s more of a thing in Eastern Europe. They’ve developed a thin film that you apply to the plate, front and back, and it makes it impossible for the camera to get a clear image of it. From what I know, it’s only a problem with automatic digital cameras, which are used everywhere now. The lens tries to focus, but the film causes it to constantly move back and forth so it can’t get a clear picture.”

Impressed, Sloane looked more closely at the blurry part of the image. “Never saw it when I was in the force. I can’t imagine why it hadn’t crossed the Atlantic yet, though. Happy for the boys in blue, but pissed for us. How can we find him?”

Lance leaned back on his chair, swaying a little. “Did you get a good look at his face before you let him go?”

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