The Cost of Crime

“The Cost of Crime”

Rocky L. Sharier

Vocal Writing Contest

3/1/2021

Jacques parked the car under the only tree on the block, a fake plum tree from the shape of the leaves. Real trees were rare on this side of town. He pulled his ViBB from his jacket pocket and opened it. The screen turned on immediately. He flicked the virtual pages to the left until he found the pages he had marked.

1324 W. Grove Street, apartment 305. All tenants.

The smirk returned to his face. He enjoyed large jobs like this where there were most likely going to be attempted escapees and chaos. He was allowed to improvise in these situations. He was also allowed to inflict pain on these ones. The law was very clear.

He thumbed through the few pages of his notes to help him understand who he might be up against when he entered the apartment. He was reading the second page when his ViBB flashed for a vidcall. Jacques answered immediately.

“Agent Clawson.”

A bald man with a handle-bar mustache appeared on the screen of the ViBB. “Hello, Jack. Just checking in to see where you are.”

Clawson’s expression didn’t change. “Hello, Michael. I’m sitting outside of Renault’s apartment. Why are you calling me so late?” He knew Miguel hated being called Michael just as much as he hated being called Jack.

“I have some more info for you. I’m sending it to your Book right now.” Miguel’s eyes looked away from the screen.

Jacques chuckled. Only old-schoolers called it a Book. Neo-mods called it a ViBB, a virtual black book. It also vibrated. His ViBB flashed as the new information downloaded. He touched the new file and looked around the street for any sign of life as the new information was displayed on the screen.

“New intel shows there may be several other tenants in the apartment, all living there illegally. City code allows for only four people to live in the same apartment. There may be as many as nine people living there.” Miguel’s voice started grating on Jacques’ nerves.

“That’s nine class C felonies. It must be my lucky day.” Jacques again checked the street for movement.

“You’ve been cleared to use force, but no bloodshed. Class C felonies don’t allow for blood at the scene.” Miguel’s face crinkled from the ViBB screen malfunctioning for a second.

Jacques sighed and shook his head. “Why do we get handcuffed when they commit the crimes?”

Miguel scratched his nose. “I don’t make the laws, Jack. I only enforce them like you.”

“Thanks for the info, Mike.”

“Look, Jack. Don’t-.”

Jacques closed the connection and opened the driver’s door. His ViBB went off in his hand. He looked to see a message from Miguel. Dick.

Jacques grinned and closed the door. He checked the street for movement as he opened his trunk. He grabbed his U-belt and buckled it on. He went to grab his pistol and changed his mind, grabbing the sonic wand. It was better to use on groups anyway. He grabbed the boomphones, closed the trunk, and walked up the street toward 1324.

As he entered the building, he saw two elevators to his left. A door with a sign showing Stairs was to his right. He pushed through the door and took the stairs two at a time until he got to the third floor. He looked through the small window to make sure he was alone and pushed through the door.

The first apartment he saw was 326, right next to the elevator doors on this floor. 325 was right across from it, and he counted ten doors down this side of the hall. That was his mark. He stared at this door as he walked down the hall, his eyes flicking to each set of doors as he passed them. When he reached 305, he stopped and listened.

Muffled sounds of a conversation came through the door, mixed with laughter from two or three men. Jacques could smell the distinct odor of Cerberus, a synthetic meat, wafting from the apartment. His stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since this morning, nearly 18 hours ago. He pulled the boomphones over his ears, readying himself for the arrest. He opened his ViBB to Apps, chose Lockpick, and aimed the handheld at the lock. His rank gave him clearance to open locks of most civilians. The lock turned green, and he walked into the apartment.

The layout of the apartment was simple. The kitchen was directly to his left with a door to his right. A wall separated the kitchen from the dining room and blocked his view of four men sitting at a table. The living room stretched out beyond the table, ending in two glass doors overlooking a balcony. Two more doors adorned the wall to the right in the living room, one just before the wallscreen TV. Jacques strolled into view, pointed his wand at the men, and pulled the trigger.

The sonic wave caught the men by surprise, knocking three of them over backward, the stomach of the fourth slamming into the edge of the table. He sat stunned in his chair. Jacques dropped his boomphones to his neck.

“Hello, everyone. This is the police. All of you are under arrest for violating City Code 103A.606.” The door next to the wallscreen TV opened, and two women entered the living room.

“Ladies, please have a seat.” Jacques pointed to the couch with his wand. The women looked at the men on the floor and slowly moved to the couch.

Jacques reached into his U-belt, pulled out four C patches, and set them on the table in front of the only man still seated. His attention shifted back to the women. “I count six of you so far. Where are the other three?”

The two women looked at Jacques, their faces a mixture of confusion and fear. Both remained silent.

“You’re making this difficult for me, ladies.” Jacques picked up a C patch, snapped open the case, and pulled out the electronics inside. It was a square piece of plastic roughly one inch by one inch by half-inch thick. The bottom had a series of thin needles sticking out of the plastic with an on/off switch on the side. Jacques turned on the switch and stuck the needles into the shoulder skin of the seated man. A small amber light shone right next to the on/off switch, and the delivery mechanism remained in place. Jacques repeated the process for the three men who lay stunned on the floor.

He pulled two more C patches from his belt and walked over to the women. “Ladies, these are pulsators. They stick into your shoulder so Central can monitor you while you’re being transported downtown.” He stuck the pulsator into the first woman’s arm. She flinched but remained seated with her hands folded in her lap. “These make it nearly impossible to escape.” He stuck the pulsator into the second woman’s arm and pulled out his ViBB. “Central, this is Clawson.”

The ViBB came to life. “Clawson, this is Central.”

“I have six C patches live and ready.”

“Roger, Clawson.”

All six pulsators beeped and injected the paralytic drug. Both woman flinched and looked at each other as they slowly slumped backward on the couch.

Clawson bent over the women where they could focus on him. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. These things hold Efemerol that paralyzes you. Makes it much easier to get you downtown and into the SA tubes.”

Jacques heard voices in the hall. He quickly knelt down, put his boomphones over his ears, and pulled out his wand, pointing it toward the door. A man opened the door and entered the apartment followed my another man right behind him. Jacquez pulled the trigger.

Both men were hit full force with the sonic wave, knocking the second man into the wall and the first man into the second man. Both men slumped to the ground. A woman appeared in the doorway, saw both men slumped in front of her, and ran down the hall toward the elevators.

Jacques was on his feet and out the door, following the woman down the hall. The door to apartment 318 opened just as the woman passed it, and a boy walked into the hall, preventing Jacques from firing the wand at the suspect.

“Get back in your apartment!” Jacques’ voice scared the little boy who ran back into apartment 318 and closed the door.

Jacques aimed the wand again, but the suspect was through the door to the stairs. The chase would make it to the street.

Jacques opened the door and entered the hallway to the stairs, listening for the suspect. He heard her jumping downstairs below him and began jumping stairs himself. When he reached the first floor, he ran through the door to see the suspect exiting the building and running to the right. Toward his car. Jacquez slowed down and pulled his ViBB, speaking directly into the speaker.

“Cruiser on. Suspect is running north on W. Grove Street. Stun her.” He lowered his Vibb and jogged into the street where he would get a better view.

The suspect was nearing his cruiser when he heard the shot. The suspect screamed and fell onto the sidewalk, gripping her side in pain. Jacques jogged up to her as she writhed on the ground.

“Hello. I am Agent Jacques Clawson, and you are under arrest.” He pulled a C patch from his belt, popped it open, and pulled the pulsator out. He turned it on and stuck it into the woman’s shoulder.

“This is a pulsator. It allows Central to monitor you while you are being transported downtown.” He pulled his ViBB. “Central, I activated another C patch.”

“Roger, Clawson.”

The woman flinched as the drug entered her body. Jacquez could see the fear grow in her eyes as she realized she was losing the ability to move.

“You are now paralyzed and will be transported downtown where you will be judged for your crimes. Violating City Code 103A.606 and living with more than three people and City Code 20D.12 resisting arrest. Both are Class C felonies and earn you a maximum of 3 years in suspended animation. It’s cheaper than housing you for those 3 years.” The woman’s eyes grew large from fear, and she passed out.

Seventy-five minutes later, Jacquez sat at his desk, filing his reports. His ViBB was going off non-stop, but he ignored it so he could complete his notes and go home. He had nine arrests on the night and didn’t want to spend his morning sitting at his desk talking into his microphone.

“Hey, Jack. Nice work.” A short, bald man with a handle-bar mustache appeared next to Jacquez.

Jacques rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Mike? I got work to do.”

Miguel leaned on Jacques’ desk. “I wanted to deliver the good news in person.”

Jacques paused the recording and turned to Miguel. “The good news?”

“Yeah, one of the men you arrested is wanted in a series of cybercrimes. Seems he has been hacking into the city’s hub and shutting down the power to specific gridblocks. Businesses on those blocks would be robbed since they had no alarms.”

“Renault?”

“No. His name is Corrigan.”

Jacques thought for a moment. “Huh. Any reward?”

Miguel smiled. “$20,000.”

Jacques looked at Miguel. “Yeah? It’s yours, Miguel. Now get off my desk.”

Miguel waited for the punchline, but none came. He fell off the desk as he realized Jacques was serious.

“You’re giving it to me?”

“Yes, so now you can retire and leave me the hell alone.”

Miguel stood up, smiled, and kissed Jacques on the lips. Jacques wiped his lips and watched Miguel walk away smiling. He wondered who would be his next handler. He hoped it would be a woman and went back to completing his reports.