Hello there! This is my first submission on this site. A fair few more should follow soon after. But, this is an extension of my Deviant Art account, in which I'll only post the good stuff. This story is really the first one I was happy with.

Two detectives work their way up to a big bust; but, time is fading as their investigation is threatened by a larger agency.


(At the moment, this story preview does not have any formatting – this means character thoughts aren't differentiated from plain text.)

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Crime's Facade

I draw my Glock and approach the double doors, stopping just to the side of them. I take my left hand from the pistol and raise it, I extend my pointer and middle fingers and gesture forward. Immediately after, two men with m4 carbines walk past me and position themselves in front of the door. Another two with mp5 submachine guns walk past me and stand behind the first two, they’re all wearing black uniforms with ‘SWAT’ in large white letters on their backs. Once they’re in position they begin a count from 3 in unison.
“3... 2... 1... Breach!” I hear a loud noise and instinctively blink, when my eyes open I find the door is wide open and the SWAT officers are advancing into the room.
I wait for them to take a few more steps before I step out into the doorway. Once I can no longer see them I quickly slide to the left and hold out my pistol, before me is a large room full of green plants. I guess the intel was good, this is the place.
I look to the left and find two of the officers handcuffing some people in casual clothes, they seem very distressed. I go to look to my right, but before I do I hear a loud bang from behind me. I quickly spin around and hold my gun firmly at the source of the noise, my ears still ringing from the sound. I find my partner, Garry, standing little over a yard in front of me; he’s just now lowering his pistol. I quickly spin around again as I hear pained shouts coming from behind me, I see a man holding his leg in agony and there’s a pistol next to him.
I feel a slight pain in my left arm, I look over to find Garry with his fist touching my arm. “You’ve got to be a bit more careful next time, hey? I’ve had to put up with you for five years, no point in stopping now!”
I roll my eyes and holster my weapon. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’re around then... huh?”
He chuckles. “Don’t be such a downer, Dave. We got what we came for~!” He gestures to all the bright green plants and the line of handcuffed people walking back through the door.
I take out my two-way and press the button, causing a short burst of static sound. “Krrch... This is Delta Charlie one, requesting EMS. An armed suspect has been shot at the scene... Krrch.”
“10-4, Delta Charlie one. An ambulance is five minutes away.” I holster the two-way and find two of the SWAT officers coming back through the door with a med-kit, they both calmly patch up the gunshot wound and confiscate his pistol.
“Why don’t we check this place out? It is supposed to be a pretty big operation.”

“Sure, I’ll take a look in that office over there.” I reply, turning to the left and walking towards the room.
It looks like a pretty small room, I can tell because there is a large window that makes up for a better part of the wall. Once I reach the door, I clasp the knob and attempt to turn it. But, it won’t budge.
I sigh, “It’s like they don’t even try to make this easy.” I walk up the window and elbow it as hard as I can close to the edge, causing it to shatter. I brush a few shards off my jacket sleeve and reach through the window, unlocking the door. Luckily for me, the door knob is on the side of the window.
I open the door and immediately hear an urgent voice behind me. “Detective Smith, is everything alright?” I turn around and see one of the SWAT officers, he looks like one of the officers that were patching up the gunman.
“Door was locked... I’m fine.” He nods and returns to the suspect, I step through the doorway.
There’s a desk to my right with a filing cabinet next to it, the desk appears to be completely empty. There’s nothing on top of it, either. I begin to open the drawers of the desk and search a little more thoroughly. They’re empty too, but I do come across a two-way. It looks just like mine, there was also a folded note under it. I open the note and read the messy black letters, You know what to do. I just fold the note back up and stash it in my pocket, I sit the two-way on the desk and begin to search through the filing cabinet. Nothing comes up
so I just take the two-way and leave the room.
“There you are, did you find anything?” Garry comes up to me, it seems he didn’t have as much luck as me in finding anything useful.
“Just this,” I hold out the two-way. He takes from my hand and turns it on, a voice immediately emanates from it.
“9-20-19... 1... 20-18-1-16...” Garry turns down the volume.
“Well, it’s transmitting a code... I’m sure we can figure it out, we’ve had to work with less.” He grins widely and punches me in the arm again, I snatch the two-way off of him.
“Did you find anything, while you were skulking around over there?” I inquire.
“No... I didn’t. They must’ve been pretty tight and smart about this operation, no form of evidence has been left here. Except those plants, the suspects and that two-way. I’m not really sure how much help this was for our investigation; apart from the fact that they now have one less grow-house”
“Oh, come on. It’s like you said before, ‘we’ve had to work with less’.”
“I was just being positive... I mean, how can I not? Imagine going about your day with no enthusiasm, how would you get anything done?” He throws his

hands up in the air and then looks back at me. “Lets get back to the station and let the other guys deal with this, I’m sure we’ll be able to think of something in a more positive space.”
“Sure, I parked the cruiser out the front.” I take the keys out of a pouch on my vest.
Garry holds his hand out. “Hey, I’ll drive.”
“Alright, I need a bit of time to wind down anyway.” I toss the keys over to him and walk out the front, I find the two SWAT officers and a paramedic loading the suspect into an ambulance.
There are also two more cruisers out the front of the warehouse, another detective walks up to Garry and I. “Well, if it isn’t Detective Jefferson and Detective Generic-Ass-Name. Any tips before we head in?”
Garry scoffs. “Try to keep your cool in there, detective – it’s a real crime scene. Not like that one you failed three times in training.”
The detective huffs as Garry and I walk away, we make back to the cruiser and I get in the passenger seat.
“It’s beyond me how a muppet like him isn’t just permanently assigned to writing reports.” Garry starts the car and begins to drive back to the station.
“Maybe the Captain just doesn’t want to put up with his dumb ass.” Garry chuckles as I reach for the radio and retrieve the transmitter. “Krrch... This is Delta Charlie One; Two and I are returning to the police station in cruiser seven... Krrch.”
As I replace the transmitter back, a familiar female voice sounds from the radio. “10-4 Delta Charlie one; when you return the chief would like to have a word.”
I take the transmitter back again. “Krrch... Copy, we’ll be there in ten... Krrch.”
I affix the transmitter back onto the radio. “Hope we’re not in trouble...” Garry remarks with a faked tone of concern.
“I’m sure it’ll just be about a briefing over the warehouse, nothing he won’t read in the report.” I sit back in my seat and look out the window, this is a poorer part of the city. Small shops litter the side of the road.
“Well, I can’t think of anything else he’d want to ‘have a word’ about.”
After several more minutes of hearing Garry talk about his three mischievous kids and their infamous acts, we arrive back at the station. Both Garry and I get out of the cruiser, Garry tosses me the keys and we head inside.

“Afternoon Jan,” Garry says, smiling and waving as he walks past the receptionist.
She hardly had any time to react, as we were through the ‘authorised personnel only’ door by the time she noticed. We continue to make our way through the station, heading towards the Chief’s office. Garry smiles and greets everyone as he walks past, I just make slight hand gestures. When we make it to the Chief’s office, Garry rhythmically knocks on the door and the Chief calls for us to come in.
“Detectives! Take a seat... and Smith, close the door.” I quickly shut the door and sit beside Garry.
“What did you want to talk to us about?” Garry asks, we glance over at each other for a second.
“Well, I don’t have bad news... but, it’s pretty inconveniencing news. I got a phone call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation today; they said they’ll be taking over your investigation within the week. They’re giving you time to gather all your evidence for a smooth transition, they say it’s a much bigger operation than what you think.”
“And that’s it? They’re just taking the investigation from us? Surely there’s something you can do, we’re close.” I’m completely flustered, I look over to Garry who seems equally as outraged.
“I’m sorry Smith, this isn’t the movies... if they want the investigation, we have to give it to them. Anyway, that’s all I had to tell you two. Unless there’s any questions you have for me, you’re both dismissed.”
All three of us stand up, Garry and I exchange a look. Then we walk out, I close the door behind us. We get back to our desks, Garry sighs and sinks into his chair .
“I get it, but... Why do they have to be so arrogant about it? Why don’t we get a formal and nice phone call, instead of the chief telling us to gather our crap for them?”
“That’s just the job, man. Sometimes I wish it were different, but... every now and then we have to do things we don’t want to. Although, I have to admit, that was an awfully short chat with the Chief”
“Yea, he’s just doing what he’s told. But, I’m not done yet. I’m gonna crack this case before they even get here, that’ll show them I can handle my own.” A grin returns on Garry’s face, he looks over at me energetically. “You still have that two-way, don’t you?”
I lean over and sit it on his desk. “There, knock yourself out.” The speed in which he snatched the two-way from the top of his desk led to me to believe he might actually knock himself out.

[A few days later]
As I drive to work I get a phone call from Garry, he’d already be at the station since he always gets there half an hour before I do. I press the green button on the screen in the car to accept the call, Garry’s voice instantly filled the car.
“Dave, you're not going to believe this!”
“I'm sure I'll be able to get my head around it.” I reply dismissively.
“I did it! I figured out the code, it’s actually really simple if you think about it!”
“Ok, I’ll be at the station in five minutes.” I hang up before he gets a chance to continue shouting at me, and proceed the quiet drive to work.
I clock in at reception and make my way over to my desk, I sit my stuff down next to the desk and go over to the coffee machine. Garry gets up and follows me over, he frowns at me.
“You know, if you drink that everyday. Eventually, you'll gain a dependence and won't be able to function without it.”
I pull the jug out and fill a mug with coffee. “You know, it’s very rare that you don’t tell me that when I go to get coffee at the start of my shift.”
“In theory, you’d eventually get sick of me telling you and stop drinking coffee. But, you’re a lot more stubborn that I’d like to admit.”
“Right, so you said you figured out the code before.”
Excitement seems to return back to him. “Well, I’ve been working on it the past few days. Which has been hard since I’ve also had to look after the kids because the wife has come down with a bit of a head cold. Anyway... after thinking about it a lot and writing down the entire loop, I figured it out. They basically just swapped letters with numbers. Like, instead of the letter y, they’d use the number 25. And instead of the number 13, they’d use the letter m.”
“Sounds... intricate. I guess there wasn’t much thought put in the code, then.” I return back to my desk and sit the coffee next to the keyboard, Garry sits in his seat and frowns at me again as I take a sip of the coffee. “So, what were they saying?”
“It’s huge! There’s apparently a high-profile meeting happening at 2 Partasti Street, and it gets better... Apparently the mob organising it doesn’t trust anyone on the frequency; they asked all that are attending to not bring anyone else and they’ll do the same. So, it’s a bunch of smug rich dudes with no bodyguards. The perfect opportunity!”

“But, the FBI are taking over the investigation tomorrow. There’s no way we’d be cleared for a support team, it took over a week to get the SWAT team we used for that bust.” Garry seemed to simmer down a little bit. “Well, this is where you have to trust me... We could be walking into a trap, or it really could just be a bunch of dumb asses at a table. But, regardless, we’ll have to do this one alone. I know that the chances of us making out unscathed is low, we’ve probably used up all our luck lately. However, with my partner by my side, there’s no task I can’t do! Come on man, lets show those feds what a real investigation looks like-”
“Alright... but you’re buying me a drink afterwards.” Garry laughs, “whatever poison you want!”
“Well, then. When’s this meeting happening?” “Tonight, seven sharp. Or so they say...”
“Huh, we really don’t have good odds. Do we? It’s no matter, we have enough time to come up with something of a plan. Do you have the layout of the building in the address?” I wasn’t expecting him to have one yet, we usually have to get the Chief to contact another agency for something like that.
“Uh... I can have a look, but I haven’t found the right one yet. Although, google maps shows that it’s a fairly small building. It should be too hard for the two of us to clear.”
“We aren't gonna get any SWAT munitions either... are we?” Garry’s expression seems to grow more grim with each question.
“No, we’ll only have the Glocks on our hips.” He sighs, “I really should’ve thought this through a little more.”
“Hey, you were just caught up in the moment. I‘m sure that things will go according to plan... we just need a plan first.” I chuckle lightly. “I take a look at the google maps image and see if I can’t come up with an infil plan, see if you can try to find a floor plan.” I smile warmly at Garry; it was hard trying to form a genuine smile – it’s just not something I do very often.
We then spend the next few hours formulating a plan, Garry actually managed to find a blueprint of the building and we discussed where the meeting would most likely take place as well as an infil strategy. But, eventually, the time came. Half an hour before the meeting, we got in my car and headed for the place. It would take us about 20 minutes to drive there, then we’ll spend another 15 minutes staking the place out and making sure that no one else would be arriving.
We finally got the place, I just parked 20 yards down on the other side of the road. But, something was different. And it didn’t take Garry long to point out.

“No one has arrived yet, this could be a trap.” I can see the concern on his face, but I’ll try to comfort him.
“Maybe they’re just early, this isn’t something one would want to be late or for. Or maybe no one showed, they were heavy conditions for a criminal underworld meeting. And I’m sure everyone would’ve heard about the grow- house that we found.”
“Yea, you’re probably right. Come on, we’ve waited out here for long enough.” Garry gets out of the car and I follow suit.
We both jog across the road and hug the wall of the neighbouring building as we make our way to the meeting, Garry takes the lead and I watch from behind. After a minute of creeping forward, we make our way to the entrance. Garry stops next to the door and looks back at me.
“Remember: I go left, you go right.” He then opens the door and quickly hops inside, I slide in behind him and point my gun off to the right.
The barrel of my gun waves at every corner and shadow I see, but I don’t find anyone. I do a faint whistle and I hear Garry do the same, we both line up behind another set of double doors. Behind these doors is where we suspect the meeting to be held, Garry gestures with his left hand. I give him two pats on the back and he positions himself in front of the door, I stand right behind him.
Garry then boots open the door and runs in, I follow hastily behind. “Hands in the air, don’t even think about moving them anywhere else!” I hear Garry shouting, there is a lone man standing at the end of a table in the middle of the room.
He’s wearing a bright purple blazer with a black shirt and black jeans; he’s also wearing glasses and has some pretty well combed hair. The man quickly raises his hands at the sight of Garry.
“Dave! Cuff this S-O-B.”
“Gladly,” I say as I walk around the table.
Eventually, I reach the man. I stop in front of him, with my gun pointed at his chest. I stare him in the eye, he assertively stares back. He then composes a slight grin and nods at me, I quickly flick around and pull the trigger twice in the direction behind me. My ears ring and I’m forced to close my eyes from the muzzle flash. I quickly open my eyes and prepare to fire again, but I don’t see anyone.
I walk back around the table, keeping my gun trained in the direction where Garry was standing. I reach the end of the table and find him on the floor,

reaching for his gun. I kick it away and point my gun at him, he rolls over coughs weakly.
“O-out of e-everyone... you w-were corrupt. I-I trusted you.. I-I thou-ght you h- had my back.”
I kneel down next to him and point my gun at his face. “I’m afraid your trust was misplaced, sometimes we can’t even trust those who are closest to us.”
“You.. You’re s-sick--” Garry groans in pain.
“I’m sorry friend. But, every now and then we have to do things we don’t want to.” I stand up and sink another bullet into his chest, a small tear runs down my face.
“Remus!” I hear the man shout from behind me.
“I thought I told you not to call me by my name...” I quickly wipe away the tear and turn to face him.
“I thought I told you that you’re the one who is getting paid to do as I say, not the other way around. Just, make sure you convince them. It’s truly a shame that the target got away after stealing your gun from you and shooting your partner, if only you had tried harder to convince your partner that this wasn’t a good idea.” The man walks past me.
“... It is a shame.” I say monotonously as he exits through the front door.
I attempt to gain a little composure and pull out my two-way. “Krrch We... We have shots fired, an officer has been injured. We’re at 2 Partasti Street, send EMS... Krrch”
I sit quietly in the small room, staring at my reflection in the black glass. The door suddenly opens, a woman holding two mugs walks in and a guy with his own mug follows behind. She places a mug in front of me, a faint line of steam stems from the dark liquid.
“I’m told you like your coffee...” She says.
I take the mug in my hands and have a sip, the warmth makes me feel the slightest bit better.
“I-I’m sorry about what happened, I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you.” She shifts forward and leans her elbows on the table, the guy just sits there silently with a small notebook and pen.
“Do you think you’d be able to tell us what happened, exactly. A cop-killing is a serious crime, we just want to make sure the right person gets punished.” She has a deep empathetic look in her eyes.

“Yea, s-sure. I can tell you-- It started with that warehouse we busted a few days ago, I found a two-way while I was searching the place. There was someone transmitting a code on it, we decided to head back to the station and see if we could find out what the code was.”
“A-and, sorry for interrupting, but by ‘we’ you mean you and Garry?” The guy asks.
“Yea, Garry and I... We got to the station and were called to the Chief’s office, he told us that the FBI were taking over our investigation. Garry and I were pretty unhappy about it, Garry especially. He really wanted to crack the case, we’d been on this particular mob for over a month now. A few days later Garry called me while I was on my way to work saying that he cracked the code, which he did. We both sat down for the rest of the day and made a plan to infiltrate the meeting that was allegedly taking place. I--” I pause for a second, a conflict formed within me.
“It’s ok, you’re doing great.” The woman reassures me, but it hardly works.
“I... tried to convince him that it was too risky and it could be a trap. But, he was too determined. After formulating the plan, we drove over in my personal car as to not draw any attention to ourselves. Then, we infiltrated the place. But, no one was there. Except for one guy, he was well dressed and completely alone. I walked over to cuff him and... he took my gun and fired on Garry. I tried to fight back, but he overpowered me and got away.” I sink into my chair, trying not to show any emotion.
“Thank you Smith, just try to enjoy the coffee... okay? Someone will be with you in a bit, It’s a shame that such a great officer had to die in the line of duty today. But, it’s equally as much of a shame that another had to watch. I give you my wishes and my prayers.” Both the woman and her companion leave the room and I go back to looking at myself in the glass...