5th Column Comics: Peacekeeper #27
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Cole Harbour, Indigo City
The grubby offices in the riverside community of Cole Harbour are, for the most part, home to numerous legal ventures and at least one illicit one. The man who rents the space goes by the screen name Hanno, although his real name is Apwer Al Kassan, a Tunisian migrant who had the entrepreneurial idea to open up an online black market named the Phoenician Exchange in the aftermath of the Great Impact. While Hanno is all powerful in his online forum, in the real world he’s a bloated man in the mid-thirties with very little hair. To his credit he did surprise me with the AK-74u under his computer desk, unfortunately for him his aim is so terrible that he missed all twenty shots he took when I walked through the door.
“Hello Mr Al Kassan.” I say through gritted teeth. “I didn’t appreciate you trying to shoot me.”
“Get out of here Peacekeeper, I don’t speak to cops and I spit on heroes.” Hanno snarls through gritted teeth, as his hand wanders towards his computer.
“What about people who kill innocent children?” I ask as I draw one of my tonfas and swish it over my shoulder, ready to strike if he should find another weapon on his desk.
“You’re talking about the Officer Slaughters.” Hanno states, as he retracts his hand, his eyes fixed on the tonfa. “There’s nothing I can tell you about them.” He adds as I saunter over to the cabinet at the back of the room. “What are you doing over there?”
“Wondering which of your little toys I should break first.” I hiss as I gesture to the statuettes in the cabinet. “And I know that you do indeed know something, you mentioned that there are two Officer Slaughters out in the wilds of Indigo City.”
“Two, obviously you are not as smart as you think you are.” Hanno cackles as I smash my tonfa down onto a statuette of Diver, ceramic shards scattering everywhere. “Go ahead, that thing was worthless with the resources I have on hand.”
“Hardly, one of these goes for 250 dollars, that limited edition Dark Archer goes for thrice that.” I reply as I ready myself to smash the Dark Archer figurine. “I’m not above smashing that piece of tat, but I am willing to trade his life for the information that you have on the Officer Slaughter killers. I know that they are using URLs connected to the Phoenician Exchange to post video of their attacks, and I’d wager they are communicating using a private forum on the site as well.”
“Okay, okay they are on a private forum called ‘the prescient’.” Hanno blubs as he types something into the computer before rotating the screen to face me. “There are four of them; Fireboi2003, Slow#Burner, Max_Casulties and the forum manager BringtheOfficer2theSlaughter.”
“That’s a start, and it saves Wind Duster and Freight Train, I need a way to track these men to guarantee the safety of Dark Arrow.” I snarl in my most threatening voice. “Hurry up my arm is getting a little cramped.”
“You can’t join the server, not without messaging the forum manager directly.” Hanno stated as he gets up from his chair. “The others can all be traced by their additional activities and purchases on my website.”
“Not good enough!” I hiss as I slam down my tonfa onto the figurine of Wind Duster. “Next time the Dark Arrow gets it!” I snarl as I take the Dark Arrow statue out of the cabinet and raise it above my head ready to throw it to the floor.
“I have correspondence with BringtheOfficer2theSlaughter, his application to open the forum page and post the videos.” Hanno gasps, as the printer purrs into life. “Please put the Dark Arrow down, there are only twenty five of those in the world, he’s not common like the Peacekeeper statuette.”
“Gladly.” I answer as I place the figurine on Hanno’s desk and take the pages from the printer. “Thank you for your assistance Mr Al Kassan.” I purr, as I head for the door.
“Assistance, you blackmailed me!” Hanno screams as I stop and turn to face him. “I’m going to sue you for the damage you’ve done to my collectibles you whore in armour!” Shooting him a smile, I walk back to the desk and pick up the Dark Arrow figurine and look at the base and smile, before handing it to Hanno. “What? Wait the authentication sticker, how dare you…” I close the doors before he can finish his rant.
**
ICPD Plaza One
As I return to the station the place has fallen into chaos, with phones ringing and SWAT and EOD officers gearing up for action. Fighting my way through to Torres I hear music playing in the background.
“Cassie we just got another call, as did the CBTF and Mattock.” Torres states as she gets up from her chair. “This time it was ‘All along the Watchtower” by Bob Dylan. It came in three minutes ago, but we think the target is the Bell Utility Tower, or more accurately the reopening of the restored train station across the road. “Mattock have already phoned their agents on site and are beginning to evacuate their clients.”
“We have another problem, there are four Officer Slaughters not two. We know how two of them operate but we have no idea on the MO of the two yet to strike.” I answer, as I take a seat. “Go I’m going to track down the IPs of three of the Officers and tell you which one is closest to the tower.” I add as I turn on my computer and log onto the tracking software the ICPD use for tracking internet activity and phone calls. “These guys are uploading their crimes that means we can track them in the field.” Opening a monitoring link of the Phoenician Exchange I type in the screen names of the Officers, before finding their activity on the rest of the site, something that doesn’t take very long. One of their purchases is very disturbing, the man going by the name of Slow#Burner brought and took delivery of several kilograms of thermite, enough to bring down a tower. Picking up the phone I type Torres’s number in and wait a few long seconds until she picks up.
“Cassie what is it?”
“It’s a thermite bomb, the bomber is planning to topple the tower onto the station.” I announce.
“Thermite is unsafe to activate at close quarters, did you find the bomber?” Torres asks, as I get a gleaming red dot situated in the foyer of the station.
“He’s in the station.” I hiss. “These guys wear ICPD uniforms, he may even be pretending to evacuate the people out of the building but that makes him easy to identify. He’ll be stalling, maybe even trying to slow down the evacuation.” I add, as I type in the other IP addresses. “I’ve got locations on two of the others, I’m sending them to our allies.”
“You said there were four.” Torres asks.
“Don’t worry about that, stop this guy from blowing the tower up.” I state, as I turn the phone off and pick up the printed pages Hanno gave me. There is very little to give me any idea on who BringtheOfficer2theSlaughter is, but there is a few words that make my blood run cold. Words like ‘the evils of this city, from the jack booted fascists masquerading as our protectors to the big businesses keeping the populous enslaved to them’ that seem all too familiar. The only problem is that words do not give me an answer to where this guy is hiding.
**
An hour later and I can breathe a sigh of relief, two men are in custody, and the third is dead killed when he fought back. Even better his bomb didn’t detonate thanks to the hard working EOD team at the Bell Utility Tower. As several officers start to return in dribs and drabs I’m still focusing on the words in the printouts Hanno had given me. I’m almost convinced to go back to Hanno when the phone on my desk goes off. Picking it up I hear the sound of an electronic text to speech voice coming through the receiver. “CBTF, Agent Gold in the public relations department.” Before the person on the other end puts the headset down.
**
CBTF Headquarters
As I storm into the CBTF headquarters my head is swimming with thoughts on who could be responsible for the bombings. Reaching the Public Relations building I open the door to see an elderly man sitting in a chair, his figure bent over a stack of facts and figures.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t alert security to your presence.” The agent asks, his voice sounding dry, almost hollow. “Give me a reason?”
“Because I have plenty to tell them about you, and your connection to the bombings and attempted bombings around the city.” I reply, as I remove a flare from my belt, the agent’s eyes watching the movement of my hand with a lazy almost amused curiosity. “Because I know why your little campaign of violence was being carried out, and because you wanted me here.”
“Enlighten me then.” The agent states, as he gets up from his seat.
“No you enlightened me, I checked some old data I stored on the ICPD servers against your conversation with Hanno, see there was a line in the later that bothered me. I’d heard it before, I just couldn’t place it, until I checked the archived footage.” I announce as I take a step forward. “You used Officer Slaughter to get others to carry out the crusade you started five months ago, while you sat here waiting for the people to turn on those jack booted fascists masquerading as there protectors.”
“So you know what I’m doing, how I did it but do you know who I am?” The agent asks.
“You are agent Julius Gold for all intense and purposes, but I know a puppet when I see one.” I add dryly as I ignite the flare. “You murdered Gold and then squatted in his corpse.” I add as I stab the flare into Gold’s chest, his body igniting with a purple flame as a river of liquid metal slithers out of his body through every available orifice it could find before forming into a humanoid shape.
“Indeed that façade is over, but I am pleased Miss Cassiopeia Williams.” The figure states, his voice grinding like two sheets of metal rubbing together. “You put me Peacekeeper, not those idiots in the Response. Tonight marks the fall of Officer Slaughter,” he snarls as his arms extend and his fist slams into me, the explosive force cracking my armour’s breastplate, “and the revenge of Nate Lime!!”
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