By: Daiyu Tang
Sometimes you get a chance to take a ride with a particular faction or so within Hathian. Maybe the Rejects want you to see something. Maybe the HPD want you to go raiding with them; perhaps you’re (unlucky) enough to get caught into one of Caisen’s plots, or Yuugen’s games. This is Hathian, we’re all dragged around by each other in different ways and the only thing that makes me different is I have a camera to record it and a newspaper to publish it in. Otherwise, we’re all parts in the tapestry of Hathian’s horrors and hopes.
Anyway, this, thankfully, was one of the less ‘immediately’ dangerous ones. In other words, I was asked whether I would participate and felt, I could have refused. Yes my dears, I was going to ride-along with the Hathian Police Department (‘HPD’) and see something go down. What was it going to be? They wouldn’t say – operational security. But since I’ve been in their helicopter and survived, I figured I’d manage a ground level piece of work.
So kitted out, including what in the ranking of ‘body armour’ probably had the word Temu in front of it (thanks Stanley) I was ready to go film, photo and otherwise see what it was the HPD were up to.
And dear reader, yes. I did think that by doing so perhaps I’d be a balancing weight; not only would any criminal actions be recorded, but also I could keep an eye on the cops and see if I thought they did this stuff right. You know, like proper arrests? Like proper cops?
The Briefing
HPD took our phones before they took anything else. It was one liberty that I was inclined to give them Inspector Krystal O’Neil stood at the front of the briefing room with a plastic box tucked under her arm and a tone that suggested she had grown tired of being surprised by the obvious fact that sometimes officers leaked and no, this wasn’t a reference to the Slime Cop, it was the fact that criminals sometimes managed to hear about raids before they happened. So before Krystal disclosed the who she made sure every officer surrendered their personal devices.
“First things first, I’m going to need your personal cellphones, all of them. Company policy. That means you, too, Tang.”
Krystal
The operation, once she had made sure the room was secure was warrant service. The target was a warehouse belonging to the Vipers, one of the gangs in Hathian that I’ve written less about. It’s not because I don’t know they exist, or some of their members. It’s more they don’t go in for ‘kidnap murder games’ aka the Yuugen, or the Ten No Tage. They’re also not out there doing weird shit like the Hoppers. It’s more, how I imagine it anyway, sophisticated criminals doing a mix of legitimate and criminal things. You’ll see later that they can afford expensive lawyers, so yeah… I think I am on the right track! Anyway, as most in Hathian know their leader is Annika ‘Nika’ Jacmenkovichya and it was clear that the HPD had some form of eyes on her operations.
O’Neil said a lookout had confirmed a large semi-truck had arrived around fifteen minutes earlier and that it would likely have made the Vipers appear to unload. She instructed that two teams would approach: one at the front near the semi and loading gate and the other flanking from a rear alley.
Questions from officers came, inevitably, about weapons and escalation. I guess, to someone untrained like me, the discussion on ‘rules of engagement’ was needed as otherwise it would be a mess. Krystal permitted Lethal force if needed. Shotguns and assault rifles were permitted, with a specific instruction that at least one shotgun be present for breaching doors. But there was more, and it was a little more technologically capable than I imagined the HPD had… O’Neil revealed a briefcase-sized signal jammer intended to black out mobile phone reception across the block. No smoke signals from the Vipers. No backup texts. No warning calls. The warehouse would, for a short period, become a sealed environment; for the HPD to work in. I, as I said, felt a little bit of responsibility to record it to make sure it was work and not ‘play’.
I listened and took notes and then took a few pictures; though since I was without my mobile phone, ‘selfies’ were quite hard with the DLSR. I came with curiosity and a reporter’s instinct to witness rather than repeat rumours, but I also came with a familiar unease: not fear of the Vipers, who have not historically treated me as prey, but fear of what HPD can become when the city gives them permission to be rough and no one is watching closely enough to stop them, so this time, at least, the press was watching and I felt good about that.
Let’s Go Boys & Girls
Two Suburbans moved through noon traffic with practiced distance between them. I of course managed to get my camera out of a gun port, sometime I’d never seen before, but hell, I was ‘shooting’ out of it right?
We pulled in behind the semi as if we belonged there. O’Neil killed the engine, opened the jammer, and switched it on probably thinking that it wasn’t going to work, but it did look kinda Minority Report surreal from the backseat. No explosions. No Technicians. Just a briefcase… messing up the Viper’s reinforcement plans.
Officers moved along the semi for cover. The loading bay was active: pallets, forklifts, legitimate supplies being shifted into place. The kind of scene that allows crime to hide in plain sight, because commerce always gives people something to pretend is normal. Although, I will say (and you will see soon) that I’ve not yet come across many dock workers who look like they can rival Isabis for ‘Top Model’ or ‘AV Star’…
I stayed close enough to O’Neil to be where I was told, and just far enough back to avoid becoming an obstacle. Camera up, breathing controlled, trying to keep the instinct to flinch from upsetting the footage. Whatever else a journalist is, she is still a body, and bodies behave badly around sudden gunfire. I also behave badly around fire and my girlfriend… Yum. Ahem.
Arrested Development – Team 1
I had heard cops before of course. I had witnessed things. I had seen firefights. I had even been grazed by Camden Fabers shooting at me. But still, that report of a gunshot, it’s one that when you hear, unless you’re traiend you flinch and in this raid the first command came with a shotgun’s punctuation.
“HPD! GET ON THE GROUND!”
Detective ‘de Vaucluse fired a blast that did not appear to strike a person but struck the space around them; debris and sound used to seize the moment. Officer Hrawi followed with orders that were almost unnervingly polite for Hathian: ‘hands up, lower yourself, comply’. It was a procedural voice paired with a rifle, I guess the idea was for Nika’s crew to see the rifle and be like ‘well shit, better surrender AND they’re being polite’… But no…
Annika drew a pistol, one of those nasty looking ones that are probably automatic. Murphy, in a move that screamed Hathian all over it (because while funny the consequences might lead to lethality), seized a folding chair as if it could substitute for armor or that she was auditioning for a WWE match. They retreated deeper into the warehouse, attempting to turn distance into safety and perhaps leverage.
O’Neil shouted a warning and fired toward Annika’s legs. Whether it struck brick, air, or intention, it served its purpose, a line was drawn and once the back team breached from the rear the HPD had succeeded in collapsing the warehouse into a contained space.
Arrested Development – Team 2
While I was not embedded with team two, I was lucky enough to get some of their footage from their perspective as they arrested those present and breached. What a surprise to see Athletics Director Nara from CU being arrested. I’m not entirely sure how being arrested stacks up with ‘Olympic Dreams’, but I can say from experience that having an HPD Criminal record is not the best for career prospects outside of Hathian… One wonders if Director Nara might have been related to some of the things found in the warehouse, but it seemed (as I have seen her around CU) that the University has taken no notice. Hmm.
The Arrest
Annika’s posture changed when she realized the exit behind her was no longer hers and that whomever she had stationed there had gone down. The actual violence was brief. It was also, to my surprise, contained (I mean shit, it was actually a professional HPD operation!). There were gunshots, shouted commands and moments where an officer’s trigger discipline mattered more than any speech about ‘law and order.’ But there was no prolonged beating, no cruelty performed for the pleasure of it. That may sound like an absurd compliment to pay a police force. It is simply the truth of what I witnessed and maybe had something to do with the lack of Carter or similar in the ranks. Krystal can, at least when the cameras are rolling mount a proper police operation. Sadly, what happens at the HPD’s jail is not witnessed and it’s here where things may well collapse…
Once surrounded, the Vipers did what most cornered people do. They surrendered. Annika dropped the magazine from her pistol, then dropped the weapon itself. She did however refuse to lie face down, “I will not go on the floor face down,” she insisted – and instead knelt, fingers laced behind her head in a posture that preserved as much dignity as surrender allows. She accused O’Neil of making “a very large error,” and promised consequences in the way Hathian suspects always do, as if the future is a weapon they can still reach. Well, they can. In like 24 – 72 hours usually. Sigh. SIGH.
Murphy complied shortly after, injured but standing and outside, Another suspect was cuffed while bleeding heavily enough to require a tourniquet and an ambulance call, HGH hopefully available… Director Nara was subdued without blood. A quiet ending yes?
Officers recovered multiple items from the suspects and from crates stored on-site. Annika’s person search produced Glocks, sedatives, and throwing knives concealed in the top edge of her boot. Crates within the warehouse contained items consistent with the police allegation that the Vipers were moving contraband. Guns. Drugs, oh and a room that looked like it had had someone murdered in it was found. Lovely.
Before Publication
A few days later, a representative from the law firm Locke, Veyra & Black requested a meeting with me before publication. He spoke pleasantly about freedom of the press, assured me he was not there to prevent me doing my job, and then began doing exactly what lawyers are trained to do: framing the narrative while pretending not to touch it. He said he represented Nika, the Berthier Street Bakery, and several employees. He asked what tone I intended to take. I mean I take all sorts of tones. But with a handsome guy and politeness, I can take a measured one.
From the angle I witnessed, HPD conducted a coordinated operation with limited injuries and without overt brutality in front of the press. That is a low bar, but it is still worth stating when this city is so accustomed to uglier outcomes. I also told him I would not write the Vipers as sainted victims. A warehouse does not fill itself with crates, guns and sedatives by accident. And blood. Don’t forget the blood.
He made further claims about how his clients had been treated in custody. This I can believe and may well give those involved a way out; sadly if O’Neil can’t control her jail cells, then even a well controlled operation may be for nought.
I considered his requests and his actual legal basis and made a few small changes. Not everyone is guilty before proven guilty and in Hathian, that means a few people who I don’t know get their names removed. I’d also like to point out that I live the way I live. If I lived better then I would surely find myself worse again sooner than later.
