Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded - Book 2 Need for Speed (9)

「Miss August?! What is wrong with me?! I’m the worst!」

Said Tony half crying as they were driving back.

「I can’t stand this. This work is definitely not for me. “Getting hard?”, “Amazing tits?”, “Fucking hot?!”, I almost feel like vomiting after speaking so disgustingly. I feel almost as if I had dived into a pool of filthy water. Shouldn’t making love be all about the connection between two people? The heart-to-heart connection is the most important part!」 「Well… you may feel like vomiting all you want, but to be honest as a performance, it was pretty much flawless. Unfortunately for you.」

Said Godunov from the driver’s seat

「Hey, Alex. Do you think that maybe we could switch next time? I think that would definitely be much better.」 「That’s nonsense. You’re much better at coming up with good answers, and you’ve studied this stuff as well. I think the best role for a guy like me is just staying in the back and playing along. We talked about this when we were first paired up, right?」 「Well, that’s true, but…」

Within the current setting, Tony was playing the role of the negotiator, and Godunov was simply playing his partner. Ultimately, the impact would be much softer if it was Godunov who did all the talking and stood out, while Tony kept quiet in the shadows behind him.

「Ah, I hate this. I ended up using up all of my mental strength and now I just want to eat something sweet. Want to go to the donut place or something?」 「Alright alright. Your wish is my command.」

~o~O~o~

The night Tony met up with Gyarben from the gang, Matoba went back to his house in the warehouse district by himself.

Tilarna had told him that she “would be staying over at Cecil’s tonight”. It’s not like it made much of a difference to him anyways. He simply said “Oh okay”, and didn’t ask any further questions. He wondered if maybe it would be better to call Cecil and make sure she wasn’t bothering her, but decided against it in the end. She probably wanted Tilarna to stay over as well, so all was well. He would just go home quietly without anything noteworthy happening.

The city buses weren’t running anymore, so he had a coworker give him a ride instead. The car stopped in front of his house, he got off and entered the first floor from the garage.

The house felt strangely spacious without the Mini Cooper S and Tilarna.

The room that Tilarna had been creating for herself inside the garage was still there just as she had left it. Materials and tools were still lying there, all over the place. But the quality of the work she was doing was actually pretty good. Even though as far as he remembered she was meant to be the daughter of some Farbanian noble family or something, this kind of craftsmanship was pretty unexpected.

As he got to the second floor, Kuroi came out to greet him like always. He patted her soft furry back, and she meowed while looking up at him. Her round, amber eyes were almost asking him “where’s Tilarna?”

「She said she would be staying somewhere else tonight.」

Kuroi started purring. She didn’t seem particularly sad or lonely. It was more of an accepting purr. Well, that was fine. She wasn’t a particularly smart creature to begin with.

「That’s such a shame. She seemed to be quite fond of you, you know?」

Some of her belongings were still lying there in the living room. He was thinking about how he would have to pack them all up and send them to her eventually.

~o~O~o~

「I could’ve caught him right then and there.」

Said Tony to the group of detectives in the briefing room

「But I thought that the entire mess of arresting a criminal might end up stinking O’Neill up, right? Besides, apparently there are other people collaborating with Gyarben, so I was thinking of getting them all at once. In any case, I simply arranged some stuff with him, and let him be on his way.」

Other than Tony, there were also Matoba and Tilarna, Zimmer and Godunos, and two other Vice detectives, raising the total to six other people.

「”Stinking someone up” was an euphemism used in O’Neill’s underground society to talk about someone’s trust being hurt gravely. If an official was able to catch a criminal right after being introduced to him by O’Neill, that would put him on a tight spot, and he would not be able to work as an informant for them anymore.」 「So when will the trade happen?」

Asked Matoba as he skimmed over some documents. He was wearing a black shirt and an orange necktie. It was a Versace full body attire. Tony’s “70 points” had been the highest any of his attires had gotten in recent memory.

「Tomorrow at 6am. We’re scheduled to bring both the money and the goods to Sheffield’s abandoned factory.」 「So we’re going to catch him there, right? How much backup do you think you’re going to need? How many members does the gang have?」 「Gyarben told me that they were three people including him.」 「I wonder… We tried talking to the injured warehouse worker, but it feels like there were more than just three people there. Managing to carry almost ten thousand magazines in the span of five minutes from the activation of the security alarm until the security guard came seems like too much work. There was a forklift operator, someone receiving stuff on the truck and someone taking things out of the warehouse. At least those people are confirmed. And there probably was a driver and someone keeping watch. Though it’s true that security cameras only caught three people, but still…」 「To be fair, they didn’t look like particularly tough guys. I think it should be fine.」

Tony didn’t look keen on requesting backup from local officers. There was a general negative perception of “borrowing” officers from other departments or zones, and mixing in unknown faces in a mission wasn’t always the best idea. He was thinking that maybe they could simply have the four available people at Vice at the moment as backup and make do with that.

「No way. We will have the fourth division help us with three patrol cars.」

Said Zimmer who had been quiet and listening to their conversation the entire time

「We’ll have at least six of their officers and Matoba and Exedilika from Vice. We can also get Malcolm and Dyson, and that would make us 11 people in total counting me.」 「What about us? I don’t think you counted us.」 「You will be in charge of the arrest, as Tony McCloud and Alex Ivanov.」 「I see. Understood.」

Tony and Godunov shrugged

The duo of “McCloud and Ivanov” would have to keep going on undercover missions afterwards, so the best way to protect their personas was to have them get caught along with the real criminals. They wouldn’t let them meet with the criminals again, and then supposedly let them free after not being able to find sufficient evidence to charge them with any crimes, thus making them viable for future missions.

It’s a great strategy especially when there is no certainty on whether they’ll be able to imprison the criminal for a relatively long time.

「What about the notice to the fourth division?」

Said Matoba

「I’ll send it myself. We’ll gather in Sheffield at 5am tomorrow morning and get everything ready. Any questions?」

Nobody raised their hands

「Alright. In that case, that is all.」

All of them gathered their cellphones or documents, stood up and left the meeting room while chatting with each other.

「Matoba. Stay here.」

Zimmer called out to him.

~o~

「What’s up?」 「How is Exedilika doing?」

Asked Zimmer after Tilarna had left along with the other detectives.

「Tilarna, huh? There’s nothing wrong with her as far as I know. She usually sits down and listens to meetings like this quietly. Especially because she still has a lot of stuff to remember. But I’m sure she’ll manage somehow.」 「I see.」 「Is there anything wrong?」 「No. It’s just that I had never worked with a Semanian before. My superiors are also somewhat uneasy about her, so I was just checking.」 「I know, right? She never received any training as an officer, and she has absolutely no experience patrolling either.」 「Well, that’s true.」

Zimmer had a sour look on his face.

Though in reality there were absolutely no legal issues with having Tilarna work as an officer despite never having formally studied for it. Since San Teresa City was a special and autonomous region, it had a police system specifically designed so officers from many different countries and regions would be able to be hired with ease. In fact, most of San Teresa’s officers aged over thirty used to work in other cities but were eventually transferred or hired there.

In this case, the meaning of “Officers from other countries” had a very specific meaning.

There were many Farbanian and Semani citizens mixed in with the population of San Teresa City. Ever since Mirage Gate first appeared, the governments of several countries from both Earth and Semani signed the “Kariena Treaty”, a basic treaty of mutual understanding and unification of a basic legal framework. Thanks to that a lot of different agreements were made between countries from both sides. Within that treaty, a specific clause mentioned how officers from the Semani world had to be treated with the same respect and position as officers from Earth.

Strictly speaking there was nothing similar to a “Police force” in most Semani countries, which were still mostly feudal societies. The closest figures were knight orders and the military. Tilarna was a Farbanian Valsch, a rank equivalent to Matoba’s sergeant. This was an extremely unfair assessment according to many Police Sergeants that had to work diligently for years to get to that same position, but that was still the current situation.

That’s also the reason Tilarna was suddenly transferred to Earth, despite still being completely clueless on many aspects of Earth’s society and culture. It was just a legal loophole in Matoba’s eyes, but that was precisely why it couldn’t be helped.

If anything, the real problem was why the HQ superiors were still adamant on keeping a Semanian officer hired with no apparent reason. It was true that Tilarna had threatened them after the incident with the late boss Roth, but there was no way that was the only reason for it.

Even Zimmer, who was hired a little later after Roth’s incident, had been talking with his superiors about it and probably found it strange himself as well.

「I know. It seems like there’s a lot going on in her own country as well. And I’m sure that there would be plenty of people who would love to see Tilarna fail, and plenty of people who would love to see her succeed.」 「Even on our side. For instance, I heard that the head of the crime prevention department has been having dinner with the consul recently. And I’m sure other people have their own particular circumstances as well.」 「So it’s a time bomb?」 「It is a time bomb. Which is exactly why I want you to look out for her. And to do it thoroughly.」 「For fucks sake… this is why I hate politicians…」 「Stop complaining. If anything, I think it will be something worth remembering in the future.」

Matoba found that response relatively out of character coming from Zimmer. So far he had only seen him as a good for nothing old man, but now he almost felt respect for him. And Matoba could definitely see a common ground they could eventually share.