Trials of Kimberly: Halloween Hell (In a Cell)
by Servus Venandi
NORDIN-1 FIELD REPORT
For Internal Use
CONTRACTOR:
Kimberly A. Nordin / Nordin Galactic, LLC.
LOG DATE:
EY2421-11-01
LOG TIME:
19:22 (local)
LOCATION:
Aurora, Obseq | AUR-4 Residential District
POI:
- Malova, Deidre "Tomahawk"
- Multiple personnel of the Klorman Security Service
REMARKS:
Deidre "Tomahawk" Malova has a minor rep in Obseq's South End for pushing Pale Ambrosia, which is neither unusual nor worthy of much attention. But her true sin was taking the son of Kerlin Pelox—a Klorman bureaucrat of moderate prominence—as a client. The Pelox boy (actually closer to middle age than boyhood) wound up a blubbering addict, torched his well-paying career over a few short months, and inflicted substantial humiliation upon both his family and their wider political network.
The elder Pelox could have summoned KSS jackboots at any time. Pale Ambrosia is illegal, after all. However, the penalties for controlled substance distribution are not particularly severe on Obseq—by which I mean offenders are unlikely to be enslaved, imprisoned long-term or otherwise permanently damaged. Worse still, corruption within KSS ranks ensured that going after Deidre Malova could have been more trouble than Kerlin Pelox cared to handle (i.e. local pushers and black market slavers are unofficial business partners of the Klorman regime).
Enter Nordin Galactic.
The contract was simple in essence—get close enough to Malova to bug her burner phone (she's rumored to never keep a personal comm more than a few days), monitor for evidence of crimes beyond drug dealing, and then make sure that evidence gets broadcast far and wide. A simple weapons violation would be enough, or conspiracy and extortion if she was dumb enough to use her muscle to blatantly lean on people.
Unfortunately, it never got that far.
Look, I know Nordin Galactic is nowhere near prestigious enough to warrant hiring by Klorman Syndicate, so the fact that I was even offered this job, let alone ultimately granted the contract, raised all kinds of red flags. No doubt I was a sacrificial lamb being sent to do a dirty, dangerous deed in a manner that would leave my client—should things go horribly wrong—with zero liability.
Despite this, I took the job because 1) I knew I could do it, and 2) Nordin Galactic needs the profile boost. Also, I expected the bulk of the danger to come from Malova's thugs, not Klorman Syndicate itself. That'll teach me.
So I put boots on Klorman soil (a.k.a. asphalt) in late October, and did preliminary scouting of the mission area. It wasn't hard to get some lips flapping, and I learned that Deidre Malova would be setting up shop at a Halloween bash in the community center of Aurora's AUR-4 residential district.
This was my chance. On the night of the event, I dressed up in a primal warrior costume I'd picked up the day before. It came with face paint, a toy spear made of real wood, some decorative synthetic feathers, and a complementary plastic pumpkin basket (which I used for burying the electronic equipment I would need under a mountain of sugary goodness). I felt ridiculous buying the outfit, and even more so after putting it on, but for some reason I kept getting compliments as I rode the subway into the heart of AUR-4.
Three blocks from the A.O., I disembarked. I must have covered about half the distance before shouts of, "Stop right there!" and "Turn around slowly!" broke my stride. Thinking the demands were directed at the bikini-wearing devil who had just passed me on the sidewalk, I looked back out of curiosity. To my surprise, two Klorman enforcers were hurrying from across the street, eyes on me—beat cops, nonlethal loadouts, but notorious all the same.
I stopped and asked what was wrong.
Before I could wrap my head around the situation, Cop #1 ripped the spear and candy bucket out of my hands, while Cop #2 latched onto my arms and yanked them behind me.
"You're carrying a deadly weapon on a public street," Cop #2 said.
Metal clanked, and he pressed cold steel around my wrists. I've been handcuffed, tied, strapped, gagged and bagged many times in training, but prior to this encounter I had never been restrained forcibly, and certainly never arrested.
I told the cops I was a licensed bounty hunter on a job, and rightly insisted that the spear was a locally-purchased toy with a rounded tip. Not something you'd want to give a small child, but it wasn't a "deadly weapon" unless you used it as a club or a strangling device.
To my dismay, they didn't budge, with Cop #1 feigning skepticism and Cop #2 outright claiming I was a terrorist. I noticed they were both trying not to laugh, and it was at this point I finally understood what was happening.
Long story short, I declined to participate in a "friendly threesome" in exchange for my freedom, and informed the men I would report them if they did not release me immediately.
Result: I was marched to a patrol car, booked at the nearest police station for "terroristic threats" and "resisting arrest," and then chained up in an overnight cell with three witches, two clowns, a zombie, half a dozen comic/movie/game characters, and one rotund, very inebriated imitation of Ariana of Dourheim.
The next morning I was released on my on recognizance, and two hours later I got a message saying all charges were dropped. KSS never returned my spear, my equipment or my candy. When I tried to file a complaint about the predatory enforcers and unlawful arrest, I was told the expected wait time for a hearing was nearly two local years.
Now I have to restart the Malova job from scratch, and I'm already down nearly 10,000 syns thanks to my illegally seized surveillance hardware.
Next Halloween, I'm taking the whole damn week off.
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