Desert Deals
By: Shutterfly Simmons
Detective Sokka cleared his throat awkwardly to gather the attention of his fellow officers. Every time he assembled his team for this, he remembered how much he hated police briefings. Four years on the force, and he still hadn't gotten public speaking down. Luckily, by now he was pretty well-liked and respected. And, the higher ups didn't seem to mind if he stuttered as long as he got results. Besides, as long as weaknesses went, it wasn't so bad, considering his line of work. The voices around the room died down to a few hushed whispers before silencing completely.
"We've recently received some new intel on the Ozai case. As you know, our prime suspect is Ozai. Well, of course it is, or we wouldn't call it the Ozai case, right?" He was met with dead silence. He hoped it was because they were excited about new leads, not an insulting reaction to his flimsy joke. The department had been after Ozai for almost a year. "We recently suspected that Ozai drugged his competitors during private meets with them, in order to get them out of his way. The victims resign from their position soon after, and lie low. Few are ever heard from again. Those we find refuse to tell us anything. A few days ago, we received a glass of wine that the Earth kingdom merchant Ozai supposedly met with drank from from an anonymous source. We only found a little bit left in the bottle. Luckily, our best analyst, Katara, was able to detect the drug. The wine had traces of cactus juice in it. We're assuming that Ozai uses it as way to throw his target off their game. Not enough for them to raise any alarms, but enough to get them to do or say things that they normally wouldn't." He paused their, realizing that he was probably rambling. It was a bit late, since he didn't have anything else to say. "That will be all. Dismissed."
He walked back to his desk where his junior detective, Toph, was waiting for him.
"'Anonymous source,' huh? I didn't know we had one of those," she remarked.
"Well, I couldn't tell them that it was Ozai's son, Zuko. They'd be a bit suspicious. This way they'll listen," Sokka said, a bit defensively. He and Toph had managed to flip on Ozai about a week ago, after they'd found him escaping a crime scene. After some discreet questioning (more like a lot of yelling with Toph and Zuko constantly threatening to throw rocks and flames at each other), they had come to realize that Zuko seemed to operate more on blind faith of his family. Once they got him to face the facts, he agreed to to leak information to them. They had soon learned that Zuko was pretty jumpy. He took his paranoia to a whole new level. Sokka couldn't really blame, considering the circumstances and his family.
"On a completely unrelated note," Toph started, "I've just received word that a 'giant fireball' exploded near the Misty Palms Oasis. Guess he's got information for us." Sokka sighed. Subtlety wasn't exactly Zuko's strong suit, but he wished that his informant didn't have to resort to disrupting the peace in order to alert him.
"Misty Palms Oasis is hardly peaceful," Toph snorted. He realized he must have said that last bit out loud.
"True," he admitted, "but you'd think someone as mistrustful as him would be a little less obvious." Toph just shrugged.
"He seemed pretty high strung to me. Maybe tossing around some fire is his way of dealing with stress or something," she reasoned. "Fire benders are crazy." Sokka definitely agreed with that. At least in this case.
"Let's go see what he wants," he said with a slight groan. He followed Toph outside. Despite their agreement, he doubted that Ozai's son trusted him very much. Zuko probably wouldn't contact him unless he had something big.
Sokka pushed open the old door of the bar and took a moment to mentally prepare himself for the smell. The intermingling stench of alcohol, vomit, and rotting fruit made his nose wrinkle involuntarily. He was sure that every time he inhaled the air here, a part of his sense of smell died. The first time Sokka had entered the oasis, he hadn't been able to shake his nausea for the rest of the day. It was a little less awful as time went by. Sokka hoped that meant he was developing immunity to the noxious fumes, something Toph and Zuko seemed to be born with.
"Where is he?" he asked Toph, keeping his voice low. She tilted her head towards the corner of the room. A lone figure sat at the table she had pointed to. As he and Toph got closer, he noticed the scarlet hood with gold trim covering his face. Zuko. It had been shrouded in darkness from a distance. He dusted off a chair and pulled it over to Zuko's table. Toph earthbent the dirt of hers and sat next to him. She kept her bare feet firmly planted on the ground. It wasn't that they didn't trust Zuko-, no, that was exactly it. They couldn't trust him completely. It was safer to have a lie detector on hand, just in case.
"My father has found a new mark," Zuko whispered immediately. The man didn't even bother to acknowledge their presence. He was always straight to the point, not wasting any time with idle chatter. He pulled out a scroll and slid it over to Sokka. Sokka unrolled it and briefly skimmed through its contents before looking up.
"Cabbages?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's an unusual target. This man isn't even that wealthy. What does your father want with him?" Zuko shushed him and looked around to make sure no one around them had heard.
"I don't know exactly. I think he's keeping a low profile and taking down smaller guys."
"When's the meet?" Toph asked.
"They're gathering for tea at the tea shop near the edge of the Si Wong desert," he answered. Zuko snorted. "My family always did have a strange love of hot leaf juice." That was interesting. If he had to pick, he wouldn't have guessed tea. He would have said some sort of spirit, like most other wealthy families.
"I would've guessed it to be cactus juice," Toph mused, "considering your dad spikes people's drinks with it." Sokka was about to berate her for telling Zuko sensitive case information. Before he could, he noticed that Zuko didn't seem surprised or shocked, like she should've been. Instead, he seemed almost amused.
"I see you figured it out, then," he said.
"You knew before? Why didn't you just tell us?" Sokka demanded.
"You can't base all your evidence off of 'anonymous tips,'" Zuko said defensively. "You needed to run it through the department. My father has many resources. He's got all the right friends in all the right places. When you catch him, the case is going to be under a lot of scrutiny. You can't risk my father getting out on technicalities. The meeting is tomorrow at three." With that, Zuko got up and quietly left the bar. He and Toph remained seated. He waited a few more minutes before asking about what she got from his vibrations.
"As usual, he was harder to read because he was so jumpy," she reported. "But, he seemed to be telling the truth, she answered. Sokka absentmindedly tapped his fingers against the edge of the table.
"I don't know. Something about this feels wrong. Ozai doesn't usually go for the smaller targets. He considers them a waste of his time. Why would he agree to meet with one?"
"Zuko did say that he might be lying low," she said, not thinking much of it. Sokka shook his head. That was what had fueled his suspicions most.
"From what we know about Ozai, he's got an ego bigger than the entire Si Wong. Even though the department has been after him for months, he still runs his company through messengers and spirits knows what else. He even used to attend meetings personally. He doesn't seem like one to be hypocritical enough meet with a small cabbage merchant from the earth kingdom."
"You think he's planning something?" Toph asked. Sokka shrugged.
"Maybe," he said. "I just think that there's more going on here than we think."
"Well, we all know better than to doubt Sokka's instinct. I'll let the others know before heading home."
"Thanks, Toph. I'll see you tomorrow," he said, getting up and dusting off his pants.
Sokka gripped his boomerang more tightly. He had tossed and turned all night, unable to shake the feeling that he was missing something. His instincts were screaming that something wasn't right. He signaled Toph to bust down the door of the tea shop. She happily obliged. Kicking down door was one of her favorite parts of a big bust. He recoiled at the smell of blood and smoke. In the middle of the room, to people lay dead. A man with a green turban was lying face down on the floor, smoke rising from his body. A man in red with a goatee was sprawled on his chair, blood dripping onto the floor. Toph shook her head.
"They're both dead. Ozai must have shot him with lightning. I guess Cabbage Guy, here had more stuff than Ozai expected and stabbed him. We need to call it in." Sokka nodded. Even after all these years, there was still something uncomfortable about being near a dead body.
"But, why would he kill him?" Sokka asked. "That's not Ozai's MO."
"It is," said a raspy voice. Sokka jumped and turned to see Zuko behind him. "You just don't find the bodies, usually."
"What do you mean?" Sokka yelled. Zuko didn't say anything. He just turned around and left. Sokka burst through the door and tried to chase him, but Zuko had disappeared.
There was a certain satisfaction Sokka felt whenever he successfully closed a case. He didn't feel it, now. Ozai was dead. He had probably killed many other, but now they would never know. Those families would never know either. This wasn't a win at all.
"How's the paperwork coming along?" Toph asked, interrupting his thoughts.
"Terribly," he groaned. "You're lucky you got out of it."
"Yeah, well they don't usually let the blind people write reports."
"We won, today, Zuzu," Azula said. She was smiling that fake smile. The one that meant danger. "Although, I admit, you're the last person I would expect to mislead someone. Let alone the police. I'm impressed." Zuko didn't have time for this.
"Just give me the location." Azula pulled out a small slip of paper.
"I'll never understand why you want to find our mother so badly." Her voice turned sharp, "She left us." Zuko snatched the paper out of her hands.
"No, she didn't. Are you sure you're not coming with me?"
"Why would I do that?" she asked haughtily. "Enjoy your search. I have father's company all to myself, now. I won't screw up the way dad did and get caught." Zuko turned around and walked away. "Zuko." He stopped but didn't turn around.
"If I ever see you again, the Si Wong Police Department is going to receive a very interesting anonymous tip." If Zuko had been facing her, he would have seen the fake smile on her face. The one that meant danger.
Word Count: 2,000 exactly
Genre: Crime
Prompts:
Location (Si Wong Desert)
Smell (Blood)
Dialogue ("You're the last one I would've expected")