AUTHOR'S NOTE:

THIS STORY WAS BASED ON THE HARDCOVER VERSION OF POLICE DUTY. THIS IS NOT THE ACTUAL STORY, BUT AN ALTERED VERSION.

PROLOGUE

Two years ago…

"Shoot!" one of the police officers under ASP Zhou Jinmeng's command yelled. "We lost him!"

The ASP and his officers had been chasing the hammer attack suspect-the person suspected to be behind all of the outrageous attacks on innocent civilians on the streets. They had received a tip-off from one of the neighbourhood police centres and had acted swiftly.

Unfortunately, the suspect knew that they were onto him. When the officers busted into his rented flat, he was already nowhere in sight. The officers proceeded to comb the area and spotted him at a nearby bus stop. The chase led them to a small alley near Food Street and the suspect tried to lose them by there.

Yet they had stayed on in the wild goose chase.

The ASP surveyed his surroundings with intensity. "Thomas, Ming, Joshua and Moses," he addressed, "you all go to the left side. Jingxuan and I will go to the right side. Understand?"

"Yes Sir!" the officers chorused back. Then the two groups set off.

As ASP Zhou rounded a bend, he could feel himself having a tighter grip of his holster, which contained a Taurus Revolver, and if you asked ASP Zhou himself, he had thought that it was three-quarters of the power that an AK-47 rifle could achieve.

The suspect that they were chasing had been classified as a "danger to society" by the local intelligence agency. It should have been the suspect being caught off-guard and at his flat, because, if he wanted to escape, the officers would still manage to catch him and bring him back to the police station for questioning.

As he felt his hand grip tighter on the holster, he surveyed the area. No one was in sight. Then suddenly he started to panic again. What about Grandma? Is she…all right? He thought.

But then, that was what police officers endured while discharging their duties. Not having peace of mind where one of your loved ones was left alone at home.

Suddenly, Jingxuan gave a shout for help. ASP Zhou turned around and took out his gun. Right behind Jingxuan was the suspect, armed with a pair of hammers as usual. Jingxuan's gun and walkie-talkie were gone. It had most likely been taken away by the suspect during their struggle.

"One more step and she gets it," the suspect growled ferociously at ASP Zhou, swinging his hammers to reiterate the point.

"I get it…" ASP Zhou held up his hands as if to surrender. "But on second thought I don't think so." ASP Zhou gave a snarl both Jingxuan and ASP Zhou himself had never heard before. ASP Zhou lunged at the suspect. Jingxuan managed to get out just in the nick of time but not the suspect.

The suspect blocked ASP Zhou's attempt with his pair of hammers. ASP Zhou's revolver clanged together with the hammers. Metal met metal. Then the suspect thrust his hand out and sent ASP Zhou flying to the other side, landing on the floor with a big "CRACK".

"No." ASP Zhou croaked as he watched the suspect readying for the brutal blow with his hammers. He wanted to roll over and that the blow would fail but he could not do so. There was a throbbing pain in his back. As unconsciousness started to seize him, he heard a battle cry and thought he saw Jingxuan hitting the hammer attacker.

"Girl power," ASP Zhou grinned, despite his unstable condition. The suspect crumbled to the ground and Jingxuan swiftly made a break for ASP Zhou's revolver before reloading it as a sign of danger to the suspect.

"Do not move," Jingxuan said in a cold voice. Suddenly, the suspect tripped Jingxuan. The tides changed for the worse. Jingxuan fell to the ground and the suspect swiftly hit her with the pair of hammers.

Jingxuan's nose started to have blood seeping out. The hand holding ASP Zhou's Taurus Revolver fell to the ground, motionless. ASP Zhou silently cried. Jingxuan was no more. She was dead.

Feeling guilty and outraged, ASP Zhou crawled towards the revolver. As the suspect was still enjoying the moments of killing a female police officer, that made ASP Zhou even more determined and resolved to kill him. With one swift motion, he grabbed the gun and reloaded it.

CHAPTER 1

"Good morning, Sir!" ASP Zhou turned around. His colleague, Corporal Joshua Robins, was walking towards him. "Still going for coffee?"

"Nescafe's good. Can't miss it…" DSP Zhou sipped a cup of the freshly brewed Nescafe 3-in-1 coffee.

Joshua chuckled and continued walking, leaving DSP Zhou behind. Corporal Joshua and Thomas Anderson were the last of his team to leave, unlike Ming and Moses, who had left, due to personal life matters. DSP Zhou understood. At the age of 20, people just wanted to stop being police officers risking their lives every single day and just return to their full-time jobs as civilians.

Surprisingly, a few days after Jingxuan's death, ASP Zhou had received a letter, which said that he had been promoted to Deputy Superintendent. ASP Zhou was overjoyed. He had gotten his last promotion from Senior Staff Sergeant a few years ago. But he was also not in the mood to celebrate.

Jingxuan's death made everyone sad. They had spent such a long time debating about whether or not a female member should join the team. Now that the female member had died, no one was really in the mood to celebrate. But still, that was six years ago.

But memories of that day still haunted him. Until now, the suspect was still at large. The police, as a matter of fact, had still not caught him until now. Plus, the case had gone cold already, without any new evidence to support the case.

DSP Zhou pushed open the doors to his well-maintained and ventilated private office. He sat down on his swivel chair and took another sip of his coffee again. "This is really good," DSP Zhou muttered. "I've got to take some more."

Suddenly, Thomas knocked on the door. "Come in," DSP Zhou said. "We've got a new case of robbery, sir." Thomas replied.

"What's the situation?" DSP Zhou asked to the officer-in-charge of the crime scene. "We got a call saying that a man had stolen a victim's wallet. Here he is." Sergeant Tim Roberts pointed out the suspect, who was currently engaging in a struggle with the two strong police constables who were locking him to the ground.

"So what happened?" DSP Zhou went over to the victim with a paper and pen.

"I was walking around here for a stroll. I didn't notice my open handbag. I was too careless so hence, I didn't zip it up. Then the suspect came over and started to look into my handbag without me noticing. Then after that he pretended to bump into me and grabbed the wallet.

"Luckily, this time, I noticed him, so I gave chase. Luckily, a former police officer was in the vicinity, so he helped me to stop the suspect before you came here."

DSP Zhou nodded, jotting down what the woman had said. The suspect was escorted into another police car that had arrived and zoomed off to the police station for questioning.

After a few minutes of looking around at the crime scene, DSP Zhou thanked the sergeant and left the crime scene. Although he wasn't in charge of this case, he went to the scene because he was bored. The Commissioner of Police hadn't given him any fresh cases after the hammer attacks.

After going back into the office, he made sure no one was looking before booting up his computer. He accessed the police database and searched for the name of the suspect that he had interrogated six years ago before he took another sip of coffee.

Why hadn't he searched for the suspect six years ago? Six years ago, after catching the suspect a few days after Jingxuan's death, the suspect was let go on grounds of insufficient evidence. DSP Zhou, at that time, was furious about the decision but knew that someone was innocent unless you had the evidence to accuse that said person successfully.

DSP Zhou didn't have any evidence.

After that, he was in a very bad mood, so he took up meditating. After a month, he quit. Then he went into remorse mode. He locked himself up. No one was allowed to enter his room. After another year, he decided that he should let go of what happened six years ago and start afresh.

He went back to the Neighbourhood Police Centre after calling for one year of retirement from the Commissioner, an unusual thing, since this was not allowed in protocol, but the Commissioner allowed it anyway, since DSP Zhou and him were very good friends.

He zeroed in on the first result that he got and clicked on it.

It read:

Lee Kim Soon

Status: Currently unemployed, first time offender

Crime: Convicted of having possession of offensive weapons, robbing a bank and attacking people randomly in 2003. Initially had a jail term of 5 years but was initially reduced to 3 for good behaviour. He was arrested again, this time accused of killing people randomly on the streets, and also claiming one female police officer's life. He was let go after there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

"Thomas," he called on his phone. "Who was Lee Kim Soon's lawyer two years ago?"

"Tan Ming Loon from Rajit and Lynn's Law Firm," Joshua replied. Then he asked curiously, "Why?"

"Don't be such a busybody," DSP Zhou snapped. With that, he packed up his things and got ready to set off.

Knowing that Tan would reject his offer to see Lee's personal particulars, DSP Zhou managed to get into Tan's office when the whole law firm was out for lunch.

He booted up the computer inside the office and inserted a thumbdrive hastily into the USB cable socket. He saw a file in the desktop titled "Lee Kim Soon" and clicked on it.

His heart began to beat faster as he scrolled through the information in the computer document. Suddenly, he heard the click of a gun. "I wouldn't want you to stand up." A voice growled.

DSP Zhou took out his revolver in defense and in a swift motion, turned around and aimed his revolver back at the direction of the voice. It was Lee's lawyer.

"I knew you wanted to pursue the case. After all, one of your female colleagues died in action." The lawyer smiled. "So I set a trap for you and basically created a document with the tile of the suspect that you are investigating to arouse your attention. You are basically downloading a document full of garbled nonsense."

DSP Zhou turned around cautiously to face the computer once again, but with his revolver still clutched tightly in his hand, facing Tan. At first sight, he thought the lawyer was kidding, but at closer inspection, he was really downloading nonsense!

He then realized how stupid he was. Flames rushed to his cheeks and he blushed. If the police force knew about this, he was surely going to be demoted- and become a laughing stock forever. No more salutes for him. No more private office. He would become the world's greatest loser.

With a swift motion, he turned back around, reloaded the gun and said, "I thought lawyers are supposed to protect their clients and work with the police? Why are you collaborating with the client to cheat the police?"

The lawyer ignored his words and whistled sharply. A few other lawyers came in, armed with ammunition slings and rifles. Then DSP Zhou noticed Tan Ming Loon among one of them. So he wasn't talking to Tan all this while. He looked again at the face of the lawyer that he was talking to. What kind of police officer was he!

"As you can see," the lawyer grinned once more, but in an evil way, "we are operating as a law firm, but that is our cover. We are actually a triad."

CHAPTER 2

"Hey, brother," Joshua said. "Did you see DSP Zhou? He's been missing for the past few hours. Not even at the coffee machine," Joshua sighed.

Thomas, who was replying to a message on his phone, looked up from his phone with a gasp. "What? He still hasn't come back yet?" After saying that, Thomas straightaway gave a speed dial to DSP Zhou. The dialing made him even more frustrated and nervous. After the last dial, Thomas gave up.

"Something's happened to him," Thomas thought fearfully. "Just now, DSP Zhou called me to ask who Lee's lawyer was. When I asked him why, he just said that I shouldn't be a busybody," Joshua said, silently praying that it wasn't related to his disappearance.

"That means he must have gone to the law firm to search!" Thomas did a little happy dance but then stopped. "Let's go!" he yelled.

Joshua and Thomas raced down to their superior's office, and told him that they were borrowing a police car for the search for DSP Zhou. They also told him not to raise the alarm yet, as it might just be him queuing up at a coffee stall for too long.

After starting up the police car, they raced towards the location of Rajit and Lynn's Law Firm.

When they reached the law firm, they saw a sign that was hanged on the door. It said: "Be back at 2.30pm, law firm out for lunch". Joshua was outraged. "That's impossible," Joshua remarked.

"Calm down," Thomas advised in his cool voice. He looked around. Suddenly, he caught sight of an unconscious DSP Zhou being lifted into the boot of one of the lawyers' cars! There were two lawyers stationed around the car, and one of them suddenly decided to go for a patrol. Great timing, Thomas thought sarcastically.

"Hostile, in your 12 o'clock," Thomas muttered.

Joshua dived and the lawyer on patrol did not notice him. Suddenly, as the lawyer passed the corner, Joshua flashed at him his police badge. "Do not move," Joshua ordered. The lawyer was confused, unsure of what to do.

Joshua knew he had only a few seconds to have real action. Arrests like this kind were rare and worth for!

Joshua knocked the lawyer unconscious, and grabbed his automatic rifle. Thomas cuffed him and said to him: "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in court."

Thomas peeked around. "Stay here, Corporal," Thomas advised. "I'll go up there."

Creeping towards the car, Thomas managed to get a good view of DSP Zhou from here. He was still inside, unconscious, but deep in his heart, Thomas knew he had to do something and fast.

Suddenly, the car started to jerk!

"C'mon," Thomas muttered. The other lawyer that was standing on the other side of the car, standing guard, was worried, and he kept on patting his gun. Patter looked worried more and more by the minute. The other lawyer that had gone on a patrol had still not come back.

Patter moved away. The car started to accelerate. Thomas got spotted by Patter. Immediately, Patter took out his rifle. Thomas flashed his police badge, which made the lawyer freeze.

Thomas broke into a sprint and crashed into the lawyer, which startled him. His rifle clanged to the ground hardly, and Thomas pushed the lawyer down, before cuffing him and telling him his rights. During the time when Thomas told him his rights, the lawyer would look up to the sky and say: "It doesn't matter. I'm going to get prosecuted anyway."

Meanwhile, Corporal Joshua called for backup on the police radio. "A Toyota Vios, license plate SGK6790A, just escaped with DSP Zhou inside. We need all available units to pursue the suspect!"

"Those cops behind me are as irritating as mosquitoes buzzing around me, trying to prick into my blood." DSP Zhou woke up to the sound of that voice. "Good, now you know the consequences of playing with superglue."

The driver slammed on his steering wheel. "You better keep quiet, DSP Zhou. I'm going to kill you earlier if you give me unnecessary nonsensical comments."

DSP Zhou tried to give a smile. "That's why the police force is there," DSP Zhou said. Suddenly, one more police car added to the chase. In total, four police cruisers were in pursuit of the suspect. Overhead, he could see a news helicopter, probably broadcasting the suspect's actions live.

Suddenly, DSP Zhou, while trying to act normal, tried to cut off the ropes that were holding him together. The suspect did not know how to tie things, and as a result, there were multiple spots where you could just pull out the spot, and the whole rope would give way.

DSP Zhou gave a pathetic look at the suspect without him noticing and then got to work. He used his mouth to pull at the weak spot and the ropes came out. "How did you-?" the suspect suddenly said. He had just turned around at DSP Zhou.

DSP Zhou jumped into the front seat and tried to kick the man's arms, which were steering the car. Suddenly, the car swerved left and right, left and right. The four police cruisers separated for safety. DSP Zhou could imagine the news broadcaster showing anxiety for him.

DSP Zhou kept on kicking. The suspect retaliated by hitting him with the butt of a revolver. DSP Zhou grabbed him in a bear hug and forced him to stop the car. But it wasn't easy. Halfway through pushing down the brake, the suspect punched him in rapid-fire mode, and he sat down, dazed, on the other side of the car.

"Keep your hands up where I can see them!" Joshua called out loudly. DSP Zhou sighed. Mental note to self, teach Joshua the difference between video games and real life, he thought.

Joshua and the other officers came over and apprehended the suspect. "Sir, you okay?" Thomas looked at him with concern. The spot where the suspect had hit him with the revolver's butt was a little bit purple-blue, and it was still throbbing, like a headache.

"I'm fine," DSP Zhou said, brushing off Thomas like a fly. Thomas grinned and gave him a knuckle punch on the shoulder. DSP Zhou really hated corny stuff. He was too old for that.

After seeing the suspect go, DSP Zhou sighed. "We've still got work to do. We need to nail Jingxuan's killer."

"In secret," Joshua and Thomas chorused. "Knuckle punch," DSP Zhou said.

The three of them cracked their knuckles together.