Captain Woods put his hand over his face. "Let me get this straight Shaw, you took Raven Grayson's computer without permission and then destroyed it before you could get any information from it."

Woods glared between Shaw and Hart.

"Don't look at me," Hart raised his hands. "He took the computer. We may have both been hired by Senator Griffin, but we're not working together."

Woods shook his head and looked back at Shaw. "You had access to look around Raven's room, but you certainly didn't have clearance to take her computer. We were in the process of getting a search warrant so we could take it ourselves, but when we get there we find its gone. Now you wrecked it?"

"She wrecked it," Shaw corrected, unabashed. "Grayson had some sort of auto-destruct feature. She'd glued a battery inside the harddrive and made an electrical connection. I don't know what we did, but it was wrong. Its destroyed itself. It also crashed the computer my associate was using. It's doubtful he can salvage it. He's a computer specialist. Do you know how advanced his firewalls were? Yet Grayson's virus slipped right by it and destroyed the computer. That girl has access to some very dangerous software – professional level. She must have bought it on the Deep Web."

"You have absolutely no proof to back up that guess and be that as it may," Woods sighed, "you still took the computer and cost us a valuable source of possible evidence. Forensics is seeing if they can salvage any information from the harddrive but they have their doubts. That is why I have told my officers not to let you back into the Grayson home. I don't want you to destroy anything else."

"Could you please stop clumping me in with him?" Hart politely asked. "I didn't do anything."

Woods ignored him.

"Raven's good with computers," Shaw continued. "There's no way she doesn't have a backup harddrive."

"I asked about it," Woods agreed. "She claims it was damaged and she had to throw it away. She hasn't bought a new one yet, so no, she doesn't. She also says the failsafe is in case someone steals it so they can't access her information saved on it. Raven apologized for forgetting to warn us about it."

"You don't believe her, do you?" Shaw asked.

"That's not the point," Woods dismissed. "The point is that you went around me and the investigation has suffered for it."

"The Senator ordered me to-" Shaw began.

"The Senator isn't running this investigation," Woods disagreed. "I am, as I'm trying to get across. So I'm not letting you near this case for a while. I have a press conference in an hour. I don't need you stepping on our toes. We'll solve this. And I'll tell the Senator that myself if I have to. I answer to Miami's Justice Department, not him."

Hart looked at his feet, but gave a wan smile. Shaw bit his lip and then turned and left the office. He had the maturity not to slam the office door behind him. Hart decided he liked this Captain as he turned to leave.

"Hart, a word," Woods called out.

Hart hesitated and turned back to him. "Yes Captain?"

"Is it alright for you to go on cases?" Woods asked. "I remember the clamor after the Henderson Case. The CIA took your pistol and shut you down."

"That shootout was almost two months ago," Hart dismissed with a smile, waving a hand. "They finally gave me back my gun last week and I haven't heard from them since. You're forgetting about the FBI."

"I'm not forgetting the FBI," Woods promised him. "After that shootout, my men arrested you and brought you back to the precinct. You were in the middle of giving a statement of self-defense when the FBI took custody of you."

"They were just sore I did their job for them," Hart smiled. "Of course, I had no idea what I was getting into when I agreed to locate Ray Henderson for his girlfriend."

He always had that same smile, Woods noticed, no matter what the situation.

Hart had agreed to locate Henderson for his girlfriend Jennifer. He had vanished from her radar and she had even called the police to file a missing person report. They decided he had gotten tired of her and left, so Jennifer had come to Hart. Hart had tracked down Henderson at a different address.

He hadn't any idea Henderson had cut ties with Jennifer so he could carry out his plan with his friends. He hadn't any idea they were homegrown ISIS terrorists or that they had sixty pounds of C4 in a closet. It had turned into a real shootout when he told them he was a private investigator and started getting suspicious about the guns in the house despite Henderson not having a license to carry. Neither the CIA nor FBI had known about the terrorist cell. While they were happy Hart had stopped them, they didn't like being beaten by a private eye. They acted like Hart had been trying to upstage them and held him for over a month, questioning him, acting like he had been a member of the cell.

"It's hard to believe there are still extremists like them," Woods shook his head.

"Most have been killed by Kira," Hart agreed. "I was really surprised to see a new cell. I suppose they believe blowing people up and decapitating them is a holy cause. It's the right thing to do, so why would Kira ever target them?"

"They remind me of the Centurions," Woods said softly.

"Ah, the defenders of humanity," Hart scorned. "I heard about their bombing of the Kiranites' convention. All of the jihadists may be dead, but we haven't outgrown terrorism. Maybe we never will."

"Depressing," Woods bemused.

"Realistic," Hart disagreed. "Unlike you Kiranites I don't believe you can fix everything by just killing."

"Ouch," Woods said. "How did you know I was one of them?"

Hart jerked a thumb at his own neck. There was a chain visible around Woods's.

"You also released a statement during a case about how Kira was helping you. I do my homework." Hart dismissed. "Though I didn't know for certain until I got you to say 'one of them.'"

"I suppose I shot myself in the foot on that one," Woods concurred. "I can see why you're able to earn your living as a PI, though it's not common to see someone who doesn't approve of Kira."

"I saw enough killing when I was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan," Hart waved off, "and I killed plenty there to because they were the enemy, as if politics can somehow make killing another human a good thing. Soldiers are just murderers in uniform."

Woods blinked. "That's a… radical stance, especially for someone who used to be a Marine. I've done my homework to."

Hart chuckled. "I set myself up for that one. I don't regret fighting for my country but after so many months shooting people and seeing your friends get blown up by IEDs you start to have trouble finding a point to it. That's why I asked to be discharged. I come back here and try to find proof of marital affairs or check out suspicious insurance claims and I'm still shooting people." Hart shrugged. "I never did figure out if its bad luck on my part or just how humanity is nowadays."

He smiled again and walked from the office. Woods curled his fingers against his palms as Hart closed the door. He wished Hart didn't do that. There was something profoundly wrong about a smile being that hollow.

Don't be too hard on Hart. Not everyone who has a child is fit to be a parent. Not everyone who enrolls in the army is able to be a soldier. Completing the training is not the same as actually shooting someone. I, as Pengping, don't think soldiers are murders in uniform. I have the greatest respect for them. Hart's just had a hard time of it...

Short chapter. Next up is the press conference, both Woods's report to the public, Senator Griffin's announcement about what a murdering bitch Raven is, and Governer Bellerose's that she isn't. Aren't humans such fun creatures?