The Diego Diaries: Callow (dd8 408)
=0=Late that evening toward early morning
He stood on the curb staring at the ground with specialized optical inserts and software developed by him over a period of time that was unlike anything in the world. He scanned the pavement with the agility of an electron microscope.
Around him it was dark here in City 6, Crater District 9. The street was a neighborhood with towers on all sides as far as the optic could see in all directions. The towers were mostly dark but lights here and there wavered in the blistering cold of early morning on Mars. No one was out, the odd vehicle drove past but no one glanced at him which suited his purposes.
He scoped around raising his field of search, turning very slowly as he scanned every possibility for clues. In the distance he could hear an emergency vehicle with its siren coming his way but it passed on another street. He walked back from the shadows to continue.
Silence enveloped him again as he glanced toward an alleyway between two gigantic towers that disappeared into the sky overhead. Even on a sunny day it was impossible to see the top of buildings if you didn't have Cybertronian optics or binoculars. He walked toward it scanning high and low, searching for what he knew he would find if he was patient.
Prowl could be patient with anything but the person of Optimus Prime.
=0=In Iacon
They rode down the sidewalk of a town that had a great nightlife but that was winding down as the earliest effects of morning began to approach. It was cusp time between night and the coming orn, that moment past midnight when you felt the urge to go to the barn. For the Horseback Patrols of the Watch, it was the start of shift and the hilarity of policing a big rollicking empire like this one.
Springer was sparring with Hercy as they rode through intersections and down avenues heading for the open countryside nearby. The Crater Districts were next on their long ambling ever changing route. If there was a need they would ride that way. They were the only patrol that had their own options of where they would go at any given moment. Everyone else had their set area and that was that.
Springer snickered as he listened to Hercy yarning with the kids. The newbies and the 'less newbie' members of their patrol listened with rapt attention to the 'wisdom of their elders', the slaggers. If Hercy said birds flew out of his debris chute, the kids would believe him.
Army and cop humor.
It was a thing.
They reached the edge of Iacon, then began to gallop toward the Crater Districts far away. They would arrive in District 8 shortly, take a tour of 9, then ride toward Aerie Hill in the distance.
It was a plan.
Spur of the moment.
There was a great hot dog truck in Aerie Hill that would be great for break time.
Cops.
They disappeared into the open land between habitations following the highway northwest to District 8.
=0=Alleyway, City 6, District 9
He looked at the walls on both sides of the alleyway looking for what he believed would be there. The alley was wide, big enough to allow two trucks to pass each other in it and paved with secured doors that led to fire and emergency exits and entrances as well as delivery, utility and storage rooms for the towers on both sides.
His peds echoed in the stillness as he walked along, moving from security light pool to security light pool. When he found what he was looking for, something that needed specialist gear and experience to know was there, he felt vindication. He put in a call to Springer and Sky to meet him here, then he moved into the shadows to wait.
=0=District 9
"We have a call from Prowl to meet him at the place where Tempo was killed," Springer said as he pulled up to let the team gather around him. "Frankly, I wonder why it took this long."
Mechs chuckled as the youth around them glanced from one to the other.
"Commander, is he supposed to be there?" Skylar, a new kid with a burning jones to be the best cop he could be and help people asked.
"Its not a good look but Prowl was the best detective that I believe Cybertron ever had. When he was on your ass, you were over. I suspect that he's found things we didn't," Springer said.
"But our forensics is the best isn't it?" Seelie asked. She was a little femme with Circle and Knight tats who decided her calling was in community policing and 'blazing a trail for femmes to take on non-traditional jobs, Commander'.
Springer had stared down at her, the sweetest prettiest little femme who had skills and knew when and how to use them. He listened to her commentary, then wondered. All the femmes he knew were kick ass and they did what they wanted. Was it still possible that femmes had to struggle to do what they wanted? He took her aside later to ask.
She looked up at him with her luminous amber optics. "Sometimes."
He felt a burst of outraged fatherhood from somewhere in his chassis that he didn't know existed even with Tell, then took her under his wing. She was a PERMANENT member of the patrol, was a PROJECT for EVERYONE OF THE PATROL and a colleague. He never regretted it. She was a champ.
He also mentioned her to Winnie and Maxie. Seelie was now a 'made man'.
"Its not the best tactic, Seelie. But Prowl wrote the book. We keep some things among ourselves for a while. This is one of them. It isn't lying. Its protecting the integrity of the investigation."
:Is that what it is?: Hercy asked dryly.
Springer glanced at him with a slight frown, then back to Seelie. "Its a complicated career you chose, Seelie. We're going to City 6 but its still under wraps what we see and hear. That's for later, the sorting out. Okay?"
She stared at him a moment, then nodded. "Okay, Commander. I just need to know things."
"You will, daughter," Kup said in the family-familiar. "Just stick with us."
She grinned as they began to ride back toward open space to cut cross country toward City 6 and Prowl.
=0=City 6, 15th Avenue and Marley
They rode along the sidewalk heading for an alleyway that was designated the meet up place by Prowl's message. They arrived there and saw no one.
Springer glanced at the group. "Drift, Hercy and Kup, come with me." He dismounted and led them into the alley as the others sat and watched. It was tense and grim, the atmosphere of the alleyway at night.
Prowl stepped out of the shadows as they walked toward him. "You made it finally."
"Well, we were tracking hot dogs, so …" Springer said with a grin. "Do I arrest you now or later?"
Prowl smirked. "I found something important. It leads also to motive though its speculation as of yet. Its up to you to do the rest."
"What did you find and I'll go give Sky a demerit," Springer replied with a grin.
Prowl snorted, then glanced around. "I have specialist gear and software. I've scanned the scene from the death site to this corner," he said pointing at the wall nearby. "What do you see?"
Springer and the others glanced toward it, then strained to see anything but the smooth appearing metallic wall that made up the corner of the building. Springer glanced at Prowl. "I don't see slag but you do."
Prowl nodded as Hercy pulled out his specialist glasses. He looked at the wall and saw it. He glanced at Prowl. "There's gang sign there."
Prowl nodded.
"You will, of course, be making your gear available to us," Springer said with a grin. "What do you see and what does it mean to you?"
"I was assigned to several gang task forces when they got out of hand even for the Primes. I had to develop my own methods and materials to try and track them. They all have their own signals and sigils. We have fifteen known and three unknown here," Prowl said.
"Fifteen known and two unknown according to Hauser," Drift said.
Prowl shook his helm. "There's one here that's unknown. Maybe its even just one or two individuals asserting themselves. Call Hauser."
Drift did as they waited together in the illumination of a security light nearby. It felt very noir and dangerous. Down the alleyway on the street, the rest of the patrol watched. The sound of an ambulance wailing in the night could be faintly heard in the distance.
After a moment Hauser drove up, transformed, then walked down the alleyway with Sky following. He had flown in, landed, then transformed himself.
"What's up, Boss?" Hauser asked as Sky joined him. "Am I here to arrest Prowl or praise him?" he asked.
Snickers rounded the group as Prowl smirked at both of them. "I'm here to break this case wide open."
Hauser glanced at Sky, then Springer. "So … do I still have a job?" he asked to genuine laughter including Prowl.
Prowl smirked at him then pointed to the wall. "Change to infrared on this spectrum," Prowl said as he sent the details to both.
They did, then saw it themselves.
"I want your tech, Prowl," Hauser said as he walked toward it to kneel. After a moment he stood, then stared at the group. "We have a new player."
Prowl nodded. "Nova Cronum. A fencing gang. Bad news, heavily protected by rogue senators and not beneath murder."
Hauser considered that as he ran his internal files. "The No-Name gang."
Prowl nodded.
"No-Name?" Springer asked.
Prowl glanced at him. "They were a gang that specialized in fencing stolen goods, money laundering and the worst of all possible worlds which I won't bother explaining now. They didn't dirty their servos unless it was needed because a lot of the Senate profited off their deeds and they had stellar protection, that of the state.
"Gangs would consign their booty to the No-Name gang and they would fence it for a stiff fee. Giving Senators a share ensured that they'd be safe. They didn't have a name because they didn't want attention. But that star is their sigil."
Everyone stared at the star that was part of the usual gang tag, placed where the name would normally be to announce themselves.
"Our economy and culture doesn't make profiteering and stealing a good occupation," Drift said. "What would they profit from besides being a pain in the aft?"
"Consider the amount and number of antiques and cultural items there are out there. Imagine those who would want them and they include more than our own species. Then there's the real gold here. It isn't stuff, its turf. The violence you have here among the gangs is over turf every time. Fighting for space and area is a long honored tradition among our kind. Talk to Ratchet and Amma Docker."
"That femme can really throw a fire bomb I'm told," Drift said with a smirk.
"She can. She's stand up all the way. She kept the Five Points out of the Jumble, her and a handful of other elders or so Appa Ratchet tells me," Springer said with a grin. "He rather loves his little femme."
"Who doesn't?" Hercy said to general agreement.
Who indeed?
=0=TBC 4-10-2022
Way back in the day I took so many elective classes that if I spend one more semester at college I can have a bachelor of arts degree in law enforcement. LOL! I had no idea what I was doing, the first in my family to go. I loved the forensics labs though. I had a blast with that. HUGS!
ESL:
made man: in the mafia when you wanted to become an actual member and not an 'associate', you had a ritual and you were part of the gang. It was for life. To say Seelie is a 'made man' was to mean that she's in and everyone will help and support her in every way to attain her goals.
Noir: : crime fiction featuring hard-boiled cynical characters and bleak sleazy settings anything that's creepy and dangerous, designed to be bleak and cold, that's noir old time crime fiction was usually noir, a cop that is a loaner, who drinks and smokes and has no friends or life, that was usually the model of a noir detective film noir is a film genre that specializes in this sort of presentation. according to the dictionary I used it also is the French word for black which can easily translate into bleak
noir: (no-are) or (noo-ar) I've heard both
