Time to introduce Ephraim. Enjoy!

Ephraim Rosenburg had been the Police Commissioner of Renais for two years, but no amount of time could make his job easier. No matter what, he could never secure an important arrest. There was so much corruption in the city… in the country… and there was nothing he could do.

He pulled his car up to the 1st Precinct – where the office of the Chief of Police, Seth Marshall, was located – for his monthly inspection, which he expected to be no different than the last thousand inspections he oversaw. When he entered the building, Seth immediately got out of his office to greet him.

"Already time for another inspection, Commissioner?"

"It's been a month, Marshall."

"Not a quiet one, sir. I know I shouldn't be saying this, but it's a welcome change. Things can get so droll when all the criminals either kill each other or get killed by those damn Private Military Contractors before we can find them. Guess the mercenaries have been occupied elsewhere. I still can't believe those are legal."

"And I still can't believe you don't use acronyms. You're the only guy I know who doesn't call them PMC's," Ephraim teased, trying to lighten the mood, though he himself was feeling depressed.

Seeing right through his façade, Seth directed the Commissioner to his office where they could talk privately while the latter's men carried out the inspection.

"Alright Eph, I know that look. What's wrong this time?" the Chief sighed and poured his friend a glass of scotch.

"We've been trying to clean up the corruption in this city our entire careers, Seth; where has it gotten us? The few low-level cronies we've actually managed to arrest were all cleared within a week, and whenever we try going after bigger fish, all we get are a string of murders the DA is too afraid to prosecute. I feel like I've failed in my duty," Ephraim buried his face in his hands as he sat down.

"Hey, Director Greil Green himself can't even touch Remming – a corporation commonly known as the most corrupt organization in recent history – and he has far more experience, money and resources than you could ever dream of."

"Green's a friend of mine, and I hold him in the highest respect, but that's Ylisse – Remming Industries practically owns their government. I'm not going after corporations that big; just ones like Reinhardt Autos, whose security division investigates and eliminates potential competitors before they even enter the market."

"Trouble is, you can't prove they do that before a court."

"Yes I can! I just have to find an attorney and a judge willing–"

"And somehow ensure their safety. Reinhardt has eyes and ears everywhere; if they even suspect they're in danger of legal trouble, they'll send in their psychopath of a security chief Henry Gould. How exactly do you plan on fighting someone with military-grade weaponry?"

"We don't. We arrest him and his people before they have a chance to defend themselves, then after they're in custody we get them to confess."

"Let's say you actually get an arrest warrant. Their security officers are professionals; there is no way any of them would break under questioning. How do you plan get one to confess?"

"The same way they did it back in the old days – sleep deprivation."

"Which is now illegal."

"Not against terrorists."

"Gould isn't officially recorded as a terrorist, and we don't have the authority to put him on the watch list."

"And that's where we're stuck – we don't have the authority to do anything by ourselves!"

"Eph…"

"The one thing I've been pondering these past few months is how we can get it. The courts are too afraid, the politicians are either corrupt, powerless or dead, and the military is too focused on recovering from the war." Before Seth could respond, Ephraim's men knocked on the office door,

"Commissioner, we've completed the inspection."

"And?"

"No problems, sir. Everything meets your standards."

"Good. Get ready to go to the next precinct," Ephraim stood up, said farewell to Seth and departed.

After completing his last inspection, an exhausted Ephraim returned home to his wife Tana. He announced his arrival, hugged his wife and promptly went to his bedroom to take a long nap.

Yes, I know that was a short ending. I sat on it for two weeks, trying to figure out how to flesh it out, but I just could not think of anything that worked. Maybe I'll edit it in the future.

FE:CSR Tale 9x Chapter 4 is next.