Teaser
April 2, 2003, 4:36 PM, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Some kids are playing on a playground. An unmarked van is parked across the street watching. One of the parents notices the van, and whispers to her friend. They look uneasy. "You should call the cops." one of them says. The woman gets out her cell phone and dials 911.
A police car shows up, and asks what is going on. She points to the van, where someone appeared to be watching the children from the passenger seat. The face then turned and said something to someone else in the back. The cop tells his partner to wait, he would check it out.
The cop goes to the driver's side door, and taps on it. The passenger does not roll down the window, he just snarls, pulls out a gun, and shoots the cop in the face.
The partner calls in "shots fired" and pulls out his gun. He goes toward the van, while the driver gets out of the back and rushes to the driver's seat. The cop shoots out the front passenger side tire, and the passenger points the gun out of the window and fires at the cop. He misses. The cop shoots at the passenger, hitting him in the shoulder, causing him to drop the gun and fall over into the driver's lap. The cop moves for cover, while the driver struggles to get his fallen associate off of him. Then the driver throws open his door, and falls out. He picks himself up and starts running, the cop chasing after him. He runs down an alley, and jumps the fence. The cop tries to catch up, but he's gone.
He goes back to the van, and two more cars have arrived. The area is secured, and the police are taking witness statements. The passenger is in custody. The cop and another officer open the side door to the van, weapons drawn. Inside, they find nothing to shoot. Instead, there is an entire wall of electronic equipment, and several monitors. One showed a video feed of a teenager in his room, on a computer. A pair of headphones played the audio from the room. Another monitor showed a web browser apparently moving by itself, navigating a website on the 2012 apocalypse. "What the hell is all this?" the second officer said.