Chương 164: B3. 13.2- The Clash of Back-up Plans

Jeremiah Hall"You've already deployed agents here?" Hall asked, turning off his car, including its lights. They were in darkness, out of reach of the light from the nearest streetlight. The vehicle with BID plates was already out of view.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because we shouldn't have any agents here," said Agent Matt.

"I'm not messing with you, Sgt. Hall, if that's what you're thinking. The first time I heard about this location was when you told me about your robot friend's call." Hall frowned. He couldn't tell if Agent Matt was telling the truth. But Matt had no reason to lie to him. Maybe something big, way bigger than Hall anticipated, was about to go down here.

"Then… what is that car doing here?"

"I'm as clueless as you are. Isn't it great that we're starting to have many things in common?"

"Yes, sir." Hall wondered if he shouldn't have answered. It was difficult to tell if Agent Matt's question was hypothetical or not.

"That car belongs to Agent Mellow and Agent Blue. Right now, they should be at Belvedere Village, investigating the recent Adumbrae attack. That's what our logs say. I don't record my goings because I'm the one checking the logs. But everyone else should." Mellow and Blue. These agents were the more humanoid-looking ones, though Mellow was eight-foot-tall, even taller than Matt, extremely slender individual with bladed legs. Blue had an extra arm that tucks into a backpack.

Both wore masks, like most of the lower-ranked, augmented agents. Hall hadn't talked to either of them.

"Did their car get stolen?" Hall turned to look at Agent Matt.

"Stealing a BID agent's car? Whoever pulls it off, I'll buy him a double cheeseburger. Add in an extra-large soda. It's not so simple as hotwiring things under the hood. I guess someone could tow it—stealing it that way can work. It should be impossible to drive it without permission protocols."

"I suppose it also can't be that your agents loaned their car to someone else?" Hall asked.

"They aren't supposed to let others use their assigned vehicles. Lots of expensive stuff inside that they're responsible for; any damage will be deducted from their monthly salaries. But… who knows what Agent Mellow and Agent Blue are doing that their car ended up here. I can't tell for sure if those two dented skulls, fresh from their repairs, are inside the car. You see, Hall, we have transponders. It lets other agents know where you are. Should be turned on when things get busy."

"Like tonight, with Adumbrae popping out and killing people."

"We don't want to accidentally shoot each other while fighting Adumbrae," said Agent Matt, shifting in the backseat as he opened the window.

"Also makes it easier to coordinate strategy in an urban setting if we know where everyone else is. I know what your next question is. The answer is that I don't have my transponder on." Hall smiled.

"Perks of being a boss?"

"Not a good look going on a side quest while the main quest is ongoing." Agent Matt tossed four items outside. Hall wasn't able to take a good look at them, but they were about the size of a soap.

"Skittering scouts to see what's happening," Agent Matt explained. They were tiny drones for surveillance. The police also had them, less sophisticated than those of the BID, used for dangerous raids and similar operations. Hall, however, never touched those hi-tech buggers. He was content being a dinosaur, even using a flip phone teetering at the end of its life.

"Sir, the agents probably have a valid explanation for this…" Hall said, even if he didn't believe it. He didn't want to think that even the BID had bad elements in its ranks. It was bad enough that the police had dozens of officers on the payroll of Red Hood. Even the superintendent was under investigation. Once the media got wind of this, it'd be a raging shitstorm. The people's trust in the government would be eroded even further.

Panicked people do crazy things, making the situation much more difficult to stabilize. Chaos was the goal of the Adumbrae. It was a dumpster full of garbage for the flies, the perfect condition for seeding people and turning them into monsters. Create panic with random, or perhaps not-so-random, Adumbrae attacks. Simultaneously, chip the integrity of the government. Squeeze from the top and the bottom. This was the genius master plan of Red Hood.

"They can have an explanation," said Agent Matt.

"Doesn't mean it'll be valid. Think of a good one for me, will you? Why do you think those BID agents are here?"

"Were they actually BID agents?"

"I'm looking at them with my own eyes. Through the eyes of my Skitters, to be accurate. They got to the house before us."

"Two possibilities," said Hall, with tensed jaws.

"One, the informant called them here for some reason. Or, two, they are the people the informant wanted me to investigate."

"Those are your possibilities?" Agent Matt laughed.

"A third one—they want to start early with their trick-or-treating. There's a large chance of my guess being correct, but let's go over yours. If Ms. Informant called the agents, they should've told me about it. Like you did, Sgt. Hall." Is he reprimanding me? Hall admitted that his original plan to keep the call a secret until after he had investigated it was plain wrong. He was letting his personal views and biases affect his judgment.

"Given the suspicious nature of their presence here," Agent Matt went on, "perhaps Agent Mellow and Agent Blue are the suspicious people that Ms. Informant wanted us to find. If these two are mired in some unsavory business, I'll crush their skulls. Unlike what the Jackson Butcher did to them, they won't survive this." His voice lowered into a guttural growl that made the hair on the back of Hall's neck stand on end. That wasn't the sound of a human.

But some BID agents were as far from being a human as Hall was from a chimp. Hall knew of the Jackson Butcher, a fearsome Adumbrae in Michigan that the BID exterminated a couple of months ago. The two agents they were following seemed to have been injured during the operation. From the sound of it, Agent Matt wasn't too pleased with Mellow and Blue. Agent Matt also didn't seem too surprised or scandalized that his agents were entwined in this matter.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It wasn't shaping up to be a good matter. And did Agent Matt just threaten to kill his agents? That was just a joke, right? Or a mere outburst because of anger.

"What are we going to do, sir?" Hall asked.

"Well… I'm going to ask Agent Mellow and Agent Blue what they're doing here. I see them entering the house." Agent Matt opened the door.

"Confronting them might not be the best choice," Hall said, hastily getting out of the car. He held the door open for Agent Matt, the latter exiting with much effort. The back of the car almost jumped up like a spring as Agent Matt stepped onto the pavement.

"And why not?" He walked towards the corner. Was he heading to the other agents like this? Walk up to them and ask them what they were doing here?

"Because they'll lie," Hall said, keeping his tone neutral. It was obvious what would happen. Agent Matt should be more prudent than this.

"We should observe for now to see what they're going to do. Gather evidence if they truly are involved with the PCM or whoever."

"Make an airtight case to make sure the charges stick? Due process and all?" Agent Matt and Hall could now see the house. The car with BID plates was nowhere to be seen. It must be parked on the other side of the house, out of their view.

"On top of that, we'll learn more if we investigate them… for now. Assuming they truly are up to no good." Hall's instincts told him that the mysterious caller pointed him to another corruption case. Red Hood was incredibly devious, infiltrating even the BID. Agent Matt probably thought the same as well. The BID agents that were supposed to fight Adumbrae were now working with an Adumbrae. An incredibly powerful one. If Red Hood had people in the BID, where else had her claws reached?

It wouldn't surprise Hall if Red Hood controlled congressmen or senators. Her web was spreading all over the entire country, preparing for the blossoming of a Purple Bloom on American soil.

"If the BID is compromised," Hall continued, "we should make sure to cast the net wide and catch as many traitors as possible. If we act now, everyone else will hide."

"You're saying that other agents are on Santa's naughty list, too?" Agent Hall laughed.

"Hah! It sounds wrong to call erring agents naughty."

"If Mellow and Blue are erring, as you put it, sir, there are bound to be others. It's not just one cockroach." Agent Matt placed his heavy hand on Hall's shoulders. Hall staggered, his knees weakened by age, almost giving way. Agent Matt laughed.

"Ah, sorry for that. I forget how heavy these arms are. Let me tell you how we do things at the agency. I get what you're saying. I really do. Casting the net wide, something, something. But we usually don't let things be for the bigger picture, however you'll phrase that. If we confirm an Adumbrae, we'll immediately kill it instead of waiting to see if it has buddies around.

"Why? Because the next thing you know, the Adumbrae might evolve into a bigger monster. Today, it's just a guy with scales. Tomorrow, it's a three-story-tall dinosaur tearing up the neighborhood. You can't turn back time and stop it when it was a smaller threat. We also don't know how big the problem can get if we don't stop it now. You can investigate a drug ring for months before busting it up. But you can't wait that long when it comes to Adumbrae." Hall nodded.

"I understand. A few months and there might already be a bud of a Purple Bloom."

"If there's something bad going on here, I'll immediately stop it."

"But… are you just going to talk to them?" He unholstered his gun.

"Talk. And there might be trouble. But you shouldn't concern yourself with it." Agent Matt gestured at Hall's gun.

"That thing isn't going to do much. I'm not going to write you up if you hang back." Hall had been a cop for decades, but he couldn't shake the worry whenever a possible shootout happened. It was a reminder that he was human. This wouldn't be a simple shootout. Agent Matt was right that his gun was of no use. And a punch from a BID agent could remove his head. But he kept walking beside Agent Matt. The informant specifically called for him. There must be a reason.

Something that only he could spot here that may allow them to catch others connected to the PCM. Just be ready to jump out of the way when the augmented humans start fighting. When. Not if. Hall was certain there was going to be a fight. Agent Matt wasn't divulging everything. Understandably, so. But Hall could sense that the situation was more problematic than a couple of agents wandering off their assignment. Agent Matt appeared to be expecting that his agents were compromised.

"Ah!" Agent Matt exclaimed, dramatically waving his hands. He then started laughing.

"Sir?" Hall grasped his gun tighter as he looked around for trouble. All of the surrounding houses, bar one, had their lights off. The street was empty. Everything was quiet.

"One of my skitters got squeezed," explained Agent Matt.

"We've been found out. Which means… It's time to turn on my transponder. Agent Mellow and Agent Blue will be shitting their pants. Metaphorically, of course. Their digestive tracts had been replaced, I believe. There we go. Says so in our records." Hall glanced sideways. Agent Matt faced ahead, his eyes not glowing. But the agent was also perusing computer records in his mind while simultaneously controlling drones, presumably looking through their cameras as well.

Hall's brain would get scrambled with that much multitasking. Why did Agent Matt reveal his presence? Hall didn't ask his question, puzzling over the answer himself. Matt was letting his subordinates know that he was aware of them. If Mellow and Blue ran away after realizing their boss was around, that would cement their guilt. They could never return to the BID after that. If Mellow and Blue chose to stay, Matt's announcing he was coming made it appear that he had backup.

It'd make Mellow and Blue wary of starting a fight. This must be why Matt was confident there'd be a talk. But what about after that? Mellow and Blue, if they were actually doing something illegal, wouldn't surrender. The penalty for criminal agents was more severe than for regular people. Outright execution was a possibility. Hall would have to be prepared to jump out of the way when the agents started blasting each other. He wasn't going to sit out the talk.

"Oho, got 'em," Agent Matt said, snapping his fingers. He didn't wait for Hall to ask what was happening.

"They got surprised by my little surprise because it was very surprising. A skitter got past them and entered the house. There's a huge hole in the basement."

"A hole that leads to the tunnels," said Hall.

"What, oh, what could they be doing here? Ms. Informant did lead us to something very interesting. And the other skitter is dead. That's that for the skitters. It's time for a face-to-face confrontation with Agent Mellow and Agent Blue."

"Did they dig this hole beforehand, or someone else did?"

"Only they can tell us." Agent Matt and Hall walked up to the house. The door opened. Out came Agent Mellow, ducking her head to not hit the door frame. She stood in front of them. Her dark, tight-fitting suit made her look like a leafless tree in the night. She removed her sleek black mask. For the first time, Hall saw Mellow's face, a gaunt and pale woman. It reminded him of a vampire movie he had seen with Ramello years back.

"Out with your explanation, Agent Mellow," said Agent Matt.

"Sir, we have received a report that—" Mellow started to say. Matt raised his arm. A bright light blinded Hall. The sound of a loud impact followed by broken wood. Hall scrambled to retreat, keeping his head low. He couldn't see anything! Rubbing his eyes, he could only pray that he wouldn't get hit by the explosions that rumbled. Once his sight returned, he had already managed to crawl to the other side of the street. Agent Matt and Mellow were fighting in the wreckage of the house.