“Where are we at with the Pimbleton case?” Akemi asks Zhang, the senior agent on his team, but Zhang was way ahead of him.
“Taken care of.” Zhang slid her finger across the blue hologram that projected from her INuec as it rested on the table in front of her. The information that was once projected onto her holographic screen was now projecting onto Akemi’s device, which he had just tossed onto his desk so he could see the perps file while also drinking the cup of coffee another agent, Jenkins, had just placed in his hand. All Jenkins was good for was Coffee, but Zhang was good for everything. Zhang had worn the label ‘number one gal’ for a couple years; until she dumped him to focus on her career, but now she was aiming for his job and then some, so he guessed it paid off. “Neutralized?” Was Akemi’s question in regard to Holton Pimbleton, 32, bank teller with Fox Banking and Loan, and a suicide risk. “Revoked.” Was Zhang’s response. “How’d you manage that?” Akemi sat back in his chair and got comfortable for the tale. Zhang really was the master of her trade. “It was a thing of beauty.” Jenkins answered first. “I couldn’t of done better myself.” “Yeah, that’s why they sent me.” Zhang tossed her hair and continued. “These guys so cheery when you run across them. He had Jenkins here running in circle for the past two weeks.” Zhang shrugged and Jenkins rolled his eyes as she continued, “I found him at Fox Bank after his shift. He was heading to some restaurant to eat alone; he eats there every night alone, so I follow him.” “Why didn’t you ask to join him. Pretty thing like you would get an immediate yes.” Jenkins was new, so he still asked dumb questions. “One, I don’t want to eat with that shit-fuck.” Zhang flicked Jenkins across the face with her pointer finger. “Two, do you really think a suicide risk is going to buy that someone, out of nowhere, suddenly grows a heart and wants to reach out to them? Especially me?” She points at her high angled cheek bones, brown, cat eyes, and black, waist length hair as if to make her third point. “That’s your problem, Jenkins. You think these people actually want to get better, or some shit. If I had offered help, I would of lost him.” “So what was your move?” Akemi knew the answer to his question, but it always sounded so much cooler when it came from Zhang. “A clean scan; disarmament at its best, gentleman.” She smiled at Jenkin’s confusion. “So, he’s playing with his INuec, watching one of those companion channels and I saunter up with my wand.” She holds the thin, black scanner as a visual. “You just walked up to a suicide risk with an exposed scanner?” Now Jenkins was starting to ask the right questions. “It’s called tact, my friend.” Zhang twirled the instrument in her hand as she continued her story. “You can’t even approach these guys head on without spooking them, but luckily the bathroom was behind where he was sitting, so I just make like I’m heading for the toilet and bam! He had no clue until I was in full scan mode and his teardrop was blinking pure green.” “Did he freak?” Jenkins was a total schadenfreude. “Total spaz.” Zhang too. “I slid him his documentation, but he wasn’t having any of it. He almost touched me.” No one touched Zhang unless she wants them to. “Had to flip him. He’s probably getting his cast set now.” “Do you think he’ll still do it?” Jenkins was hoping with ever fiber of his being that Pimbleton would show up on the news later that night hanging off a ledge. “Nah,” Zhang was too seasoned to wish for such things. “Suicide cases never go through with it once the lines been cut. Their game is pure narcissism, and if they can’t affect others with their pain, they won’t do it. The real trigger pullers opt in for a scan. That’s when you know they’ll do it. Guys like Pimbleton are just murders convincing themselves their depressed.” “Wait, people still opt in for scans?” “You are such a newb, man.” Zhang laughed at Jenkin’s ignorance. “People opt out of the program everyday, and that is their right.” The story was done and Akemi was ready for the next file. He didn’t like it when Zhang got to have all the fun. “Who’s our top threat for the morning?” *End Part 2*
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August 2020
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