16 Prejudice

Two days later, I struggled to maintain a single line of thought for more than thirty seconds.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. That was the book cover that held my focus for ten minutes straight. I thought about how hard it was to convince that old man to sell me his a hundred years old copy of that four hundred years old story. I paid an absurd amount of coins on that book to read it once ever since I got it a year ago. The same thing happened to all the other stuff I owned.

Going as far as saying I was a "collector" sounded too extreme, I enjoyed possessing physical art just to fill the gaps on my bookshelf. Looking at it was like seeing my memories materialized, they gave shape to my feelings. Having physical proof of something I enjoyed was comforting. I bought ancient copies of movies and games even though I had no device to play them, since their media was discontinued a long time ago.

Our blue planet was exploited for thousands of years, a few decades ago natural feedstocks almost became extinct because of the enormous demand corporations had. Mother nature couldn't keep up anymore. To minimize the usage of natural resources, products labeled as non-essential stopped being manufactured. Books, paintings, mangas, notebooks, paper, anything that used plants as primary raw material was terminated.

Art seized to exist in the physical world. Every hardcover book had been the same for decades. Austen's work went from one hand to another for a century until it ended on my dusty shelf and I only read it once. Still, selling it for a higher price wasn't an option, it meant something to me.

Forty eight hours had passed since I walked away moments after accepting to help a cop at the same time that I worked for the Trinity to take down the police's next operation. Yet, I wasn't doing anything I agreed to, not to officer Abrom and neither to the underground Lords. Even with texts from the Manager popping on my screens every hour.

I had to move, too often I got trapped wondering about the past. The Trinity wouldn't wait any longer, they were already getting impatient. Focusing on the task would give me time to figure out what to do about the officer's request.

Overall, what I got from Sargent Lee, Toni's phone was standard material. Some virtual reality porn in expensive clubs, depts, regular and expected amount of political radicalism. A typical cop. He acted like a bigshot but mostly he did paperwork and research after being considered unfit for ground operations.

If Toni boy was in charge of research, he probably had access to archived cases and operation files.

As the great idiot Sargent Lee was, he had synchronized his mainscreen to every network available on the station he worked in. I had all these doors and all I had to do was open the right ones without setting any alarms. Barging in and face their defenses directly would result in a complete lockdown of all the Force's systems, making my way in much harder. Stealthy mode was the smart way to go. Maybe the oldest, simplest trick ever created would be the best, the Trojan Horse.

Just like me, he was sitting on a chair working the night shift. He took too many breaks and was just going through social media rating pictures of women instead of revising reports. Given the man's history, porn would be the perfect bait. A simple link to a fake site would put me inside the station network.

Access to confidential police files, there was so much I could do with it.

However, I wasn't given much time to think about what I would do with the information I was about to get. Toni boy didn't think twice to bite my bait. And like that, with an add to a fetish club, the door to the Force's database was gently opened.

On my chair I laid back to stretch my legs and savor the ignorance of Sargent Lee, Toni. A true idiot, I thought as I raised my soda as a toast.

Helping her had just become a thousand times easier, it wouldn't cost me anything. I could get the case files, send it to her and that was it. We wouldn't even need to meet. It was time to end this "thing" before something happened.

Back to work, finding future operation plans was the objective. Most latest reports most were about daily arrests, drug apprehensions, basic stuff. Moving to the day after the invasion, many reports were filed detailing the officers actions on the ground. The mission was to locate an apartment used as a meeting place for members of the Mask. They had no address, just some satellite images of a yard looking like the one outside my building where the Force fought the Trinity. The one on the picture was further inside the slum, they looked exactly the same but the officers had no way of knowing that.

What I couldn't understand about this operation was the motive. After years of turning a blind eye, the Leader sent dozens of cops into a dangerous unexplored territory to follow a tip about a meeting place. All this risk for such a little prize.

I was finally focused when another text from Jeff, the Manager pulled me out of my thoughts. According to him, Dan wanted an update by the next day or he would pay me a visit. For as much as I liked Dan I didn't want him in my house, or any Trinity members for that matter.

Digging through little bitch Toni's archives I came across a research he was doing on some old GPS maps of the first constructions in the slums. He was trying to match those with satellite images taken recently, trying to build a new map. They were planning a new operation, but this time going in blind wasn't an option.

Taking from the progress Sargent Lee had made, it would be a while before the Force had anything remotely decent they could use to build a mission on. Knowing about the planning would satisfy the Trinity, let them know the cops weren't after their business was good but it was still a threat.

A short text to the manager to let him know I would stop by after lunch time and I rubbed my eyes. I never felt so tired after such a simple job. Cutting the night short never seemed so right.