Payday

The Brooklyn State Hospital was located in Borough Park, being one of the most advanced hospitals in the entire world.

A modern six story building with a white facade that provides a sleek, clean, and professional aura. The building was mostly covered by large glass windows to let in as much sunlight as possible, giving a warm atmosphere to both patients and staff. And where there were no windows located, the pristine white walls increased the feeling of luxury and cleanliness the building exhibited. 

Equipped with state of the art medical facilities and some of the best doctors you could find in the entire country, this was the place to go to... If you could afford it. As you'd expect, the price of this place was inordinate, far from something common folk would be capable of affording. 

Yet today, on the 5th floor, it was me and Ronald who were wrapped in bandages from head to toe, like 2 cartoon characters. As for the specifics...

It was a ploy by the higher ups of the higher ups. Using us as bait they spied on everyone involved in assigning this case. They chased relentlessly after the moles that work, directly or indirectly, for Kingpins vast underground empire. Long had they known that, in fact, the corruption had spread to the entire police department. 

 Finally, as we were caught by the gangsters it was also the rat who was caught. Thankfully, those same bastards who used us as fodder did indeed have a conscience and mounted a rescue operation. With lady luck on our side, we have managed to avoid anything too serious. We had only been a little roughed up so to speak. 

Thankfully the treatment here is extensive and we probably wont even have a scratch 2 weeks later. The bandages themselves also had some sort of amazing healing salve on it that made my swollen face and bruised body ache a lot less. Needless to say the salve was definitely out of our pay grade. 

Slowly looking up from the bed, there was a woman sitting on the chair next to my bed, eating apple slices. With her red hair tied up in a ponytail, and round spectacles on her face, she gave off a educated and well spoken aura. The suit she wore made me guess she was affiliated with the FBI, or even SHIELD by chance, but they were much less likely. 

"Uhm, those are mine." i said with a wretched smile while looking on as they were disappearing one by one. 

"MHMHMMHMM.", Came the reply. 

Sighing, i laid back on the bed and kept resting. Or at least i tried to, were it not for the constant sounds of apples being wolfed down by the woman next to me. 

Fifteen minutes later, the woman who made it her duty to demolish every last apple in the world, finally finished the ones in my room. Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, in the most unladylike manner imaginable, she finally exhaled. 

"Haaaa, sorry, i didn't get to eat anything today due to the amount of work i had to deal with. Anyways~." The woman said. 

"Right, you told me all of the whys and whatever, but can't you at least introduce yourself?" i asked. 

"Oh! ~ Sorry i forgot. I'm Anna." she replied with a smile on her face. 

"Now, i do understand that we agreed to take on this case, knowing full well that the others would've not sprung the trap set for the bastards that kidnapped us. I do get it." pausing for a bit, i rephrased what i wanted to say to sound a bit nicer. 

"But... who in their right mind would agree to send their own men to almost certain death?" i asked, the anger in my voice apparent. 

"You weren't really in any danger, though?", she looked back at me with a puzzled look. 

"What if they had just shot us then and there? What if they decided to kill us the moment you guys started the assault? What if you had lost the van and failed to locate the warehouse? What if anything had gone badly due to some unforeseen circumstances?" i asked question after question, still trying to maintain my calm. 

"Although you were indeed kidnapped, i can assure you, you were perfectly safe. The van was tracked by 3 different law enforcement agencies due to the nature of the warehouse, and one of the people inside that very van was out plant.", talking up to this point, she sighed in annoyance.

"Sadly our plant was never before allowed to get near the warehouse as it was well hidden. Only select few people could ever go there that worked for one of Kingpins gangs, and you being caught finally gave us the chance to find its location. So even if the van was suddenly untraceable, as unlikely as that is, for a brief moment, our insider would've alerted us of the location. And as for killing you during the assault on it, that was even less likely, due to the insider having killed them all the moment the assault commenced." as she finished her sentence she rose up from her seat. 

Walking to the window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, she was gazing at the vast blue sky for a while, before turning to look at me and continuing. 

"To conclude, you were perfectly safe during this entire operation. Much safer than the ones that participated in it or even doing your daily police force tasks.", she replied with a smile. 

"... Could i not have at least been informed of it in advance?" i wasn't even angry anymore, just tired. 

" Sadly not, for one reason due to not knowing which device may have a bug in it. Or in the second case, not knowing whether you'd inform some of your associates which could result in the entire plan failing. ", pausing for a second, she continued.

"So...does that clear up your doubts and set your mind at ease?" she showed her honest smile once more. 

"Not really, no." i replied.

"Damn it, by now they would give in. Out with it, what do you want?" feeling a headache coming, she started rubbing her temples. 

"Hazard pay, obviously.", i started smiling as i said that. 

"Oh~, that's already been paid.", she looked at me with a smug grin on her face. 

"Eh? How much is it then? Its usually a fraction of my annual pay." 

"The cost of this room.", as she said that her grin grew wider. 

"... Shit." 

"Im joking~, six thousand and the cost of treatment here is covered by us. Thats great right?" 

Guessing how expensive this room would be if i paid out of my pocket, i had no more qualms about it. Well, i still felt like crap for being used but i got something out of it. 

"Now then, I'll get going since im busy, have a good rest!", leaving those words behind, she left the room with a smile on her face. 

Like that, i was to spend two weeks here until i recover fully. While none of my injuries were dangerous at all, i didn't want to walk around bruised outside.