Detective Recruit
Singapore-born detective Johnny Z. M. Anderson generally referred to as Johnny Anderson or Detective Anderson. He was an orphan and a refugee from his country when he adopted by a moderately wealthy and lovely couple from the eastern US. From whence he had no one, now he had seven new siblings and two glowering parents who were happy with their new child.
He grew up with Benetton ad for a family, it was a nice family but he wanted more for himself so when he was 18 he joined the military. He excelled in basic training and ended up serving two tours of duty. He was well groomed in logistics and military intelligence.
After leaving the military he decided he still wanted to help people, he got a loan from his parents, or parent as it was now as his father had died of a massive heart attack while he was away on duty. He opened a private investigation firm which is where he was when something big fell on his lap.
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The day started out as normal as any other in the Detective's tiny office built into a brownstone; he sat at his desk idly, dressed in a button up shirt and black pants with suspenders. He was tired, business had slowed down and it was terribly apparent to his meager view of the world that he was about to lose his business and home, as he sleeps in the back.
Just then the most beautiful woman walked in, her legs were long like a stairway to heaven and her face gave him reminiscences of angels. She was upset, visibly shaking but it wasn't sadness when she parted those rose red colored lips but one of unbridled rage.
"I require your services, I think my husband is cheating on me; that bastard."
"There's a steep fee for my services."
She reached into her purse which was just a handheld purple leather clutch and pulled out an already signed blank check and placed it on the desk with a slap.
"I have an Iron Clad prenuptial which ensures I'll get quite a bit of money when I prove that asshole is cheating on me. My husband is a senator who is now running for governor and his pockets are very deep to begin with, his dealings have just swelled these funds."
"I need your information, that's very important." He remembered back when he did another job, promised a hefty sum but forgot to get any information on the client.
"Do you have a picture of him?"
"I'll email it to you."
"One more thing, do you know where he frequents?"
"He likes to go to a smoking club just up the street from here called The Yellow Jacket."
Then she turned a full 360 on her heels and click-clacked out of his office, a few moments later there was an alert that ringed on his computer and it was an email from her with a full work up of her husband, picture of him and of the girl whom was apparently the cheatee.
He gathered up his tools of the trade, put on his shoulder holster, grabbed his notepad, phone and wallet and then headed out, up the street towards The Yellow Jacket purported area of existence.
He made a short jaunt to that location, it was easier to make his way on foot as his car wasn't working most of the time due to it's non-existence. The building for the yellow jacket was just a regular brownstone converted for use for a business but the signs weren't vibrant and showy just subdued and muted.
The door was large, heavy and metal which he rapped on quickly. A few moments passed before a little eyeslot popped open and a pair of hard, tired eyes glared at him from beyond the door.
"What the fuck do you want?"
"Uh...I'd like to enter your establishment?" He said while holding up a twenty dollar bill.
"Give that to me." He handed it to the doorman who snatched it through the slot, then closed it.
He knocked again, a bit more hastily.
"What?"
"Let me in."
"No. Go away before I call the cops."
"You stole my twenty."
"Prove it."
"Alright how much to get me into the Yellow Jacket?"
"One hundred and twenty dollars." Said the voice helpfully.
"So I just have to give you a hundred dollars, since you already have twenty."
"No it requires an additional hundred and twenty."
"Fine, whatever." He pulled out another hundred and twenty from his wallet and handed it through the slot, which closed but the door opened soon after.
"You'll need a jacket if you want to walk around in here." Said the doorman who was unsurprisingly stocky which is what you expect from a doorman, he pulled out a tattered blue jacket and handed it to Johnny who took it gladly and put it on.
Johnny then walked forward into a nice sitting room, there were a few nicely dressed gentlemen sitting in lounge seats, smoking cigars. He referenced the picture on his phone a few times while scanning the room and discovering that it was distinctly bare of his target but his phone had a new email from the client.
It was the husband's schedule, which mentions that the husband was at a general assembly luncheon and then was meeting some financing clients at a diner a few miles away in about an hour and a half.
He charges back out to the front door to where the bouncer is sort of sitting in a little alcove, staring at a muted television. He pops up quickly as johnny approaches and holds his hand out for the jacket.
"Hang on before that, I want to know if I can just come back in without paying?"
"Good luck with that."
"Well the person I wanted to find wasn't here but I don't want to have wasted my money."
"Well I'll tell you what, if I'm duty I'll let you back in. Deal?"
"Okay sounds good to me."
"With a nominal fee of course."
John takes off the jacket and hands it to the man, who puts it on a hanger and hangs it unseen in the alcove. John walks out the door, hails a cab at the end of the block and hops in giving him the address of the Silver Rocket Diner.
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About an hour later, john is sitting in a little cafe across the street from the diner; sipping a small coffee while idly watching the building. A long black stretch limousine pulls up next to the diner and after the smartly dressed driver opens the door a man in a light blue business suit climbs out and stands in front of it.
After the limo pulls away a van shows up in it's place, all white without windows and a bit tinting. Two more men in suits hop out and then all three of them, the senator turning governor included. They pulled off quickly, so quickly in fact that John had to hop into the first cab he saw who was just idling on the street.
"Where to, buddy?"
"Follow that van."
"Alright."
The driver turned on the meter, pulled slowly away from the curb and followed at a decent distance "Don't get to close to him." Johnny said cautiously while gripping the seat around him, urgently.
"Yeah Yeah, It's not like I never tailed anyone before."
-----
The van stopped in front of a nameless warehouse, The guys in the van had hopped out with the senator walking in casually, while thumbing buttons on his suit.
They disappear inside of the warehouse as John hops out of the cab "Keep it running." He says to the driver who just kind of gives him a half-interested look.
"That'll be a hundred dollar deposit."
"Here you go." He hands him a hundred and twenty dollars. Johnny wanders towards the outset of the building looking for alternate way in beside the front door, not fully ready for a full frontal assault he sees a fire escape and a second floor window open.
He makes his way up the fire escape and into the window discovering a small windowless office with file cabinets all around a small desk and chair and a painting. Getting low to the ground with a crouch he makes his way to the door and cracks it open after making sure there wasn't any sound on the other side other than some heavily muffled conversation.
He's on the second floor of this warehouse, the entire second floor has been converted into offices surrounding a railing way that looks into the middle of the factory which is fully open and filled with random equipment. He carefully as ever creeps out onto the railing, still crouched and silent and looks down and sees four men, the senator, the two guys from the van and one larger man with tattoos and a bald head who is slapping the senator around.
The large man then grabs a burlap sack, stuffs the senator in side it's really more of a large laundry bag than a sack and hangs him on a meat hook where the other two gentleman start beating him with bats while he's in the bag. The large man walks away while speaking loudly "Don't hurt him too badly."
As the large man left the door and slammed it shut, Johnny used the sound coverage to make his way down some metal stairway and walked carefully around behind the two men with the bats till he was just behind them. They were completely unaware of his presence until one of them felt the cold metal feel of a gun pressed against the back of his head.
“Drop your weapons.” Which they did readily and happily to not get shot, they didn’t bother to turn around and look at him as he stood there silently contemplating what to do next he just acted on impulse.
“Release the senator.” The one without the gun attached to his head moved over to the sack and lifted it off the hook. Looking around again, he noticed that all of the equipment in here served different purposes without any cogency; extra construction equipment, slaughterhouse style meat hooks and old medical equipment.
The senator got up to his full height out of the bag which wasn’t much, about five foot six and bruised and smashed up with trickles of blood from his nose and ears and lips. Johnny took the opportunity to knock out both of the men with the butt of his gun while the senator dusted himself off.
“Thanks for saving me, Come on we gotta get outta here.”
“Why don’t we just go out the front?”
“Because there are armed guards out front.” The senator wandered back up the stairway as Johnny followed cautiously, keeping a firm hold on his pistol which weighed his hand down a bit but kept him painfully aware of it.
Back into the same office, the senator moved the painting out of the way which was on some hinges and behind it was a safe, which the senator knew the combination too. Inside was a button which when it was pressed, the wall and the safe moved out of the way to reveal a dark hallway.
“Follow me, it’s a secret exit.”
Johnny followed at close enough paces, the trip seemed long and the hallway curved and went downward at a gentle grade. After about five minutes of solid walking they came to a glowing light. It was a hand analyzer that the woman removed the skin of her old costume and placed her hand on the scanner it beeped lightly and a door slid open.
‘Welcome back, Agent.’ a soft robotic female voice which came from some unknown location in the room.
They both walked into a nice dark sitting room that looked like the interior of the Yellow Jacket; another door with a combination lock and they were inside a high tech compound with a large glowing screen filled with information and a long conference table.
“You have passed the first level of introduction, welcome to The Next Level.”