Chương 163: B3. 13.1- The Clash of Back-up Plans

Jeremiah Hall Sgt. Jeremiah Hall of the La Esperanza City Police Department grimaced as his car groaned while rounding the corner. There was too much weight in the backseat. His old sedan, his companion from the start of his career, was making its complaints clear. Hall glanced at the rearview mirror. It reflected bright, golden eyes belonging to a hulking figure.

At almost seven feet tall, twice as wide as a regular human, and sporting four muscular arms, Agent Matt of the Bureau of Interdimensional Defense couldn't ride shotgun. He had to sit in the backseat, occupying nearly all of it. With a body made of special alloy and all sorts of hi-tech materials that Hall wouldn't know about, Agent Matt weighed down the back of the car as much as four people. Hall guessed that the BID agent had added weapon modules to his body for their jaunt.

Why else did Agent Matt weigh this much? It was concerning that Agent Matt packed this much heat for what Hall told him was a simple surveillance. Maybe I shouldn't have told him about this…? Agent Matt noticed Hall's troubled look half an hour ago. Hall probably should've made some excuse. Ramello was sick, or maybe a home repair was costing more than expected. Going against his instincts, he told the truth. And so, here they were…

"We should've taken a police cruiser," Agent Matt said in a friendly voice not fitting his intimidating bulk. It wasn't even that deep of a voice, given his size.

"Neither my agency nor your department will cover the repair costs of a broken-down private vehicle. Then again, a cop car is too conspicuous for our little trip, won't you agree?"

"Sir, are you sure you don't want me to swing you by the crime scene at Belvedere Village?" Hall asked, referring to the second Adumbrae attack of the night. The last he heard, the Adumbrae seemingly exploded on its own before any police officers or BID agents could engage it. The wretched monster did manage to kill around a dozen people after setting fire to a row of houses.

"And miss this exciting adventure with you? I don't think so. We're going to have a fun little side quest here." Side quest? It was a term that Hall had heard Ramello, his sort of adopted nephew, use before.

"It might be nothing, sir."

"You told me that you think there's something to this. I trust your guts. That, I do. Make sure to drink probiotics to keep your gut healthy."

"I'll do that." Hall had become used to Agent Matt's way of speaking. He'd usually just agree to anything the eccentric agent said.

"I miss my regular guts. All this tubing…" Agent Matt groaned. He seemed to be rubbing his stomach with his first pair of arms.

"Anyway, tell me again, Hall, about the tip you received. This supposed PCM safehouse, was it? Suspicious, suspicious." Hall recounted the call he received a couple of hours earlier. An unknown number. Likely, a disposable SIM card. He asked the tech boys to trace the call's location—it was in the middle of a shopping district. Lots of cameras, but also lots of people.

He doubted he'd find the identity of the caller, since this guy was especially careful, even using a voice changer to sound like a female robot over the phone. This mysterious person gave concerning details about the PCM, like their bases underneath the city, the Adumbrae they kept, and even the plan to make a Purple Bloom. Hall offered her protection if she came forward as a witness, but the woman, if she was indeed a woman, refused.

What she wanted was for Hall to visit a specific house at a certain time because something allegedly 'interesting' relating to Adumbrae and the PCM was going to happen there.

"Don't come too early," the robotic voice had said, reasoning that the people he'd investigate wouldn't come to the house if they saw cops hanging out there. He wouldn't want to ruin this chance to learn more about the PCM. Hall should be discreet, but should also be prepared for trouble.

"What kind of trouble?" Hall gruffly asked, annoyed by the shrouded mystery.

"I don't know. Just be very careful… You don't want Ramello Staten to lose an uncle, do you?" The call ended. Hall intended to visit the place with Castan, his former partner in the force, before his transfer to the anti-Adumbrae task force. He wasn't sure why he didn't immediately report it to the BID. Maybe because the tiny voice that was his instincts didn't trust the BID not to assault the place before this 'interesting something' was going to happen.

Inexplicably, he trusted that this voice was telling the truth. This wasn't a trap. But it would be a dangerous place to visit. While agonizing over what to do, wrestling with his instincts, Agent Matt found him. Hall blurted it out to Agent Matt, the latter agreeing to accompany him.

"I wonder, I wonder," Agent Matt sang in the backseat, "what we'll find there. I'm excited! This is like opening a present. Are you as excited as I am, Sgt. Hall?"

"Sorry, I can't match your enthusiasm, sir," Hall replied, cracking a smile. His annoyance had come around to amusement. This BID agent was unlike any person he had worked with before.

"Not with the city plagued by Adumbrae. I haven't tackled any… actual… Adumbrae case since the McHunters." Hall reminded himself of the many suspected Adumbrae that turned out to be normal people. Many mistakes were made. Some by overzealous neighbors or politicking co-workers. Some by law enforcement itself. Hall didn't forget his mistakes.

"Oho, the McHunters?" The backseat creaked as Agent Matt leaned back.

"That was quite the case, wasn't it? It irks me that many of the McHunters are still dragging their appeals up to the present. Human rights, am I right? It's so much easier to deal with monsters."

"Do you think there will be a monster where we're going?"

"I overlaid the map of the city's underground with the houses in that neighborhood. If I'm not wrong—there have been many times that I've been wrong—then one of the tunnels ran under the house. Who knows… maybe one of the beasties kept by the PCM is around there." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"And someone is going to release it to attack the neighborhood?"

"A possibility. That's why I came prepared."

"We should call for backup," Hall said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. The serious situation got even more serious.

"I am the backup." Agent Matt's booming laughter almost deafened Hall.

"Other agents are better deployed elsewhere. This is looking to be a busy night." The agent's nonchalance didn't reassure Hall one bit.

"Do you think there'll be more Adumbrae attacks? This person who called… She must be a PCM member breaking ranks. A stab of conscience urged her to warn the police about this, hoping to save more people. But the rest of her instructions don't make sense."

"Right, you are. Why tell you to go there at a specific time? Sounds like she wants us to catch someone, not stop something. That's something a traitor would do. Someone with an axe to grind against the PCM leadership, based from her tone. I don't think this is a person suffering from guilt. Perhaps… Auron Cohenn will be there?"

"Do you think Auron Cohenn is here?"

"Maybe? That slimeball isn't in San Diego," said Agent Matt.

"Has left it, according to the people we've interrogated." Interrogated… Hall was aware of the BID's methods. If national security was at stake, they were prepared to turn some screws tight. The BID's interrogation methods had been the subject of controversy in the past, but everything was on the table when it came to stopping a Purple Bloom from blossoming inside the country.

"Around ten minutes," Hall said, checking the map on his phone, "and we'll arrive and have our answer to the question of who's there."

"Another question that I want answered," said Agent Matt.

"Why you?" Hall raised a brow.

"Sir?"

"Why did this robot woman call you? If she wanted someone to get caught, then she should've called the BID, right? Especially if Adumbrae is involved. Just mention the word, and we'll be all excited about it like ants to a party. A party with cake. As an ant, I'd want the cake. I wouldn't care about the attendees."

"I… Maybe she's afraid of contacting the BID? I haven't thought about it." Hall did wonder why the woman called him, of all people. He had some ideas.

"Yeah, I get that. People are afraid that we'll bring fire and brimstone." Agent Matt tapped the ceiling of the car.

"She probably wants this person or persons arrested instead of squished under my heavy boot. But… again… Why you? She could've called the tip line of the police."

"She could be African-American and trusted me. My reputation in the community is—""Not that, Sgt. Hall." Agent Matt waved a thick finger that was reflected in the rearview mirror. His eyes had stopped glowing.

"This woman called you specifically because you wouldn't have brought this to the attention of the BID until after you've investigated it. She didn't want the BID to be there, and calling you was the surest way to do it."

"But I told you, sir," Hall carefully said. Agent Matt was right. Hall reached the same conclusion right after the call from the robotic voice. And it was because of this realization that Hall decided to tell Agent Matt about it.

"You told me before you were about to leave," said Agent Matt. A couple of seconds of silence. Agent Matt changed the thrust of the conversation.

"I get that you want to verify the information before passing it through the pipeline. You want to do some old-school legwork. It's all fine and good. But my point here is… this woman knows you."

"I… have considered that," Hall admitted. There was a reason Agent Matt had a high position in the BID. He wasn't just an agent, even if he called himself that. The way the other agents acted around him was telling. Also, the number of modifications on his body was proof of his rank.

"Any idea of who it could be?" Agent Matt asked.

"I can't tell yet. I've talked to a lot of people while investigating the PCM. I don't think any of them have this much insider knowledge. They could've kept it from me, but… I'll review my notes."

"You'll find our Ms. Informant. You have a knack for being right. Like the two dead bodies at Marsh Row, found a day after the Adumbrae attack on the trains. I've heard that you were pushing for this theory that there's a fourth Adumbrae after January's Adumbrae attack. Look at what's happening now—there's a fourth, fifth, sixth, so many more Adumbrae. This city is crawling with them!"

"Yes, sir." As Hall had learned, it was best to just agree when Agent Matt went on his tirade against Adumbrae. This four-armed man had a deep-seated hatred of Adumbrae, far deeper than any person Hall had met. But Agent Matt didn't go into a crazed sermon.

"Anyway, I was saying that you were right about Marsh Row and your other theories. Good guts, you have. We should mandate probiotics for everyone instead of fluoride in our water. Damn yellowing teeth. You were beyond right! Red Hood was at Marsh Row!" Hall nodded. It should've been vindication when the gangsters they arrested confirmed that they were living under the heavy claws of Red Hood—anyone who didn't follow was killed or eaten.

After the BID swept Marsh Row, confirming that Red Hood and her Adumbrae minions had fled, the gangsters came forward with videos and photos of Red Hood and her alleged human form. They also told stories of Red Hood killing and even eating people to terrorize the gangs into compliance. Everyone swore that they had no choice but to follow. Hall was right all along. About Marsh Row. The gangs. Their connection to the criminal mastermind brothers, Mark and Marc.

And, ultimately, Red Hood, who pulled the strings to everything, even the PCM. Red Hood was in control of the underground of the city this entire time. It would mean that Red Hood also controlled the corrupt cops and city officials, even though they didn't know it. However, Hall's instincts told him that he was missing something. Tomorrow, he would interrogate the gangsters in custody again, especially the scrawny man calling himself Overdrive.

This Overdrive supposedly did his best to appease Red Hood so that she wouldn't eat them, so he had plenty of information about her nature. But he was keeping his mouth shut, asking for immunity first. Fortunately for him, the BID wasn't yet desperate to force information out of him.

"And isn't it funny that Red Hood's operations even reached New Hope?" Agent Matt asked, referring to the McHunter's derelict and abandoned 'Mega City of the Future'.

"It is too much to be a coincidence." Having seen Myra Fletcher and Reo Hinode go to New Hope before, bringing along Erind Hartwell, Hall went there himself to have a look around. He didn't see much. Then again, he hadn't been to New Hope for a long time to tell what was out of place. But once he got on the anti-Adumbrae task force and told the BID about this, city engineers checked the area, comparing the concrete husks with the decades-old plan of the project.

They found out that one of the buildings had been demolished recently. Not by heavy equipment or demolition charges, but by punches to its columns. It turned out that an Adumbrae, Red Hood, or some other let off some steam inside the building. The city engineers estimated the demolition to have occurred either soon before or after the January Adumbrae attack. Agent Matt's theory was that the Adumbrae attack didn't go according to plan, and Red Hood brought down the building in anger.

"I wouldn't be surprised if New Hope was the planned site for a Purple Bloom," Agent Hall said, leaning to the right to scan the houses they passed.

"A big space that nobody checks. The entire country would be surprised one day when a Purple Bloom three miles across starts shitting out tons of—""... Sir?"

"Park here. To the side. Away from view."

"But we're near the house," Hall said as he followed instructions.

"The car that was ahead of us. A block away. It has BID plates."