Friday Fiction: Cypher

By Alan Smith

~~~~

“I’m the victim of a crime, why aren’t you out there catching the guy instead of questioning me?”
The guy in the cheap suit was obviously sweating.
“I know, Mr Greene. You told the duty officer what happened, but we need to take a formal statement. Let’s begin at the top, what happened?”

“Last night I went out to Cypher, that new club in the Data District. I was enjoying a drink or two with a friend. When it came time to leave, someone followed me out tried to mug me.”
“Do you know the time you left the club?”
“I had a couple of drinks, I wasn’t really looking at the time when I left. Is it important?”
“Okay. Do you mind if we check your GPS location in your DataLink? We’ll be able to confirm the time you arrived and left.” I motioned the port on his wrist.
The guy thought for a second, “Sure, if it helps…”

I signalled for the Tech to come in and begin.
While the scan started I began asking details.
“What did the guy look like?”
“I dunno. He must have been well over six foot, skinhead, muscly…”
“Do you remember what he was wearing?” I interrupted.
“Not really… I mean it was a suit, a dark one, he wouldn’t have got into the club if he wasn’t dressed well enough. I can’t remember details, though.”

The Tech handed me a Data Padd, information streaming through the browser.

“Did the assailant have a weapon?”
“Oh yes!” The suit perked up.
“He had a small knife, almost put a hole in me, but I stopped him first.”
“So things got physical?”
“Oh yeah! Definitely, I landed a few blows, dodged his though…”

The Data Padd beeped in my hand.
“GPS confirms your location, I’ll begin the investigation and keep you appraised of any updates.”
“Awesome. Thanks.”
the cheap suit sounded suitably relieved.
I arrived at the club within an hour, an old warehouse converted for that industrial atmosphere.

The building was busy, cleaners scurrying about like bugs avoiding barmen carrying crates of cheap beer while the night’s DJ tested the setup. I made my way through to the office, finding the manager herding a young blonde out from his office.
“Afternoon detective, just a meeting with ah… a potential supplier. What can I do for you?”
“We’ve had a report of an attack on club property last night.”
“Oh? I’ll review the logs, but I haven’t had any mention of an attack last night.”
The manager poured himself a coffee, offering a cup to me.
“I’m going to have to ask to see your CCTV footage, in case the attack wasn’t reported.”
The manager smiled.
“Of course, I’ll have my assistant show you to a spare terminal in the office. If you need anything you can ask her.”

In under three minutes I had access to the club’s security, recalling the suits GPS data on my padd I pulled up the right time, scanning through the video feeds I saw it.
The victim being escorted out by security.

“What’s the story with this guy?” I asked, pointing the managers assistant to the feed.
She looked at the footage, the timestamp and then her notes.
“It looks like that’s a drug dealer. We caught him attempting to sell something to some of the patrons and gave him a warning.”
“Does this thing have audio?” I indicated to the screen.
The girl fiddled with something behind the screen and sound sprung forth.
“You can’t get rid of me, I’m a big deal in this city! I’ll get you shut down in a week!”
“That explains a few things.”
I added a few notes to the padd.
“I’m going to need to discuss this with your manager.”

“This morning, this gentlemen filed a report that he was attacked on your premises by someone vaguely fitting the description of your security staff.”
I indicated the video feed, with cheap suit being escorted out despite his protestations.
“From what your assistant had informed me, it seems he was not one of your contracted suppliers and was attempting to sell black market narcotics in your establishment.”
The manager sat upright.
“We ban any black market dealers we find working in the club, we have to use registered dealers in order to maintain our license”
“I’m not casting doubt on your supplies. I only need to know what you want done with this guy.”

The manager thought for a moment.
“What do we know about him?”
I shook my head.
“Filed the report under a fake name, but was stupid enough to give me access to his DataLink. I can lead you directly to him if you’re willing to play ball.”
“If you’re looking for a pay out…”
I interrupted.
“Not a pay out, a paycheck. You’re going to find working the city easier when you’ve got a cop our two on staff. Consider it… security against scrimmage like this.”

Within the hour, the club’s doorman and I were heading down through the skeezy part of town. It wasn’t a friendly place. It was more like the rest of the city had conveniently forgotten these streets existed.
My dashboard started beeping, getting closer to the source of the GPS signal.
The doorman jumped out the car while I drove around to the other end of the alley.

“Mr Greene, I’ve got some good news for you.”
I called out, making my way between the buildings.
I saw the cheap suit in the midst of a deal with some random hoodlums.
“Wha…how did…where…”
“I managed to find the guy who attacked you. Do you want to come take part in an identity parade to identify him?”
The hoodlum ran past me, obviously aware something was about to go very wrong.

“Oh.. no… er I’m okay! Give him a caution, let him know it won’t be tolerated.”
The cheap suit started backing off towards the other end of the alley.
“We can’t just stop now, Mr Greene, you filed an egregious complaint. You know wasting police time is a very serious matter, right?”
By the time he turned to run, the doorman was behind him.

I got into work the next morning, sunglasses masking a hangover and a large designer coffee in my hand, still too hot to drink. Walking past the water cooler, I overheard one of the Homicide detectives waxing lyrical about his new case to a college.
“Yeah, some John Doe in a cheap suit. Drug overdose. Doubt anyone is gonna miss him…”