“How am I supposed to arrest Sebastian? He has the entire city under his control,” Chase complained. It had been a day since he and Helen visited DarkWinds, and he was phone calling Helen as he drove to the Corver City Police Station.
“He has a longer list of crimes than half the criminals in prison,” Helen reminded Chase. There were occasional noises in the background, and Chase couldn’t figure out if it was construction or if Helen was cooking bacon.
“But what happens when one bad guy accuses another bad guy? The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
“This is not a pressing matter,” Helen said sagely. Her voice was calm, reminding Chase that she was on a decaf journey. “First you need to make sure you still have a job.”
Sure enough, when Chase pulled up to his spot near the station, Sebastian was the least of his worries. Eyes followed him as he walked to his office. The stack of files at his desk was sky-high, and someone had rifled through his filing cabinet. Chase unbuttoned his coat, hung it on its peg, and sat down at his desk, running his callused hands over his face. As he flipped through the files, most of them were the boring, coffee-stained files from last week. Only one crime caught Chase’s eye. He had seen a similar crime before: an armed robbery of a Go-Go Goliath store, with a perp wielding two guns instead of one.
A creak sounded behind him, and the red face of Chief Dart popped around the door frame. “Look who decided to show up!”
“You went through my desk?”
“That was the union rep, after you broke into Bash Industries. That was a dangerous move.”
Chase scoffed. “You were the one who shot at me!”
“Use sir or chief when you address me,” said Chief Dart as he slammed his thick hands on Chase’s desk. From this angle, he looked like a rhinoceros, his posture not doing him any favors.
Chase seethed. “CHIEF… if you have a problem with the way I conduct cases, then fire me.”
“Yesterday, you were fired! I took your placard off the wall. But then Sebastian did that little press conference, called me up, and cleared your name. You’re the hero of Garland Grove.” Chief Dart stood straight, smoothing his pristine uniform. “Chalmers, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t care that you’re a loner. You work hard and you work overtime, and I don’t want you dead. But I don’t want you to tarnish my image. You’re up to something, and your vigilante act has Mr. Mulgraves and the rest of Corver City fooled. Be warned.”
Dart stalked away. Chase and Dart had never liked each other, but they were back to an impasse. Chase was the one with a moral compass. He was married to his work. Even if Chase’s actions didn’t make sense to Dart, Dart knew that Chase cared about the law, and so he didn’t have an issue with him. For Dart, being the chief of police was just a job: a job that gave him power, prestige, social connections, and plenty of vacation hours to spend time with his family. Dart did his duty, and his passion for authority shined through. He was corrupt, but Chase knew there was a time when Dart, just like Chase, was a fresh-faced recruit ready to make the world a better place.
Chase went back to his files. Now that he was publicly pardoned, he had all the time in the world to find out more about Sebastian so that he could arrest him. Chase went through the database, trying to dig up any information about Sebastian before he popped out of nowhere. He came up blank. Finally, as the sputtering old computer completed its hundredth search, Chase found an article about an “S. Mulgraves.” He had received a scholarship and generous internship with the Scientific Association of Argentine. Chase wasn’t a pro at geography, but Argentine was a rocky township hours away from Corver City, on the outskirts of a mountain range. And if he had to point to a map, that’s exactly where Triumphia would be.
Chase tried to find any information about the type of work Sebastian was doing, but the article was more focused on three other internship winners over the course of four years. Every one of them was a blue-collar worker from Corver City. Every one of them had gone on to do impressive things. A high-ranking military official, a career politician, and shockingly, the former CEO of Darkwinds: Darren Sheppard. When Chase read the name, flames of anger shot down his spine. Sheppard had been the one in charge of putting Blake in prison, and now he was in the same internship program as Sebastian! Chase had to get to the bottom of it.
But after hours, Chase was getting a headache. He hadn’t had his morning cup of joe! At lunchtime, he donned his coat and walked a few blocks to the nearest coffee joint. The area outside the police station was nice, but that meant people struggling with homelessness hung out around this part of town. If Chase weren’t on the clock, he would probably give out change. But most of them were wary of cops. When Chase was working, he preferred to keep his head down and stick to his mission.
Chase picked up a drip coffee and made his way back, enjoying the early afternoon sun. That’s when a beggar caught his eye. The guy was sitting on the curb, his face cloaked in shadow. He wore long tailored pants, and his well-manicured held out a maroon fedora full of change. Chase was stunned that a beggar would be in such nice clothes, and the closer he looked, the more he recognized the suave smile and strong cheekbones. This wasn’t a beggar at all.
“Sebastian!” Chase said. Sebastian turned.