Read Different Paths for Free Online

against him for excessive
force. However, their information on him only stretches back five years but
there is a note in their files that his background check is good and approved.”
    Special Agent Johnson maneuvered their black
skimmer into traffic. “Anything else of note?”
    “Hmm…” Agent Smith thought for a few seconds
before adding, “He stands with his weight evenly distributed on both feet and
he moves exceptionally quiet.”
    “And what does that tell you? Remember your
training.”
    “There is an eighty percent chance that our
subject has studied the martial arts.”
    Special Agent Johnson shook his head. “Wrong; one
hundred percent chance trained, probably a martial arts master.”
    “Where did you get that information? It’s not in
his profile.”
    “If you want to survive in this job Smith, use
more than just the profile generated by Intel. Had you looked, you would’ve
noticed that the two books in the lobby were ancient treaties on warfare; one
in Japanese and the other in Chinese. Couple those with his occupation, the
scar, the interface port, the way he moves and his association to Sgt. Major Spenton…now,
what do you get?”
    “A retired member of Strike Forces.”
    Agent Smith frantically scanned through the files
once more, looking for any reference to the military. It wasn’t there. Looking
at his mentor, he cocked his head and asked, “But why wouldn’t that information
be in his profile?”
    “Now that is a good question. Pull up the file on Sgt.
Major Spenton. Is there anyone listed in his last unit that is here in New
Atlanta?”
    The young fed scanned the related files before
answering. “Just one, a Lt. Commander Charles Kristopher. He is now a
lieutenant on the NAPD.”
    “Then let’s pay this lieutenant a visit.”
    Special Agent Johnson punched a few buttons on his
controls and their skimmer shifted lanes.
    *   *   *   *   *
    The New Atlanta Police Department -- NAPD -- had
its hands full on any given day. With a population of over sixty-seven million
and the largest spaceport on the eastern seaboard, they had their fair share of
crime. Police Officers of the twenty-second century had numerous advantages
from their ancient counterparts.
    First, with the advancements in biometric
technologies, nearly every citizen of New Atlanta was hooked into the Core-Net.
This was a great convenience to the citizens. It allowed them to surf the web
on the go. However, it also allowed the government and the police to track
their every move. Sure technology helped in solving crimes but not stopping it.
That took manpower, lots of manpower.
    The police fell into three major groups; Squints,
Flatfoots and Bots.
    Squints were the nickname given to all the
technical people who monitored, tracked and shifted through the deluge of
information of the Core-Net. They were the geeks who called on the Flatfoots to
do the actual police work.
    Flatfoots, also called grunts, were the men and
women who felt the call to work long hours for low pay while trying to make a
difference in their community. As part of their training, every cop was
augmented to some degree. The lowest ‘aug’ required by the department was a
simple memory backup that recorded everything an officer did during their
shift. Its primary purpose was to protect the officer and the department when
some lawyer decided to try and cut their teeth on the NAPD. More advanced
augments were offered to the officers depending on their duty assignment from
enhanced reflexes to enhanced senses, to the level of SWAT members with full
combat augs. These select few men and women gained the highest level of
augments available outside of the military.
    The only problem was that there weren’t enough
officers to really make a difference, enter the Bots.
    Androids were completely synthetic beings that
looked human but weren’t technically alive. They ran a complex series of
programs and were extremely helpful in aiding the manpower shortage.