The Neo-Metropol Heist

48: Jaeger

"And that brings us to now," Artem Foxe said, smiling.
Even sat in a cold, bare interrogation room, his tux loose and haggard, he still looked confident. He still looked in control.
"You've told me everything?" Jaeger asked, leaning over the steel table they both sat at, "everything?"
Artem shrugged.
"I may have redacted some things, like names, places, basic details etcetera," he said.
Jaeger said back and rubbed her teeth with her tongue, rubbing her eyes. She'd been up for almost a day straight with nothing but coffee to keep her going, and she was starting to feel it.
The room was designed to intimidate, nothing but a cold steel cube with a blinking camera in the corner. The lieutenant had demanded that she have a guard while she interrogated the thief, but once they'd arrived Jaeger had ordered them to wait outside.
Some things Artem had told her sounded insane - a nighttime infiltration of the Beach during the height of the riots, getting on the bad side of a cargo-droid, but Jaeger knew that with most of it he was simply giving her the runaround. He was just keeping her entertained without giving anything away.
He was waiting for something, but Jaeger didn't know what.
Artem leaned forward and Jaeger met his gaze.
"You know, I still think there was a lot of merit to what I said back in the Neo-Metropol," he said.
Jaeger crossed her arms.
"I think it's a bit late for me to let you go now," she said.
Artem grinned.
"We'll see," he said, "but really. You caught me, that means you're good at what you do. Better than all of this."
Jaeger probably wasn't doing herself any favours by not having a comeback to that, she thought, but she agreed.
"There are better ways you could use what you can do, detective," Artem continued, "help people, you know?"
Jaeger forced herself to argue.
"I have a job," she replied, "a career. That's more than a lot of people."
Artem smiled again. Jaeger thought for a moment how long she could live with that before she would resort to hitting him to make him stop.
"We deserve what we think we deserve, detective," he said, "and really, we deserve whatever we can take. Even more so in a world like this."
Jaeger didn't know how to respond to that, so she stood up.
"Interview paused at," she checked the clock on the wall, "ten thirty six am."
She went to the door and banged twice.
"Coming out," she said.
The door buzzed as it unlocked and she left the room with another glance at Artem.
Outside, she found Stewart waiting for her with a coffee.
"I'm pretty sure my blood is now mostly caffeine," Jaeger said, taking the cup gratefully and tipping a scalding gulp back.
"What's new?" Stewart asked, "have you gotten anything out of him yet?"
Jaeger shook her head.
"Nothing," she replied, "he's like a fucking stone."
From a door at the end of the corridor, Lutalo appeared with two officers behind him in full dress, masks covering their faces.
"Detective Jaeger," he said, "any progress with the Neo-Metropol perp?"
"No, sir," she said, frustratedly, "I think he's playing with us."
Lutalo nodded and sighed, rubbing his balding head.
"You did well in bringing him in to us," he said, "but Aguilar is getting jumpy. We won't be able to keep him out of Castells' hands for much longer."
Jaeger sighed.
"Is he pushing for a transfer?" She asked, and was surprised when Lutalo shook his head.
"No," he said, "in fact, we haven't heard anything from him personally - he's dropped off the map, but his team are in overdrive. Six of his men died there, Jaeger."
"Sir, they fell," Jaeger snapped, "the fucking floor collapsed."
"I know, detective, and that is what we will tell them," he said, "but if we don't get anything out of him in the next few hours, we won't be able to hold on to him. Finish up and turf him to the retros."
Jaeger's heart sank - 'retros' was the collective term of affection for the cerebral interrogation specialists downstairs. It was usually the last step to break a tough, high-profile case, but she hadn't been given enough time.
Jaeger wasn't exactly sure what it was, but it was a lot of electrodes and straps. It wasn't torture, but possibly everything but.
"Sir, if I could just have a little bit longer, I know I can break him," Jaeger argued, out of the corner of her eye she saw Stewart turn away in frustration.
"Jaeger, the retros can get what we need faster than you can," Lutalo argued, "it's not nice, but we need to do it to keep him away from Castells."
Jaeger sighed. She knew the captain was right, anything they could do wouldn't be worse than whatever Castells could do, and it would keep Artem close for the time being.
"All right, sir," Jaeger said, "Stewart, call down to the retros and tell them we're bringing them a new case. Top priority."
"They won't like that, boss," Stewart pointed out.
"Tell them if I can find a shit to give on the way down, they're welcome to it," Jaeger retorted.
Stewart nodded with a tired smile and turned away with his finger to his ear. Lutalo gave her a reassuring glance and turned to leave, leaving the two officers that had escorted him in behind.
She gestured to both them and the two guards that had been waiting outside of the interrogation room for the past few hours.
"You four," she said, trying to sound in command even though she was dead on her feet, "stick with me, stay on your toes. Ready?"
They nodded and Jaeger opened the door to the interrogation room, letting one of them inside as they removed a pair of cuffs.
"Are we done already?" Artem asked, "I was starting to enjoy our time together."
"I can't say the same," Jaeger said as the officer made Artem stand up and slapped the cuffs on around his wrist, "follow me."
Artem looked as though he was about to make another quip, but instead he followed the order and stepped in between the escort guards.
They left the interrogation cell and moved through the hallway outside, out into the main atrium area. They were about thirty floors up, but even at that height the building was still busy with early morning bustle.
Staff and visitors alike parted as Jaeger led Artem through along the balcony towards the elevators at the far end of the building.
"So," Artem said, "are we going up or down? I'm guessing down, right? To the torture guys?"
Jaeger ignored him, focusing on the elevators ahead.
"No small talk?" He continued, "that's a shame. You know, I do mean it when I say you're the best detective I've ever seen, but you still have the usual... drawbacks."
When Jaeger didn't reply, he just kept talking.
"Like, you're dedicated, right? Which makes you prone to tunnel vision."
"How so?" Jaeger asked, cursing herself for being drawn in.
"Well, you're so focused on getting me into that elevator that you haven't questioned why two of the four officers assigned to escort me have their field helmets on indoors."
Jaeger froze, and time slowed down. She turned, but was only halfway when she saw the two masked officers unholster their weapons and bring them down in unison onto the necks of the officers in front of them.
The officers dropped to the floor and Jaeger cried out as one of the assailants covered Artem's eyes with her arm and the other dropped a silver canister to the ground that bounced once and erupted with a blinding flash of light.
The light disorientated Jaeger and she fell to her knees.
"Sorry, detective," she heard somewhere out in the blurry oblivion.
When she came to her senses, she stumbled to her feet and the building around her came into focus. People were running around aimlessly, many of those closest to her still unable to see and most of them thinking it had been a bomb of some kind.
Artem and the two impostor officers were nowhere to be seen and for a moment Jaeger stood there in the stream of people, her ears ringing and her head throbbing. Then, she felt a hand on her shoulder and Stewart shattered her trance.
"... headed for the roof," he said, "boss?"
Jaeger fell back to reality and nodded.
"Make sure those two are alright," she told Jaeger, gesturing to the two incapacitated officers on the ground and making for the nearest corridor that had a maintenance staircase leading to the roof, "this is Detective Yasmin Jaeger, a suspect has escaped from custody and is heading for the roof, I believe he has the means to exit the building and has assistance from two perps dressed as officers."
She pushed through a metal door into the maintenance staircase and glanced up momentarily before pounding up the concrete steps.
"I am in pursuit, send back up," she finished, using the cold handrail to pull herself along.
The stairs felt like they went on forever, and by the time she heard officers burst into the staircase a few floors below, she was already struggling for breath. Her body was tired, the caffeine was no real substitute for the sleep she hadn't had. She just wanted to stop.
And yet she kept going.
At the top, she threw herself out of the external door and out onto the gravelled surface of the roof.
She saw Artem at the edge of the building, the two officers no longer had their masks on, revealing themselves to be the dark Beacher girl that she had seen the previous night and the tall blonde man who had served as a distraction. He had a black eye and a split lip and for a moment Jaeger thought of Garistag, with his mean, blue eyes.
She drew her pistol and switched it to electro-shock mode aiming it at the three of them, shouting a warning at them.
Behind them, from below, the jumpship that they had used to make their escape from the Neo-Metropol roared up, the boarding hatch on the underside open and waiting.
Before she could stop them, the blonde man and the Beacher jumped from the ledge and into the ship.
"I really am sorry to do this to you, detective," Artem said, as from behind her, Jaeger heard the officers thundering up the staircase, "but think about what I said. Do something better. Be smarter."
With that, he turn and threw himself over the edge, sailing over the gap and coming to a stop on the lowered platform. Turning back and winking at her before it closed shut and the ship turned with a hum.
Her back-up came from the stairs with their rifles drawn, and when they spotted the jumpship, they fired at it. The ship responded by turning its engines up, and with a blast of red light, it launched away into the sky.
Lutalo appeared as Jaeger simply watched it leave.
"Ceasefire," he yelled, "ceasefire. They're gone."
The officers holstered their weapons and looked between themselves awkwardly. Lutalo came up beside her.
"Jaeger?" He asked, concerned, "detective, what happened?"
Jaeger didn't know how to respond to that, so she just stood there and looked out across the city, knowing that something fundamental had changed, she just didn't know what.