Replica (Original Work)

Chapter 5 - A Fine Mess

This was a fine mess. A shootout in my apartment. It would bring the civies, and worse, possibly reporters. Any semblance of anonymity I had maintained before was doomed to be shattered in the most public way possible. The whole damn city could know I was an artificial by noon tomorrow, and that wasn't the sort of thing I wanted getting out.

The neighbors were conspicuously absent thus far. I wondered when they'd get off their floors and poke their heads out, trying to see where all that "gunfire" business had come from. A bunch of prying eyes and looky-loos, exactly what I needed in my life right after somebody tried to kill me.

I put my hands over my face, slowly dragging them downward, as though I could peel away the last ten minutes. No such luck. The corpse of my would be assassin was still there, mocking me as it leaked all over my floor. Great.

I made my paces around the room, looking from my shot open door, to the body, to the shotgun propped against my wall for what felt like a solid twenty minutes before Cutter showed up. Figures my team would get there before the civil cops even lifted a finger.

"Whew. That's going to stain" he said, stepping over the corpse as one might a piece of knocked over furniture. "What'd you use?"

I rolled my eyes. That would be Cutter's first question.

"I used the 1250. Slugs," I said. "Now can we get to the matter at hand? Somebody hired this guy to kill me. I'm assuming he didn't just happen to think 'gee I'll randomly kill this particular woman' after another man followed me from work."

"How's the recoil on the 1250? Comfortable? I haven't had to fire mine yet. Maybe I should take her down to the range in the SB-"

"Cutter." I snapped my fingers in his face. "Can we please think of something to do about this?"

"What's there to do?" He shrugged. "Eva and Aaron should be here quick enough, I told the other guys to stay home. We can probably handle it."

"Just the four of us? To deal with the local PD?"

"Probably easier that way."

Eva showed up with Aaron in tow as I tried to talk sense into Cutter.

"Erm, we ran into some party guests downstairs!" Eva said, trying her hardest to make what was about to happen palatable. Afterwards, civil police started pouring in behind them, taping up the scene, collecting evidence, including my shotgun, and ransacking my apartment in general.

One such officer approached me as his team went about their disruptive business. I looked around in desperation for somebody to bail me out. Eva and Aaron were busy squabbling with the police techs about crime scene contamination and who had rights to what, while Cutter just stood there, grinning ear to ear, as the policeman forcibly started a conversation with me.

"Judging by the fact that you have your own team, and the job you did, I'd say you're corporate enforcement?" The officer said. "How about some ID?"

I pulled my identification from my pants pocket, and handed it over to him.

"Hexadyn. Why am I not surprised. Listen, miss Lucy, is it? We're gonna have to bring you in for questioning. Protocol and all. Also, we'll be letting your team know the body comes with us, and we'll be temporarily confiscating the weapon you used as well."

I sighed. "Lets just get this done quickly?"

The officer took me by my arm and started to guide me out of the apartment. I just managed to signal to Eva and Aaron that I was being forced out, meanwhile Cutter was busy just laughing away at my misfortune. I mouthed "I'll remember this" to him as I was pulled around the door.