One-Shots

One-Shot #1: The Taskforce

The Taskforce

Written by Danny Richards

Produced by Corey Smith, Matthew Anderson, Luca Limoncelli and Joanna Holland

Edited by Corey Smith

Created and developed by Danny Richards

10 Downing Street, London

The manila envelope was slapped down on the mahogany desk as Richard Barclay, the Prime Minister, continued to pace his office. Trying to process all this information at once was a struggle. In his two years in office, Richard had been forced to make a lot of tough decisions, however those were mainly related to the budget, welfare and other social issues, but this...this was something else entirely.

On the opposite side of the desk was Detective Chief Inspector William Yates, the man who had brought all these folders and envelopes to Richard in the first place. He had sat in his leather chair patiently as the Prime Minister had flicked through the files for the past 45 minutes trying to take in all the information. Yates wasn't sure what to expect from the Prime Minister, in fact he was still amazed that he had even got this meeting in the first place, instead expecting to have just had the files taken off him with the promise of them being passed over but just being disposed of discreetly soon after. Having considered himself a well-respected police officer up until now, Yates feared for his career. He was terrified that the Prime Minister would look up from the files and laugh Yates out of his office believing the claims to be too absurd to be true, and frankly Yates wouldn't blame him.

The file which currently lay open on the desk displayed a charred corpse of what was once a young woman, her body covered by a white sheet from the waist down, but her crisp torso, arms and face visible to see. The papers had reported that the woman had died from a terribly unfortunate accident with her fireplace, and the family had been told the same, however the report which Yates had written up himself told a different story. From what he and the medical examiner had observed, the victim had not been scorched by the fireplace, but their body had instead erupted into flames without an apparent source of ignition, otherwise known as spontaneous human combustion. Despite the freak nature of this death, compared to the other six files Yates had brought to the Prime Minister this was one of the tamer ones.

"So, just run this by me again, Yates." Richard Barclay said after a lengthy pause once he had sat back down at his desk. "You're asking me to instigate a task force, one that most of the police force will be unaware of, that will investigate these so called supernatural events?" The way Richard had said supernatural was as if it were a foreign word, something unfamiliar to his tongue that he struggled to pronounce.

"That's correct, sir. I believe that these events have become too frequent to go ignored, and if they aren't properly addressed soon then they will spiral out of control." Yates tried to speak as confidently and clearly as he could, but inside he was dying, desperate for the meeting to be over one way or another.

Running his fingers through his receding greying hair, the Prime Minister sunk back into his leather chair, staring up at the ceiling as he contemplated his decision. If what Yates was saying was true, a task force would certainly be necessary, but the secretive nature, funds being routed and rerouted through discrete networks, officers being pulled away from other cases to focus on a supernatural one, it was a lot of commitment for something with no visible results for most of the public.

"If, and that is a very big if, I was to give the go ahead for this task force, do you have any people in mind?"

Yates smiled at this. This sort of question showed that the Prime Minister was strongly considering the proposal. Pulling out another manila envelope, Yates opened it and placed the files on the desk. One picture of a young copper haired police officer and another of her partner. Picking up the picture of the male officer, Yates began to reel off information.

"Nick Campbell. Detective Inspector. 33. He's one of the brightest young officers I've seen in years. In fact he reminds me of myself when I was a young officer. He's a great detective, fast and agile both physically and mentally and he's displayed great leadership qualities having trained quite a few rookies despite his own young age. He'd certainly be a good choice, and if we ever did have to go public, he's a good looking young lad, his face would go well on posters." Yates finished with a chuckle which was met with a scowl from the Prime Minister who was clearly still sceptical about a private task force, let alone the group going public.

"And the redhead?"

"She's Campbell's partner, Peggy Parker. 31. She's always shown a desire to become a detective after a house fire at a neighbours left her best friend dead at the age of 8. Besides the pyrophobia which came from this, she's brave and courageous and like Nick a fantastic detective. She spent her teenage years gathering files on potential suspects for who set the house on fire before finally putting away the sonofabitch just after becoming a DC. She's maybe a little on the antisocial side, but both her and Nick have some close friends in the force who they could always get involved with the task force if necessary."

The silence encompassed the room for a few more minutes once Yates was done talking. The prime minister flicked through the files once again, this time paying close attention to the two detectives, reading every bit of information Yates had gathered for him. Smiling, he looked back across the room once again.

"Tell me what you need and when, and I'll get it sorted, Yates."

Gods and Monsters

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