The New Invasion

First Day

"Why do all my ID photos always look hideous?"

"Like I should know, it's not my fault you have a habit of cringing in every photo someone tries to take of you."

Two girls stared at a piece of plastic on their table, an identification card. The face on plastered on its right side looked extremely uncomfortable, brown skin wrinkling in all the wrong places.

Beneath the photo was a name, 'Edith Meriweather Bowman', a birthdate, age, height and other identifying information.

It was for her new job.

"You know Edie, I doubt that when you're taking down murderers, your fellow enforcers are going to be thinking about how bad you look in that photo." Grabbing the card from Edie's hand, her companion laughed.

The girl in the photo, Edie, rolled her eyes in response. "Everyone keeps talking about my assignment like it's a death sentence."

Her assignment? Solving tough cases in the New North American Department of Law and Order Preservation. Edith Bowman was going to be solving major crimes and neutralizing major criminals. 

However, in New North America, petty crime was all but a thing of the past.

Not that it wasn't there.

It was just rare.

"Yeah, I guess we just keep forgetting that you had to be a prodigy to get the job in the first place." The other girl deadpanned.

"Nora, it's not a glamorous job, I don't think anyone is dying to deal with the sort of stuff I'll end up dealing with." Edie looked down at her identification card still sitting in Nora's hand.  Something about it was comforting. While staring down at the piece of plastic, she knew she was supposed to be scared or worried about her future mental health, but she wasn't. 

Soon, she would be dealing with the worst crime New North Americans would ever face.

Because now that most crime had been eradicated, the crimes committed just got worse.

Murderers became serial killers with body counts in the dozens, identity theft meant wiping someone off the face of the Earth and gangs were so few and far between the ones that existed controlled absolutely everything around them.

Her new job was for 'prodigies', because no one else could handle it.  Those who couldn't demonstrate the ability to effectively process tough information on their Placement Test would probably leave their first case with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a suicide note in the other. They wouldn't be able to handle the suffering they'd seen.

That's how bad some of the cases are.

Of course, the Department made this abundantly clear to Edie upon her suggested placement. They made sure that everyone who even had a chance at becoming an enforcer knew what they would face. The Department didn't spare any details. They made sure that you knew you were chosen because you had the mental capacity for the job.

Edie was told all of that, as well as her other options. Government banker, government foreign agent and physician were all suggested based on the results of her Placement Test. All were jobs that people would die for, the benefits were great, the pay even better and you didn't have to worry about being killed on an assignment.

But for godforsaken some reason, she decided to stick with enforcer.

Edith Bowman was a strange girl.

"I really hope my co-workers like me." Nora quipped, foot tapping against the bottom of the table.

"Nora, you're a riot to work with,  I'm sure that while looking at people's brains, everyone in your lab will be searching for you to relieve them of their boredom." Edie responded.