Detective Dickerson delivers the Surveillance Report.
[image: the long dark hallway]
12 noon.Metro Police Station.An imposing palatial monstrosity of a building.
Deep inside its bowels, a Sargent and a Detective are walking down a long office hallway, on their way toward a massive Conference Room.
Detective: ...And, well Sir... That's about it... Sir. He's kinda repetitive. And dull.
Sargent: I don't understand... Detective- you mean to tell me that after two weeks of staking this guy out.... This is all you've got on him? Literally? No outside contact? He's just been writing Poetry and gardening and cleaning house?
Detective: Sir, yes Sir. [Pause] He is growing cannabis, sir... Though well under the legal limits. I honestly have seen nothing to suggest he has any other connection to the case at hand... other than having been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Sargent: Zero internet use?
Detective: Correct sir. Though he does have service. He just hasn't turned on any devices that require network connections. [Pause] He's been typing his poems out on an antique typewriter sir.Sargent: Snail mail any pages off to anyone?
Detective: Hasn't been outdoors the entire time, sir. Only opens doors for delivery, and we've been intercepting and scanning everything... All legitimate purchases- mostly food.
Sargent: Goddammed weirdo! He has to be "in play" somehow.
Detective: "In Play" Sir?
Sargent: Term of Art, Detective. Welcome to the big boys, Dickerson. Try to keep up.
Detective: He has to be actively involved... Sir?
Sargent: He has to be connected! There is no way he was just randomly there! No one else survived...
[Long Pause]
Detective: Well.... Sir.
Sargent: NONE survived.
They walk in silence for the rest of the way.They arrive at the conference room. Pause, look deeply into each other's eyes. They monetarily lean in, towards each other, as if to kiss... and then- with a flourish, they simultaneously open both doors to the massive conference Hall in dramatically Authoritarian Style.
Every eye in the crowded room was focused on the two of them.
After commanding everyone's attention, they strode down the long center aisle together as the world watched and waited for them to explain everything.
[image: the conference room]
YOU ARE READING
zero hour
Action"Set in an experimental sci-fi comic book action adventure literary world-building project universe of multi-book series nested within other book series, 'The Zeppoverse' may be a bit disorienting to navigate at first... but you kind get used to it...
