Violets (Mikannie)

28 - (R)Investigation

I'm super sorry about not getting a chapter out last week, but on the plus side I've written pretty much all of this story! There's about 2 or 3 more chapters left. Thank you all for being so patient and understanding.
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Officer Karoline Fickes wasn't sure what she was supposed to expect to find when she was checking out Donovan Tech; the kid who had tipped them off was probably just making shit up. Kids who made crazy claims like "my friend and I found a mummified soldier and now a megacorporation kidnapped my boyfriend" were usually making shit up. In fact, Karoline was sure that she had seen a late night action movie on TV with that exact plot the other day.

As she sat in the reception area of Donovan Tech's skyscraper HQ, waiting for some high-up to meet with her so she could interrogate them, she couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. She wasn't sure how to describe it other than that it was like the feeling one got when it was about to rain. As if the world knew that something bad was going to happen.

But Karoline was just being superstitious. It wasn't like she could tell the future. That was just one of her grandfather's old tales. The old man had believed all sorts of things. He was also mega racist. No, Karoline had no plans to be like her grandfather anytime soon.

A call came through on her radio, and Karoline answered it, grateful for something to do. She didn't like stakeouts.

"Requesting an officer at Fair Hope psychiatric hospital, there's been another break in," came the voice of Biers, one of her colleagues.

"Those kids again?" Karoline asked.

"Nope. They got sent home last night."

"Maybe like, a copycat crime?" 

"Maybe." 

Karoline sat back in her seat, restless. She checked her watch, then looked up at the doorway. She'd been waiting for nearly an hour now.

Frustratedly, Karoline stood up. She was going to check this place out, with or without an interview. Who cared if it was against the law? Karoline was the law.

The first place Karoline decided to go was the basement carpark. It looked normal. Shiny cars sat parked in their rows.

But there was one car that stood out. It was a beat-up old banger, and there appeared to be people in it. They looked like they were waiting for someone. That was suspicious. Karoline approached the car, and tapped on the window. A man rolled it down.

"Hello, officer," he said, in a tone that Karoline knew well. It was the tone that offenders used when they were caught out. The teen boy sitting in the back had an "I'm totally not guilty" face as well. Actually, he looked quite familiar.

"What are the two of you doing here today?" Karoline asked.

"Oh, my sister's in a meeting, and my brother and I were just waiting for her," the man in the driver's seat said.

"Can I see some ID?"

The man pulled a driver's licence out from his pocket, and handed it to Karoline. It was obviously fake.

""Mr Simmons", hey?" Karoline asked, pretending to fall for the rouse. "Nice try. This ID is so obviously fake a blind man could pick it out. And that's Reiner Braun. Get out of the car, you're under arrest."

The man looked to the kid in the backseat in shocked horror.

"Ma'am-" he started, but he never got to finish his sentence. Karoline was distracted by the loud noise of somebody in full body armour. She turned around and saw two armed guards running towards them.

"Officer? Oh, thank goodness," one of the guards said. They sounded out of breath. They pointed towards the main building. "It's my boss, she's fucking nuts, she was torturing this kid, alright, a literal child, and she's going to kill another kid, and take her power or some shit, I don't know-"

"Woah, woah, slow down," Karoline said. "Where is this going on?"

--

Karoline followed one of the guards (the other had stayed behind to look after the guy with the fake ID) through the building. It was a long walk, but Karoline was fit.

"How soon can backup get here?" The guard asked.

"They're pretty fast," Karoline said. "So Donovan Tech was kidnapping kids all along?"

"Yep," the guard said. "But I thought they were adults. I mean, I didn't know that there was... Kidnapping, or anything."

Karoline rolled her eyes. There was going to have to be a lot of investigations into this company.

"I hope you know that kidnapping is very much illegal," Karoline said.

"Uh, yeah? But you're a cop. It's not like you've never done illegal things and it's been excused by your job."

Karoline was going to bite back with a witty comeback, but she held her tongue. "How much longer?"

"Not far," the guard told her. "Just around a couple more corners."

The guard wasn't lying. The loud noise of chatter came into earshot, and a group of people stood in a corridor. Four looked young - Karoline recognised one of them as the Ackerman girl who was supposed to be under house arrest, and another, who was being held up by one of his friends, was Eren Ackerman, the boy who had been kidnapped. So he had been kidnapped by Donovan Tech after all. He didn't look like he was in the best condition. Karoline suspected he was the kid who had been tortured.

There were four adults, too. Karoline recognised Rowena Marshall and Damien Ackerman (no relation to the kids), the CEO and head designer. Holding a gun to Damien's head was a man shorter than even Karoline, and a woman that vaguely resembled the guy in the car stood to the side. Karoline knew they were familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before.

"Drop your weapon!" Karoline shouted, pulling out her taser. The man scowled at her, and lowered his gun.

"You're all under arrest," Karoline said. "And someone get this boy some medical attention."