When a bad habit of blowing things up gets Detective Vince Kato discharged from the force, he finds himself caught in the middle of a war between two syndicate rivals whose main objective is a new prototype facial recognition sniper rifle code named...
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Laura Jacobs' day couldn't have been more perfect. All her life Laura had been the loser, the geek. When she was younger she dreamed of being on the other end of the laughing finger. Now, here she was, the most expensive clothes and jewelry, and working at a place where she was in control.
Sitting behind her desk in the law offices of Grey and Affiliates, she was the personal intern to Mr. Grey, one of the most successful lawyers in the city, a man who could convince water to cease being wet.
"Only a few more hours and off to a relaxing night at the spa," she reminded herself for the hundredth time today.
Laura's daydream was interrupted by the sound of Mr. Grey's voice outside the door. Laura quickly fixed her blonde shoulder-length hair and then tousled it. She reached into her desk drawer and sprayed on perfume and fixed her make-up. After one more look in her hand mirror she straightened a stack of papers on her desk and tried to look busy... and natural at the same time. The door opened and a tall man with slicked black hair wearing a dark double-breasted suit entered.
"Any messages for me, Ms. Jacobs?" said Mr. Grey. He walked back into his office and turned up 'The Bob and Ike show', Battery City's most popular radio and TV show. Mr. Grey had a habit of leaving his radio on all the time whether he was in his office or not.
"No...," said Laura dreamily. Laura quickly jumped up. "I mean, yes!"
Gathering her papers, she fixed her navy blue skirt suit and followed Mr. Grey back into his office.
"There was one message. It was from Ms. Janice Parker. She called again to thank us, well, to thank you for the terrific way you handled her case and that she could not have asked for better representatives." Laura flipped through another file to peak at the name. "There are also some papers that you need to sign for the Apollo case."
Mr. Grey bobbed his head in approval and slicked back a stray hair with his hand. He put down the file he was looking at and turned to her.
"Really?" He laughed as if ignoring Laura's last statement.
"No problemo, it was fun. I don't think that poor sap had a chance anyway. Walking in late and wearing street clothes didn't impress Judge Harvey very much either. I hope that was a good learning experience for you. We will be getting a lot of those cases, especially when you are on your own."
Laura smiled and nodded in agreement. Mr. Grey stooped casually with one hand in his pocket and looked out the 22nd story window. For a moment he seemed to be in deep thought. Mr. grey slicked back his hair and turned towards Laura.
"I will be taking an early lunch and will probably be out for the rest of the day. Put those papers on my desk, will you? I'll sign them when I get back tomorrow."
Mr. Grey broke off and headed for the door.
"Uh, thank you for the spa appointment, sir," squeaked Laura. She put a quick hand over her mouth.
Mr. Grey, who was now out the door, popped his head back in.
"You bet!" he said with a wink. He then strolled out the door, leaving Laura alone in the office.
--
Once Laura felt she was no longer blushing she went to her desk and picked up the affidavit papers. A smile covered her face.
"This is going to be a good day," she thought.
"Greetings Laura, what's up?" came a man's voice from behind her.
Laura smiled awkwardly as the man swished his brown pony-tail behind his head and fixed his glasses. The man's hygiene was subpar, at best. The sweat stains under the arms of his green short-sleeve, button-up shirt sagged under the weight of his pocket protector.
"Oh, hey Johnny."
The man leaned casually on Laura's desk. It was obvious, whatever deodorant he was wearing did not agree with his body chemistry. He was the firm's best IT man and his white skin clearly showed it. It also showed that he did none else but hack into computers and watch a lot of anime on his free time. Whatever technical skills he had he double lacked in social skills...especially with the opposite sex.
"Soooo, you like robots? I've been working on a pretty sweet program for an android companion that I'm building from scratch. Pretty rad, huh? Hey listen, so I was wondering if you wanted to come ov--"
"-That's nice," said Laura trying to look busy. "Tell me how it turns out," she said walking quickly into Mr. Grey's office and shutting the door.
Johnny frowned for a moment and then smiled.
"She digs me. Ohhh, yeah. She's just playing hard to get," he whispered.
He peered at Bruce's closed door as if looking at Laura through it. "One date is all I need, my sweet 'Tatyana', and I will exploit your beauty to all of my friends and the entire world!"
Johnny cut his rant short when he noticed he was talking louder than he had planned. Looking around, he noticed everyone in the office was staring at him.
"Well, I might be pretty busy when you call, but just text me and I'll call you back," he said. Johnny gave himself a high-five and strutted away.
--
When the coast was clear she stepped away from the back of the door and let out a sigh of relief. She casually walked over to Bruce's desk and put the papers strategically in alphabetical order. She listened to the newscaster on the radio as she sorted. Laura stepped back to approve her work. She immediately spotted some papers on the rug and shook her head. Laura sighed and knelt down to reclaim them. Pushing the rolling chair aside she crawled under the desk and hurriedly rose to her feet.
Bang!!
"Ouch! That smarts," she said rubbing her head. Laura had missed her clearing by at least eight inches.
Scanning the mat she noticed something that took her by surprise: a pair of well-worn brass knuckles. Dried blood covered them, dulling their silver sheen. Upon further assessment she also noticed a green flash drive next to some photo prints.
Laura swallowed hard and her heart raced as she perused the pictures in her hand. Several badly beaten men were tied up to a pole as their police badges lay on the ground beside them. One man with dark black hair carrying a night stick stood dominantly over them. Laura focused in on the man. "It can't be, is that...?"
