sHe: THE RISE OF THE NEW BREEDS [Book 1]

Chapter 7

ROBERTA'S BEAT COP DUTIES were patrolling the city's streets on foot. She just had smoked a joint and was in her spying-mode.

She normally ended up in Chinatown when she walked her route, heading over to her partner and mentor — Mandy Thompson — who was always there waiting before they did lunch together. Everyone at the precinct loved her and called the Black, senior cop, Big Manny...

She was a year short, from her retirement from Columbus PD.

But, Roberta was far from hungry today, bothered by lots of muddling personal thoughts. While they both walked over for lunch, Roberta was observing an old warehouse that was across the road and was noticing the presence of an Asian businesswoman in her office window on the top floor...

Big Manny's stomach churned — she interrupted Roberta's thoughts...

"Yo, let's go grab a bite here, Rob. Hey look — Frankie Sun is still open — wanna get a hot dog?"

Roberta jested back...

"Yuck! Hot-dogs from here, from a Korean stand, Manny? Seriously? I pass, coz they may put real dog meat in it!"

Roberta laughed — but frankly, she did not want to hang out with Manny today — because she needed her space to be alone — away from their usual bitching-shop-talk which they always do, about their lack of overtime and promotions.

"You go on ahead, buddy. I want to go over and buy some smokes, soda and snacks — we will catch up later."

Roberta made an excuse, and they both went separate ways...

Roberta knew it was the right time to pay her visit, to the business Asian woman...

Roberta then walked into the back lane of the warehouse, where she encountered a big Vietnamese woman in security guard vesture, seated at the loading area, with the entrance metal door closed.

The guard saw Roberta in police uniform coming...

"You, what want?"

The big woman spoke out, in broken English, with a tone of aversion to street cops...

"Your Boss. I wanna see your boss."

"Boss, no!" replied the sniffy woman.

Roberta repeated. "Ngu-yen — your Boss — I wanna see her."

"Boss, no — you go!" she added, with some cuss words in Vietnamese.

"Hey, step aside! I know Ngu-yen is here — I wanna see her now!"

Roberta was a little provoked when the woman once again said something in her own language — sensing by the tone of voice and body language — they were prejudicial universally than what the actual foreign language was spoken in — and Roberta took it as an insult...

She landed a few hard, retaliating punches, and dropped the big guard down on her face...

Roberta opened the metal door and entered inside...

It was an illegal sweatshop that manufactured fake knockout clothes. It was also Roberta's first time stepping into the warehouse. She had only noticed the boss Ngu-yen before, in her other retail outlet.

There were a lot of Asian women inside, sewing clothes, and they subsequently stopped working. They froze at the presence of the uniformed, White cop inside the premise...

At the precinct, Roberta had heard of the 'under-wraps' street stalks done here — and the boss Ngu-yen had been generous with her payouts to the Police Strike-force team — for keeping the local extorting Chinese triad at bay in Chinatown...