Detective Byers (English Vers.)

15) The last word

"Okay everyone!" Hopper began.

Silence immediately fell in the canteen. All eyes were on the Chief, behind whom stood Joyce, Frank and Murray.

"Well..." he continued. "I'll tell you a little about what's going on here, I promise not to hide anything, you have as much right to know as I do. You can thank Mrs. Byers, it's her idea."

The silence still persisted and he bit his lip. The situation was going to be complicated to manage. He told Joyce to take a seat at one of the tables and then continued his speech.

"For those to whom I haven't introduced him yet, this is Frank, he's a member of a police station we're attached to, and I've been in contact with him for several years. It was with his troops that we carried out the attack on the Russian base, he was the instigator of this operation."

None of the members was unaware that the said operation was a mistake, as Murray had stated with little tact in the report. Hopper, in a few words had already drawn the animosity of all his men to his superior.

His face had taken on a reddish hue. Joyce remembered their first meeting, which had been very brief, when she arrived at the police station. Already there, she had had a bad feeling that had only been confirmed in the future. He seemed determined not to say a word, which encouraged the Chief to continue.

"It so happened that for several years, Frank had been helping me keep the state's eyes off Hawkins' events. He has been an unwavering supporter of that. What I didn't know until recently was that he, too, was very interested in Hawkins' affairs. Viciously, he was trying to take control of the information I had withheld."

"That's not what happened Hopper." Frank said, struggling to stay calm. "This information was my due."

"Everything I didn't tell you falls under the category of files that can be censored by a police station. And it was my decision and my right not to reveal them. So the only way for you was to access the information from the inside, by taking the only position that allowed you to access it. I was the pawn that had to be taken down from the beginning. You've been pushing me away from decisions and forcing me to give up my place little by little. You are the one who ordered an operation without taking into account the risks and areas of uncertainty. You deliberately sent my men into an ambush, if it had been a complete failure, as you predicted, if it had been a carnage, it would have been so easy for you to blame me and write me off."

Joyce took a look around her. Even though the rest of the team wasn't talking, their presence as a witness was apparently enough to make Frank uncomfortable. It was Hopper who was on familiar ground. And he wasn't fighting alone anymore.

"You should know that I have enough information to open an investigation!" his superior threatened.

"But you won't." This time it was Murray who had spoken. "I've gone through the laws on police confidentiality, and since you assisted Hopper in concealing information vital to the government, you would be punished too... Unless he claims that you coerced him into cooperating."

"So you confirm that these files are illegally withheld."

"I have every right to keep certain information within these walls." Hopper snapped. If these documents are of tangible interest to the state, I have tangible reasons why they should not fall into the hands of people like you, who could misuse them."

"And how do we know that you will not misuse them? .You are the only guarantor of its information after all."

"I won't use his information for my personal interest for anything in the world." The tone of the policeman became darker. "The whole police station and some members of the city have in one way or another micro clues in the investigations around young Byers and Miss Holland. The whole city has seen its life changed as a result of the events, and sometimes people have not noticed anything. And if they have not noticed anything, it means that our mission as the police, has been successfully accomplished. I have been confronted with things that I would not dig up for anything in the world. And for my defence, I am not the only person who was forced to face these cases. Mr. Bauman and Ms. Byers were also forced into this case."