Silent City

19. The Mistake

 The Radiance had planned to look around the parking Garage in the middle of the city today. She had planned to look around for the entrance to Hallownest. She had planned to try to draw the police away from that place so she could get a good look at it.

What she hadn't planned to do was to get attacked by a battalion of police officers.

The Radiance was staring at the TV, going over the reports of the break-in. She wanted a good look at this Garage before she went there, just to see if there were any obvious places that Hornet could have gone. As expected, there were none-- she wasn't expecting the entrance to Hallownest to be that conspicuous. She watched them again to see if there was any easy way she could distract the police officers from the scene.

She hadn't gotten through all of the reports before she heard urgent knocking at her door. She stood up abruptly at this, her eyes boring onto the door.

"Police, open up." She heard from the hallway. Her immediate thought was that either Franklin or Grimm had tried to report her to the police, and she highly doubted it was the latter option.

She walked quietly over to the counter where she kept her sunglasses and placed them over her eyes.

"Open the door or we will be forced to break it down."

The Radiance adjusted her coat as she walked over to the door to open it quietly. She opened it to reveal three officers-- one female, her hand on her holster, in front of two men. One of the men looked large and muscular, while the other was on the skinnier side. None of them came even close to her height, however.

"We're here to conduct a full search of this apartment. We've received intel that you have committed a first degree murder of the official owner of this place." The woman speaks, skillfully hiding her surprise at Radi's impressive height. "Step aside so we can begin."

"Might I ask you who you received this intel from?" Radi asks, her voice silky.

"Our informant has chosen to remain anonymous." She says. "Step out of the way, ma'am."

"Does he go by the name Franklin?" Radi cocks her head. "I don't know his last name, but we're good friends, trust me."

"Step aside." She repeats, her hand tightening on her gun.

"Very well." The Goddess steps aside, and the three of them file into the apartment. Two of them go to start searching the place, while the larger man goes behind the Radiance and begins to reach for his handcuffs.

"Hands behind your back."

"I'm afraid not." She sighs. "I still don't see any proof that you're actually police officers and that you actually have any permission to be here."

There's a shuffling of paper and the man walks in front of her to hold out a piece of approval paper, and his ID. "Happy? Now, hands behind your back."

"Hmm..." Radi slowly places her hands behind her back, but maintains a dangerously confident posture. She feels the handcuffs click around her wrists, but she still feels entirely in power. She smiles at the false sense of security she's luring these officers into.

The female officer goes to one of the doors on the side-- specifically, the one where the Radiance has her infected victim. She goes to pull the door open, but it's locked.

"Search her for the key." She hisses to the man behind Radi.

The Radiance was fine with her hands in the cuffs, but she immediately recoils at the touch of the man's hands on her waist.

"Ma'am, please stand still." He grunts behind her. A sharp chill runs up her spine as he tries to pull her closer to him. It's here when the Radiance kicks at him from behind and she hears him groan as he falls to the floor on one knee.