Page 20 of Lau Ahi
I battled rolling my eyes at all the stupid names the places here had been given. As though a name could determine efficacy and success. I stood, towering over the girl and walked away without acknowledging her. Pausing at the door I turned to look back at her. She looked ready to pass out so instead of staying silent I scared her even more.
“Thank you.” Two words were all I could stomach before heading out of my office and into the conference room at the end of the hall.
I could hear her sigh as I walked away and knew she was torn between wanting to scream from fear or scream from pleasure. I wasn’t new to any of this so none of how she moved surprised me. Women like her always saw me as something dangerous to conquer. To toy with during their liberal rebellious phase before they cow-tailed to societal norms and social pressures to stay within the acceptable confines and protective arms of whiteness. And it was a crapshoot whether someone like me would make it through their exploration unscathed.
Hard pass.
I made it into the conference room that had been renamed the War Room, which had undergone a renaming with the rest of the various departments in the building. I thought it was stupid then and it was even more stupid now. Our position shouldn’t have been to wage war, we should’ve been trying to right the wrongs of crimes committed. Of course, now the name was far too appropriate for the entire department since one half of Dumb and Dumber took the helm.
“This is Natalie Rawlins aged 19. Daughter of the Congressman Philip Rawlins.”
Agent Cochran said as she flipped through a slideshow. She didn’t bother to address me because she knew how I was. We weren’t friends but we had an understanding: I made her unit look good and she let me do what the fuck I wanted. I had a lot of respect for her because as a Black woman she was more than happy to take me under her wing and keep me out of the bullshit pitfalls that people who didn’t fuck with me tried to set. In turn, she gained the prestige of having the highest-performing team in the bureau, which equated in more money and her name being on the short list for a lot of higher positions. Positions that had been stalled out currently but might change in the future.
A picture of a smiling blonde-haired girl popped on the screen and I only glanced at her before looking back at the notes in my hand. I was scanning where she was last seen as Cochran continued the briefing I’d interrupted.
“She went missing 34 hours ago after last being seen on campus at GW. Needless to say this case is top priority, which is why you are all here. Nothing in this room is to be shared with anyone else in the building. I understand that you all have different cases that you’re working but I’m sure you can tell this has been moved up to the top of the priority list because of her family’s political connections. Lisa will be handing out your dossiers to review tonight. Come back tomorrow with anythingyou can glean from the information we’ve provided. Canvasses of the campus have already been conducted by local PD but we will be getting a list of all the students who had contact with Natalie in the last 72 hours before her disappearance. We will meet back here tomorrow at 700.”
Agent Cochran flipped to the end of the presentation effectively ending the meeting. Most of the other people in the room stood up silently, gave a nod of understanding toward her before exiting the room. I was sure that the deck she’d reviewed was already on the secure server that was dedicated to our team who had been called in for behavioral analysis of a potential suspect. Unlike what was shown on television, there wasn’t some dedicated team that handled everything all at once. Most cases that came across our desks didn’t need that much intimate profiling and statistically the guilty party was normally a white male. The director, who’d been sitting in on the briefing gave her a nod and glanced toward me before following the rest of the agents out of the conference room. There was something in his look that set me on edge and now I wondered what the hell was going on. I was still seated at the table waiting for my chance to speak with Agent Cochran. I knew she wouldn’t give a damn about what I said but knew I had to speak my mind in order to clear the air.
“You know I’m not happy about this.”
She nodded her head slowly because there was so much that was layered in my statement but I knew that she understood exactly what I was saying.
“I know. You didn’t want this so close to when you were supposed to be stepping away. But they pulled rank and picked who they wanted to work on this. You know no matter what I could’ve said they would’ve done what they wanted anyway. And what they wanted was you.”
“So I’m chattel.”
“Welcome to the U.S. Government, Agent Nakoa.”
Her response was flippant but I expected it from her and didn’t take it to heart. She was commiserating with me because she knew how badly I wanted to get out. I had my thoughts that she might have been a throne in a past life but the first rule about The Order was that you asked no one about The Order. If it needed to be revealed that they were part of the organization it would be when necessary. For now, I took her presence in my life as one where she simply wanted another young man to succeed and left it at that.
“Are there any leads so far?”
“No, besides the usual. You and your buddy are going to be working on this together.” Her brown eyes sparkled as she teased me and the deep brown of her skin crinkled around her eyes.
“I thought we were supposed to be staying away from each other. Not out here working on cases together again.” My eyes narrowed as I listened to the voice behind me say shit out loud in that normal joking manner of his. I rolled my eyes and turned around while Cochran laughed behind me.
“Yeah well it seems the government deems us far too effective to split up despite how other people bitch and moan about it.”
I dapped up Alec who strode into the room even later than I had. His regular department was more focused on narcotics, which was one of the most ironic parts of his job. As the enforcer for his family’s cartel, he was able to give them intel about their enemies and investigations into his family. His being present for this briefing was surprising, since there always seemed to be someone trying to fight their pretend war on crime. This Rawlins girl was clearly getting top priority because of her father and his political affiliations.
That thought had me turning to Cochran and asking what came to mind.
“They’re not trying to make this a politically motivated thing are they?”
When she hung her head I knew that’s exactly what they were attempting to do and I got pissed off all over again. Alec and I exchanged a look and he looked as annoyed as I felt.
“You know how things play out all the time in this city, Nakoa. They’re going to go with whatever angle they can to make it stick and get enough eyes on her case. I’m sure her parents are going to be on TV soon in order to drum up eyes on her cause.”
“That’s the last thing we need. Having to do our job with a bunch of dick-holding, chuckle fucks playing at being police all for their leaders’ political agenda. It’s bad enough we’ve got the insurgents back on the ground instead of being in prison.”
We never gave a damn about what we said when we were with Cochran because she was the type of kinfolk that was kinfolk. Besides, it would always be her word against ours since none of the government equipment worked when I was in the room anyway.
Dom’s ass was fucking brilliant with the wearable signal scrambler.
Cochran glanced between the two of us with a frown on her face. “I’m wondering if you all know where the hell you work.” Her arms folded across her chest as she leaned back against the table.
“We do. But it wasn’t as obviously or abjectly stupid as it is now. You can’t blame us when the political machinations become social media tweets that get turned into memes. Few people have been perfect, some worse than others, but they kept up the veneer. This shit right here is internationally embarrassing and my ass ain’t even patriotic.”
