47 Algood Police 1

"What happened?"

Ci-ci jogged into a familiar board room on the 78th floor of Patterson and Gravelle. His calm and steady breathing showed nothing of the fatigue a normal human should have had after being forced to make it here using the staircase.

At the moment, Isabella and Jason were panicking. They were only a few weeks away from the formal negotiation, but they looked like they were in shambles.

After a couple weeks of interaction with Ci-ci, they came to understand his genius and actually respected him now. That was why the moment the ran into this fierce hurdle, instead of trying to arrogantly deal with it on their own, they immediately called him here.

"Lucius, we can't get into contact with Dr. Von no matter how much we try." Jason quickly explained as he furiously typed away on his laptop. "We sent one of our assistants to his lab just this morning, but he never came back and isn't answering his phone."

"We tried going to his apartment just an hours ago, but we found it completely ransacked." Isabella chimed in, putting whoever she was speaking to on her phone on hold. "For some reason, the Algood Police aren't willing to take up this case. They told us that if we wanted to file a report, it would have to be sent to the provincial police force instead of the local police force."

"We've been filing reports and dealing with all of this technical jargon for hours, but nothing is going through!" Jason kicked a chair to his side in frustration.

"Hello? Yes." Isabella refocused, trying to work things out.

Ci-ci stood at the door, frowning.

Dr. Von was the head of the Lewis and Clark Research Group. For him to be gone and for his apartment to be ransacked, it was pretty obvious what was happening.

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Months ago, the attacks on the Lewis and Clark Research Group began. First it was small things like oddly vague allegations of human rights abuses published to the local paper. But, later, it became more serious as Dr. Von became the center of a media storm involving **** and sexual misconduct violations.

Then, this merger opportunity with Simple Pharmaceuticals appears.

On the surface, this sounds like a good thing after Lewis and Clark stocks have been heavily declining for months, but what Simple was asking for was simply too much. Plus, none of this even mentioned the odd connection the Alleman family had to all of this. Why would a sub-pillar family like them agree to referee what should be a small-time deal in their eyes? It didn't make much sense.

Now all of a sudden Dr. Von had gone missing? The Algood Police didn't dare to touch the case? And now they had to jump through loopholes with the Provincial Police? Wasn't all of this a bit too ridiculous?

One had to understand that enforcement officers fell into four major tiers. There were Local Forces, Provincial Forces, Federal Forces, and then the Military itself which had its own various tiers and rankings. Usually, depending on the severity of the crime and the criminals implicated, the level of enforcement officer would be chosen.

However, Ci-ci had never heard of a Local police force not even daring to get involved. It was at the very least their duty to make a report and personally pass it up a level. Since when was it the duty of the citizens to do this for them?

Ci-ci sneered. "Stop what you're doing. Normal citizens don't have the means to contact provincial forces in a meaningful way. You're wasting your time."

What Isabella and Jason were trying to do was akin to a mayor of a small city trying to contact the President. It simply wouldn't work. Sure, there were channels to do so, but how often were those channels taken seriously?

Isabella and Jason grit their teeth. Of course they didn't need Ci-ci to tell them this, but what else could they do?

Clearly, someone had pocketed the Local Police Force knowing that they'd be hopeless. Still, if they didn't try, didn't that mean they had lost?

Their Patterson and Gravelle firm couldn't afford to lose a Prime Client. No firm could afford to lose a Prime Client…

However, if Dr. Von's life was threatened, causing him to be forced to sign over the rights to his company, this is what would effectively happen to them.

Everyone knew this was illegal. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be allowed and they'd have measures in place to deal with it. But, with the resources Simple's parent company had, how could they win this battle?

"You two take a break, relax. I want you well rested for the first round. Let me handle it." Without another word of explanation, Ci-ci turned and left, leaving the two recent graduates frowning.

'Algood Police, huh?' Ci-ci silently chuckled to himself with a cold glint in his eye.

**

Near the center of Algood City, a two-story police station with a fenced in parking lot filled with patrol vehicles stood.

"Sir, was it really alright to pass them along to the Provincial Branch like that? I don't think we saw enough evidence to warrant passing it to a higher level. Plus, according to the rules, aren't we supposed to pass it along personally?"

A scrawny young man barely filling out the smallest size blue uniform shakily questioned his superior. After following Constable Wardelle around for two months now, this was the first time he had seen him act so unprofessionally.

"Kid," Constable Wardelle sighed. "Did you not notice bear claw marks at the scene? Do you think that one just strolled in from the ever so many forests we have around here?"

"B -b"

"No buts. This obviously involves The Ghettos and some of those martial artist types. Far above our paygrade. We did the right thing passing it along. I have a wife and kids, and you have a future. We Local Constables aren't worth much in the eyes of those big wigs. It's best we stay out of messy situations like this… It's the only way we can live long lives."

The rookie lowered his head, no longer saying anything.

Constable Wardelle sighed. This rookie of his was too easy to manipulate. Just some words and he had already forgotten the crux of the situation: it was their responsibility to pass on this information to the Provincial Level.

However, even after all these years, he was just a 3rd Class Constable. He had no right to go against the words of the Detective Constable that headed their Algood Police.

After hearing that this involved a sub-pillar family and their interests, Constable Wardelle had sworn to stay far away from this.