All-out war

Just like every other morning in City X, the cold morning was wrapped up in a dense fog. However, it seemed more quiet than usual, too quiet that Ryan felt like he could hear the cool breeze and the calls of small insects. He stood ramrod straight in his uniform on the green grass covered with morning dew.

"Hello, I am lieutenant Shelly Jones, a colleage of lieutenant William Parker..."

The silence was broken by Shelly's voice.

"This eulogy was given in response to being asked to speak on behalf of the task force we both belonged to. Damn! That old man doesn't even have a friend or a family to say the eulogy at his funeral..."

Some officers looked towards Shelly's face because of her swear words. The Bureau chief cleared his throat to warn her.

However, she went on with her speech as if she did not notice any of them.

"He used to be a senior we all looked up to during his days in the academy. However, he changed into another person after losing his beloved in an unjustifiable manner. Well, most people would have gone mad, too if they were in his place. From that time on, he became a stubborn workaholic. Every second of every day, his mind was occupied with how to put the criminals behind the bar. His name was stained because of his steadfast, well, to put it plainly, ruthless means he used to capture those criminals. Many people hated him. Even I did not see eye to eye with him with his methods."

Julian looked towards Shelly as he thought, 'Are you sure you want to say the bad things and the disagreements between you two at someone's funeral?'. He could only moved back his glance towards his own shoes as he was helpless against this senior of his.

"Even so, everyone who had worked with him cannot argue that he was a good cop very passionate towards his work. May be even ten of us cannot finish the work he alone could do. And his sense of justice was stronger than anyone of us here. Even if he ended up using extreme means, his ultimate goal was to make a safe and just environment for the civilians...."

Shelly's words made the previous interactions with Lieutenant Parker flashed through Ryan's mind.

"... May you rest in peace, Will."

The last sentence of Shelly woke him up from his trance. After some time, three gun shots echoed in the cemetery as the blank cartridges were fired into the air.

After the ceremony ended, Ryan walked towards the chief to pay his respect.

"Chief," Ryan greeted.

Chief nodded his head in approval.

"This was what I was worried about. Do you understand now? You, youngsters are too hot-blooded and don't see the dangers at all."

"I understand your concern, chief."

Hearing Ryan's reply, he looked into Ryan's eyes with a meaningful glance.

"I heard that lieutenant Parker left you a letter."

Ryan had been expecting this question since the day he got the letter.

"It was just how he planned to handle the cases he left behind. Nothing special, chief."

"What was he working on? How did he got into such a situation?"

"As far as I have read, I don't find any dangerous case at all. May be he was working on another case he didn't tell me about."

Chief gave Ryan a dubious glance.

"I hope this will also serve as a warning for you. Don't you dare lurk around the muddled water. I don't want another dead cop from my bureau."

"Of course, Chief"

After the chief left, Ryan's lips curved up to form a bitter smile.

"I'm sorry,chief. I can't let go now more than ever because they dared to touch my officer," he muttered in a voice only he could hear.

"Have you guys thought carefully?"

Ryan asked the other three people in the room.

Shelly, Allen and Julian are all gathered together with him in Allen's house. After lieutenant Parker's death, he had warned all three of them so that they could weighed the consequences of their actions.

"Now's not too late to back away," he added.

"You already know my reason for coming to this city, cap. There's no way I'm giving up without getting the answers," Shelly said.

He could understand because Shelly got her own agenda. If she dared to come alone to this city leaving her family in the capital, of course her determination was nothing to laugh at.

"I've been your partner for more than two years and I'll continue to be so in the future. Since we've started working on this case, I've heard you warned me for about a thousand times. It's even getting dull," Allen said half-jokingly.

"Are you sure that you wanna die as a virgin?" Ryan retorted with his own joke.

"Damn you! Who said that I'm a virgin?"

Allen face flushed red due to anger and embarrassment.

"Oh, you aren't?" Ryan asked with a raised eye-brow.

"YOU..." Allen had no words to reply.

Even though Ryan was married to his work right now, he was quite popular with girls during his days in the capital. Of course, he had one or two girlfriends unlike Allen who was completely a white paper in that aspect.

Shelly was laughing out loud on the side. Even Julian was trying hard to hide his grin.

Shelly put an arm on Allen's shoulder before asking, "Do you want your big sister here to find someone for you? Just ask away. Don't be shy."

"I'm fine," Allen gritted his teeth.

How could those two bully him?

Now, there was only one person who had yet to give an answer.

The grin on Shelly's face disappeared as she turned serious.

"You should back away, kid. You are still a rookie and there are so many things in this world you have yet to see. You're smart and hardworking. As long as you fix your straight-arrow attitude for a bit, you're gonna have a bright future ahead of you."

"She's right," Ryan concurred.

"But I want to continue," Julian said.

Ryan sighed.

"I always thought of you as the most rational person in our department. Why are you trying to disappoint me now?"

"I'm not being stubborn, captain. I've thought a lot during these days. Like lieutenant Jones said, there are still so many things I haven't seen yet and this would count as great experience and it would be a huge feat if we could catch the culprits behind this case. I don't wanna let go of such a good chance. If I suffered some kind of harm during the process, it only meant that I'm not strong enough," Julian replied resolutely.

All three seniors could see that his eyes were brimming with determination and they realized that they would not be able to talk him out of this. If they left him out and he started investigating on his own, it would be more dangerous for him. They could not have a second William Parker.

"Okay then. Let's talk about the case," Ryan said.

With that, they all took their seats and fished out the files they had prepared.

"The information lieutenant Parker left us were really helpful to us," Allen commented. He had been studying the data inside the stick because as a captain, Ryan had been busy dealing with lieutenant Parker's death.

"Well, he had been working in the narcotics for all these years. Of course he would know his way around those cartels more than us," Ryan said as he felt that it was a shame to lose such an experienced officer.

"The Moretti Cartel has six sub-groups and so there're six group leaders other than the main boss. The person the professor described fits one of the subgroup leaders. The territory captain was surveying is under him," Allen said.

Then, he spread out some photos onto the table.

"These are the subgroup leaders. There was no picture of the main boss. Lieutenant Parker had also estimated which territories were under which leader. I was quite surprised by the fact that their network was quite spread out. You could say that they were the most powerful drug dealers in this city. Even the major factions can't compare with them when it comes to drugs."

"That much?" Shelly looked at Allen with wide eyes.

Allen passed a file to Shelly.

"You can check here."

Shelly started reading the file with incredulous expression. It was natural to be surprised as the name 'Moretti Cartel' was even unheard of in this city before this.

"Oh my... Almost the whole city was under their radar. How could they..? I mean the major factions just watch and let them do what they want?"

"May be because their purposes haven't collided yet? May be because the cartel was paying tributes? Only they would know the reason," Allen answered with a shrug.

"Wow! Our Cap is quite awesome to be able to snoop around such a cartel for months," Shelly made a salute towards Ryan.

"Of course, he is. Don't forget that he also infiltrated Anios," Allen said.

Julian's eyes started to glow with respect for Ryan after the two sang their praises for him.

"Focus," Ryan reminded them as he was starting to feel uncomfortable under Julian's intent gaze.

"According to the professor and the information we have, the injection forms are only held in the hands of group leader level. The three deaths must involve one of the group leaders or the main boss somehow," Allen remarked.

"Isn't it also possible that someone got a hand on those drugs?" Julian asked.

Shelly smacked his head with a file as soon as the question was dropped.

"Aren't you supposed to be smart? We're just saying how the cartel is tight. Who would steal from their leaders? And if the drug is that rare and someone got a hand on it, will they waste it on killing someone? There are many easier ways to kill a person."

"May be they are trying to pin the crime on the cartel," Julian replied with a frown as he pushed away her hand.

'Can't you explain me with words? Why use force?' he thought.

"Well, that's not impossible," Ryan remarked. Actually, he had thought of that,too but only until lieutenant Parker's death.

"However, the cartel has a strong motive for killing lieutenant Parker and the timing is too much of a coincidence. They killed him after we got rid of one of their dealers," he added.

"I see," Julian responded.

After continuing their discussion for a few more hours, Ryan decided, "We shall start from the subgroup leaders."

"But won't it alarm them?" Shelly commented.

"It's only a matter of time before they get to Bruno Bell. We'll be out in the open soon."

The professor had known their identities and Ryan did not believe that such a timid person would keep his mouth shut if his life was threatened. Even if he was in prison, Ryan believed the cartel has means to reach him.

"That's why I gave you time to reconsider. From here on, we'll be in an all-out war," Ryan said as a fiery glint passed through his eyes.