"No problem," she said. "What's up?"
"It might be better," he suggested, "if we could meet face to face. I don't really want to put it out on the airwaves. No hurry, just if you get a chance to get out on the streets this shift..."
"I'll be right out," she told him, knowing that it was best not to put requests like that off. "All I was doing was looking over these atrocities you people call reports anyway. How about 35th Street and 6th Avenue, in the loading area of the Schuyler building? That's where the night shift cops like to hide and sleep, isn't it?"
Brian chuckled a little. "I wouldn't know anything about that, lieutenant," he said. "But I know the place. We'll be there in about ten minutes."
Duran saved her work on the computer and then stood up from her chair and stretched for a moment, relieving some of the pain in her aching back. She walked to the corner of the office and picked up her armor vest, slipping it over her shoulders and fastening it into place. She then donned her helmet, which had her rank emblem stenciled on the front of it, and activated her exterior radio link. "This is watch commander 5-alpha," she told the dispatch computer through the link. "I'll be out in the field for a bit."
"Watch commander 5-alpha out in the field," the computer acknowledged.
A short walk brought her to the cart parking area of the building. She climbed into the non-descript cart that was assigned to the lieutenants of the downtown district and drove out through the secured gate that guarded access to the building. She wound her way through the crowded downtown streets and five minutes later pulled into the wide unloading zone behind the Schuyler building. The patrol cart belonging to Wong and Haggerty was already there waiting for her. She pulled up next to them and rolled down her window. "Hi, guys," she greeted, lifting the visor on her helmet.
"Thanks for coming, lieutenant," Haggerty said, flipping his own visor up. "We're really sorry to bother you and all."
"Don't sweat it," she said. "It's what they pay me the big bucks for. So what's the problem?"
"Well," Haggerty told her, seemingly unsure how to describe his dilemma, "we just got done with an assist call for some FLEB agents."
"FLEB agents huh?" she said, her suspicions about what this had to do with effectively confirmed.
"A whole shitload of FLEB agents," Wong said. "Ten of them."
"And let me guess," she said. "This was not to go pick up a couple of music or software pirates, was it?"
"No," Haggerty said. "It wasn't." He then went on to describe the experience that they had had in the public housing building.
Duran listened intently and with growing alarm as she was told of the brutality that the FLEB agents had employed in the takedown of the suspected "terrorists". Kicking arrestees in the head? Calling them greenies? Cinching the cuffs down tight enough to cause bleeding? In this world ruled by lawyers and their abuse of force lawsuits, these were shocking actions indeed, events that would have led to a prison sentence had an Eden cop performed them.
"But the violence was just one thing," Wong said when Haggerty was done. "Those people weren't doing anything illegal! All they were doing was printing up pamphlets to distribute on people's doors. The same kind I got on my door the other day! There were no explosives in there, hell, I didn't even see any guns."
"And you never saw the warrant that they had?" Duran asked them.
"They wouldn't discuss it," said Haggerty. "Every time we asked them about their evidence or their warrant, they told us it wasn't our concern. Finally they threatened us with arrest if we didn't clear out of there. When we got back downstairs the people that they'd arrested were already gone."
"Have those people lost their freaking minds?" Wong asked. "How could they do something like that? How can they get away with it?"
Duran sighed. "You're not the only ones that have had this problem," she told them.
"No?" Wong asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I haven't heard anything solid yet, but I've heard rumors that a few other watch commanders throughout the city had some similar meetings with their patrol teams and have been told similar tales. It seems that the FLEB is cracking down on the more vocal anti-Earthling elements."
"What are we going to do about it?" Haggerty demanded. "Lieutenant, I don't ever want to go on one of those raids again. I mean, I never liked helping those pricks take down someone who copied software on their computer but at least that is against the law. This was something that's protected by the fucking constitution. And vermin or not, those people did not deserve to be treated like that."
Duran sighed. "If this would've happened a few months ago," she said, "I would've been forced to tell you that you were stuck. But times have changed in the last few months, haven't they?"
"They sure have," Haggerty agreed. "And it looks like those corporate pricks are sicking their pet thugs on us because of it."
"That's my take on it," she said. "So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you permission to refuse to take part in any FLEB assistance call if they will not show you the warrant and the writ they used to obtain it. If they do show it to you and it looks funky, you have continued permission to refuse to participate."
Haggerty and Wong looked at her wide-eyed. She understood the source of her awe. She had just taken it upon herself to make a broad reaching decision about cooperation with the FLEB. Again, this was something that she wouldn't have dreamed of before the Laura Whiting inauguration. But as she had told her subordinates, times were different now. She suspected that her decision would be backed up by her captain and by the deputy chief above him. She suspected that she might even be applauded for making it.
"Do you have a problem with my orders?" she asked them, hiding a smile.
"No, lieutenant," Wong said. "Not at all."
"Good," she said. "I'll have it shipped to all the patrol units on my watch as well. Report any incidents with FLEB agents to me immediately. In the meantime, I guess I should go arrange a meeting with Deputy Chief Durham, shouldn't I?"
All over the planet that day, teams of FLEB agents fanned out and made arrests of people they called terrorists. They went out in teams of five or ten, in one or two black vans, always with armor and automatic weapons, and usually with teams of unsuspecting local police along as back-up. They breached door after door in welfare and working class apartment buildings alike, throwing to the ground those they found inside and hauling them away to local FLEB offices. In most cases the "terrorists" that they arrested were those that had been printing pamphlets or who had been the organizers of the recall drives that had threatened the legislature. In each case the warrants used were from the local federal magistrate instead of a superior court judge and in each case the writ that was used to obtain the warrant was not shown to any assisting police officers.
The evening news channels all featured the sweeps as their top stories. This included both the big three Internet channels and the MarsGroup channels, although their respective takes on the subject were somewhat different. On the big three stations the newscasters would announce how the diligent and overworked FLEB agents of the various cities had wrapped up a complex and far-reaching terrorist conspiracy investigation by arresting hundreds of alleged terrorists in a coordinated sweep. Video clips would be shown in which scruffy, unshaven Martians were being led out of housing buildings and placed in the FLEB vans with others. Agents were interviewed from each head office and they would describe the "terrorist writings" and "other, more dangerous items" they had uncovered in their search. They described intricate plots that these terrorists were engaged in to blow up federal buildings, spaceports, even the Martian capital itself. The implication was that Laura Whiting and a few of her consorts were behind these groups. While it was true that not very many Martians watched these broadcasts or believed them if they did, they were beamed to Earth and viewed by the WestHem citizens there. On Earth the reaction was blind outrage that radical Martians were getting away with such things.