I looked at the computer screen in front of me, which was unhelpfully informing me that no match was found. For the third time, I compared the number plate I had entered to the video the witness had provided. I'd certainly typed it in correctly, yet the system insisted no vehicle with that plate existed. They must be using fake plates.

Three more children kidnapped right off a residential street. It was humiliating. These criminals were acting with utter impunity. There'd been two witnesses this time, and one of them had even managed to capture a video of the white van driving off. Well, even if it was using fake plates, there were more than enough cameras running on the roads to track its progress. I switched to the road network monitoring system and again entered the plate. It returned a message that no vehicle with that plate had been seen in the city within the last thirty days. So the plates were also covered with a reflector or something to prevent the number plate recognition system picking them up. I'd just need to do it manually.

I spent hours poring over camera footage, trying to track the van as it moved around the city, tracking it to the south side before hitting a set of malfunctioning cameras which had failed to record correctly.

This time I was under no delusions that the missing footage was the result of criminal forward planning; I'd viewed footage from one of those cameras myself this morning for another case, and it was working fine then. The footage must have been deleted since then. Deliberately. There's no way that happened by accident. No wonder these kidnappers were acting with such impunity; they had inside help.

How much of the police force was actually committed to working against crime, and how much was aiding and abetting? Sometimes I felt like I was the only straight cop in the building. A fact that meant that I ended up visiting the area personally, not trusting anyone else to do it for me, looking for stores or even residential properties that had cameras facing the roads. It took days of legwork, during which the commissioner was constantly blasting me for putting too much effort into the case when the same amount of effort could solve a dozen simpler ones, but I eventually found what I was looking for.

I found a witness who had seen my van enter a patch of farmland. There would have been no reason for that unless the end goal was in the area. I knew where to look. Alas, my request for police helicopter support was rejected on the grounds that I'd already wasted too much time, and even a search warrant for the grounds was denied. It was obvious that the responsible party had their claws in some pretty high places. I had little choice but to take matters into my own hands.

With a few other cops that I knew personally, along with a hired detachment from one of the reputable private forces that had sprung up once it became clear that no-one could trust the real police, we made our way to the area. I'd been tempted to join one of the private forces myself, but alas, not everyone could afford their services. There needed to be someone looking out for the poor, trying to make a difference in our rotten city.

We found what we were looking for quickly; a barn that had seen far too much traffic, far too many tire marks in the mud for it to be used for only farming. We burst our way in, not caring for the lack of warrant, only to find it empty. Had they been warned and moved on already? I considered each of the people I'd brought with me. Had one of them betrayed us? Or had their inside man been following my investigation and moved the operation pre-emptively once I started getting close?

For once, my pessimism turned out to be unwarranted. The operation wasn't gone, merely well hidden, a trap door disguised under a bed of hay. Unable to open it, we cut our way in, but we found no-one inside. We did see mess rooms with abandoned food, still warm. Lights and computers were still turned on. Another exit stood open. We had made it here undetected, but the time it took us to enter was enough for the personnel to evacuate.

Our search for evidence quickly located an operations room, and it was there that words failed me. Ten stations, each with six screens, displaying separate cells, over fifty of them containing twisted abominations, partially human, and partially monster. A very few contained things that looked fully human, and one contained a full monster, but most were in between. I stood in disbelief as I watched, some of them screaming, some of them crying, some curled up and shaking on their thin cell beds. I watched the monster, a harpy, futility clawing at the walls of its cage. And I recognised its face; one of the three children I was here to find.

"What the hell?" asked someone, echoing my own thoughts exactly. Each station contained notes, and it didn't take us long to find out just what horror was happening here; this was a research facility, and the children were the lab rats. It wasn't just the three. This was a massive, well-funded operation. There's no way this could have been hidden with just one inside man. How many of the captains were in on this? Was the commissioner? Given his efforts to dissuade me from pursuing this, it certainly seemed likely.

"Let's... I don't know. Let's see if we can get them out of there, at least," I said, not really sure if it was a good idea. I don't want to unleash a set of monsters on Kholakel, but I really didn't know what else to do. The harpy wasn't the only one berserking, but those who were just crying or sitting there quietly should be okay, right?

We ended up reading through the notes for each prisoner, confirming that most showed no signs of what the notes called 'mental metamorphosis', but that it didn't matter. The effects of the mutagen they'd been exposed to were permanent and progressive. Even if we released them, they would continue to change until they all ended up as mindless monsters. The most we could do would be to break them out of the cells and let them spend their last few days with each other and family.

With a heavy heart, we got going. Most of them were so excited to be rescued... I couldn't bring myself to tell them that there wasn't anything I could do. Some of them were unresponsive, too distraught by their changes to even acknowledge their release. Others were heavily sedated, apparently being judged 'uncooperative', whatever they meant by that.

With most of them released, we were left with the question of what to do with the former Lily, along with two others whose intelligence had already dwindled to monster levels. We should at least give the family a corpse to bury, and we couldn't go back to our corrupt headquarters for reinforcements, so we gathered up outside, guns drawn. The sounds inside stopped briefly, before starting up again louder; it had apparently heard us and started attacking the door. But as we opened it, they stopped once more. It was waiting for us... Heart pounding, I kept my gun level, and looked into the slowly revealed room beyond. There was... nothing there.

The harpy dived in from the side and then leapt over our heads. I got a shot off, as did a few others, but with no sign of blood we must have all missed. I watched in horror as it tore down the corridor and turned towards the foyer where we had gathered the other children. This was a nightmare! We should have got them all out first. It was flying faster than I could ever run, so I fumbled for my radio instead of chasing, trying to give a warning to my colleagues elsewhere in the facility. I heard the sound of more gunfire, but it had all been useless. It wasn't long before the people I'd left guarding the entrance confirmed it had escaped.

Dammit! What have I just done?! I'd let a monster loose, this close to a city! The commissioner didn't need to be corrupt to have my head for a cock-up that monumental... Although a small part of me was actually glad about how hard an escaped harpy would make it to cover this whole thing up, there was no way I was going to get out of it without demotion at best, but more likely prison time.

So focused was I on the escaped harpy that it took far longer than it should have to notice the changed noise of the air conditioning. It wasn't until I'd made it back to the foyer, where I saw a number of the children rubbing their eyes and stumbling around that I realised something was wrong. "Poison gas! Everyone out!" I shouted, but it was too late for most. As I started to run for the entrance, I heard the sounds of people starting to drop behind me.

I only made it halfway up the corridor before I stumbled and fell myself, fighting to keep myself awake, but unable to get back up. Black dressed men in gas masks rushed past me, none of them even pausing to look down at me. One of the last to pass stooped momentarily, and once he'd moved on I saw the package of explosives he'd left behind. Another blunder... I should have had this place crawling with press and public as soon as we found it, and got everyone out immediately.

I fought against the drowsiness for a minute or two more, but it was obvious I wasn't going to win. I was going to pass out here, only a couple of metres away from the explosive that would doubtless claim my life, completely unable to move to disarm it. At least the kids I'd failed to rescue wouldn't have to suffer any further, but that was small comfort given how many friends and colleagues were about to die.

Should I have taken the 'advice' of the commissioner after all? No. Never. Despite my near complete failure, I was still glad I had come. Even if I couldn't save the people trapped here, if their captors are forced to destroy this place, then had I not saved the next set of people who would have been taken? I did my best. I may have made mistakes, but I'm not going to start regretting my choices now. I would face death with a smile.