It was early afternoon roughly a week after the raid on the Kingsnakes and Adem was sitting on the couch in his and Eli’s apartment with a laptop balanced on his knees when a shave and a haircut knocked on the door. It was James, a bit later than expected. “Hey, James. Do your homework?”

James exhaled heavily, “Well, ‘Bonum Tech is dedicated to improving the lives of the citizens of Earth through cutting edge and ethical sciences.’” James put on his best PR voice as he recited the Bonum Tech company line that Adem had read about eighty times today. It seemed James had had about as much luck.

“Yeah,” Aderm sighed, “I mean, they make your run of the mill medical equipment and dabble in pharmaceuticals; they even have their hands in personal combat equipment for the military. I’ve been digging all day and all I’ve really been able to dig up is some newspaper article talking about how they won some government contract a few years back but not anything about what kind of contract.” He plopped back down on the couch, put his hands over his face, and groaned.

James leaned against the kitchen counter, “Are we insane? Like stopping muggings and pounding on gangbangers is great and all but this seems like some serious shit. A multi-billion dollar company involved with some gang? This is way above our heads.”

“So?” Adems faces steeled. “You want to give up. If we aren’t willing to tackle big problems what’s the point of doing anything. I know that we’ll never make this city a utopia but if we only treat the symptoms of a larger problem we’ll do this until we physically can’t or it kills us.”

James smirked and shook his head, “I’m not gonna give up. Besides you’d die out there without me.”

They two of them spent the next several hours trying and failing to learn anything that might explain why Bonum would be related in any way to the Kingsnakes. That evening the door opened behind the two guys. Adem quickly closed the laptop and casually, “Hey, Eli. How was work?”

A artificially low voice came from the door, “Well, y’know how we do at SPD. Harassing the public and taking bribes and the like.”

“Ruby, I’ve told you a hundred times you can’t just break into my place,” Adem didn’t even turn to confirm it was his friend. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much really,” She said lackadaisically, “I was supposed to have dinner with Chelsea but she had some work thing come up.” Ruby bounced over the back of the sofa landing between the two boys, “So figured I’d come bug you.”

“Mission accomplished.” James congratulated her with an exaggerated salute, “Well, we were done here anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow night, man.” With that James packed up his stuff and went to the door.

Almost as soon as the door closed, Eli came through it. He already had his uniform unbuttoned and looked like he’d seen about fifty ghosts. Ruby saw his exhausted expression and raised an eyebrow at Adem. He stood and addressed his roommate, “Hey, bud. You doing okay? You look kinda rough. Bad day at work?”

Eli didn’t answer immediately. He went to the fridge, took out one of his beers, popped the cap and sunk into the armchair before starting, “I don’t really know. A guy I kinda knew from work… He um. He took his own life last night.”

Adem was struck for a moment. Eli rarely talked about anything more serious than the water bill with him. Adem recovered and tried to help, “Woah. That’s… Uh yeah that sucks man. I’m really sorry to hear that. Was he an officer? Do you think it was the job?” Ruby seemed quite uncomfortable with the situation and stood up mouthing to Adem ‘I should go.’ She got up and slipped out the door. Eli didn’t seem to notice or care.

Eli sighed heavily and continued, “No. He was a forensic accountant. One of the best if what everyone is saying is true. I only really knew him in passing, at the vending machines and stuff, y’know. I knew that my line of work came with certain risks but I just never thought I’d see someone go like that.”

“Honestly,” Adem began, “I don’t know what to say,” This actually kind of freaked him out. What is up with me. I beat the daylights out of criminals three times a week. Why does this rattle me. “If there's anything I can do, just say the word, Eli. I’ll do what I can.”

Eli only said two more words that night, “Thank you.”