ROBERTA'S BEAT COP DUTIES were patrolling the city's streets on foot. She just had smoked a joint and was in her spying-mode.

She normally ended up in Chinatown when she walked her route, heading over to her partner and mentor — Mandy Thompson — who was always there waiting before they did lunch together. Everyone at the precinct loved her and called the Black, senior cop, Big Manny...

She was a year short, from her retirement from Columbus PD.

But, Roberta was far from hungry today, bothered by lots of muddling personal thoughts. While they both walked over for lunch, Roberta was observing an old warehouse that was across the road and was noticing the presence of an Asian businesswoman in her office window on the top floor...

Big Manny's stomach churned — she interrupted Roberta's thoughts...

"Yo, let's go grab a bite here, Rob. Hey look — Frankie Sun is still open — wanna get a hot dog?"

Roberta jested back...

"Yuck! Hot-dogs from here, from a Korean stand, Manny? Seriously? I pass, coz they may put real dog meat in it!"

Roberta laughed — but frankly, she did not want to hang out with Manny today — because she needed her space to be alone — away from their usual bitching-shop-talk which they always do, about their lack of overtime and promotions.

"You go on ahead, buddy. I want to go over and buy some smokes, soda and snacks — we will catch up later."

Roberta made an excuse, and they both went separate ways...

Roberta knew it was the right time to pay her visit, to the business Asian woman...

Roberta then walked into the back lane of the warehouse, where she encountered a big Vietnamese woman in security guard vesture, seated at the loading area, with the entrance metal door closed.

The guard saw Roberta in police uniform coming...

"You, what want?"

The big woman spoke out, in broken English, with a tone of aversion to street cops...

"Your Boss. I wanna see your boss."

"Boss, no!" replied the sniffy woman.

Roberta repeated. "Ngu-yen — your Boss — I wanna see her."

"Boss, no — you go!" she added, with some cuss words in Vietnamese.

"Hey, step aside! I know Ngu-yen is here — I wanna see her now!"

Roberta was a little provoked when the woman once again said something in her own language — sensing by the tone of voice and body language — they were prejudicial universally than what the actual foreign language was spoken in — and Roberta took it as an insult...

She landed a few hard, retaliating punches, and dropped the big guard down on her face...

Roberta opened the metal door and entered inside...

It was an illegal sweatshop that manufactured fake knockout clothes. It was also Roberta's first time stepping into the warehouse. She had only noticed the boss Ngu-yen before, in her other retail outlet.

There were a lot of Asian women inside, sewing clothes, and they subsequently stopped working. They froze at the presence of the uniformed, White cop inside the premise...

At the precinct, Roberta had heard of the 'under-wraps' street stalks done here — and the boss Ngu-yen had been generous with her payouts to the Police Strike-force team — for keeping the local extorting Chinese triad at bay in Chinatown...

But, times were bad, Roberta was dearth for means of making her own extras on the street — she wanted her cut too as a beat cop, for her walks in Chinatown to keep the peace of local businesses, that were threatened by gangs and local triads — so she came today, to negotiate a handout...

'Maybe, two hundred bucks a week — that was a fair asking.'

A woman soon alerted in Vietnamese — a door of a nearby room slammed...

'Something is happening here...'

Roberta rushed over and kicked the door in...

In an isolated room, were about fifty Intersexual twelve year old, working in that separate secret area — where their little fingers were used, for detailed fabric sewing works, on the knock-off garments. Once they too saw a uniformed White cop entering, the boys started to flee in terror, by jumping outside windows and bolting into the streets...

Roberta grabbed a slow-moving crippled-boy by the hair — she slammed him against the wall, yelling out...

"Where are you from?"

The Intersexual begged for mercy in a foreign language. Roberta hated the annoying gibberish of what she could comprehend — but, she could see the fear in his eyes — it excited her to slap the boy...

"Hey answer me, you girlie-fuck — which country are you from?"

"Cambodia," cried the trembling, puny boy.

Roberta now saw a larger opportunity — for a bigger and better reap, from her own personal shakedown.

An opulent-dressed, Asian businesswoman in a dark blue suit, approached fast — with more than a dozen of her female employees, following from behind her — she came to deal with the disconcerting, in the premise of her establishment.

The woman glanced at the cop's badge...

"What do you want, Officer Jensen?"

Roberta pulled the crippled kid to the front, with her hand clasped to the boy's nape...

"Hi, Ngu-yen, yo, nice to see you too. So tell me, how come your sweatshop floor, is crawling with these foreign freaks? Don't you know, it is illegal, having minors working in your place of business?"

"Good help is hard to find, Officer — and I have to get the right people — to keep my business running."

A straight forward answer — but, Roberta arbitrated with now the money-ball that had rolled, towards her court...

"But Ma'am, but it is still illegal, to bring all these coconut plucking monkeys from Cambodian villages into this country, and be working their chimp-tails off, in your sweatshop?"

Ngu-yen whispered instruction to her floor supervisor, in Vietnamese, who ran to the back of the shop. The boss was beseeching again, ruefully...

"Come on Officer Jensen, times are really bad here, I have invested a lot, with the US Immigration to get my labour supply — please don't make it any more difficult — please, just look away." Roberta then countered...

"Yeah, I know about your line of connections, with the US fucking Immigration and all, and their appointed snake-heads in bringing in your cheap labour gooks here, via Canada into Chinatown — but still Ma'am, it is illegal to have these underage freaks working in here."

The loping employee returned, holding a clothes hanger with a full Armani business suit — and handed it to Ngu-yen, who passed it to the cop...

"Here is a gift, Officer — an Armani, our finest product. Please accept it, and forget what you saw here."

The thought of the scrimping woman trying to buy off a street cop, with knock-off goods, was insulting to Roberta. Ngu-yen was willing to pay monetary bribes to the gung-ho, PD's strike force unit — but now, she offered fake clothing, because Roberta was seen merely as a uniformed beat-cop...

Roberta grabbed the imitation suit and threw it back at Nguyen's face.

All the employees started to protest loudly in Vietnamese, for the disrespectful demeanour of the White cop. Their clamouring was like of angry ducks to Roberta's ears — so she yelled back to drown them all out...

"Shut the fuck up! And now look here, Ngu-yen, I don't want your cheap, shitty suit — I will report this fucking place over, and some authorities will soon be knocking the door here with a through, search-warrant, so that this labour Ho Chi Min camp will be shut-down for good — and you may even fucking go to jail, Ngu-yen!"

"Please Officer Jensen, why are you doing this? What do you really want?"

Finally, that got Madam Gook's attention — it was time to demand...

Roberta hugged the gimp-boy from the back and stroked his hair...

"I saw about fifty of these she-hoe monkeys, jumping about here a moment ago — and I want a hundred bucks a head — and that totals up to five grand. So Ngu-yen — to keep your full operation running, you will have to pay me five thousand bucks every single month, from this day onwards! Is that clear, or do you want me to repeat it — with the subtitles captions switched on!!?"

Ngu-yen was the third generation in their Vietnamese family textile business in America. She countered the dirty cop's coercion at once — Ngu-yen instantly protested...

"You must be joking! I paid a lot of money to the US Immigration to bring these people in — and it is not feasible to pay a penny more!"

Now, the gook reminded her lot of her Aunt Flo who used the word like a penny, too very often — seems like, all stingy rich bitches do that...

But today, Roberta was going to have it her way...

"Hey, you wanna do business in my part of town — then, you play it by my rules. You pay me first, and only then I look away, do you get me!!?"

"This is preposterous! Who the hell are you? You can't threaten me this way! It is bad for business — and also to my huge investment to bring these boys in!"

Ngu-yen was still refusing to cave into an amateur, uniformed, beat cop's postulations to extort from her — and walk away rich...

"Okay, let me put it the other way, Ma'am — how about you, see for yourself — of how, you can lose your investment — right in front of your very eyes?"

Roberta kicked the good foot of the claudicating Cambodian boy, and he fell on the floor, hitting his face down — Roberta pulled out her service revolver — and pointed at the boy's head...

Fear ripped into every one of the employees — and they backed away slow — except for the bold Ngu-yen, facing Roberta...

"Come — I dare you to shoot him!"

The glowering Asian woman challenged back...

Roberta Jensen grinned at Ngu-yen, while her thumb removed the gun's safety...

With no sense of apathy, her trigger finger squeezed...

***

Mandy Thompson was having her hot-dog at the Korean stand — she dropped her food to the sound of a gun blast that was close-by, which also followed by screams ahead. She upholstered her revolver, and searched for the direction of the gunshot — she saw some Asians pointing at a back alley...

Some young she-boys were running away, for their lives.

***

The sweatshop employees looked in horror — at the smirking Roberta Jensen...

The trembling Ngu-yen was cupping her ears, with both of her shivering palms. She suspired hard, with tears building up from her shut eyelids...

.

The sound of a boy, crying was then heard — there was a hole on the floor, with chipped concrete bits, close to the boy's head. The fallen Cambodian boy was now half-deaf — and also had lost his continence, as he urinated in his pant.

Big Manny rushed into the open metal door of the sweatshop after seeing a beaten unconscious guard flat on the ground — and inside, Manny saw the Asian workers gathered at the far end of the warehouse.

She approached and then overheard Roberta's threatening voice...

"How about it Ngu-yen — the next shot will not miss. So, it's a deal or what!!?"

Roberta's revolver was firmly pointed at the boy's head again. Manny gaped and stood still like a living statue, holding her gun — and listened to the crying businesswoman, replying back...

"Okay-okay, I pay you 5000 a month — just don't do these horrible things in here, please!"

"Good, I will come back tomorrow then — and I collect. See you then, ciao from your friendly neighbourhood spying-cop."

Roberta tapped the Vietnamese businesswoman's shoulder, while she made her way through the retreating and imperilled employees. Roberta then saw Mandy Thompson staring at her, from behind them...

"Hey Manny, you are here too. That was a quick lunch, buddy — did you get any of your favourite sweet-and-sour doughnuts for desserts?"

Roberta remarked casually to her partner and walked away...

***

They both stepped out of the sweatshop and were back in the busy streets. The older cop saw Roberta was still fleering to herself, for the effectual deal that she had just made.

It got Mandy upset. Still distressed, Mandy shoved Roberta to the wall of the building and hollered out...

"What were you trying to prove in there, Rob — you fired your service revolver in the middle of Chinatown. We will be in trouble if someone called 911 — and what if, this incident gets to Captain Miller, we both are fucked!!?"

Roberta burst out laughing, while still gloating...

"Yeah, you should have seen the looks in those cunt eyes, a moment ago!"

Mandy's face was near Roberta's. Her piercing eyes locked, as she shouted on to her face again...

"Do you think this is fucking funny, you asshole!!? I have been your partner for the past three years — since when you became a lowlife cop, who is on the take!!?"

Roberta pushed Mandy Thompson away and started walking ahead again...

"Manny, stop busting my chop with your bullshit. Stop acting righteous on me too — you, are no different either, okay?"

On hearing this, Mandy came back fuming, striding from behind...

"What are you saying — I am clean, I don't do these kinda dirty-things!"

Roberta turned acrimonious and was pointing at the Black cop...

"Fuck you! I never saw you pay a dime for the loads of food you pig around here, and I bet you been doing that for many piggy years, since the days of Adam and Eve — but the only difference is that I have to do it this shit, big time — because I need the fucking money for Laura's surgery.

"Do you fucking think that I can afford that, with my shitty pay-check!!?

"Think about that before you preach your Gospel around — and judge others!"

Both the beat-cops became quiet, to avoid further exacerbation. They walked in deep thoughts, cooling off their tempers.

"Just look away on this one, Manny. I will sort out the shooting, and fill in the incident report later, okay — don't worry, I got everything covered, buddy." Roberta said gently with one hand, squeezing Big Manny's hefty shoulder — before she crossed the street alone...

Mandy Thompson looked at the younger uniformed beat-cop wove her way across, before disappearing into the lunch crowd — a sense of let-down was inside Manny, that her partner had also gone dirty — like some of the other fellow iniquitous cops in the precinct, who plundered the foreign business community.

She then felt a sense of good relief that she was looking forward to her coming retirement — happening eight months from then.