Present Day

Michael pulled into the parking garage as he showed his ID to the guard at the gate shack. Unlike traditional parking guards who were usually old, burnt out and overweight, this guard was quite well fit. This was one of the few things that gave away just how important this building was.

As Michael pulled into a parking space, he backed in and locked up the doors. Though his Glock 19 sat under his seat in a secured container, he wore a USP9 with a pair of spare magazines on his belt. This gun was a second choice to him, but Lani had the same gun and he wanted to ensure magazine interchangeability.

Lani grabbed a garment bag and stepped out of the truck. Seeing Michael grab his own garment bag, she held up hers and asked, “Are we being all government looking today?”

With an old mans sarcastically scrunched face, Michael replied, “yeah, we’re gonna look government,” he said through his scratchy near-impersonation of an old clint eastwood accent, “prim and proper, with white paper coffee cups and leave your brain in the truck, we can’t be using common sense or they’ll know we aren’t governmental.”

Lani giggled as they shut the suburban and walked into the building, heading for the changing rooms to put on their governmental clothes. As they stepped away from their vehicle, they clipped their badge cards to their shirts and walked through an automated door. Guards in kit with helmets stood inside the door next to concrete barricades. Lani smiled at them and waved with excitement, being that this was her first time walking into one of these secure facilities.

Michael stepped into a male restroom and began changing his clothes, quickly putting on a business suit. The pants and jacket were dark gray, with a black clip-on tie. The shirt was a slightly off-white cream color, while underneath it was a level IIIA soft armor vest. He swapped out his kydex in-the-waistband holster with a leather outside holster, made of black material. Mounting his knife and spare magazines to his belt, he slipped into his police style shoes. These were best described as an ‘athletic dress shoe,’ being that they had a sleek formal appearance with treaded soles and flexible padded interior to preserve the feet during running and other constant movements.

Lani had her own suit, which was custom made. In addition to a standard level IIIA soft vest like Michael had, she also had a unique ballistic lining in her coat. The coat was black, while the pants were black with red threading. Her shirt was red, though she had no tie. As she placed her pistol in a holster similar to Michaels leather holster, she made sure to leave the top two buttons undone. She had a sports bra under her shirt, but her form was well displayed, as was the window she left open to relax the efforts of mens imaginations. I might need to be charming or some shit she thought to herself as she checked to make sure she was being cute without doing anything that might draw negative attention. She tied her shoes and put her previously worn clothes in a plastic bag and rolled up her stuff before walking back into the hallway where Michael waited.

“You’re doing that thing again, aren’t you?” Michael asked with an eye roll.

Lani pressed up against her bra, “These might make someone be nice,” she retorted at him as she let out a slight giggle, “this is kinda exciting.”

“It’s a government building,” Michael said in a seemingly exhausted tone. “You aren’t gonna want their eyes all over you.”

Lani gave a sarcastic pout as she rolled her eyes. “Maybe so,” she said softly, “but you don’t want me punching fuckers.”

Michael let out a chuckle. “I totally want you punching fuckers,” he said through a smile, “I just don’t wanna hear about it from douchebags.”

“That’s right,” Bernards familiar voice squeaked, “You don’t want your morality called into question.”

Michael glared down Bernard as he heard the word morality spew from his mouth. Knowing Bernard to be little more than a septic bowl of immorality, he would not at any point in time take this office lackey seriously. “Bernard,” Michael said through his teeth, “I’ll take my ethics lecture from someone with a grasp on what that actually is.”

Lani squinted her eyes at Bernard. Though she didn’t know the full story, she knew that Michael didn’t trust Bernard in the least. This meant that she had to be watchful of him around Michael. While Bernard looked towards her, he first noticed her open shirt. He almost had a half smirk before he realized that she was in fact glaring him down. He shied away from both of them and left. As he left, Lani gently grabbed Michaels arm. “Hey,” she said quietly, “Is he one of those who needs thrown in a burning dumpster?”

Michael had an interrupted reflex as she touched his arm. His arm tensed up as if to pull away, but he immediately relaxed as he reminded himself that it was Lani and not some stranger trying to have a go at him. His mind had wandered back to that evening when he had watched Sarah fall dead with a knife in the back of her head. He looked at Lani with a soft smile. “That would be awesome,” he said in a low tone, “but he has to stay alive for a while longer.”

Lani nodded with understanding. “Don’t jerk from me,” she said with a low but stern voice, “I’ll make you nap till you feel better.”

Michael shook his head, “I don’t like sleeping,” he grumbled, “I don’t like where I go.”

Lani grinned in a way that revealed her sinister inner nature. “I know about your nightmares,” she said as she placed her hand on his wrist as if she were checking a pulse, “and I won’t leave you alone in the dark.”

Michael nodded slowly as he looked down the hall. “We have Tom,” he said as he patted her hand softly. Lani looked down the hall to see Tom, the guy Michael actually cared enough to take any kind of direction from.

“Hey Michael,” Tom said with relaxed excitement, “Hey there Lani, you look good today.” As Lani smiled and Michael chuckled, Toms seemingly happy facial expression wiped away and a look of displeasure took form. “Care to explain why I had Chicago PD calling our division?”

Michael scoffed. “No, I don’t care to explain that we dealt with a rape in progress,” he said with his eyes narrowed.

Lani giggled, “You mean because we were in the right place when it mattered?”

Tom facepalmed, turning to walk away so he could enter a break room where a coffee pot had finished brewing. “You two are gonna make me have migraines,” he said with a frustrated tone, “They only heard rumor that there might have been a sexual assault nearby and that the murder victim barely fit the description.”

Lani took the coffee pot from Tom before he could pour it into a cup. Grabbing another white cup, she poured it as she glared at Tom. “I saw his hand on her neck,” she said with a harsh tone of annoyance, “I saw a hand on her boob,” handing the first cup to Michael, she poured herself another cup and set it aside. She then took Toms cup and filled it halfway for him. “So yes, I kicked his ribs in and I may have kicked his head a little hard.”

Toms eyes widened. “First off,” he said as he looked into the cup, “This cup is half full. Secondly, the victim they found wasn’t kicked repeatedly. He was pentagram’d.”

Lani took her black coffee and sucked it down like an eight ounce shot. She gestured with her hand as if she were going to say something, but paused. After a brief moment, a squeaky ‘owwie’ escaped her lips as she tried to talk around the immense heat of her drink. As she regained her speech, she finally spoke out. “I couldn’t have done that, cuz I don’t know what that means.”

Michael leaned in. “It means he was pinned to a wall using five knives,” he said softly while still giggling about how fast she drank the coffee. “Whoever killed the other person must have put them on display.”

Lani shrugged. “Wasn’t us. You shot one guy twice, I kicked the fuck outta the pedo.”

“Yes, that man with the removed head?” Tom interjected. “They’re praising you even though they have no idea who you are.”

Lani smiled. “Just doing what’s right.”

The three of them eventually made their way into a meeting room and took their seats around a presentation screen.