Chapter Text
Thump
Thump
Thump
A rhythmic, pounding sound synced up with Caitlyn’s equally pounding headache; the souvenir left her from the bombing on Progress Day. Progress Day, and the fact that everyone seemed hellbent on thwarting this case. Even Jayce! Involuntarily Caitlyn gritted her teeth. She wanted nothing more than to catch the person responsible for the bombing.
And she had had a compelling lead.
A criminal, named Lock, who had been hit by friendly fire during a raid where the same kind of childish graffiti drawings had been found as during the bombing. If she could have just spoken with him, he might have been willing to tell her who shot him. But alas, it seemed even in prison they were against her, as someone had beaten her to it, literally and figuratively. As soon as Lock had been entered into Stillwater, another inmate had violently attacked him and severely broken his jaw. Leaving any sort of progress to wait for months for the inmate to recover.
She had quickly leafed through the offending inmate's file in the elevator ride down, but all it had given Caitlyn, was an even bigger headache. No name was registered and no crime recorded. Basically it was just a collection of malfeasance reports of which all dates and names were redacted, making them virtually useless. So useless in fact, if anyone wanted to, they could have the prisoner released on grounds of false documentation.
Not that she wanted to. Based on the description of the prisoner -who was just nicknamed Pink- she was a drug addict who attacked suddenly and viciously, having spent at least 7 years behind bars. Apparently she could easily floor a behemoth of a man such as Lock. Caitlyn shook her head, hoping to clear her headache, together with the visualization of a 300 pound, raging, pink haired addict.
Thump
Thump
Thump
As the young enforcer walks closer the thumping is interspersed by the jagged sound of someone breathing heavily. The officer can’t tell why, but the sound is… different from what she expected.
She clears the corner of the cell and realizes why, as her eyes take up the scene inside the cell. The dim light is caught by sweat beading on smooth skin, highlighting thick muscles. Broad shoulders roll and curl as arms pound away at the wall. Intricate tattoos of machinery, cogs and pistons curve up the prisoners limbs, powering them like battering rams. Her short hair, a tangle of red and rose, followed her sweeping arcs, jumping like embers of a wildfire - alive, burning and untamed.
But it was not the battleaxe brute that Caitlyn was expecting who had sent Lock to the infirmary. It was a young woman, perhaps just a year younger as the enforcer.
Who-?
As the question raises to Caitlyn’s lips the woman turns to look over her shoulder and pins the officer down with piercing eyes the color of steel. Caitlyn’s breath catches as she gets the intense feeling like she has just been cornered by a wild panther.
‘Who the hell are you?’ the inmate asks with a growl.
Vi looks at the woman that has appeared outside her cell from the corner of her eyes. She had had a shitty day, which had turned shittier recognizing one of Silco’s henchmen in the mess and then even shittier as the guards had beaten her senseless and dragged her off to her special cell. Their hits were still ringing in her ears and she needed to keep moving to stop her head from spinning so she was ready for when they came for their inevitable “corrective talks”. Which everyone knew was Silco’s meddling hand protecting his men on the inside.
But instead of the usual tanks this lanky officer had walked in and Vi couldn’t help a sly smile on the corner of her mouth. Had she collected enough karma that they would send in someone so green and lithe to take her to the “interrogation” room? The woman’s slender frame practically begged for some rough handling on the way there. And she was young, maybe just a year older as Vi. Fresh. Was Silco that desperate for new cattle?
“My name is officer Ki- Caitlyn.”
Stumble number one already, interesting. Was she deliberately evading protocol and using her first name to seem more amicable? Vi wondered.
The officer didn’t, as her next words came resolutely. “I took a look at your file. There’s no record of you or your crimes. What are you here for?”
That was a new one. The “corrective talks” orchestrated by Silco normally didn’t involve any questioning by the enforcers. Vi turned and started pacing the rear of the cell, noting the officer would be a while and she needed to keep moving.
It was a sweet voice, boardroom, not used to the kind of feral screaming such as Vi had let out when she saw Lock at the mess. Befitting to her voice, the manners of this woman were also correct to a fault. The enforcers toes were perfectly touching the indicator line on the floor, as taught during training. Her hands were carefully clutching a folder. Probably her grades list, fresh out of academy – Vi thinks to herself. Hmm, she would enjoy toying around with this duckling. Maybe her shitty day would turn...
So she replies with a smirk “My sunny personality.”
40 levels of seawater were pressing against every wall. The air was heavy and hard to breathe and should the lights fail, they would be in complete and utter darkness. It all weighed so heavy, that the concept of sunny had ceased to exist in Caitlyn’s vocabulary. Intrigued by the young woman, attracted by her physique and surprised by her answer she unknowingly starts to lean in closer.
It was an uncooperative answer though, so Caitlyn’s training made her immediately switch the line of questioning. “You attacked an inmate. Why?”
The inmate keeps pacing the back of the cell. Together with her ragged hair, her piercing eyes and muscled shoulders, the pacing makes her look just like a caged panther, the officer ponders, locked up with no place to go, handlers prodding the animal to dance to their will, or “chatting” as they had called it.
The animal evades her question, as Caitlyn was already expecting despite knowing her for 3 sentences. “Why not” the inmate deflects.
It’s almost sighed out and Caitlyn sighs as well. This isn’t going anywhere.
“He was a witness in an ongoing investigation.”
“Hmm, bummer”
Switch. Pace. The panther was undisturbed by Caitlyn’s appearance outside her cell, and remained unwilling to cooperate.
Sigh. She should have known better. The inmate had surprised her with her age and figure, but she was as uncooperative as the drug-addled brute Caitlyn had thought her to be.
“This was a waste of time.” she grumbles, as she turns and starts down the hall, already contemplating her next options.
Rat’s ass! Vi had enjoyed playing with the young officer. She hadn’t gotten her to make a real misstep yet, or any info on why Silco would send her.
Now she was walking away.
“Couldn’t have put it better. Hey, give Silco a kiss on that winning eye of his, will you?”
Caitlyn’s mind was already halfway back the harbor, working on a plan B, giving up on this wild goose chase. She stopped.
She could clearly hear that the inmate was trying to keep her engaged. Playing with her. On the other hand… She rolled her eyes and let herself be dragged back to the inmate’s cell.
“Silco? The Industrialist?” Caitlyn asks incredulously. How could he be connected to all this? Why would the industrialist leave all these childish drawings? And the little girls’ laughter at the bombing? Her mind immediately started drawing red lines between the theories in her head.
Vi stopped pacing and her shoulders dropped. Although she had enjoyed bantering, the officer’s reaction to Silco’s name had both irritated her and despaired her.
Huh, clearly not sent by Silco then, just an over excited graduate poking where she shouldn’t. Either Marcus or Silco would make sure she wouldn’t visit these depths ever again and so her visit was just a useless distraction. God, she could really use someone to punch right now.
“Okay, this is getting old… Can you just send in whoever’s gonna kick the shit out of me, so I can get on with my night?”
Caitlyn was annoyed. The inmate had seemed to be willing to give her a morsel, only to double down on her rebellious façade a second later. There was no way of talking to this woman, but she clearly must know something. Why else would she so ruthlessly have incapacitated the witness? Why would she mention Silco? And what did he have to do with the drawings? Could she show them to her? Would she know anything? Damn it, Marcus would be on her tomorrow anyways. And she couldn’t stand it that she had no answers, just, more questions...
She stepped over the distancing line and folded open her evidence folder, holding the drawings up to the cell’s bars. “Does this mean anything to you?”
With a speed Caitlyn hadn’t expected the woman was throwing herself against the bars. Almost seeming to want to jump into the photo’s. “Where did you get this?” Her voice having made an 180 from the dejected mumbling only a second before, now on the verge of desperation. Her reserved nature completely unraveled by pure desire.
Surprised by the ferocity of the action Caitlyn takes a step back. Shit! She had let her guard down, again. But holy bells, she had her!
Her training kicked in and now she determinedly stepped towards the bars. “My question first. He worked for Silco?”
It almost looked like the inmate had a seizure then and there, such was her exasperated eye roll. “Uh, they all do. How can anyone not know that?” letting her eyes turn to slits as they rolled across Caitlyn’s face, but turning to round wells of wanting the moment they rested on the photo’s once more. The sledgehammer that had hit her the moment she laid eyes on the photo’s had cracked her entire façade. “Where did you find this?!”
“There was an attack. This is evidence.”
Vi slumped down as the officer’s shoulders had straightened. They both knew the badge had regained control of the situation and the woman’s training was back in effect. As an instruction booklet she demanded “I need proof if I’m to believe what you’re saying about Silco.”
Vi slumbed down, again. Every enforcer was always the same, even though, again, she had thought this one could be different. It was always the enforcers wanting something, evidence, a name, money, …someone’s freedom. Never did they give anything in return. And what was she supposed to give, with everything she owned being a dirty blanket and 6 square meters of cell space. That is…
Her eyes glanced over Miss Perfect Posture. She scoffed. She looked gullible enough. Would she…? Well, what did she have to lose? “I could get it for you. Just not from in here.”
Caitlyn scoffed possibly even harder. She had made some rookie mistakes during the evening, but how stupid did this brat think she was? Now it was her time to roll her eyes. “In what mad world would I trust someone like you?” letting her eyes pin the inmate down on the last word for extra effect. And her comment seemed to hit exactly where she wanted it to.
The inmate's eyes flared wide, her eyebrows shooting up. “Someone like me?! You enforcers are all the same. Just asshole criminals in fancy uniforms!”
Now it was Caitlyn’s turn to be hurt, her eyebrows shooting up equally high. Asshole criminals?! This girl didn’t know shit. Caitlyn’s whole tenure with the enforcers was to be of service to the city. To protect innocent people against said criminals. She hadn’t gone through all the shit of enrolling as an enforcer, wíth the added complexity her station caused, as her mother made sure to tell her every- damn- day, for this immature girl to chastise her!
“You know what? Find Silco yourself!” the inmate throws at her, filling the stunned silence Caitlyn left.
Fine. If this is how she thought of her, so be it. Caitlyn was done with her. She had gone against every of Marcus’ orders to reach Stillwater, risked way too many repercussions, all to waste way too much time on this inmate.
“I will,” she replied resolutely. “Thank you”
It was all Vi could do not to burst out laughing. Thank you?! This woman was sooo fresh. And then that perfectly executed heel turn as she turned and started for the door! She undoubtedly had been practicing that in front of a mirror a hundred times.
“Hmmm...Undercity’s gonna eat you alive.” she purred with pleasure.
Caitlyn sighed as she walked to the elevator. Damn her upbringing! Uttering those words was such a staple in her life, that they had slipped her mouth before she could stop. If something like that happened in the Undercity she would be screwed.
Annoyed and impatient she started pressing the button of the elevator to bring her back up. Why wouldn’t that stupid elevator get down here already? And yes, deciding to be mad at the machine was of course way better than being mad at herself for the fact that the pink haired woman was right. Or being mad for the realization what her next step would be in pursuing this lead. She NEEDED answers, but by coming here, by registering for the prisoner visit, Marcus would know she had gone here. Thus she had only two options left; drop the case and do as she was told.
Or.
Take the prisoner up on her offer by releasing her and hunting for evidence in the Undercity before Marcus would find out…