[ WP ] The Chicago southside is known for violence and death . You are a detective investigating unusual technological activity in the southside . The violence is a ruse for a society better than the north .

I have had some strange cases slide across my desk in my day. No two are the same, but some stand out more than others. The strangest ones always seem to walk into my office unannounced. 
 
 
 May 12, 2093, 12:45 AM. I was working late closing down a particularly gruesome case; Young man who had lost everything in the housing crash of'91 had disappeared. His wife came in quite distraught, figured that one of his many debtors had came to collect. Turned out she had bashed his head in with a shovel while they were preparing their garden for the year. Found his feet connected to a cinder block at the bottom of the __ river, but the cuts were clean, and organized crime had more effective ways of hiding a body, so I dug a little deeper. Found the rest of him dismembered and dispersed around in the garden, full of worms. Turned out she did n't want to lose their nice little north end property to the bank so she offed him to collect life insurance. 
 
 
 
 So I'm deep into my report on the case when a small shadow materialized on the other side of the opaque glass of my door. I was expecting a woman to walk through due to the gentle nature of her knocking between the P and the I that are plastered to the glass above my name, Howard Davies. 
 
 
 
 I was a little annoyed, but small ladies are usually easy on the eyes. 
 
 
 
 `` Come on in!'' I called to her, tapping the ash from my cigar into an empty coffee cup on my desk. 
 
 
 
 I'm half smiling, expecting some eye candy, and in walks this nerdy, skinny, computer hack looking kinda kid. Hair gelled over, thick rim glasses, pens in the pen protector, suspenders, the opposite of a pretty blonde; I'm feeling like a pretty shitty detective at this point. I should have noticed `` she'' had no hair flowing around her shadow. 
 
 
 
 These guys were always coming in my office, asking if I could follow their wives, or off one of their competitors. App development got cutthroat after brick and mortar stores ceased to be profitable with the development of Virtual Reality. 
 
 
 
 `` Actually, I'm busy right now get out.'' I barked pulling hard on my cigar and digging back into my work. 
 
 
 
 He began to beg, `` Please sir, I've gone to the police and they laughed me out of the department. Said they wont go down there until the rioting stops. Said the walls were built to contain the problem. But I swear its not what it looks like. The south of this city is up to something. I moved my tech venture across the street from the wall to save cost because rent is cheaper there and none of my components were working. So I ran a check for interference in the area and my sensors all pointed to interference coming from about ten miles inside the wall.'' 
 
 
 I blew smoke out my nose in response. That was impossible. Everyone knew the other side of the wall was a war zone. We had walled in the northern portion of Chicago back in 2020 durring the Riots to keep the violence out of the stable communities. Supplies had been air dropped in since, and life went on. Things outside the wall had only gotten worse. Famine, drought, and more fighting. Outside the wall was no longer safe, had n't been in almost 80 years. No one was around to remember that any more. No one inside the wall even knew what the outside looked like. It was built so high that planes could no longer land at the ___ Airport. No one was able to fly in or out by that point anyhow. Our understanding was, besides the military bases that were somehow still supplying the city with food, we were the last civilized place on earth. 
 
 
 `` Kid, get out of my office.'' I said without looking up. This kid was clearly crazy.\ 
 
 
 
 Without a word he turned and left. I did n't look up to see if he seemed defeated, I did n't really care. But I wanted to make sure he had actually left. Kids were getting into some weird shit these days and this kid seemed like he had gone off the deep end. 
 
 
 I stood and turned to look out the large filthy window behind me and opened it so I could see out. The wall, and the street were my only view. I too had opted to save on rent. Cant pass up a good deal. I watched the kid walk to his car, a decent 2019 Electric model. He tried to start his car, but it would n't turn over. The street lamp flickered and went out. The power had gone out on the block again. The light from his headlights was now the only light available. 
 
 
 
 The kid tried his car once more, then popped the hood and got out to check the engine. While he had his head in the engine bay, a hooded figure stepped out of the darkness into the light of the headlights. Unsure of the intent of this stranger I called out to the kid to warn him, but I was too late. The figure slammed the hood of the car down on the kid who let out a shout of surprise. A second figure grabbed the kid's arm while the first held him down and seemed to inject something into the kid. 
 
 
 I fell back from the window and pulled my gun out of the drawer on the left of my desk. I turned back to the window. All three were gone, and the lights were back on. 
 
 
 I had a new case to solve. 
 
 
 I know I have n't gotten to the twist yet, but I got ta do some other stuff now so I'll just post this: ) 
 
 
 
 

