Perception # 1

Issue #1
Created & Written by Jeremias de Leon

Somewhere in Nevada a man named Jarmo Lehti is looking out of his kitchen window in his boring, plain apartment. Though he would have no reason to spruce the place up, however. In his line of work he has to make sure he can move out at a moments notice. There's always someone who thinks they can get their revenge on whoever put them away, even if they're in law enforcement.

Jarmo isn't staring out into space through his window though. There is a reason. An advantage to living in a rough neighborhood, criminals don't think a cop would be very close by. Let alone living in one of these rundown apartments. The punks he's been surveying are even daring enough to speak loudly about their activity. Jarmo quickly realizes it's about drugs and begins to listen intently.

“Seems that's the last of the trinity Paul” said the first punk wearing a large sunglasses.

“We better go get some more from Mr. Frank” said the other punk wearing a bandana. Both wearing white t-shirts with jeans hanging low.

“That guy scares me honestly” Paul stated with a no nonsense look on his face, he looked down then continued. “It's not even because he intimidates me or anything, it's because of his boss, I never met the guy but he's some major trouble Bret.”

“I feel ya, I heard a lot of his boys were in some major firefight” Bret replied.

“But let's shut up and get some more of that stuff man.” Paul interrupted.

“Right.”

Jarmo quickly begins to process all the information he just heard and begins to think on what it could mean. “They mentioned a firefight, there was a pretty nasty one some months ago it even involved an explosion, somewhere in Florida.” Jarmo stands up and reaches into his pants pocket, he's wearing green cargo pants and a blue button shirt that has a chest pocket.
 “Let me get my phone, I bet if I look at my contacts I can remember who told me about the explosion.” As Jarmo scrolls through his contact list he sees names go by “Billy, Darryl, Jeff, Jake... that guy still owes me five bucks... let's see... ah! There we are.” Jarmo held his hand high as if he won a trophy looking at the name that gave him the previous information about an explosion in Florida. “It's time he told me more.”

 As Jarmo decides his current course of action he leaves his apartment, mutters “Paul and Bret sunglasses and bandana...” and heads to the city's civic center, something most of his colleagues scratch their heads over whenever they notice he feels like getting some air and clearing his mind. Why not a bar or a more normal place? They usually ask. If there was something actually happening when he goes there they would get it but he just goes there, no matter what's happening. Which is usually nothing.

As he gets to his destination he finally phones the one who he plans to get more information out of. “Hey mr. Ramirez, it's Jarmo.”

“Ah, mr. Lehti! How's my favorite Nordic detective?” Ramirez asked with a very jolly tone.

“Eh, another day another plot with drugs and explosions being uncovered, speaking of explosions...”

“I'm guessing you want to know about the explosion in Florida.” replied Mr. Ramirez.

“Right on the money, man, so do we know anything about the people involved in that crazy firefight, I heard some punks near my apartment mentioning that firefight and explosion and Trinity being distributed here through whoever the boss of all those guys were.”

“Cesar Monticello,” Mr. Ramirez said without skipping a beat.

“Who?”

“Cesar Monticello. He's the boss of the guys in the firefight, apparently they were having a shootout with two feds. Speaking of one of those feds is in your state...”

“What!?” Jarmo exclaimed.

“Yeah, you see that agent just happens to be a friend with one of my other acquaintances she is her friend... or cousin, I don't know I was kinda just staring at her rack when she was telling me.”

Jarmo quipped “I thought attention to details was your specialty.”

“She had a big rack man...” retorted Mr. Ramirez.

“Uh... huh well, thanks for the info you said she's at a hospital in Nevada? That explains the increase in feds I've seen here. Where in Nevada man?”

“Condor Falls.”

“Condor Falls? That's only a half hour from here, even though I'm not a state trooper I think I should check it out anyway.”

Jarmo decides to make his way to back to his apartment first, on his way he has the good fortune of spotting two fellows, one with a large sunglasses, one with a bandana and both wearing the same clothes. “Well, if it isn't my two friends Bret and Paul.” Jarmo says with a grin. “Hey, you two! Stop right there and don't move.”

“Heh, who this guy think he is, a cop?” Paul said sneering.

“You're onto something there” replied Jarmo.

“Ah... crap” Bret said with a heavy sigh.

“So you're going to tell me about this 'Trinity' dealer you have, and you're going to tell me what this guy's boss has going on over here in Nevada.” Jarmo said authoritatively.

“Ha, you're going to get nothing out of us, cop except a hospital visit!” yelled Paul.

“In a way I was kinda hoping for this, I mean I like to just hang back and gather info but sometimes I need some action.” a little bit of excitement was coming out of Jarmo's voice as he said that.

“Stop talking!” Paul yelled while throwing a straight punch. As straight as an untrained hoodlum can throw anyway. Jarmo sways his shoulder to the left and throws a right hook to Paul's jaw followed by another hook to the jaw with the same hand. Jarmo grins and as Paul puts his hand up to block another blow to the face Jarmo explodes with a left to the gut and lands his last hit a jaw jacking uppercut, perfect for knocking out criminals a criminal uppercut if you will. “So you're going to tell me what's going on or do you want to have a shot at taking me out as well?” asks Jarmo.

“You just got lucky man, I'm taking you out!” yells Bret.

“They never learn, well, I'm going to need you conscious...” Jarmo whispers.

As Bret goes to grab Jarmo, Jarmo stomps on Bret's toe, then grabs Bret's left arm and executes a key-lock throw. As Jarmo has him on the ground he quickly gets up and kicks him in the ribs. “gees cop, you ever heard of police brutality?”

“Huh, oh no, you see I'm off duty today.” Jarmo then sits on Brets back and begins to interrogate him. Bret finally tells him of Mr. Frank and his spread of Trinity. With that knowledge Jarmo finally makes it to his apartment and grabs a small camera, makes it to his car and drives off to Condor Falls.

At Condor Falls, Jarmo notices multiple men and women in black the closer he got to the hospital. “Feds, everywhere it seems, surely they're here to make sure nobody can get close to that woman. Like I care, I just want to make sure they get out of here and go back to the east coast.”

 He finally makes it to the hospital. “Alright, here at Kelsey Crusher... someone here ought to have some answers on why this Monticello guy wants to spread his network in Nevada.”

He begins to walk to the info desk and scouts the area around him. “More dudes in black eh? Hmm, I thought they were all feds before but these guys... something is... off about them. Anyway, let's see if I can find something out about this woman. They don't know who the crap I am, so I doubt I can just walk into her room, but I bet I can eavesdrop.” Jarmo was able to take a peek at a computer which fortunately was right on the woman's name and room number. “5^th floor eh?”

He goes to an elevator and goes up, and as he leaves the elevator door he hears gunshots. “Frak! I didn't bring any heat with me I better frakin' lay low.” Jarmo goes and finds a waiting room near the woman's room and hides under a sofa. As he hears gunshots he hears other noises, noises that you wouldn't hear in a hospital room, at least not outside a lab, and he heard some other noises that definitely belonged to something living, but most definitely not human. After hearing those non-human noises Jarmo decides it's best to leave the hospital and sneaks out. As he gets back in his car to drive to his apartment all he can do is think about the strange noises.

 “What was that? Aliens or something? Nah, it can't be that's as silly as some person wearing crazy armor and running amok in Utah of all places. It just can't be aliens.” But one thing was clear to him on the drive back. This is bigger than just drug dealing, and some guy wanting to expand his empire, much bigger, and if he's going to expose the truth he's going to need all the help he can get.

That's it for Perception chapter 1! Leave some feedback please, either here, or contact me on twitter @ikariradio. Look forward to chapter 2 next month.