Perception #2

The story picks up sometime after Jarmo heads home from what happened in part 1. It is still the same day but in the evening.

In his darkened apartment Jarmo can't seem to stop replaying the noises in his head. The strange, unfamiliar noises. Just what was that? Jarmo recalls heading out of the hospital and hearing one-liners and something about twinkies. "Twinkies? What's special about them? Do they have chemicals in them that cause hallucinations? Are they laced with trinity?" Jarmo walks to his bathroom and sees if he can wash his face. He looks in the mirror and looks into his own eyes. He peers into his pupil and stares into the black pit and starts to wonder, "can I trust my eyes" as he starts to wash his face off and continue to try and piece together whatever facts he can about this case and why trinity is being distributed so much recently. After thinking some more Jarmo decides to call it a day and head to sleep.

Loud ringing can be heard hours later. It's Jarmo's cell phone. It's now morning. A groggy Jarmo reaches for it and looks at the caller ID. "Mr. Ramirez eh?" Jarmo answers, "it's Jarmo. So what do you have this time, Ramirez?"
"What I have is, what you need baby. Information."
"About?"
"There was an explosion!"
"What's with you telling me about explosions man?"
"There was one at the hospital that chick was at. Thought that might be of importance to your investigation"
"Looks like I have some snooping to do."

As Jarmo gets ready to go back to what remains of Kelsey Crusher hospital he gets another call. "Who is it this time?" Jarmo answers the phone "hello Jarmo is busy at the moment please call later."
"I know it's you Jarmo! Don't play around with me today, I want you in my office and I want you here 5 minutes ago!"
"Oh, crap, looks like I have to deal with ol' captain Mcclusky." He makes his way to the police station and as he enters he's greeted by a female police officer, with medium length brown hair and square frame glasses. "Hello, Frida you're looking cute as a button as always, is the captain still in his office?"
"Yes he is, I'd better hurry there if I were you." she replies, smiling warmly.
"You wouldn't want to be me kulta* you're great as you are." Jarmo says with a slight smile and even a bit of tenderness, which is rare for him. He then makes his way to Mcclusky's office and immediately spots something odd on that table.
"Is that... trinity?"
"It is. We got it from busting a lieutenant working for Mr. Frank." Mcclusky chuckles for a little bit and adds "you know you always did have good eyes, being able to spot this tiny bit of trinity on the table so quickly."
"Do I? ...Well, anyway what was it you wanted to speak to me about, sir?"
"Right, right. That explosion at the hospital. I heard you were there not long before it happened. I'm being pressed by the F.B.I now to give some information, basically I'm being forced to have you tell me something. An agent died sometime after that but before today apparently. His name was Peter or Parker or something."
"Why would they think I would be of help in that situation?"
"Like I said you were at the hospital, they figure you ought to know something about what happened there, and if whoever killed him came from there."
"All I can say was I was at the hospital, I heard things start to escalate and I high tailed it our of there."
"So you have no information about this agent's death"
No, I don't sir."
Mcclusky sighs "well, then that's all I'll have to say to them. You're free to go Jarmo."
"I have a question for you now though, sir?"
"What is it, Jarmo?"
"This Mr. Frank do we have any leads on him, are we working on busting him?"
"Right now, we have a few leads, we're not actively trying to bust him but he if say, he happens to be caught today, we won't be complaining."
"Thank you sir." Jarmo leaves his office and recalls his talk with the two thugs he fought yesterday.

As Jarmo walks away he thinks of where mr. Frankie may be. "A guy like him probably hides in plain sight. Must be in a business building downtown, just in an office neatly tucked away. That's how they like to roll."

While downtown Jarmo notices a person walking across the street. He had a bandanna and a cast and looked awfully familiar. After looking a bit harder for a few seconds Jarmo realized who it was, and crossed the street. "Hey, how's it going Bret? Remember me? I see you needed a cast after that throw I pulled off on you." Jarmo says in a very friendly voice.
"Ahh, I do remember you! I'm sorry about trying to beat you up the other day, after getting beat up like that it made me rethink my course in life. I'm on my way to Mr. Frank now to tell him I'm done selling drugs... and to run for my life afterward."
"You're going to Mr. Frank eh? Well, then you lead me to him without him being wise that I'm nearby, I'll handle that part by the way, and you won't have to worry about running for your life. How's that sound?"
"Doesn't sound too good with just you trying to get to him, but it sounds a lot better than doing what I was going to do with my busted arm, by myself."
As Bret makes his way to Mr. Frank's building, Jarmo shadows him. Finally as Bret reaches Mr. Frank's office Jarmo makes himself known to Bret and tells him to just do what he originally planned to do, and at the right time he'll burst in.

"Alright, Bret are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be cop." Bret says with a tinge of fear in his voice.
Bret opens the door to Mr. Frank's office and approaches him with an air of caution. Mr. Frank is an intimidating individual, he's not overly large but fairly tall, dark skinned, wears a business suit and a perpetual poker face.
"Why have you come here today, Bret? I have no use for you today"
"Right, well, about that, you see I uh... well, I..."
"Well?"
"I uh... I want to quit."
Mr. Frank snickers. "You want to quit huh? You handing in your two weeks notice? You expect some severance pay?" Mr. Frank starts to laugh harder "severance pay!" Mr. Frank starts to guffaw now. "That's hilarious!"
"Yeah, I want out!" Bret says loudly.
"What if I say no?"
"Then I'll just leave anyway."
"You ain't leaving nowhere, Biggs, plug him."
Upon hearing that Jarmo rushes into the office and as soon as he steps foot inside sees a fountain of blood come from the back of Bret's head.
"Darn it! He could've been a good source of info. Oh well, I guess I'll have to make sure the bigger fish gets fried tonight!"
"What? What kind of line was that? Biggs get rid of this random guy too."

"Hey, I thought that was good. Anyway..." Jarmo notices Mr. Frank's henchman Biggs is appropriately named being at least six foot nine or somewhere around there, he looked to be near seven feet. He also noticed Biggs slowly fix his aim on Jarmo. "That slowness will cost you." Jarmo notices a flipped over chair near him and ducks down to make himself a smaller target and immediately kicks the chair to Biggs as he does it. It barely hurts the big man but it does distract him enough to Jarmo make his next move which is draw his gun from the back of his pants and move closer to Biggs. Jarmo executes a leg scissors and takes Biggs off his feet. As soon as he's off his feet Jarmo kicks the gun away from Biggs and aims the gun in his hand to Mr. Frank. "You're under arrest Frank"
"That's Mr. Frank to you."
"Not to me now, and not to any of the fellas in prison, I'll tell you what they will call you though, it starts with a B and rhy-"
"I get it random guy who I just learned is a cop."
"Right well, stay where you are so I can take you downtown."
"We are downtown..."
"Shut up! As you know in your rights you have the right to remain silent anyway."

Mr. Frank smiles.
Jarmo asks "why are you smiling? That big guy is getting back up isn't he?"
"Yep."
"Dagnabit" Jarmo sighs and executes a reverse leg sweep and brings Biggs down again.
"Stay down will you?"
"Never! You can't keep me on the ground can you?"
"Can I?" Jarmo presses his gun on Biggs head.
"You don't have the guts to do it! I know you cops!" Biggs violently swings his left arm at Jarmo and as Jarmo tried to quickly react his finger squeezed the trigger involuntarily. Jarmo stands slowly. With a  quiet authority Jarmo tells Mr. Frank "put your hands on your head, get on your knees." Mr, Frank listens. As Jarmo attempts to arrest Mr. Frank, Mr Frank reveals a blade he had hidden on his person and attempts to slash Jarmo. Jarmo with a fierce, yet silent determination in his eyes sways to his right and delivers a jaw jacking uppercut as he did to Paul in the previously only this time the force seemed to be greater than before and Mr. Frank could swear he felt a wind push his body up, though it couldn't be proven. Mr. Frank lands on the ground with a heavy thud. Jarmo finally arrests Mr. Frank.

Sometime after, Jarmo gets a call from Mcclusky with new information and learns that Mr. Frank worked a deal with Cesar Monticello as a part of a way to spread his influence in Nevada without being too open and seeming like he is brute forcing his way in. He then gets informed of his new orders, investigate Cesar Monticello and help the F.B.I in finding out his contacts in Nevada. For this he'll get  a partner to back him up. "Who?" Jarmo asks.
"Officer Frida."
"Officer Frida!? But she's still a girl this would be too dangerous for her."
Frida makes reveals she's been there listening to Jarmo and says to him "No need to worry about me, I've got a lot of tricks that people won't even see coming, I can handle myself, you'll see."
"Well, then we've got a lot of snooping to do, I'll see ya tomorrow kulta bright and early."
"But what about now, where do you think you're going."
"I'm tired, I'm going home and sleeping."
"But...!"
"Let him go Frida he's excused for today, he's been through a lot."
"I suppose he has. I'll see you tomorrow Jarmo! I'll show I won't be easy to push over, you'll see!"

Well, that's it for Perception chapter 2! Hope you enjoyed it, I'll see you next month! In the meantime follow my podcast on iTunes the Ikaricast for a variety of geeky discussions, follow me on twitter for my random thoughts on everything @ikariradio and lastly go to my deviantart where I take cheap commissions. http://fighterxaos.deviantart.com where I take cheap commissions.

*about kulta. Kulta is a Finnish word for gold, it can also mean "baby, honey, dear, or sweetheart" and the latter meanings was the context the word was being used by Jarmo toward Frida.

That picture used in the top can be viewed here on deviantart, just a sketch of how Jarmo looks http://fav.me/d5am0t4

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.