"This is… troubling…"
Jonah seemed to age a few more years after looking at the report Dante sent him. As a part of the weakening police presence in Hollowgrid, he was going to be among the first to feel the impact.
"It makes sense now." The old officer leaned back into his chair. "This is why we aren't getting any new recruits."
"Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing," Dante said.
As much as he respected the old officer, Dante was well aware that the police couldn't do much when it came to gang violence. They will always be late and under-equipped, unless the problem involves someone important, of course.
Being understaffed limited the kind of things a small police station could do, making it so they wouldn't jump into danger easily, but for that same reason, they might not be able to handle some of the problems they might find themselves in.
"This is a very stupid idea," Jonah said. "Well, you have done your part, so I guess it's time for you to choose your reward."
Dante didn't really care about the reward, but it wouldn't hurt to get something for his troubles. The old officer led him deeper into the station, to an area that looked like it didn't get many visitors. At the end of the corridor was a vault door right behind a gate made from metal bars. Jonah opened it, and as soon as he did, the vault door opened.
There was no control panel, making Dante guess that the lock could only be unlocked through a higher-up's NIM. That wasn't the safest of security measures, but it was better than having to enter the correct number combination.
"You can pick any two items, so long as they aren't drugs," Jonah said. "Take your time choosing."
"What am I gonna do with drugs?"
Dante let out a chuckle as he went inside. There was a large table and two chairs at the center of the room, and surrounding them were rows and rows of shelves carrying plastic crates.
'Alright, your time to shine.' Dante said.
[Understood.] Volcan replied.
With how many items were in there, it would have taken an entire day to sort through them. That's why Dante decided to leave it all to his resident AI. Of course, he still pretended to search, since it would have looked weird if he suddenly decided on which crate had the items he wanted.
Some of the stuff stored in that vault was there for decades. The weirdest of it all were rolls of Radmir dollars and coins. Cash had been abandoned a while back after the government forced businesses to use the Radmir Credits. It was another reason why Gold continues to rise in value despite its major downsides.
Dante found the piles of jewelry in some of the crates rather strange. One would expect that such things would already be gone, sold for some extra cash, but it seems the officers in Jonah's station were quite outstanding.
What interested Dante the most weren't the cash, jewelry, or watches. What drew his attention the most was the firearm section, which was larger than everything else combined. It was as if he had walked into a weapons store. Unfortunately, none of the pieces were to his liking. He was about to give up when he noticed something in one of the pistol crates.
It was just a pale yellow spot peeking from a gap between the piled items. Dante pushed everything aside, then pulled out, his eyes going wider as he recognized what it was.
A light handgun with an alloy frame painted mostly yellow, with a few streaks of black along the edges and the handle, which subtle texture for a firm hold. Design-wise, it seemed rather old, lacking the usual exaggeration of modern weapons. The bright yellow color made that difficult to notice at first glance, as if someone had painted it for that exact purpose.
It was just a third-generation Wasp, an average 9mm pistol with no outstanding features. These days, not even street rats use them, and as a fan of powerful recoil, Dante had no interest in using them, either.
His voice came out weak and trembling. With shaky hands, he turned the pistol around, hoping that his hunch was wrong. In his mind, another voice spoke to him, bringing with it memories of a time long gone.
"I bought it with my first pay… Yeah, yeah, I know it's not that good, but I always wanted one... If you know where to aim, anything can work… I have marked my fifth target! Gotta add one to the count!"
The wasp was an old model that hadn't been popular even back when it was in production. The only ones who would bother to use such a weapon would be idiots obsessed with a certain movie, choosing the yellow pistol just to look like the protagonist, and mimicking what he did by engraving their initials under the safety switch.
As he turned the gun around, he held his thumb over the area, somehow afraid of what he would see. He hesitated, then hesitated some more, then took a deep breath, asking himself what he was afraid of.
Right after, he took his thumb and looked at the engraving, heaving a long sigh when he saw the two letters.
"BP?" He let out a chuckle. "Who's that?"
He tossed the yellow pistol back into the plastic crate and turned around, intending to leave. Taking a single step, he came to a stop and stood there for a while before going to the crate, taking out the Wasp and continuing to sort through the remaining pistols. A while later, he walked back to the vault's entrance with a disappointed look on his face.
"Guess you didn't find anything worth taking," Jonah said.
"Nothing that interests me," Dante replied. "I will be taking these two."
He showed him the yellow pistol with the BP engraving, as well as a small box with an old computer processor. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel✦fire.net
"Peculiar…" Jonah said. "You sure you want these?"
"Yeah, I just picked it up." Thinking for a moment, he decided to ask just in case. "Did you find others before?"
"No, this is the only one," Jonah replied. "Why, did you lose one?"
"Nope." Dante stared at the yellow pistol. "Just knew a guy who had."