A midnight fog from Lake Awgin swirled into the streets of the waterside city of Tristanberg. As she emerged from the basement of the Municipal Forensic Building, Eliana grimaced at the eerie scene. It was way too late to be leaving work. She needed to consider some serious lifestyle changes.
It took her longer than she thought it would to restore the broken hard drive, though. Eliana was a forensic computer scientist, and she had recently gotten her first major case. It was a big case too, and she was tied to her cubicle until now, 1:00 a.m. In complete honesty, she did choose to bury herself in her work on this particular day for a reason. It was the Founders' Day Parade, which meant big crowds. Eliana didn’t do big crowds anymore; not since her attack. So instead she opted to spend the day safely in the bowels of city law enforcement, among the "ones and zeroes" of her budding career.
“On the bright side, Elliot Cobalt is definitely getting convicted of running that Ponzi scheme,” Eliana muttered to herself.
Mr. Cobalt was the majority stock holder and CEO of Tristanberg's most prominent business interest, The Cobalt Vault Investing Group. Eliana wasn’t sure what the exposure of Mr. Cobalt’s side scheme would do to the city's economy, but it was her opinion that they were better off without a corrupt man at the head of their business world. Besides, there were plenty of other small bankers that could use a shot in the sun.
The thoughts of the ongoing trial clouded her head like the fog that clouded the streets. She blinked a couple of times to banish them to the corners of her consciousness and crossed the parking lot towards her car. This wasn’t the time to be distracted; she was walking alone in the middle of the night. In the year and a half since her attack, she had taken up kick-boxing and MMA fighting, both of which she was pretty good at, if she did say so herself. However, she would know better than anyone else that when the moment was upon you, sometimes you just froze. No, Eliana would rather have the chance to run away.
“Arrugauhhh…” a muffled cry sounded from some near-by dumpsters.
Eliana froze, a dreaded reaction no amount of constant training could eradicate. As she scanned the dimly lit parking lot, a flash of motion caught her eye. One hundred yards away there was a brown, fenced-in dumpster area, and between the old, wooden fence posts she could see flashes of color. She listened more closely and she could hear the muffled, all-too-familiar sounds of a struggle. Eliana’s blood ran colder. She now had to choose between her two adopted strategies, run or fight back.
Before she could find a reason to change her mind, Eliana took off in a dead sprint toward the dumpsters. Riffling through her purse, she grabbed her phone and quickly dialed 9-1-1.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” the oddly cheery voice of the operator greeted her from the other end.
“I’m in the parking lot of 687 Justice Boulevard. There’s an attack,” she began, doing her best to articulate the situation between her strained breaths.
Eliana went as close as she dared, so that she could accurately describe what was going on.
“There is one man attacking another man. Maybe with a policeman night stick? He’s about six feet and Caucasian. He’s in all black with a ski mask on.”
At this point in Eliana’s narration, she caught the assailant's attention. She was about two yards away from them, far enough away for her to react. As he reached to grab her arm, Eliana dropped her phone and rolled under his grasp. When he whipped around to try again, Eliana was already on her feet and ready to land a jab to his nose. The assailant doubled back and Eliana sent another jab to his throat. Coughing and staggering now, the assailant was ripe for a final right hook to the jaw when Eliana was distracted by a moan from behind.
The injured man struggled to turn on his side.
By the time Eliana turned her attention back to the attacker, he had already run off. Which was perfectly fine for Eliana.
The injured man moaned again. Eliana hurried over and ungracefully slid down next to him. Yup, her knees were definitely skinned now.
“Sir, are you okay?” she asked. “Can you feel your hands and legs?"
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he groaned in a way that led Eliana to believe that his ego was wounded more than his body was.
When Eliana caught a look at who he was, she gasped. It was a night just brimming with surprises. In front of her was Dr. Nathan Nazari, the best forensic psychologist the city had to offer. He was so well-known that the legends of his courtroom conquests trickled all the way down to the computer dungeon where Eliana’s guild was stowed. His notoriety began when, on his first case out of graduate school, he single-handedly poked giant, gaping holes in a defense attorney’s case during a cross-examination. He just human-lie-detectored her from his place on the witness stand! Or so Eliana had heard. He was really more of a myth among her co-workers, and she only recognized him from his picture in the newspapers.
But what was he doing out here in the middle of the night?
“I know who you are,” Eliana blurted out.
Really, Eliana?
“Is that so?” he responded skeptically. “You do know that that is an odd way to introduce yourself, right?”
Eliana chuckled, “Well, this is an odd situation, I would argue.”
By now they could hear the sirens of the emergency response team in the distance. Eliana glanced over at her phone to see if the call to the emergency was still connected, but her attention was quickly redirected when Dr. Nazari grabbed her face.
“I don’t have much time to explain myself, but I have a proposition for you,” he began and then continued without waiting for her response. “This whole situation was not a mugging or a random crime of opportunity. Elliot Cobalt has done something to alter the trial proceedings and he is going to get off. I could read it in the foreman juror’s face this morning in court. Although the evidence is compiled overwhelmingly against him, there is no way that the jury will convict. I was trying to track whom he might have been influencing to stack the cards in his favor when I got into this mess.”
Dr. Nazari was distracted as the emergency response team pulled into the parking lot.
Quickly, he turned his attention back to Eliana and said, “Long story short, I need your help on this. Cobalt is going to turn this city into a steaming cesspool of corruption if he isn’t nailed for at least one of his misdeeds.”
So Elliot Cobalt had other unsavory business practices?
“And what are you going to do about it?” Eliana asked as the EMTs rushed over to him.
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” he snapped at their questioning protocol, although he was bleeding pretty severely from a cut on his head.
“I'll tip off the police,” Dr. Nazari managed with slurred words as he fainted.
So much for being fine.
