Chapter 432 - Relief (4)

11 May, JL International Mall, City F

Feeling back together, Matthew returned to where Ben, David, Joseph, and Head Honcho were standing.

With some concern Head Honcho said, "Are you right to continue?"

Matthew nodded, saying "I guess I have a couple of apologies to issue to the police about before."

David quickly responded "No Boss, less than a minute after you left, the police stumbled on the body of a suicide bomber. They would have found it much quicker than they did if they had not been so pedantic about doc.u.menting the whole scene. It only took a glance to see the remnants of a suicide bomb strapped to the bomber. They had to cede that specific location to us, because none of them knew what they were looking at. There are a few soldiers guarding the area to preserve it until bomb disposal arrive, which will be an hour. We have no idea if there is a secondary device to go after investigators."

Matthew looked to Head Honcho, who continued "But there is something about the bomber not totally making sense, it appears that there was a specific design to it…"

Ben said "Maximum injury, but minimal loss of life. That correlates with the senior medic on-site opinion."

Matthew said quietly "My gut feeling is that it involves the Devil. In anything he does he is always about maximising victims without loss of life, not because he is humanitarian but I suspect because the more victims alive, the more that will when he makes his ultimate move argue the government should grant him whatever he wants."

Head Honcho nodded before saying "Investigate. We need as much information as we can as we must be prepared for other similar attacks." Matthew turned to leave with Ben, Joseph and David, before he heard "Athos, I want you with me outside. Let the others deal with the wider investigation."

Matthew, paused and waited until the others left before saying "And…?"

Shaking his head, Head Honcho quietly said, "Do not expect anything too quickly."

Louder, Head Honcho added, "I need you to stop being a worker, and focus on the bigger picture presently. I understand that you want a distraction, but you are different to the past."

Observing the look on Head Honcho's face Matthew knew that an argument would be the worst thing to do, so followed Head Honcho as he turned and headed back outside.

On reaching the open area, Matthew noticed three ambulances pulling away from the site, and wondered if Lexi was in one of them, and how she truly was. He then noticed the chaos that had been present when he entered the Mall outside was being replaced by organisation, not only around the field medical facilities but even the police command location and at the edges.

As they entered the military command tent, Matthew noticed John had arrived and said "What…?"

"Am I doing here? Your boss asked my superiors for me to come here fulfilling my public police job. The military presence here does not merit a liaison officer and I was the person who could be deployed here the quickest. But you have no idea how many people you have p*ssed off my friend. I have spent the time since I arrived, getting complaint after complaint about your behaviour, which stopped suddenly. What is it I do not know?"

Head Honcho quickly said "Likely because we found the remains of a suicide bomber."

Nodding, John added "That explains it. I get both perspectives about the investigation. You have your opinions and methods, but you forget the investigation methods we lowly police are trained to implement. Everything is relevant at a crime scene, until proven otherwise, as prosecuting the perpetrators of crimes has to be a result from a situation like this."

"But like idiots, they ignored the suffering of people…"

"Matthew, how many times since you have come back here have we debated this. Most police officers are general duties therefore training focuses on specific skills about crimes and investigation. It is the lowest common denominator which is everything is relevant. It is only in specialist units do we widen from that, and those units develop skills specific to it. Road and Water police units learn skills to identify crimes within their speciality, skills to pursue people and how to identify suspects on the run, along with specific skills about driving and pursuits within their speciality. In the Terrorist and Special Tactics units, we have developed specialist investigation techniques which along with the resources we have access to, speed up our investigations, allowing us where necessary to hand matters off to the military and national intelligences organisations. If this had happened at home, in he capital or another location where units like mine are based, our units would have taken control of the police aspects of the investigation until terrorism was determined."

John shook his head, seeing Matthew's anger, before continuing "Just because their investigation skills and reactions to how to help people from that, are not what you want, do not take it out on my fellow police officers."

Matthew stood there, but before he could say anything Head Honcho said, "You might want to back off a little from the criticism."

"From the man, who accused me of being a daughter thief last night, and then who tried to bully his daughter not to come and do her job that is…"

"I did not tell you when I asked for your deployment here. Apparently, his wife changed her plans late last night and was in the Mall when the blast happened…"

John's face went pale and all he could utter, quietly was "Lexi…"

"Before you ask, she has been found, unconscious but alive. To clear her for a medical evacuation to City K, likely to the military hospital, she has been taken for scans to clear her."

-------

If you are reading this novel anywhere other than at or its apps then you are reading work that has been stolen in breach of the authors rights and those rights assigned to others.

Please support this author and only access this novel through at /book/15095783406874805 and report the illegal posting of this work.