Initiation [P]

As a black car slowed to a stop in front of a quiet suburban house in a pleasant neighborhood, an older man from across the street studied the car carefully, seemingly on edge as he distractedly grabbed the content inside his mailbox. When Son came out of the car and shut the door with his good arm, he noticed the intense staring from across the road. Waving to the man, Son shouted. “Hey Dave, how you doing?”

“Oh… hey Officer. New car?”

“Yep, not bad, huh?”

“Not bad at all, good night.”

“You too, Dave. Stay out of trouble.”

Son must have been through this scenario at least a dozen times, he’s never visited his friend’s house without being stared at by Dave, whether it’s indoor, or outdoor. He knows Dave was a good for nothing shithead, who’s probably growing something he’s not supposed to, which explains why he’s always seems to be on edge when Son visits. But, he’s not worth a second of the detective’s time.

Opening the door into his back seat, Son grabbed a six-pack before he headed into the house he parked in front of. Without so much as a courtesy ring or a knock, the young detective entered the house as though it was his own. “Yo, Bao,” he called out loudly, as he stripped off his shoes and left it next to the shoe rack. Afterward, he beelined toward the fridge and toss the beer into the first open space he saw, before he grabbed the last can of Sapporo.

Knowing that his friend was most likely in the patio at the back of the house, he headed out, finding Bao slumping against the chair, staring at absolute fuck-all. Throwing himself onto the wooden chair, Son propped his leg up on one knee as he opened the beer can with his good hand. A soft fizz could be heard before he took a swig of it. “You, look like shit, tough calls this week?”

"Oh, also, I think Dave's growing something more illegal than the last time I was here. Maybe he started selling drugs."

 

“To hell with Dave. No wonder it always smells like ass hear his place. You’d think he’d buy some god damn Febreeze or something to at least cover up.” A groggy sound came from the man sitting lazily in a chair outdoors as he reached out for his glasses. Plopping them on his face, he’d squint momentarily at the familiar face before replying with a snarky tone. “I look like crap? Psssh. You’re one to talk.” He’d point aggressively at the man’s limp and cast bound arm as a laugh followed suit. Pausing only a moment to prop his feet up atop a nearby table he’d continue on in a sarcastically accusatory tone. “We both know shit nights for me means equally shit nights for you. At least I get good business out of it. What do you get? Time and a half? Not even?”

Silence followed shortly thereafter as Bao reached for his nearby drink. Greedy gulps could be heard as the man quenched his thirst and let out a satisfied sigh. “Seriously though, looks like they did a number on you the last exchange. Shoulda came to me instead man, even if your insurance won’t cover it. Woulda had you on your feet in half the time.” He’d shift once uncomfortably to move his head out of any direct sunlight before listening to the near empty swishing sounds at the bottom of his can. Eyeing the Sapporo in Son’s grasp, he’d nod back at the fridge inside while standing up and moving towards a gently smoking grill. “Bottom shelf for the refills?”

After cautiously lifting the black lid to his device, a heavy aromatic smell of grilled meats wafted out in a thick wave of deliciousness. Atop the metal grates could be seen several rows of carefully skewered layers of thinly sliced pork, each dripping tenderly with fat. He’d take a moment to revel at the finished product before turning down the heat some.

“That you grilling Bao?” called a familiar voice from a few fences over.
“No Dave. You’re crazy. Must be the drugs.”

The physician responded in a rather nonchalant fashion before grabbing for two sticks and reclosing the lid. Rather than sitting back fully in his own seat, he’d lean over to pass the second over to his old companion. “Eat first… then we can talk. You here for business? Or pleasure?” Motioning for Son to dig in, he’d wait for the cop to take the first bite before indulging in his own.

 

“Haha, alright, alright you got me there. That’s a great setup for a joke, an Asian cop and a doctor walk into a bar, they both had a drink because they both look worse than a dog’s ass,” the detective joked.

When Bao started talking about his gunshot, Son felt the need to defend himself. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, this isn’t like the movies, when you’re shot and writhing in pain on the ground like a little shit, referring yourself to your choice doctor is probably going to be the last thing on your mind,” Son retorted, taking the last sip of the beer.

When Bao offered a refill, Son declined, he was planning on working the night, thus he needed to stay sharp. With Bao manning at grill, the detective used his hard boiled intuition to guess what Bao was grilling: pork, definitely. He expertly used his A+ profiling skill he learned from the police academy to identity the cut of pork and the flavor based on what he knows about his friend’s taste. This is why he was able to become a police detective at the tender age of 26, he was a logistic genius who uses his skill for absolutely useless-ass tasks.

“Man, if only doctors everywhere had the bedside manner to bring their patients amazing grilled pork when they need to inform them about their cancer, the world would be a much happier place,” Son commented as he gratefully received the pork and wolfed it down in 3 neat bites.

“Business tonight, I’m working on a hard case and I need your information. If I was here for pleasure, I would be buying weeds from Dave,” Son replied. Considering how long they have been friends, the kind of snarky conversations between them were common occurrences.

“You know, my old lady asked why you’re still single even though you’re a doctor. She’s starting to believe you might be into men and told me that if I slept over at your place, I should sleep with my ass to the wall. I think it’s time you find a nice girl to settle down with already, so she gets off my ass about it. She even has a girl in mind, like, a 20 some half Chinese girl who’s in school for bio-engineering or something like that. I can profile her for you if you want.”

 

“I’m just glad you’re not a comedian…” A dry laugh sounded as the physician took a large bite from his skewer. Though typically reserved in front of others, the need to do so when with his old time companion was quite lacking. A nod of concession was given however at the explanation about first preference in moments of trauma. It wasn’t as though the detective could simply request he be driven to a low profile clinic rife with shady figures from all walks of life. No… that wouldn’t reflect well on either of them.

With the refusal of a refill however, Bao’s demeanor quickly sobered up as he caught onto the nuances behind the cop’s actions. He too would set down own can despite it still being half full. Clearly Son had business for later… which more likely than not meant that Bao too would have his hands a bit full. Sure, things didn’t always resort to violence and a gritty night of being on call… but statistically it was more likely than not.

“Yeah, yeah. You wish. Somebody’s always gotta bitch though. Next thing you know some jackass trying to sue the nice doctor cause they a vegan and their feels got hurt or because of some religious nonsense. You know those guys that don’t eat pork? That rule was originally because fires don’t get hot enough with camel dung so they’d get sick. No idea why that rule is still there…”

A soft scoff was made at the mention of buying product from Dave. Pausing to lean away from the back of his chair and towards the other male, he’d raise an eyebrow skeptically while waiting for Son to proceed. His anticipation was only met by more shenanigans however as it seemed his friend wanted to play matchmaker over anything else. “Pfft, she’s right. You should sleep with your ass to the wall. You always rolled off the mattress during sleepovers as a kid. Seriously though, you’re one to talk. I bet she’s nagging you just as much but you ain’t fessing up. Profiling though man? Cmon, that sounds so stalkerish.” He’d make a deflective few jabs back at the detective while laughing loudly. “I’ll have to pass though man. Those Asian girls are nuts. The ones your mom always sends my way are either super fobby, white washed princesses, or just outright crazy. Like clinically crazy. Paaassss.”

@Astor Balthas

 

Meeting Bao dead in the eyes, it seemed that Son empathized with his friend’s situation as much as his own. Although he likes the occasional one-off, he’s never properly dated anyone before. It wasn’t his style, he was a lawman and he devotes every fiber of his body to his work. It was just how he’s always been. If he were to get into a relationship, work would come first and then the woman. He can’t imagine any woman would be happy with an arrangement like that and he wasn’t about to find out. Since they grew up together, he could say with confidence that Bao was pretty much the same way; they were just two psychopaths addicted to their work.

“Yep…”

Feeling the mood beginning to grow tenser, Son stood up from his chair and headed inside. “Yo, hang on a second,” he said as he slid the mosquito screen open before trekking through Bao’s nice carpet, heading directly for the front door.

A few minutes later, Son returned with 5 bags of shrimp chips tucked inside the vacant space made by his sling as well as a package of dried squid in the other hand. He threw the chips on the wooden table next to Bao. “I told you it was going to be a party of 5, haha.”

Approaching the grill, Son lifted the lid before he tore the squid’s packaging with his teeth and tossed it onto the dimly lit coal radiating with heat. After he closed the lid, he went over to a column nearby and leaned his back against it.

“So, do you have any lead for me on the case I’ve been working on? Because I have got a gift for you, bro. I told you at the DVRS literally handed me a get-well present right? We’re gonna experience it firsthand tomorrow so maybe take a day off from being on calls, because this is a once in a lifetime experience. For a federal agency to do that, maybe my path to joining the FBI has been paved,” Son said.

Checking his watch, he returned to the grill and opened the lid. A blast of steam greeted him as he used cooking chopsticks nearby to snatch the crispy morsel. Tearing the squid in half by clutching it flat body he signaled Bao before he tossed it.

@Jack Anders

 

“Holy shit! You weren’t joking about 5 bags…” Bao’s eyes widened with a mix of delight and surprise as he saw the snacks fetched from his companion’s car. Not needing to wait for an invitation, a loud popping sound went off as he quickly snagged a bag and punctured the vacuum seal. Given a second or two, a loud munching sound could be heard as he contentedly watched Son plop a dried squid onto the grill. “Man you’re a life saver. Doctor or not, unhealthy stuff like this is still needed to live.”

His laughter would slowly fade however with the topic change. A concerned look was sent over towards his fence as he’d wait momentarily before calling out over it. “Dave, you want some grilled squid?” His probing query was only met by silence however. Satisfied with the result, he’d nod once before sitting upright and leaning in to rest against his knees. “You talking about the shooting that put you in the hospital?” Without waiting for confirmation, he’d toss a couple more shrimp chips into his mouth before proceeding.

“One of the victims actually got sent my way because they didn’t have insurance. They did the bare minimum to patch him up and he ended up on my front door. Gimme a second.” The screen door would open again, this time to allow Bao to fetch something from inside his home. After returning, he’d wave a torn sheet of paper to the detective. Upon closer inspection, it’d appear to be a phone number. No name was scribbled on it however. “He might be able to tell you some things to give you a starting point. Seems like the guy was caught in the crossfire while trying to buy banh mi from the shop nearby.”

A hand extended out to catch the dried meat. Nodding once out of thanks, he’d bite into it with a crisp snap. “Mmmmm. I knew squid was a good idea. You’re the best man!” Taking a few moments to chew down this delicious morsel, he’d gulp with once with satisfaction before speaking some more. “Normally I’d ask one of the insiders for more details… but the guy that was there got shot in the back while running. Dead as a doornail. Not sure who did it.” A frown of displeasure was shown as he’d shrug helplessly. There wasn’t much he could do about that. "I told this guy I'd cut his bill in half though if he could tell you anything useful, so he shouldn't resist too much." He'd again wave the sheet of paper, this time passing it towards Bao.


@Astor Balthas

 

“I love banh mi, but I don’t know if they’re worth dying for,” Son absolutely had to add in his opinion as he listened to Bao’s exposition as he looked at the torn piece of paper that was passed to him. Normally, he would be ecstatic at receiving any lead that was remotely connected to the Beneveti, an insidious mafia family that’s been the source of rot and political corruption in Boston for the past two decades. If he had an option to sell his soul for any kind of information on their corrupted dealings, he would not hesitate for a single second.

After hearing all of the details from Bao, Son quickly chowed down the dried squid before he took his packet of cigarette and put it up to his mouth, catching the butt of one with his lips. After putting the packet back into his pocket, he lit it with a lighter. Son isn’t particularly a heavy smoker, but he quickly found that the source of lung cancer helped him when he needed to think logically. Inside his head, he was connecting all of the pieces together, attempting to figure out where all of these syndicate pawns fall on the playing field. However, it was useless, he couldn’t find a red thread through all of this fragmented information.

“I’ll give em a call eventually, don’t feel like it right now,” he said dryly. While he usually gets ecstatic about things like this, Son had had his fill of talking to a bunch of assholes at the hospital, he really did not want to talk to more assholes—the man had reached the cap of all the assholery he could handle that day.

“More importantly, I told you I came with gifts from the DVRS, didn’t I? And not the squid by the way,” Son said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic casing containing a small SD card. “You got a virtual reality adapter?”

Before Bao could explain, Son quickly headed into the house and plopped himself down in front of Bao’s computer before he inserted the SD card into the appropriate slot. He then turned one of the drawer upside down until he found an SD card that was the same size. He used it to copy the content of his SD over to the one he spent some time reformatting.

“Aright, I can’t guarantee your safety when you try this out… oh shit, I forgot to bring mine... aaargh!” Son audibly groaned as he remembered leaving his practically never used VR adapter in his shed back home.

“Was there ever a BestBuy near here?” he asked.

@Jack Anders

 

Bao’s attention was quickly refocused at the mention of a gift from his old time companion. His eyes narrowed curiously as he’d watch the familiar figure reach into his pocket to retrieve an SD card. It seemed as though it was the physician’s lucky day since he had honestly expected the squid to be the special surprise. “Uhh yeah. You know I’ve always been into gaming, hahah! Shoot, I used to get so much flak from your mother because I tried to get you hooked too!”

Oddly enough however, Son hadn’t waited for his explanation and had instead went inside to transfer the data over to one of his own cards. A bit of anxiety filled the man as he watched the detective pick a card at random. He’d let out a sigh of relief however after remembering that it was one of his less important storage cards, a non-work related one. Besides, that’s what backups were for, right?

The explanation Son provided was less than sufficient however. Skeptical at the details lacking, Bao would raise an eyebrow once before nodding and taking the card anyway. It wasn’t as though he could imagine the detective ever wanting to cause him any real harm. There was a blind trust of sorts between the two men. “Yeah, yeah. I’m sure it’ll be fine, especially if DVRS is willing to send one of their best agents in there.”

It appeared there would be one slight issue however. There was only one device and two men. An easy fix was available however as Bao nodded gleefully and waved a hand reassuringly at his Vietnamese friend. “Pretty sure there is. If not, there ought to be a Fry’s two streets off from the Best Buy. Let’s go. I’ll drive.” He’d reach into his pocket to produce a jingling sound from the keys within. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the cripple to drive; he simply preferred his odds over Son’s. Out front, the lights to a rather outdated looking Toyota Camry flashed while a beep sounded twice from the vehicle.

@Astor Balthas