Case #8: The Stolen Badge

The ambulance had disappeared less than a mile from the school. By dawn, Ethan had driven the freight road four times. Sentinel-1 had the vehicle entering an underpass the previous morning. None of the cameras beyond it showed the ambulance coming out. Somewhere between those two facts, Frank Delaney had spent the night in Bioron's hands.

Ethan stood beneath the railway bridge with a paper cup warming his fingers. His left shoulder still hurt where Scrapjack had thrown him through the workshop window. The "civilian shell" concealed the damage, but reaching above his head brought a sharp warning across his vision. He ignored it long enough to pull a strip of white vinyl from a drain. A red diagonal line crossed one end, matching the stripe on the missing ambulance.

Ethan Steele: They changed its clothes.

The interceptor waited in the shadow of a loading ramp, its dark body filmed with industrial dust. Ethan laid the vinyl on its hood and looked along the underpass. A delivery van could have stopped here without attracting attention. The abandoned paint flakes and adhesive backing would have meant nothing to anyone passing at speed, but somebody had taken the trouble to sweep most of them into the gutter. 

His radio crackled before he could follow that thought any further.

Tia Emstile: Steele? Please tell me you're somewhere useful.

Ethan Steele: West freight road. The ambulance might be a plain white van now. Same dent over the rear wheel. Tell Wallace.

Tia Emstile: I will. Have you slept?

Ethan Steele: Have you?

Tia Emstile: Not a wink. If you're awake and looking for Frank, then I can do the same.

Ethan Steele: I appreciate the resolve. You're going to be a great cop with that attitude.

He heard a drawer slam behind her, followed by Wallace asking questions with his typical gruff. Tia lowered her voice. The Cyber Cops had spent the night collectin