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Chapter 5

Twin Towers, a famous building in the East Town. At this moment, it’s glass and steel shell was shining under the midday sun, reflecting glaring lights that were hard to look at. This, was the hub of the crime control of eastern US – the building of the State Police Headquarters.

At 1:50 pm, Anton and his new colleagues were waiting quietly in the 17th floor meeting room, for the senior representatives from the headquarter to announce the establishment of the Special Investigation Unit.

This time, Anton and his peers were dispatched as an independent department which would be known as the Special Investigation SWAT. Recalling what the Internal Affairs leader said, Anton couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

It was said that the establishment of the Special Investigation Unit was highly valued by the headquarter. The director general personally made the decision, and all the leaders of the Unit was directly appointed by the top level.

But in the end, this Special Investigation Unit was only an experiment of the powerful guys. It was not in the system of the organization, with no specialized full-time director. Its purpose was to deal with the big, important, special cases. Although the unit gathered together a bunch of the bureaucrats of the headquarter, the ones who would do the actual work would be the “mid level elites” chosen from lower levels like him.

The only benefit was that they could meet many “invisible” guys that they normally couldn’t see, which would be helpful for promotion. Unfortunately, Anton never puts much hope on it. On his plain ladder to promotion, he had no powerful dad nor uncles to make ways for him. At every level, there were countless second generations eyeing. No way such good things would fall on his head.

The Twin Towers had two buildings, Tower A and B. The 18th floor and above was for the top level, or, the “invisibles”. They even had a special elevator. It was hard to see them on a normal day.

Anton could imagine, at this moment, a long line of the masters from above the 18th floor were walking out of the elevator, through the long corridor between the two towers, towards this meeting room.

At 2 o’clock, the door of the meeting room was pushed open on time. A lone line of men walked in, stood in a row in front of the stage.

Everyone stood up, including Anton and a dozen of his colleagues. Someone went up to the stage to talk. Applause rose from the small crowd.

Anton clapped with others, while observing this row of men casually: The ones at the front had big bellies; in the middle was a tall bald man, which appeared mighty; followed by a short guy with grey hair. Then, he saw the last man in line – he had a familiar face: his hair seemed shorter than in the night, and his age appeared older, but in the daylight, he looked less decadent.

Anton was dazed. Is that him? He was baffled for a moment. He would never ever expect to see that guy here – that was Jimmy.

Everyone in the meeting room was in uniform, whether the dozen cops sitting at the back like Anton, or the chubby-bellied bureaucrats at the front. Only Jimmy was wearing a navy blue suit, with a name tag on his chest. He was listening to the speech by the seniors next to him, while smiling and observing the crowd – Is it real? Is that Jimmy? Anton really couldn’t believe his eyes.

However, those tranquil eyes had turned to him. He didn’t not hide or dodge, but smiled at him calmly. Without giving any special signal, he let Anton know that he had recognized him.

The senior official hosting the meeting introduced them one by one. What’s his name? Rene? What’s his title? He didn’t hear it clearly, but applause had rose around him.

Two men had spoken, and the third one was Jimmy – oh, sorry, Rene. His voice was soft and gentle, but it conveyed precisely to everyone’s heart.

Rene’s speech was brief, only several sentences. It was nothing more than that he would provide support from multiple administrative aspects, and that they could go to him whenever they had questions.

This time Anton heard it clearly. Rene was the executive of the Special Investigation Unit. He would be in direct charge of the coordinance of all cases, assisting one of the chubby-bellied master.

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