Code of Ethics: Part 05.

The plastic curtain slid aside noisily and Captain Bryant shook his head in mock disapproval at Jacobsen. " Well, you really stepped in a big pile of shit this time."

Jacobsen was exhausted and every bone in his body hurt. It turned out that he'd fractured his wrist as well and the middle aged Doctor attending to him had clucked something about rehabilitation and taking it easy. Yeah right, like he could just take a couple of weeks off.

The doc had given him some pain medication before he left and Chris eagerly gulped it down. The headache was gone but his whole arm throbbed underneath the cast that had been applied. He looked up at Bryant, a demanding and yet good supervisor to work for. Bryant wasn't all spit and polish and covering your ass in a mountain of reports. He cared about results.

But Bryant would have more than a little irritation in him now. Today's incident had racked up quite a list even by this city's standards. Five officers including Jacobsen and King had had to go to the hospital for treatment. On the plus side, a bunch of bad guys had found their way to the morgue or the lockup, including the clown responsible for the cast. King had retired a 5 that had escaped from a chemical plant 3 weeks ago and that had been a bonus. Of course, Jacobsen hadn't done his part by dropping Katja. She had gotten away and was still out there and that was a major boo boo.

Jacobsen started to say something and Bryant dismissed him with a wave of the hand. " Save it. You've got about nine hours worth of reports to file with the Inspector General and the Tactical Division. In case you hadn't figured it out, they weren't happy about timing their operation around you. Apparently the wait cost them. Someone inside was testing out a thermal scanner and poof! Imagine their surprise when they saw policemen across the street. Well, you saw what happened. That kid, Thompson? He's going to be okay. His Supervisor is pissed at you. Hell, I think half of Tactical is too. Course, you can't really blame 'em."

" What about you?" asked Chris.

Bryant shrugged. " I think you did your job but apparently not well enough. Bad luck that guy hammering you when you were on top of that Skinjob. At least King is going to be putting some coin in his pocket. Speaking of which, I'd steer clear of Ponce if I were you. She's a little worked up over the damage her partner suffered. He tore three stitches and took a good punch to the mouth from that Skinjob he clipped. Personally, I don't know what King was thinking going in there in the shape he was in. Damn miracle that he came out of it the way he did."

" There was at least a silver lining to the whole thing though. The Assault Team impounded enough crap to fill an entire store room in the Property division. All kinds of stuff. Guns, drugs, stolen government surveillance equipment, counterfeit identity papers, you name it. Apparently your target walked into a damn supermarket."

Jacobsen looked up suddenly at Bryant. " Papers? She was there to set herself up with a new name."

Bryant made a face. " Really? I'm sure glad we bumped you up to this squad. You're a regular bloodhound. Now look, before you go to do your reports, which you're gonna do by the way, I want you to stop off at that warehouse. The Crime Scene Unit has been there for a bit but poke around before the place gets too cleaned up. See what you can find and get back on the job." Bryant picked his coat up off a chair and turned to go.

" One more thing." he said over his shoulder. " We're not here to judge the people that own these things. Tacarrin may be an asshole but what he's doing isn't illegal. Don't lose the plot."