3: The Internship

S H E  S E T  F O O T at the precinct just as two police officers dressed in black attire - black button-down shirts and black pants with utility belts wound around them from where she spotted the guns set in their holsters; Glocks. The girl had come to know more than enough about guns, among other things.

Another officer, a woman, was standing near the entrance and appeared to be busy talking into her walkie-talkie that stretched from her shoulder to her mouth by a coiled flexible piece of cord.

Turning from the walkie-talkie cop, she stretched a hand over her shoulder and reached for the zipper of her bag pack. She slid it down before immersing her hand inside and taking out a white thin sheet of paper.

APD INTERNSHIP APPROVAL NOTE

Dear applicant, your internship request has been accepted by the precinct and hence required to report to the main precinct in Peachtree on Saturday, January 18, 2029 at your earliest.

Signed

Susan Washington Claire, Captain.

"Can I help you, Miss?" came a voice from behind which made the girl turn to look at a fairly tall dark-skinned young man in an officer's uniform of course.

"Oh, I'm looking for um..." the girl handed him the paper.

"You're the intern, huh..."

"What?" asked the girl, noting the surprised change of tone in the cop's voice who appeared to be somewhere between his late twenties and early thirties.

"Huh...? Nothing. It's just..."

The cop was interrupted by a noise that came from the precinct's entrance where a man was being hurled inside by a cop as the girl turned to watch.

"I need a lawyer! I need my fuckin' lawyer!" yelled the man who was so big, dressed in baggy clothes and his grey hair which appeared to be dyed was all ruffled up.

" Captain Claire..." sighed the cop that the girl was talking to.

"That's her? I hadn't even noticed."

The girl watched the police captain hand over the man to another officer after which he was cuffed and taken to another room while still shouting obscenities and asking for a lawyer.

The captain was then moving towards the direction of the girl and the girl found herself taking in a large amount of air into her lungs, clearly a bit nervous.

"Claire-Cap...I mean Captain!" the cop called and the girl could not help but notice that there was a hint of nervousness in his voice; probably a little too much than she herself had going on.

"What is it, Brian?" came Captain Susan Claire impatiently and the girl could not help but admire the power and authority that was all around her, not to mention her awesome hair cut with her short dark hair strewn over and hanging over the left side of her face, almost covering her eye down to her chin.

"Remember the internship?"

"Yeah, I thought we were done with..." the captain's words trailed off when she cast her dark brown eyes to the girl standing next to the cop.

"I'm Carmen Velázquez Vega," came the girl, "but you can call me Carmen."

"Well, nice to meet you, Carmen," responded the captain who gave the cop a quick subtle glance, probably of how all of that was happening.

"I know you'd decided to put a pin in this project but she showed up and we can at least help her out," came the cop, all of a sudden trying to sound professional for some strange unknown reason.

Captain Claire narrowed her eyes at the cop before her lips began to twist into a smile. She turned back to Carmen.

"How exactly did you come across this internship?"

"My parents," she responded, "they think that my interest in things and how much I love reading mystery books will be a worth a shot training to be a detective."

"And you just accepted."

"Yeah, well, it was either that or my twin brother gets to keep all of the allowance, not to mention carry on the family business which is absurd because I'm older!"

"But you're twins..." added the cop.

"Well, I was born an entire two minutes earlier!"

Carmen gently slapped her forehead with her palm.

"I'm sorry, I..."

"No, don't apologize," the captain cut in, having studied Carmen's face the entire time she had been talking. "Your training starts today."

"Like right now?"

"Yeah, unless you have a problem with that."

"No! I mean, no . No problem at all, nothing nada, none."

"Good."

"So, where do we start?"

"You start with him," replied the captain, turning to the cop, smiling.

"What? What do you mean 'start with me' ?" the cop known as Brian added defensively, wondering what the captain was playing at.

"Carmen here needs to learn the basics first and who better than you to walk her through it."

The cop sidelined Claire.

"But I'm a det..."

"Detective!" retorted Claire, "is that what you've been calling yourself, parading around?"

Brian shook his head, ruing why he had just said that. If there was one thing he despised more than not being an accomplished detective it was upsetting the captain.

"Good. You have to do this, Brian. Who knows? An approved recommendation might even come from this."

"You're serious?"

"I'm the captain, of course I'm serious."

"I won't let you down, Claire...I mean Captain!"

They finally turned back to Carmen.

"OK, Carmen," came Brian, "now we're gonna start nice and easy with checking out some terms addressed in criminal investigation."

"Ookey..." responded Carmen, wondering why the cop was talking to her like she was some kind of kindergarten kid.

"Um...Captain?" Carmen asked.

"Please, call me Susan or Claire."

"OK, Susan, what did that guy you just brought in do?"

"Oh him. Public violation."

"Public violation?"

"Caught him urinating in public."

"Oh..."

"Don't worry hun," added the captain, "if you last long enough you'll see way nastier stuff than that."

"What about the Pink Projectile? She works with you, right?"

"Oh yeah, she's pretty good and that other speedster..."

"Viper!" Brian chimed in. "What? I'm a big fan of hers!"

He added when he saw Carmen look at him.

"Viper works here too?"

"Well, not exactly. At least not as much as the Pink Projectile. Hell, we almost gave her a desk here but..."

"She didn't want it because of her identity?"

"Yeah, that's just about right," remarked the captain and a thought had began to cross her mind at just how much this girl knew.

Brian then led Carmen to another end of the precinct and looked back at the captain who was clearly grinning at him.

"Oh my God, she's mocking me, isn't she?"

"What?" asked Carmen.

"Huh? Let's just keep going!" snapped Brian, turning back to 'his intern'.