The Crime System

The Bug in the Bureau

Luke Sullivan smirked as he observed the fierce competition playing out in the Special Crimes Unit. While it might have looked peaceful on the surface, he knew better – underneath was a battleground of ambition and pride.

The unit's structure was simple: two teams handling separate cases unless something big came along that required joint effort. Team A and Team B, always trying to outdo each other. The higher case-solving rate meant not just bragging rights, but a significantly fatter annual bonus.

Luke watched as everyone pushed themselves to the limit, desperate to surpass the other team. The competition had been neck-and-neck for years until Priscillia took over as Team B's leader. She turned everything upside down with her experience and leadership skills, leaving Team A eating dust.

Last year, Team B investigators had walked away with an extra $700 bonus. Their smug faces had been unbearable to Luke. This year, they'd been even more relentless, widening the gap further.

Poor Raymond Larson, Team A's leader, carried the heaviest burden. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't match Priscillia's success. The final blow came when he fell from a building during a chase and landed himself in the hospital.

Vincent Parker took over as temporary Team A leader, but he couldn't care less about the team's performance. He kept pushing important cases to Priscillia, making their situation even more pathetic. Luke's teammates were defeated, seeing no path to redemption.

Priscillia became the golden child of the higher-ups. Every major case requiring both teams? She was in charge. Even Team A members followed her lead. Her ego was through the roof – until Luke showed up during the York Case.

Luke couldn't help but chuckle remembering how he caught the culprit before she even got started. The look on her face when someone from Team A stole her thunder – priceless! She was so upset she couldn't eat, he'd heard.

Then came the Maimed Case. Priscillia threw herself into it, desperate to redeem herself. Luke knew this case meant something special to her – it was what got her promoted from the county bureau to their unit. Her first unsolved case had come back to haunt her.

She'd been working herself and her team to death, gathering evidence and making progress. But this mysterious perpetrator was like a ghost – always one step ahead.

Luke watched her stare at that white board plastered with information, convinced the key was right there in plain sight. One piece of evidence, that's all she needed to c***k it wide open.

That's when he decided to have some fun. Despite her sacrificing her precious box of evidence to get rid of him earlier, here he was again, strolling through Team B's office like he owned the place. He ignored the hostile stares – they were just background noise to him.

"Luke Sullivan?!" Priscillia's voice dripped with annoyance. "What are you doing back here? To sabotage us? Didn't I already give you all the evidence you wanted?"

The rivalry between their teams was almost comical. One wall separated them, yet they might as well have been on different planets. Team B watched Luke like he was some master thief about to make off with their precious evidence.

"Nothing, hehe... Nothing!" Luke gave Priscillia his best innocent grin. "I'm just here to tell that one guy something. Just now he said he was sending me the BMW surveillance camera things, I don't need it anymore! I already got too much evidence, can't use it all, hehe... that's it, go do your work now... I'm going! No need to send me off!"

He walked out slowly, feeling their relief as he left. Back at his desk, he couldn't stop giggling. His colleagues probably thought he'd lost it completely.

If they only knew what he'd really done there. The bug he'd planted wasn't just any ordinary device – it was top-tier, completely invisible. In a building full of anti-surveillance measures, his little creation was undetectable.

Using his mind, he'd controlled the Invisibility Eavesdropper and attached it right to their whiteboard. The whole process was invisible to everyone but him. Now he had a mental switch that let him tune into Team B's conversations whenever he wanted.

"Hehehe..." Luke couldn't help but grin. Priscillia never saw this coming. There's always someone better, and he'd just proved it by slipping past all her defenses.

He felt a little guilty about using his system items on colleagues, but they had brought this on themselves by underestimating him. As he listened to the chatter from Team B's office, his excitement grew. The moment Priscillia identified a suspect or zeroed in on the culprit, he'd be ready. One step ahead, ready to swoop in and claim all the glory!

"Lisa Mendes's BMW was last spotted in an alley on Banyan Street," Luke heard one of Team B's investigators report through his eavesdropping. From his desk, he could hear them clearly discussing how the alley led straight to the Manhattan district before branching into multiple paths that could take you anywhere in New York City. They'd scoured every surveillance camera they could find, but came up empty-handed for suspicious individuals.

"Hm..." Detective Priscillia's voice carried across. "If someone could dodge this many cameras, we're looking at two possibilities! Either the criminal knows this area like the back of their hand, or they're a local who just went straight home after... the incident."

Luke sat at his desk, taking in every word of Team B's discussion. He didn't even need earphones to hear them clearly, and he was methodically logging everything onto his whiteboard, capturing every crucial detail.

"Team Leader," another investigator chimed in. "The Manhattan area is complex – we're talking about thousands of residents minimum, not counting all the part-timers with rental properties. It's going to be one hell of a job to investigate thoroughly. But Ryan Brooks and Dean Riley are already on it."

"Keep at it..." Priscillia said, then after a pause: "Dave, what's the status of Lisa Mendes's blood work?"

The revelation about the animal tranquilizer hit Luke like a ton of bricks. "Sht..." he muttered, still furiously updating his whiteboard. He hadn't known that they'd used animal sedatives on Lisa Mendes – that was a shocking twist.

As he continued listening to their analysis, something started nagging at him. Why couldn't he find any of these details in the files Priscillia had given him? Then it hit him – those crafty bastards! "It was on purpose! They gave me all the useless information!" he thought, his blood beginning to boil.

"Really?!" Luke couldn't contain his agitation. He couldn't believe the Special Crimes Unit would pull something like this. This level of internal sabotage reminded him of his old job!

"Hmmm!" He clicked his tongue in annoyance. But after taking a breath, he smiled to himself. "Well, if you guys want to play dirty, don't cry when I beat you at your own game! This time, I'm taking all the credit!"

"Just you watch – I'll catch this criminal before any of you! You think you're hardworking and serious? I'll show you what real dedication looks like!"

By noon, while Priscillia led Team B on their investigation, Luke was keeping things simple. To maintain his surveillance, he "borrowed" someone's instant ramen to keep his energy up. His whiteboard was becoming a spider's web of information, with connection lines spreading between pieces of evidence as he'd learned to analyze the clues.

Maybe Priscillia was rubbing off on him, because looking at his complex analysis, Luke could almost feel they were closing in on the Maimed Case perpetrator. But every time he got that feeling, the trail would go cold, leaving him frustrated and wondering what he was missing.

Around five o'clock, Aaron Dawson and Adam Mercer returned from patrol. Their information about the BMW and the mysterious missing driver only added more pieces to this increasingly complex puzzle. But Luke was determined to solve it – and solve it first.