#84: Beat Cop

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Over a hundred years ago the town of Flint Island had been a company town built on an island conveniently located in the middle of the river near the steel mills, coal mines, refineries and other industrial operations of the day. Since the island’s location was central to all of the businesses, the workers could easily get to work, by boat, in the days before the automobile.

The coming of the automobile, the highways and freeways, the suburbs and the closing of many of the factories had led to it’s being pretty much abandoned. Kamiko Akiyama’s parents had purchased it for almost nothing many years ago for use in her father’s life work. Kamiko became director when her father retired and continued after her parents passing. To make a long story short Flint Island became a community of misfits. Yet, on Flint Island the mis-fits fit in quite well. People who didn’t play pretty with the rest of society in other places and under other circumstances did just fine there.

Marc TwoFeathers and Captain Parmalee had initially called themselves ‘DragonForce’ as a joke. The joke had caught on. DragonForce was both more and less than police. Kamiko had fired the previous cops because THEY refused to fit in. Dragon Force procedures and operations were unlike almost any other LEO force in the country. They weren’t cops so much as Sheepdogs. Their job was to protect and to serve each and everyone of their charges. Other police forces had the same motto but Flint Island Dragon Force meant it. Marc and Captain patrolled the grounds daily even though every non private square foot of the Island was under constant video surveillance, recorded and subject to random monitoring. Some would say that there didn’t need to be an officers physical presence.

They would be wrong.

It was Dragon Forces’ job to know everyone personally. It was their monkey-sphere and their monkeys. Their physical presence could not be fulfilled by surveillance gear. Everyday Marc and Captain made their rounds and made their presence known. THEIR people knew that THEIR protectors were THERE. If a woman needed a tire changed, if a senior citizen needed help carrying groceries in from the car, ... or if any emergencies of any form happened......DragonForce was there.

Children, many of them very small, many of them not so small, had taken to accompanying Marc or Captain for all or part of their beat. They were deputies in all but name. On any given day Marc or Captain could be seen slowly strolling through the neighborhoods with any number of kids tagging along. How many kids there were depended upon which neighborhood and which kids.

They would talk. They would play games. The SheepDogs looked after their flock. The young puppies learned to be grown dogs.

Many of the younger kids had tried to put one over on Marc or Captain but none had yet to succeed. The LEO’s stayed in touch with all the parents and knew what the restrictions were on each and every one of the children. Neuro-loop technology provided instant communication.

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The Next Episode will be
#85: Welcome Aboard…
The Previous Episode was
#82: The Dinner
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue

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I'm

@everittdmickey
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I write
SPECULATIVE FICTION
I have books on Amazon too.
Sometimes I also comment on the news

Sometimes it's hard to tell fiction from the news.