AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

partiers inside were kept away from the disembodied entrance by a chain-link fence, although there were many dancing bodies pressed against it. The fence led directly to a box-like room constructed of two-by-fours and plywood panels, just as he had imagined. An opened glass door provided the only entrance to the room.
    He approached the doors again. He realized the fence was about seven feet high — high enough to discourage the living from climbing it. And he doubted he could vault it; the narrow space wouldn’t give him any room to get a running start. He might be able to fling himself at the chain-link fence and squeeze through it like Jell-O, but the thought didn’t appeal to him.
    But as long as I don’t go into that room, I should be OK, he thought. He stepped through the double doors.
    Yamaguchi looked at the fenced corridor and thought, Alex, I hope you’re not stupid enough to go in there, and tried to determine her best course. If you’re separated from your partner, you should go back to where you last saw them, she dimly remembered from her Girl Scout days. Of course, I also remember: “If you’re lost, stay in one place until your parents find you.” She didn’t think that advice applied here.
    How the hell could I lose him? OK, let’s go back to the door we … I came in. Maybe he’s waiting outside.
    She started climbing down the box when she noticed someone trying to climb onto the top of the room or trap. She stood back on top of her box and realized that two men were climbing either end of the room trap.
    Oh God, they’re starting. Alex will just have to take care of himself. She got down off the box with the help of two boys who then tried dancing with her. She shrugged them off and slowly made her way toward the room. She tried to record the men on top.
    All right, what the hell am I going to do? she thought to herself when she reached the room. It was taller than she’d realized and she couldn’t get close enough because the kids were backed up against the room. She put her camera back into her coat pocket and decided she needed help.
    “Excuse me, can you help me get up there?” she asked a well-muscled kid, pointing at the top of the room.
    “What? Can’t hear you,” he shouted over the music. The young girl who was clutching his arm yelled at him. “What does she want?”
    “I want to get on top … on top of this room!” she shouted.
    “Why?” he asked.
    She couldn’t think of a good answer. “I want to dance!” she screamed and waved her arms in a pathetic pantomime of dancing. It was all she could think of.
    “All right!” the kid answered. He bent down, grabbed her by the waist and picked her up. His strength startled her. She yelled at him to put her back down.
    “What are you doing?” his girlfriend screamed at him, pulling Yamaguchi back down to the ground. “You can’t just pick her up like that.”
    “She wants to go up there.”
    “Put her down and just give her a leg up,” his girlfriend said.
    “All right, keep your pants on,” he said, grinning widely. He put Yamaguchi back down, laced his fingers together and waited for her. As soon as she put her foot there, he lifted her straight up. She used his shoulders to steady herself and clambered onto the roof of the room.
    She was in the middle, equidistant from either of the men already on the roof. They were both bent down, attending to some task. She walked to the man at the funnel end of the fenced corridor, careful to step on the two-by-four framing, which looked a little rickety and seemed to give slightly under her feet.
    All right, what the hell am I going to say? I insist you stop this at once. Yeah, like that’ll work.
    She decided her best course was to flash the badge and use her “voice of command” and maybe the man wouldn’t ask what a Denver cop was doing in Weld County. However before she could say anything the man, somehow alerted to her presence, stood up, turned and looked straight at her.
    They were both surprised. “What you doing up here?” he shouted.
    She tried to think of a good answer, but the man was impatient and grabbed her right wrist with his left hand. Training kicked in and she immediately made a small circle outward with her hand. The circle now put the little finger side of her hand on the inside of the man’s wrist, making a nice nikkyo pin. Then she brought her right hand down and dropped until she was almost squatting on the two-by-fours. The