Prompt: Rogue daemon collectors

My head snapped up at Derrick’s whoop. He was jumping out of his seat, and I only knew one thing that could get him that excited. Okay, two. But that wasn’t happening. Which meant…

“Come on, Speedy! We’ve got the bastard!” Derrick was already by my chair, holding out his pinkie finger to hook with mine. I tucked my little finger against his in the partner shake that still bemused the rest of the squad.

Rising to join him, I pulled on my jacket, teasing, “Hurry up, old man.” No one paid any attention any more. As we waited for the elevator in expectant silence, I remembered the first time we’d met.

“Fastest track to detective in department history,” the gravelly voice ground out behind me as I’d stood next to the captain, making introductions on my first day on the Spook Squad. “A regular Speedy Gonzalez,” Derrick jibed, and an expectant hush fell over the room.

I couldn’t fumble this, or he’d never give up hazing me. I gambled, turning with a nonchalance I didn’t feel in my belly. “I’ll slow it down so you don’t look too bad, old man.”

It was inspired. It was dangerous. It sucked the air out of the room.

Derrick shouted with laughter and held out his picky finger in a crook. I struggled to keep the grin off my face as I linked fingers with him for the first time, sealing our unexpected partnership.

Now we rode down the fifty floors of the Justice Center, and Derrick held out his tablet, showing a city map with red circles of varying size and brightness. One large one pulsed in the Jade Quad -- the wealthiest sector. “See, tagging the newborn daemons finally paid off. We’ve been tracking them for months, and we finally have a solid lead.”

I nodded, giving him credit. Tagging had been his idea. When we caught the daemon thieves, Derrick would be promoted out of the Spook Squad and into a cushy corner window office for sure.

The daemons thefts had been a plague for years. A myth parents told their naughty children. Kids told under the blankets at night. Nurses told each other with a glance over the shoulder. Daemons attached themselves to humans at birth. After the first moon cycle, the connection was permanent. Separation for any reason would then almost certainly prove fatal to both. But if a daemon were removed in those first few days, then the human baby might survive as a weakling, with no one the wiser until years later.

And someone had been stealing daemons from newborns. Maybe for decades before it was discovered.

TBC?

Dogs in House	Houdini, Eggs
Time writing	~30 minutes
April word count	11,173