Detective Katie Williams stands outside the house with her partner by her side as the final investigator leaves through the front door and walks down the rain slicked porch steps towards her. She smiles at her colleague as he gives her a nod to acknowledge the crime scene has been cleared for her arrival. He then goes and stands under the large tree next to the sidewalk with the rest of the police officers who had just finished up their work in the house.
“Let’s go.” Detective Williams and her partner walk up the porch steps. She stops at the top of the steps and turns to her partner who sits on the porch, eagerly awaiting her next move. Detective Williams places her suitcase down on the porch, unlatches the case, and opens a virtual super computer center with a small cap with an antenna on the top of it.
The other police officers look on with tremendous anticipation as she reaches down and pulls the cap out of the suitcase and places it on her partner’s head. Panting, with practically a smile on his face, Detective William’s K-9 partner waits for her to strap the cap onto his head. Detective Williams turns on the cap and looks back at the computer in the suitcase. She hands her partner a treat, and the computer displays vital information about the chemical composition of the treat. She hands her partner a different treat, and the computer displays different information about the chemical composition of that treat.
“Obi unit to base, please confirm the correct information regarding the randomly selected treats for baseline.” She turns on the 360 degree camera on Obi’s cap and presses a green button in her suitcase. She can see all of the high-resolution images from Obi’s cameras along a panoramic imaging screen in her suitcase.
“Obi unit, treats accurately identified. You have an all clear for case 26439367.”
A picture of the box of treats is displayed on one of the other screens in front of Detective Williams. It’s the first treat that she gave to Obi. The address of the store selling the treats is displayed along with the address of the factory where the treats were processed and a handful of farms where the ingredients came from. Same happens for the second treat
Detective Williams motions to Obi to enter the home. Within seconds, the computer is displaying readouts of information that she’s scrambling to make notes of. This is the most amount of data Obi’s readings have ever returned. This was a very active crime scene.
The cap on Obi’s head reads Obi’s brain activity and has been programmed to instantly take recognized brain patterns and submit them to police headquarters for analysis to confirm the recognized brain activity. Brain patterns that are not recognized go through a different process where the imaging from the 360 degree camera are included with the submission of the data. That data is then going to be used by Obi’s handlers back at the headquarters to try to identify the substance that created the brain pattern for Obi.
This crime scene is a slam dunk! The scent of the victim is easily identified as are the scents of the two assailants. They are both past offenders, so their K-9 odor pattern is already registered in the criminal justice database.
“Got ’em, sir!” Detective Williams shouts over to the police officers who have been waiting for her. She relays the information to the police, and they hurry on their way to the last known location of these two criminals.
#
Detective Williams sits down on her sofa with Obi and turns on the evening news. “A K-9 forensics unit has led to yet another quick resolution to a murder in the Clarion suburb of Los Angeles today.” She smiles as she changes the channel to Animal Planet.
There’s a knock at the door. Detective Williams is expecting her fiance, so she jumps up eagerly to get to the door. There’s a police officer at the door, and he informs her that the mayor was in an accident on the way home. The mayor and the other driver died at the scene, and they want to inspect for foul play.
She grabs her suitcase and loads it up with Obi in her car and heads for the accident location. Along the drive, it begins to rain. It’s a rarity in Los Angeles, but her shot at getting evidence with Obi is quickly getting flushed away. By the time she reaches the scene, there’s no chance of being able to find evidence as the road is covered in rain, and the gutters are flowing with water.
“This couldn’t be an accident, Obi.” Detective Williams looks at Obi as she pulls to the side of the road to take in the scene. She runs through the scenario played out by the police officer who stopped by her house earlier. She’s picturing the sequence of events in her head as she stares at the rain falling on the road in front of her.
#
The junkyard foreman walks Detective Williams and Obi over to the intake where there are two cars. She recognizes one as the mayor’s and thanks the foreman for showing her the cars. She finds a location sheltered from the rain and unpacks Obi’s cap. She goes through the usual setup procedure, starting with the treat baseline steps.
Obi walks over to the mayor’s car first and begins his inspection. Katie doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary in Obi’s findings. The expected higher than normal bodily fluids in the car from the mayor’s injuries and scents of high stress in his blood found in the car. She directs Obi to the other car.
The driver’s information comes up on one of the screens along with a list of several chemicals found in trace amounts in the car. Katie notices something peculiar about him and the chemicals found in the car. The chemicals trace back to a distribution warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, and it’s not a warehouse where the other driver worked.
“I knew it, Obi!” Obi is almost smiling back at Detective Williams as he comes walking over, tongue halfway out of his mouth.
#
Half a dozen unmarked police vehicles arrive outside the warehouse and a slew of detectives head towards the entrance of the building. Detective Williams and Obi are sitting in the back of a vehicle talking with another two detectives who are remaining in their vehicle to keep watch on the outside of the building.
Obi starts barking aggressively as the detectives head into the building.
“Get them out of there!” Detective Williams screams at her colleagues in the front seat.
It’s too late! An explosion blows the building apart and pushes the car back a couple of feet. Shrapnel from the building lands on top of the car, pinning both of the detectives in the front. Detective Williams’ vision is dazed by the sudden shock and sees a man wearing all black and a hoodie walking towards their car.
Obi is cowering in the foot well of the back seat as the man forcefully breaks open the trunk of the police car with a crowbar and removes the suitcase containing Obi’s cap and machine. Detective Williams reaches for her gun and sees the man raise his glove covered hand with a gun she’s never seen before. “You don’t want to do that, Katie” he says.
Detective Williams stops in her tracks as her eyes widen and her breathing pauses in shock. She’s never heard his voice before. How does he know her name? As quickly as she can think those thoughts, the man pulls out a gun and shoots the detective in the driver’s seat. She’s startled and closes her eyes, fearing she’s next. After a few seconds, she opens her eyes, and the man is nowhere to be seen. Detective Williams looks at Obi as he lifts his muzzle towards her and starts licking the tears from her face. She can hear fire, ambulance, and police sirens in the distance as she closes her eyes and lets out a sigh of relief that at least her and Obi are still alive.
Being Jared 