Academy trainee Clio Winter checked to her left, noting that her instructor was checking her out as well. In an unexpected turn, the sergeant instructor had pulled the entire class of police trainees out into the field to be part of a police line. There’d been a shooting in van Duyck project, and police were already spread thin at other hot spots, chasing down a speeder, responding to a hostage situation at a quick trip, and this. A sniper had randomly shot four people, including one child. Police on the scene had only the vaguest idea of his location. As experienced officers were being assigned to the slow building to building search, the cadets had been called in for crowd control.

“Get used to it!”, barked the sergeant instructor, a grey haired, iron jawed man. Clio thought he belonged on a marine recruiting poster, rather than being a police academy instructor. She turned her head, looking to her right. Her partner Gary something-or-other, was fielding questions from some people who were pressing up against the sawhorse ‘barrier’. She guessed they might be residents of the apartment complex the sniper had been shooting from. She turned her head back to the crowd in front of her. It seemed like uniforms were magnets for people. She repeated what the instructor had told her to. “Please stay calm, we’re checking each building. As soon as the felon is apprehended, you can return to your homes. Please go to the YMCA or to a local church to wait. This should be done soon.”

About a quarter of the crowd shuffled away, the others waited by the barricade. Clio could feel the unease in the crowd and hoped things wouldn’t take too long. What she really hoped was that Kibalt wasn’t being his usual self. It was bad enough that a sniper was in the area. Seeing a flying miniature dragon-thing would get everyone’s attention.