Chapter 4: Chapter 3: Playing Their Role

Sunday June 20th, 2038/ Cheektowaga, NY (a suburb of Buffalo, NY) 

“Hello fellow Americans. I am the Director of the Department of Homeland Investigation and Security, David Emerson. Yesterday our nation experienced a terrible tragedy. At an illegal protest in Buffalo, NY one of the protesters attacked police officers as they tried to peaceful execute a zone warning order. This act of terror took the lives of dozens of officers and injured many more. Unfortunately, the suspect is believed to have fled before officers could move in to secure the site but is believed to still be in the metro area. As it has been rumored by local media, there is evidence that the suspect used some kind of unknown weapon technology to commit his terrible crime. From what our investigators have gathered, this technology can create shockwaves in the ground. Because of that I have ordered the deployment of DHIS officers to Buffalo to track down the suspect and any accomplices. Local and state authorities have also instituted temporary lockdown orders in Buffalo and the surrounding communities to keep the public safe. In order to keep our officers safe from this unprecedented threat, we have equipped them with a new experimental weapons system that we are confident will give them an edge when apprehending the suspect. The public should not worry about further attacks, our officers are-” 

I abruptly turn off my HUD.  

I lean back on Terrance's porch and let out a big sigh while tapping my finger on his stairs loudly. 

"Mina, you good?" he asks concerned. 

"No, I'm not alright! That man wants to focus all his attention on the cops, and I mean yea it’s messed up that they died.” 

“Mmhmm,” Terrance utters behind my statement. I ignore him and go on.  

“But what about the fact they were about to charge us for no good reason, and then they detained everyone on the suspicion they might be involved! And don't get me started on how the cops are already out here wilding.”  

"Yea...I hear you," his voice trailing off. "They need to hurry up and catch ole boy tho. I wish fam had done it in someone else's city cause nah we don’t need this." As he says this, he's looking down the street at a Cheektowaga PD armored SUV parked at the corner of our block. 

"Doesn’t matter if they do tho. All this harassment and shit is basically collective punishment for what happened. They blame all of us I bet and it won’t just end when dude is locked up." I turn on my HUD again and access my transcribed notes from a meeting I was at earlier with a bunch of local activists. 

“Terrance, so I was meeting with folks earlier about what went down, and they been talking about marching on City Hall in a day or two to protest the lockdown and collective punishment bullshit. You'd think you’d want to go?" I ask acknowledging silently to myself that we’re here cause of the last march he decided to show up to. 

"I don't know. I ain't trying to give them a free target to shoot cause I doubt they’ll be happy to see y’all." He turns towards me with an apologetic look on his face. 

"I get you. I'm scared too but it wouldn't be the right thing to do to back down now."  

“Nah fuck that. You don't always gotta do the right thing,” he says in a serious tone.  

“Why wouldn't I? How I’m going to call myself a radical if I’m sitting on the sidelines?" I tilt my head a bit as I say this.  

“Too many niggas I know got clapped thinking exactly like that. I ain’t gonna tell you what to do, but I don't want you to fuck around and find out ya know? Ya know like we almost did yesterday." His tone shift from dry to slight worry as he speaks.  

“I hear you T but remember I'm a grown ass woman whose been organizing for years. You're my friend, not my daddy.” I don't want him to worry about me, but also, I hate when dudes get paternalistic like we ain't never run the streets. And I get that double when people find out I’m autistic. Folks swear we don’t know our left hand from right. Gotta remind them what’s up sometimes.  

“Mmhmm,” he replies with an eye roll.  

Just as I'm about to say something about that eye roll a call comes in. 

Call from Julissa 

I double blink to answer.  

"Amina did you hear about what's happening!?" she screams through the phone. 

“Ancestors! What's happening now?" I yell back, trying to stay focused even though she’s WAY too loud. 

"I just got a call from my aunt who lives over at Ferry. The police and DHIS just showed up to the projects and surrounded the entire complex!" 

"Wait what the fuck!? Why would they do that!?" 

"Because they say they think the terrorist dude is in the complex!" 

"Oh shit.... I gotta get down there!" 

Terrance picking up on the urgency in my voice signals me to silence the call. 

"Julissa, hold up a minute, ok?" I mute the phone and turn to Terrance. 

"You can't go down there. They might have caught us on a drone at the protest. Also why the fuck do you need to personally go down there?" Terrance says this in a soft but worried tone. 

"If they had caught us on a drone, they would have already rounded our asses up, especially after the whole taser thing. Anyways hold up real quick." I unmute the call. 

"Ima be down there in a few but ima stay out of the crowd though cause...um well you know how cops are," I tell Julissa as I hang up. None of us have told anyone that we were near the front of the protest or what we saw. You never know who might snitch. 

As I pack up my bookbag to leave Terrance sighs loudly. 

"What is it man?” I respond annoyed at his sigh as I pack up my bag to leave. 

“You never said why you need to be down there?” His eyebrows perking up anticipating my answer. 

“Because...well I wanna be there for my folks. Isn't that enough? Anyways, like I said just a minute ago, I know what I'm doing. Stop worrying about me so much.” 

His eyebrows wrinkle as he sighs again, louder than the last time. 

“Listen, I just want you to be careful. I’m no activist like you but you know as well as I do that when DHIS shows up somewhere they're coming to drop some bodies. Yeah, you played around with regular cops on campus and shit, but these niggas are another breed.” 

I can see the concern on his face and he's not wrong. Alot of those godforsaken archives I'm being forced to work on document the bloody trail DHIS left across the country suppressing Pro-African Federation, Nazi, and other left and right wing groups after their founding in 2027. But someone needs to stand up to them, regardless of the risk.   

*** 

I get off the bus and as it loudly pulls away, I look across Ferry St. to the growing crowd of residents who are angrily screaming at the police for blocking the entrance to the projects. Sitting next to an old train bridge line, surrounded by a combo of tall fences and trees, and with only one entrance/exit it's easy for the cops to encircle the place since its already built like a prison camp. 

"I need to pick my kids up from school!" one person screams. 

"My kids are home waiting for me! How long are y’all gonna keep us out here!?" another says. 

“I’ve been at work all damn day and y’all pull this shit. Come on yo!" a third person yells. 

The police aren’t answering any of the people's questions directly like decent people and instead decide to issue a zone warning. The notification opens on my HUD, and I see that the entire project grounds aside from the front sidewalk is redded out. The text attached to the zone warning reads: 

Police are searching the grounds for a subject wanted in a terrorism case. We will update this warning if/when circumstances change. Anyone caught violating the zone warning will be detained and charged with Obstruction of Justice. 

Seeing the bright red AR overlay and reading the text I notice my fingers fluttering as they try to release some of the stress my body is building up. I grip by hands together tightly—I don’t need people thinking that I’m over here tweaking. Too many autistic folks, especially Black ones have gotten caught up for stimming at the wrong time. 

I look on as silence comes across the crowd and they begin to back up in response to the zone warning. I take a deep breath and decide to call Julissa to update her on what's going on. Hopefully she can get the word out to the rest of our organizing network, so people know what's going on.  

"HUD, Call Julissa" I say to my HUD. 

You are reading story By Any Magical Means Necessary at novel35.com

She quickly answers. 

"Hey Mina, what’s up? Did you end up going down there?" 

"Yea I'm across the street from the entrance and people are pissed. They won't let people get in to see their families." 

"Yea I saw the zone warning notification just now. But listen I'm riding my bike down Grider on my way there to check on my people and two DHIS SUVs just whizzed past me. Look out for ‘em ok?" 

"Yea I got you. Call me when you get close." 

"Ok love, stay safe ok?" 

"I will." 

I hang up and just as I begin to look around sure enough those SUVs she mentioned come around the corner. They honk loudly at the crowd and as people part to make space for them to drive up the driveway the cops already there use the opportunity to push people back and create more space. Now there's like 70 people and news crews squeezed on the narrow sidewalks, all annoyed as fuck. 

As the door opens on the Hummers I see a white man, tall, suited with a dirty blonde buzzcut step out, DHIS logo on his shoulder. Behind him comes out 3 soldiers from the same Hummer and 4 from the other one. They look different than DHIS officers I've seen before. Instead of the usual SWAT type uniform with tactical HUD visors and rifles, they have sleek all black one piece outfits with dark blue stripes going down the sides, a blue belt across the waist, no guns, and.... 

A dark metal oval device attached to their left arms! 

I stand frozen, eyes wide as a deer in the headlights, and my fingers start wiggling again. How?! How the fuck do they have the same tech as the guy from the protest!? Wait! The DHIS director talked about giving them experimental weapons. But experimental implies that some one didn’t already fucking use it to kill dozen of people. I have to call Terrance and Onyeka! 

"Yo" They both answer not knowing the wild shit they are about to hear. 

"Turn on your sight share. NOW!" I scream at them barely able to hold back my terror. 

"Mina, what's wrong?" Onyeka asks sounding both confused and concerned. 

"Yea are you aight?" Terrance asks behind her. 

"Just turn the fucking shit on and you'll see why I'm not alright!" I scream louder this time. I don't have time for this. 

"Ok damn shit!" Terrance retorts. Notifications pop up that they can now see what I'm seeing through my eyes. 

"Do y’all see those guys in blue. They're DHIS." I point directly at the officers who are still at the entrance talking with the local police. "Before the earthquake the terrorist had some black oval device attached to an armband. I think that's what he used. They have the same shit!" I whisper scream to them. 

"I think I remember seeing it too," Onyeka replies with a tone of disbelief. 

"You have to leave Amina. Now." Terrance replies without directly addressing what I just revealed to him. 

"I'm not. I need to document them so we can expose them. Obviously that guy from yesterday worked for DHIS," I respond with a flat, monotone voice. My brain is buzzing with theory and ideas about what is going on. I don’t have the energy to mask my tone. I need to figure out what’s happening. 

"What are you going to do? If that whole thing at Canalside was a false flag and they killed a bunch of cops to just fuck with us, I can't even imagine what's about to happen there." Onyeka says as her voice fills with the same terror I had when I first started putting the pieces together. 

The DHIS officers begin marching into the complex and turn the corner. I have to find out what they're doing, fuck safety. 

“I'm going to climb up on the bridge along the side of the projects so I can see what the officers are doing," I inform them, still with the flat tone. 

"NO!" both say in unison as they helplessly see me through my eyes begin to run down Ferry towards the train bridge. 

"I'll be careful but it's important that we find out who they are actually looking for and if what happened was indeed an inside job. I'll hit you all back when I'm in place." I hang up on them before they can say anything else. I love my friends but sometimes you gotta just follow your gut. Hopefully my gut isn't gonna get me killed. Ancestors protect me. 

After climbing up on to the bridge I run crouched along the rusted tracks, hoping my grey t-shirt and purple legging won't give me away to the DHIS agents who are standing below on the opposite side of a large courtyard from where I am. 

What I see is disturbing. It looks like DHIS has detained a bunch of kids and some of their parents at the playgrounds that sits at their end of the courtyard. I can't hear anything but a bunch of noise both from the agents and the people. Looking around more, I see DHIS and local police kicking in doors and searching all the apartments around the courtyard. I think again about how these guys and the terrorist seem to have the same tech. Is this all for show or did one of them go rogue or something? 

Incoming Call from Julissa 

"Ancestors what's happening now?" I say out loud to myself as I answer the call. 

"Mina where are you? I don’t see you!" Julissa yells. 

"I'm on the bridge across from the main courtyard. The DHIS people are detaining folks at the playground while they search folk’s houses," I reply. 

"Wow ok! But listen! The residents are literally fighting the cops and running into the complex.” 

"Holy shit!”  

“Girl, if they see you issa wrap. Please get out of there!” 

“I hear you, and I'll be fine. Get yourself to safety, ok?"  

“Got it! Let me know as soon as you're outta there!" 

Right after I hang up, I call T and Onyeka back.  

"Y’all Julissa just told me folks trying to bulrush the cops and those DHIS agents with the arm things are still in there!” I start hyperventilating thinking about what those devices seem capable of. “We need to somehow stop them because they don't know what those devices can do!” I blurt out.   

"Amina! Fuck tha-" Terrance's voice cuts out for a second as I see extra movement coming from the direction of the playground out of the corner of my eyes. 

I swivel my head as quick as I can and all I see is the group of people that was at the gate coming towards where the police and DHIS were. One of the DHIS officers calmly step forward and raises his hand forward and suddenly a bright red flash flies forward from his hand. 

Immediately I see one of the resident's chest explode in a burst of flame as the red flash hits them. I watch silently as someone's parent, partner, or sibling drops to the ground, smoke rising from where their chest used to be. 

Immediately everyone else starts screaming. Even the police standing nearby step back terrified at what they just saw. I think I'm going to pass out. Did I just see someone make a fireball!? First the earthquake and now this!? What is happening!? My head spins as I struggle to keep my balance, my friends screaming in my HUD trying to get my attention. 

"Amina! You ok!? What was all those screams?! Did they blow up something? Did they shoot someone!" Onyeka yells. 

I calm down just enough to reply to her. 

"...it...it...looked like magic. Like he just held out his hand…and…there was a red flash… and his chest exploded. I'll...I'll call y'all back." I quickly hang up as I collapse on the side of the train tracks and just stare up at the sky. 

My disbelief and fear quickly turns to anger. I stand up and wiping angry tears from my eyes I look down at the terrified and crying residents crowd around the victim as the cops and DHIS agents yell at them to step away. 

We need to expose them for the frauds and murders they are. I'm gonna make sure of it, no matter what it take.

You can find story with these keywords: By Any Magical Means Necessary, Read By Any Magical Means Necessary, By Any Magical Means Necessary novel, By Any Magical Means Necessary book, By Any Magical Means Necessary story, By Any Magical Means Necessary full, By Any Magical Means Necessary Latest Chapter