章 36: A normal day of training Part 2

Zeph and recruit Croker had the same reaction when first walking into the small auxiliary training room and seeing the code book that they would be getting rather familiar with over the next six hours.

That reaction can be described as complete and utter shock. For one it was a real physical book made using actual paper and ink and some kind of hard leather covering. Second it was massive. You certainly would not want an officer to actually throw the book at you. Unless you want to try for an unnecessary roughness defense if you survived the ordeal.

"Have you ever seen a real book outside of a museum?"

"A few, but nothing like that code book. Do they really expect us to memorize all of that before graduation from the academy?"

A few deep breaths later they sat down at the desk and flipped through the first page. For Recruit Croker it was the beginning of the most migraine inducing, eye straining six hours of their life. While Zeph who had the entire thing downloaded into his brain while he slept peacefully the night before it was a constant fight to stay awake.

Thankfully the constant dinging in his head from all of the V-mails that a certain bored to tears angel kept sending him every five to ten minutes. She wanted to watch him fall off a virtual cycle and not pretend to read an oversized physical copy of the book she shoved into his little head while he was sound asleep in-between the natural pillows that did not belong to her.

For the first time her punishment actually felt like a punishment and not just something that would prevent her from making too many mistakes for a hundred years not that time held any real relevance to celestial beings.

"Am I turning the pages too fast for you or is this okay, Cadet Demonbane?"

"I am good with it so far, I already did some searching through the copy available through the neural net linked database of HQ's resource archives when that little incident at Tom's occurred. I already had some knowledge that I would be stuck reading all day today. Well all morning as I will be doing patrol cycle training for a few hours too."

"Then how much of this do you actually understand? Even after twenty pages it is starting to become a tangled mess of numbers behind my blurry eyes."

"Most of what we have looked at so far and some of the laws around Mod use and dealing with admin level things that I had to look up when dealing with booking the three suspects you got to see me interrogate."

"Okay so on this code here what does it mean by resisting arrest and how does it compare to the one below it for fleeing a crime scene? I understand the difference between the one for fleeing a crime scene and attempted escape from custody I think."

"Code 202 Resisting arrest could be anything from trying to run, refusing to cooperate, or even fighting back against an officer trying to make an arrest, where 203 would be only used when they were caught fleeing from a crime scene and is a lesser offense than could apply to someone that had nothing that would otherwise link them the the crime that was committed at the location in question."

"So like if a bystander or witness ran away from the crime scene as NEO's or LEO's arrived on scene, they could be charged with a 203 but not 202 unless they resisted when a second contact was made, and 303 is when they are already in cuffs or in any detained state and attempt to escape."

"Yes, and it would become a 333 if they were successful in their attempt."

"Okay I think that I understand now."

More *blings*, and many questions later Zeph was more than ready to find out what sort of test Sr. Instructor Westnight was going to give the two of them, but he was starting to have questions about what exactly"closer than you think" meant when it came to Siael as it almost felt like she was just beyond his reach with how much she complained about her boredom, and she did steal a bite of his steak some how.

God how she wanted to make herself corporeal just long enough to slap him for not just telling the truth about how he already had the entire Criminal Offense Code book memorized for a lack of a better term. It was just the lingering fear of that warming about temptations and falling that kept her from acting.

The bite of steak would be forgiven easily, but slapping a mortal just because she was bored would be entirely different.

"Times up, book down and eyes up. I am going to ask each of you a few questions starting with You Cadet Demonbane, you will answer one then Recruit Fruity O's will answer one. Any questions before I begin your little test to make sure that you two were not in here just catching some Z's?"

"Sir, is that going to be my name from now on?"

"Just until someone else earns it. So at most until the next cycle starts. Always one that is a slow eater. I was known as Cadet Flapjacks for most of my time at the academy. If either one of you ever mention it, you will run laps around the outside of the HQ for an entire training day. Understood?"

"Yes Sir."

"Okay question one what is a code 001?"

"The lethal version of what Biggs was charged with."

"That is technically correct, Cadet Demonbane."

"What is the difference between a code 202 and 203?"

Sir, a code 202 is resisting arrest, while a 202 only pertains to fleeing from a crime scene and could even be a potential change given to a less than cooperative eye witness that ran away when enforcement arrived on scene."

"Correct."

"What is a...."

"Cadet Demonbane do you have the entire thing memorized somehow because the main building would have informed me if you used your privileges to access the nuro net while I was asking you questions?"

"Something close to having a general working knowledge but further study would provide some degree of benefit most likely. Kinda like I shoved the operation manual for patrol cycles in my head forcibly but only understand enough to turn one on and use the auto navigation systems. Would probably fail miserably trying to operate it in full manual mode."

"Go take your five minutes break and proceed to the VR simulator room. You will receive personal introduction from one of our officers. One that you are already familiar with."

"Officer Dean?"

"Biggs, I expect both of you to play nice."

"Not like I am going to shoot him or something."

"That a promise, Cadet?"

"No, sir. He could try something stupid, and I have already ran enough for today, but I might offer to buy him lunch if he teaches me well enough that I could pass the licensing test and hopefully get issued my own patrol cycle. I had a blast even though it was on autopilot."

"Good luck kid that driving test is meant to push the limits of even experienced cycle operators, and I doubt even you could use your access level to make it less difficult. It is all real world and the helmet of the testing cycle has military grade AI monitoring systems designed to make sure that the test taker does not have a medical emergency during the test."

Zeph ran and took a quick leak before grabbing a few bottles of iced coffee for himself and his cycle instructor."

Zeph's initial thought about the VR simulator room was that it was something closer to a holographic virtual environment simulator than the helmet display and mock version of a cycle and patrol vehicle control seat he was expecting.

"If one of those is for me I will not say anything about how you reacted to seeing this room for the first time. Guessing whatever upbringing you had did not allow time to go to one of those VR places."

"Yeah, it is a little peace offering for yesterday. I could have probably just had you reprimanded by the commissioner. If you want lunch is on me, after you teach me how to pass the licensing test on the first go."

"Ahh, slap on the wrist and some loss of credits. You pas that test on the first got an not only will I not care about the tab you stuck me with, I will buy you a whole damn bottle of Tom's really good stuff he doesn't tell the XO about when they give me a promotion to Cycle Instructor. But for now I am going to enjoy every moment of watching you fall off the virtual one. By the time I am done you might not be ready for the Patrol Cycle license, but you will be able to light that little bunny's tail on fire on the way to buy me a T-bone like the one that you got yesterday rookie."