'Midnight and he's still not here', Cam thought as he sat in his officer truck in company of the creep he'd sent to scare those kids' families. His partner, Kite, was way too nice and dealing with kids whose family just died seemed like a risky move to Cam, but Kite swore he would be good alone.
Cam was sure he was dead. The thing about hiring junkie criminals was that carried a certain level of darkness within them. Cam might have acted like he didn't know the creep would kill those kids' families but he knew. Checking his watch one more time, he climbed to the front of the van as he was going to be late for Howl's officer midnight meeting.
Driving through the dark streets of Howl, people began to turn in for the night, allowing themselves to be further wrapped in darkness. The phosphorescent street lamps flickered weakly, powered by the same dying energy grid that had been failing for decades. Most residents had learned to navigate by the faint glow that seeped from the cracks in the stone walls remnants of whatever power source had built this place before it became a dumping ground for society's unwanted.
Cam always had trouble sleeping since he was a child because of his Distortion, but also because it was always dark in Howl. Many people didn't know that he wasn't born in Howl, he was actually sent here when his father got caught stealing on the surface. They punished the entire family and banished them to the depths of Howl, twenty-four levels down from natural sunlight. His dad? Dead within a year, couldn't handle the pressure changes and the way reality bent funny down here. But as he swerved into the parking lot, he couldn't help but feel proud of the life he'd made for himself. He was up for Captain and soon after that he would be Chief of Howl's police force, which meant he'd finally have access to the upper levels maybe even see the 10th level where they said you could still sometimes glimpse actual sky through the ceiling cracks.
Inside the Precinct
Looking around, Cam saw no sign of Kite amongst Howl's officers, which confirmed his suspicions that those kids most likely killed him. The precinct reeked of stale coffee and that metallic smell that clung to everything down here, something about the air recycling systems that had been jury-rigged so many times nobody remembered how they were supposed to work. 'That boy probably has a fire Potential and that girl is already way too powerful to be walking in broad cave light', he thought, crossing his arms and thinking how it was going to look bad that he lost another partner. The department had a three-partner limit before they started asking uncomfortable questions about your methods.
But at least he could brag that he'd attained Chan, who had been escaping police grasps for years, how? No one knew. Well, technically he was involved in killing her, but that wouldn't be on record, of course. The brass preferred their paperwork clean, especially when it came to eliminating Potentials who got too comfortable with their abilities.
The creak of the microphone signaled the meeting was about to start, and Chief Morrow approached the podium. His uniform was always perfectly pressed despite the humidity down here, and the three silver pins on his collar marked him as one of the few who'd actually seen the surface levels before taking this assignment.
"Ahem, well you fuckers, thank you for all the work you do to keep this level of hell less hot. I got some news that'll probably make you all jump for joy. We're leaving this godforsaken place and going up some levels to the 20th," the Chief's rough voice made it sound normal that four floors of thousands of people would likely drown very soon. On the 20th level, Cam had heard rumors it actually had windows, real ones, not just the painted murals they had down here to keep people from going completely insane.
"You're probably wondering when, aren't you?" Chief said, rustling his papers on the podium and looking down to heighten the unneeded suspense. Cam was beginning to be annoyed. He didn't like the Chief even if he was the one to first hire Cam ten or twelve years ago when he was a teenager fresh from processing. The Chief played with these matters a bit too much, like he got off on the power of knowing what others didn't.
"We're leaving tomorrow." The Chief announced and silence wafted over the room like the stale air that circulated endlessly through Howl's ventilation system. 'Why so soon?' Cam thought quickly. Usually they gave at least a week's notice for level transfers, time to settle debts and say goodbyes not that many people down here had much of either.
"You're probably wondering why, and that's above your paygrade. The rising tide's going to cleanse this entire level of pride in exactly twenty-four hours, but we won't be here, and we will not be helping to transfer people. Those are directions from above from the real above, not just the 23rd level bureaucrats." His last words ended with a smile as he so casually announced the likely deaths of so many people.
The rising tide. Cam had heard whispers about it from the older officers, something about the underground rivers that fed the higher levels, how they could be redirected when a level got too "problematic." Too many Potentials developing, too much organized resistance, too many people asking questions about what lay above the 10th level. The water would come fast and silent, filling the carved-out spaces that had housed thousands, washing away the evidence of whatever experiment Howl had been.