Then; 15 minutes earlier:

Lainy Dolton loved her job. Following in her late father's footsteps she became a private investigator. She had tried to be a cop but got tired of her superiors riding her ass about following procedure. She was  outstandingly observant, and top of her class in marksmanship. Her problem solving and reconnaissance skills were commendable. She just had a problem with authority, always doing things her own way. Anyway, when the New Metro police department splurged on the Robs, new highly technologically advanced robotic police, she was "laid off". Most of the flesh cops were. The Robs, they said, were expensive for the tax payer, up front but in the long run would save alot of money and hassle for the city.

She stood in the hall outside her apartment. The clean, sleek building stood 100 stories from the ground, thousands of zero gravity repulsers floated the complex above the smog layer. All glass and polly steel, the building was a glittering tribute to modern architecture. Dark and light squares dotted the height and breadth of the thing. She was proud of her living space, she worked long hours on many cases to work her way above the smog. She felt good today, happy for once, her current investigation was going well, she got laid last night and the last case she was on finally paid her. She grinned and laughed at herself. "I got to stop being such a sappy nerd." she stated, apparently to the wall. She hated when she started feeling all giddy like a school girl. She reached into her pocket and grabbed her swipe card. She slid it in the receiver and a small, black scanner lowered from the ceiling and a grid of green lasers did a body scan to confirm her identity. Iris scan, finger print, style pattern recognition (her apartments computer constantly scans her wardrobe and logged appearance, it knew all her clothes and the way she wore them) and facial recognition. She entered when the solidgram wall shimmered away, allowing access.

When the wall reconstructed, shutting out the outside world, she immediately began to undress, she needed a shower after doing today's surveillance job down below the smog layer. Naked, she stepped into the shower, relishing the hot water pouring over her. Feeling the sweat and grim slide away down the drain and into the water recycler. Enjoying the therapeutic water as it loosened her muscles and opened her airways.

After the shower she toweled off and wiped the condensation off the mirror. Lainy looked over her body. It was slim, fit and petite but strong. After seeing the familiar scars criss crossing all over her, she recalled all the crazy cases she's been on . "Again with this useless reminiscing." she thought out loud and wrapped a towel around herself and decided it was time to get to sleep. It was late and she had some leads to follow in the morning. As she entered the room she placed her thumb on the wall control and said "time for bed" and the room reconfigured. The bookshelves and sofa folded up and slid into the walls, the coffee table dropped into an area in the floor, then a bed and two end tables slowly dropped from above. She watched the wall screen while she waited the talking head on the tube said " ...wealthy business mogul, Stan Klaskin stated today that he would soon be partnering with the Mars Merchants Guild to renovate the ghost district of mars orbit station NC-142."

"Off" she snapped not wanting to see the crap this asshole was spewing any more. The screen went blank and turned into a beautiful lake view scene.

As the top of the bed came into view though, she saw something that caused her heart to stop. Laying on her bed, a single hole through his head was someone she hadn't seen since her dad's funeral, Nelson Steelman.

He was dead, a large pool of blood spread out from the body. At first, he looked like any dead body she had ever seen, and she'd seen quite a few. One tiny detail differentiated it, his right hand, index finger extended, was pointed toward her closet.

She was shocked but her investigative instincts kicked in and she followed the pointing finger. Once inside she quickly dressed in her usual leather outfit and pulled her electric blue hair up in a loose pony, then looked around. "With his last action Nelson had pointed here, so it must be something important" she told herself.

Then she saw it, a box on the shelf, she had never seen that there before, had she? Lainy opened the box and nestled in the red velvet interior was a custom, gold plated, glock 9mm, with an ivory and mother of pearl hand grip. She walked into the room and looked around, no signs of struggle, not even an unfamiliar foot imprint in the plush area rug below the bed. She looked over the body, the face relaxed, like the shot came unexpectedly. If that was the case how had he had time to point. She closed her eyes and focused on her other senses like she had many times before. Then she heard a slight whistle. familiar with the rooms layout, she had memorized it long ago in the dark, something her dad taught her to do, she followed the noise with still closed eyes. The window had a small hole in it, apparently where something had entered and killed Nelson before he knew what was coming.

She returned to the closet and the gun in preparation to inspect it and at the same instant that Lainy's hand closed around the grip she heard a couple popping sounds, like the last kernels of popcorn in the microwave, then a sound thin ice crackle as you walk across it. Then all hell broke loose.

She looked in the direction of the sound, the four big plate glass windows. There she saw spider web cracks spreading from the center of the closest three. Suddenly they shattered inward. Everything slowed down in Lainy's mind. A cascading rain of tiny chunks of tempered glass clambered and skidded across the floor. Three men in full police issue swat gear landed, automatic pulse weapons at the ready. Shocked momentarily, Lainy dropped the gun, but regained composure, realizing they couldn't be NMPD because there was no label on the chest and the PD always advertise who they are,she sprung into action.

Lainy sprinted forward grabbed the barrel of the weapon the imposter in the middle was flailing in her direction, pulling it in toward and past her body then giving him a knee to his under protected groin, spun and ducked low still holding the gun the man had released as he clutched at his injured manhood, landed an elbow to the outside of the one on the lefts knee. Then she dove back, towards the closet, firing the pulse gun into the legs of her attackers. All three now lay on the floor screaming and writhing in pain. She had landed on her back in the closet, the golden gun next her.

Lainy Dolton grabbed the gun and stood up surveying the room. She saw the body and the men on her floor rolling around. She heard loud foot falls in the hall and she thought " Shit, I need to get outta here and quick"......then she ran.