James was not one to give up on his goals, the thing was, he really didn't have many goals. Having left high school early to get his GED and join the workforce, he found he really wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Nevertheless, he knew he wanted to be independent, so using some money he saved up from his odd jobs and a small amount from his parents, he moved into a small apartment on Capitol Hill in Seattle. His next goal would have to be finding a job that he loved doing, and finding it quickly, since he was running low on money.
"James," his friend Rick said one evening "why don't you become a cop? It's worked great for me, besides, I could put a good word in for you, you'd have no problems at all."
"Nah. That's not really my kind of thing, I don't really fancy dealing with drunkards and speeders all day"
"Whatever, man, just let me know, I'll see you in a few days at my place for the barbeque then?" said Rick as he grabbed his coat and walked out the door.
"Yeah, Thursday" James said, wondering how he could prevent himself from going stir crazy before Thursday rolled around.
The next morning, James gets an early start to the week, hopping on a bus, he heads downtown. "I'll see how many places I can leave my resume at today, I know Westlake is hiring security gaurds even if that isn't my thing, and I'm sure there are some other places that wouldn't be too bad" he muttered half-heartedly to himself, as the bus whisked him away.
Later, having dropped his resume at a couple of stores and some other businesses downtown, James decided to call it a day. He soon found himself sitting in the back of a bus, leaning against the window, watching as the world went by.
As the bus' electric motors spooled up, James found himself lost in his thoughts, sitting in a surprisingly comfortable seat, taking in the strangely comforting smell of bus cleaner and stale alcohol. James was always fascinated by they Metro system, the whole thing ran like a well-oiled machine, each person losing their identity, becoming another rider, one of thousands to pass through the system every day. The drivers he also found interesting. "Such an overlooked position." he remarked to himself that day, watching his driver deftly drive the sixty foot trolley through downtown traffic.
As they passed another bus, the drivers gave a courtesy wave. "That's interesting," James thought, "they usually wave, but that other driver made a weird gesture, I wonder what that was about." Not a minute later, they passed another bus, and he saw the drivers make the same gesture, then once again, right before he arrived at his stop. As he walked home, he tried to find a reason behind the weird gestures. "Maybe its a new bus driver code, for route blockages or bad passengers or something, but that wouldn't work, what on earth is it for?"
Having nothing better to do for the next two days, James decided he would see if he could observe any other strange gestures, or possibly find out why he had seen the other ones in the first place. Hopping on the first bus he saw, he began his observations. "This is great," he thought, "I get to roam the city, and maybe I can also find out what this weird signaling is about."
Sure enough, Tuesday afternoon, he sees some more gestures from other drivers, though they are slightly different, and seem to be directing his bus driver to somewhere. At this point he realizes he has made it all the way to Burien where his bus will have a layover. "I'll just stop here and watch the drivers," thought James, not wanting the stop to be fruitless, "maybe they'll do something new."
So James found himself positioned where he could see most of the transit center, he watched as one driver made his way towards the restrooms, but suddenly veered away, and walked towards the supervisor van parked far from the rider area. Figuring it was completely normal, James didn't pay much attention, but as the driver made his way back towards the bathrooms, James noticed that the driver had acquired a box. For whatever reason he decided he would take it with him to the bathroom instead of leaving it in his bus which he had just walked past.
Intrigued, James waited for the driver to exit the bathroom, perhaps, he could even find out what was in the box. As he waited, he noticed a couple of buses pull up and park rather far away from the rest, "Hmm," he thought, "I wonder why they're doing that, now they just have to walk farther.
Minutes later, he watched as the first driver came out of the bathroom, but this time, without the box, as the driver exited the bathroom, James saw him slip something into his pocket. “Strange, he’s leaving the box in there, why is that?” thought James, getting up to follow the driver, “I should see what he does with whatever he has in his pocket,” he promptly forgot about it as another bus driver walked into the bathroom. “On second thought, I should see what he does,” going back to where he could keep an eye on both the bathroom and the other bus.
Soon, the second driver comes out of the bathroom, also slipping something into his pocket on the way out. Knowing he couldn’t enter the bathroom, it was for drivers only, he decided he’d see what the next driver to enter the bathroom did. This time, the bus driver exited with a flattened box, also slipping something into his pocket. As he walked away, however, whatever was in his pocket fell out, and James saw a bag of white powder fall to the ground. “Drugs?” thought James, somewhat confused, “are they running a drug ring from the bus system?” It all clicked into place for James, and as he watched the drivers pull away, they all waved to each other, this time, with a new hand signal to each other.
Fearing the worst, James realizes he has stumbled on something way bigger than he could have ever believed. He soon sees the new signals spread throughout the bus drivers, thinking to himself, he realizes the first signals were a countdown to when the next shipment would arrive, “now,” he thought “they must be signaling where and when to pick up their deliveries.” He continued to observe bus drivers the next morning, solving and learning their code.
That afternoon, he managed to deduce when but not where the next delivery was going to take place, “I need to take this information to the police,” he thought, “this has gotten so much bigger than I thought.”
As he got close to his stop on his ride home, he realized the bus had pulled off its route, soon they stopped, and James realized he was the only person on the bus. Another bus driver got on, and started walking towards where he was sitting. “This is strange,” he thought, “I’ve never had this happen before.”
“You!” he heard, looking up to see the second driver, blocking the way off the bus, a gun drawn.
“Yes?” he said, confused, “What?”
“You know too much, I should kill you right now,” said the driver icily.
“So I’m right then,” James said to himself, he looked back to the deiver “so why don’t you kill me?”
“Too messy, instead, I’m warning you, do not tell anyone what you have discovered, not that they’ll believe you anyway. We will kill you if we feel it necessary though” the driver said, finishing his point by pointing the gun at James’ head, “now, off!”
“Okay, okay, I’m going, I will find a way to stop you though, I’m warning you” James exclaimed as the bus doors slammed shut.
As soon as he got home, he called the cops and told them everything he knew, they didn’t believe him of course.
“Stop wasting police time,” said the cop on the phone,
“I’m not,” said James, “this is all true I swear.”
“Hah, lunatic,” said the cop, hanging up.
James looked out the windows pensively, wondering what he should do. “Hang on,” he muttered, spotting a bus driver sitting in a nearby café, “are they watching me?” As James peered up and down his block, he saw another bus driver farther down, watching his apartment building, another one he spotted smoking in the alley behind his building. “Crap,” he thought, “I’m trapped in here, what am I going to do?”
James figures he should call Rick, “maybe he’ll believe me,” he thought, “and it would be good to have at least one cop on my side.”
“What’s up James?” said Rick,
“Hey, we might have to cancel our barbeque, there’s something crazy going on” said James, explaining all that he had found out to Rick.
“Well, I guess we should find their headquarters,” said Rick, “I’m not supposed to do stuff like this, but it would be a good idea to have a cop there.’
“Thanks man, I’ll meet you downtown tomorrow.”
The next morning, James found Rick downtown in an unmarked police car, and James pointed him after a bus that was driving away, “that one” he said, “That driver will probably head to the HQ after he drops off his bus, trust me.” “Ok,” said Rick pulling behind the bus.
After waiting for the driver to drop off his bus at the downtown base, they followed him as he walked a short distance into SoDo, eventually stopping at and going into a seemingly abandoned warehouse.
“There,” said James, excited, “that’ll be their HQ!”
“Okay, then, what’s our plan?” said Rick.
“We’ll case it out, I bet there’s a side entrance we can sneak into.”
Sure enough, after sneaking around the building, they found a side entrance and went in. They found themselves in a small room, full of weapons, “grab a gun” said Rick, “you might need it.” “Good idea,” said James. So they headed down the small hallway out of the room, and found themselves in the main room of the warehouse, full of boxes of the same bags of white powder, “You were right” said Rick, “this looks like a drug ring.”
They watched as a supervisor van backed up to the loading dock, boxes of drugs were loaded into the back, armed bus drivers stood around, protecting their cargo. “We need to get out of here,” said James, turning back towards the hallway, “we have enough evidence to get the cops.”
As they ran towards the hallway, a shot rang out, they realized they had been spotted. Making it to the little room, they found the door closed and locked, they were trapped. Running back out to the warehouse, Rick called for backup, and they hid behind the stacks of boxes, exchanging fire with the bus drivers. Suddenly, Rick was shot, “NO!” screamed James, jumping out and gunning down a couple of drivers. Running to the other side of the warehouse, he saw what appeared to be the leader of the operation running away, following, James tackled him, just as a SWAT team busted in through the doors.
As Rick was wheeled to a waiting ambulance and the drivers were rounded up, James reflected on everything that had happened, he realized he may have found a job he liked.
While debriefing with the head detective on the case, James started asking about becoming a detective, “you were pretty good on that one,” said the detective, “we need more people like you on the force, I bet I could fast track you into the detective squad if you were interested.” That day, on his daily visit to his friend, still in a coma at the hospital, he decided, he would become a detective, for his friend if no one else. The next morning, he enrolls in a Criminal Justice degree at his local community college.

Two and a half years later

“We welcome everyone here today to congratulate this graduating class of the police academy,” said the police chief, “all of these recruits have worked long and hard to get to this point.”
James looked out over the audience, seeing Rick in the front row, in his wheelchair, still working on his physical therapy. “This is the place for me,” he thought, “this is definitely the place for me.”