I really hope this turns out to be a hit. If not, then I’ll keep posting chapters anyway. Reason? Saw one fantasy and sci-fi fiction. So, I’ll get them together…

1. It's Not the Same

It’s Miami, Florida in the year 2028. Things have changed around the world in multiple fashions. Faster computers, obscene TV shows, and worse crimes than ever before. We all know about how life has changed, but this takes things to a whole new level. Everyone knows about the Miami Police Department and its allies in the making. There’s ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne, who is now the wife to leading forensics expert Ryan Wolfe. Natalia Boa Vista, the team’s leading criminologist, has finally married Eric Delko, residential underwater diving expert for the Everglades. Dearest Alexx Woods isn’t married anymore. Her husband died in a chemical explosion at his work place.

No one really knows what happened to Horatio Caine. Ever since he left the lab ten years ago due to his wife’s death, things haven’t been the same anymore. The criminals still fear getting caught with the law, but not like they used to. Now they just want to know if Caine is working there in the lab.

There have been weird times in Miami. Things were about to get a hell of a lot weirder…

“Hey, Eric!”

Natalia Delko walked over to her husband. The team had been assigned a case a couple of hours ago about a young woman with a strange mark on her neck. There had been no blood at the scene, so Alexx couldn’t diagnosis the problem until she found some burnt tissue on her neck. When Calleigh went back to the scene, she found a laser gun near the back of the house.

Eric looked at her. “What is it?”

“Well, we tested to see if the gun found at the scene was matched with the wound in the victim. It’s not a match.”

He blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I told you, it’s not a match.”

Eric rolled his eyes. ”Nice. We examined that house inside and out, and we find a gun, but it’s not the one the killer is using. Goddamnit. Why can’t we do anything right anymore?”

“Maybe because we’re still lost,” a voice replied quietly.

Natalia turned around. Ryan Wolfe had aged over the past ten years. Being in charge of the whole place can do that to you. Especially when some of the team got their relationships involved into the case. That had been true these days, though. What Wolfe said.

“Maybe we still are lost without him,” he repeated. “I mean, come on. It’s been ten years since… well, you know. Everything happened. Look at us. We haven’t been able to capture a criminal since he left. Ten years, and Miami has become a dumping ground for the bodies no one fucking cares about.”

The room was silent at this. It was too true. Not one criminal had been caught since Lieutenant Caine had left his position. Especially since there were crime lords in the city for the first time since 2001. The Mala Noche ruled the city ruled over them with an iron fist.

“So what do we do now?” Natalia asked.

Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know at all. I’m supposed to be on vacation, but it looks like that won’t be happening for a while. Calleigh and I haven’t been to a good restaurant without having a shootout of some sort happen.”

“For God’s sake, there’s got to be something we can do!” she yelled out of frustration, pulling out a laser sword. “Miami needs…”

“There’s nothing more that Miami needs than Horatio,” Eric soothed.

“Well, I’ve got bad news.”

Calleigh Duquesne stood in the doorway of the office, looking rather fatigued. She had a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. “I looked to see the prints on the gun. By the looks of it, this doesn’t seem to fit into the equation. Any of the data tampered with?”

Ryan frowned. “Honey, where’s this going?”

“The gun prints showed that they belong to a Horatio Caine.”

No one said a word in the lab. Disbelief hung in the air like a stench of death in the hall. Their former boss? Was he possibly there at the time of the murder? Why did this seem unlikely? Horatio Caine, committing murders for crime lords?

Highly unlikely. Or was it?

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