Reaching the LEARNER. Remastered

8/14/2019 Reaching the LEARNER. Remastered

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Policy Police

Reaching

the

LEARNER



Thank you for taking time out to look at this electronic

comic.

This is the first Policy Police story. It was

originally published to a select band of colleagues in 8instalments between November 2008 and July 2009.

I recently looked back at them when I started thinking

about bundling them together into this “feature length”

edition. I felt that many of the earlier illustrations

bore the marks of their experimental nature, and theover all look of the comic was uneven. So I decided to

go back through them all and “analogically remaster”

those I was least happy with.

In the event that turned out to be over half of the

original pictures. Anyway. I think the result is now much more consistent over all.

Enjoy.

Steve



Faren Gosman,

Federal Agent

Reaching the LEARNER.Chapter 1.



Agency headquarters.

2025. Year 5 of the New Way.

I’ve been summoned to meet Zee

Van Gogh aka The Spider Woman.

She heads C Division: LEARNER Protection.

Beneath her tough exterior she’s

… tough.

Hard as nails.



Whatkept you?



I’mmultitasking.

What abouthim?



I mean Ithought this

wasconfidential



He won’t listen ifhe’s praying to

his god.



I’ll comeback.

OK…outside.



And you….



Don’t eventhink about

moving.

nn..



It’s the

LEARNER.

I know him. Etonand Oxford…

Never did him anyharm.



Don’t mess withme. You know the

LEARNER.



Somewhere in Switzerland….



Yes, but I love

the way youseem sovulnerable whenyou’re angry.



There are rogueuploads. The PrettyBoys are pissed.

But isn’t this a job for your lads

in C Division.

I want you tofind out

what’shappening.



We needsomeone with…

flair.

Expendable,you mean.



That’s notwhat I said.

But you did sayI was too nicefor theAgency.



How…..

Gatheringevidence is my

job. Email methe spec .



And nexttime, wear a

tie.



What’s going on here? … Who are the Pretty Boys? … Who will

suffer the consequences?

Find out in Chapter 2.



Reaching

the

LEARNER.

Chapter 2

Tech Div.

Home of the Agency

troglodytes.

If it doesn’t work,

they’ll fix it. If

it doesn’t work,

it’s probably their

fault..



It’s all aquestion ofcapacity andcapability.

….?



See these.A pint of milkand a pint of

acid.

The capacity’sthe same. But

quite differentcapability.



You’ve beenhanging with theSpider Woman

too long.



Gotta getmy kickssomehow.



Now seethese.

So...

They lookthe same.

Technically thesame spec. Sosame capacity..



So this one is yourstandard one-

hander aimed atthe pornography

download market.



And this one is

a live link to theLEARNER.

Adding to theglobal stock of

knowledge on thefly. Allowing

downloads of liveevidence.



So this one’syour bottle

of acid.

Youbetcha.



Later.

The Moon of Alabamanight club.

This is where you

find the Pretty Boys

out of the office.

And you can’t get

them in the office

without some no-neck

moron shining a lazer

in your eyes.



Victims of ourown success.

How are thingsin PerformanceImprovement?

There’s onlytwo of usleft now.

Our performancewas improved byhalf last month.



Bad luck.

Not so bad.When JDretires, I getto be Head ofDepartment



There

they are.

Well they don’tlook any more

pretty than yourregular boys.



They don’t have tobe. They’ve gotthe ear of power.

That makes thempretty.

Some ofthem are

girls, too..

Equalopportunities.Anybody can bea boy if they’repretty enough.



Gotcha.

Curly hair. Edge

of the group. You can see he’snot with the in-

crowd.

Whichone?



Word is that hisoffice lost ahand-job.

You may havenoticed someleft-field

pronouncementsfrom the centre

Um…nope.

Since then theLEARNER’s

been erratic.



We all makemistakes,buddy.

What d’youmean?



I hear you’re the

guy that couldtell me aboutrogue uploads.



Besides theofficer’s goneback to the

pool.

SECURITY !!

Never heardof it.



…and don’tcome back!

Oof!



Are there easier ways of getting information? … Will people

ever learn?


Reaching the LEARNER




Chapter 3

Another part of town. Another kind of life.

Off database. Cash

economy.

We call them hard to

reach, but most of thetime they’re invisible.

Lives we have no

connection with. And the

less we know about them,

the less we have to try.



Hey! Lookyhere!

Looky here!

What?

It’s tryingto learn me

stuff



Whatstuff?

I dunno,

just stuff.

Stop arsing aboutand find

something useful.

Somethingthat’s worth

something.Capische?



Heh. Gotcha!Universities. Gotthe best muck.

Bona fide scholarsonly.

OK. Gimme.Gotta go see

the man.



Faren! Dude! Tex, baby!

We gotta break. A fix on the missing

hand-job.Somebody’s downloading.

Excellent.Gimme thecoordinates.

Sh ld h d it



Should have guessed it

would be the wrong side

of town.

You come here for three

things. Sex, drugs …

and a frisson of

danger.



Kof! Retch

Ugh!

Wakey,wakey!



Your friendwasn’t so

lucky.



Friend…?



Dari?

Dari!

Wake up!

Y b t d!



You bastard! You killed

him!

The cheap shitdid for him

long before Iarrived

Like I said,you were

lucky.

I’ ft



I’m after agovernmenthand-job.

Gone

Gonewhere?

Dari’sman.

Where is it?



And theman is…?

I neversaw him.

None of mybusiness.

And if I helpa cop I’ll getmy throat cut.



I’m no cop. I’ma subcontractor.

You smelllike a cop.

And you smell

like puke.

fuppa fuppa fuppa fuppa fuppa

Now cleanyourself up

and get a life.

C’



C’mon. ???

Gottarun.

fuppa fuppa fuppa



RUN!

???

fuppa fuppa







Who else is on this case? Did they fill in the right

forms?


R hi th LEARNER




Part 4

I’ve just had to run

from a helicopter

gunship and I’m in a

dumpster with a kid

who smells of vomit

and junk food.

Life could be better.



It’s all gone.Everything’s

gone.

Agency hitsquads. Thiskid’s just notworth thebudget.



They could havesent a securityguard with anight stick…

You wantedus dead for

a little hand- job.

What kind ofcop are you?

but they



…but theysent me.

Asshole. Ihad a lifethis morning

They sentme.

Now look.

Now look.



So what areyou going to

do about it.

Not justexpendable.Disposable.



They weren’tafter you, they

were after me.

Then youreally doowe me.



If youhadn’t comeI’d… I’d...

…be sharing ashitty

apartment witha dead junkie..



Instead I’msharing a

dumpster with acop with a price

on his head.



You shouldhave left me

to die.

Shit.



You got people? You got family?

No.

You sure?



Sure I’d never

tell you .

You owe meremember.

OK Kid



OK, Kid,what’s your

name?

……

I can’t

just callyou Kid.

Whynot?

Didn’tanybody giveyou a name?



C…Chrysanthemum

.

I’ll always hatethem for it.

Well they



Well theygave me a

reason

?????

C’mon, Kid.Let’s get outtahere beforethe cleaners

arrive.

We doTh



governmentwork.

TheAgency?

We work out whatneeds to change,

we gather evidenceto convince thepolitical classes.

Then we makeit happen.

Lik I



Like Isaid, cops.

To help people likeyou pull

themselves out ofthe hole they’re in

Get a better

life.

Make us more



Make us morelike you.

Cheap cops.Class cops.

…. …

S Y ’



See. You’retrying to turnme into a cop.



A cop called Chrysanthemum? Surely HR have policies

about that sort of thing?





Chapter 5

All roads lead

back to the

Agency.

The order to take

out the apartment

must’ve originated

here.



Do you think youcan get in

without yourfriends finding

out?

Will they be onthe look out fora dead man, you

mean?



Have theyremembered todelete you fromthe swipe cardsystem, I mean.



I’ve never beena great believerin systems.

But…..

Stick withme.



Federal

agents.



Where’dyou get the

badge?

Ebay. It’sreal metal,

too.

…? …

These guyswatch TV.

They knowthe guy withthe badgegets let in.

Tex! Good



Tex! Goodto see ya!

Far….?



Dead men

don’t….Whatis it dead mendon’t do, Tex?



Rip yourthroat out.



… …..

… …..



I’ve seen

movies.

It’s what theysay before

the dead man

rips theirthroats out.

Better bei t



nice tome, Tex.

Faren,

dude, I….

Or I’ll leaveit up to herimagination.

Don’t bother



Good news isthey ain’t toldit you’re dead

yet.

Don t botherwith him. Letthe system do

the talking.

Tsk. Lazyb T



boy, Tex.

I was onlydoing whatI was told.

She made me,dude. Shemade me.

The emails tell



me you werebuying your way

into the in-crowd.

I know a grasswhen I smell

it.

You disappoint



me, Tex

Time was whenTech Div were

just on the tameside of Hacker.

Now you’re juston the hairy side

of Suit.

What



Whatyou got?

Plenty.



Get it all on

here. I’llbe in 7023.

What



about him?

Ummph….



He’s allyours.

Heh, heh!.



What kind of imagination has she got? How many B

movies has she seen?


Reaching the



LEARNER

Chapter 6

Agencyheadquarters.

Zee’s office.

Didn’t know what

I was lookingfor. So I wasn’t

hopeful of

finding it.



What was I expecting?

A file marked “World

Domination”? Even by

clean desk standards,

this was clean.



Did you reallythink I’d be

dumb enough toleave evidencelying around?

No, notdumb



dumb.Arrogant.

It’s notarrogant whenyou know you’re

the best.

A i t



A giantamong

pygmies.

They just needto look up to

see how great Iam.

The world isfull of

pygmies.

Just wobble the



LEARNER a bitand you can save

the world..

…andeveryone willbe grateful.

And you’re



ythe prettiestboy on earth.

Aren’t Ithough.

And rid yourselfof a pain in the

butt whileyou’re at it.

I’m



Ooof.

I mdecluttering.

A girl onlyneeds so manyskeletons inher closet.

You taught



You taughtme the Wayof Strategy.



Bring downyour

opponent.



Nnnn!



People willtalk.

Now look. You’ve gotblood on my

carpet.











Unnnnn…



Wmp!



This way.

This way.



What’sall this?



How much force is exerted by and 8-stone woman in

stiletto heels? Has she had lessons in deportment?

Find out in the next Chapter.

Reaching theLEARNER

Chapter 7We’ve got twol th

I’m on 7th.



Can you sendsome hygienic

gloves?

What budget code is that?

people on thefloor. There’s

blood.

Cup of



Goodplan.

up oftea whilewe wait?

FederalAgent.

??



I’ll make sure youguys are mentioned

in dispatches.

?

Well done,men.

Take himaway.



away.



Gmmmm..

Unnnh..



Um. Guys.



I think you’dbetter call anambulance.



How manyfingers?

Two wouldgo down

really well.

C’mon, getup. We’dbetter go.

You’lldo.

You’re aquick



qlearner.

Gotta goodteacher.



Um. Thanksguys. Way

to go.

Where’d youget those

t



two.

Their Nan livesin the Old

Neighbourhood.

She didn’t likethe helicopter

thing.

Staff list.

How about I getsome clothes

Later…



that are a bitless “Cop”?.

As long asthey’re not

“Hooker”..

I wasthinking“Goth”.

My dad wasa Goth.



Maybe not,then.

Just don’t clean

me out. I need anew shirt.

Okay. I got e-shop credits.

You’re theboss Boss



boss, Boss.

Look, Kid. You’ve got as

h l



And we’ve got acommon enemy.

I guess thatmakes uspartners,Partner.

much clue asto what’s going

on as I have.

But you can’tgo back to



the Agency.

With her...

First rule ofAgency life –watch your



Tex will tell herthe evidence we

got. She’ll keepher distance.

Fornow.

watch yourback.

Damn.



What?

Ripped histhroat out.



WHAT ?

Kidding



You’re reallygood value.I’m going to

enjoy workingwith you.

Kidding.



But what? But why? But… What about all the loose ends?

Find out in the final Chapter.




Chapter 8. Epilogue

Well, nothing got

resolved. Butisn’t that what

work is like.

Especially in the

Public Sector.

The sooner you get

something done,

the sooner events

intervene.

Hey,where are

you



youheaded?

They didn’trenew mycontract.

But what becomesf th P f



of the PerformanceImprovement

project?

They’ve alreadygot somebody

cheaper.

But then... youknow, peanutsand monkeys.

People paidlip-service…



That’s never agood sign.

…but at the end ofthe day, you werethe only one who

would ever talk tome.

It neveroccurred to me



everybody’d beso fearful of

change.

I guess thismeans I’veretired.



Good luck,Old Man.

Less ofthe “old”.

Elsewhere…



Getting leaders back in front of

the troops



…times like this

you find outwho your realfriends are.









Sob!



Let all the painout, dude.

Downtown…



You didn’ttell me youtaught her.

If you createa monster, it’snot somethingyou’re proud

of.

I won’tbecome a



become amonster…

Forgive me ifI’m cautioussometimes.

Course….

Why didn’tyou leave me

in the

But…



in thedumpster?

“It is not that ofall flowers I likethis one best

Yourname.



I have topreserve thelate flowers.

It’s a long time

until Spring.

this one best.But when this oneis gone, there areno more flowers”.

*

*Poem by Yuan Chen, d. AD832

You’reweird…





…for a cop.




The End

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Reaching the LEARNER. Remastered