This is an excerpt from The Lights of Evtar, a Science Fiction, Superhero novel by DK Lubarsky.

Chapter 11
After-Glow
January – April 1985

There was only darkness. And cold. Shelter, he thought. Somewhere there had to be shelter. The stairs were slanted and steep and creaked pitifully under his weight. It was dark and night seemed everywhere.
For very many hours he sat in a corner retreating from worlds both within and without until loud irritating noises broke the barrier of silence. Sharp lights were cast in his eyes. Rough, angry hands grabbed at his body and shoved his face to the floor. Do not respond, he told himself, you are just an ordinary man. So saying, he retreated even further into his own world leaving the sensation of handcuffs, patrol wagon, and confinement far behind.
Detective Barney Rockledge had been on stakeout duty for 18 hours straight before word finally came to hit the place. Kylie had just gone upstairs with 10 kilos of top grade coke.
The raid was precise. In seconds the building was surrounded by a dozen cars with flashing lights. Twenty-five uniformed police officers began pouring into the decaying South Bronx brownstone. Rockledge’s partner, Larry Page, walked across the large upstairs room and whistled.
“Hey, Barney, you ever see so much shit in one place? The commissioner is gonna have a field day with this one.”
“Yeah, Page, a real field day,” grumbled Rockledge in return.
“My guess is there had to be more than five million bucks worth sitting up here before Kylie even opened the front door. Who could have figured?”
“Detective Rockledge?”
“Yeah?” he grunted, turning a jaundiced eye toward a rookie cop who looked about 19.
“Downstairs in the rear we found a whole room of strung out junkies. What do you want us to do with them?”
“Christ,” said Rockledge wearily. He wiped his hand across his face trying to shake the sleep from his eyes. “Can any of them walk?”
“I don’t know,” the young officer replied with a brash grin. “We can rouse them and see what happens.”
“Shit. Why does everything always gotta be so damn complicated. March ’em into the wagon, and we’ll try to sort them out downtown. And don’t forget to frisk them!” he added loudly.
Rockledge strolled across the room taking a mental inventory of the drugs, weapons and stacks of neatly piled cash on long wooden tables in what should have been the master bedroom.
“Come on, Barney. I want to see what’s going on downstairs,” his partner called.
“You go ahead, Larry, I’ll be right there.”
Larry Page walked one flight down. The hall reeked of urine and decay. A dozen men, mostly black and Hispanic, were being led or dragged from the squalor of the back room by what seemed like an entire battalion of cops. He stepped among the human debris carefully, his eyes slowly accommodating to the dinge of the foul place. From behind somewhere, he heard the rookie cop struggling. He craned his head to the left.
“What’s the matter, kid?”
“Man, this one is really out of it. Shit! Look at the fucking size of him. I can’t get the mother-fucker outta the corner.”
“Watch out, kid,” Page chuckled. “Let me show you how it’s done.” Page reached down to grab the man’s thick, dark hair, but his fingers unexpectedly closed on something long and sharp instead. Instinctively, Page kicked the man’s legs out behind him. Before the rookie could blink, Page had the guy stretched on his belly with a bony knee pressed heavily into the man’s kidney.
“Hey! We got a live one over here,” Page yelled. “Gimme some light!”
Flashlights materialized from nowhere and the corner was suddenly illuminated with a bright glare. Elongated shadows were cast throughout the room. Page removed a carefully concealed stiletto taped to the back of the man’s neck. Meticulously, he started to pat the guy down.
“One move and you’re dead, sucker,” he threatened, but his prisoner never resisted.
Seconds later Rockledge showed up. “What the hell’s going on here, Larry?”
“Would you look at the hardware we took off a’ this one! The son-of-a-bitch is a regular one-man army! Had to strip him down to get at most of it.”
The half-naked man at their feet stared vacantly at the ceiling.
Rockledge kneeled beside him. “What’s your name?” he asked.
The man neither moved nor answered. Rockledge fingered the thick gold chain and medallion hanging from his neck.
“What the hell you think is the matter with him?”
Page shrugged.
“I didn’t see any needle marks. God only knows what he swallowed.”
“All right, cart him out of here,” Rockledge growled, irritably.
“Put him in with the others, but keep your eye on him. And keep the cuffs tight behind his back.”
“That’s military hardware he was carrying, Barney.”
“Yeah, I know. I wonder what’ll show-up on the computer for this one.” He turned to face his partner.
“Did he look weird to you?”
“They all look weird to me.”
Rockledge shook his head. The two detectives left the building and headed back to their car. After a quick stop for coffee, Page drove directly to the precinct. Rockledge snored the whole way.
Inside the station the usual drone of confused activity was well underway. One-by-one the junkies from the raid were processed and sent downstairs to holding cells. Dino’s turn came soon enough.
“Full name?” the desk sergeant asked.
There was no response. Someone emptied his pockets and tried, vainly, to remove his bracelets and chain. An ex-marine on the SWAT team watched Dino with growing impatience.
“Answer the man when he talks to you, you mother-fucking pimp!”
Dino still did not respond. The officer jammed a rifle butt into Dino’s ribs and shoved him against the wall. Dino’s left leg twisted and he fell into the corner.
Intense pain seared through the forced isolation of his mind as his knee shattered. Dino gasped for air, yet he did not attempt to return the blow. Instead he succumbed to the growing void within his own mind and allowed himself to be dragged away.