Setting!
Alex sipped the ‘tea’ the police investigators had brought with them to the crime scene, and grimaced. From the taste it was one of the V-food substitutes the Invaders provided their subjects; even after five years there was still boxes and boxes of V-foods, mostly because they uniformly tasted awful. The Windsor dynasty was making the government use V-foods until 90% of the population was eating regular meals again, which Jim privately thought was objectively brilliant. Even if it meant having to choke it down right now.
“A broken arm from the rock-hammer would have moved a bureaucrat along nicely,” she went on. “Even the knife just had a knockout gel on it. That would have done the business, too, if it had broken the skin. How did you find covert undermesh armor so quickly, anyway? We only spoke this morning.”
Jim looked at her, slightly confused. “I work in a mostly-liberated capital of a mostly-liberated nation. It’s run by a faction of almost ruthlessly pragmatic neo-monarchists whose enemies are typically vile. I’ve been wearing body armor under my suit since I took this job.”
“Is that normal?”
“Not really. Then again, neither am I.”