New York City, March, 2078, Thursday…

Jerry Feinstein and Rashid Brown had one of the hottest night club acts in town. Jerry played sax while Rashid played piano. They usually had backups at bass and drums. Their music was known to be inventive and exciting.

On off hours Detective Joe Conroy picked the act up whenever he could. His love for jazz had started in junior high. Even though he was one of New York's finest, he had played sax in a high school dance band, so he also knew music. He fully expected that it wouldn't be long until Jerry and Rashid would become really famous.

The club they were playing in that night was not very crowded. Their bass was Sandy Pirrelli, a good-looking tall woman who he knew spoke little English because he had tried to hit on her once. Danny Fox was the wild man at the drums.

They just finished their arrangement of an Ahmad Jamal number when a kid in front of Joe stood up and started cursing at both Jerry and Rashid. Plenty of expletives mixed with the J and A words came out of his mouth. The whole quartet looked at the kid in astonishment. Joe decided that it was time to put a stop to the nonsense. Jerry and Rashid certainly didn't deserve this kind of vitriol.

Before he could collar the kid, though, the man spewing hate took out a pistol. While he waved it erratically, Joe pondered his next move.