Arapaho, Washington: The "Bay City." Just south of the Seattle sprawl, Arapaho is a functionally lawless cesspool of crime policed by a corrupt mayor kingpin and a mixture of an ineffectual, bribed, lazy, or equally corrupt officers or the gangs that work for him.

Having recently secured his second re-election, Mayor (name?) has reaffirmed his dedication to ending the corruption in city hall, reducing wasteful spending, securing the streets of Arapaho and restoring the city not just to its former glory, but to make it the city that the rest of the west coast looks to in envy. Of course this is all bullshit: The Mayor maintains a delicate balance of order within the chaos of Arapaho that ensures he maintains his position, and makes a fortune on the side. There is no crime in Arapaho that he doesn't get his cut from, from arms smuggling to prostitution. Drugs, murder, kidnappings, and worse are used by the Mayor as others use subpoenas or legal actions. The number of enemies he's buried is staggering, and increases every day. The Yukuza, Russian mafia, Mexican cartels, motorcycle gangs, illegal surgeons and more are allowed to operate in his city so long as they play by the Mayor's rules and pay his dues.

How does the Mayor of Arapaho get away with this?

Besides all the murder, press blackouts, threats, and subterfuge, Arapaho is one of few major cities that is staffed exclusively by its own, local police agency (the Arapaho Police Department, or APD) with no official presence of the Interstate Detective Agency (or ISDA).

Founded by the Homeland Security Consolidation Act of 2020, the ISDA is an amalgamation of various American law enforcement agencies (the DEA, FBI, sections of the CIA, FDIC, ATF, Fish and Wildlife, et al) created to reduce the inefficiency of inter-department miscommunication and arguments over jurisdiction. It has a national presence, with field offices located in almost every major city, and is tasked with pursuing most felonies. Since its foundation, its scope has changed with different presidents, but it has consistently been concerned with preventing the illegal trade of narcotics, firearms, other weapons and contraband, and fighting organized crime. It has been very successful in doing so, but there is a sizable movement within the United States with demonstrators expressing a disdain for a singular, overly powerful, "unconstitutional" federal bullying system, and as such civilian cooperation is spotty at best.

Using the distrust for the ISDA, one of the Mayor's mainstay platforms is his adamance in preventing the ISDA from ever establishing a FO in his city, where-he claims-the local police are more than sufficient to provide for its safety. Many of his supporters, and the bribes he's paid and threats he's made, have stonewalled the ISDA's attempts to take charge of Arapaho's growing problems.

Just because there isn't an HQ building, or an official presence or ongoing investigation in Arapaho, however, does not mean that it is insulated from the ISDA; volunteer undercover agents have left comparatively safe and quiet jobs elsewhere in the country to infiltrate Arapaho's most dangerous criminal organizations to prove whatever they can confirming suspicions about the Mayor's involvement in Arapaho's seedy and large underbelly, or-failing that-to take down as many bastard criminals as they can.

Maybe the will succeed. Maybe they will sleep with the fishes.