Police (The Power of Five)

"Because if you are scared of everyone, and you have a right to be, you should be equally scared of the Police."

- Graham Fletcher

The Police are major supporting antagonists in The Power of Five fifth book, Oblivion.

Biography
The Police were once the global police, working with security organizations and intelligence sites. However, corrupt policemen such as Captain Rodriguez wanted to free the Old Ones. This was eventually done when Diego Salamander cracked open the Nazca Desert releasing the Old Ones from their interdimensional prison.

Feeling ambitious, the police came and turned themselves in, thus all the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other such organizations became joined under Nightrise and a single, global, Police state began, controlling everyone through fear.

The Nazca Gate was opened on May twenty-fifth 2006, and the Apocalypse began on May ninth, 2007, and this was what triggered the Police to turn from serve and protect to hunt and destroy: the final catalyst for which was the destruction of London.

The Police became global terrorists, and went from helping citizens to "responding with a ferocity that the priest didn't want to think about."

Role in the novel
The Police are first mentioned when Jamie Tyler comes into a village in Suffolk, England and he realizes the world has changed enormously from the seconds it has taken him to get to Suffolk (which he learns took actually ten whole years for the rest of humanity). He learns the villagers are dangerous and hostile, and many of them want the Police to come and take Jamie away. But a man, Graham Fletcher, comes and says they must be mad if they want to call the cops. He says that when he went down from London seven years ago, he saw derelict villages, with abandoned buildings and rusting houses. Nobody was left alive. He wondered what happened to the inhabitants and wondered if someone called the Police, but the Police killed them all as a result.

The villagers argue that the Police could still come even if they aren't called, but Graham says how would that happen. He says they are hidden from the world in a wood and that's all they need, if they phone the Police then the Police could come and destroy them all.

Unfortunately this does happen, a woman named Anne Keyland betrays them all to the Police in response of money, oil and fuel and food, but the Police make it clear they're only interested in Jamie. When the Police are told that Jamie left long ago, their leader, Commander Eleanor Straike, tells the Police to kill all the people in the village, raze the village to the ground, and essentially pillage the place. The Police kill because they like killing.

Holly is the only villager to survive with Jamie and she wonders if some of the Police are Old Ones in human form as well as real human Police. Holly and Jamie make it out to London with Graham and watch the Police utterly destroy her village.

The Police then return, hunting for Jamie, because Eleanor has ordered them to hunt for Jamie, as he is a Gatekeeper, and can stop her dark masters, the Old Ons. Eleanor knows her future hangs on Jamie's death, and she is desperate for him to be found.

The Police hunt Holly, Jamie and Graham several times, following them downriver, even joined by several Old Ones themselves at one point.

Meanwhile, when Pedro, the second Gatekeeper, is in Italy, the Police reappear. They are hunting for the Gatekeepers, and seize Pedro and Scott and throw him in jail. But soon Jonas Mortlake summons Scott to talk, and Pedro escapes soon after. Pedro hears on loudspeakers that the Police are searching for him, and anyone who shelters him will be killed along with their family.

The Police do eventually come hunting for Pedro, only because Scott betrays him. The Police barge their way into the apartments and break in, killing everyone. Pedro tries to get out but then suddenly Mount Vesuvius blows up. This distracts the Police and they run off, abandoning Pedro for another time.

The Police also appear surrounding the Vatican, menacing in their uniforms. The Police are eager to stop Pedro getting in and make it clear their real aim is to stop the Gatekeepers.

Back in England, the Police ambush Holly, Jamie and Graham at Little Moulsford where the villagers had been intending on eating them. The Police are going to kill Jamie, but the villagers appear, and shoot at all the Police, killing half of them, but the Police return fire and a battle breaks out, with the Police winning.

The Police follow Graham and Holly and Jamie to the docks, back downriver to London, and then they see Graham's boat blow up and believe they all died.

But they reappear in the ruins of London, where Straike launches her attack. The Police and the Old Ones appear, and they ambush Graham, but Holly and Jamie run for the extradimensional door in St Meredith's church, and Graham shoots Straike in the head. Then, Graham sees to his amazement the Police stop fighting and put down their guns.

All surviving Police return to normal life, seemingly coming out of a daze, and they throw away their uniforms and decide to rebuild society.