Part 31 (1/2)

”How on earth am I going to learn how to fly?” asked Ian.

”Jump off a cliff,” Coop joked.

”Ha ha.” Ian paused for a moment and then told them that they needed to keep his secret between the three of them. ”Don't even tell Jordan about this, alright?”

”Sure.”

”Yeah.”

”Seriously, I don't want anyone else to know. And I'm going to have to talk to Jordan, because you two weren't supposed to hear about this yet.”

”We swear,” Wally promised.

”Yeah. Now,” Coop put his arm around Ian, ”You've gotta take baby steps until you know all of what you can do.”

Ian pushed him off, ”Yeah, thanks.”

”Seriously,” Wally started, ”You have to learn to control the voltage, otherwise you might kill someone.”

”And how do you suggest I do that?”

”Start by trying to jumpstart my hybrid,” Coop joked.

2:35 PM.

Baltimore, Maryland Repair work on the parking lot was still in the final stages since the attack the previous week. Fortunately the station wasn't damaged too greatly, so aside from the limited access of their lot everything continued to run smoothly. A general cover story about a ruptured pipe hushed media attention, though officers outside of the Cladis investigative team doubted the validity.

Detective Felton walked into Ryan's office, shut the door, and took a seat in a chair adjacent to Chief Johnson. The chief had his hand over his face, a file in his lap, and hardly took notice of the Detective's entry.

”Commissioner Schmitt wants a full report come Monday,” the Chief told him. ”I'm not sure why he wants it exactly, but I can't imagine it's good.”

”He can't just shut it down. There's an obvious threat here in Baltimore and we can't just ignore it. Cladis isn't going to stop killing people if we stop looking for him.”

Johnson agreed. ”Y'know, some of the others are asking about the case,” he told Felton.

”What did you say?”

”I told them that there was no case until Schmitt says so.”

”I take it they didn't like that too much?”

”No, most were absolutely fine with it.”

Felton scowled and muttered, ”It's a grim thought that our own are turning their backs on what they're supposed to stand for.”

”I don't think that's it Chuck,” Johnson began.

”Then what is it?”

”I don't think they believe we can stop him. I've already had two people ask for transfers in the past week. They're scared as h.e.l.l that they might be next, and they don't even know who's behind all of the deaths.”

Someone knocked on the door and broke their conversation. Johnson told them to enter and Officers Maguire and Hendricks, and Sergeant Geoff Murdock walked in. The three officers had a few sc.r.a.pes, bandages, and Mia's wrist was in a cast, but all in all they survived the attack on Mario Evanston.

”What can I do for all of you?”

The sergeant started, ”We want to be on the case.”

The chief rubbed his eyes and sighed, ”I would love you let you all on, but there are a few issues with that. First off, this investigation is pending until we get the okay from Commissioner Schmitt to continue. Secondly, Maguire and Hendricks don't take cases. I have no issue with you signing up Geoff, but they don't have any prior work on a single case and they're not even past their one year mark.

Sergeant Murdock nodded, ”Then at least explain to all of us what the h.e.l.l's going on.”

”I read on REFOIA that this Cladis guy's killed over ten people and that you guys said he might have super powers,” Maguire interjected. ”Is that true?”

”I'd say so,” Mia Hendricks mumbled, ”Considering what happened last week.”

Felton stopped them and asked Johnson, ”What does it hurt if we tell them?”

”If we told them they'd just try to get involved.”

”Um, excuse me sir,” Mia cut in. She showed them her damaged wrist and told him they were already involved.

Johnson apologized and told them he wouldn't say anything about it.

Sergeant Murdock let out a breath and nodded. ”Y'know, there was another reason I came to talk to you sir,” he told the chief. ”Apparently Jenna Bell has one of the crescent scars on her wrist.”

Both Felton and Johnson asked what he meant in unison.

”I happened to be down talking with some of the guys in forensics about an unrelated case,” he started.

”I'm sure you were,” Johnson sighed.

”One of the guys down there happened to notice the mark on Bell, a mark that wasn't present when she was brought in. I happened to notice that mark on a few of the victims on Sage's wall a few days before the incident with Evanston. From what I understand”

Another officer interrupted the group's discussion, ”Sir, something's wrong down in the morgue. Detective Sage's and Jenna Bell's bodies are gone.”

Johnson glowered, ”What do you mean?”

”They are missing and no one signed them out or came for them,” the officer reported.

The officer asked if Johnson wanted him to stay but the Chief only told him to leave. Johnson looked at the four of them and reluctantly told said, ”There isn't any investigation, do you understand me?” He walked over to Sage's desk, retrieved a set of keys from his pocket, unlocked a drawer in his desk, dropped the file he held in his hands on Sage's desk, and walked out of the room.

Felton grinned and stood up from his seat to instruct them. ”We're already running on a rather cold trail,” he told them, ”It's already been two days since Detective Sage and Jenna Bell were killed, which means...” he opened the file and found a piece of scratch paper with the numbers four, six, five, five, eight, two, one, and nine written on it, counted back through the list of victims to learn where they were in the pattern, and told the three of them, ”We only have six days to figure out who the next target is.”

”Alright,” Sergeant Murdock folded his arms, leaned against the door, and asked, ”What do we need to know?”

8:57 PM.