“In other news, a wave of mysterious deaths has popped up in sector 3 of the first level.”
The broadcast of the morning news could be heard coming from the nearby APC that had its door opened. The voices echoed off the grimy dark walls of an alleyway behind a large middle-class apartment building.
Unlike many other alleyways that Arron constantly found himself in, this one was actually properly lit up, allowing him and anyone else that walked down the paved pathway to see the dirt, grease, and grime that had been gathering since the buildings were first built.
Failing to find what he was looking for, Arron finished his search of the surrounding area and walked over to Kix who was crouched down next to a dead body, looking at several holographic screens of flowing data.
“Find anything useful?” asked Arron.
Kix finished skimming through the data that had been gathered by the investigation drones before answering.
“Nothing. The body is too clean. He has no belongings or other identifying items on his body other than his NerViz implant,” said Kix while he stood up.
“Tooth? Lexa? Is there anything you can piece together from this?” asked Arron.
Lexa’s face appeared on both Arron and Kix’s helmet visors in the upper right corner as she joined the call.
“The dead man was no one special. Just a local factory worker. He had no criminal record or any sign that he was related to any known gangs or separatists,” said Lexa.
“Any connections to the other victims?” asked Kix.
“None, they live in different zones and have never met before. Each of the other victims’ ages varies widely from young teens to people with an age of 90+ years, both male and female. The serial killer seems to just be killing random people.”
“You’d think with all the crime that happens on the first level, they would make sure that the surveillance was kept up to date and properly maintained,” said Arron as he looked at the local dented black surveillance pillar that was out of order due to disrepair or worse, malicious tampering.
Kix rolled his eyes hearing this.
“Come on, you know how things are. Plus rumors are circulating that one of the local party members has a lover who lives nearby. They probably did something to the system to make sure they were not watched. It’s either that or they took the credits and used them for their own pleasure. Things will be easier to take care of when the new modernization and beautification of every sector on level one starts. But right now they are focused on sector 12,” said Kix.
“So if we want any more information on this we have to do this the old way? Lexa, we’ll let you get back to investigating the other cases while we check with the local population to see if they have any rumors or tips they can tell us,” said Arron ending the call.
Arron and Kix turned to the distant holo-tape that had blocked the entrance of the alleyway. There were several hundred blank-faced civilians who were passing by the crime scene paying it no attention as they had places to be. They could not be bothered to care about or waste their time on some nobody that had been murdered.
Arron’s wandering gaze found three maybe four high school-aged teens in the crowd who were not moving along with the flow of the crowd and were staring at the blocked-off crime scene.
“Kix, look,” said Arron using the helmet’s secure coms to point out the teens.
They both slowly walked to the entrance of the alleyway not looking at the teens until they were close enough.
When Arron and Kix passed the holo-tape and took a few steps toward the teens, they were startled out of their dazed staring and turned to flee into the crowd.
“Halt!” Ordered Kix through his helmet’s speakers.
The crowd of busy people standing on the moving sidewalk did not want to be tangled up in whatever was going on so they moved to the side allowing Kix and Arron to chase after the escaping teens.
Arron and Kix pounced forward, each tackling one of the teens. Unfortunately, the other two managed to escape into the crowd, and since they did not have any drone support or permission to access the local surveillance system, which was a new policy that had been put in place after the fiasco that was the Synmi case.
The two teens that had been caught were pulled up into a sitting position next to each other.
One was a boy and the other was a girl who was shivering from fright. The crowd of morning travelers continued on as they had before making sure to keep a large distance between themselves and two M1 officers.
“What are you guys doing here? Shouldn’t you be in school?” asked Kix.
“We didn’t do nothing!” shouted the frightened boy.
“I.. bu.. w…”
The girl continued to stutter so badly that she could not get even one word out.
“Calm down, we just want to ask you a few questions since you seemed interested in the crime scene. I’m sure by now that you have heard the news about the many new deaths in sector 3?” said Arron slowly, trying to not sound intimidating.
At the mention of the deaths, the girl stopped trying to say anything and started to shiver uncontrollably, looking like she was having a seizure.
Kix pulled out a small metal tube from his work belt and uncapped it before waving it under the girl’s nose several times.
The girl’s convulsing limbs and shaking body calmed down almost immediately. Kix looked at the boy and found he was fine so he placed the cap back on the tube and inserted it back into the slot on his belt.
The young girl may have calmed down but her eyes were still filled with terror as they flickered back and forth searching for some invisible horror.
The unusual actions caught both Arron and Kix’s full attention.
“Tooth you got any detailed info on these two?” asked Arron, as he sent their basic NerViz information to Toothbrush.
“Give me a minute to check,” said Tooth as his face popped up onto their visors.
Kix crouched down next to the boy who was staring at the ground.
“What do you know about that old man over there?” asked Kix.
“We don’t want any trouble,” was all the boy said.
No matter what Kix asked, this was the only reply he received so he turned to the now calmed down girl.
“We don’t want any trouble…” said the frightened girl.
Kix sighed, ready to give up, but the girl continued to speak after the long pause. Her terror-filled eyes stared deep into Arron’s own eyes making him feel uncomfortable.
“…we don’t want to die! Leave us alone! We don’t want any trouble. Why won’t you let us live in peace!”
With that outburst both the boy and girl became mute and stopped talking. The only way to get information out of them now was to let the Office of Reason agents have a chat with them.
Just as Arron and Kix were at a loss of what to do, Tooth spoke, “They’re clean. No criminal history or connections with the suspects. Probably just some teens that let curiosity get a hold of them.”
With that said Arron and Kix could not hold the teens any longer as they were not Office of Reason agents that randomly grabbed people off the streets for chats.
If the Office of Reason wanted to question the two teens they would only need to gather the information from their report on this matter.
Kix shook his head as he watched the two teens scurry off like frightened rabbits into the large crowd where they blended in and could not be seen anymore.
Arron and Kix spent the rest of the day patrolling the area and asking everyone they passed if they had any information on the recent murder or any of the other growing number of murders.
Many of the people coldly brushed them off, angry at being stopped when they were busy.
There were a few cases where upon seeing Kix and Arron the people turned around and escaped into the crowd before they could be asked questions.
“Probably the local street gang hoodlums,” said Kix, not paying any attention to them.
“Makes sense they wouldn’t want to be caught committing crimes,” said Arron.
They spent the rest of the day on their unfruitful questioning gaining nothing for all the effort they put in.
Just as Arron and Kix had returned to the M1 HQ they received a priority call from Lexa.
“ERF unit 3 has been picked to participate in a raid on a [Den of evil people]. You are to go and meet with the other unit members at the M1 officer barracks.”
“What? We just got done with 9 hours of patrolling! We’re already on a major case right now,” said Kix, unhappy with the news.
“Orders from the Chief. Your case will be transferred to someone else, so don’t worry about that. The raid won’t be happening for another 8 hours so you have time to freshen up, eat, and get a few hours of rest before the raid,” said Lexa before ending the call.
