Tags: action, crime, dark fantasy, urban
Character Approval: Yes
Player Level: Advanced
New Players: Closed
Creator: joonsexual
Created: 01-17-2013, 02:38 AM
Agent Cyril Aeres (Lead), Agent Alarick Reindhart, Agent Kyle Alan Gear, Agent Skylar Quilliam
TEAM ASSIGNED: AGENT AERES
"As the Minister, it is my job to protect the citizens. Therefore, in such times, if I don't do everything I can to help my people then why do I even stay in office?"— [MINISTER HUANG]
OBJECTIVE: Locate and apprehend the culprits responsible!
LOCATION: BEIJING, CHINA; DISTRICT-BASE 5
WEATHER: CLOUDY / SUNLESS
TEMPERATURE: 10C / 50F
DATE / TIME: 7 APRIL 5614 / 0900
SETTING: When it comes to Beijing District-Base (DB) 5, there isn't much to be said. It is the poorest of the districts. The air is yellow and a thick, suffocating smog hangs overhead. The sun is rare and the rain is acidic. The roads are cracked, the rails are dirty and old, and the stores that line the main streets are packed in like sardines and depilated. It is a sad and depressing sight, but it is the norm for the citizens.
For the citizens there are cheap food stalls—$3 bowl of beef noodles. There are cinema buildings (all airing last month's picks). And there are job opportunities—something that not every BD can claim.
INTELLIGENCE: Ordinary citizens have been targeted in heinous crimes. The bodies are always found in unused warehouses, dark alleyways, or generally untraveled roads. The bodies are brutalized and all of the bones are disjointed—pulled apart from each other. Additionally, each body has been marked with an insignia (a rose in full bloom), but its meaning is unclear.
Currently, there have been a total of thirteen victims, spanning over one year.
Further intelligence reveals that the victimology is similar to several gang related deaths. Intelligence suspects that these deaths are related, which would bring the body count to a grant total of 33 over five years.
THREAT LEVEL: RANK C-1
MISC DETAILS: Please meet with the Minister when arriving.
PRESENT (0900)
@ BD-5 CITY HALL ; MINISTER'S OFFICE
Unlike the city outside, which was gray and old, the minister's office was warm and well-cared for.
"The thing is, I'm trying to avoid a panic in the city," Ming-Zhong started awkwardly; his voice gruff and his words somewhat accented. "This city doesn't need another thing to be scared of."
He was a big man—easily six-feet-four—and had scars running from his forehead to his neck. His hair was shaved at the sides, but ran long on top, pulled back by a beaten and worn-looking leather strap. "I know what you must be thinking: I'm probably a thug. I mean, I'm not even wearing a suit!" He cracked a smile, but it only made him look more threatening as it scrunched up his scars and narrowed his eyes.
"But I assure you, I am this city's minister and, as its minister, I'm asking that you help to find the culprit as soon as you can. The police will help you in any way it can and my door is always open to you guys."
Once again they were entrapped in another mission that had no viably gorgeous scenery to behold. This time it may have been even worse due to the sheer amount of people that clogged the artery-like streets of this district. The sticky-sweet smog of the poor district felt as if it formed a thick film over Alarick’s uniform, and he had a nauseating feeling that it would cling to him during this entire mission. Still- he wasn’t here to be attractive or nicely scented, but instead to find the culprit behind these murders. That did mean that Mister Grey wouldn’t have anything to do with him for about a week upon his return, but then again- when had cats been the overly affectionate type?
The Minister’s office was not what he expected, but then again neither was Minister Huang. Alarick figured reining in control over a district such as this involved some intimidation mixed in with exact politics, but he felt as if the sheer bulk of the man was a bit over the top. At least he seemed bitterly honest, and in a case like this having a man they could trust would be most invaluable.
His eyes peeled over to Agent Aeres, and he found himself near about wishing that he had kept his mouth shut during their meeting. Alarick had a feeling that he would be eating his ‘I should lead’ words very soon and without the added flavor of ketchup to be able to choke them down with ease.
“Thank you Minister Huang for your full cooperation on this matter, and we shall try to use the resources you provide us sparingly and to the point. I do believe our first order of business is maybe a trip down to the city morgue to investigate these bodies,” or at least that is what had been agreed upon before they arrived in this wonderful part of Beijing. “So who should we speak to in police force to see to that?” It was then Alarick offered a sweet smile to the man in his usual fashion. He had to say one thing- Minister Huang may have been the only other human on this planet that bore more scars than he did. And while Alarick tried to make them more subtle with his charm and fashionable aestheticism- Minister Huang wore them with pride. Maybe the Sidereus agent could take a lesson from that- they were a permanent facet of his form now.
PRESENT (0907)
@ BD-5 CITY HALL ; MINISTER'S OFFICE
The meeting was a drag, but for one reason or another, the redhead held his tongue. He even made an effort to appear mildly emphatic to the minister's laundry-list of problems.
It was strange seeing the redhead concede the floor. It was, however, stranger still when he gave it to Alarick Reindhart. And he did so without a fight.
"So, who should we speak to in the police force to see to that?"
The minister nodded at the question; his expression a mixture of agreement and understanding. "Chief Zhang. He's already expecting you." He paused. For a moment, he seemed to hesitate with his words, but the struggle was only momentary. "I hope that's alright. I have already informed the police of your involvement, Agent—?"
"Agent Reindhart," Aeres supplied quickly, unusually helpful. "I apologize for not having done introductions earlier." Without missing a beat, the redhead started with the names: Agent Aeres, Agent Gear, Agent Quiliam. "And Agent Reindhart is the lead of operations for this case."
There was nothing malicious in the words he said, but there was no lack of ill-will in the subtext. Aeres, evidently, had not forgotten about the previous meeting.
"Ah, well, nice to meet you Agent Reindhart." Without understanding the redhead's full intentions, the minister nodded to the brunette. "Would you like a car to take you to the station? I can phone for one."
Staying at the back and leaning against the wall, Skylar hoped the conversation would end soon. She was not very convinced that the scarred Chinese man was a minister. No matter how she looked at it, he seemed more like a gang leader. For a girl who had never been to China, stereotyping based on the first impression was invitable. The redhead narrowed her eyes a bit and then looked away.
When Agent Aeres introduced her briefly to the Minister, the redhead nodded at the large man as a greeting. It was strange that the red-haired man said Agent Reindhart was the one in charge. Annoyed by the awkward tension between Cyril Aeres and Alarick Reindhart, she rolled her eyes.
Gear sat back and listened to the minister and the proceeding conversation. He didn't really like this kind of mission, but he understood the reason behind it. Many graduates tend to think that the missions Agents are given are always big fights and chases like some cheesy action movie, but many of them are exactly like this- a city needs help with a case of some sort, like a string of murders, and Siderus is called to help out- very investigative and not nearly as flashy. Still, he found these types of missions rather a drag. Not much for him to do, unless he was to walk the streets invisible, looking for any suspicious people. And that was utterly boring.
It didn't really matter to him. He would follow any orders given- save those from the newly graduated Skylar. He hadn't really interacted with her much but he didn't really think it was a huge problem, seeing as techniquely Maalik was her Mentor. He was just here to observe. He would make plans to get to know her a little better though. Just for friendliness' sake.
Gear was interested in why Cyril let Alarick lead, but he didn't question it, seeing as the scarred man would probably be at Aeres level if weren't for the accident. But the fact was the in rank, Gar was still higher, not that it matters, he was never a leader, so he gladly gives the suties to someone else he if can manage it.
Gear didn't find any problem with going to see the police reports and potential suspects, btu the bodies intrigued him more.He wanted to see how they were marked and try to figure out why.
Alarick had to fight off the urge to squint his eyes at Agent Aeres in utter scrutiny. Was it bad that he was assured that the S-Ranked Agent was up to something particularly underhanded? Ah- it wasn’t like Alarick to assume that his own team was plotting against him, but then again usually unruly members continued on with their discordant activities. Then again maybe Aeres was showing the side of himself that had managed to land him so firmly above all the ‘lowly peons’ of Sidereus.
Or he was plotting something.
Or he was actually being helpful.
Or he was taking this time to rub Alarick’s face in the pile of mouth vomit the B-Agent had so freely sputtered during their meeting.
It was both to Alarick’s advantage and disadvantage that he was so intricately detail-oriented. He was particularly good at putting the pieces together, but at the same time had a tendency to get sucked into one minute detail and ruminate over it.
“Pleasure to meet you as well Minister- do not worry we shall get this handled as quickly as we can.” With that he turned towards both Agent Gear and Agent Quilliam being both silent wallflowers. Why was it he felt as if he was some talkative sheep amongst a den of silent wolves? Or maybe more so he was attempting to herd cats into a very specific area? And if his experience with Mister Grey had taught him anything it would be as frustrating as this felt right now. “A car would be most helpful. Thank you. We can wait on the curb for it.”
Alarick wondered how well these new ‘leadership powers’ would work, or if he would have to snap his fingers to get everyone to follow him as he began to leave the Minister’s office.
PRESENT (0922)
@ BD-5 CITY HALL ; MINISTER'S OFFICE
The car ride to the police station was a short one and, truth be told, the group could have easily walked to the building without any great difficulties. It was, quite literally, a straight line.
Once at the station, the team was met by a tall and imposing gentleman. Chief Zhang was nothing like Minister Huang, who greeted the team with a general air of hospitality. His words were clipped—cold and professional—and his expression reflected neither friendliness nor welcome.
He had wasted no time with introductions or offers for drinks. Once he said what he wanted, he was gone and the team was left to their own devices. To be fair, Chief Zhang had given the group a private, undisturbed work space—a medium-sized room with a clear board for brainstorming and an electronic table similar to the one at the agency. Although, unlike the obsidian machine back home, this one was clearly a much older model.
It even had the loving scratches of use to prove it.
"So, now that we're here and all set-up, what do you say we do, Captain Alarick?"
INSTRUCTIONS: You are free to move around the building! If you guys would like a map of the police station, I can arrange for that. You don't need to wait for me to change scenes with Aeres/NPC. However, please allow me to control the NPCs. I will always try to respond in a timely manner! If there are any questions, please let me know and, as always, the OOC is available for plotting out future actions.
HERE IS A MAP!
The police station seemed stale in regards to the offices he was used to at Sidereus. Yet Alarick wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth- especially when they were being so cooperative. Of course they had probably been given the eye by the Minister to be this pleasant and giving. He could only imagine what that sort of threat was like- the man was so intimidating. His digits ran over the digital display and the tips of his digits felt the smooth indentations of wear.
Yet his head snapped back, and he looked Agent Aeres straight in the center of his eyes with indignation. “Right.” He breathed heavily, “well this will teach me to keep my mouth shut and play dead during those meetings.” Alarick’s hand came to his forehead at that moment. “I say we divide the team and two of us tend to the bodies and get an eyeful of what caused their death maybe it’ll give us a direction, and then the other two head to evidence and see if they had anything curious on them at the time of death. Those are my two suggestions- I do always want to defer to your more learned opinion Agent Aeres. You are team lead- no matter how you wish to angle this.” Alarick offered a sweet smile. “I mean considering rank- I’m second lowest. Maybe we should confer with Agent Gear as well.” He paused, “but if we are all in agreement- I say lets’ get to it. Burning daylight as they say.”
PRESENT (0924)
@ BD-5 POLICE STATION ; WORK ROOM
The redhead offered a slow, languid smile in response as he made himself comfortable in one of the seats.
"Oh, but I've already been assigned to stand in the back...looking pretty." It was nearly word-for-word. "And I'm the weakest link, after all. No need to consult me.
"I'm only here to observe her." He gestured to Skylar, but kept his stare pinned onto Alarick. "There was nothing in my assignment that said I had to be lead. I was only offering to do so earlier, but, since you know better, please, show me how this is done."
If it wasn't obvious then, it was obvious now: Aeres had no intentions of making this easy on Alarick. He had no intentions of doing anything to make the task smoother. "And if we're going to split up, I'll be going with the grad. You know, mentorship and all."
Gear almost had to repress his laughter about the dealings of Aeres and Alarick. This was not going to be easy on either of them.
Skylar hadn't spoken up yet, which didn't surprise Gear. He didn't really like the idea of Aeres taking her, mainly because she didn't know what to do and Aeres didn't seem like he wanted to help. But Gear knew better than to get involved with Aeres.
"I see no problem with spliting up. Who's going where though?"
Seriously, she did not find the drama appealing at all and the idea of being grouped with Aeres was absolutely unpleasant. Mentorship and all, my arse... she sighed and did an honest facepalm, Well thanks, nanny Aeres.
The job was going to be tougher than expected.
"If you don't have any preference, can I do the evidence thing? Running around sounds better than staying with corpses to me," apparently she did not think much before speaking; her words were filled with traces of inexperience. The impatient redhead merely wanted to make things go faster.
So now Agent Aeres was just putting words in Alarick’s mouth and making sure their situation that more troubling. Yet instead of showing the exasperation upon his face, and lamenting his social woes- the Pulvis user just sucked up the antagonism brewing in his throat like some angry sea god and continued on. “Well how very professional of you,” Alarick stated with grin. It was sarcasm, but he delivered it in a sincere enough manner (maybe not the most sincere but there were limits to his patience). “Very well I shall go with Agent Gear,” another sigh would have been entered here if he wasn’t attempting to swallow down his avarice. “You and Agent Quilliam shall head to evidence. Lets’ meet back here when we have collected our data and formulate our next move- as a group.” Alarick laid that next part on a bit thick, but he figured that if he didn’t give it a heavy enough emphasis then he would have all these agents running over him like teenage children to a submissive maternal figure.
He took no hesitation in leaving the room. Immediately Alarick missed his cane, but it was far gone- ensconced in some rubble in Berlin- an accident that Agent Gear had caused in his abrasively aggressive maneuvering. Was he surrounded by idiots? Or is this what happened when you were sentenced to a few years desk work in analytics and asked to come face first back into field work.
Damn the days that he missed this.
Alarick’s abrupt exist may have been stunted by waiting on the elevator, and he would have asked about the stairs but the elevator dinged quickly enough. A few people exited the small compartment, and one girl holding a near tower of files manages to drop a few to the ground in accident. Alarick kneels to grab them and hand them back to her- his eyes attempting to scour any information from the manila organizers before he relinquishes them. He only hopes that Agent Gear is keeping the elevator for him and Agent Aeres hasn’t had time to catch up and snarl his usual unhelpful sentences. “Here you go.”
Detective Langley was, as she liked to believe, a very capable officer. She scored well on the exit exams and arrived at the department with glowing recommendations. But, unfortunately, she was new and stuck with all the menial tasks.
For today, she was supposed to review old, cold cases--cases that were twelve-years-old and collecting dust in the data rooms.
And, perhaps, because she felt a strong need to prove her abilities, she had picked up more than she should have--more than she could actually carry.
The files towered well above her, swaying precariously from side to side. And, as such, it was inevitable when a few slipped out of her grasp. The files spilled out of their folders and onto the floor, right in front of the guest-agents--SA agents.
"Here you go."
"Oh, thanks. Sorry," she mumbled, embarrassed at her own clumsiness. Without another word, she straightened up the stack in her hand and, very quickly, headed back to her desk. One day, she'll work the field. One day.
Gear did indeed hold the elevator door for his colleague and pressed the button for the morgue. Once the elevator began to move, Gear turned to Alarick and said, "I was kind of waiting for you to snap back there. Don't let Aeres get to you." That as all Gar felt needed to be said.
When the buzzer rang for the morgue, Gear quickly got out and went to the medical examiner, he gave a curt bow and introduced himself, "Hello, I am Agent Gear and this is Agent Reindhart. We are here about the serial murders."
PRESENT (0933)
@ BD-5 POLICE STATION ; MORGUE
Xiao Ling paused in her work as one of the agents spoke, giving names to their otherwise nameless selves. She waited until he had finished before walking over to an unlit table. She tapped at something unseen on the floor and, like magic, a brilliant white-light showered from above, enveloping everything in the area in bright clarity.
"This is one of the victims. The others are over there." Xiao Ling pointed at five other tables parallel to the one they were at. "The rest are in holding," she paused, examined the two agents and added, "So they don't decompose in my lab."
The body that slept before them was a man with short black hair and narrow, delicate features. He looked young--too young to be on a table in the morgue. "Identity unknown, male, seventeen"--she read off a list; her eyes scanning through the text at record speed--"time of death: eight hours ago."
She flipped through the pages, but read nothing else. Instead, she handed the file to Agent Gear. With her hands freed from the papers, Xiao Ling walked around the table and took the boy's hand. "The flower is here"--on the underside of his wrist--"the ink is a custom creation. We can't source it."
Setting the hand back onto the table, Xiao Ling waited for questions. She didn't talk about the disjointed manner of the victim's body, but it was obvious from the bruising that gathered at every point of articulation.
INFORMATION INSIDE THE FOLDER: The body was found inside of an abandoned warehouse, stuffed into a wooden trunk (the trunk is in the lab for examination). The cause of death was strangulation. There is no secondary DNA on the body, but there is a partial print--no match.
PRESENT (0933)
@ BD-5 POLICE STATION ; EVIDENCE HOLDING
With the team finally separated, Aeres headed down to evidence, which, as things turned out, was on the same floor as the morgue.
During the ride down, the redhead stayed in the back corner of the box, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked over the other two agents: Gear and Alarick. They stood on the opposite side of the eight-by-eight box--away from him.
'Well, this is interesting.'
But his thoughts were his own.
When the ride came to an eventual end, Aeres headed for the evidence room. The faster they did this, the faster they could go home.
Sitting at the table were two officers with blank faces. One of them had a mustache and the other wore dark, thick-rimmed glasses. The one with the mustache was the first to speak, "How can I help you guys?" His English was shaky and his accent smothered the words.
"We're from SA," Aeres answered, not giving Skylar a chance to jump in. "We need the evidence for cases in the 44A-X1 file."
The officer nodded as he punched in a code and, suddenly, a loud beep echoed throughout the warehouse. "You'll need to go back there. It's in the A-lot. Just follow the lights on the ground."
Without another word, Aeres headed in the direction of the lights, his steps fast. It wasn't long before he arrived at A-lot, which turned out to be a decent ten-by-ten storage unit. "Have you read the case files?"
NOTATIONS: The evidence is stored inside of the unit. The wooden trunk that is relevant to the latest victim is currently in a lab for examination. Feel free to make up evidence you would like to examine. I will post immediately after to reveal what could be learned about the object. This might be tricky, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Alarick should have been ready for what awaited them in the morgue, but he found his mouth drying out at the sight of that young form on the slab. Yet before his mind could find itself in a darker place than the one it currently inhabited he was drawn back into reality by the sound of Xiao Ling’s voice. She presented the evidence in a plainly sterile manner, and then handed the file over to Agent Gear. Alarick pressed his eyes against the features of the corpse and tried to discern anything that would lead them in one direction or another. “Is the rose mark in the same place on each victim?” He asked plainly not really wanting to go around jerking and pulling each corpse- especially during an ongoing investigation. “What about the ratio of males to females? And- was there any sign that they might have been engaged in any sexual activity before their death? I know there is only so much you can gather, but I figure I would ask- might help narrow down our leads.” He paused, “also- did each of them die the same way- by strangulation? I had read that many of them were brutalized quite nastily. And this one stuffed into a wooden box. Hm. Might need to check that out.” That last bit was him rambling under his breath. He was attempting to narrow down his ideas and funnel them out into a neat and orderly fashion. “Also- the places they are left- random? In these warehouses, dark alleys and such- or are they located to one area?”
PRESENT (0944)
@ BD-5 POLICE STATION ; MORGUE
Xiao Ling patiently waited for the agent to finish.
"The rose is always on the underside of the lefthand, by the wrist." She gestured to the other bodies lying on the unlit tables behind her. "And, no, there were no traces of any sexual activities.
"The cause of death for each victim is the same, but there are some wound inconsistencies. The medical reports"—she nodded to the folder still in Agent Gear's hands—"have a more detailed documentation of the tragedies."
Walking around the table, Xiao Ling picked up the victim's left leg and said, "There is, however, something unusual about this body. You see this?" She circled an odd tattoo printed onto the calf. "This tattoo is fresh. The victim couldn't have gotten it more than two or three weeks prior to expiring."
Unlike the rose marking, which was succinct in design and neatly branded, the tattoo was an elaborate portrait of a dragon encircling an uncolored apple. It was a beautiful piece and, even without the color, it was astonishingly mesmerizing. "I suspect the victim was planning to return later for a coloring job."
Setting the leg back onto the table, Xiao Ling picked up the last of his questions. "All of the bodies have been dumped in low-trafficked areas. I'm not familiar with the exact dumping grounds, but I'm sure the lead detective on the case, Detective Hui, will have a better answer."
Alarick eyeballed the tattoo that the corner offered him. It was rather delicately done and with much promise to finish. The lack of finalizing apparently came from the imminent death of the victim, but it held quite a bit of interest for the agent himself. “Maybe,” he stated his thoughts rather loudly before procuring his cellphone and taking a picture of the intricate tattoo. “We can locate some proliferative tattoo artists around where he was found to learn more.” It was then that the agent nodded at her words. “I shall confer with Detective Hui about the details.” Alarick nodded and smiled. “Thank you Miss Ling you have been a treasure.” He gave a curt nod and then made his way from the morgue and into the elevator. Somewhere in-between Agent Gear gave him the file to go over for more speciation on the mission.
“We are here to see Detective Hui,” Alarick remarked at the designated gray zone before the detectives. He supposed he looked nice enough. Agent Reindhart was an attractive man even if he had a swatch of scarring across his face and down his arm. Warm eyes, summery hair, and a demeanor that spoke that none of these mattered; he even managed not to walk with a limp.
At the mention of his name, Detective Ping Hui rose from his seat. Ping Hui was a short man with beady black eyes and a thick mustache that sat above his lips like a fuzzy caterpillar.
Walking over to the two agents, the brunette asked, "What do you need?"
Lip ferret. Lip ferret. Alarick attempted not to stare directly at it. He had tried facial hair at one point, but it had been an extremely manicured goatee-esque piece of art and not something that was attempting to devour his upper lip. “Yes, thank you for speaking with us Detective Hui.” He addressed him firmly. Honestly these Chinese names were not slipping from his lips perfectly but the languages in his repertoire were mainly of the Romantic family. Spanish, Deutch, some Italian, and a wee bit of Russian- just wee bit though. “On the current murder cases involving the rose tattoo victims- do you their places of death. Or more accurately their places of discovery? Also any insight you have on this mission would be much appreciated as I am quite new to this area.” He stated with a bright smile in an attempt to weasel out some information from the goodness of heart.
Ping returned the shake with decided firmness—a show of confidence.
Gesturing to a seat beside a disorganized desk, Ping started talking. "Almost all of the victims were found in low-trafficked areas." He rummaged through the files on his table, shifting through variously colored papers. "The latest victim was different though. Sailors found him on the dock. Or, well, they found a chest and then found him."
After another minute of digging, the brunette unearthed a thick, gray-file. "Ah, here we go." He flipped the cover open, revealing a police report on the very first victim. "And, kid, that's quite a question. You want to know everything about the case? The file is yours." He handed the stack to Alarick, a grim smile twitching on his face. "Truth is, we don't have much. We plotted every drop site, but they're random and there is no comfort zone.
"Whoever this is... they're doing a good job of throwing us off track. As you can see"—he waved at the files stacked high on his desk and the files piled onto every other detective's table—"even with priority cases like this, crime isn't taking it easy on us."
Inside the file, there is a location of where every victim was found. A majority of the victims were found inside abandoned warehouses that border the east-side of the city—near the docks. There have been an equal number of male and female victims. Each victim was found completely disjointed (i.e. they had their joints separated from their sockets). There is a short list of suspects.
“Yes there was mention of this crate,” Alarick mused somewhat under his breath. The oddity of this murder in the case made him wonder if something hadn’t gone wrong in their usual string of- well- murders. It was near about painfully confusing, but he figured whatever Agent Aeres and Agent Quilliam discovered might draw some lines. There were the rose tattoos, the odd tattoo on the boy, this crate, the way that they were discovered- pulled apart, and the fact that there was no rhyme or reason to the choosing said victims. So- where did that leave them? In Bat-Shit-Crazy Land.
His eyes skimmed over the list of suspects, and sighed as he knew nothing about them or how they were even connected to do this crime. “There any way to learn more about these suspects? For instance why they are implicated on these crimes.” He sighed, “seems like a lot of footwork for one person. Weird footwork.” He eyed the sheer amount of paperwork the detective’s desk and frowned. There was a lot to do obviously. “I can use the desktop in our planning room for that- unless you have anything particular to add. I might be back to bother you- but I don’t want to be in your hair too much- you obviously have a lot to do.”
"We have the interrogations archived. You can access those tapes through Janus"—he paused before quickly explaining—"Janus is our system AI."
Scratching underneath his chin, Ping allowed himself a loud sigh. "Agent, we're not as funded or well-manned as SA. We have a lot of crime and we don't have nearly enough officers." There was bitterness in his words. "The suspect files are also stored on Janus. It's—"
"Actually, the entire case is now linked onto Janus," a freckle-faced man spoke up from the next desk. He had thick black hair and doe-like eyes that seemed even bigger behind his circular lenses. "Langley uploaded everything yesterday."
Janus is a lot like Jarvis from Ironman. You can access Janus when you turn on the interface inside the work room.
REQUEST: Please don't ask Janus to do a shit-ton of things at once. It's hard for me to write posts where I have to answer to ten-different conversation prompts. It's also very boring.
“Well thank you Detective Ping,” Alarick stated warmly and put the file neatly underneath his arm. Honestly he wanted as much information he could have and having a paper and electronic copy could come in handy. This presented multiple sources to draw information from at the same time, and if he got tired of technology he had good ole fashioned typed words to make him happy. Either way- this case wasn’t going to be fun on his psyche.
Leaving the pit of detectives he headed back to the small room that as their ‘home base’. He sat the case down on the desk and loaded the desktop. By this time he didn’t know what Agent Gear was up too, but just that he wasn’t following Agent Reindhart like a lost puppy. That suited the man as did the lack of Agent Aeres.
“Janus,” he stated firmly- not really knowing what to expect. “Are the labs back on that crate?” He figured he would start in the glaring oddity in this case, and then work to suspects. This was going to be a tedious process.
"Good morning, Agent Reindhart."
A voice with an American accent filled the room as the tabletop glowed blue in activation. There was no face to Janus, but there was a voice.
"I'm assuming that you are referring to the chest from File 44A-X1." There was a pause, presumably to allow the intelligence to locate the necessary files. After a moment, Janus spoke again, "Yes, the reports have been filed. What would you like to know?"
“Morning,” he stated somewhat sterilely to the computer. The said chunk of electronics then corrected him and defined his search for him. Thank goodness for artificial intelligence. “Yes I am- thank you.” Alarick knew he didn’t have to be polite to the computer, but it didn’t hurt anything. “Yes I would.” That was welcome news to learn that the information on the crate would be back- maybe that would help some loose ends on this out-of-place murder. Or maybe it might make things more confusing.
Who knew really.
"Let's see. Give me what the lab discovered. Material, make, any manufacturer information, and if the lab found any peculiarities in it." So he pretty much asked for the entire report, but he didn't want to be vague in this- all his bases needed to be covered. Of course all the poor computer would have to do was flash him the lab report. Or talk about the lab report. Whatever talking computers did.
"The chest appears to be antique-craft—oak, handmade. Late twentieth century." There was a pause before Janus spoke up again. "I wasn't able to source the item, but I did come across this listing."
Without waiting for a green-light from the agent, the intelligence brought up its discovery. The table's surface grew dim and, at the location closest to Alarick, revealed an identification card. Pictured in the corner of the card was a woman with plain brown hair, dark eyes, and a small mouth.
"Her name is Zhang Chun-Hua, twenty-four, and currently living in District-Base 5. Six years ago, she put up an ad for a chest similar to ours. The ad was claimed by an anonymous user by the handle of SweetAutumn020277.cn. There is no further information concerning the buyer. I do believe the data has been erased."
As Janus spoke, the identification card magnified for Alarick's reading ease. "I have also drafted directions to her most current housing. Would you like me to send them to your devices?"
Gear walked into the room a little after Alarick, who was rushing around so much that the Tenebrae user thought the scarred man was gonna keel over soon. He obviously wasn't paying attention to Gear, who at one point left and got them both cofee from the break room. He walked over to Alarick and handed him a To-Go cup with the dark liquid inside. "Figured you'd need this" he said as Janus mentioned the box.
"A three thousand year old box used in a murder. Well we can check off anyone who isn't rich from our suspect list. Janus, what was the asking price for the box?"
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