NINE
(01/04/320 1730 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper was finishing up his sandwich when his, Gloria’s and Seraphina’s coms sounded simultaneously. The Rapitaur flipped hers out with a smile. “I think someone thinks talking to us is a bit important.” She activated it and put it on speaker. “Sergeant Seraphina Cooper here.” She said the last name with obvious pride. “Lt. Gloria and Corporal William are with me too, so stop calling them.”
Millie laughed and the other two coms stopped ringing. “I’m on it, sergeant. Data has been downloaded to you. There’s been another killing that you need to look at.”
Cooper leaned forward. “Is it inside a private residence this time?”
“That’s right, corporal.” Millie’s surprise at William’s question sounded in her voice. “How did you know that?”
“Just a hunch, Millie. Let whoever needs to know that we’re on the way.”
Cooper reached for his lunch but Gloria beat him to it, sweeping everything into one pile that she scooped up. “I’ve got it.” She dumped it into the trash and met the two of them at the bikes. “Brownie, you know where we’re going so lead the way.” She got onto her bike and followed the Rapitaur with Cooper pedaling along beside her. “Coop, does you guessing right where the body was found go along with your theory?”
“It does,” William said grimly. “And it means that this body may well be mutilated to a degree we haven’t seen yet.”
Seraphina led them to a nicely apportioned block of flats. A large number of uniformed police were in evidence. Two of them were guarding the door to the building while others kept the growing crowd of civilians and reporters behind a line of police tape. A few were busy interviewing a handful of people who were probably tenants of the flats.
She started to flash her badge to one of the uniforms, doing crowd control but the Minotaura was already lifting the tape. “Like I don’t recognize you, Sera. These two with you?”
Seraphina grinned hugely. “Tish, what are you doing in Tower Hamlets?”
“My tamer got booted from the Blackguards for being absent without leave and got us transferred to the Met. We ended up here.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of a stocky man going prematurely bald who was busy shoving a cameraman away from the line. “Jeremy is over there while Mags and Punch are down the street someplace.”
“Well, this is my new tamer, Corporal William Cooper and his alpha, Lieutenant Gloria. You remember Glory.”
Tish blinked at the Enchantress. “Glory? You’re in the same harem as Sera? How on earth did that happen?”
Gloria shrugged. “Coop got drunk and Sera took advantage of him.” She continued hastily as William’s eyebrows shot up. “I might have helped her, but the whole night was pretty fuzzy.”
“Now that’s a story I’d like to hear,” laughed Trish. “I’ll even buy the drinks for that one.”
Cooper’s patience ran out. “Can we pass, corporal?”
“Uh, yes sir.” Tish hastily got out of the way. She dug into a pocket and handed Seraphina a card. “Call me,” she whispered loudly.
“Count on it.”
The crime scene was on the fifth floor and there was no elevator, so they hiked up the stairs. As they rounded the landing on the third, Cooper’s curiosity finally prompted him to ask the question he’d been mulling since the encounter with Trish. “Is everyone in the Met besides me a former Blackguard?”
Seraphina exchanged a look with Gloria. “You want to take this?”
“You know Tish and Mags better than I do. You do it.”
“No, we’re about it. William, Jeremy was going to wash out of the Blackguards. It was just a matter of time when. Everyone hoped it would be quick and he wouldn’t get anyone killed when he did. Getting booted for AWL is probably the best thing that could have happened to everyone involved. It was severe enough to get him out the Blackguards but not enough to deprive the BLSF of Mags, Punch and Tish, all of whom are exemplary soldiers.”
“That’s good to know.” Cooper stopped when they reached the fifth floor and made a face at the rank odor permeating the air. “You two may regret eating lunch today. That smell is old death.”
Seraphina sniffed the air and turned slightly green. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Mother loved to drag me to this sort of thing. She said it would make me tough.” He fished a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it the Rapitaur. “Fold this up, put it over your nose and breathe shallowly. It’ll help.”
The uniformed officer stationed at the door of the flat recognized Gloria and held up his hand in warning. “You’ll want to put on the booties for this one along with the gloves. They’re on a table to the left as you go in.”
The stench of old blood was a thick coppery taste in the back of Cooper’s mouth as they entered the room. Spatters of dried blood, gleaming black and brown in the sunlight streaming inside through the windows, covered the floor, walls, furnishings and parts of the ceiling. The kitchen table had been dragged into the middle of the open space made by pushing everything else against the walls and the body had been laid on it.
Detective Lorenzo McCain looked a little silly as he stood there with his bright blue booties gleaming beneath his brown suit. “Welcome to the party, you three. Deb’s outside somewhere.” He rolled his shoulders in a vast shrug. “She couldn’t stop throwing up and sneezing so she left. Laney thought it was the fungus growing inside the corpse’s torso.”
Seraphina looked around. “Where is Laney?”
“A Rhynodame nutted during a pokegirl battle and killed two bystanders. Laney had to go investigate so she can be legally put down. She filled me in before she left.”
Gloria eyed the body on the table. “Tell us about it.”
McCain activated his tablet. “Hillary Lickario was a civil service pokegirl who worked for the Ministry of Health and provided security for the teams traveling around auditing hospitals in Blue. She was home on leave,” he made a face, “I mean vacation, and has been spending her time visiting friends and sparring. According to what we know, she was last seen December the 31st leaving a party to go to another one. One of her neighbors had been complaining about the smell for the last two days and this afternoon a maintenance pokegirl came in to remove all the trash and discovered the body.” He looked up. “Apparently Hillary’s left trash in her apartment before when she went on assignment and maintenance has cleaned up for her before. They bill her for the service.” He changed screens. “Laney said that Hillary died within a few hours of leaving the party. Death was from a single cut across her throat and the test for paraspray was inconclusive because so much time has passed since her death.” He looked up to see Cooper shining a flashlight into cavity in the body. “You are creepy, you know that?” He went back to reading. “Her abdomen and chest were emptied and the organs are missing. Uniformed officers are searching the area around the building to see if the organs weren’t dumped someplace.”
Cooper glanced up. “Where’s the nose?”
“In the sink along with the missing cheek and one breast. This poor girl got sliced up bad.”
“Was it all done postmortem?”
Seraphina blinked. “She could have been chopped up while still alive?”
Cooper nodded. “If she was parasprayed like the others anything could have been done to her and there’s nothing she could have done to stop it. In some circles vivisection was and still is a popular way to study poorly understood portions of various pokegirl breed’s metabolisms.” Seraphina shuddered. “The program uses abandoned and confiscated pokegirls. Healing these girls over and over while the studies continued is how the evolutionary trigger for the Penance was discovered since a lot of them were abused beforehand.”
Lorenzo was looking through the notes on his tablet. “Laney didn’t say anything had been done to the victim antemortem.”
“She’ll find out for sure during the autopsy.” Cooper shined the light around over the ceiling and walls. “This place is going to be a forensic nightmare.”
“That’s right, William.” Seraphina was looking intently around the room. “Every blood drop will have to be tested just in case it was left by the killer. There are man months of work in here.”
“Yeah.” Cooper put the flashlight away and pulled out his tablet. “Want me to video the scene again, Gloria?”
“Yes, Coop.” Gloria rubbed her forehead with her arm, carefully avoiding touching her skin with the outside of her gloves. “How does this scene compare to the fifth Whitechapel victim?” McCain’s eyes lit up and he drifted closer.
Cooper looked up from accessing his tablet’s camera function. “The fifth victim was Mary Jane Kelly. Her throat was slit to the spine so hard that it cut the vertebrae.” He began filming the body as he continued speaking. “Her abdomen had been emptied and the organs arranged around the body along with the breasts, which had been cut off. Like Hillary, the face was slashed up along with her arms.” He began moving slowly around the room as he videoed. “The blood spatter here is a lot more than I remember from any of the reports of Kelly’s murder, however, which is significantly different. Kelly’s thighs were also stripped of skin and that is something that hasn’t happened here.”
Gloria was listening intently. “It sounds like the killer is beginning to develop his own signature and replacing parts of the Whitechapel signature with it.”
“It does, doesn’t it,” William muttered. “Which is, of course, not a good thing to consider since once the killer goes off script the historical killings become meaningless. Not that they’ve been a lot of help in catching our killer up to this point anyway.”
“You have to work to get that much blood on a ceiling in real life,” Seraphina was staring intently upwards. “This looks like something from a Zombabe horror vid.” She shook her head. “I had to help deal with a small infestation of Zombabes once. They’re not really like this. They tend to pull their food to the ground and eat it there. What’s terrifying about them is that no matter what you do to them they just keep coming until you destroy the head.”
Lorenzo started in surprise. “Where on earth did you fight Zombabes?”
Seraphina looked at Lorenzo and suddenly looked like she regretted opening her mouth. “It’s classified. Forget I said anything.”
“You’re kidding right? I can’t forget that. Spill, sergeant.”
“No.”
“I outrank you. Call it an order.”
Cooper was intensely curious about what had happened too but he wasn’t going to let someone else order his pokegirl around, especially not involving something so potentially dangerous. “She asked you to drop it, Lorenzo. Now I’m telling you to leave this alone and I’m giving Seraphina a direct order not to discuss this subject any further. You can pull rank on me and I’ll still tell you to sod off. It’s an illegal order since you have no need to know. You’re not going to get her to violate her oaths to the league. I’m recording everything and she could get confiscated for that.”
Seraphina shot him a look of profound relief. “Thank you, William.”
Lorenzo glared at Cooper. “You’re a dick, you know that?”
“I’m not going to lose a pokegirl to your curiosity. It doesn’t make me a dick, it makes me smart and caring towards my harem.”
“I don’t like having my curiosity frustrated, Cooper.”
William sighed and stopped filming. “Then buy Seraphina from me.” The Rapitaur froze, her eyes wide in shock. Cooper ignored her. “But I doubt you have enough money to make it worth my selling her.”
Lorenzo scowled. “I might have more money than you think, Cooper.”
“You could be right. Have you killed a Widow recently?”
The human laughed. “Of course I haven’t.”
“You might want to before you try to buy Seraphina.”
“Now that is you being a dick.”
“Yeah, it is,” Cooper agreed cheerfully. “She’s not for sale and you can’t challenge me for her. I guess you’ll just have to kill me, but then Gloria isn’t going to let you do that. I doubt Seraphina will stand by for it either.”
Seraphina let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding until she relaxed. “Don’t frighten me like that!”
Cooper gave her an appraising look. “Then perhaps you need to get to work, sergeant, and stop standing around.”
***
(01/06/320 1145 London, Blue Continent)
Seraphina looked up when the elevator opened. She frowned and then tossed a crumpled piece of paper at Cooper’s desk. When she had his attention, she jerked her head towards the two people disappearing into Major Neff’s office. “Did you see who just came in?”
Cooper had been reading his tablet when the paper wad hit his desk. He pursed his lips and didn’t say the first thing that came to mind. “No. Why?”
“It’s a couple of matching suits that scream government flunky.”
“You are aware that we are government flunkies, right?”
“No, we’re BLSF. They’re government.”
Cooper started to respond when Maggie appeared in the doorway, closing the door behind her. “Cooper, you and your girls get in here.” Her tone brooked no dissent.
He put the tablet down and stood. “Go get Gloria, quickly.”
Seraphina popped to her feet. “I’m on it.” She didn’t run but moved faster than a human could towards the stairwell and disappeared down the stairs.
Maggie was still standing in the doorway so he stopped in front of it. The Gun Bunny nodded towards the stairwell. “Where’d she go?”
“Gloria’s in the basement and I sent Seraphina to get her.”
“Why is Glory down there?”
“There’s a lot of pre-Revenge War records and evidence in the basement archives and she’s using some kind of locator spell to see if there’s any evidence from the Whitechapel murders. I discovered that this building has been in use by the Whitechapel division continuously since -192 AS. The investigation was run from here and she hopes that she can find something useful.”
“I take it since you’re not down there with her that you don’t agree.” It wasn’t a question.
“I think I have better things to do with my time than crawl around rotting boxes of rubbish following Gloria around watching her use a spell that I can’t employ. I know that evidence gets lost, stolen and that the original murders were sensationalized by the press so a policeman who sold some evidence could make a nice little bit of money. It happened then and it happens today.” He shrugged. “If her hunch is right and she returns with evidence from the Whitechapel murders I’ll admit I was wrong and I’ll congratulate her for whatever she finds. If she’s wrong I won’t rub her face in it and we’ll try something else while we wait for the coroner’s inquest on Hillary.”
“So she won’t be long?”
“I told her to fetch Gloria. She will.” He knew that Seraphina would carry Gloria up the stairs if she tried to argue the point. “Should I wait out here until they return?”
“Let’s get a cup of tea while we wait.” Maggie headed for the tiny break room. Cooper followed and she poured both of them cups of tea from the pot. She carefully handed him one of them. “You saw the visitors come in?”
“No, but Seraphina did. She said they were civilian government employees.”
“She’s right. They’re from the Ministry of Defense and they want to talk to you and your harem.” Maggie sipped at her cup. “They won’t tell us why they’re here beforehand, either. Can you think why they’d be here?”
He thought about the question and then shrugged. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“Could this involve your parents somehow?”
“Captain, I haven’t spoken to my family since I went to boot and I have no intention of speaking to them now. Why would you think they could be involved?”
Her ears flicked. “Those two are from some medical research facility and your parents are involved in medicine.”
Cooper frowned and then shook his head. “My mother has a long reach but as far as I know it doesn’t extend to the Ministry of Defense. She likes being in control and she’s not important enough for the Ministry to do what she tells them to.”
“What about your father?”
“My father is focused on two things. He wants to keep my mother happy and he wants to practice medicine. Even though his position is mostly administrative, he has assembled a competent staff to handle most of the paperwork. That lets him keep hands on as much as he wants. He hates research, though. Also he’s not that fond of the English and because he doesn’t like them, mother doesn’t like them either. As for my sisters, most of them have tamers who keep them around mother. She wants to keep her children close.”
Maggie gave him a curious look. “How did your mother feel about you joining the BLSF?”
“She had my medical career all planned out.” His eyes went distant as he remembered his last time home. It was the day she found out he had other plans for how his life was supposed to unfold. “Let’s just say she and Father weren’t happy at my life choices and leave it at that.”
The door to the stairs opened and Gloria emerged, closely followed by Seraphina. The Enchantress was tugging on her white blouse, straightening out the wrinkled patches where her harem sister had held her while racing up the stairs after Gloria had ordered her to. The two pokegirls joined Cooper and Maggie. “What’s going on,” Gloria asked.
“There are two people from a Ministry of Defense laboratory who want to talk to all three of us for some reason,” Cooper said softly. “That’s all I know.”
Maggie snorted. “That’s because that’s all I know. They wouldn’t say why they were here until you three were all there. So, people, let’s go.”
The two women waiting in Neff’s office were both wearing the conservative suits that were currently the fashion in Blue government circles. The first woman was a curvy with green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. She looked almost completely human except for the tiny horns peeking through her bangs. Her companion was more slender with light blue skin, brown eyes and brunette hair in a tight bob. She carried a briefcase
Neff gave Cooper a sour look. “Sit, Bill.” He shifted to the redhead. “That’s Cooper. Those are his harem girls. Now tell me what’s going on.”
The redhead took out a government ID. “Corporal Cooper, I’m Sharon Chandler and my partner is Anita Poe.” As she spoke, Poe opened the briefcase and pulled out a sheet of paper that she handed to Chandler. “We work in the Ministry of Defense and we want to know where this came from.” She held out the paper.
Cooper took it and frowned as he looked it over. It was a chemical assay printout of some kind. “I don’t know. I don’t remember seeing it before. What is this about?”
Chandler’s mouth turned down in a frown that showed a hint of teeth. “You submitted this for testing against the MoD database.”
Seraphina tugged it out of his hands. “I know what this is. It’s the strange chemical we found in Bianca’s blood samples around her body.”
Poe closed up the briefcase but didn’t latch it. “Who is Bianca?”
“She’s the victim in an attempted murder,” Cooper answered while still looking at the printout in Seraphina’s hand. “We’ve got a serial killer who has been recreating parts of the Whitechapel murders.”
Chandler folded her arms. “I want everything you have on this Bianca.”
Neff leaned back in his chair. “And I want to know what the hell is going on here. So, how about we do a trade of information?”
Poe looked like she’d bitten into a lemon. “It’s classified and you have no need to know.”
“We all work for the same government and even in the same ministry,” Neff retorted. “And if this is something that involves our serial killer we damned well have a need to know.”
Poe’s sneer would have done justice to a queen. “We’re not authorized to read you in.”
Cooper’s eyebrows shot up. “If you had the authority to order us to give you everything we have on Bianca you’d have already used it. Since you don’t, you either came to us with the clearance to read us into what’s going on or you’re both idiots. I don’t think it’s the latter, so you must be lying in the hopes we’ll just give in.”
“He’s right.” Gloria smiled mirthlessly at first Chandler and then Poe. “If you’ll help us, we’ll give you the information we have. If you don’t, you’ll get nothing.”
Poe and Chandler exchanged a look. “Make the call,” the redhead said. She turned back to the policemen as Poe pulled out a com and pressed a button on it. “We are authorized to release what we have, but final authorization has to come from our supervisor first.”
Cooper looked at Neff, who nodded. “Seraphina, get the information we have on Bianca.”
“I’ll be right back, William.” The Rapitaur slipped out the door as Poe whispered into her com. She was back a minute later with her tablet. “I’ll print them a hardcopy before they leave.”
Poe put her com away. “We’ve got permission, Sharon.”
Chandler squared her shoulders. “I’ll start by informing you five that this is classified and nothing I say here today is to leave this room. Both the Defense of the League Act and the Official Secrets Act will be used to prosecute any leaks.” She waited a few seconds for the threat to sink in before continuing. “Project 18-122 is a research and development program with the goal of allowing military personnel to continue functioning even after incurring incapacitating injuries. The project was broken up into several approaches to the problem. One of them, 18-122-3, appears to be promising and is just about ready to move into usage trials on humans and pokegirls.” She gestured at the printout Seraphina still held. “So since it is not available outside of the lab, the question becomes how is it that 18-122-3 was found in blood samples from your assault victim?”
Poe removed a sealed file folder from her briefcase. “This is a report on 18-122-3. Corporal Cooper, you’ll have to sign for acceptance and you will be responsible if anything happens to this information.” She handed him the file. “The receipt form is on the front of the folder.”
Maggie reached over and took the folder after he signed the receipt and gave it to Poe. “Major Neff needs to see this first. We’ll return it to you when he’s done, corporal. Now give them everything you have on Bianca.” She tossed the file on Neff’s desk.
Cooper eyed her and then gave a mental sigh that he was careful not to let sound in his voice. “Yes, major. Gloria, brief them.”
***
(01/06/320 1650 London, Blue Continent)
Seraphina looked up from the file on 18-122-3 with a thoughtful frown. “Glory, is it possible for the killer to use this forensic countermeasure spell you were speculating about to make his blood turn into his victim’s if it is spilled?”
Gloria frowned. “I suppose so,” she said slowly, “but that would be a monster of a spell to design. It includes elements of transmutation in the changing of one DNA profile into another, divination in that you don’t know what that profile is and without it changing blood into blood would fail and possibly a touch of necromancy since you could be manipulating life energy in modifying mitochondrial DNA. It would take me a month or more to make a spell like that. Casting it would require a fairly advanced magical ability, too. Witches and lower tier magic pokegirls wouldn’t be able to research a spell like that, much less make it work successfully.”
Cooper shook his head. "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.”
Seraphina gave him a blank look. “Gesundheit.” Gloria laughed and Cooper smiled. Seraphina shrugged. “Since I’m pretty sure you’re not speaking in tongues, what does that mean?”
“It’s Latin. Translated it is ‘Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity’.”
The Rapitaur frowned. “It doesn’t make any more sense in English.”
“It’s the original quote for Occam’s Razor.” Cooper snorted. “Although, truth be told, the quote never actually appears in the works of William of Occam. It means that you should always go with the simplest explanation first and work outward towards the complex ones.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Instead of trying to postulate this extraordinarily difficult spell to explain what’s going on, start with the idea that it’s Bianca’s blood and then try to decide why this experimental compound would be found there. What’s the simplest reason for that?”
“That’s easy. She was injected with it,” Gloria answered instantly.
“Then why is it only found in the blood samples around the victim and not in any blood sample in her body?”
Gloria frowned. “I don’t know.”
“Wait a minute.” Seraphina flipped through the file. “Although it’s going to pokegirl and human trials, this stuff isn’t ready for use yet. One of the drawbacks is that it is metabolized in minutes and the effect wears off. It could be that the compound doesn’t dissipate when in blood that’s outside the body. That could account for finding it where we did.”
Cooper hadn’t had the chance to look at the file yet since his two pokegirls had been hogging it ever since Maggie had given it back to them. Since they both knew more than he did about law enforcement and detective work he wasn’t upset. He knew he’d get a chance to look at it later. Still, now they were bringing up something he didn’t know. “What is the effect?”
Seraphina flipped back to the front of the file and read out loud from the project summary. “‘18-122-3 prevents the reuptake of potassium ions in pain related nerve cells. It means that when someone with 18-122-3 is injured, there’s a single flash of pain and then nothing more. This allows the user to continue operating despite receiving crippling injuries until the body is physically no longer able to function due to excessive damage. 18-122-3 does not dull the senses or mind like common pain control drugs do so the user can function at full capacity while using it.’”
Gloria ran fingers through her white hair. “That doesn’t make sense. Why inject Bianca with this and then use paraspray on her?”
“It could be that the killer didn’t want her to suffer,” Seraphina said musingly.
“If that’s the reason,” Cooper said, “then we’ll find it in the blood samples from the other victims.”
“Unless Bianca is special to the killer somehow,” Gloria replied. “If that’s the case then there won’t be any of 18-122-3 at the other scenes and we may just have a link to identifying him.”
Cooper pushed his chair back from his desk. “I’ll talk to the major about authorizing expedited processing of the blood spatter samples at the other scenes. He should sign off on it once I explain what’s going on.”
“Should we reinterview Bianca?”
Cooper pursed his lips. “No,” he finally decided. “Unless Gloria thinks I’m making a mistake I don’t think we’re ready to talk to her again until after we get the results from the other crime scenes.”
The Enchantress shrugged. “We don’t really have anything new to ask her unless we determine she might be a special case, so I agree with your evaluation. We wait.”
***
(01/10/320 0950 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper’s com shrilled and he pulled it from his belt. A glance around him showed that neither Gloria’s nor Seraphina’s coms were ringing. A quick look showed he didn’t recognize the number. “Cooper.”
A strongly accented female voice sounded in his ear. “Corporal Cooper, I am sorry to disturb you but it has been over two weeks and I have not heard from you. Does this mean that you have lost interest in me?”
Cooper frowned and tried to identify the voice. Maybe she had the wrong Corporal Cooper. “This is Detective Corporal William Cooper. Do I know you, miss?”
“This is Dechen.” Her voice held more than a hint of sadness. “I see you have and I shall not bother you again.”
He spoke quickly. “Dechen, I couldn’t contact you. I don’t have a number to reach you at or an address for where you are staying. You had to contact me.” It was true enough, but he could have probably have gone to Penny for the information. Still, she’d said she would call him and hadn’t.
The silence on the other end of the connection was profound. “I have been foolish,” she said bitterly, “and squandered my chance of a good impression. Goodbye, corporal.” The line died.
Cooper glared at the com in his hand. “Bloody hell.” Gloria and Seraphina’s heads jerked up and they watched curiously as he pulled up the number Dechen had called him from and activated the com.
“Hello?” Dechen’s voice was cautious.
“Don’t you think you should at least give me the chance to decide I don’t like you,” he asked acidly. He continued before she could respond. “Well, I do and I think I am going to insist you give me that opportunity before throwing yourself on your sword.”
“Why would you be interested in me?”
“You were at the meeting where Penny introduced us. She’s my patron and if she feels that you’d be good for my,” he stopped himself before saying the word career, “me and my harem, then I feel that I owe it to you to give you the opportunity to see if we can work out a relationship.” He waited several seconds but the line was dead quiet. “Or would you rather prefer to be pokeballed, put in storage and eventually given to some stranger in boot camp where your first meeting will be where he tames you?”
“I would not prefer that,” she said softly.
“Look, I know what you really want but I can’t give you back your humanity. I can and will remember that you thresholded late and that you miss what you once were. I will help you to deal with the changes and I’ll do my best to make sure that if you stay you can make a place with us where you will someday be happy. If I can’t help you to deal with the psychological issues from becoming an Officerjenny, then I will find someone who can.” He dropped his voice conspiratorially. “I am not Penny and I understand better than she can how traumatic your change was. I know she’s giving you to me and I don’t want you to feel that is the only reason I’d accept you into my harem.”
“Isn’t it?” The bitterness was back.
“I will admit that it is the reason I’m talking to you right now, but not even Penny’s patronage can force me to take someone I don’t want. If I ask you to stay, it’ll be because I want you.” He paused for a heartbeat. “And if you do stay it’ll be because you want me. Do you think you’d be available for dinner this evening?”
There was a distinct pause. “Can I just have dinner with you and not with your pokegirls too?”
“With the understanding that while they aren’t having dinner with us, they are going to insist on having dinner in the same restaurant so they can keep an eye on us, yes.” They would, too, even if he had to order them to be there. He was not going to end up accidentally adding to his harem again like he did with Seraphina and he knew Gloria, if not Seraphina, would be happy to help him with that.
“You would allow them to do such a thing?”
“Yes, I would.”
“Why?”
“It isn’t a big thing, technically doesn’t violate what you want and it keeps them happy with me.”
“And you would allow me these little things if they keep me happy too?”
“I will.”
“I will send you my address. I can be ready at eight.”
Gloria waited until he’d put the com away. “Who made you curse?”
“That was Dechen. She was calling to see why I hadn’t called her.”
”You don’t have her com number.”
“I mentioned that. That’s when she disconnected.”
“So why did you call her back?” Seraphina folded her hands on the tabletop. “Is she worth chasing? She’s just another pokegirl, isn’t she?”
“He didn’t have any choice in the matter,” Gloria stated flatly. “She’s a gift from Penny. One does not accept such a gift and then throw it back in her face if one wants to stay in the Met. Are you ready to be a civilian?”
Seraphina shrugged. “No, but if Cooper became a civilian and we went with him it wouldn’t be so bad. We wouldn’t starve. I just don’t like the idea of him chasing any pokegirl like she’s something better than I am.”
Gloria scowled. “I don’t like it either and I don’t think Cooper’s all that fond of it, but in this case we don’t have much choice. She’s political and politics has rules we have to follow in this case.”
Cooper looked around to make sure they couldn’t be overheard. “The question I have is why Penny thinks it is so important for me to have an Officerjenny. She’s going out of her way to make sure that I can accept Dechen, or at least trying to make it very difficult for me to say no to her.”
Seraphina cocked her head. “I wonder how Penny would take Dechen’s behavior today. If she wants you to have Dechen and Dechen doesn’t want to be here, Dechen could find herself in a situation that involves multiple heavy beatings and falls from great heights.”
Cooper shrugged. “I’m not going to go complain to Penny about anything, much less Dechen’s behavior. If, for some reason, Penny feels I’m worth the extra effort she’s been putting out, I am not going to torpedo that by whining to her like a child when things get a little difficult.” His smile was flat as he leaned back in his chair. “On the other hand, if things don’t work out between Dechen and me, Penny will find that she cannot force me to do anything that I don’t want to. I’ll make sure that she feels I made a good faith effort and that will have to suffice for her.”
***
(01/10/320 1420 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper was reviewing the witness statements involving Hillary Lickario’s murder when his tablet chimed to let him know he had mail. He sighed gratefully and switched screens. He’d been watching the videos and compiling statement information for so long that his brain was going numb.
It was from Laney’s office. He opened the message and read it. “Ladies?” Gloria and Seraphina looked up from their work. “We’ve got the blood work results in from the first two murder victims. Rosalind and Diana both had paraspray in their systems and Diana had significant levels of amphetamines that suggest she might have been doping.” Tamers making their pokegirls use performance enhancing drugs was an uncommon problem that cropped up from time to time. These drugs were eliminated by healing cycles and healing machines didn’t look for them so they were hard to catch. Sophisticated tamers involved with doping made their girls use them routinely so they were used to the effects when they went into real battles. William suspected it would be a lot more common if the leagues didn’t ban its manufacture, use by tamers themselves, in gym battles and in league competitions. Still, the underground market was booming for enhancement drugs. Many tamers wanted every edge they could get.
“What about compound,” Seraphina checked her tablet, “18-122-3?”
“Neither had detectable levels of it either in their bodies or in the blood samples taken at the scene. If they were given it then it had time to metabolize out of their systems.” His eyes hardened. “And I can vouch for the fact that Rosalind would cut out her eyes before she’d use forbidden drugs of any sort. I wasn’t unconscious long enough for her to be drugged and for that drug to pass from her system.”
“We never doubted that,” Gloria said soothingly. When Cooper showed signs of being mollified, she continued. “However, this does raise the question of why it was used on Bianca.”
“Maybe she was never supposed to die,” Seraphina opined. “18-122-3 could have been given to her to reduce the trauma of her injuries.”
“And we never thought to ask her how much being chopped up hurt her,” Gloria said musingly. “It’s not something we normally explore with the victims.”
“It represents a major departure from the previous murders,” Cooper said. “If the blood work from the victims after her don’t show 18-122-3, then we have a major anomaly that could be what we need to break the case.”
“That’s very optimistic,” Gloria cautioned, “but don’t get your hopes up. Most cases are solved by hard work. Granted nobody here is shirking, but still, cases usually wear down instead of breaking like the vids show.” She got up. “I’ll talk to Neff about putting a rush on the rest of the blood tests.” She paused. “Unless you’d like to do it since you’re the tamer?”
Cooper made a shooing motion with both hands. “You do it. Neff trusts your opinions a lot more than he trusts mine and we both know he’ll ask you anyways if I try to get him to do this. I’d trust your opinion over mine too, considering your years of experience.”
“I’m glad you don’t resent the situation.” She headed for the major’s office.
Cooper looked at Seraphina after Gloria was out of earshot. “I never said I didn’t resent it,” he said quietly. “I just said I understood it and I know she’s the best person to get Neff to do what we want him to.”
The Rapitaur looked startled at the confession. Then she nodded. “At least you understand why you resent the issue and you don’t seem willing to take it out on Glory.”
“It’s not her fault. I just have to be right for a while until Neff starts valuing my opinion too.”
She grinned. “That’s true enough for both of us.”
***
(01/10/320 1945 London, Blue Continent)
The buzzer sounded when Cooper pressed his thumb against it. The barracks door opened and a uniformed Officerjenny looked curiously at him. “Yes, citizen?”
He read her rank tabs and name tag. “Private Rae, I am William Cooper and I’m here to see Dechen. Please let her know that I am here.”
The Officerjenny nodded briefly. “I’ll have someone fetch her, sir.”
“That’s not necessary, Rae. She is supposed to be expecting me and notifying her that I am here should be sufficient.”
“Yessir. Please wait here.” The Officerjenny shut the door, leaving Cooper standing on the porch.
From where she and Gloria waited, Seraphina chuckled. “Sentries have no sense of humor. That’s why the barracks leaders tend to put junior Jennies there. It’s a good fit.”
A moment later the door opened to reveal another uniformed Officerjenny, this one a sergeant. Her nametag said her name was Lauren. She looked Cooper up and down doubtfully. “I need to see some identification.”
“No, you don’t.” Behind him, Seraphina made a choked noise. “I have not been stopped and I am not being detained. I’m just here for Dechen.”
The Officerjenny scowled. “What is the nature of your business with Dechen, sir?”
“We have a dinner date.”
Lauren’s scowl deepened. “Sir, I cannot allow her to leave with you.”
“Why not?”
“I have instructions in that regard, sir.”
Dechen appeared behind Lauren. She glared at the Officerjenny’s back. “If you had checked the orders that you received from Penny,” she said frostily, “you would know that Detective Cooper is the man I’m supposed to go to and you wouldn’t be trying to keep us apart.”
Lauren whirled and glared back. “And how was I to know that he is your detective if he won’t give me his identification?”
“Sergeant,” Cooper stated flatly, “as far as I understand, Dechen is still a free pokegirl since she was free as a human and has not been captured since thresholding. You have no lawful right to detain her and no lawful right to demand my identification as you are not on BLSF or Met business, which is why I declined to provide it. Now stand aside.” He softened his tone when she purpled. “I understand and can appreciate your loyalty to Major Penny since she is my patron as well, however that appreciation still does not allow you to assert authority you do not have over people who are not subject to your power. And now Dechen is going with me, the person Penny wants her to be with, so you have accomplished her desires as well.”
Lauren set her shoulders stubbornly. “I have no proof that you are who you say you are.”
“Sergeant Lauren,” if Dechen’s tone had been frosty, Cooper’s was hovering somewhere around the temperature of liquid nitrogen. “I identified myself to your door guard when she asked who I was. Do not call me a liar again.” He pointed to the button camera on her uniform. “Call Penny and show her my image.” He looked past her to Dechen. “I’m sorry I’m early. Are you ready to go?”
Dechen looked at her watch. “Thanks to the sergeant you are not early anymore.” She slipped gracefully past the glowering Lauren. “And yes, I am ready to go.”
Lauren leveled a finger at Dechen. “You had better remember that you are not human anymore, pokegirl. You’re one of us now and no better than we are.”
“I am reminded of that regularly,” Dechen replied with just a hint of bitterness. “But I am still a civilian and not subject to the likes of you. And when I do join the Metropolitan Police Service as well as the BLSF, it will be as Detective Cooper’s pokegirl, which will make me a detective and still not subject to the likes of you.” She turned to Cooper. “I am ready to leave now and I think that tonight it would be nice to dine with your harem as well as you, if you do not mind. We need to settle certain things involving myself and your harem and it would be best if we did so with you available to act as referee.”
Gloria frowned as they headed down the street. “You think you need a referee?”
Dechen shook her head slightly. “I am not sure. My behavior tonight to Lauren was not indicative as to how I will treat you as my alpha and I want you to understand this. Lauren is a bully and what I have heard about Lieutenant Gloria suggests that you are not.” She sighed loudly. “I know that when I return to the barracks, Lauren and her thugs will be waiting. I will be beaten to make me compliant to her desires. She doesn’t understand that I am not a child to be cowed by force. I am Tibetan and we have been beaten for thousands of years. She and her cohorts will break my body as they have before but they will not break me and they will have to heal me afterwards so that my injuries will never have existed and cannot be reported. Their fear of Penny will prevent them from killing me and therefore I am not afraid of them.”
Seraphina blinked. “They’ve done this before?”
“Yes. It is how they discipline the newcomers and break them to their will. There is no rule against it and they have tradition on their side. Their excuse is that we need to be taught our new place in society. They are especially hard upon thresholds as they resent the fact that we were once human. That I was once human is why they cannot break me, for in my heart I am still human and no human can be broken unless she lets herself be broken. I can be beaten and I can be killed but I cannot have who I am taken from me without my consent unless I go feral.”
“What do you think about a level five conditioning cycle?”
“We all know that a level five cycle is a death sentence and in that case I would be dead. Only my body would continue living and that not for long if I remember anything about who I was before.”
“Why haven’t you killed yourself before this,” Gloria asked curiously.
“I considered it but I am weak and I still wish to live, even as what I have become rather than end my life.”
Cooper stopped and pointed. “And there’s our restaurant.” He gestured them inside.
Gloria waited until the four of them were seated and they’d placed their orders to begin. “Why don’t you tell us about yourself, Dechen?”
“There is little to tell. Threshold into a pokegirl is considered to be a form of punarbhava as part of the circle of life that is samsāra and if I wish to reach enlightenment in some future life I must live this change as best I can. Since punarbhava is quite literally a rebirth of self, threshold is starting an entirely new life and my life before is of little consequence and therefore not worthy of discussion.” She looked at their almost identical expressions of confusion and sighed. “You are Westerners and therefore you may not understand what I am saying. Let me try again. Life is a cycle of death and becoming again as we journey towards enlightenment and nirvana. Each new life we live is a reward or punishment for actions in our previous lives and our goal is to live our new life so well that we are rewarded in the next turn of the wheel. It is my lot in this life to be a pokegirl, although I admit that so far I have accepted this lot with little grace.”
“So you’re saying that being a pokegirl is a punishment for something you did in a previous life?” Seraphina was staring at Dechen.
“I did not say that, Seraphina. It could be that I was an insect or a bird previously and that this is a reward for being an exemplary insect or bird. Being human briefly could have been merely a demonstration of my pride to show me that I must control that vanity if I wish to move further towards enlightenment.”
“And you won’t talk about what your life was like before thresholding why?”
“Gloria, my life as a human ended when I became a pokegirl. I am a new being now and that life that came before is not mine. It was another’s life and therefore that life has little connection to mine.” She frowned. “Quite literally, I am not and never was that person.”
“But she was Dechen and you.”
“No, her name was not Dechen. I took a new name after threshold to reflect the fact that I am a new being.”
Cooper sipped at his drink. “Dechen, is what you’re talking about Buddhism?”
She suddenly looked pleased. “Yes, it is.”
“Isn’t Buddhism a religion of pacifism? How do you reconcile that with being a police pokegirl?”
“I am not a bhikkhuni or nun, William, and while I will live my life as peacefully as possible, I am allowed to defend myself and others. As a police pokegirl to a tamer such as yourself, I believe that I will not be often forced into a situation where I have to kill someone, but if I am in that position I will kill without hesitation to protect someone. I’d prefer to take them prisoner since catching them is much more preferable in any case so the league can exact its justice on them, but I will kill them if it is required.”
Cooper realized that the waitress was bringing over their dinners. “I think we’ve questioned Dechen enough for now. Let’s just eat and make sure we can get along during meals before we move on to anything else.”
***
(01/12/320 1215 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper’s tablet chimed softly. He pulled it out of his coat and checked it before laying it on the table and picking up his slice of pizza.
“Nothing important?”
How Seraphina managed to speak with such a large mouthful of food confounded Cooper and he stared at her for a second before he shrugged. “It’s nothing worth interrupting our first quiet lunch in days over. It’s the chemical assay results from Mona and Hillary.”
Gloria blinked. “That is important.”
Cooper scooped the tablet up and dropped it back into his pocket as the Enchantress reached for it. “After lunch,” he said firmly.
Gloria put her pizza down and shoved the plate an inch away. “I am finished.”
He grabbed her plate and dumped her pizza onto his plate as Gloria made an abortive motion to stop him. “Thanks and I’m not. We’ll wait until everyone is done eating.”
Gloria shot Seraphina a sidelong look. “Then we’ll never get to see the results. She’ll be eating until the next meal begins.”
The Rapitaur grinned and nodded briskly. “You’re the alpha, and looking at you I know that our master must like them a little tubby. That’s why I have to eat more.”
“Tubby?” Gloria’s glare would have melted steel. “You’ll pay for that.”
Cooper snorted when Seraphina glanced at him. “You’re on your own this time.”
Seraphina’s mouth dropped. “What? That’s a little inconsistent!”
“I’ve made it plain that I don’t appreciate the sniping and you still opened your mouth. Gloria’s within her rights to pound you flat if she can.” He bit into his meal. “On the practice field,” he elaborated quickly as Gloria’s eyes lit up.
The Enchantress smiled smugly. “Sir, we haven’t reached our mandated number of hours of practice and it’s nearly the middle of the month. I’d hate to put it off until we’re nearing the end of it. Could we go to the field this afternoon?” She almost purred with anticipation.
“Book the field for tomorrow morning,” Cooper stated.
She pulled her tablet out and typed for a moment. “Done. We’re set up for 0900.” She smirked at Seraphina. “You’ve got until then to consider your misdeeds.”
“You’ll note that William said you’re within your rights to beat me up if you can,” Seraphina said calmly. “We haven’t fought in years, missy, and I’ve got some new tricks.”
“So you’re not a one trick pony?”
Seraphina gaped. “William! That’s mean!” He chuckled and slowly she smiled. “But cute.”
Gloria folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Finish your meal and give me those results, Coop.”
“I hear and I obey, Lieutenant Gloria Cooper.” He calmly finished the food on his plate while his alpha visibly fidgeted. When he was done and the table cleaned up, he retrieved his tablet and pulled up the message. “According to the laboratory, neither Hillary nor Mona had any traces of the mysterious compound 18-122-3. Blood samples both internal and external to the bodies were negative for the drug. It was just Bianca, which means we need to talk to her again and find out why.”
“I think it’s because she knows the killer and he wants to keep her alive for some reason,” Seraphina said thoughtfully. “She might not know he’s the killer though.”
Cooper offered the tablet to Gloria and tried not to smile as she almost ripped it from his hands. “What do you think the chances of getting that no scan order removed on Bianca are? She may know something and not be aware that it could be useful for solving this case.”
Her eyes were on the message. “If the secrets in her head are important to the league it won’t happen. In a situation like that the league would decide that it can live with a serial killer for a little while since he’s just killing pokegirls. I’ll put in a request, though, and see what the powers-that-be say before we go talk to her.” She scowled and tossed the tablet back to him. “But you can rest assured that I’ll have a truth detection spell up when we meet her again.”
***
(01/12/320 1710 London, Blue Continent)
Bianca Supe-Bra Genius lived in a nice looking end of terrace house that was cheerfully decorated with window boxes of flowers at almost every window. Gloria tried the buzzer and then knocked when nobody responded. Her eyes narrowed. “Bianca agreed to meet us here. Where is the little b,” she broke off and glanced at Cooper. “bint,” she finished. “I’m not excited about waiting for her to decide to show up.”
“Maybe,” Seraphina said speculatively, “she’s already home and the killer has her. That would explain why she hasn’t answered the door.” She turned to Gloria. “What do you think, lieutenant?”
“I think you’re looking for a reason to enter this dwelling without a warrant, that’s what I think.”
“She’s our only witness, Glory. It would make sense for the killer to come back for her.”
Gloria didn’t look convinced. “He left her alive for a reason, Sera.”
“And killers never change their minds, do they? If she’s inside being murdered and we’re dithering out here while it happens, what do you think the major is going to say?”
Gloria looked at Cooper. “Opinions?”
“I don’t have enough experience,” he admitted. “But I’ll back whatever you decide.”
She nodded. “Seraphina is right and we can justify the entry that way. We’ll go in from the back yard. You should remain outside, Coop.” She relaxed slightly when he merely nodded. “Let’s go.”
The three of them went around behind the terrace house. There was a tiny back yard that was enclosed with eight foot privacy fence. Gloria held the gate open for the others and shut it behind her. “Sera, get started on that lock. Coop,” she began but stopped when he made a cutting motion with his hand.
“I’ll stay here and scream for help if anything happens.” He attempted to grin, but the seriousness in his eyes belied the halfhearted smile. “And it will be both out loud and on the com. I am not going to be sliced up again.” He blinked as Seraphina quickly picked the lock to the back door. “I’m impressed.”
The Rapitaur grinned. “I’m not all about brute force, but if you’d like I could kick the door down instead.”
“That won’t be necessary. However, I would like for you teach me to do that later.”
“It’s a deal.” She looked at Gloria and made a hand signal that Cooper didn’t recognize before opening the door and slipping inside with her alpha close behind her. The spring loaded door swung shut behind them.
The hand signal was probably from their time in the Blackguards and Cooper made a mental note to have them teach him those too. If they were going to use them, after all, he needed to know it. Not that he was interested in joining the elite special operations unit. He wanted to be a policeman and not a soldier.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Detective Cooper.” The soft voice jerked William from his reverie as Bianca shut the gate to the back yard behind her. “What brings you here?”
Irritated that he hadn’t heard the gate open, his reply was curt. “We’re looking for you. Gloria made an appointment with you for some more questioning. You should remember that, what with your eidetic memory.”
“I remember, detective. As you said, I remember everything. It is a weekday, however, and I usually work late. Still, I was on my way here for our appointment when I decided that I just had something more important to do or else I would have been here on time. I trust you weren’t waiting long.” She glanced at the door to her residence. “Your pokegirls are stymied trying to enter my office. They will eventually win entrance but it will take valuable time.” She turned back to him. “What questions do you have?”
Cooper frowned. “How do you know what Seraphina and Gloria are doing?”
“I may not be a magical pokegirl, but I know several powerful ones and favors are common items of trade, detective. My property has several enchantments on it, including one that allows me to remotely observe intruders. My neighbors are quite noisy on weekends, so another completely soundproofs my home and my yard if I wish. But I am sure that your questions did not involve the enchantments on my property, did they?” She smirked at him.
“No, they were about your attack. There was something unusual about it.”
“What was that, detective?”
“You were sprayed with paraspray like the others, but you were also dosed with another substance that deadened pain. We think it might have been because your attacker didn’t want you to hurt while you were being cut up.”
Bianca smiled broadly. “I am a genius, detective, and you’re trying to toy with me. If you know about 18-122-3 then you know I was a member of the original design team and with that you know almost everything about my attack. Knowing that, you can easily deduce everything important about the murders.”
Cooper knew nothing of the sort but managed to keep the confusion from showing. Supe-Bra Geniuses often had a tendency to lecture and he tried to play to it. “That’s right. Care to explain what’s going on?”
“You’re stalling for time, detective, hoping that you can be rescued before I kill you. It’s a vain hope, but I’ll indulge your last request.” She chuckled when he drew his pistol and pointed it at her. “Are you aware that caseless weapons use electronic igniters for the ammunition?” Cooper knew that. He also knew that if too much current was applied, the ammunition melted instead of exploding to prevent accidental discharges when subjected to an electrical technique. Bianca was still talking and he focused on her words. “One of the other research projects I worked on for the league involved a spell that suppressed electron flow in devices. It didn’t go beyond the prototype stage because no way was found to protect friendly equipment, but I had an amulet made that uses the effect when I activate it. Your gun won’t fire and all of your electronics are inoperable.” William aimed carefully at Bianca’s heart and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. “I’m glad you’re smart enough to insist on independent verification. That’s the hallmark of a scientist. Now put your weapon away and I’ll explain why I killed those pokegirls before I kill you.”
Reluctant to put his pistol up, Cooper lowered it to his side. “Why did you kill Rosalind and the others?”
She cocked her head. “Rosalind? Why do you name the Officerjenny and not the rest?” Her eyes widened slightly. “You were there.”
“She was my pokegirl,” Cooper hissed.
“Relax detective or I’ll kill you now.” She waited a moment before continuing. “I thought you looked familiar when we first met. Or when I thought we first met.” She gave a tiny shrug. “I guess it really is a small world, detective. As you may remember, my specialty is the Blue League during the Industrial Revolution. The killings, however, came out of my hobby. I’m a Ripperologist. Do you know what that is?”
“I’ve never heard that word before.”
“I guess it was too much to hope for. I study the case history of Jack the Ripper. I wanted to find out who the killer was. That’s why I started killing pokegirls in London, to reenact the murders so as to understand more about how Jack thought and to discern who he was.”
He stared at her numbly. “You killed Rosalind as an experiment? Why didn’t you kill me too?”
“You didn’t fit the modus operandi of the Ripper, detective.”
“Rosalind was a police pokegirl. She didn’t fit either.”
“Yes she did.” Bianca’s voice was flat. “Rosalind was a pokegirl and all pokegirls are whores.”
Cooper charged. Bianca waited until he was close and front snap kicked him in the stomach. He dropped to his knees and she clubbed him in the back of the head, kicking the pistol away when it fell from his hands. She moved away. “If you’re in a hurry to die, detective, I can accommodate you. Do you or do you not want to hear my explanation before you die?”
He glared up at her and slowly rose to his feet. “Continue,” he managed to spit between clenched teeth.
“Thank you. As I was saying, pokegirls are whores. All they do is plead and beg for sex, just like a whore does. You don’t even have to pay them with anything more than a bit of food. That makes them the perfect stand-ins for the Ripper’s victims.”
“You’re a pokegirl too, Bianca.”
She nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I was the fourth victim. That and to throw suspicion off of me. In hindsight that was a mistake on my part. How did you find traces of 18-122-3? It metabolizes in only a few minutes.”
“It was in the blood you spilled.”
She blinked. “And spilled blood doesn’t get processed by the kidneys and liver. I should have thought of that. In any case it doesn’t matter since my experiment has concluded.”
Cooper scowled at her. “Did you get your answer?”
“I did. It wasn’t until I was killing my last victim, but yes, I know who the Ripper is. It’s why I know you can’t stop me. I am the Ripper.”
“I know your breed is unstable but you’re cracked.”
“It makes perfect sense and explains why the police couldn’t catch the Ripper the first time she struck. There’s no way that the forensics of the time will ever catch me.”
“Right. And you’re capable of going back to England then.”
Bianca smiled warmly. “The Tick Tock breed has proven substantively that time travel is possible. It’s just that the scale they use is too small for my needs. To that end I’ve already drawn up the preliminary plans for the time travel equipment I’ll need to go back and kill my victims and I have the resources I’ll need thanks to my work with the military. Nothing can stop me. Nobody but you knows what’s going on and you won’t be in a position to tell anyone.” She raised a long, slender blade that Cooper recognized as a Catlin amputation knife. “Now paraspray won’t work on you, but if you won’t fight I’ll make this as quick and painless as possible.” Holding the knife like a rapier, she lunged for his heart.
Cooper backpedaled. Bianca slipped on something and went to one knee, but was back on her feet before he could react. Cold spread across his chest and Cooper felt to see if he’d been injured but couldn’t find anything. Moving faster than a human could, Bianca lunged again. The point of the knife hit his chest and shattered on his badge.
The cold on his chest became pinpricks as sharp as if a piece of dry ice was being pressed over his heart.
He swung, hitting Bianca in the chest. She ignored the blow and slashed at his wrist with the blade. It sliced his sleeve and hit a button as he threw himself backwards, leaving a thin line of welling blood.
The Supe-Bra Genius tossed the knife away and snapped her fingers. A new, unbroken blade appeared in it. She smiled at the look of astonishment on his face. “I learned to summon knives when I was younger from a fighting type who owed me a favor.”
Glass exploded from a window on the second floor as Seraphina launched herself through it. Behind her, Gloria leaned out the window and hit Bianca with a mana bolt, staggering the Supe-Bra Genius away from Cooper. The Rapitaur landed heavily between Cooper and Bianca and whirled to face him, fabric ripping as she shifted to her centaur form in mid motion. Her equipment belt dropped to the ground with a thump. Both hind hooves lashed out, taking Bianca in the chest. Bianca smashed through the privacy fence and landed in the next yard over. She started to struggle to her feet when Gloria shot her twice in the stomach. Bianca screamed in a high thin voice and curled up, holding her belly.
“She may have paraspray,” Cooper said warningly to Seraphina. “See if she has her pokeball and put her up if she does. Otherwise beat her unconscious. Be careful, she knows non-standard techniques.”
Seraphina burst into flames as she used ignite. “That’ll keep the paraspray off of me.” She dashed forward and stopped just short of the Supe-Bra Genius, who was still moaning but warily watching the burning pokegirl looming over her. “Now, Bianca, I’d like to take you alive but if you try anything stupid I’ll just sit on you and listen to you sizzle. Pull out your pokeball and use it to return yourself.”
Bianca’s face was ugly as she glared at the Rapitaur. “I don’t have my pokeball, you bitch.” She jerked sideways when a flaming hoof forty centimeters in diameter smashed to the ground next to her head.
“No cursing,” Seraphina said sweetly. “Where is your pokeball?”
“It’s in my desk.”
Seraphina looked up towards the house. “Glory! Pokeball in desk!” She hissed when Gloria held a hand up to her ear and shook her head.
Cooper stopped next to her. The flames sputtered out as he spoke. “Bianca, drop the silence spells or Seraphina is going to crush your right knee and whatever leg will fit under her hoof.”
Seraphina grinned and lifted her right front hoof. “You think you’re screaming now. When I put this on your knee and put my weight on it, we’ll hear real pain.”
“It’s down! It’s down!” Bianca fairly shrieked before subsiding into moans as fresh pain stabbed through her stomach.
Cooper looked up. “Gloria, Bianca’s pokeball is in her desk!”
“Two minutes!” Gloria disappeared from view and was back well before her self appointed deadline. “Catch!” She hurled a pokeball at William.
He turned and activated the ball. By the time Bianca was safely ensconced, Gloria had raced downstairs and outside. She tossed a bundle at Seraphina and turned to William. “Coop, are you all right?”
He held up his arm. “I got a single scratch and a dented badge. It was remarkable.”
She snorted and laid a hand on the cut. It began to close. “There’s nothing remarkable about it, Coop. The tattoo you complained against so much protected you.”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“It made you lucky, William. That’s why you’re walking away from this with just a sleeve that needs repaired. My tattoo gives you luck when your life is on the line.” Her eyes met his. “It’s why you’re able to walk away from this at all.” She smiled crookedly. “So, can I put the rest of the protective magic I’d planned into the tattoo?”
He nodded and took her hand in his free one. “I won’t fight you about it again.”
The bundle had turned out to be a bed sheet and Seraphina had turned it into a toga after resuming her human form. “What are you going to do with her?”
Cooper looked at the pokeball in his hand and slipped it into a pocket. “I want her dead but I’m not willing to sully Rosalind’s memory by doing something stupid. I’ll let the law condemn and execute her.”
“That’s noble of you,” Seraphina said.
“No, it’s not. I intend to watch her die.”
The Rapitaur nodded solemnly. “That’s only fair since she tried to kill you. Why did she do it?”
“Bianca is the murderer and thought we’d come here to arrest her.”
Gloria was speaking quietly into her com unit. She looked up. “Back up is on the way. What made her decide that?”
“She jumped to the conclusion after finding out we knew about the 18-122-3.”
Seraphina chuckled. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.”
Gloria joined her. “That and Supe-Bras tend to over think things. Sometimes they’re too smart for themselves and confuse themselves. She probably figured that if she knew something we did too. I’ve seen it before.”
“I’m sorry about your clothes, Brownie.”
“It’s a small price to pay for keeping you safe, William.” She rested her head against his shoulder for a second. “But I still don’t want everyone gawking at me. That’s yours and Glory’s job.”
Cooper slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “That is absolutely correct.”
***
(01/13/320 1245 London, Blue Continent)
The door opened and Liv poked her head into the office. “Sir, the two agents from the Ministry have arrived.”
Douglass Neff rolled his eyes. “Took them bloody long enough. They were supposed to be here at nine. Where are Glory and her chicks?”
The Blade Bunny’s ears flicked once. “They’re gone to lunch, sir. Want me to call them back?”
“No, it’s not necessary. Tell Maggie that the both of you are supposed to escort our guests into my office.” He held up a finger. “As long as you can keep that tail under control, mind. Last time your nervous habit tapped a hole in my carpet and I had to pay for it out of my pocket.”
She grinned, revealing sharp fangs. “I’ll be as still as death, sir.”
“Then go tell Maggie what I said.” He had to be careful with giving instructions to Liv. She’d been a feral born Bunnygirl who’d been transformed into a Blade Bunny while still feral before being caught by him and tamed. She was great in the battlefield but definitely not a genius of any sort. At least she wasn’t as clumsy as Bunnygirls were.
A few minutes later Maggie was in her place near the door while Liv stood near their tamer. Neff nodded to the two agents and waved at chairs. “Agent Chandler, Agent Poe, grab a seat.”
Chandler shook her head. “Major, we’re not here to visit. As the message indicated, we’re here to take possession of Bianca.”
“You are aware that she’s a confessed serial killer.”
“Yes, we are. And you can rest assured that she will be dealt with properly according to laws of the Blue League.” Chandler pulled a folded piece of paper from the inner pocket of her suit. “Here’s the documentation you need for the transfer.”
Neff took the sheet with an expression of surprise. “I’m used to these being digital.”
“This is an off the books transfer, major. There will be no electronic data trail or public trial. Bianca will simply disappear forever.” Poe lifted her briefcase and opened it. “We don’t want any copycats who think that by doing what she did that they can get instant notoriety.”
“I don’t like it,” Neff admitted, “but the orders you’ve given me are clear. Maggie, go get Bianca’s pokeball while I fill out this paperwork. I presume that my superiors have already been informed?”
“Of course they have, major. We wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t.” Chandler said soothingly as the Gun Bunny slipped out of the room. “And there will be rewards for you and the Coopers, just as if Bianca had been successfully tried, convicted and executed.”
Neff perked up. “Rewards?”
“You will make lieutenant colonel and move up the food chain, although your pokegirls will remain the same rank they are now. Corporal Cooper will be admitted to OCS and confirmed as a full detective. Don’t worry though, you’ll get him back after he becomes a lieutenant.” Chandler cocked her head and smiled slightly. “You do want him back, don’t you?”
“Another lieutenant will put my office over its allotment. I’ll lose someone.”
“We both know that Lieutenant Donner is transferring in six months, major. You’ll keep all three Coopers and get another sergeant and his or her harem.”
Maggie came back and dropped a pokeball into Neff’s hand. “Sir.”
Neff scanned it with his tablet. “I am confirming that this pokeball holds Bianca Supe-Bra Genius.” He held the ball out to Chandler.
She took it and produced a pokedex from inside her suit. She scanned the pokeball. “I confirm that his is Bianca and that I have taken possession of her.” She handed the ball to Poe, who slipped it into the briefcase and shut it. “And now, major, we will take our leave of you. I wish you a good day.”
***
(01/15/320 0900 Classified Facility and Location, Blue Continent)
Chandler activated the pokeball and released Bianca. The Supe-Bra Genius looked around the bare room slowly before turning back to the agent. “Who are you?”
“I am Agent Chandler. I and my partner, Agent Poe, will be your handlers while you work.”
“Work?”
“You will be provided with a complete lab and the necessary support to pursue your project, Bianca. If you need more pokegirls to kill, they will be provided to you as well.”
Bianca nodded slowly. “So you’re aware of what I intend to do?”
“I am. If you manage to develop a working method of time travel, you will be given the opportunity to either kill the prostitutes yourself or to see who the Whitechapel Murderer really was.”
“I am the Whitechapel Murderer.”
“Then you’ll be allowed to kill the prostitutes.”
Bianca’s eyes narrowed. “What do you get out of this?”
“That is none of your business.”
The Supe-Bra Genius drew herself up haughtily. “I refuse to work for you unless I know what your goals are. Kill me if you will, I am already under a death sentence.”
Chandler had been briefed on the possibility that Bianca would make this kind of demand. She looked at Poe and nodded. Poe was supposed to be the good cop in this triangle while Chandler provided the stick to balance Poe’s carrot.
Poe stood. “Very well, Bianca. During the time you wish to travel to, the death rate for infants in orphanages was well over eighty percent. Similar rates were prevalent for the children who roamed the streets.”
“I know all about that,” Bianca stated flatly. “What is that to you?”
“It’s very simple, Bianca. Those children are pure blood humans, fertile and large numbers of them can be collected without anyone missing them.” Poe smiled broadly. “And for that the Blue League is more than willing to let you kill as many prostitutes or useless pokegirls as you can, if you can get there.”
***
The End
***
William Cooper
Gloria - Enchantress
Seraphina - Rapitaur