Series of Death, Draft 02, CH 11 (Patreon)

Investigating deaths that occurred outside his territory, without breaking any laws, was proving difficult. Marlot’s position as Registered Investigator gave him access to every system where the information could be stored, but the fact they belong to a different RI meant his ID wouldn’t unlock the information pertaining to those deaths. If not for wanting to show Trembor he could do this by the book, he’d break the information locks and encryptions on those files, he’d even get into the investigator’s computers for anything they might not have filed with the bureau yet.

What he’d been able to work out, after four days of scrapping every and all publicly available database, was that all the bodies were predators, each a different species, except for two wolves. Coyote, jaguar, cougar, badger, tiger, bear, leopard, and the two wolves. Five males, four females, and every one of them single. They’d died in not pattern he could make out. The two oldest deaths had been males, a wolf, and cougar, then three females, the other wolf, leopard, and bear. To males after that, tiger and badger, and then the female jaguar and more recent male coyote.

The schedule had accelerated, the first two coming a month apart, the third three weeks later, as did the next two. There had been a month gap between the fifth and sixth kill, then two weeks later the seventh happened, a few days after that the eights and a few weeks later the ninth. Maybe it was just that the hunter was in a position where more were available now?

Did it mean anything? There were a few experts on hunters, but Marlot was reluctant to contact any of them, even the two he’d had to deal with as a result of Ruxul, when they’d wanted to know everything that had happened so they could include that in their research. Even if they didn’t contact the Bureau as a result, they’d want to be involved the instant he even hinted he was chasing one now.

There was a lot of the research available, and he’d read a large number while chasing Ruxul, but the biggest problem with all of it was that it was written in scientific, which Marlot was nowhere near being fluent in. He got headaches after only a few pages. Why hadn’t any of them thought to write those using computer terminology?

“He couldn’t confirm method of kill, since those were locked under the RI’s ID, or within a medical examiner’s report, which wasn’t available to the public. Only he and Trembor used Jaxca, and even if others had, Marlot didn’t have an excuse for asking for information on their bodies.

They’d all died inside their homes, which ensure no interruptions, and wouldn’t be discovered quickly. Who had called in the death was something else he couldn’t access, the call would have gone to the enforcers, so if he explained what he was doing to Bahamel she’d probably look into it for him, but right after that she’d inform the Bureau. She wasn’t as hung up on the law as Trembor, but a hunter wasn’t something she’d let pass.

Plotting the death didn’t give him anything new. He already knew they were in different territories, but how the hunter had picked which territory seemed to be random. No one had shown up in Marlot’s territory yet, but he was one of six RI who hadn’t had a body left by the hunter at this point.

He tried tracking the bodies movement before their death, but without their ID, he couldn’t search for that in the public network, which usually had enough to get a sense of where someone liked to go and when. The camera system was great for that once he had enough images of someone. In the wakes of Ruxul there had been a push to increase the number of cameras in the city, to ensure everyone’s safety, City Leader Sharphorns had assured everyone, but it hadn’t taken long for prey to point out they could also be sued by predators to track them. And the backlash had brought it to a stop after only ten percent of the planned numbers were up. It still added a lot of cameras to those already connected to the next work.

Could he use his tracking program to search historical data? It already did some of that for productivity history, but how much work would it take to get it to look at historical movement?

A knock as the door pulled him away from the screen as he was about to call up the copy of his program he kept there to tinker with.

Hela’han entered. “This just came in.” She handed him an envelope with the Revenue Bureau logo in the top right corner. He barely kept himself from snatching it out of her hand and felt the card contained in it before carefully opening the envelope.

The card fell on the desk, the picture in the right corner showing a wolverine glaring at him. Radima Vicious was her name. He tracked her address to another RI’s territory; Jermal Point. He vaguely remembered the name. A cervid who’d managed to stay alive all these years. He’d come over to the Bureau from the Protectors if he remembered an overheard conversation during the Ruxul chase right.

He scanned the ID before he thought about it and curse as it asked for his password to access the Revenue Database. Even with that, he couldn’t check on someone living, and if she was already dead, Points would demand to know why Marlot had run her number. He tried to remember if the system logged the attempt to check information, or just the once when he was inside the system. It had to be the full once only. How many RIs accidentally scanned a card as they lived?

So his first task was to determine if Radima was still alive. He called up his tracking program on his Pad, he’d need the fully functioning one for that. And entered her name, species, and address. While it did its thing, he did his own, accessing the cameras connected to the network, finding her, and confirming that way that as of three days ago, she’d been alive. It might be when she’d lost her card, which reminded him.

He took the envelope and studied it. It looked the same as the ones he had in his desk. Standard Revenue Bureau envelopes. They weren’t required, but the Bureau liked it when all mail was kept looking official. Every piece of mail leaving the Bureau, like a lost card being returned to its owner, or the wrong one, would be in such an envelope.

The thing he’d realized was that the only thing he’d based his conclusion the Bureau was making the mistake was these envelopes. But the hunter didn’t have to send them to the Bureau and either hack the system or hope it would get redirected to him. He could copy the font used and print the destination, then mail it.

He found the tracking barcode on the back. He couldn’t do anything with that, since he’d have to hack into the mail system to get information, and he wasn’t doing that, but he suspected it wouldn’t matter, the hunter was smart; much smarter than Ruxul, who’d been far more impulsive than planing. Walking into the Bureau lobby and leaving the envelope on a counter unattended ensured it would make its way to the internal mail department and then be sent out. The only thing he wouldn’t able to control that way is how long it would take until it reached Marlot.

This could explain why Arlant’s card had reached him after he’d died. Which would imply the deaths weren’t based on Marlot visiting the target.

His pad beeped with information, which overall confirmed what he’d found about her. Last seen by a camera three days ago. With the scoring system accessible at every kiosk now, it had a list of her last six kills, the bulls, two bears, and one antelope. All much larger than she was.

The hunter might have taken on more than they could swallow in picking her, but Marlot couldn’t let her kill them either. He had to capture them if he was going to show Trembor he could do this the way the lion wanted.

The program had her position as a supervisor in a construction company. Not usually an industry known for employing high-value people, but she’d risen in ranks until becoming a supervisor. That gave her determination, focus, which would mean she did good work, which would increase her value. No infraction had come up yet, so he couldn’t count on that to bring her tax down.

So he could afford her, although she’d be at the upper limit of his current budget, but wolverines were nasty fighters; and based on her usual prey, she’d be strong, fast, and as her name warned, vicious.

He shook himself. Why was he looking at this as if she was his potential meal? His stomach answered him. He needed to look through the potential candidate his tracker had for him once his day was over. He felt in good enough shape to a chase and fight now.

His program noted an anomaly, she hadn’t been into work in two days. This lined up with her realizing she’d lost her card. Even a top predator like her would pause before taking needless risks. Going back two years, his program tracked her going to work every workday, so her company would give her the leeway she needed to wait for her card to arrive. How long did ordering new cards take?

This meant she’d be at home today, where she lived alone after a bad breakup. From the message on the network, she’d exchanged with someone called Verk Roughhide. She’d be exactly where the hunter wanted her.

He grabbed his pad and jacket and headed out. “I’m going to run a lead,” He told Hela’han. “I don’t know when I’ll be back so just lock up when you leave.”

“I’ll leave any messages in the buffer,” she replied. “It’s good to see you back to your old self, sir.”

He paused. Was he? He smiled, it did feel that way. “It’s good to be back.” With a clear goal, with known variables and expected outcomes, he did feel better. Once he had the hunter Trembor would have no choice but see Marlot deserved a second chance.

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