by Brian Fisher
Chapter 12
Perched high on a wall, the Wraith surveyed the scene below. Darkness and deep shadows covered the city, creating images from nothing. The air was still, leaving little chance of scent giving away its presence. Nothing traveled the streets below, save for a handful of security drones roaming here and there. A few lighted windows dotted the cityscape on an otherwise consuming night.
The Wraith crawled quickly down the wall until it could easily leap, undetected, to the next building. Flickering shadows followed the creature as it flitted through the oppressive darkness. A deep, lustful growl escaped its lips as the intoxicating scent of blood nearly overwhelmed it. The carnage from the bomb was near enough that he could taste the death that lingered tantalizingly in the air.
Rubble still littered the food court. The last of the wounded had been moved hours ago, but a few of the dead still remained. A handful of small, gray drones tended to the bodies before they were loaded into a large, black air car. Once it was full, the air car flew into the air and disappeared.
With the drones’ attention on their work, the Wraith crawled across the face of the ruined restaurant, and through the opening that had once housed the door. The floor was covered in debris, so the Wraith kept to the safety of the blackened ceiling. A small amount of soot clung to the Wraith as it crawled to a vantage point where it could survey the entire eatery.
The blast had buckled the walls then blistered them by the incredible heat. Embers still glowed hot around the room, making the Wraith sweat ever so slightly as it searched for its prize. A few pieces of debris near the far wall burst into flames, flickered, and died out.
The prize had to be here, somewhere. It was nearly indestructible, so the bomb could not have realistically harmed it. The memory of the explosion caused a smile to cross its pale, cracked lips. The chaos had been rejuvenating, even gratifying to watch. It was an injustice that such beautiful destruction was wasted on these unworthy maggots.
The Wraith searched through the remains of the restaurant, finding nothing. A tiny red dot flashed in its eye, indicating that the prize was near. Muffled voices came from the front of the ruined building. Three different voices came closer to where it was hiding, deep in the shadows of the ceiling.
Silently it watched as two Bakeeron women, one in a jumpsuit, the other in robes and one small Olcai in a security uniform, walked nearer to its position. They approached slowly, as if looking for something.
"Commanders, what we found is over here. There is always some sort of residue left over from explosions, and this one was no different." the little Olcai droned. "The interesting thing about this residue though, is that it is entirely organic."
"No chemicals then?" the Bakeeron wearing the jumpsuit asked. She glanced at the Olcai and continued looking about the room.
"No. Everything was completely organic in origin." the Olcai scanned the residue with a pocket scanner and showed the results to the women.
"Well, it definitely looks like the type of weapon that the Ta'Reeth would use." the other woman looked restless and out of place in her flowing robes. She wandered a bit, poking and prodding at different pieces of debris. "How do we know what these people want?"
"What do you mean Commander?" Lieutenant Valche blinked in response.
"What I mean, is that we don't have a clue as to what was stolen from the Ta'Reeth. Why bomb a restaurant anyway?" Kamira sighed. "What's the connection?"
'What's the connection?' echoed inside its mind. 'What was stolen?' A small cloud of charred dust fell onto the shoulder of the Olcai Lieutenant, as the Wraith moved across the ceiling to a better vantage point.
"I don't know what the connection is." T'Sula said as she absent mindedly scratched her hand. "If we can figure out what was stolen, then maybe we can piece this thing together."
"Commanders, I have something else to show you." Lieutenant Valche motioned for the two women to look at the scanner one more time. T'Sula walked over, and stood next to the Lieutenant. Kamira adjusted her robes as she came closer. The two women gazed down at the screen.
On the tiny screen a man sized heat signature crouched on the ceiling. Below the picture, the Lieutenant had typed 'We are not alone.'