Crimson: The Second in the Trinity Series Novels
Page 17
“How long does this process take?” Petra asked the aging forensic technician who couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“It takes about five-minute’s ma’am then you can enter,” he told her staring into her eyes. Like a love-struck schoolboy with a huge crush on the girl sitting in front of him in class he seemed infatuated with her.
“I have heard about these Sniffers do they still work the same way?” she asked him.
“Uh—yes ma’am! The Vacs as we call them spin at an incredible 10,000 RPM and unlock releasing several hundred mini vacuum drones that seal all of the cracks in a house making it airtight. After sealing the house the main drone sucks up all of the microscopic particles, hair, and fibers and all are collected in its processor!” He was waving his arms around very excited to be talking to Petra not realizing he looked like an idiot doing so, “Then the data is analyzed and sent to Heliotrope’s core drive where it is stored, compiled, and within seconds it is sent right here to my Vidset. They even have their own satellites! Cool huh?” he asked nervously sweating while pulling up his sagging pants.
“Yes very cool.” Petra told him softly. I didn’t know Heliotrope stored all this data.
The technician held his Vidset in his hands watching data download and fill the screen. He instructed the Vidset to make a folder called ‘The Honey House’ an obvious reference to the bees, or hornets, and store the information there. Notifying him that the sniffer drone was finished with its discoveries, the Vidset ended the program. He swiped though some screens and started speaking. “Well we have a lot of DNA in there!” He exclaimed.
“How much DNA is in there?” Petra asked him.
“There are 451 different strands of DNA but we can sort the old stuff from the database and keep just the fresh stuff.”
“Let’s go back two weeks—um—”
“Renins ma’am, Renins DeBaser at your service.” he said smiling at her happily, finally getting to reveal his name to her. He snickered to himself straightening out his dirty black lab coat. He stroked his balding thin grey hair nervously with his left hand.
“If I could vomit I would Petra.”
Petra laughed under her breath as they studied the data. She was amazed at the amount of information that was now obtainable by one of these devices. Included in the data was the DNA of humans, dogs, cats, and other small creatures who had lived and died here. Listed in order by species, a ‘freshness’ date, and chemical analysis, the data screen was subdivided within an upper hierarchy program labeled Heliotrope.
Given the green light to enter the mansion by Captain Pappas, Petra stepped into the foyer, as did several other officers and forensic scientists. The scene was a bloodbath.
“This looks like the set of a Hammer Film,” one of the officers remarked.
Petra scanned the area taking in the visual as well as the olfactory sensations. She instructed the HPD people on the scene not to touch any of the crimson colored gel without the proper safety equipment and they took heed. Destroyed furniture and wall hangings were lying throughout the mansion and he only thing left intact was the Arcing machine sitting on a small table in the corner of the living room. The interior walls snapped in half, some broken and deeply gouged. Squatting down next to Pseudo-Dreama’s nude body in the kitchen, she brushed its hair away from its face. It disintegrated into pieces as she moved it crumbling and falling between her fingers like tiny dust particles. The hole in the back of her head exposed the wiring and tubing previously used to make her function.
“If this is another Pseudosynth where’s the real Dreama at?”
“Someone has been very busy again Petra.”
“Yes Ter very much so and they’re also very sloppy leaving evidence lying around.” Petra said noticing a Vidset lying across the room on the floor next to a wall. Standing up she looked over towards the foyer. The carpeted floor had chunks of it ripped out. The wall as well as the front door coated with a substance that was similar to the yellow fluid leaking out of the backs of the victims. It was putrid smelling and still wet. There were copious amounts of crimson gel spattered throughout the house as well as small gobs of melted red candy.
“It looks as though someone has the same affinity as you for fructose products Petra.”
“Yes, it does look that way doesn’t it Ter.”
The Arcing machine in the corner of the room was silent. A red colored spatter was visible on the mansions white interior five-feet off the floor and it had dripped down the walls before it dried.
“Hey Captain!” A female voice yelled from the garage.
Petra, stepping over broken and smashed appliances on her way to the garage door, pushed it open and shook her head slowly in disbelief. All of the answers were here right in front of her. Two horizontal crimson filled tanks sat on the garage floor, one filled with a body, the other sans occupant. A dead man lay on the floor slumped over a broken wooden chair with his head twisted on backwards and there it sat upon a makeshift table, The Codex Gigas. The female officer standing next to the corpse had a look of what the fuck happened here written all over her face. A robotic female head resembling Emily lay next to her feet. The rest of the body was lying on the other side of the room on the cement floor.
“Well Petra I guess that is one mystery solved. The Codex Gigas is still intact.”
“Yes Ter but what were they doing with it?” Trying not to disturb anything in the room Petra hopped through the garage over evidence making her way to the ancient manuscript sitting on the swivel bookrest. Flipping through yellowing, dried, and cracked pages, she reached one that caught her eye. It was the drawing of a portrayal of Satan as a half-man, half-hornet.
“Petra if they used this in some type of ritual then the subject may have been transformed into another form perhaps as Satan himself in another vessel or host.”
“Yes Ter it’s looking that way.”
Petra turned her attention towards the spire sticking out through the roof. The sealed humid room had left everything in a moist state and the equipment and Vidscreens surfaces were wet to the touch. A path of crimson gel led from the opened tank into the kitchen area. The entire room reeked of sweet corrosiveness and burnt electronics.
“Renins!” Petra yelled aloud.
“Yes Captain.” he said softly from directly behind her, inches away from her, his hands were practically touching her backside.
“Who’s in this tank Renins?” she asked turning around abruptly so she could face her stalker. His eyes were surveying her curves. He was so close she could tell his breath smelled of onions and lack of hygiene. Petra lifted the lid on the tank and it opened with a hydraulic whisper.
“Well Captain let me see what we’ve got here,” he was staring at DNA data and scrolling up to the top of the fresh candidates on the list, “do you know a realtor Leila Kukani, a Bonnie Emert, an officer Richard Ward, Cindy Rhodes, or a realtor Dean Leuthold?”
“Island Realty,” Petra replied, “Dean worked for Island Realty.”
“That’s right Captain Dace very good. I think he has been reported as missing.” He continued reading names from his Vidset. “Do you know a—Professor Parsons Trefoils?”
“No.” she replied.
“Do you know Kahuna Joe or a Stephanie Matard?”
“What did you say?” she asked him with wide eyes.
“Kahuna…”
“—no, the other name.” she said cutting him off.
“Stephanie Matard, that one?” he asked eyeing her lustfully, admiring her ‘uniform’.
“Stephanie was here Ter. Where is she?”
“I don’t know Petra. But this cannot be good.”
“Is that a friend of yours?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I hope she’s okay. Should I continue?”
“Yes, continue.”
“Okay then, how about a Dreama Nelson or an Emily Tine?”
“Emily Tine?” Petra asked shocked. Is Dreama actually a part of this?
“You must be joking?” Petra asked. “As in Huerd Tine the geology professor?”
“Uh yes Captain that’s right, it says it right here!” He excitedly shoved the Vidset up to her face and it was there as plain as day. Emily Tine, dropping off the branches of the genealogy tree and she was on the lowest limb.
Petra morphed into her cobalt armor and dug deep into the now ambient tepid crimson gel. She pushed Renins back out of the way so he wouldn’t be spattered with the acidic substance as she scooped the head up out of the tank. She removed the sticky gel from the face, wiping frantically until the features appeared. Small droplets of gel plopped all over the floor and Petra’s face.
“That does resemble Emily Judson Petra with the exception of the shaved head, filigree, and the scars of course.”
“So this is a human being in this tank correct?” she asked Renins who was very confused and unsure of what was going on now.
“Well this data just tells us who was here Captain. I don’t know—what other kind of being is there— a Pseudosynth?”
“Yes,” Petra said letting go of the head, “so far—” The head slowly sank, disappearing into the red gel. Briskly walking between the two transparent tanks, she pushed the table out of the way that held the torn and cut-up remnants of a cobalt soaked face towel. Picking it up examining a corner of it closely, it read ‘Property of the Al Shifa Hospital-Do not Remove’. Balling up what was left of the towel it disappeared into her palm. She pulled on the black cables attached to the spire running up to the dish hanging between the two tanks. Giving them a powerful tug, they stretched and eventually snapped causing sparks and blue flashes to emit from the ends still attached to the service box in the garage. All of the lights flickered in the mansion for second.
“How’s that Ter?”
“I am now properly linked to our satellites Petra.”
“Good I need you to download all the information you can gather on the Yinbi Yinying.”
“It would be my pleasure Petra.”
“Renins what about Dreama Nelson, what data do you have on her? Are you positive her DNA was here?”
From across the room he began looking through files again, “let me see,—thirty-one year old female, father Raymond Nelson and mother Carnise Nelson, auburn hair and grey eyes. One half-sibling through mitochondrial DNA shared by the mother but the rest of the file is missing. Hmm that is strange. But yes, it shows her DNA was here in this house.”
“Petra mitochondrial DNA means…”
“She has a sibling Ter with DNA shared by the same mother but different fathers.”
“You ruined my ‘Ah-ha’ moment Petra.”
***
Petra stood outside in the driveway swiping through the dented Vidset found in the kitchen. Most of the ‘important’ data destroyed, erased, or remotely removed. “If Dreama has a sibling, I wonder if they are behind this. Ray never said anything about this little fact.”
“Giving him the benefit of the doubt Petra, he might not know.”
“You want me to take a look at that Vidset?” Petra turned around quickly to find Renins standing directly behind her again. His nose was an inch from her cobalt hair, which was now down, and flowing gently in the warm breeze.
“You smell good,” he told her. All of his teeth were showing with a wide yellow smile like a demented circus monkey, banging on its symbols “I might be able to slice the data off of that for you—if you want me to.”
She quickly handed him the Vidset, “Okay, sure.” and started walking towards Captain Pappas who was standing with his arms crossed talking to another officer. She could hear Renins inhaling a deep long breath behind her.
“Petra you might want to explain to that gentleman what boundaries are.”
“He’s harmless Ter. He probably doesn’t get out much.”
“That’s putting it mildly Petra.”
Chapter 21
SECURABLE
Friday October 19th 3:31 PM HST
POINT OF CONVERGENCE
“All of our satellite uplinks are back on line Captain Dace. Any theories about what actually happened here?” Captain Pappas asked her as the two of them walked down the middle of highway 11 under the scorching afternoon sunlight. A passing shower had just covered everything with a coating of warm rain scrubbing away impurities leaving a clean smell in the air. The coroner was busy frantically logging information and directing staff who were carrying the dead and placing them into Ambulance-Carriers. Only the friends and relatives of the deceased were still hanging around crying sorrowfully wondering when they would finally be allowed to spend one last time with their loved ones and say goodbye. News crews had gathered like flies on a dead carcass to get the hottest story currently in Hawaii.
“From the information I have and everything here I believe that this is a continuation of the attempt earlier in the year to take control of the United States government and its people. Same MO, same set of circumstances, only this time there is one big difference.”
“What’s that?” he asked stopping to look at her.
“This time they have succeeded—so far.”
“Hold on a second Captain Dace someone is trying to get ahold of me,” he looked down at his Vidset and put it up to his ear. “Uh huh, yea, uh—huh, okay, yea okay. Just sit tight for now and don’t engage we’ll be right there.”
“What is it?”
“Well it seems we might have found our mass murderer. She’s over at Kilauea and she fighting—well—someone that looks an awful lot like you Captain.”
“Stephanie.”
“Petra if that is Stephanie and she is alive that would explain some of the destruction of the mansion.”
“Yes Ter it would.”
“I’ll get my driver and give you a lift; it’s about two hours from here.” He suggested
“I have my own ride thanks Captain.” She put her right two forefingers to her lips and let out a piercing whistle. Captain Pappas flinched turning his head away from the ear splitting, high pitch sound. Down the road, the F-35B’s engine began winding up.
“I told my men to sit tight at the rim of the volcano. They won’t engage her until you get there.”
“Thanks Captain I’ll meet you there.” The earth around the two of them rumbled as the F-35B blocked out the sun above. The tip of the cobalt-camouflaged jet lowered down as Petra put her hand on it stroking it. “You want a ride Captain?” she asked him smiling as the jet chirped. The wet pavement was drying quickly under its powerful exhaust.
“Uh no thanks Captain Dace I get dizzy dancing. Vertigo you know.” He pointed to his ear and frowned slightly.
Petra climbed aboard the cockpit of the Lightning II and lifted off saluting him. He was staring back up at her holding his cap tightly on top of his head. He returned the salute trying to stay balanced from the turbulent exhaust as Ter fed GPS information to the jet’s navigational controls. Heading due east, the trip that would have normally taken a Cruiser less than two hours, only took minutes. Using Mauna Loa for cover the jet passed by the edge of the majestic 13,678-foot tall volcano engulfed in clouds, its peak obscured. At 1,000 feet, Petra switched on the AFCS or Automatic Flight Control System, set the altitude for one-hundred feet above sea level, and headed for Kilauea. The jet followed the contours of the rocky volcanic terrain at 200 knots.
“Ter do we have whisper-mode or equivalent on this jet?”
“No Petra. I cannot make a sound disappear—yet.”
“Let’s set down over there.” she pointed to a spot between highway 11, which ran right past Kilauea on the north side and a ridge that overlooked the steaming crater to the south. There were Police Cruisers parked on the highway and police officers a couple of hundred yards away lying down peeking over the edge of the ridge. Touching down on the barren black ground where plants were spotty at best, Petra jumped out of the cockpit c
rushing rocks beneath her boots. Armor encompassing her body she prepared for the worst making her way towards the waiting officers using the ridgeline to stay hidden.
“Captain Dace hello.” one of the officers whispered as she crouched down between two of the six officers lying on their stomachs watching the battle below them.
“Hello,” she whispered to them as they all nodded back to her, “how long has this been going on?”
“We’ve been here for around twenty-minutes. It started over there,” he pointed to the east side of the caldera, “and now it’s over here. They keep bouncing around swapping blows. The blue one, like you, keeps shooting the hot red one. The blue girl keeps dodging the stinging hornets. There are six of them I think.”
“Ter I need a scope—and a rifle.”
“Yes Petra.”
Putting the riflescope up to her right eye Petra could now see how the destruction at the mansion happened. The two of them locked in a life and death struggle were pulling out all of the stops. Stephanie firing every weapon in her HUD catalog causing resounding echoes to bounce off the crater walls sending rocks flying while the hornets buzzed loudly chasing after her. She avoided their attempts to sting her but it looked as if her armor was starting to fail. Dripping trails of seeping yellow liquid behind them, the huge hornets were unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Dreama was avoiding Stephanie’s Glock shots dodging and ducking as they powerfully swung at each other occasionally sending the other flying into mounds of volcanic rock. Dust clouds formed from their quick movements mixed with the sulfurous gases emitting from the volcano making it difficult to keep track of them through the scope. Each one of them had unique abilities that equaled the other. Petra studied Dreama’s movements. They were clunky and robotic mostly defensive moves. This would go on for eternity unless Petra stopped it here and now.
“Ter the distance to Dreama and Stephanie from here is—?”