//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 (Part 2): The Hunt* // Story: Bailing Out // by PhillyCh3zSt3ak //------------------------------// A/N: As stated in part one of the chapter the perspective of the storyteller swaps back to Andrew. I might as well have that cleared up right away to avoid confusion. Chapter 10: The Hunt (Andrew) Briggs Residence “Yes,” the detective said, “there is a chance she can be recovered alive.” “Ok so what’s his MO when he gets a new victim?” Hernandez asks. “Well depending if they’re a willing victim or not it varies. However cutting, beating, and burning the body is pretty common on all the willing victims, but there was one where he got aggressive, or at least that’s what the coroner told us.” “What do you mean ‘aggressive’?” I asked looking very concerned. “He when they came willingly he would cut them and make them bleed. Instead he would pour salt into the wounds to maximize the amount of pain. When he would beat them he would use gloved fists or brass knuckles, but when they would refuse a proposal from him he would beat them savagely. Usually with what our investigators have said based on perimortum bruising, is a baseball bat. Most likely spruce. As for the burning, our chemical analyzers show that there was an accelerant: propane.” “Anything else we should know?” Hernandez asked. “Yes, he abducts them and then waits until the sedative he uses wears off. He uses a fast acting sedative that takes between two to three hours to wear off before he starts. So-” “So that means we have that long before she’s in trouble,” I finish quickly. *** Las Vegas Crime Lab, 1 hour later I had been sitting around for the last hour twiddling my thumbs waiting for any results from any evidence collected. I have been checking my phone every five minutes just seeing if I’ve missed a call at all. The drive didn’t take that long, especially when you’re in a police vehicle with the sirens on. Out of sheer boredom, and an attempt to at least keep my mind occupied, I took apart and reassembled my sidearm at least ten times. The officers and lab techs were giving me odd looks as I did so. The detective said to ignore what I was doing and to let me be, but that didn’t diminish the amount of staring that was sent my way. “Lieutenant?” a woman said and my eyes shot up to her. “The detective wants to have a word with you.” I got up and followed her past windowed work cells that all had computer monitors. She led me into one of these work cells, this one with a big screen. “Mr. Briggs,” a lab tech said, “thanks for waiting. We figured out what vehicle made those tire tracks on the street.” She pressed a few keys on her keyboard, “They belong to a specific type of van used in the plumbing business.” “What kind?” Detective Reynolds said coming up behind me. Damn that guy can sneak around. “A Dodge Ram Tradesman. However we don’t know the model year or color.” “Actually I might be able to help with that,” I cut in while taking out my phone. The lab tech tried to speak up, but I held up a finger while I dialed a number. “Colonel? Do you have the GPS tracking data for Spi- I mean Sam?" “Put me on speaker,” Hernandez said. “Sir you are on speakerphone.” “Good. Detective I’m sending your people some sensitive tracking data,” the data appeared on the monitor in front of us. “How did-?” Reynolds was befuddled. “Don’t ask, we have our ways. Cross reference the path that the tracker took with traffic cam footage. Lieutenant take me off speaker.” “Secure,” I said after pressing the speaker icon. “We have a Predator drone up in the air and on station and we… borrowed a CIA satellite to scan for that implant. If we find it first before the local LEOs do, you’ll be the first to know,” Hernandez finished before he hung up. “Detective?” a younger male voice said from the door. “We found a fingerprint and some skin cells.” “And this is surprising how?” I counter. “The gun it was fired from belongs to me. I placed the rounds in the magazine so they’re most likely mine.” “Who are you?” he asked. “The husband,” I reply flatly. “Then why is he here? Isn’t it a conflict of interest?” he asked the detective. “National security overrides that protocol,” I say flatly. “And before you ask, it’s classified.” “Anyway… the prints don’t belong to anyone in any databases,” he says to the detective. I raise a hand, “And before you add something about military databases, yes I turned that filter on, and no matches there either.” “What about the DNA?” Reynolds asked. “Well we’re running a full analysis on it, it should be done in an hour or two due to the fact that it’s probably the Slasher’s.” “Send a copy to this email,” I say grabbing a pen and paper. “In the subject line write ‘Priority alpha, Sam Briggs’ and it’ll get to the right people.” He took it and saw that the ending was ‘.gov.’ “And by ‘right people’ you mean-?” he asks and I give him a stern look, “Right, classified.” “Set up a workstation, I’ll help sift through the cam and GPS data,” I say and they give me the ‘how dare you do that in our domain’ look. “As the Navy says, ‘all hands on deck.’” *** Canterlot Castle, Dimensional Observation Room Twilight was just about to use the mirror, right as a certain chaos loving being decided to interrupt her. “Twilight my dear, I heard about the little experiment that you’re doing for good ol’ Celly,” Discord said. “I want to see it.” He had a big smile on his face. “Why should I?” Twilight countered. “You want to mess with that other place, don’t you?” “Why Twilight I am hurt by that accusation,” the lord of chaos said feigning being stabbed in the heart. Twilight had to admit, Discord could act. ‘I wish he would channel that acting towards something more creative,’ Twilight thought. “I did once about 1005 years ago, but Celly and Luna’s subjects didn’t get it,” he replied. “How do you do that?” “Do what?” Discord said sitting on one of his signature pink clouds holding a glass of chocolate milk. “Wha-? Never mind. On the topic of you, why are you like that?” Twilight said gesturing with both hands up and down. “Like what?” he countered. “Like an earthborn, why aren’t you in your natural form?” “What? An ancient lord of chaos can’t take a form that’s comfortable?” Twilight glared at him, “Oh all right, since you INSISTED that I do so,” he snapped his fingers and morphed back into his mismatched body parts body. “Happy?” “Very,” she replied as her marking started to glow lavender as she started up the spell. She sensed Discord looming over her shoulder, “Fine. If you want to watch there’s going to be some rules. Questions are fine, so go ahead and ask. No messing around with the other world at all, not even to give them chocolate rain. And no getting any ideas while I’m doing this.” “Like what?” he said with a smile. “I am reformed after all.” “You know what I mean, buddy.” “But am I your guy, friend?” “What?” Twilight said with a confused look. She then shook her head, “Do you know what, never mind.” She put more power into her spell. Now that she had more power now thanks to her and her friends charging gem batteries, all she had to do now was light the ‘spark’ and the batteries took care of the rest. As the picture came into focus she saw Andrew looking at what she had heard described as a ‘monitor.’ On one was a map and on the other was an intersection with cars passing through. He paused the footage from time to time, as if he were looking for something very specific. The only reason it focused on Andrew right away was because she had been watching him the previous time, and his aura was what was still locked into the spell. “Come on you fucking bastard, where are you?” he asked the inanimate object. “He seems angry,” Twilight commented. “I wonder why?” ‘This just in: another victim has been taken by the Vegas Strip Slasher. The victim is a Samantha Briggs. The police are looking for her as we speak.’ Discord then put away the small radio. “Who’s Samantha?” Twilight asked out loud. “I know that Briggs is Andrew’s last name, but he never mentioned a sister.” “That, my dear, would be the alias created for Spitfire,” Discord replied. Twilight’s eyes widened in horror. A serial killer had the person she was trying to get home. Her arm marking glowed again as she changed the spell’s aura search for Spitfire’s. As it came into focus she saw the angel, but it was not a good sight. Spitfire’s arms were bloody and covered with cuts. Her legs broken, one tibia had broken through the skin making it a compound fracture. Her lower torso covered in third degree burns. “What kind of monster could do such a thing?” Twilight threw the question in the air, which only found the ears of Discord. “A very sick being, Twilight,” he replied. “One with deep emotional trauma and mental issues.” Twilight gave him the ‘like you’ look. “Twilight, even a being as chaotic as I would not wish such a… horror on another. I like pranks and messing with other people and their perceptions of reality, never once have I killed or harmed someone like that.” Twilight agreed. Discord never killed anyone directly. They died from natural causes, or in the case of the augmented realities that Discord caused in his reign of chaos a thousand years ago, natural causes within unnatural circumstances. According to records there was one man who died from anaphylactic shock after falling into mud made out of peanut butter. According to what the doctors wrote, it wasn't pretty. “I think we should do something,” Twilight said. “Hmm… How about taking the 'camera' outside and seeing where she’s being held captive?” Discord suggested. “That’s… a great idea,” Twilight responded with a shocked expression. “Just because I am chaotic doesn’t mean I’m evil,” he commented. Twilight rotated her “camera” until she saw a door. She then had the spell go towards it. The doors lead to a larger hallway, which lead to a maze of corridors. She picked one and followed along it. Finally she reached a set of double doors and fazed through them. The darkness of night being brightened by the moon and the city lights greeted her and Discord. Twilight then moved her “camera” so that it would look down from the sky. “And now for the finishing touch,” Discord said snapping his fingers. One of his classic pink cotton candy clouds appeared over the old abandoned building. “Now I think it’s about time we told our good pal Andrew where he can find Spitfire.” *** Crime Lab I continue to look at footage. I saw a few possible candidates, but none of them continued on with the tracking data that was sent over. Apparently this was the night that everyone that owned a Tradesman decided to all go out on the street at the same time. I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration and follow it up by rubbing my temples. “Long night?” said a male voice from behind. It was the fingerprint guy from before. “You have no idea,” I reply with my eyes closed, still rubbing my temples. “So, what’s your story?” he asked placing two cups of coffee on the desk. “We don’t usually let people who have ties to a kidnapping victim in the labs, but now all of a sudden you are?” I remained silent. “Come on man, you’ve got to give me something here.” I sat there for a good five minutes, there was no way that he’d leave me alone until I told him so… “I was assigned to protect her, and I failed,” I said feeling defeated. “So is being married a cover or-?” “No, we’re actually married. A stupid Elvis impersonator wedding, but a wedding none-the-less.” I paused for a moment before chuckling, “You know what? My parents didn’t even know I got married. They’ve been pestering me for the last year or so to find a nice girl and settle down. The time I finally do, she gets abducted. If shit hits the fan here it’s not going to be a pleasant conversation with my parents, that’s for sure,” I sigh leaning back in the swivel chair, my eyes staring at the ceiling. “How’d you two meet?” “Believe it or not she broke into my house and I almost shot her,” I smiled as I remembered that moment. When I look back at it, it was sort of funny. As I finished reminiscing my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller id and saw it said ‘The Lord of Chaos’ with no number underneath that. I pressed answer, “Uhh… hello?” *** “Yes, Mr. Briggs? My name is Dennis Chord,” Discord said into a banana, “and I would like to assist you in your dilemma.” “Ok?” “Head towards the smoke stacks, the pink cloud bearing brown rain will mark your destination,” he finished before making the banana disappear, effectively hanging up. Twilight glared at him. “What?” “Why didn’t you help him?” Twilight said with clenched fists. “Oh but my dear, I did.” Twilight had a befuddled look, “Twilight, is it better for one to be given the answer to a problem, or be given a push,” he said pushing her then reappeared behind her catching her before she could fall, “in the right direction?” Twilight pondered his words as he walked out of the room, “It seems as though my work here is done,” he said as the door closed and Twilight returned her attention to the mirror. *** That was by far the weirdest phone call that I have ever received. I felt eyes on me again, like I did a little while ago and it wasn’t from the lab tech next to me. Twilight and her friends must be watching again. Which makes me wonder why they aren’t helping me- unless. “No. It couldn’t be,” I say bringing up my recent call log and look at the number that the ‘Dennis’ guy called from. It said ‘π.’ Not even the number itself, just the symbol. I showed the screen to the lab tech, “Is this even possible?” “Is that pi?” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Just making sure I’m not seeing things,” I reply before quickly dialing Hernandez. “Boss I need you to trust me on something, send the Predator to the industrial district. Focus on abandoned buildings, and trust me on this last one, and look for a pink cloud hovering over it.” “Lieutenant, I’ll humor you just this once, but if you’re wrong you’re headed straight for the psych ward,” he replied. “Pink cloud? What the hell is he smoking?” he muttered. “One moment, I’m putting you on speaker.” “Drone is in route, ETA two minutes,” the drone pilot said. I sat on my phone, those two minutes felt like hours. “On station. Uhh… is that a cloud just sitting above those smokestacks?” “Ignore that, scan for heat signatures,” Hernandez replied. “Yes, sir. Activating FLIR,” the other side was silent for a minute. Another torturous minute. “No heat spikes detecte- no wait. There are two signatures inside. One is walking around while the other is stationary. Wait, the stationary one seems to be struggling.” “Is it her?” I ask. “One second, running height and shoulder width sizes against her file,” a female voice said. “Match found, 89.9% accuracy it is our girl.” “Now what?” I ask. “I’m going to call the sheriff and have SWAT move in,” Hernandez replies. “I want in. If anyone’s going to put a round into that bastard’s skull it’s going to be me.” *** Factory District I sat towards the doors of the APC as it drove through the streets towards the marked factory. I checked my guns. I had my Glock 17 from before. I checked the magazine to make sure it was full and then chambered a round before holstering it. I check the other gun in my possession, a P90 submachine gun. The magazine was filled with fifty 5.7mm rounds. I pull bolt back, chambering a round, before placing the safety on. I double checked one final piece of equipment that only one officer gave me a slight look over, an M26 MASS which only had one shell in it. A very special shell. “What’s the plan?” one officer asked. “The building has four entrances, one four man squad will hit each one,” the SWAT commander said from the passenger seat up front. “Alpha will be headed by Lt. Briggs here, they’ll handle the north entrance. Bravo will hit the west, Charlie will handle south, and delta will handle the east. Any questions? Good. Let’s get in there and catch this sick bastard.” I went over my equipment again, just to be sure. I even brought my KBAR knife with me, just in case because you never know when you’ll need a knife. “Why are you here with us?” an officer said next to me. “National security,” I replied flatly as I sheathed the knife on my body armor. The transport stopped and the doors were opened. I put on my helmet as I stepped out. Everyone had balaclavas, but I didn’t, I wanted that fuck to have the image of my face be the last thing he sees. I fix my headset to my ear and turn it on. “Colonel, can you hear me?” I say fiddling with it a little. “Five by five, Lieutenant,” he replied. “Any updates on our girl?” I ask walking quickly towards my position. “Sensors say that she’s stopped moving, but she’s still alive inside. My best guess is that she’s out cold. Probably for the best, all things considering.” I reach my breaching position, “Copy that, we’re moving in.” I tap the officer’s soldier, letting him know I was ready. He signaled another officer who put a breaching charge on the door. “Alpha team is ready,” I say into my radio. Then the other three teams chimed in. “Bravo ready.” “Charlie’s good to go.” “Delta’s good.” “Alright good, all teams enter on my mark. Three… two… one… mark.” *** Observation Room Twilight stared at the image of the fifteen armed policemen and Andrew prepared to enter the building that Discord had marked less than an hour earlier. One thing that she noticed was that she noticed about Andrew is that he had a look in his eyes that was separate from the others present. While the others showed a focus on the task at hand, his showed rage. Pure unbridled rage. “Twilight,” she turned around to see Celestia and Luna coming through the doors. “Discord told us what he saw. Will they be able to save Spitfire?” “Sister,” Luna spoke up. “It looks like they’re about to.” All three turned their attention to the mirror and watched as the scene played out. *** A/N: In this section we see the reappearance of comments made by the people present on the other side of the mirror. They will appear ‘as so.’ Appropriate music to listen to during this section: YouTube link. Repeat if it ends before you finish reading. “Mark,” was said over the radio and at all four points an explosive detonated and each team poured in. I flicked off the safety on my P90 and turned on the green laser sight/flashlight combo. I swept my weapon into the first room and saw nothing there. “Clear,” I said into the radio. I heard other members say “clear” as well as they too cleared their rooms. We moved to the first open area, we kept our weapons trained on doors and kept watchful eyes out for sudden movements. ‘They move like a well-oiled machine,’ Celestia commented. ‘Perhaps our guards could learn a thing or two from these- what were they called again?’ ‘I think Andrew called them SWAT,’ Twilight replied. We went up some stairs and with each stair our boots silently stepped with each footfall. I heard footsteps going away from us and I held up my fist telling the others to stop. I listened to see what their speed was. They were slow, not walking slow to not be detected, but just walking casually. “Let’s go,” I said to my team. We came to a set of double doors leading to the facility’s former cafeteria. I peeked in the window only to see a single man smoking a cigarette looking over the half-naked body of Spitfire. My blood started to boil. ‘Sister, what’s wrong with him?’ Luna asked. ‘Anger, pure anger,’ Celestia replied. “We have him, attempting capture,” I said into the radio. “Flash and clear,” I said to the team. One officer reached into a pocket and brought out a flashbang grenade and undid the Velcro keeping the detonator lever in place. He pulled the pin as another officer opened the door and then threw the grenade in. We covered our ears as we waited the three seconds for the explosion. ‘Why are they-?’ Twilight started. *Boom* ‘Oww,’ Luna said trying to clear the ringing from her ears as one would get water out of them. ‘WHAT!?!’ Twilight asked, ears ringing. Everyone brought up their guns before bursting into the room. I immediately went for the only conscious man in the room and gave him a Charlie horse and hit him square in the head with the butt of my P90. As he crumpled to the ground with a new gash on his head I pointed my gun at his torso. “Stay down, bitch,” I say resisting the urge to empty the magazine into him. ‘What was that?’ Celestia asked. ‘Some sort of non-lethal bomb meant to incapacitate the target,’ Twilight replied. ‘Andrew seems to be having some incredible restraint right now,’ Luna states bringing their attention back to the mirror. I throw him a zip tie, “Put it on,” I say with as much venom as possible in my voice. He slowly puts his hands together and pulls the tie tight with his teeth. I reach down and pull it tighter, enough to make him wince. I reach down and pull out his wallet and I flick it open to his driver’s license. “Barry Richards, age twenty-nine,” I say throwing the wallet aside. “What do you want?” he stammered. “How about the woman you abducted tonight?” I say grabbing him by his collar and throwing him into a metal support beam. He pointed to the table behind me, “Good boy, now stay the fuck there, I’m not done with you.” I turn around and see the rest of the team was clearing the rest of the area. I walk to the table and see Spitfire restrained by her hands and feet to it. Her shirt was torn open and her body was burned from just below her breasts to her waistline. Her legs were both broken, one was a clean break while the other was a compound fracture. And then I saw her arms, they were cut open and I could see crystalline specks in them. I pull out my knife and cut the restraints. I put a hand to my headset, “I need an immediate MEDEVAC.” “Copy that, MEDEVAC in route. ETA five minutes,” Hernandez said. Perfect all the time I need. “Gentlemen, would you mind leaving us for a moment,” I say to my team. They looked like they were able to raise their voices but then they saw the look in my eyes, “Or you’re welcome to stay, your choice.” Two left, leaving one in the room. “Patch her up as best as you can,” I said to him. He only nodded in return. Then I turned my attention to a more, personal matter. ‘Wait, why would he ask them to leave?’ Twilight asked. ‘I think we’re about to find out,’ Celestia answered, worry entering her mind. I picked up Barry and threw him into the wall. “So you like cutting people, huh?” He nodded in response. “Interesting,” I pull out my knife and cut both his Achilles tendons around the calf region. He fell over and cried out in pain. “So I have to ask you, how do you like it, huh?” “I don’t!” he screamed back. “Well then I have to ask myself, why did you do it to them, hmm?” I ask in return. “I could beat you up next, but it seems like I already did that. Next would have to be burning people, why would you even do that? Are you that fucked up in the head?” He didn’t say anything. “Officer, do you see any high proof alcohol anywhere?” “Yes…” he said sort of distracted to the fact I already gave him a task. I walked over and grabbed a bottle of vodka. I noticed that he had wrapped up the cuts on the arms already and was starting on splints for her legs. “Grey Goose, nice stuff. Do you drink it after you burn your victims?” He nodded, grunting in pain as he tried to shift. I opened the unused bottle and poured it over him. ‘What is he doing?’ Celestia asked this time. I pulled out the M26 and chambered the round, “Mr. Richards have you ever heard of the Dragon’s Breath round?” His pupils shrunk in both fear and realization. “So you have,” I say raising the shotgun and its deadly fire round around the groin region. “Enjoy your personal hell,” I say pulling the trigger and the magnesium fueled flame hit the serial killer. He screamed out in pain as he was engulfed in flames fueled additionally due to being soaked in high proof alcohol. The three princesses watched in shock and horror as Andrew watched the serial killer engulfed in flames burn with no smile nor disgust as the killer screamed for it to end, though he couldn’t speak. ‘How could he do such a thing?’ Twilight asked with a tear rolling down her cheek. ‘How could he kill with no emotion what so ever?’ ‘Twilight, while I do not approve of his actions the one known as Richards was unredeemable. He killed with malice and intent with no remorse for what he had done. We don’t know how their penal system works. For all we know this is how they deal with people like him,’ Celestia replied. I finally decided that he had had enough after he tried to roll on the floor trying to put out the flames. I raised my P90 and emptied the magazine into him. The bolt locked back as there was no more ammunition to fire. I pulled out my Glock and walked over to the still smoldering body and put one round in his head. A double tap. ‘Ok I’ll admit that was overkill,’ Luna stated. I cut the zip tie and as I stood up the other two walked back in the room, guns raised and looked at me. “He got free and tried to make a break for it. Isn’t that right officer?” I say to the one taking care of Spitfire. “Yes sir, he did try to run and you stopped him.” “Good, now to the other situation at hand,” I say picking up Spitfire and placing her in a princess carry. You know the ones that you see in all those Disney movies? ‘The anger is gone,’ Celestia commented. ‘It has been replaced with worry.’ I carried Spitfire out of the cafeteria and down the stairs that we came up. As I quickly walked through the corridor Spitfire stirred and said a dry “Uhhh.” “Spits, stay with me, alright? You’ll be fine,” I say looking down at her. She could barely open her eyes. “Why can’t I feel anything?” she asked. “You’ve been shot up with enough morphine to knock out a rhino,” I answer quickly moving around some scattered debris on the ground. “Ok,” she says blinking slowly. “I’m just… going… to rest my… eyes,” she finishes and her eyes close slowly. But her breathing has slowed as well. I crash through doors that closed from earlier. In the parking lot near the APC we arrived in there was a Blackhawk with its rotors already powered up. “We need to take off immediately!” I yell to the pilot, motioning with my index finger in a circular movement. I saw the SWAT commander come over, “What about the Slasher?!?” he yelled over the engines. “He’s dead!” I yelled back. “He tried to run after escaping with a knife and I shot him! We need to go now!” The helicopter doors closed and we took off. I held Spitfire’s wrapped hand and whispered, “You’ll be fine. Just stay with me.”