//------------------------------// // Walking in the rain. // Story: Brave New Worlds. // by Balancer //------------------------------// DCI Bitter Leaf – One week prior Hot and sticky, this city, it’s always hot and always sticky. Leaf thought to herself as she walked through the warm rain and humid air, the busy streets behind her oblivious to the deluge from above. The flickering blue field above the walkways protecting them from the rain, hot droplets ran down the almost frictionless surface, actively repelled with a low hum that one tuned out after the first couple of days. Simply another city noise amid the regular hustle. Leaf, however, was walking along one of the dirt paths that laced Appleseed’s central park, the soaked dirt and grit making a wet grinding sound beneath her heels as she walked away from the city. She stopped for a moment and looked over her shoulder at the city behind her. Its lights sparkling in the rain, the civilized world where everyone respected the rules, where the city sheltered them from the world. The wilderness stretched ahead of her, the looming shapes of the trees towered above her, rain striking her as she resumed walking, a smile gracing her lips fleetingly. She had a crime scene to reach. It was almost mid-night and still the city inhabitants carried on, always doing something. Leaf cupped a hand over a cigarette she had pulled from one of her pockets, lighting it with a small electronic device. Stuffing the cheap lighter back into her coat she carried on walking into the dark, a smattering of path lights glittered in the rain as they showed her the way. The sounds of the city grew faint, signalling that she had passed into what the city considered the park proper, its own personal touch of the wild smack dab in the center of the urban sprawl. It liked to shut out the sounds of the city for park goers with judicious use of discreetly placed shush field generators, the city’s aim was to help make the park a more peaceful place for the citizenry to go and relax. Leaf felt the warm water trickle down the back of her neck, her wet hair sticking to her scalp as another drop slid down her nose and dropped onto her cherry, extinguishing it. Scowling slightly, she flicked the useless stick of refined tobacco out into a nearby bush. “Too wet to smoke out here anyway,” She grumbled, a ping sounding in her ear as the park systems detected the smoke and fined her for littering. Paying the fine, Leaf walked towards the murder scene, the area lit up by flashing blue and red lights. Her interface outlined a series of beacons that hazily projected a line of holographic tape. The bright yellow Do Not Cross flickering in the rain, the drops of water disrupting the projection. Around the site, a quartet of long tapered drones slowly patrolled through the air, blue and red lights pulsing from the gaps in their bodies as the rain bounced off the fields they projected around themselves. Their wide and bulky, almost serpentine heads rapidly tapered back into a series of flat spines that extended backwards like a tail, swaying as they moved through the air in a swimming motion. Leaf had always thought they looked kind of intimidating as a foal, and as a grownup she still found there blank metal gaze to be at times unnerving. One of the drones rotated in the air and zipped over to her, a floating box identifying it as a Constable with the Metropolitan Police Office. “DCI Bitter Leaf, thank you for coming. The witnesses are this way,” It said, vibrating its field to produce the sound as it curled back in on itself and moved across to where two white tents had been erected. Walking after the drone, Leaf felt a cool breeze wash over her as she entered the indicated tent, a pair of air conditioners were set up providing a relief from the humidity. Inside were a couple of other drones of various make that her interface identified as journalists with one of the local papers. Apparently they were arguing with uniform, a basic bipedal like her, who looked like she was just about fed up with the prattle. Looking around she saw a pair of basic orthodox equestrians sitting in a corner, one mare and a stallion, a blanket wrapped around the mare. Judging from the way they were holding each other they were obviously partners, the stallion was talking to a security drone. Unlike the drones outside it had a set of black lines on its carapace that identified it as a Sergeant, a side glance at its tag identifying it as one Police Sergeant Zora VNF-65-X240M746O, Law Enforcement Drone. “Leaf, you're sopping wet!” A male voice said from behind her. “Shield not working?” Looking over her shoulder, Leaf scowled at the sand brown unicorn. “You know I don’t like you calling me that DI Swid.” The figure of the tall lanky stallion brushed past her, water rolling off his sandy brown coat and flank like water off a duck’s back. A faint blue shimmer showing that his personal shielding was hard at work repelling the water droplets. “Sure thing, guv,” He said with a shrug. "Seen the stiff yet?" "Just got here, she found it I take it?" Leaf nodded her head to indicate the mare in one of the corners talking to the Sergeant drone. "Yeah, got the toaster taking a statement,” Swid replied, taking a cautious step away as Leaf gave him a stern look. “What?” “Toaster?” “Oh don’t tell me you’re a machine sympathizer, Leaf.” “No, I just think it’s inappropriate,” Leaf said, placing a hand on her hip. “They work just as hard as you, probably harder,” She raised an eyebrow, smiling slightly. “Yeah yeah, I get the message.” “Good, hate to let you go so soon after getting transferred here. Doesn't look good, firing staff.” “Oh how typical of a Canterlot gal, all image,” The unicorn rolled his eyes as he motioned for Leaf to leave. “Why don't you go have a look at the stiff while I handle the vultures, looks like the uni is having a hard enough time as is. The drone…Sergeant Zora, should almost be finished collecting the statements. I’ll tell it to keep the witness here so you can talk to them yourself," "Cheers, Swid," Leaf said, turning on the spot and leaving. "It's real nasty guv, hope you liked what you ate today. You’ll be seeing it soon enough," The DI said as she left. Ignoring him Leaf stepped back out into the rain and activated the tactical police overlay for her interface, or as the media had dubbed it, crime-o-vision. She preferred the other moniker it had been saddled with, cop-sight, at least which sounded halfway professional. The borders of her vision filled with a variety of tags, one of them glowing a bright blue. Selecting it with a mental prod Leaf watched as the virtual case file popped up, flipping it open with swiping gesture. The file was still in the early stages of completion, as to be expected so soon into the case. Skimming the information for a second before shoving it into her peripheral, Leaf walked over to the second tent and stepped inside. The sight made her grimace, splayed out like a morbid piece of art was the body of what her interface identified as a female Thrun, a species of bipedal creature, avian descent. Normally what set a Thrun apart from other bipedal species was that they possessed a single set of reverse jointed legs and a thin carapace made of tiny scales of various hues and patterns. Their facial features carried traces of their avian heritage, sharp and lean. Leaf reckoned in a certain light they looked rather pretty, just not this unfortunate soul. Her carapace had been skinned in specific locations, removing any identifying scale marks the woman would have had. Not much of her carapace was left intact. Crouching down to get a better look Leaf magnified her vision, inspecting the wounds. No signs of burning, obviously not an energy or magical blade. However given the large amount of surrounding damage to the flesh and carapace scales, suggests a large blade, no teeth or serrated edges. Looks like it wasn't too sharp either, significant tearing suggests a sawing motion…merciful Twilight, signs point to this being done pre-mortem. Around the location placed in a ritualistic fashion were the majority of the internal organs and significant bones, the whole scene looked like something out of a horror book. Weird glyphs were inscribed onto a few rocks that looked like they had been placed with deliberate care and scattered at random intervals were small charms made of interlinked bone. The tell-tale smell of burnt charcoal and brimstone gave away the fact that dark magic had been cast here recently. “Sweet stars above,” Leaf muttered under her breath as she picked up one of the charms, a flicker of blue ran over her skin as she activated her shield. Rolling it over in her hands she inspected the macabre trinket, a mild sense of nausea running through her as her interface ID’d it as the bone as a fragment of the victims femur, whittled into a delicate spiral shape. Her vision swam slightly as she tried to read the many small glyphs that had been inscribed all over the surface of the charm, many with an obsessive level of detail. Logging the item she slipped it into a slim plastic bag and pocketed it. “Could come in handy later,” She mused to herself, rubbing her eyes as she stood and went to leave the tent. As she turned away a flicker of movement caused her to spin around, hand instinctively falling to her hip holster. The only thing in the tent was the body, and that hadn't even twitched an inch. Leaf scowled, feeling slightly embarrassed with herself as she stepped out. Blood and hellfire, get grip of yourself woman. Just a corpse, nothing more. She thought to herself, shaking off a creeping sense of dread she hadn't notice building. The rain fell on her once again, only to slide off her as her shield intercepted them, the sound making a patter sound in her ear. With a mental nudge she opened a link to Vigilance. -Sir, I've taken a look at the scene. It’s…gruesome to say the least.- A small shield popped up in the corner of her vision, Vigilance’s icon. –I’ve looked over the initial reports by the drones and DI Swid, do you want to talk to the witnesses?- Leaf looked over to the second tent, her interface showing a blue outline of the three police personnel overlaid where they were relative to her. From the way they were moving, they were still talking to the witnesses and the couple of press drones. -I think Swid and the Sergeant from Metro have things covered, ask them to stall the press drones if they can, I want to talk to them first. I’ll take another look around before going inside.- She sent, activating an array of magnification ware. Leaf turned around slowly, canvassing the area, looking around as she tried piecing things together. The rain making tiny ripples across the pools of water that had already accumulated in the tracks left by the regular park maintenance vehicles. A few leaves, torn loose by the wind and rain, glided softly across the makeshift pool. –Sir do we have any aerial footage of the area? -Just a couple of weather monitoring stations that were flying over and a traffic drone who was slacking off bird watching. -Nothing good in them?- Leaf sent, as she crouched and looked closely at some odd tracks in the mud. Almost washed away by the rain were a pair of shallow splayed out grooves, like the kind left by a hover propulsion system. The ground was covered with them, as to be expected, park maintenance drones made use of heavy lifting systems when clearing fallen trees and pruning large branches. What made this series of tracks jump out at her was that they never left the center of the path despite at least three trees being close by, chances are all the other similar tracks had caused these ones to be discarded by the initial investigative team. –Sir, that traffic drone wouldn't happen to have tagged a van or some other kind of heavy vehicle entering the area unscheduled? Maybe over the course of the day, look for repeats of the same vehicle or vehicles registered to the same owner entering the park.- A couple of seconds passed without a reply as Vigilance replayed the day’s footage. –We have a series of trucks listed with Sunny Fields Landscaping entering the park on eight separate occasions. You thinking that it was a cover to sneak in the materials? No they were delivering ice cream. Leaf mentally snarked, biting her tongue. She knew Vigilance had already drawn the conclusion the microsecond she brought it up. The AI was just being polite. -Well the Thrun wasn't killed here, it’s been deliberately moved and from what I’m getting some sort of ritual was conducted. I’ll review the witnesses’ statement before I talk to her, see if she heard anything. Can we get an idea what the glyphs were for? Leaf stood up, brushing the grime from her pants, turning off her shield as she looked around again. The feeling of rain against her skin appealed to something primal within her. A prickling sensation ran over her scalp, a signal from her interface that her data was being accessed remotely. -I've sent a copy of the glyphs to the Occult Occurrences Division, they’ll get back to you when they get anything. Anything else jumping out at you down there?- -Not right now, I’ll need to take a closer look at the forensics and OOD’s report when they get through. Keep me posted. -Of course, Chief Inspector. A clicking sound signalling the end of the conversation as the link closed. “Sir.” Leaf muttered into the night air, staring up through the canopy of leaves at the night sky above. Wordlessly, Leaf walked back into the tent containing the body of the murdered woman, sadly she was listed as a tourist, her visa clearing a quick inspection. She had arrived only a couple days ago, quickly vanishing off the grid less than four hours later after losing the bracelet provided to her by border control so that the city could keep an eye on her. The bracelet had been recovered in the immigration sector. A BOLO had been issued, sadly they had failed to find her in time. Taking a moment Leaf placed a hand over her face, unlike other advanced civ’s, Thruns didn't use mind backups, there would be no second life for this poor woman. Their culture didn't allow for it, something about duplicate souls not sitting right with their cast system or something to that extent. It wasn't that another living being was permanently gone, she'd seen permanent deaths in her lifetime, and this wasn't the first and it certainly wouldn't be the last. It wasn't the circumstances in which she had died, in her time she had seen into the vast depths of cruelty the soul offered, this was simply one more example and a comparatively mild one over the course of her career. It was that this death was…had been preventable, that something as simple as a security bracelet could have, would have, made all the difference in the world. Her free hand slipped into her pocket and curled over the bone charm, it felt as cold as ice. "Are you okay, ma'am?" A mechanical voice asked from behind her, a box in her interface identifying the speaker as a drone constable. "Your heart rate just spiked." "I'm fine constable," Leaf replied, turning away from the grisly scene with a scowl. "Is DI Swid finished with the press?" The drone bobbed in the air uncertainly. "Are you sure you're okay ma'am, I'm still picking up-" It's voice field vibrated rapidly in front of it, mimicking a concerned tone, causing Leaf to scowl at it, shutting it up. "I can assure you Constable that my health is not in jeopardy, now I asked you a question and I am still waiting for an answer," She said sternly. "Yes he is, ma'am," The drone replied curtly before zipping off in an offended manner. "Bloody bio's. Show some concern and that's the thanks you get," It muttered in a sub audible frequency, probably unaware Leaf was able to hear it, probably. Leaf just rolled her eyes and made a mental note to watch that drone in the future as she made her way back over to the tent with the living occupants. A breath of cool air washed over her, providing a relief from the humidity as she walked inside, water dripped off her coat and hair in large, fat drops. Looking over at Swid and the Uniform she noticed that the Press drones had only grown more agitated. “This is unacceptable, an infringement on my rights I tell you! I demand to speak to your superior at once!” One of the Press drones squealed in a profoundly irritating voice, its field flickering a deep purple to signal its annoyance. Leaf winced internally, surely it had calibrated its field to produce that ungodly noise for the sole purpose of getting under her skin. It was shaped like a large diamond, small growths spouting off it in random directions. Overall it looked rather…sharp. It’s friend was much more comical, looking like a large floating pineapple wearing a humorous hat that flopped around as it moved. Somehow it was managing to look rather embarrassed as it spun in the air. “Everything alright over here?” She asked, walking over to the small commotion. The uniform looking over at her, exasperation evident on her face. “Well sir, it’s your lucky day, presenting DCI Bitter Leaf. You can direct all your pointless questions at her,” The officer said, stepping aside to let Leaf into the group. “Showed up right on time ma’am.” She whispered. Raising an eyebrow Leaf placed a hand on her hip. “What’s causing this fuss sir?” She asked in a stern professional tone. “This fuss, this fuss!” The pointy drone screeched. “Ma’am your officers have been impeding my journalistic rights!” The floating pineapple backed away from its companion slowly as Swid scowled and face hoofed. “Oh and please, explain how they've been doing that,” Leaf replied, rubbing her forehead softly. She could feel a migraine coming on. The floating diamond flashed purple again. “Why your officers accosted me when I tried to talk to the witnesses! No, assaulted me!” Leaf turned to the uniform, a questioning look in her eyes. “What happened?” The uniform crossed her arms as she glared at the press drone. “This jerk was harassing the witnesses so Sergeant Zora told him to shove off. May have also given him a physical demonstration on how to do just that as well.” “Hah, more like forcibly pushed me away from that poor mare. All I was doing was asking a couple of questions, peacefully, when all of a sudden that low life knockoff excuse for a drone barges in and knocks me out of the air!” Leaf turned over to look at the black stripped drone. -Sgt Zora.- She messaged. The drone continued its conversation with the witnesses, not missing a beat as it picked up the line. –Ma’am?- It answered, a cool metallic voice reverberating in her head. -What happened with the press? Don’t tell me I’m going to have to report you to Internal.- -Nothing ma’am, just gave it a little push.- Leaf groaned inwardly. –How little?- -Well maybe not ‘little’ little, enough for that scrapheap to back off.- The drone admitted. –The jerk was harassing the crap out’a the poor girl and her partner was letting it happen.- Leaf could help but notice as the drone’s voice distorted slightly towards the end, a slight red tinge flashing around its shell, briefly startling the two ponies it was talking to. –That bad, Sergeant?- -Sorry ma’am.- -How much of an ass was this guy being?- -The usual press vulture ma’am, kept needling the mare about what she saw, how she could feel safe when it was apparent we were failing at our jobs, blah blah blah. Oh and word of warning, this guy styles himself as a public watchdog, really anti gov.- -Got it, I’ll be over in a second to talk to the witnesses.- Leaf turned back to the pair of press drones, scowling. “Apparently you were harassing one of my witnesses Mr…” Leaf looked to the side for a second. “Shutters. Maybe I should be the one pressing charges.” The drone flashed red, crying out in indignation. “Of course, the tyrant’s lapdogs refuse to prosecute their own!” The assembled police officers looked at each with raised eyebrows as the floating pineapple rushed in-between it’s companion and them, attempting to subdue its spiky friend with its own fields. “So sorry officers, my, ah, friend here is very passionate about it’s, ahhh, work.” “Obviously it’s passionate about a couple of other things as well,” Swid grumbled as the uniform glared daggers at the offending drone. “Listen, I don’t want to cause any trouble, he just get a bit excited, please ma’am I don’t want to waste your time on something trivial as this when there’s a killer on the loose,” The pineapple pleaded, addressing Leaf. “Listen no harm’s been done and I’m feeling a bit generous today so I’m going to give it a pass. But if I find your friend harassing anyone else you won’t be so lucky.” Leaf replied, noting the makes and names of the two drones in front of her, registering them with the city’s automated security watch list. “You've both been put on the watch list for the city on a 30 day sentence, keep your grills clean and your names come off. Fuck up and every security dumb-drone will be swarming all over you before you can finish processing how screwed you are. Understand?” Leaf asked, hand on her hip as the drone went still for a moment. “Crystal, ma’am,” The pineapple replied coldly, floating away sluggishly as it pulled it’s friend with it. The uniform next to her swept her cap off her head, the movement tousling her dark blue hair, causing it to fall across her face as she wiped her brow. “Thanks for dealing with that ma’am. They really don’t cover assholes at the academy.” “Comes with experience,” Leaf shrugged, taking time to examine the officer now that the issue had been resolved, looking her over quickly. Like herself, she was using a bipedal form, though her history showed she had been born a unicorn and still retained a complement of her abilities, albeit her form was decidedly more…appealing than her own. Just how does she expect to run in that? Leaf thought exasperatedly, checking the officer’s tag. Apparently this was her first day out in the field. “Looks like you’re having an interesting first day Miss Glimmer,” She said with a conspiratorial wink. Glimmer blushed slightly and nervously wrung her cap in her hands. “Ah, well yes ma’am. I suppose it is,” A cough caught their attention. “If you’re about done undressing the constable with your eyes, ma’am, maybe you’d like to talk to the witnesses?” Swid said in a hushed voice, causing Glimmer to make a small pepping sound and blush harder. Wait what, I wasn’t… Leaf thought to herself as she looked over her shoulder at Swid, raising an eyebrow before realising he had probably taken her looking over Glimmer as checking her out. That or he was pulling her chain. “In your dreams, Detective,” She replied, annoyance lacing voice as she broke away from the group and walked over to the witnesses. Glimmer gave her a little smile as she put her cap back on. “Ma’am,” She said, walking away with a little bounce in her step. Either not hearing her or not caring about it, Leaf didn’t reply as she walked over to Zora and the two ponies. A quick check showed that they were indeed together, married in fact. “Mister and Miss Marble, I am DCI Bitter Leaf, the senior officer in charge of this case,” She said as she came over, a no nonsense expression on her face. “I hope Sergeant Zora has been conducting himself to your satisfaction.” The husband nodded as he ran a hoof across his wife’s shoulders. “Yes ma’am. Are we free to go yet, I-I don’t want to sound rude but my wife and I are out of sorts right now. All I really want to do is go home,” He asked a pleading look on his face. “If DCI Leaf is happy that you've answered everything then I’m sure we can release you at once. Ma’am?” Zora asked, turning slightly in the air towards her. Leaf looked over the pair of ponies, running a review on the testimony Zora had lodged seconds ago. “If you don’t mind I’ll just ask you a couple more questions, to correlate your testimony, won’t be a more than a minute,” She asked, kneeling down to eye level with the ponies. The husband pressed his muzzle close to his wife’s ear and mumbled something that Leaf had to activate her embedded audio enhancements to pick up. “Think you can hold up a bit longer, dear?” The mare nodded slightly and reached up to her shoulder, wrapping a hoof around the comforting foreleg there. “If you promise to make it quick, officer,” Leaf nodded slightly. “You were out here taking a walk, on your way home from a relaxing night out at a local theater and decided to take a walk through the park where you were quickly caught in the rain and decided to seek cover under a tree. Here you found the body and your interface contacted security forces automatically.” “That sounds right, yes,” The husband nodded. “Can we go now?” He asked earnestly. “Bear with me a moment, what did you go see?” “We went, ah, went to the Rise of The Night. Over at the Belle. What does that have to do with anything?” The husband asked, confusion playing over his features. “Hmm? Oh nothing... I just wanted to know,” Leaf said, brushing a strand of bright green hair back behind her ear. “And how did you enjoy the play?” The husband rose to his hooves, shaking. “It was very nice, listen, Queen knows I’m not having the best day of my life right now so can my wife and I please just go home.” “Oh, of course,” Leaf said, stepping aside to let the husband go. “But if you’ll indulge me one more question….” “Do I have much choice?” The husband asked wearily. “Actually I would like to ask your wife,” A look of panic flashed across the husbands face, disappearing as fast as it came but not fast enough to go unnoticed. “Oh I don’t know if that’s ahhhh…” “Hmmm, is there a problem Mr. Marble?” Leaf asked, looking down at the earth pony. The height that a bipedal form offered came in handy when interrogating suspects, the psychological reaction of having something bigger and meaner towering over you, that feeling made people squirm. This nervous reaction had given Leaf more than couple of confessions, it was one of the main reasons why she chose the form over a traditional pony body. The earth pony squirmed uncomfortably, his mouth moving up and down for a moment as he tried to form words. “I-ah-we-er….I uh mean no, no of course not,” He stumbled, sweat beginning to form on his brow. Turning to the mare, Leaf smiled slightly. “If you can please tell me, why did you chose to walk through the park?” The mare shivered slightly, raising her gaze from the floor in shuddering movements. “Because i-it w-w-was on th-the way to our h-house,” She stammered out, a fearful look in her eyes as she met Leaf’s gaze. “But you live sixteen blocks away,” Leaf responded, a sad smile on her face. Confusion crossed both their faces as her words hit them, the mare started shaking violently and the husband went stock still, a trickle of blood seeping out of his ear. A pair of medical drones rushed in, called by Leaf a few seconds ago, and started treating the couple as they went into seizures. “Zora, disregard their testimony please.” “What the hell!” Swid shouted as he rushed over, the drone recoiling in the air as the pair convulsed and the medical workers began administering a cocktail of drugs. ”Ma’am, mind explaining what in the flying fuck is going on.” “I echo the Inspector’s sentiments ma’am,” Zora chipped in, rotating to face Leaf as it calibrated its sensors to buffer out the noises the pair of ponies were making as the medical team extracted them. Watching the pair of ponies be taken away, Leaf shook her head. “OOD and forensics should back me up on this but I have a strong feeling they helped with the ritual. We should find signs of recent blood transfusions and replenishment, as well as clear mental manipulation, both psychological and magical, to forget the events of the past week.” Swid raised his eyebrows. “You saying they helped with this little mess?” Leaf lit a cigarette, holding it in her lips as she breathed in the scent of tobacco. “Indeed, but I strongly suspect not willingly. Swid I’m assigning that to you, find out who they are, where they were a week ago. It’s probable they were coerced or abducted with magic, after that they were forced to help in the creation of the ritual.” “How so?” “By donating blood, from what I know most dark magic rituals require an obscene amount of blood to function. Taking too many captives would alert us prematurely so whoever did this must have taken these two poor ponies and bleed them dry repeatedly. Chances are the blood on those stones out there will match one of the two, or both.” Zora twitched in the air, streaks of red and black flickering across its fields. “When I find this sicko…” “You and me both.” Swid said, a look of disgust on his face. “But how did you know about it, ma’am?” “The mare was exhibiting signs of blood loss, paleness, sweating, rapid breathing and a quick pulse. The husband was agitated and at times in his gaze would fade out of focus. All things that could be mistake for shock or coping mechanisms.” “I don’t understand how you picked up on it ma’am.” Zora asked. “As you said their behaviors could be mistaken for shock,” “Zora, if you had checked the play they went to, you would have found the last showing was just over a week ago…Swid you might want to check that time slot for their abduction. Anyway, what made me question things was when I checked and found that they live sixteen blocks away on the other side of the city.” “But surely they would have just gotten a cab home after walking in the park? After all isn't it a common romantic gesture you biologicals like to perform?” Zora replied. Leaf shrugged. “Possibly, though rain does tend to put a damper on such things. That might have been the case I suspect the night they were abducted, if we assume they were abducted the night of the play. What’s important is that it made me look up the showing times at the Belle.” “Sweet Luna’s moony flank,” Swid swore. “What would have happened if we had let them go?” Finishing her smoke, Leaf dropped the butt and crushed it under her heel. “Chances are we would have found the discrepancy in their story tomorrow when we went over the data in the morning. By then they would have begun the process of being reloaded, citing extreme trauma, and any data to prove they had been manipulated would have been destroyed with their old mental state.” Zora made a vibrating sound that Leaf recognized as the drone equivalent of a sigh. “I almost shot us in the foot didn't I?” It said apologetically as it slipped outside. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, we all make mistakes sometimes.” Leaf responded with a shrug, knowing the drone could still hear her. “I’ll update the two of you at the briefing in the morning. Six a.m. sharp, don’t be late, Swid,” She said, stepping outside into the rain again, following the drone. Swid was busy staring off into space as she left, only registering what she had said a second after she was already gone. “What?”