Edrimer stood on the pavement near the apartment building he lived in. A lit cigarette poked out of his mouth, hanging between his lips. Zachary hated my smoking habits. God, I miss that old man. He probably never would've imagined I would ever be a member of the Justicars. To be honest… me neither.
As he saw the gray car coming from afar, he looked at his SmartWrist to check the time. It was 8 AM sharp. Just as Serian said. The Justicars sure are punctual as fuck, he thought to himself. The car pulled over right in front of him. The driver's window rolled down and revealed a man with short dark hair and a clean, shaven face. "Get in," he said, without as much as greeting Edrimer.
"Good morning to you as well," Edrimer said, sarcastically. He put out his cigarette on the ground and got in the back seat of the car. Three people were sitting in the car other than Edrimer. The driver who ordered him to get in looked stiff and unpleasant. Let's hope he's not part of the team. Otherwise, we're going to have a problem. Another man sat in the passenger seat. A young-looking man with long, curly brown hair that was swept back and looking slightly greasy. He looked just as unpleasant as the driver, in Edrimer's eyes. The third person in the car was a woman who sat in the back seat, next to Edrimer. She had long, blonde hair that was curled up in a bun at the crown of her head. She had light makeup on and wore a tight shirt and a skirt that highlighted her lean body.
"Hi," Edrimer greeted her, hoping that he wouldn’t be greeted back with the same cold, stiff attitude as the driver.
"Hi," she said back. "I'm Elahysis Wilder." She presented her hand. Thank god, a seemingly-normal Justicar.
"Edrimer Frye." He shook her hand.
"So I guess you're the new tenderfoot they told us about."
"Yeah, I… suppose I am." He seemed embarrassed.
"It's okay," she giggled. "I'm a tenderfoot of a sort as well. I've only been a member for a month or so now."
"Oh, great," He sighed in relief. "And here I was thinking I'm going to be the constant joke of the team."
"Well, you can be calm. I think most of the team is going to be comprised of tenderfoots."
"Right, because this case is pretty much the only kind you can give to tenderfoots."
Elahysis smiled and nodded in agreement. "You know, you look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere?"
"Well, if you're from around here, perhaps you've seen me at the local convenience store not far from here."
"Maybe… I might have been there once or twice. But… isn’t that the place that recently got…" she stopped when she saw Edrimer's facial expression changing for the worse. "I see." She had now likely realized the reason why he ever became a member. "So, where are we even headed?" she hurried to change the subject.
"I don’t know," he said. Edrimer looked outside the car window. "I think we're headed south." He recognized the streets that they were passing by. "Maybe we're going to the Westden Fells district."
"Maybe," she sighed. "Goddammit, why the fuck did Serian pick me for this job? I'm more of a fighter then a detective." She grunted.
"Perhaps he sees something in you that you don’t."
"I doubt it."
"Well, anyway, I'm sure you'll get to have your action. Serian said that Lady Dread will also be coming after the Tri-Surgeon."
"Right," she said. "God, it seems like those purple fuckers have been around forever."
"Yeah. I think it's been 7 years since her father died and she took over." I remember the day Henrick Trife's death was announced. A sudden rush of hope instantly filled everyone's hearts at first, but as soon as it was reported that Sunyula took over his operations, it quickly faded away. His death was so sudden and unexpected. A heart attack at the age of 47.
"A friend of mine who lives in the Brontspil district told me that pictures of her missing daughter were all over the newspapers lately."
"Well, whoever her daughter is, I hope she's not fucked up like her mother."
After a while, the signs that the car passed through betrayed where they were heading. Morth City, Edrimer read the road sign. Edrimer had never been to the Fallhalt district before, even though he always wanted to visit the Heart. Eventually, upon entering the city, the car stopped near an old apartment building.
Edrimer looked at Elahysis as the two stepped out of the car. The street around them looked pretty empty, with barely no traffic. As soon as the car door closed behind them, the driver rolled down his window. "Go up to the second floor, the third apartment," he said. Wasting not a second more, he drove away, heading for the horizon, leaving the two behind at the entrance of the building. Edrimer looked at the apartment building in dismay. He never expected the Justicars to be working from such a lousy place.
"Let's go," he said to Elahysis, climbing up the small staircase that led to the entrance door. The two climbed up to the second floor and reached apartment 3. Edrimer knocked on the door a few times. He heard a figure approaching the door. The figure stopped in front of the door and peeked through its peephole. It took the figure a few seconds before the door was finally unlocked and opened. Serian greeted the two on the doorstep with his usual frown and dead expression. "Get in," he said, bluntly. I guess all Justicars have bad manners.
Once Edrimer entered the apartment, he saw several figures standing next to a few desks with computers on them and a large whiteboard with newspaper pieces stuck to it.
Serian sent an ominous, harsh look at Edrimer. The last time we spoke, I was trying to convince him to let me take part in that attack on Brine Street, Edrimer reminded himself. He doesn’t know I actually went there, and I'm not going to tell him. Serian seems to me like most OldGens. Grumpy and bitter with a touch of stubbornness, so there's no way telling him would benefit me in any way.
"Serian, I justed wanted to—" Edrimer started saying, but before he could finish his sentence, Serian grabbed him by the arm.
"I understand you're willing to help," Serian said, slowly, his words uttered with utmost understandability. "But I can't have you arguing with me like that. If I tell you to stand down… then stand down." His eyes pierced through Edrimer's, making him feel as if they were penetrating his soul.
"I understand," Edrimer said, reluctantly, even though he didn’t entirely mean it, having natural rebellious tendencies.
Three people stood next to Serian. Two men and a woman. The first man was tall and fit. He wore a tight black shirt which highlighted his muscles. The second man was much shorter and wore thick glasses. The woman had short brown hair that was cut at her neck and large green eyes. So these are my teammates, Edrimer guessed. Serian wasted no time and hurried to speak.
"Good, now that everyone's here you can start working," Serian said. "First, let me introduce everyone." He turned to the muscular man. "This is Apex Frampton. He's a former sniper of the Alatarian army. He was discharged a few months ago. Quiet as he may sometimes be, he's very sharp and keen." A former soldier? How did he end up with the Justicars? Apex was a colossal man. He could possibly take on several men at once. His nose was wide and a bit crooked, most likely due to an injury he suffered as a soldier.
Serian turned to the short man with the glasses. "This is Johnaren Lawther. While he may be young, only 20 years old, he's shown a surprising level of intellect and cleverness, making him a great asset." 20 years old… that IS young. Then again, I've heard of much younger people who join these kinds of organizations. Johnaren seemed like the opposite of Apex, physically. He seemed barely able to fight with his bare hands. Edrimer highly doubted he had any experience or knowledge in that field. However, he also knew that intelligence is just as important as strength, and could sometimes be even more valuable.
Serian turned to the woman with the short hair. "This is Samari Sables. Her parents immigrated here from the Middle East years ago. What she lacks in combat experience she more than compensates in world knowledge." The Middle East truly has been a war-ridden place over the last decade. No wonder people would rather live here than over there. Samari also seemed young, though probably less than Johnaren.
"This is Edrimer Frye," Serian then introduced Edrimer. "He recently lost his workplace and his boss in an attack made by members of Men of Midas. Don’t let his sarcastic attitude and humoristic notes fool you, this is a very smart man with very large ambitions." He knows me so well I want to cry. "And finally, we have Elahysis Wilder. She's a former lawyer who’s already well trained with guns and hand to hand combat." A former lawyer? What brought her here? And how is she so experienced? This woman just turned 10 times more interesting.
"Now that everybody knows each other, I expect you to start working on this case," Serian faced Edrimer and Elahysis. "Apex, Johnaren, and Samari had already begun working on this case by the time you joined us, so catch up. Our goal, let I remind you, is to find and kill the man known as the Tri-Surgeon. Frankly, I don’t care how you do it. Just get results. Remember, we fight for the sake of Alataria's citizens. Let us show them that we are their White Knights in the darkest nights." Upon that said, Serian left the apartment.
"So," Edrimer said as he walked up to the whiteboard. "Tell us, my dear teammates, what have you got so far?" the whiteboard was filled with scribbles and article pieces. 'Two bodies found in Canstow, Silvercoast,' said once article. 'The Tri-Surgeon strikes again! Another body was found in Basilham using the same killing methods,' said another. Horrifying pictures of the mutilated victims of the killer were spread across the board. A small map of Alataria stood at the corner of the whiteboard, with Canstow, Basilham, and Exumber being circled with a red marker. Those are all the cities where they found victims of him.
"To be honest, we haven’t made much progress so far," said Apex, his voice sounded deep and heavy. "We tried making any kind of sense of all the killings he's made so far, but we don’t really see the connection."
"That's right," Samari joined into the conversation. "The Tri-Surgeon is responsible for 7 killings so far. All the victims were found in the same situation, with their eyes, hearts and arms cut off, but there seems to be no connection between the victims."
"So they're all just random picks?" Edrimer asked.
"'Either that or we're missing the connection," Samari replied.
"The murder locations also appear random," Johnaren said, adjusting his glasses.
"Well, I'm not sure about that. They're all in proximity to each other, so it could be that he just went from one city to another," Edrimer said.
"Actually, there's a problem with that logic." Johnaren got up from his seat and went beside the map on the board. "You see, according to the newspapers, the autopsies showed that the victims found in Canstow were killed first," he pointed at the circled city of Canstow on the map. Exumber stood between it and Basilham. "The victims in Basilham were the next ones who got killed and then the ones in Exumber. That means—"
"That the killer had to skip Exumber when he made the trip from Canstow to Basilham and then went back to Exumber." Edrimer had already figured it out. "So in other words, he didn’t just pick random cities and moved from one to the closest one near it. He chose those cities in particular."
"Which makes us think that his victims are also not random," Samari said.
"Alright, so what do we know about the victims?" Edrimer asked.
"Not much. They're all in their 20's or 30's, and they all have seemingly random jobs. One of them is a firefighter, another one is just a secretary."
"One of them is also unemployed," Johnaren intervened.
"So that rules out their occupations as the connection between them," Samari said.
"What about the Nucleus? Is there anything there that we could use?" Edrimer asked.
"The only things concerning the Tri-Surgeon on the Nucleus are posts of desperate people begging for the Surgeon to target other people that they hate. There's no useful information anywhere there." God, the Nucleus sure is a gathering place for the worst people ever.
Edrimer looked back at Elahysis. She stood quiet and hadn’t said a word yet. Her eyes focused on the board as if she was trying to piece the puzzle together in her mind. "Elahysis," Edrimer woke her up from her deep state of concentration. "What do you think?" he was interested in the former lawyer's opinion."
"Everything you've gathered so far…" she said. "Is it all from newspapers and articles?"
"Of course," Apex said. "Why?"
"Because that won't get us anywhere. APD still has the advantage on us in means of resources."
Edrimer gave it a thought. "She's right," He proclaimed. "We need a better source of intelligence."
"This is all we've got," Johnaren sounded vanquished.
This won't work… we need to get an advantage. Otherwise, APD would wound up catching the guy themselves. His mind raced. We're missing some dots here, I'm sure. My gut is never wrong, just like it wasn’t during Serian's audition in that warehouse. But how do we acquire an intelligence source that beats the police's one? He looked around at his team. He saw the determination and wisdom in all of them, but with that considered, he also saw their lack of ability to get the case anywhere. At that moment, like a fearsome thunder in a storm, an idea struck his mind.
"Who's running the case against the Tri-Surgeon at APD?" he asked. Without saying a word, Samari grabbed one of the newspapers on the table and shuffled through it. "I know I've seen it somewhere in here…" she mumbled to herself in quiet. "There it is," she said upon hitting a certain page. She handed the paper to Edrimer and the answer to his question greeted him in black characters over the white-grey paper page.
"…with the death of Officer Vernes Price, who led the investigation case of the serial killer known as the Tri-Surgeon up until his death, Officer Edward Elwin, who was also appointed to the case, was forced to lead it in his stead…."
The name rang a bell in Edrimer's mind. Officer Edward Elwin… I remember that name… he was the one who took my statement after the first attack at Zachary's store. I actually liked him. A smile flitted over his lips. "I have a plan."
