As for John Hicks he was providing his own independent research into the past of the Demon Lord. He was waking up all of his old contacts and calling old numbers, trying to pick up on the trail himself. That is why he was late, doing it in private so he could talk to his leisure and get everything done that he could.
He had the phone in his right hand trying to think of any other people that might yet have all the information that he needed in order to complete the objectives that he was given. And find the Demon Lord for the first time in nearly twenty years.
He made up his mind and started to dial in a series of numbers for a friend that he had in the Osean tribune. Nothing that was entirely special, just a last bit of a hunch.
He made the call and asked his questions, the man on the other end quickly typed in the information and came back with a negative.
Hicks frowned into the phone that he was holding and said a simple "thank you."
"Hey Hicks, you might want to try the OFS Kestrel memorial sight, I heard that they had a whole lot of information on them from the beginning of the war when the Demon Lord provided air support for the Kestrel."
"Thanks Rob, but I already went there back when I was doing research the first time, believe me there is nothing there that can help me with this quest, nothing in the least that can help me find our man."
"Still might be worth a look buddy."
"Yeah, thanks again." Hicks clicked off the phone and moved into his kitchen to stare out the rear window. His Cat came up to him and rubbed against his leg, probably trying to cheer him up.
He wanted to find this man so bad. And not for the reasons that Abi thought. He knew to himself that an interview would be nice, and all of that, but he just wanted to find the man, and bring him into the light. And then have that interview if the Demon Lord wanted it, but in the end, there was nothing that he could really do to force him. All he wanted was closure for his own experiences in trying to find that research the first time.
He went over to his room and put on his coat and tie as he was going to go into work and report the lack of finding anything to the team…. again.
He knew it was going to be difficult, but he just wished that the guy would be found already. He put on his shoes and headed into work.
He arrived a good solid twenty minutes later and shrugged to the leader of the unit in a negative.
Colonel Holtz looked up at the entrance of the reporter and shook his head as he saw him shrug at the Colonel.
Then Hicks came to sit right across from him as he continued to go over more information that he was trying to analyze.
Hicks picked up a file folder from the top of the pile and opened it, about ready to start reading it in search of the Demon Lord. He frowned and replaced it to the side. He picked up a new one and his frown only deepened.
Holtz could not help but stare at the confused reporter as he picked up yet another file folder and put it down with a frown. "Having trouble?" Holtz asked the man.
"I have already read all of these, aren't there anything else in these folders?"
"No that is it, nothing new has come in for a while now." Holtz said. "Seems that our intelligence has dried up in finding this guy."
Hicks just stretched in his chair as Holtz finished the last of his file folders.
Holtz looked around for a second at the surroundings of the library that they had moved into. Ortiz was playing some kind of card game on the Computer, done with his assignment he was now out and looking around trying to keep himself occupied. The only two people that were actually doing anything were Shea and Harkness.
Shea was working on a listing of missing persons, and John Does that had turned up in the last twenty years. Trying to see if the whole thing was a waste of time or not, the whole mission, the whole hunt for the Demon Lord, seeing if he had passed away recently or ended up dead somewhere. No such luck as of yet. But that could change at any second.
As for Harkness he was looking up the same list, but only for the Military database, trying to see if something or anything was out there that needed his attention. Looking through the list of all the dead to see if he could find him.
The time that they had so far spent searching for their man was well spent. But now it seemed like they were running into a literal dead end. Like no new information was out there concerning anything to the Demon Lord. They were just at it for two weeks and they were already running low on information. And things were tight.
Harkness kept on going back the mental patient. Kept on insisting that he was involved. But Holtz really did know better and told Harkness that several times.
"Hmmm…. that is interesting." Shea finally said from his folder that he was now reading by the computer. The whole group moved over to him as one to see what he had to say for himself, to see what he may have found out.
"It seems that a man turned up in a City's morgue just a few miles North of here. And it looks like it matches the same general physical characteristics of the Demon Lord."
"Well at least it is something." Ortiz stated simply.
"You are right, it is Captain. We shall go investigate. We do not have anything better to do." Harkness said.
Abi, Shea, Holtz, and Ortiz got in the SUV and headed North to where that specific Morgue was.
They arrived nearly three hours later. It was dark when they entered the room. Shea flashing his badge at the person manning the information desk as they entered.
The Morgue was one of the most northern ones in all of Ustio, and it was one of the least manned, and smallest. For several small local police departments in the mountain ranges that were throughout this part of their country.
The Coroner came out to greet Shea especially with a handshake, ignoring the two military personnel. "And what brings you to my fine establishment?" He said with a crooked smile.
Abi also smiled to herself, being amused by this.
"We are looking for a body, maybe." Shea said.
"Oh good, we need to start moving these people out of here, we are starting to get a bit crowded with John Does and hiker people for the last few years. The more the merrier. Looks like the FBI finally started to check into our records and give us a hand giving people closure."
"Exactly." Shea said awestruck. Holtz shared a look with the man from the FBI as they went in.
Holtz went into the freezer and observed all the boxes that filled bodies as Shea and the Coroner went over the details to make sure they found the right man. He could hear their on going conversation. Drifting over to him.
"I believe it is person 37."
"Ah yes. That man. He came in here about 2001, victim of a knife attack. We still have all of his blood work and stuff. I think that he was in some military organization, just a hunch. Either that or an athlete."
"Right, where is he?"
"This way." The Coroner said gesturing, Holtz followed him over to observe whom they were talking about. Abi stayed suspiciously on the other side of the room.
Holtz approached the table as the Coroner wrenched it open, revealing the dead guy. Holtz spun around at the site, he thought he had seen it all. Even Shea had to wrinkle his nose in slight disgust.
"Can we see a blood sample?" Shea asked to the Coroner after he got done with an examination of the body.
"Sure thing. But I do not know what good it will do you. His crime happened before they started to keep DNA on file."
"Unless he was at one point military." Abi said speaking up for the first time.
"Yes, that is right isn't it."
Holtz knew that she had a point as well. The Civilian authorities only used blood to keep blood type records of every body. They only upgraded to DNA as well only in the last few years as the identification technology became better to the public for those results. However, the Military started to upgrade the system almost since the beginning. Anyone who had ever served in a Ustian airforce, even the Demon Lord, had their DNA on file so that they could identify, hopefully, any body who was shot down over unfriendly terrain.
Shea and the group took the blood sample to the SUV and plugged it into a special lab that they had sent with them that beamed the results to the FBI database a long way away. No such luck. It was a dead end, no one in the military matched that pattern, not even the Demon Lord.
Discouraged the team drove back to headquarters, and there they reported in their findings to a disgruntled Colonel Harkness. Where they all went home after a long, and seemingly useless day.