There's a not small part of Dave that would really like to have gone home after seeing the basement and bleached his brain. Seeing those twisted, unreal animals is definitely going in his Worse Than List, and the only consolation he has is that they don't have to try and figure out what to do with living abominations and that Tucker apparently never tried his twisted hands on people.
At least, not that they've found.
When Prentiss calls, he puts it on speakerphone on automatic. "What have you got?"
"Problems," Prentiss all but yells in reply. "We ran into Kimblee, and we're pretty sure that he's heading in your direction." Dave holds the phone further away from him, not that it helps a whole lot, but it brings Reid and Hughes over.
"Is there some reason you're yelling?" Dave asks, resisting the urge to match her volume because there's no actual need to.
The sounds of a phone being handled and changing hands fill the silence for a moment, and LaMontagne says, "Emily and Mustang had a run-in with this Kimblee guy, including a close proximity explosion."
"Explosion?" Reid demands. "Is everyone all right?"
Dave can practically see LaMontagne raising his hands in a settling motion. "The locals had a look at them. We're supposed to be on our way to the hospital, but so far, no concussion signs. It does look like their hearing's still not all back though. Seems to be coming back a little though. Better with Mustang than with Emily so far."
"If you were on your way to the hospital, why aren't you anymore?" Reid asks, brows furrowed in concern.
"Because we're pretty sure that Kimblee's making a beeline to ya'll. Where's everyone at?"
"We're back at the police station," Dave says. "We got here about an hour ago."
There's silence for a minute, the sound of paper rustling, and then LaMontagne comes back and says, "Emily wants to know if you found anything at the farmhouse?"
His eyes flick up to Reid, who gives a small shake of his head, which was the exact same wavelength that Dave was on. "Nothing I want to share over an open line," Dave says. "It can wait till you get back."
"No more dead bodies?" Seaver's voice calls.
"No more human ones at least," Dave confirms. He can practically hear Seaver wince.
Hughes leans forward. "Roy, how much power is Kimblee packing?"
"Well, he doesn't have a red stone," Mustang says. He's not yelling as much as Prentiss was, but he's definitely louder than he would be if he were hearing correctly.
Dave looks up at Hughes. "Does that mean something to you?"
"Not… really?" Hughes admits, scratching his head. "Roy, what are you talking about? Red stones?"
There's a pause and then Mustang says, "I forgot that normal soldiers didn't know. In Ishval, Kimblee had a prototype Philosopher's Stone. We call them red stones. It's what made his alchemy so powerful there. He doesn't have one here."
That seems to mean something to Hughes this time because he rocks a bit back on his heels and looks up. "Okay, that explains some things," he says, pushing up his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose. "I don't know that I ever saw Kimblee in action without the stone then—"
"Speak up," LaMontagne says. "I've got the volume as loud as it can go, but you might need to yell a little."
Hughes sighs, then pitches his voice to carry. "I don't know that I ever saw Kimblee in action without the stone. I don't know how much it amplifies his abilities."
There's a moment of pause, then LaMontagne says, "Better."
"Glad that he could hear that," Dave says, pitching his voice in the same way that Hughes had, not a yell, but meant to be heard. "But knowing he can hear us doesn't help us understand the problem."
"I don't know the exact math," Mustang says. "But he was still able to create a crater several feet deep with enough concussive force to throw cars."
He watches Reid's eyebrows raise in what is surely a mirror of Dave's own. "That's a reduced capacity?" Reid asks, looking at Hughes. "If that's a reduced capacity, what was he capable of with one of these red stones?"
"Leveling cities," Hughes says with a tightness in his voice that doesn't invite further questions. He refocuses on the phone, pitching his voice again. "Roy, why do you think he's coming this way?"
"Besides the fact that he ran off in your direction, you mean?" LaMontagne asks.
"Yeah, besides that," Hughes says, and he looks like he'd like to roll his eyes.
There are muffled sounds of moving around and paper again before Mustang says, "If he doesn't have a red stone, he's going to want to make one. The only other alchemist he knows of is Tucker. He's going to go there to see if Tucker succeeded."
"How exactly is a red stone made?" Reid asks, raising his own voice.
Dave wishes he were surprised when Mustang says, "Human sacrifice," in a grim tone. Hughes closes his eyes as if the answer pains but doesn't surprise him. "Did you find any other victims in the house?"
"None human," Hughes repeats.
The line goes silent for a moment, before Mustang says, "It has to be human lives. Animals aren't enough. Don't ask me why, I just know they're not."
"All we found were chimera," Hughes says, and he says the word chimera so oddly, it takes Dave a moment to place it. "And they were all dead."
There's another lull before Mustang asks, "Did anyone ever investigate the array in the barn?"
Something seems to make the hairs rise on the back of Dave's neck at that question.
"Define 'investigate,'" Reid says.
"I know Ed broke the circle," Mustang says. "But did anyone ever look closely at what all was in the tray? Did anyone find anything in it?"
"I'd think that the CSU techs would have told us if they found anything odd…" Reid says, then trails. "Or would they have?"
Dave looks at him sharply. "What are you saying?"
Reid raises his voice so he can be heard. "Mr. Mustang, is what you call a 'red stone' a literal red stone of some kind?"
"Yes," Mustang says immediately. "I never checked the tray when we went to the barn to look at the array. Tucker's blood broke the circle, but it wouldn't be hard to re-establish it. Did anyone else ever go in and remove the array?"
"We didn't even check the barn when we were at the house," Dave says. "The CSU techs should have, but they might not have because we told them to stay out of the circle."
"Are you really saying you think there might be a red stone in the barn, Roy?" Hughes demands.
When Mustang speaks again, it sounds like he's gritting his teeth. "It's a possibility."
"Well, then we need to go back to the house and look," Reid says as if there's no other obvious course of action to take.
There's another rustle and Mustang, even louder than before, says, "You can't!"
"If this red stone is really so dangerous, we can't let Kimblee get his hands on it, which means we need to go back to the barn and check to make sure it's not there," Dave says, trying to sound reasonable while being loud enough for Mustang and Prentiss to hear.
Hughes sighs. "He's right, Roy. If there's even a chance that there's a red stone there, we can't let Kimblee get his hands on it."
"He's on his way now, " Mustang says, voice still tight. "He's got alchemy, and it seems like how powerful my alchemy is has a correlation with how far I am from the epicenter of that array. You can't go there if that's where Kimblee's going. He nearly killed Agent Prentiss and myself. You'll all be defenseless against him."
Reid closes his eyes. "That's why you're coming back instead of going to the hospital," he says. "Because you're the only one with the alchemy to fight against Kimblee."
He wasn't loud enough, so there's a few moments of quiet while LaMontagne probably relays Reid's words. "Yes," Mustang says.
"Before everyone goes chasing after unknowns, could someone maybe take a look at the evidence locker and see if maybe red stones were recovered?" Seaver asks. "After all, if one or more were recovered from the crime scene, then Kimblee's probably going to figure that out right? He'll head to the police station after he checks the barn."
"We can do that, and get back to you," Dave says.
"Under no circumstances should you try to confront Kimblee, red stones or no," Mustang says with near desperate urgency.
Hughes looks almost fond when he says, "Unless Kimblee's a homunculus, guns still work, oh great alchemist."
"Don't risk being close enough to shoot if you can avoid it," Mustang insists. "Kimblee nearly killed Ed."
That makes Hughes startle and look more serious. "He did what?" he demands.
"I'll explain when we get there," Mustang says. "Hopefully my hearing will be better by then, but do not underestimate Kimblee. And if the stones aren't in evidence, don't go to the barn."
"Are you planning on going straight to the barn, or are you stopping here first?"
"Current plan is the barn," Seaver says. "It's on the way anyway. We're hoping Mustang can intercept Kimblee there."
"Right," Hughes says, sarcastically and softly enough that Mustang almost certainly can't hear. "Of course you're going to run right in and deal with the murder-happy alchemist, but we should stay far away."
Dave exchanges a look with Reid, but given Reid's shrug, it's not something he has any particular insight into either.
"What does a 'red stone' look like?" Reid asks, redirecting the discussion.
"A red stone. Like…" Mustang trails as if searching for the words. "The same red that my tattoo glows. Soul red. There's nothing natural in the world that color. It'll probably look like a polished piece of stone, but sometimes it can be almost liquid."
"Okay," Dave assures. "We'll check the evidence locker and let you know if we find anything."
"Rossi?" Prentiss says, getting his attention.
"Yeah?"
"Take Mustang seriously. Kimblee's not something we should try to deal with head-on."
"Of course," he says, then adds, "Drive safe" before he hangs up and focuses his attention on Hughes. "I understand that Ed is an alchemist, but he was still a kid—"
Hughes shakes his head. "No," he says, not unkindly, but definitely firmly. "I know you're still having a hard time wrapping your heads around this, but alchemists are the superweapons of our military—Edward is not an exception. If anything, he's the rule. He may have been young, but Edward could do things that boggled Roy's mind, and Roy was the youngest State Alchemist in history before he joined. One year, during recertification, they leveled the parade grounds—and that was basically a training exercise. If Kimblee nearly got to Edward, he's grown more dangerous than I thought."
"You really don't know anything about these red stones?" Reid asks.
Shaking his head, Hughes looks disappointed that he can't be of more help. "Sorry. I'm not an alchemist, and, in general, they don't exactly share their secrets. If they had something that amplified their abilities, that would… actually explain a lot, but they wouldn't have discussed it freely."
Dave sighs. "All right then. I guess we're checking the evidence locker."
"Dare I ask what you're planning on doing if we don't find them here?" Hughes asks, light glaring off his glasses in a way that shields his eyes.
"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it," Dave says.
.o0o.o0o.o0o.
They spend half an hour scouring through every piece of recovered evidence from the crime scene—and with all the recovered clothing, there's a lot—but they find nothing. They pay special attention to any jewelry and buttons, deciding to err on the side of caution and sending Mustang a picture of anything red and solid they can find, but his heart sinks when he realizes that there are no red stones in evidence.
The tray isn't in evidence either. It appears that the techs took them at their word when they said to stay out of the circle, and didn't recover anything that they couldn't reach from outside of it.
"There's no guarantee that there was a red stone created," Reid says in a very reasonable tone of voice as Dave leans on the table they've been using to sort through the evidence.
"There's no guarantee that it wasn't either," Hughes points out.
Reid checks his watch. "If we left now, we would probably beat them to the farmhouse, but not by much."
Hughes's face is grim and unhappy, and Dave has the distinct feeling that a serious Maes Hughes is not a good thing.
"We can't risk it," he says after a moment. "If there's a chance of there still being red stones at the barn, we can't risk Kimblee getting his hands on them." His own hands grip the edge of the table so tightly the knuckles are white. Dave is reasonably certain he doesn't want to understand why this frightens him so much, but he's equally certain that it's not information he can forgo.
"If it's that important," Dave says, "then it's that important. I'd rather not go if we could avoid it, but if there's a reasonable chance of a red stone being there that Kimblee can get his hands on, I don't see that we have much of a choice."
Hughes closes his eyes and his shoulders heave with a heavy breath. "At least we're on the same page." Then a knife-sharp grin splits his face. "Your boss isn't going to be happy."
Shoving evidence bags back into their box, Dave says, "As long as no one dies, I can live with that. Can you live with Mustang being unhappy with you?"
"As long as no one dies," Hughes parrots back.
"From your mouth to God's ears," Dave replies, putting the lid back on the box. "Let's go."