A/N: Update time! Thanks to leathman for reviewing last chapter.
Chapter IX: Pledge to Allegiance
30 October 2998
"We need to figure out who the next victim is." Garth thoughtfully examined the screens around him.
They'd set up operations in the living room, forming a large ring of holoscreens suspended in mid-air which plainly displayed all the information they had accumulated for easy reference. They had managed to amass quite a bit of data in the last two days. A meticulously detailed 3D rendering of the original paper fragment from the Botanic Gardens shimmered beside a large screen which was entirely devoted to the details of each murder, listed in the order they had occurred. Imra had managed to gain access to the case files using her Sci-Pol cadet authorization code, with a claim that it was for 'criminology research', so a tap on each name would reveal a smaller screen of data the Sci-Pol had gathered in their investigation of the homicide. Other holoscreens were full of the murder victims' photographs and biographies; any connections they had managed to establish between them were typed out in different color codes on a separate screen. Yet another holoscreen cross-referenced the victims' movements and activities from as far back as approximately one week before the first murder.
"All we have is an L." Rokk sighed, studying the aforementioned letter on the digital recreation of the torn hit list for the hundredth time. Imra had already updated all their files with the details of Fleming's murder, so their version of the killer's list now read:
1. Anthony Gallo
16.10.2998; 01/035
2. Alexis Luthor
20.10.2998; 01/003
3. Jason McKinney
22.10.2998; 01/007
4. Sebastian Stagg
23.10.2998; 01/022
5. Gwendolyn Tracy
24.10.2998; 01/020
6. Frank Berkowitz
25.10.2998; 01/018
7. Rokk Krinn
28.10.2998; 01/011
8. Christina Fleming
30.10.2998; 01/001
9. L-
1.-
Extrapolating from the killer's average murder rate and noticing the tiny period next to the 1 on the ninth date, Rokk had filled in the date of the next murder: 1.11.2998, the day after tomorrow. And after some profiling based on logical deductions and visible patterns, the three of them together had established a set of conditions to help them narrow down the search for the next victim; that is, they would be rich or famous – likely both – and would be living or at least working in New Troy, as none of the murders had occurred in any other borough. Moreover, the killer had struck every one of his victims down during public events featuring them, so they had also decided to further narrow their search to celebrities partaking in events on November the 1st.
"I'm running a search on the New Troy census and cross-referencing any L people I get with our criteria," Garth spoke up as lines of text scrolled down his work screen faster than the eye could follow. "It's gonna take a while."
"Rokk, have you called your team yet?" Imra inquired.
Rokk cringed. "Nass, I forgot. I got so involved with what we were doing…"
Garth snickered. "You'd better go call them now before they decide you've gone and died."
Without another word, Rokk spun on his heel and hurried out, making his way up the stairs to the guest room Imra had given him and Garth to share. The walls were a soft blue color and the two twin beds on opposite sides of the square room had identical white bedspreads. Rokk's bed was neatly made, but Garth's was a bit crumpled because he'd haphazardly thrown his half-open knapsack onto the bedspread after digging out his datapads. Rokk had no belongings with him here besides his Magnoball uniform, but Imra had made some clothes for him with her 3D printer and loaned him a communicator. Rokk and Garth repaid her for her hospitality by doing most of the cleanup for whatever activities the three of them engaged in.
Rokk sat on his bed so that his back was against the wall, then keyed in Hercule Herdoni's familiar number from memory. The comscreen flashed into existence, and Herdoni's jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw who it was.
"What the sprock – Rokk?!" His astounded shout brought several other Magnetic Knights running, and they all crowded around the screen in equal states of shock, jostling each other for a better view.
"Holy sprocking nass, you're alive!" Dar Frol exclaimed.
"Are you okay? Where have you been?" Dyrk Magz demanded.
"Why didn't you call earlier?" Herdoni took over again, bellowing the question at Rokk. "We've all been worried sick about you!"
Rokk winced. "I'm really sorry," he apologized contritely. "I'm perfectly fine, I promise – I've just been so distracted the past two days that I completely forgot about calling."
"What the sprocking hell is so damn distracting that you couldn't call?!" Herdoni had a tendency to yell and cuss when he was anxious, and it manifested now. "This team already lost one captain – we certainly don't need to lose another!"
"You haven't lost me, Hercule," Rokk assured him hastily. "And I'm really, really sorry I didn't call earlier."
"You'd better have a damn good explanation –"
"Herdoni," Jaxok Kreel interrupted, "Stop yelling and let Rokk explain what happened."
Herdoni huffed and crossed his arms, still scowling fiercely, but Rokk recognized it as a signal to tell his story. So he briefly summed up for them the two days since the laser flurry in the Botanic Gardens, explaining that Imra and Garth had rescued him from the chaos and that he was now working with them to discover who was behind the attack.
"Sci-Pol said the laser machine was the cause of all the lasers," said Arvad Cryz. "Collazo's been in discussion with the team's lawyers to sue the company that provided the machine."
"Tell him to hold off," said Rokk. "It might not have been their fault. We think the shooter probably tampered with the machine to cover his tracks."
"Why aren't Sci-Pol investigating this?" Kreel wanted to know.
"Erm…they're overstretched at the moment." It was the closest explanation he could give without going into the details.
"Krinn." Herdoni had reverted to addressing him by his surname. "How deep in are you?"
Rokk met his eyes. "Till the killer is caught. Garth and Imra and I have made a decision to see this through to the end. We can't just walk away from this case when we could be saving lives."
Herdoni let out a breath. "This is so you," he remarked, half in exasperation, half in resignation. "What are we supposed to tell Collazo? We're supposed to be leaving for Neo Gotham in five days. He already canceled the rest of our tour in New Metropolis because you were MIA."
Rokk hesitated. He had resolved to do whatever he could to prevent more murders, but he also had a responsibility to his team. Herdoni was right to ask just how deep he was going in this. Where did his desire to save lives end and his duty to his team begin?
"Krinn?" Magz inquired.
Rokk sighed. "I'll keep in touch."
Herdoni started to object. "Krinn –"
"Look, I'm free for the next five days since the New Metropolis tour was canceled, right? So for the next five days I can do this with Garth and Imra. Hopefully we've wrapped up the case by then. If we haven't, then I'll make a decision."
"Fair enough," Frol agreed. He nudged Kreel, who was the vice-captain, meaningfully. The Knights' second-in-command nodded.
"All right, we'll inform Collazo that you're conducting 'personal business'," he consented. "We're all doing our own thing while in New Metropolis anyway – as long as he knows you're okay, he won't have a problem with it if you rejoin us the day we leave for Neo Gotham."
"Thank you."
Herdoni sighed. "I really hope you know what your priorities are."
Rokk nodded. "Me too."
"Hey, Imra, how many zones are in every borough?"
Imra briefly looked up from editing their info on Fleming to answer Garth. "It depends how large the borough is, but it's usually a few hundred."
"Uh-huh. And how many zones does New Troy have?"
Imra quickly referred to the Sci-Pol-issued datawatch on her left wrist. "327."
"Terrific," Garth deadpanned, glancing back at his ongoing search. "We're going to end up with half a million names."
Imra came to look over his shoulder at the ever-growing list of L names scrolling on his screen. "Try narrowing the search to zones 000 – 039."
"Wouldn't we miss something important if we narrow it just to those few?" Garth asked dubiously.
"I don't think so. Look." Imra slid a screen showing a map of New Troy in front of them. The locations of the murders had been marked in red dots, and Imra swiftly drew smooth lines to connect all the dots to a center point. "Most criminals only work within a certain area – in this case, our shooter seems to be killing only within a radius of about 30 kilometers, which I assume is the largest convenient distance for him to travel."
"He's choosing his murder locations based on convenience?" Garth said disbelievingly.
"If you were going to commit a murder, wouldn't you want to be able to get there easily?" Imra pointed out. "New Metropolis is a big city; New Troy is the most well-known borough, and many people here don't travel even to the other boroughs."
"Fair enough," Garth conceded, entering the new search parameters. "I still think we're going to end up with a hell of a lot of names."
Imra smiled wryly. "Probably, but it's easier to sieve through 1,000 people than 10,000." She sighed then as she remembered another person she'd been trying to find. Garth's expression softened.
"You're worried about Lyle, aren't you?" Imra still hadn't heard a peep from her missing friend, despite trying to comm him at least once a day.
"Yes," Imra admitted. "It's been three days. I'm pretty sure he's not…" She cleared her throat, blinking rapidly to dispel the uncomfortable direction her thoughts had taken. "I mean, all the victims from the Botanic Gardens have been identified."
"Why not use telepathy to find him?"
"I've tried that. I haven't been able to sense him. He could be out of my range, or he could just happen to be invisible whenever I do it."
Garth frowned. "Why would being invisible prevent you from sensing him telepathically?"
Imra explained that Lyle's serum apparently cloaked even his mental waves when he was invisible. Garth looked impressed.
"He came up with that himself? At fourteen?" He grinned. "That's pretty awesome."
"He could at least call." Imra sounded disgruntled.
"I'm sure he's fine," Garth said comfortingly. "He sounds like he can take care of himself."
Garth's confidence was so bracing that Imra smiled slightly. "You're right," she agreed. "He was probably called away on a mission, and that's why he hasn't called. I'll still worry until I hear from him, though."
"I guessed as much." Garth's tone was wry. "Wait, mission?"
"Lyle works for Earthgov Intelligence," Imra explained.
Garth was stunned. "He's fourteen!"
Imra shrugged. "He's a certified genius," she said, as if that explained everything.
"I wish he were here, then. We could probably use his help on this case."
Rokk re-entered the living room just then. "How's it going?" he inquired.
Garth spared a fleeting glance at his screen. "Still searching."
"How many names so far?" Imra asked.
"Actually, fewer than I expected," Garth admitted. "Just eleven so far. How'd your team react to your return from the dead?" he asked Rokk jokingly.
Rokk, however, was far from a joking mood as he flung himself onto the sofa. "I may have to make a choice soon."
"What do you mean?" questioned Imra.
Rokk sighed and gestured at the array of screens floating in the room. "What we're doing is a good thing, right? I mean, trying to save lives and catch a killer?"
"'Course it is," Garth said immediately. "Why?"
"Here's the thing," said Rokk, "I feel a real sense of purpose doing this, but I also have a responsibility to my team. I want to see this through, but I'll probably have to leave with the Knights when they go to Neo Gotham, whether or not we've wrapped up this case."
"When is that?" questioned Imra.
"Sunday."
"Don't worry about it, Rokk," Garth said unexpectedly. "We've still got five days. I'm sure we'll get the guy before then."
"And if we don't? Are you two okay to continue the investigation by yourself?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Imra said soothingly. "Don't worry, Rokk. We understand you have a duty to your team. This was never meant to be a permanent arrangement, anyway." She caught Garth's eye, and he inclined his head in acknowledgment. All three of them knew that they would soon be going their separate ways. Rokk would go back to the Magnetic Knights, Imra would graduate to the Science Police (if she was still allowed to after meddling with an ongoing investigation), and Garth would continue doing…whatever it was he was planning to do, he wasn't sure.
Garth's screen beeped once, indicating that the search was complete. The moment broken, they all crowded round it to see the final list of some twenty or so L names that satisfied the search parameters.
"How are we going to decide which one's the next victim?" Garth wondered.
"Profiling," Imra replied. "We need to compare which of these twenty people is the most similar to the established victim profile."
"That's not very foolproof, is it?" Rokk observed.
"It's good enough. Psychology counts for a lot when you're profiling criminals. Of course," Imra added as she started typing rapidly on a new screen, "it helps if you also have a super-advanced AI finding the patterns for you."
"Merriweather?" Garth guessed.
"Yes?" the AI answered.
"No, Merriweather's programming doesn't include things like this," said Imra.
"I don't see why not," Merriweather interjected. "My random-access memory could easily support such a system."
"You're in charge of the house, Merriweather, not police work."
"Do you know how insulting it is to see you using other AI's within my sphere of influence when I am perfectly capable of incorporating their software into my programming?"
"Is he always like this?" Garth wondered. This was the first time he'd heard Merriweather actually argue; it both amused and annoyed him.
"Only when he feels offended. Merriweather, hush, I'm working."
Rokk chose that moment to redirect the conversation. "Even with an AI detecting the patterns, you'd still need to input very specific parameters."
"Rokk, she's a telepath," Garth pointed out. "If anyone knows psychology, it's her."
Rokk conceded the point, and they both watched as Imra added characteristic upon characteristic of their victim profile.
"Is this the system Sci-Pol use?" Rokk asked curiously.
"No. Earthgov Intelligence uses it. Lyle came up with it a couple of years ago. It's what got him recruited into the agency."
"Genius, all right," Garth commented.
Imra finished inputting all the data and then fed Garth's list of names to the AI. Within a few seconds, the program had spat out the name of the next victim.
LORETTA LANE – 97.83% match
"Figures, really," Garth said after a pause. "I mean, she's famous, a legacy of Superman himself, probably pretty well-off – and she's done coverage on most of the murders."
"We can't go through the Science Police this time," declared Rokk. "We tried that with Mayor Fleming, and look where that got us."
"So what do you propose we do?" Imra inquired.
"Simple. We'll tell her ourselves."
A/A:
1.leathman said two chapters ago that victim 9's initials would be L.L. Clever, leath, clever.
2. We should be back to regular daily updates now, though at a different time than some of you might be used to. Still, it's a chapter a day, so why would you complain? ;)