Chapter Six:

The Truth

Karen sat in Ranger Headquarters, probably one of the most advanced science laboratories she'd ever seen. On one wall, a good twenty monitors showed different views around the city, while to her left were those capsules she'd heard the rangers used to charge up, two of them bearing the red spade and blue diamond symbols that Gordon and his teammate wore. The other two had a pink heart and a green clover shape on them. For some reason, Karen couldn't quite keep her eyes off the pink heart one.

Gordon Cherry stood nearby, now out of his ranger costume. He brushed back his long dark hair as he glanced at Karen, talking in hushed tones with the blue ranger, a huge muscular man with a buzz cut, who dwarfed Karen by at least two and a half feet.

"In broad daylight?" the man asked.

Gordon nodded. "Most of them were wearing the same rubber masks as . . ."

"Do you think they're connected?" a Hispanic FBI agent with long dark hair standing near them asked.

"Only one way to find out," a tech with short curly hair and lots of makeup said, holding up Karen's flash drive. From the brief snippets of conversation Karen had heard so far, she'd gathered the person was trans in some way, but she wasn't sure on the specifics yet, so she'd default to using "they" until she learned more.

"Bandage," the older doctor patching her up said. The man had a thick mustache and wore what looked like a cheap party store military uniform in bright yellow. Beside him, a shorter woman with mousy hair and a lab coat handed him a strip of gauze.

"Here you go," she said.

The doctor wrapped the gauze around the slight graze Karen hadn't realized she'd received until after they'd arrived. "And there you go," he said, finishing it off. "All done."

Karen looked over the bandage. "Thank you," she said. "Doctor?"

"Kuchar," the man said. "Daniel Kuchar."

Karen smiled. "Doctor Kuchar. Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Agent Ten," the mousy girl said. "Well, Tennyson, but everyone calls me Ten. Like Ben Ten, you know."

Karen raised an eyebrow. She believed that was an old cartoon from a few decades back or so. Agent Ten saw her uncertainty and stepped back, looking down. "Well, I'm Agent Ten, anyway," she said.

Gordon and the rest of the team stepped up. "You ready?" Gordon asked.

Karen breathed. Yeah," she said. "Plug it in."

"Will do," the tech said, flipping the drive over in their hand. They crossed to the nearby computer and inserted the drive, sitting down and tapping away as the device's security key popped up. Karen stepped up behind them, noticing that a small hamster seemed to be running around the keyboard as they worked. If she didn't know any better, it almost seemed like the hamster was helping.

The tech got through the security and pulled up the files. They stopped, glancing back at their teammates. "Look familiar."

Their cursor was circling around a single file in the corner, titled simply "Crime?"

Gordon and Rio looked at each other seriously. Karen raised an eyebrow.

"Open it," Gordon said.

The tech clicked on it, showing a single video file inside. They clicked on that too.

A large screen popped up, showing Karen's father's face looking into the camera. He seemed to be checking it a bit, while glancing back at the door behind him. He looked like he was in the supply closet at his office. "Is this on?" he asked.

He sat back, looking anxious. "My name is Tobias Ellsworth Miller. I am a detective with the New Tech City police department. I am recording this video to this flash drive just in case something happens to me."

He swallowed, glancing back at the door again. "Over the last six months, I've been investigating a criminal conspiracy that runs far deeper than I could have possibly imagined. I first got onto this case when I was investigating Drubbins. Nothing big, just some tax fraud. But that investigation led to another, then another, and soon, I had stumbled onto something big. Something that had cost the lives of three cops before me."

He stopped, listening to movement just outside the door. "There are individuals working within every single major corporation I investigated, every single branch of the police force, some even working inside the government and EAGLE, who are quietly siphoning off money and resources, burying the leaks through burner account after burner account, all funneling the money back to the heads of the conspiracy. As far as I can tell, they started their operation sometime during the war, using all the panic and focus on the Black Cross to distract from what they were doing. I'm not sure they even have a name. I just keep finding the word 'crime' popping up in random locations, often with weird verbiage around it."

Gordon and Rio looked at each other again.

"I have gathered as much evidence as I could find," Tobias said. "I have made copies of nearly everything. I have a file in my desk, and another in my car, and even more in this flash drive. I'll be taking the file in my car to the commissioner tomorrow. I hope I'll be able to trust Vernon, but if not, I'll still have this on me, and I'll do my best to get it into the hands of the one person I trust completely."

Karen swallowed, as her father looked down. "Karen," he said. "If you're watching this, I assume that means they got to me, and you and your mother are probably going through hell right now. I'm so sorry that you got dragged into this. I promise, I'm going to do my best to make sure you never have to see it."

He breathed out a long, ragged breath. "The rest of this drive is filled with as much evidence as I dared include. I never kept all of the evidence in one place. And I dare not say where I left the rest of it, but if you see your mother, Karen, ask her to tell you all about her favorite date night."

Karen raised an eyebrow, confused. She could feel the Ranger team all glancing at her as well. On the screen, her father rubbed the back of his head and changed the subject. "What I can tell you though, is that they're planning something big. Something to do with the energy towers all around the city. I'm not sure what, but they've been working with Neo Labs on something called Project Messiah. When I go to talk to Vernon tomorrow, I'll be asking him for a full team and support to investigate them, and this Project Messiah is one of the things I'll be tackling first."

Karen's dad glanced back at the door one more time. "In the meantime, I'm going to keep working, keep looking into all this, keep doing everything I possibly can to expose them. Because these people are dangerous. And I don't want my family to live in a world where they are in control."

He mouthed for a moment, looking for something more to say. He shook his head and looked serious. "That's all I have to say on the subject." He reached forward and turned off the camera, the screen going dark. Karen and the Ranger team stood together in silence, no one speaking. After a minute, the tech cleared their throat and leaned forward, exiting out of the video player and pulling up the drive's files once again.

"Looks like it all checks out," they said. "We have accounting records from every major corporation in the city, at least. Plus, correspondences between various involved parties. I think we've found what we've been looking for."

Karen tried to listen, but not a word of it processed in her brain. The final image of her father felt seared into her brain, and she felt tears welling in her eyes. Gordon noticed and cleared his throat. "Keep working on this, Princess," he told the tech. "I'll be just a minute."

He turned away, gently touching Karen's shoulder and leading her away. "Come on," he said softly. Karen followed him out, mostly because she didn't want to cry in front of all those strangers. Gordon led her to a small room across the lab, letting her inside and shutting the door behind him. He didn't even have to say a word before Karen broke down.

She threw the first thing her hand touched, which happened to be a pillow. She then grabbed the blanket underneath it, ripping it up and trying to toss it, only for it to catch on the end of a mattress for just a second. This just served to stoke her rage, and she grabbed the mattress, tossing it up and beating on it with her fists, letting out a small scream. She pushed it off the bed and slumped down onto the frame beneath it. "Damn it, dad!" she shouted. "Why? Why couldn't you just back out when you knew how dangerous it was? Why didn't you just pass it off to someone else? Didn't you know what . . . if me and mom . . . if you . . ."

She couldn't get the words out, because deep in her heart, she knew the answer why. It wasn't who he was. Her dad would never just pass it off to someone else. He always did what was right, what was good, even if it came at the cost of himself. It was a part of why she loved him so much. She couldn't expect him to just be any less.

Tears welled in her eyes as her heart clenched with pain. She sank to her knees as all of her emotions came spilling out. She felt Gordon put his arms around her and hold her for a few minutes as she sank into his chest, crying onto his shoulder. They stayed like that for several minutes, until finally, Karen had calmed down a little bit. Gordon let her go, and she sat back against the bed behind her, wiping her eyes.

"Thank you," she said, looking around. Her eyes fell on the upturned mattress leaning against the wall. "Sorry about that."

Gordon shrugged. "It's no biggie," he said.

Karen looked at him. "Did you have episodes like that after . . . you know?"

"June?" Gordon asked.

Karen nodded.

"Several," he said. "My friend Josh was always there to help me through it. I figure the least I can do is pass it on to someone else."

Karen smiled a little and looked down. "We were practically strangers this morning," she said.

"Doesn't matter," Gordon said.

Karen noticed a box of tissues on the counter nearby. She grabbed a couple and blew her nose. "Where are we, by the way?"

"A small rest area off the lab," Gordon said. "Generally for recuperation after a battle or a test or something." He glanced at the door back to the lab. "Sounds like he was a good dad."

Karen smiled. "The best," she said. "When I was growing up, I didn't just want to be a cop, like any other cop out there. I wanted to be like him, a good cop, a person really trying to make the world a better place for everyone, not just enforcing rules."

She let out a breath and brushed her hair back. "I guess we should head back out there, huh? Make sure all his hard work doesn't go to waste."

Gordon smiled. "Yeah, I guess so," he said. He got to his feet, extending his hand to Karen. Karen accepted the hand up, and the pair headed back out to the lab, where everyone was still gathered around the computer.

"Everything okay?" Rio asked as they approached.

"Yeah, we're all good," Gordon said.

"So, what did we learn?" Karen asked.

"A lot," the tech said, gesturing to the screen. "Looks like your dad gathered a lot of the evidence we've been looking for for weeks."

"Seems like we have two leads so far," the FBI agent said. "First is Neo Labs, to figure out what this 'Project Messiah' is all about."

"Then there's Detective Miller's wife," Agent Ten said.

Karen looked at her in confusion. The mousy agent's ears turned red. "That whole 'first date' thing he added in there," she said. "It sounded like a hint to where we'll find the rest of his evidence."

The pieces clicked together in Karen's head. Right, she thought. Just like the sour gummies. Apparently, she was really bad at catching on to her dad's hints.

"I'll go talk to her," Karen said.

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" the FBI agent asked. "I'm sure that's the first place these Crime people will expect you to go. They'll likely have people watching her day and night."

"I don't care," Karen said. "She's my mom. I have to do this."

The agent looked like she wanted to argue, but Gordon cut her off. "I'll go with her," he said. "She'll be more willing to give information to her daughter than some strangers. I'll pull us out if things get hot."

Doctor Kuchar scratched at his mustache. "It would probably be smart to have a ranger investigating both leads," Doctor Kuchar said. "So, if Gordon goes with Officer Miller, Rio, you should head to Neo Labs and try to gather as much information as possible. Take Yoselin and Princess with you."

"Will do, Doc," Rio said with a nod.

"Agent Ten, you should go with Gordon's team?"

The agent looked surprised. "Me?"

Doctor Kuchar nodded. "Anyone involved will likely recognize you far less than Gordon or Officer Miller. You may be able to approach Mrs. Miller when they can't."

Agent Ten swallowed. "Yeah," she said. "I can do that."

"But in the meantime, I suggest we all get some rest for the night."

Across the city, Miranda Miller was still in the morgue where her husband's body had already been put away in one of those horrid drawers, pacing the room and calling her daughter's phone over and over again. "Come on, Karen," she said, her voice shaking. "Where are you?"

The door behind her opened, and she turned hopefully, only to find Vernon Axelrod standing behind her. "Oh," she said with disappointment.

Vernon shifted awkwardly and stepped inside. "Hello, Miranda," he said.

Miranda ran her hands through her long hair. "Vernon," she said. "Have you seen Karen? I haven't heard from her in hours."

"Yeah," Vernon said, wringing his hands. "I, uh, I just received word that your daughter broke back into the crime scene two hours ago and stole an important piece of evidence."

Miranda shook her head, staring at him in confusion. "She . . . stole evidence? Why would she do that."

Vernon looked down uncomfortably. "We don't know yet, but . . . when we were looking through the apartment, and Tobias's office downtown, we found evidence that seems to suggest Karen may have . . . been involved in . . ."

He cast his eyes at the empty morgue table where his partner had been laid a few hours before. Miranda followed his gaze, putting together what he was suggesting.

She took a step back from him. "You think my daughter had something to do with this?" she said, looking at him in disgust. "Karen would never—"

Vernon raised his hands. "I don't want to believe it either," he said. "I'm going to personally investigate all of this evidence myself. I will get to the bottom of this. I promise."

He reached out and gripped her shoulder gently, slipping a small listening device under her collar as he did so. "We'll figure out who did this," he said. "But in the meantime, if Karen does try to reach out to you, please let me know. I'd rather I found her and talked to her, before some other cop who doesn't know her got to her first."

Miranda stared down at his hand, then up at Vernon, unsure what to think. "You better make sure you investigate all that evidence right. I won't take someone lying to me about my daughter like that lightly."

Vernon smiled sympathetically. "I'll do everything I can."