Chapter 10

Manahatan hunted the Great Plains of the Wassath. She had three children, Sora, Mura and Dola. Sora ran and ran across the Great Plains, never ceasing her pursuit of prey. Mura only hunted the creatures that flew and was forever streaking across the skies. Dola only hunted the creatures that burrowed beneath the Great Plain, and caused great upheavals on the surface of the Great Plain. Manahatan was not pleased, so she created a place away from the Great Plain and filled it with life. She created the Rotali to manage the lands and keep the prey plentiful. Thus was Grenar, the home of the Rotali, created.- Manahatan, the Beginning

Asuun had a list. The AI was able to work out 142 individuals that matched the conditions to at least 80%. Some of them could not be positively placed at the scenes of the attacks, but they could not be positively placed anywhere at that time, so that was not a disqualifying characteristic.

He started going through the names, going over what the AI had managed to put together. Each name had a description of the individual, where they lived, what they did for work, their age, details on their education, and any special interests, or activities.

The files were detailed on every one of the suspects. Asuun realized that he would have to interview each of them. In all honesty, this was not likely to identify the killer. If they are experiencing the same lack of awareness of their actions, then the individual will not be aware they are doing anything at the time.

He had his AI rank them in order of highest probability first, hoping the odds would provide a shortcut to finding the killer. They lived all across the city. Asuun had his AI identify the location of the first five. Two were at their residence and the other three at their work place.

He had no problems reaching the first two and spent about 15-20 minutes with each, he explained he was a security technician and just wanted to get some information from them. Both were able to provide explanations for their location during at least some of the murders. His AI was able to get corroborating information from the security systems at the different sites that the two stated they were at.

It took Asuun another three hours to get in contact with the other three and get their statements. It took a bit more work, but Asuun was eventually able to verify their accounts of their activity on at least two of the dates of the murders.

When he had finished adding his notes to the case regarding the last batch of suspects, his AI informed him that he had a message from another security technician, Nethyn. Asuun’s AI identified Nethyn as a Senior Advocate in the department, and the lead investigator on the previous killer, Brats.

The message just requested he come see Nethyn at some point this day.

***

“You wanted to see me Senior Advocate?”

“Yes Asuun, thank you for seeing me today. I know that you are in the middle of a high priority investigation at this time, and I don’t want to waste too much of your time.”

Nethyn indicated for Asuun to take a seat on a couch before the desk.

“As you likely know, I was the lead investigator on the previous serial killer case. So when Brats died, I started looking for it to begin again. I am assuming that you have reviewed the previous data by now, and have found the pattern?”

Asuun was a little slow to react, not expecting Nethyn to be this direct.

“Yes, I did review the data, and I am aware of the previous pattern.”

Nethyn’s eyelids did a double blink, acknowledging the confirmation from Asuun.

“As you can imagine, I was hoping that Brats would be the final killer, but I knew that was unlikely. I want to know what you have uncovered so far, and how close are you to identifying the killer?”

“I have a tentative list of suspects that I am going through now. It will take some time to interview all of them and then I will need to do thorough checks against their responses...”

“How many suspects are you looking at right now?” Nethyn interrupted.

Asuun double checked with his AI, “I had 142 as of this morning, I have managed to eliminate 5 of them so far today.”

“What are the criteria you are using to generate this list? I am a bit surprised that you have been able to do this with only the 4 murders at this time.”

Asuun was reluctant to give too many details but could not think of a reason not to answer the Senior Advocate’s question.

“I don’t want to give too many specifics of my theory yet. It is highly speculative, and needs verification. Once I have had a chance to interview the suspects I currently have identified, I will know better regarding its accuracy.”

“I want to be kept up to date on the progress of your investigation, so I would like to get a daily update from you. I also want you to inform me when you get to the point of having a definitive suspect.”

Asuun was a little taken aback at the orders, this was not what he had expected from the meeting.

“I just created this theory recently, and I expect it will take some time to go through the list of suspects. Unless there is some kind of break, I don’t know when I will be able to report anything significant.” Asuun tried to sound positive.

“That is fine, just give me access to your investigation files, and I will contact you when I find something I want you to follow up on.”

Asuun was stuck for a reply. This was not standard procedure for an investigator, and normally would have been rejected immediately. It crossed his mind that Nethyn was significantly more senior to him and may have access to resources he has not considered. Also, Nethyn had been a security technician for considerably longer than Asuun.

But it also occurred to Asuun that Senior Advocate Nethyn has not been involved in any investigations for many cycles now. Asuun could not understand why he was being so direct.

“I am sorry Senior Advocate, but I must decline to give you access at this time. As you are aware, it is standard procedure that only the investigating technician have full access to the files for security purposes.”

Asuun saw the Senior Advocate’s reaction, between his nostril slits narrowing, and the inner membrane sliding over his eyes, that was not the response that Nethyn had been looking for.

“I appreciate that you have a sense of connection to this investigation due to your...”

Nethyn did not wait for Asuun to finish.

“I was not asking for your permission, security technician, I was telling you what you were going to do. I expect to have access within the next hour. Now unless you have something else to provide me, I suggest you get back to your investigation. You have a busy day ahead of you.”

Asuun sat there, biting back the first reply that came to mind. This was ridiculous. Asuun released the breath he had not realized he had been holding in.

“No, Senior Advocate.”

Nethyn had already dismissed Asuun, considering the matter closed. He had started working on something Asuun could not make out from where he was sitting, so it took a few seconds for Nethyn to react to Asuun’s statement.

“What did you just say?” Nethyn was completely focused on Asuun now. Asuun noted that Nethyn’s middle eye was open slightly as well at this point.

“Senior Advocate, my immediate supervisor’s name is Lusant, as I am sure you know. If you disagree with my response, you may feel free to contact her and seek to have her force me to change my reply. Of course, she will want to know why you are deviating from the security protocols so significantly.”

Asuun paused to give that a chance to sink in.

“Now, as I was saying, I can appreciate your interest in this investigation due to your past, and if I come across anything that I believe you could assist me with, I will immediately let you know. If you should remember anything from your original investigation that you believe would be relevant to my investigation, then I would certainly appreciate hearing it at any time.”

Asuun got up from the couch. “If there is nothing else I can do for you Senior Advocate, I will get back to my office.”

Asuun noted that Nethyn’s middle eye had closed, a good sign that the Senior Advocate would not react too badly.

“You may leave, technician Asuun.”

Asuun did not waste any time exiting the office. He was not sure if the Senior Advocate would be in touch with his supervisor or not, he figured he better let her know that it might happen.

Once Asuun was back in his office, he had his AI check to see if Lusant was available. He got a connection almost immediately.

“Asuun, what is this about?”

Asuun could see she was in her office at this time.

“I just finished a conversation with Senior Advocate Nethyn and he wasn’t very happy when I left. It is possible that he may contact you with an...unusual request.”

“Why would you do something that would make a Senior Advocate unhappy? I know that you aren’t usually unpleasant, or unnecessarily insulting, so what happened?”

“He told me to give him unrestricted access to my investigation files.”

“Why would he do that? He knows that is not normal procedure. Hold while I check something.”

Asuun watched her eyes focus on something else. It was only a matter of a minute before she was looking at him again.

“Ok, I see the connection with him and your investigation. I take it you rejected the request, hence the ’not very happy’ detail you already provided?”

“Right, he was very clear in his determination to be involved. I don’t know what he will do from here.”

“Alright, you made the right choice. There are good reasons why only the lead investigator has full access to the file. I will support your decision. Make sure to be thorough in your documenting of this, it looks like your case has a lot of attention.”

It was good to hear her clearly state that she backed his decision. Asuun was thinking he did not need internal politics to get in the way of his finding this killer.

***

Asuun was able to process 18 of the suspects before he had to call it quits. He was starting with all the ones that met 100% of the defined criteria, but that was only the first 41 on the list. Everyone that he had interviewed was able to provide information placing them somewhere else for at least 2 of the murders.

On the off chance that there were differences with this string of murders, Asuun was not immediately eliminating any of them that could not account for their locations, and be verified, for all of the murders.

Asuun had his AI submit a request for at least 6 more technicians to assist with the interviews. He had arbitrarily selected 80% as his cutoff, to keep the number of interviews to a reasonable number. The counter of days since the last murder was ticking in the back of his mind increasing a definite sense of urgency to find the killer before it is too late.

He had still not received an answer to his request by the time he was back in his office the next morning. He had his AI flag a response to that request with a high priority. He had managed to process another 3 of the suspects when his AI informed him that his request had been denied.

“Why did you deny my request?!” were the first words out of his mouth once he was able to connect with supervisor Lusant.

“I suggest you begin conversations with a greeting, if you would like them to remain polite. Second, I suggest you verify who you should be asking questions like that to, as I have no idea what request you are referring to. Now, do you think you can be professional enough to inform me of what your issue is? I would also suggest you keep in mind that I am your superior, and try to avoid sounding like you are rebuking me.” Asuun watched her lift a container with the label of her favourite stimulant shop, and take a sip.

Her tone stopped Asuun cold. Then he processed what she had just said. He quickly told his AI to identify the sender of the response. The AI showed the general address was the Advocate section of the department.

“I don’t understand what happened here. I put in a request to get more technicians to assist in processing the interviews for this case, before I left last night. I just got a response, denying my request. Since I had sent my initial request to you, I just assumed the response was from you.”

“Who is the response from?” Lusant’s voice was calm, but he could see her eyes moving as she was looking at something else.

“It has the Advocate section as the source of the reply. Why would the Senior Advocate do this?”

“Alright, I see what happened.” Lusant responded after a few seconds. “Don’t worry about it. Work on the interviews, I will look into this. For now, you will have to do them without the additional help, understood?” She was looking at him now.

“Yes, but I need the help as soon as possible.”

“Okay, I understand your concern, but that is not an option for now. Just do your best, I will let you know if this changes.” Lusant broke the connection.

Asuun tried to focus on the interviews, but there was little he could do to process them faster. It was absolutely necessary that he thoroughly cover all the points he needed to with each suspect. The data would be useless if he cut corners.

He had managed to process another 22 of the suspects before he had to quit. He felt like he was running on slicksand, and getting no where. He had a sinking feeling that he would not be fast enough before the killer struck again. He needed to get those other technicians.

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