"Major!" Junco called out to Raphael. Junco and Dhole had just reached the western docks and encountered Raphael and Suni in their civilian clothing; the latter two had both reached the site earlier than them.
"Lieutenant," Raphael answered in response while nodding at Junco. Despite having codenames, Raphael and his team preferred calling each other by rank, especially in public.
"Anything, sir?" Junco asked after nodding at Suni while Dhole stood some distance away studying a steel support pillar.
"No, we just got here ourselves," Raphael answered. As Raphael spoke, he gestured at the forensic investigators who were collecting evidence. "They're still in the middle of gathering evidence but this looks like the work of a single person."
"Ar-are you sure?" Junco asked. It was unbelievable that one person could carve up so much destruction in less than twelve minutes.
"Pardon," Raphael walked to one of the corpses and stood right behind him while apologizing to a nearby investigator. "See the arterial spray on the container? Straight, one-way splatter. That means the killer stood right behind the victim and stabbed him."
Raphael moved into an offensive position, pretending to hold a sword with two hands and stabbing it forward at an imaginary target.
"And then, based on the wound, the killer twisted the blade … counterclockwise," Raphael stood still in that position while pondering over why the killer did that. "Then, somehow, the second victim over there gets diced. But how? Telekinesis? … Peut être …"
"Boss. Over here," Dhole, who was done studying the steel pillar, called Raphael.
"You found something?" Raphael asked as he and the others approached Dhole.
"Not sure," the latter responded with a frown. "See these marks? There's something lodged in the steel."
"The knives used to kill the second victim," Raphael concluded after thinking for some time. Soon after he called an investigator to try and pry the objects from out of the pillar.
"This is five o'clock from the second victim," Suni muttered as they watched them cut into the pillar. "If it's a blade then wouldn't it just continue travelling a straight trajectory? Why would it end up here?"
"It would move in a straight line if it was a straight blade," Dhole answered, a bright light in his eyes as he realized something. "The blade was curved. This would also explain why the cuts were deep in the beginning but shallow at the end."
Soon after, Dhole was proven right as a blade with a curved end was taken out from the pillar. Raphael witnessing it all walked back to the position he was in previously. He stationed himself like how the killer was but still didn't understand how the latter was able to kill the second guard when he was wielding the sword with both his hand.
"Excuse, sirs and, uh, ma'am? I'd like to report something," a nearby forensic analyst came forward and interrupted them.
"Go ahead," Raphael answered.
"Judging from the height and wounds of the victim, and in accordance with the trajectory of the blades, I'm guessing the killer had some sort of blade shooter-thingy. See the slight curvature of the wound? The blade was travelling upwards while spinning. Meaning, it was launched at a slight downward angle."
"What do you mean by launch?" Junco asked.
"Based on how deep the blades cut into the metal, I'd say it was moving at ten times the speed of what an average human can throw," Dhole explained.
"Also, as you were demonstrating, he was holding the Katana with both hands, meaning the killer either has three hands or an accomplice, but both are unlikely so ..." the analyst nodded and agreed while looking at Raphael.
"Katana?" Raphael asked.
"The wounds on the first victim match a pointy, single-edged blade, so I'm thinking Katana," the analyst replied. "And the blade launcher or shooter, whatever you wanna call it, would explain why he twisted the blade while stabbing the first victim."
"How do you mean?" Dhole asked.
"He twisted his wrist to angle his arm and target the second victim," Junco answered as the analyst opened his mouth. The latter nodded and gestured at Junco, indicating that she had said it correctly. As a sniper and recon specialist, Junco was able to connect the dots quickly after observing the scene with a quick glance.
"Also, I'm sure that if we checked them, they'll be tightropes all over the cranes. It's likely how the killer was able to sneak up on them so easily," the analyst said while looking up.
"Tightropes? Really?" Suni asked incredulously while Junco and Raphael looked up; Junco nodded at the latter, confirming the CSI's suspicion. "The fuck we dealing with? Batman? Cirque du Soleil?"
"Have you managed to access any potential video footage?" Raphael asked the investigator while ignoring Suni.
"Cameras are offline, probably the guards that did it," Suni answered immediately. He was the technical guru amongst them that specialized mostly in hacking and explosives. With one look, he was able to tell that the nearby security cameras were disabled. "They were shut off so there'd be no evidence of the shipping containers being loaded."
Junco nodded at the analyst, requesting him to politely leave now that he was done explaining things. After he left, Raphael cleared his throat. "Do we have any idea who could have done this?"
"From what the kids described, a predator. Like, literally, a Predator. Just not blargh mouthed but wolf teethed instead with huge, muscular, high tech armour and a penchant for ripping limbs off and hanging corpses," Suni answered while using his computer armband to check the updates. His eyes shifted to the two hanging corpses as he spoke. "I would hazard a guess and say werewolf, from how they described the teeth, but the victims don't have bite marks and wolves don't have glowing blue eyes. That's definitely artificial."
"That's not much to go on," Raphael said with a frown. Wolf? Why is this reminding me of that jackass? "How about the survivor? Uh, the accountant lady?"
"Already in route to a precinct, Major," Junco answered.
"More importantly, what do we do with the kids?" Dhole interrupted while jerking his head to a specific location.
The area in question was a tent where the children were resting. Even though the flaps were open, the tent provided the children with a place to sleep peacefully. Some of them were still awake, others were eating, and a few, that weren't wary, were talking to the police officers.
"Nothing, the Colonel has already accepted a Phantom's offer and the children's ... situation is being transferred to them," Raphael answered.
"Which Phantom?" Suni asked curiously.
Raphael hesitated before answering slowly. "Viperess."
His entire team stood in stunned silence for a while minute before Junco roused herself.
"Sir, with all due-" Junco began, protesting.
"I know, Junco. I know," Raphael cut in. "And don't worry, I'm not about to let them go alone with her."
"You mean …"
"We've done all we can here," Raphael continued. "There's nothing else to gather here and we'll be receiving a copy of the forensics report anyways. I suggest we escort the children, instead."
The team nodded enthusiastically while Junco sent Raphael a gentle smile.
"Alright people, let's see if the kids need anything," Raphael said and the four moved to the tent. A few seconds after moving, however, Raphael stopped as his comm went off. Conversing for a while, he hung up with a sigh.
"I've just been ordered back to base," Raphael told his team. "You three can handle yourselves, right?"
"Don't worry, we'll be fine," Junco replied. "I'm a little surprised though. Why only call you back, sir?"
"Not sure, but I'll find out soon," Raphael said. "Bonne chance."
Raphael left the scene as the other three reached the children; they realized that Viperess was already approaching their location from the opposite direction.
She was wearing very casual clothes, black leggings, and a simple jacket, her copperish hair was styled messily making her appear as though she had just woken up. Her bright brown eyes fell on the children and she smiled at them. Specifically, she smiled at a little girl who was taking care of the other children.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you all," Melanie said to them, her sweet and angelic voice captivating the children, who looked up at her in awe. "I'll be taking care of you all. My name is Melanie, mmkay? Now, let's get you all into some nice warm clothes."
As she spoke, the little girl's eyes widened with recognition and Melanie sent a wink her way; this little girl was the same one who stood up to Fenrir. Junco, who was the most observant, noticed this small little interaction but before she could consider what it meant, Melanie turned to her and smiled. Junco shuddered as she felt the killing intent aimed at her and decided to look away, ignoring Melanie's interactions with the children.
That psychopath is younger than me, but she can still scare the shit out of me, Junco thought. She couldn't help but think about how many people Melanie killed in order to develop such a frightful intent.