As Officer Isla Alvarado walked down the hall with Meadow Rich's breakfast, she tried to fight off the tiredness that assaulted her. She'd been working too much lately, since the military was trying to do more with the resources it had. As such, she'd been there when Scattershot - or Meadow Rich - was brought to solitary confinement.
She shook her head as a strange stench assaulted her nostrils. What had happened here? She'd have to call the cleaners when she was done checking on the prisoners.
The smell got stronger as she got closer and closer to Ms. Rich's cell. As she stood outside the door, the nature of the smell finally hit her.
Blood.
With that realization, Isla's hands started shaking. She slowly put the tray down outside the door and knocked.
"Ms. Rich?" she called.
No answer.
"Meadow Rich!" she called again, knocking on the door harder.
Only silence answered her.
No. No, no, no. Not again.
Isla tried to steady her breathing as her heart raced out of control. She pulled her radio out and called for a medic and immediate backup. The best she could do after that was sit in the hallway, too terrified to look at what might be beyond that door.
The smell of blood continued to make her feel ill, until she was certain she wouldn't be able to keep her own breakfast down.
"Dr. Luna!"
The man in question looked up from his desk, where he was sorting out paperwork. The woman who came in was from the Second Division, and she looked rather flustered.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" he asked, calmly saving and closing the files he was working on.
"Don't take that tone with me!" she snapped, slamming her hands on the table in front of him.
"Must be something dire if you're this worked up," Elian said, looking up at her.
"Scattershot is dead."
That was a problem indeed. The Second Division General had only just been replaced, and now this had happened again. A small part of Elian thought that this would be good evidence that Kyrie was innocent in Phantasma's death, but the rest of him knew that he had more important things to worry about than General Jordan.
"What happened?" he asked, switching to the mode he'd used when they'd brought Phantasma to him.
"We want you to take a closer look to ascertain exactly what happened, but there's a massive hole in her head."
"A hole in her head?" Elian asked, frowning.
"Or her neck, or something. Most of us can't stomach looking at it."
"Right. I'll go with you." Elain stood up from the desk and pointed to an empty autopsy table. As Lieutenant Collier waited anxiously, he grabbed his kit and made sure he had everything.
Sure enough, a long walk later, he found Meadow Rich with a gaping hole under her chin. The floor was covered in her blood, and most of the officers on duty looked like they were going to be sick. One pair were off to the side, discussing something. He overheard something about smelling blood and calling for backup, so he assumed one of them was the poor soul to find this state of affairs.
Elian put a mask over his face and a pair of gloves on. He was already wearing pants and a coat that he could get dirty without issue. The smell of blood never got any better. This wasn't like Phantasma's death. This was messy.
After a few checks, he nodded to the officers.
"Bring her down to my office. I don't think I can get anything conclusive here."
The officers nodded, then glanced among themselves as if trying to figure out which unlucky ones would transport the body. After about ten seconds, Lieutenant Collier yelled at them.
"Davis, Myers, Schmidt and Wolfe! Get your asses moving." The four officers in question winced, then followed her orders.
Several minutes later. Dr. Luna was left alone with Scattershot's corpse.
"This wasn't a slow death, was it?" he mused, looking over her body. There was only one wound, but it went straight through the bottom of her head, ending in her skull. The shot would have pulverized her brain stem, ending her life almost instantly. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing.
At first, he wondered if Scattershot herself had done it in a fit of isolation-induced madness, but then he found the bullet.
He'd never seen a real bullet before, but he didn't think the lump of metal could be anything else. If he remembered correctly, Scattershot's pellets dissolved shortly after impact. They wouldn't have left this kind of evidence behind.
So someone had shot her with an old-fashioned bullet. He'd have to have a specialist look it over, but he wasn't sure if any experts still lived in Arx. Guns hadn't been used since the Old World, so how on earth had someone gotten ahold of one? Even owning blueprints for a gun had been illegal since the city was founded.
Elian heaved a groan as the mysteries deepened.
"You missed something interesting, Kyrie," he said.
The general wasn't here to answer him, but Elian kept talking anyway.
"From the looks of it, we might have two people taking out people in prison. The MO for this one is so different from Phantasma's. I wish I could use it as proof of your innocence, but I don't think there's enough similarities in the cases. Most killers would stick to the same method. It's terrifying, isn't it, Kyrie? Someone who can sneak in without the military's knowledge and pull this off.
"No, not just someone. Probably two people. One with a needle, and one with a gun. Man, I'm really gonna go bald at this rate. I can't protect your military, Kyrie. I wonder who the blame will fall on this time. Will it be the new general, or one of the colonels? Man, Evans would probably love to get rid of Powers. Replace him with another person he can easily control."
Elian sighed again, letting his head fall into his hands.
"And I don't suppose I can go discuss this with you, can I Kyrie? That would be a breach of military secrets. And I really doubt anyone wants this to get out. This looks even worse than the Phantasma one. General McGuire...I wonder what you'll do with this evidence?"
