PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“This is the gang you mentioned earlier?” Sofia asked as she looked at the bloody mess around her.

With both eyebrows furrowed, Silvia responded with a sense of humor that she probably learned from her boss. “Well, I couldn’t be sure, the last time I heard from them, they still had their heads on their shoulders.”

By default, Sofia ignored the little joke in bad taste and continued to watch the scene, waiting for the forensic department to finish cordoning off the area. Thus, a young woman and an older woman, both with charms and beauty of a different nature, stood looking at the collection of corpses that filled the cellar in which they had arrived.

Originally, both Silvia and Sofia were supposed to come to get some answers from the gang that usually occupies this place, since it was the only solid lead they had so far, but they didn’t expect to find a massacre instead.

The three or four individuals who had once served as vigils for the place had all died with their brains strewn on the ground, courtesy of the lovely Sara who was on the other side of the sniper rifle’s scope that she used to kill each one of them.

The people inside had no better luck at the hands of Yulei and Natalie, who gunned down anyone who crossed their path. With the use of silencers and careful coordination, the vast majority of the people inside didn’t even know how they died.

As brilliant as both women were, Sofia and Silvia came to deduce many of these details as they searched the area, of course, excluding the identity of the attackers.

Looking at the patterns of blood on the ground near the dead lockouts, Sofia formed a scene in her mind and directed her attention to a building a hundred and twenty meters away. Immediately, Sofia began passing out orders. “These here were taken out by a sniper. From the height, I can only assume that the shot came from that building, I want someone to check it in case they find shell casings or something else.”

.....

Silvia only nodded gently in agreement with Sofia, although she still passed an order of her own. “Don’t bother extending the search area too much for witnesses, it’s almost certain that the people who attacked this place were wearing silencers, likely, even the neighbors of this place didn’t see anything.”

Neither Sofía nor Silvia failed to prove how capable they were, processing the scene and passing orders with speed, precision, and professionalism. However, Silvia’s performance managed to impress Sofia a bit, it should not be forgotten that Silvia was considerably young.

What Sofia failed to notice was that the constant expression of coldness and slight disgust on Silvia’s face as they worked on the scene was not because of the dead bodies or how bloody everything was. What bothered Silvia was that she knew who had given the order for this to take place.

Silvia had only recently turned eighteen, but the amount of blood and cruelty she had seen was not something that could be underestimated. However, despite everything she had seen, Silvia couldn’t help but feel guilty seeing the massacre around her, knowing that she was helping the man behind it all.

Guilt was as heavy as a mountain on Silvia’s shoulders, but it was still nothing compared to what Silvia felt when she saw her sister’s X-rays this morning.

After just two injections of Desmond’s potion, the damage to her sister’s spine had recovered by at least thirty percent. On the other hand, what Silvia was most worried about, which was the damage to the cerebral cortex, had in fact shown signs of improvement, something that should be impossible.

Silvia didn’t know where Desmond had been able to get this kind of practically miraculous medicine, she could only assume that he knew some kind of ridiculously powerful medical esper.

In the end, the details didn’t matter, as relieved as Silvia was to see her sister improve, she still hadn’t forgotten that what Desmond was capable of giving her, he was also capable of taking away.

Desmond might not be a soulless demon, something that Silvia confirmed by seeing Desmond’s frustration when his threats to her sister didn’t work. Despite that, Desmond was not the kind of person one could betray, Silvia was absolutely sure that if she didn’t keep her end of the deal, she would meet a swift and violent death.

It took a second, but Silvia managed to push all the unnecessary thoughts out of her head, she still had a role to play and she couldn’t get distracted. Using her natural cold expression as armor, Silvia managed to appear quite casual as she uncovered all the evidence that she was supposed to find.

“Captain Sofia, I thought we have a problem.”

To begin with, Silvia was a woman of few words, so as soon as she spoke, she attracted the attention of Sofia, who quickly came over to see the object found by Silvia.

Looking at the gun on the ground, Sofia couldn’t help but have a suspicious expression. “The serial number is removed, but this weapon is a model used almost exclusively by the military.”

Wishing she could hold her heart in her hands so that it would beat more steadily, Silvia responded with a well-feigned casualness. “I can’t say that I’m surprised at this point. First, we have four people who were eliminated by well-executed consecutive shots by a sniper on a building just over a hundred meters away. The coordination required to take down the twelve people inside this building is not something a group of rookies would have. Also, the way they swept through the building, room by room, the flash grenade shells, the silencers; the methodology is very similar to what they teach us in tactical combat in the army.”

Silvia did not make a single mistake in her analysis and explanation, in fact, Sofia had shared that point of view and conclusions for some time, but there was something that kept bothering Captain Sofia.

Silvia saw the flicker of doubt that shone in Sofia’s eyes and she made the decision to change a little the script that she had been provided. Instead of casually finding the next piece of evidence, Silvia would let at least an hour or so pass and she would lead the forensic team to analyze the area where the said clue was found.

Silvia’s reasoning was simple and she actually aligned perfectly with what was going through Sofia’s mind at that moment; everything seemed too easy. The sheer lack of actual evidence, oddly combined with enough clues to clearly point to a certain train of thought, all seemed too much of a coincidence.

Without knowing it, Sara had made a mistake, she had greatly underestimated the intelligence of Captain Sofia, who had built a reputation in the army as an investigator. Even with all the work and manipulation done beforehand, Sofia still found the most obvious of clues, one that others would have missed; everything seemed too perfect.

Unfortunately for Sofia, Desmond had managed to put an equally capable woman at Sofia’s side to sabotage her. With her sister’s life on the line, Silvia used the best of her abilities to make sure everything went as Desmond intended.

Eventually, as Silvia discreetly orchestrated, someone in the forensic department made their way to both women with a new piece of evidence. A laptop was founded in a hidden compartment in the room of the leader of the massacred gang.

It would take a while to analyze all the information stored inside the computer, but just a casual glance was enough for Sofia and Silvia. Drugs, weapons, people, and all kinds of contraband were mentioned in an accounting record, but that was not the worst part.

“Why is a small gang like this getting so much money from the Minora family?” Sofia exclaimed involuntarily when she saw another accounting file.

The forensic tech quickly swept through the file before replying respectfully. “That’s the weird part, it doesn’t look like that money has lasted very long in the hands of this gang. It’s like they only hold the cash for a limited time before they do anything with it, but there’s no record of purchase or anything, the money just vanishes.”

Finding an opportunity to intervene and guide the conversation, Silvia asked a question with a thoughtful expression on her face. “When was the last transaction?”

Quickly, the technician found the record and responded. “It seems like it was about three days ago, this is the amount and the way the deposit was made, it seems that part of it was accounted for in Esper crystals.”

Seeing the numbers pointed out by the technician, Silvia made a comment with an unusual expression. “Captain Sofía, why do those numbers seem so familiar to me?”

What else could Sofia do besides respond with annoyance? “That’s because that’s exactly the amount we found in the dead lieutenant’s apartment yesterday.”

“From the looks of it, it seems like the Minora family had the man in their pocket and had this gang handle the payments, but that still doesn’t explain a couple of things.” Sylvia commented.

Sofia replied with obvious exasperation in her voice and demeanor. “The amounts don’t add up, a lieutenant like him isn’t worth that much money. Also, with the lieutenant now dead, someone was clearly trying to tie up loose ends by taking out this gang, but contrary to what one might think, it appears that it was a group of the army who ransacked this place.”

Not wanting to push Sofia any further for fear of getting the wrong reaction, Silvia tactfully walked over and asked. “What does Captain Sofia want to do now?”

As events continue to unfold, Sofia has a growing sense that whoever lured her to this place was doing much more than just revealing Rundert’s corruption. That feeling that every track and stage was too perfect still hadn’t left Sofia’s mind, although it was reduced a bit thanks to Silvia’s sneaky intervention.

Annoyed, Sofia answered Silvia’s question by passing orders to the members of the forensic department near herself. “I want this crime scene to be processed as quickly as possible. Somebody traced that damn gun, I don’t care if you don’t find the serial number, I want an audit of the armory of this military barracks by tonight. And someone calls ballistics and asks them to hurry up with the studies on the gun we found yesterday, I want to know all about that thing.”

There was nothing Sofia could do other than play with the cards in her hand so that was what she did. Sofia had to swallow the frustration of knowing someone else gave her every single card she was playing with.