Hours later, at police headquarters, the mystery of how their nuclear missile had exploded without physical contact was still unresolved.

"So, you're telling me that Intrepid 18 simply blew up in the atmosphere?" Captain Taupe asked an officer and slumped into his chair.

"Yes sir, Captain. It appears that someone blew it up," the officer affirmed.

"Are you certain?" Taupe questioned. "That missile has a massive protective shell and defensive lasers on board to blast incoming projectiles. And it was blown up? By whom?"

"I'm not certain, sir. As the missile approached the base, the on-board cameras picked up a sudden blackness in the vicinity of Vecto. Not long after, the cameras went dead and resumed eight seconds behind the clock, then blew up."

"A hack? Or a glitch?" Taupe was curious.

"I'm not sure, Captain. If it was a glitch, the clock would have reset automatically."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Strange . . ." Taupe leaned his elbows on his desk. "Give me the last picture of Vecto shot from the missile."

"I have it right here, sir," the officer said and laid it on his desk.

It was a zoomed-in photo of Vecto's body pieces collapsed to the ground with the bank robber Streamline sitting against a wall.

"And the one before the black void?"

The officer laid the other picture alongside. Despite strands of cloud in the way, Taupe could see Vecto standing and firing an energy blast at Streamline.

"But what's even more curious is this," the officer said and laid a third picture between them. "This was taken right after the black void disappeared half a minute later, a second or two before the missile blew up."

"They're exactly the same," Taupe observed, glancing at the photo before the void and after. Even the blast was in the exact same position.

"It appears that the blast suddenly stopped, and Vecto's body collapsed," the officer explained. He tapped the middle picture to switch to video, and it showed the last couple of seconds before the missile blew up.

"And Streamline? I want satellite images of him. I want to know his every move."

"Already did, Captain. He's outside," the officer said, sliding another photo on his desk and tapping it.

The sheet showed a battered Streamline walking toward police headquarters with a box in his arms.

"Well done," Taupe acknowledged, leaning back into his foam seat. "Arrange that I meet this soldier. We'll need him for questioning. Oh, and file these as classified, will you?"

"Yes, sir." The officer nodded.