I have been sitting in this damn room, for 10 hours!
I haven’t slept, I haven’t eaten, I am bored out of my mind and on top of all that I am tired as hell. I have sat here, counting the seconds! Wotjck left me to shadow Eastree, my Lawyer. I am sitting there counting the seconds and waiting for inspiration to bludgeon me with a baseball bat with some idea on how to get out of here.
I get some ideas but nothing I can do until I get out of here, “Any moment now…” I say aloud. Just afterwards I hear a door open up the corridor and footsteps walking down, I get up from my bead and look about as presentable as someone in my position can. (Not)
A guard walks up to my cell and opens it, bars moving down into the floor and lights turn fully on, my eyes take a moment to get used to the brightness as this random guard walks up to me and holds onto my shoulders, escorting me out of the cell and down the corridor towards the Hoist.
After a short trip we soon exit the Hoist and move into the main room I was in yesterday? I'm not sure right now. May have missed some hours here or there. I am walked toward a group of desks where Dr Roselin and Guards Addoazze and Imi are seated along with two others, two recognisable others.
“Lockness Nessgray and Number 1” I say as I walk toward them, “Come here often?”
“Glad to see your OK boss”, “Oh haha Michael.” says 1 and Lock sarcastically.
“Dr, Guardsmen” I say directed to the others, I get nods back from Roselin and Imi but an actual response from Adoazze. “Master Naff has agreed to your lawyer's deal, but there are some conditions.”
“Shoot, I’m ready and eager to prove my innocence.”
“You will continue to wear the Suppression Jacket and will have a disguise Power used on you to place you undercover. You get to bring in two members of the Society, Mr Nessgray and your clone volunteered, they had to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement to be here.”
“And lastly, I will warn you that if you try anything or do anything that I don’t like, you immediately go back into that cell.”
“Done, why didn’t Eastree come and tell me himself?”, “He was, but he was called back to the Society.”
“I can fill you in boss” says 1. I nod my head and say. “Well, let's get this show on the road then shall we?”
I start walking slowly for the door and they follow, taking up positions around me for a moment. I can see Imi making a gesture in my direction and suddenly I feel like I have a poncho or raincoat on. Number 1 turns to Imi and gives a thumbs up, I only later find out that I had completely changed to appear as a Guardsmen human with a long beard and hair, very pale white skin and no eyebrows.
That was Number 1’s idea and one he will surely pay for. He is also disguised but to look like a local with sharper features, different hair, build, eye colour and more, he spent more time talking with Imi about his disguise then mine! That bastard, he’s definitely my clone all right.
As we walk out of the Guard HQ I can see a large amount of people walking the streets but only a few passing glances. I say that but there were also a large amount of people standing outside who looked like reporters holding crystals to get images or a good sound bite. But seeing us with no OutWolder they quiet down a bit.
After passing through the throng of reporters and onto the main road we start to get comfortable, people are giving us a wide berth as we walk down the middle left of the street dodging wagons, steeds and people.
Number 1 slides up to me and tries to use the Voice Chat ability, it gets stuck for a few minutes but after some nearly visible exertion and concentration he finally makes a connection, at the cost of nearly getting run over.
The sound is a bit staticy but we can talk ok. “Yo, we did some testing at the Society and figured out a method to communicate through the Jacket. How’s things?”
“Meh, fine. You?”
“5 found a massive drug cache in the sewers, some kind of mana boosting drug. It's literally sea water from the Sea Domain. Lock, Wellingpar, 4 and 5 went back and caught four goons who were moving the stuff through this City-wide teleport system. We are trying to keep it under wraps right now, thinking we can use it as leverage.”
“Wow ok, I disappear for a few hours and this happens, dam. What’s the plan?”
“You remember that TV show dad pirated? Blacklist?”
“Blacklist. Blacklist! You want me to bargain with them in this situation to get me some amount of freedom?”
“Yeap, this excursion should hopefully get some proof that it's not you who did the murder so add it with this and we might sway them a bit.”
I am about to reply but the connection collapses, 1 looks exhausted from that. He says aloud, “Soz, takes a ton of mana to play Doom in Interface you know?” as he gets some weird looks from Imi and Dr Roselin.
After a few minutes of walking through side roads and a small alleyway we arrive, a section of the small street covered in a gravel mix is cordoned off with some kind of shielding, not allowing anyone to see or hear through it. Adoazze walks through it in a specific spot which opens a doorway into the area.
Stolen novel; please report.
We all walk through and it closes behind us, once inside we can see the front door of a building, a set of stairs leading up to it and the sidewalk. An outline of a body is marked on the ground and small flags are pegged into the sidewalk surrounding it in various areas.
The area being covered is about 10 metres in diameter, circular and allowing us to see through the shielding. People are looking as we walk in but quickly look away. Standing on the inside of the shield is another Guardsman, who looks at myself and the gang with disgust and contempt. Great, what did I do to this guy?
As we move around the area Imi turns off the disguise Power and we move carefully not to step on anything, the new guy giving Adoazze a look,
“We should not have these people here, this is a crime scene.”
“This is a unique situation Milrich, suck it up.” replies Adoazze, guess that saying is common here too. Milrich is an Elf, mid size, yellow hair. Typical Elven lad, he gives me and Number 1 a look, not telling who is original or clone.
“The report I have from the records room is here, victim Alaline Feaph, Human, mid twenties, lived alone, works as a receptionist at a shipping company. Parents have ID’d the body already.”
He starts pointing to some of the flags in the ground. “We found blood splatter here and here, bags of shopping dropped here and here, keys were found in the door. Looks like she was opening it but then got stabbed by a sharp object, fell down the stairs, landed here.”
Adoazze asks, “Any idea on the weapon, anything missing?” giving me a glance.
“A long, round object with a sharpened tip, nothing missing from what we can tell.”
“Do you have a list of everything that was found here, some kind of inventory?” I ask.
“Yes, I have it right here.” Milrich says, patting his papers before Adoazze swings her arm towards me. Obviously upset at this he hands it over and I get to have a look.
“Clothes, keys still in door, two paper bags, assorted foods, fruits, packaged fish and tea, handbag, makeup and… Lock what’s that say?” I ask pointing to some glyphs I don’t know yet.
“Packaged Hair Style Crystal.”
“Crystals for hair? You guys think of everything… Ok so let's see here, wallet with some small change… And that's it?”
“Yes, questions?” sasy Adoazze.
“Um yes two, the first one being why not try to enter the house? Keys in the door?”
“The doorway was only partially unlocked, a full mana signature needed to be added, it wasn’t completed.”
Number 1 also adds, “Biometrics, each door and key are tied to a specific mana signature.”
“Yeap got that… Do we have any security footage?” I asked pointedly to Adoazze. “I still haven’t seen me doing this supposed crime.”
“That’s because it was stored away in records, Milrich if you will.” He pulls out a holo-crystal and a blue outlined image of the street appears superimposed over the street we are standing in, like we have just stepped into a Holodeck from Star Trek.
We watch as Miss Feaph walks into frame, up the stairs and juggles around her bags and reaches into her handbag. The holograph does not give us much to see, it's like watching an outline of the main features but no detail. It's the crappy CCTV equivalent of this world. Miss Feaph is human, about 5 ft 6 in and thin.
From behind I see the man who is supposedly me walk into frame, same height, same hair, same face. God damn it's a spitting image of me! He walks up the stairs silently, Miss Feaph not even noticing. From a belt he takes out a needle, the same kind I normally use and stabs right through the back, straight through the spine.
Down she falls as the figure looks on, he stops for a moment by her side and, oh god I will not repeat here what happens, he finishes the job and rummages around in her bag before leaving. Soon afterwards bystanders arrive and the image pauses.
That, that can’t have been me right! I, we definitely didn’t do that! We had been at home at this hour, not…
I squat down, trying to catch my breath and keep last night's prison slop down. As I have my eyes closed I hear Number 1, ask in a quiet voice.
“Can you replay him walking into frame, like, walking into the street.”
I look up at him but see a shocked face, pale and sick, grimacing at the thought. Adoazze and the others, even Lock are out of my mind right now, my only thoughts are on the man walking into frame. Number 1 says to stop with Milrich pausing the recording.
He scrutinises the image from every angle before giving up and walking to the side. “Restart it, from the beginning please.” he asks softly.
After a moment the recording replays, the Anti-Michael walks into frame, and up the stairs. “Again” 1 asks. A quizzical look from Milrich and the others are responded by Number 1. “Again!” he says louder this time.
The scene replays, he walks in and up the stairs, “Again” he says and it is done again. As the image reaches the top of the stairs he says “Stop!” We are all quiet for a moment as 1 moves into the position where the Anti-Michael walked in from.
He walks, following the path and up the stairs. “Can you replay my steps just now and this recording at the same time?”
“Um, why?” asks Milrich. “Cause I said so just do IT!” says Number 1 yelling that last part. Adoazze gives Milrich a nod before he fiddles with the crystal, turning it in his hands and filling it with more mana.
“Here” he says before starting the recording. Number 1 and Anti-Michael start walking forward but there is something different. The gait and stride are different, Anti-Michaels legs are further apart, longer. The way he moves his arms and more are different as well, as they walk up the stairs the differences continue.
“Stop”, Adoazze says before addressing Number 1. “That proves nothing, you could have just changed the way you walked.”
“Maybe, but can I change how much weight I place down on my foot?”
“What?” replies Adoazze before I get what Number 1’s saying. “The footprints!”
“Yes, while my gait is different it might be faked, but there is no way that they could have faked the depth of my footprints right... Right?”
Milrich looks at the crystal for a moment before nodding. “The footprints left by each are different, the clones and Hayes’ footprints are identical.”
Adoazze looks at the footprints, the crystal, Number 1 and myself before reaching into her pocket and grabbing a communication stone. Speaking aloud for our benefit she says.
“I want every forensic expert we have to go over each piece of information we have from the recording and examine the footprints and recordings of Michael Hayes we have on record, compared to the record of the murder. I want this confirmed now.”
Getting off the proverbial phone she turns to me, “Well Mr Hayes, it seems that allowing you to come along may have helped your case after all.”