CHAPTER 149
The privacy screen had been opened, and only a fraction of a second had passed. Tom knew exactly what was happening, and he suspected she did too but the instincts taught by years of solitude in the tutorial did not go away that quickly. Everlyn, with her bow was ready to kill and Tom realised that not only had he sat up to allow himself to throw the tier three pebbles he clutched in his hand his other magic had activated to give him additional options. Earth Manipulation had taken control of the roof, the molecular structure already cracking in case he needed to drop chunks of rock to defend himself, and a Lightning Ball crackled on his shoulder, primed to be launched at any enemies that faced them.
“It’s not an all-hands emergency,” Sven called through the door. “But the priority one alarm has been rung.”
The magic that Tom had gathered fell away, and he glanced at Everlyn to see her bow had likewise vanished.
Still partially on the defensive, with a kick, he opened the shutters, courtesy of the counterweight. They immediately shot to the ceiling and gave him clear vision of the central area of the bunker.
“Shit, it’s really priority one?” They heard Thor call out.
Tom realised Sven must have broken all the privacy seals simultaneously. He was not the only one waking to this news.
He looked out and noted Sven and Clare at the steps to the surface both dressed in their armour like they should have been given that they were the ones who were supposed to be on watch. Michael was climbing out of his bunk in his usual gear, minus the chain mail top, and most of the other shutters were in the process of being opened.
“I’m afraid so.” Clare replied grimly.
“Who was it then?” Thor asked.
Sven covered his mouth. “We don’t know.” His hand dropped to his side and tugged his armour to be straighter. “I wish we did.”
Tom pushed himself clear of his bunk and landed on the floor. He had dropped his spells and only had a single pebble clutched in his hands. His thumping heart wouldn’t let him be completely helpless. Thor inexplicably tumbled from his bunk wearing only underwear, though he clutched his hammer tightly. How he could sleep in anything other than full armour was a mystery to Tom.
Sonya joined them from a different bunk and despite being primarily a healer she was in armour. From her tangled mess of hair, she had just woken choosing to sleep sensibly in a full kit.
In moments, the entire team was out of the bed and ready to move and except for Thor who was unapologetically getting dressed.
Now that he was out of the bunk and standing on the floor or possibly because they had cracked open the door to the surface he could hear the regular one tone ring. Combined with the fate movement he had senses in his fitful sleep the explanation was clear.
Everlyn looked at him wide eyed and he couldn’t offer her any comfort.
“Stay together.” Michael warned, and then ran up the stairs.
They followed and rushed up the steps to see what was happening, with everyone else falling in behind them.
Tom emerged into the courtyard to a blood curling scream and almost collided with Michael who had stopped dead. He stepped around to see and then froze himself.
Jin was camped in the middle of the open space between where the morning cook fires would be lit. She was screaming at the sky. On her lap, clutched by her arms was a body of a girl, still rigid, limbs splayed out. A look of terror etched onto the dead body’s face.
Tom himself felt like vomiting. He remembered the emotions in Jeffrey’s eyes during the ceremony. The agony that the ritual had caused the man.
And now… there was Gita cradled in Jin’s arms.
Jin was inconsolable. Screaming and wailing. Alternating between stroking her girlfriend’s cheek like it would do something and howling like a wolf at the sky.
The rest of the camp was in chaos. People were in a ring around Jin, watching the scene. Some yelled at her to shut up. Others covered their eyes barely able to look at the distraught woman and then the more sensible had retreated to the walls just in case a threat could hear all the streaming and come for them.
“Gita.” Everlyn gasped next to him as she got a clear view of the situation for the first time.
Anger flooded through Tom he needed to find and kill these bastards.
Another murder.
He had been sure that after Reilly it would be at least a week until they struck again. But to have gone so soon… It was terrible and suggested… what… actually it could be many things; a crime of opportunity, that they were getting close to finishing whatever they were doing or worse an increasing appetite.
His skill would reveal them, and then they would suffer the consequences of their choices. As for meeting the next event wave, Tom was not convinced it was going to happen. It was quite possible that the whole place would implode and not last through the day.
Everlyn had run over to hold Jin. Toni was there too. And a scattering of people are still yelling at her shut up.
“I’m knocking you out if you don’t quit it.”
Zap.
The man from Legan’s group standing two metres in front of Tom who had yelled at the hysterical Jin fell over with electricity arcing over him.
Tom ignored him, stepped over the spasming body and to stand at the back of the women. His spear in his hands clearly illustrating his intent. ‘You have an issue with someone showing grief, then you can go through me.’
After a moment, Thor and Sven moved to take position, so they ringed the grieving woman.
“You were supposed to… we should have left?” Jin sobbed behind him.
No one else was telling her to shut up after he had electrocuted the one man. The wild threats had stopped. Tom knew why they had done it. Woken up in the early morning, then listening to the raw grief was disconcerting and uncomfortable and the final straw was that everyone here had come from the tutorial. It had been over a month yes, but after ten years of startling at the slightest noise, the sort of outburst Jin was indulging in screamed out this means to death to them all.
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Nevertheless, Tom even if they were not safe behind walls would have let her have her grief. This wasn’t the tutorial; they were no longer alone, which meant more flexibility and because humans were tricky compromise.
Tom quickly checked the time. It was just before dawn and if he hadn’t been woken up, this was when he would usually get up.
Furious anger blazed within him.
He was going to find them and then tear him to bits.
There was no question about that. Wait till after the event wave? Nope, not if he had a choice. If everything went right, he would reveal their identities tonight and then stomp on them. Even if it was one of his friends, they would get the same treatment. Gita had been a good person. She, like all of them, had weathered the horrors of the tutorial and had to agreed to enter the competition in order to make a difference.
And there was no way she was detrimental to the wider group. Tom had been able to see how someone like Jeffery or Tiny or even Mac might have been a net negative, but Riley and Gita The answer for them was an absolute no. Was he being a sexist? Tom didn’t think so and if he was he didn’t care. The first three had been making waves, Jeffrey by being who he was, Tiny with his desire to push himself and the love of battle which was creating internal fights and Mac had as good as begged everyone to kill him. Reilly and Gita, had been happy productive members of their group. They were dead purely because they were in the suspect’s prison.
Easy victims.
There was no excuse. No justification for these latest killings and he would make them pay.
Sven looked at the body and the crying girlfriend. His face was ashen. Tom empathised with that expression? You couldn’t listen and see Jin’s pain without feeling it yourself.
Tom forced himself to look away tears running down his cheeks, matching those on Svens.
He remembered the morning a couple of days earlier when he had interrupted them. The girls had been having a wonderful time watching the sunrise. He had a date or more precisely, a mission with Everlyn and interrupting that moment had felt right… now he felt like he’d robbed Gita and Jin of a few more precious moments of happiness.
Another death.
Tom started and examined everyone he could see. The killers were out there. All he had to do was to find them.
It was a faint hope, but searching gave him a purpose and a focus. He doubted he would spot signs of guilt on someone, but he studied them anyway. He saw withdrawn faces, angry, sad, despondent but none that he could point it and say ‘freeze, you’re the killer.’
There was no smug self satisfied mocking grins. No one glimmering with power that didn’t belong with them.
That thought prompted him to dial up his fate sensing ability. Instantly, like with the other crime scenes, fate was in turmoil around. It wasn’t just the air it was everyone’s fate was out of alignment. Sven’s was dramatically elevated while Thor’s was suspiciously low. But they were just a microsism of the wider community. Everywhere he looked people’s fates had been tweaked, and he guessed his own had a similar affect occurring. When he examined himself, it felt like a veil had been thrown over him. Everyone else would see his fate as being weaker.
Behind him, the crying slowed down, and Tom wiped away the evidence of his earlier tears. Everlyn came to stand next to him.
She hugged him tightly and he could guess what she was thinking.
Too slow, their prophetic skill had taken too long to find the enemies. But Tom knew why now and there was no point worrying about it. The killers were using powerful magic to hide themselves, but he had their scent and he would find them.
Gita was the death they’d been hoping to avoid when they had first purchased the skill. They had expected the killers to be revealed before they killed their fifth, which would have stopped them from making this murder. Unfortunately, their enemies were not stupid and there was no readily obtainable ability to expose them. They had ideas on how to unravel the mystery, but even their new approach might fail. If he had to use questions, he would to prevent the next murder. He promised himself that.
“We’ll get them.” He guaranteed.
“How?” Sven asked flatly. His eyes were more bloodshot than Everlyn’s, and he hadn’t bothered wiping away the tear lines. “If we haven’t found them yet, what’s going to change between this and the next?”
Everlyn squeezed his hands in warning. “They’ll make a mistake.” Everlyn told Sven neutrality. “All killers do.”
Sven shook his head. “Well, they haven’t yet.” Then he stepped away. Heading straight over to where Clare, Michael, and Keikain were gathered.
Everlyn, glance back to where Toni was shepherding Jin away from the body and towards the unofficial comfort room. A simple lean too against the exterior wall that contained several chairs, including a couple of soft cushions. The unofficial rules was no longer than half an hour and library rules applied. Tom was sure that an exception would be made for Jin.
“We should check out the crime scene.” Everlyn suggested quietly.
“What’s the point?”
“You might notice something new or I might. Plus, we need to keep up appearances.” The last was said in a whisper, and Tom knew she had used her sound abilities to ensure that no one else had heard.
“This is so much harder when you know the victim.”
She squeezed his hand. “Yes, it is. Just makes me even more determined to find her killer.”
They headed toward the prison where the murder had taken place.
Bob stood in the doorway a scowl on his face, but he moved aside to let them in. There was a slump to his shoulders as well. This murder on the back of Mus taking away three people, two of them suspects had hit Bob hard. Tom knew the man had to be blaming himself for these failures.
Tom paused momentarily before entering. “The others?”
Bob frowned. “They were found unconscious. Exactly the same energy as with Tiny’s murder. Andros checked and confirmed. They’ve been moved for the time being.”
“Do you think it was one of them?”
Bob shook his head. “It could still be, but… I don’t know. I spend a lot of time with them and Gita. Everyone liked her.”
Tom nodded and entered the prison.
Thankfully, there were still multiple light globes active, so it was almost like walking into a brightly lit, modern room. For the second time, a section of the floor of the prison had been converted to have a layer of soft soil. The previous ritual spot had been smoothed over by Keikain. Everlyn and he went over the crime scene with a usual efficiency and attention to detail.
“Three focal points,” Tom reported.
“Three killers?” Everlyn asked sharply.
Tom nodded confirmation. “That’s my guess.”
“So what do you think if there are three of them they needed three alibis? That means the first three murders were to set alibis? Now they don’t need it they’re not bothering.”
It sounded more than possible.
“If that’s the case,” Everlyn continued. “Then we should look at who was in the first group and got an alibi because of being near you.”
“Michael, Sven, Harry, Thor, Adofol and Cherry,” Tom listed off the group.
“One of them is the killer.” Everlyn said quietly. “If they hadn’t got the alibi, then, well, Reilly’s murder would have been used to grant it. But they didn’t because she had three loci.”
“We can also look at who was in our group when we cleared the challenge trial.”
“Yes.”
“If we don’t have the answer by the time we’re ready to go, I’ll use my questions on the six above.”
“What is that two, three questions max to get a name?”
“If our assumption is correct.” Tom cautioned.
“That pattern is pretty clear. Would you really do that? Sacrifice your questions to find them.”
“Absolutely.” Tom said angrily. Then actively moderated his tone. “Yes. If my skill hasn’t broken it by the time we’re ready to leave, I’ll use it. I don’t want to abandon this group and have a team of murderers kill them all while we’re away.”
“Or risk one of them coming with us.” Everlyn said darkly. “Come on, let’s finish the examination.” She gestured at the conspicuous patch of dirt on the otherwise smooth stone floor.
Tom focused once more. Kneeling and then engaging Earth Manipulation via his feet to check the stone for any clues. “The ritual is gone, nothing else of note.”
“I don’t see anything either.” Everlyn admitted. The crime scene was empty and Bob, when questioned didn’t have anything noteworthy to say.
It was the same situation as earlier. Two people had been on watch. Both have been knocked unconscious. The external sentries hadn’t spotted anything suspicious. There were no signs of forced entry. A single door that enabled entrance to the prison and remained shut. The magic seals that locked down the area were all untouched and undamaged.
Same with the ones that were in place to stop teleportation or phasing or any of those fun techniques.
“Nothing.” Everlyn stated as a walking away despondently. Tom knew she was putting on a show for anyone watching. They didn’t want the killers to realise that if push came to shove, they had a way to catch one of them, at least.