Saxon, Herman, Lya, Quinn, Varrick, and Mori gathered in the autopsy room. Mori made her way over to a computer in the corner of the room to pull up the results of the autopsy.

“Our victim here goes by the name Alice Chimera, formerly Alice Harker,” Mori informed the group. “She was an avatar who possessed the mythos of the vampire which according to Saxon granted its avatar many abilities, most importantly, the ability to regenerate upon ingesting blood.

According to Saxon, the last he saw of her she had fallen into an alleyway after something seemingly sent knocked her out of the sky. Upon going to where she had fallen, he found the body lying in the alleyway unconscious with no wounds to be found.”

“I’d like to hear something we don’t know,” Quinn requested.

“I’m getting there,” Mori insisted. “By examining her body, I managed to find something interesting. Mythoi that grant their avatar near-instant regeneration sometimes cause the tissue of the body to regenerate in strange ways. This is especially true if there was something lodged inside of them at the time of their regeneration. Look here.”

Mori pointed to a close-up image of the tissue near Alice’s left abdominal region. The tissue had a weird pattern to its growth as if it was growing around something that was inside Alice’s body.

“So did you find anything inside?” Varrick asked.

“No,” Mori replied. “However, I believe Alice was likely shot out of the sky. The bullet lodged itself in her abdomen, such that when she hastily regenerated, her tissue regrew around the bullet.”

“But I didn’t hear a gunshot,” Saxon remarked. “Also, Alice regenerated herself while she was still in the sky. There was no way the bullet could have been taken out before I found her without leaving a trace.”

“An avatar with a silent gun whose bullets disappear a short while after they’re fired isn’t unreasonable,” Herman rebutted.

“What else did you find?” Quinn inquired.

“Nothing much,” Mori said. “There were burn marks, and bruises from her encounter with Saxon that have long since healed. It’s also clear that the bullet wasn’t the cause of death either. However, there’s nothing else.”

“Ok, but can’t you just ask her yourself?” Lya questioned.

“In theory, yes,” Mori replied. “The mythos of Anubis should allow me to communicate with the souls of the deceased. Even if a person’s mind was destroyed, their soul remains.”

“But?” Saxon said.

“But, I can’t,” Mori admitted.

“What do you mean can’t?” Quinn inquired.

Mori pinched her nose in frustration. “I mean Alice Harker’s soul isn’t there. It’s gone, and I have no idea how, or where it went.”

“Is it past the time limit?” Herman asked.

Mori shook her head. “The soul couldn’t have already passed on. It should still need to be guided into the afterlife.”

Silence took over the room. Eventually, it was Varrick who broke it. “Saxon, you said had a run-in with a Killian?”

“Yeah, Kenji,” Saxon replied. “Figured I hid my tracks pretty well, considering if I didn’t, the Killian family would’ve made a move on me already.”

“It’s a fair assumption to make,” Varrick said. “It’s just if Killians are involved, then this rings a couple of bells.”

“You know their names?” Saxon asked.

“Just titles,” Varrick responded.

“That high up,” Herman remarked.

“Why does Varrick know stuff about the Killian family?” Lya asked, confused.

Everyone else in the room looked at each other.

“You don’t have to say,” Quinn said to Varrick.

“It’s alright,” Varrick insisted.

Varrick walked over to shake Lya’s hand. “I suppose it’s time for a proper introduction. Nice to meet you, Lya, I’m Varrick Volstead, formerly Varrick Killian, the head of security for the Killian family, and personal bodyguard to the head of the family.”

“I’m sorry the head of what now?” Lya questioned, wondering if she had misheard Varrick.

“Former head of security for the Killian family, and personal bodyguard to the head of the family,” Varrick repeated. “It’s not as impressive as it sounds. I’ve never met the head of the family, but I did work with its highest-ranking executives. The highest ranking members didn’t use names, and instead were given titles.”

“That’s why Varrick doesn’t have a badge, and incidentally the whole reason we could trust him,” Saxon informed Lya.

“It’s the reason he wasn’t offered a badge, to begin with,” Quinn corrected Saxon. “Varrick has long since proven himself. I’ve offered him a badge countless times. It’s his own self-loathing that has him insisting he hasn’t earned it yet.”

“I have dinner plans, so if you could get this back on topic, that’d be great,” Mori said.

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“Of course,” Varrick responded. “In the Killian family, there is one pairing that specializes in killing without leaving a trace. The duo was known as Finale.”

“Because they’re the finale of people’s lives,” Lya noted. “How fancy.”

“The two members are known as The White Death, and The Reaper,” Varrick continued. “Though I do not know their exact abilities, I do have suspicions regarding the mythoi they possess.

The White Death I believe to be the avatar of Simo Häyhä, the deadliest sniper in human history.”

“That would explain where our bullet came from,” Herman remarked.

“Indeed,” Varrick said. “On the other hand, The Reaper I suspect to be the avatar of Thanatos.”

“Of course!” Mori exclaimed. “Thanatos is also a god of death, just like Anubis. If this Reaper is the avatar of Thanatos, then it’s likely he could have guided the soul to its afterlife before I could get to it.”

“That’d certainly align with their whole leave no trace motif,” Saxon said.

“What’s the threat level of this duo, Varrick?” Quinn inquired.

“Frankly, if they intervene with our operation, then I’d be surprised if anybody lived,” Varrick responded. “However, the odds that they do interfere, I would approximate as close to zero.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lya asked.

“For starters, as Saxon said, the Killian family doesn’t wait to make their move,” Varrick said. “If, as Lya had mentioned, every high-ranking avatar in the Chimera family carries a schematic of their hideout, that means Finale has the layout of their base. They could strike at any time with overwhelming force. However, they haven’t.”

“So you’re saying they’ve already got what they need,” Herman intuited.

“That, or their search led to a dead end,” Varrick responded. “Either way, their involvement with the Chimera family has likely reached its end.”

“What was in that file?” Saxon pondered aloud.

“Nothing you need to worry about right now,” Quinn assured Saxon. “Right now, I need everyone to focus on the task at hand.”

“You’re right,” Saxon said, still dejected at his failure to retrieve the file.

“When’s the raid happening, Quinn?” Varrick asked.

“Two weeks,” Quinn answered. “Rest up, and be prepared, because, in two weeks, the Chimera family will fall.”

The group of five left the autopsy room, leaving Mori to try and uncover anything else she could concerning the death of Alice Harker.

As the day wound to a close, Saxon grabbed his things and headed back to Torch.

“Long day?” Roxy asked, noticing Saxon’s apparent exhaustion as he entered.

“Too long,” Saxon replied.

“Dinner should still be available if you hurry,” Roxy said.

“Thanks for the heads up,” Saxon said, as he began dashing toward the food.

After filling his plate with whatever was left, Saxon looked around for a place to sit and spotted Elly and Octave at one of the tables.

“You got a spare seat?” Saxon asked as he approached the table.

“Not for you,” Elly said.

“Then I’ll just get one myself,” Saxon replied, taking a chair from a nearby table. “How are things with the mythos, Octave?”

Octave shook his head. “Nothing new. Tried reading the proper stories about Orpheus you got me, but still, no change.”

From what Eddi had told him, Saxon knew that when a mythos was manifesting it was fluid as it molded itself to the avatar's interpretation, then solidified itself. Therefore, Saxon theorized that the mastermind was merely returning the avatar's mythoi to a fluid state, causing them to align with whatever the avatar’s interpretation of the myth was.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Octave’s new interpretation of Orpheus didn’t have any effect on his current mythos. That confirmed for Saxon that a remanifested mythos was in a solid state, meaning it couldn’t easily be changed.

“Well it was worth a try,” Elly said, comforting Octave. “Besides, you don’t need your fancy mythos to play music, when you’re so good at playing it the old-fashioned way. I mean your classes are fantastic.”

“They’re okay,” Octave replied.

“Okay?” Saxon questioned. “I ain’t got a musical bone in my body, and even I can play a little after your classes.”

“A little might be too generous,” Octave joked.

Saxon was shocked to hear what Octave had just said. “Elly, did you teach him this?”

Elly shrugged, grinning ear to ear. “Who's to say? Well, it’s getting late, so we'll leave you to enjoy your food.”

“Catch you later!” Octave said.

“You too,” Saxon said.

Saxon scarfed his food and retired to his room.

Before drifting off to bed, he pulled out his computer to check his email. Though there was nothing in his inbox, Saxon knew there was one more place he needed to check.

Opening up his spam folder, Saxon found an email from Kuri congratulating Saxon on getting the proposal approved and wishing him luck with the operation. How she learned this, Saxon had no idea, but he was too tired to care.

As Saxon lay in bed, just before he fell asleep, he heard his phone ringing. Eddi was calling him.

“How’s the raid proposal going?” Eddi asked Saxon.

“Just got the green light,” Saxon answered.

“When’s it all going down?” Eddi inquired.

“Two weeks from now,” Saxon said. “Still don’t feel ready.”

“Well you’ve got time to prepare,” Eddi replied. “I haven’t seen you so engrossed in a case for a while. We’ve barely had any time to catch up.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re one of the few people I talk to outside work or Torch,” Saxon said. “Sorry about not keeping up.”

“You’re alright,” Eddi assured Saxon. “Your work is important. To be fair, so is mine.”

“Just want the raid to be over already,” Saxon said. “Hopefully when it happens, I’ll be home in time for dinner.”

“Well if you are, then how about you and me catch up over dinner that night?” Eddi asked. “One of my more well-off clients recommended this place downtown called Kallipolis.”

“Yeah that’d be great,” Saxon replied.

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” Eddi said. “Now just don’t die or I’ll be stuck eating by myself.”

“Yeah you’re the one suffering in that situation,” Saxon joked.

“Well I’m not gonna cancel the reservation,” Eddi replied.

“Obviously,” Saxon said. “Well, I’ll see you in two weeks.”

“See you in two weeks,” Eddi replied.

The two weeks that followed came and went in the blink of an eye. In what felt like a matter of moments, the day of the raid on the Chimera family had come.

Tonight, the FMPD would put a stop to the Chimera family.