Titus stood at the position of attention. His face was blotchy with yellowish green bruises and his eyes twinged with pain as he remained perfectly still. He stood in the entryway and stared forward taking in the spacious council chamber with its shadowy recesses and dimly lit perimeter. The room had a high ceiling that belied the room’s secondary function of being a bunker. The room also housed a grand wooden table around which all the members of the council sat before him. Titus took stock of the general mood in the room. Many on the council were grim and serious. “Commander, Titus reporting as ordered.”

The madam council nodded toward Titus and gestured for him to step forward into the room. “Report on your status.”

“Maam, I am recovered and ready for active duty.”

One council member shuffled some papers before looking up at Titus. “Our report here from the medical center says that two weeks is the shortest estimate for your recovery time. Why do you feel that you have healed enough to be activated in this short of a time?”

Titus’ back stiffened and he turned his gaze to the individual council member. “I am healed enough because I need to be out of the hospital and investigating what happened two weeks ago. The investigation into the attack is beginning to feel like one massive dead end. All the reports I am getting from the various teams show no leads. The only thing that they have confirmed is that whoever attacked us was extremely professional and did not leave a trace of who they were. I need to stop reading reports of what others are discovering… or in most cases, not discovering… and get out there to investigate myself.” Titus noticed the councilman’s jaw clench with the mention of the teams not discovering any helpful information. “I want to leave the hospital because I can do more good out in the field and hopefully find something no one else could find.”

The madam council sat up as she addressed Titus. “You are clearly still in discomfort from your injuries, but you are right to assume that we need to get to the bottom of this attack. You are one of our best operatives and leaders. If you feel that you can resume your duties in your present condition, then my recommendation to the rest of the council is to agree with you and approve of your reinstatement to active duty. Are there any objections to this course of action?” All of the council member looked up and shook their heads.

Titus breathed a sigh of relief as he observed the council’s response. He knew that the best chance of discovering the truth lay in him working with is team to unravel what had happened. The facts of the attack began to play in his mind as he thought though where he would begin the investigation. His thoughts were interrupted by the madam council.

“Titus, you are hereby placed on active duty. You and your team are tasked by this council to take over the full investigation in this attack and to bring the full force of our strength down upon the individuals or organization that are responsible. We cannot let an incursion of this magnitude go unpunished. We must send a message. This mission is of the highest priority and being such, the council will maintain close overwatch. We expect results. Unless you have any questions, you are dismissed.” Her tone had a solemn finality that contrasted with the slight echo of her voice in the chamber.

Titus saluted. "We seek justice."

As one, the council responded. "May the guilty fear your retribution."

With their response, Titus did an about face and strode out of the council chamber. Upon navigating out of the council complex and onto the surface of the installation, Titus touched his left earlobe. “Venna… Benjamin… meet me at the headquarter’s entryway in one hour.”

…

Titus stood before the destroyed entryway of the headquarters. He turned back and looked at the damage. The main gates had been reinforced to withstand most attacks. The well placed shaped charges had carved the door open and taken out most of the entryway inside. Already crews were working to make repairs. Titus pivoted away from the work being done and looked down the road toward the barracks complex. From his position, he could see Venna and Benjamin each leaving their respective barracks and walking together past the utility building on the corner across from him.

Benjamin yelled something across the road as they approached Titus. Titus put his hands up and shrugged. Benjamin yelled again, “They let you back on active duty?”

By this point Venna and Benjamin had crossed the road and Titus walked up to them. “Yeah, they fortunately ignored the doctors orders and placed me in charge of the investigation of the attack.”

“They must really need this solved to activate you. You look like a stiff breeze could knock you over.” Benjamin chuckled.

Titus eyed Benjamin. “As a matter of fact, they were very specific that this investigation is high priority and they want to see results. So as my team, I really need you both doing your best work.”

Benjamin scoffed. “I always do my best work. Not sure if my work is the best, but who knows.”

Venna nodded to Titus. She hadn’t said anything as she stood there. There was still a dark look in her eyes and she wouldn't look at the entryway of the headquarters. Titus noted these details and figured he would need to talk to her at some point. If there was a problem it was always better to deal with it when in a garrison environment instead of in theater on mission.

Titus filled the team in on his meeting with the council. Benjamin and Venna seemed to understand the severity of their task. Benjamin didn't even make any quips while Titus talked. The investigation was already at a standstill and their team needed to breathe new life into it and come up with some fresh leads.

Once Titus finished, Venna finally spoke. “I will go back over the previous investigation team’s notes on the physical evidence gathered from the headquarters and the two enemy sniper positions. Maybe they overlooked a detail.”

“Good idea. Benjamin, I want you to review all of the other case files to see if there was something they missed.”

“Okay boss. But I don’t think that will be all that useful.” Benjamin stood scratching his scalp through his bristly hair.

Titus knew what Benjamin meant. The team handling the investigation had been very thorough. Titus had already read through their reports and had not seen anything missing. “Go through it again anyway just to be sure. Plus it will help me to be able to ask you about details instead of having to sift through their reports.”

Benjamin nodded his understanding. “What’ll you do boss?”

Titus looked to his team. “I am curious about the bodies of the soldiers Venna killed. The report mentioned that they had not made it to the morgue to check out the autopsies. That was the only open loop in their investigation. This may be our best bet to figure out who was responsible. I’m going to head to the morgue and look into that lead.”

With that, the three of them went their separate ways. Titus walked toward the morgue and pondered their options. He recognized that their last hope to discover any clue may be at the morgue. He just hoped that the two dead enemy soldiers that Venna had taken out would offer something useful. As Titus continued walking, he pulled up a projected data screen from his digital note pad. There had to be something he had missed, or a clue he had not thought of. All of the obvious things had been checked. Even the obscure details that Titus had asked the other team to check into had revealed nothing. On his first week in the hospital he received a report about boot prints found at the site of the attack. He had hoped that this finding would be a breakthrough, but the prints were standard tread… useless. The camera surveillance had been rendered inoperable due to the blast. Even the results of the explosive's residue on the doors was inconclusive. Titus slammed the projection closed. It was so frustrating. He felt that he just needed to catch one break.

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Titus arrived to the morgue, marched up the steps, and let himself through the door. He approached the front desk and explained his desire to investigate the bodies that had been delivered two weeks ago. The secretary looked at her data pad and typed a few numbers in. She quickly retyped her search and looked up with a slight smile of apology for the delay. She finally looked up at Titus and shook her head. "I'm sorry sir, but there is no record of any bodies still in storage that were delivered in that time. Maybe you were referring to the week before that. We still have three bodies that were delivered near the end of that week." She said this with another smile.

"What!? No I definitely meant the ones delivered two weeks ago. There was an autopsy being conducted.”

The receptionist’s eyebrows furrowed. “Hmm according to the record it looks as if they were scheduled for cremation and disposal instead of autopsy.” Her voice had a clipped tone. “This mistake shouldn’t have happened.”

“Can I speak to the medical examiner? This is urgent!" Titus hissed. He knew he shouldn’t take out his frustration on the receptionist, but the investigation continued to fall apart at every turn.

"Of course sir. I will go get him."

Titus paced in the lobby thinking through every possibility. There was no way that the bodies being cremated could possibly be a coincidence. “Hopefully it was just an error in the system.” Titus told himself. If not though, someone had orchestrated the error in the system and ensured that the bodies were destroyed before anyone could gain information from them.

"Hello my name is Dr. Graham, you asked to see me? You said it was urgent?" The medical examiner approached with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes! You receive two bodies two weeks ago. They were enemy combatants from the attack. Your files say that you cremated them instead of conducting an autopsy. Is that accurate?"

"Well that can't be right. Someone must have logged the data wrong. I was here when they arrived on that Tuesday and marked them down to be identified and a full autopsy done. I decided to wait on the autopsy until the lead investigator… you I presume… met with me to discuss what information he was looking for. I can take you to them right now if you like?"

Titus let out a sigh. The tension slipped from his tense shoulders. This could finally be the break in his investigation. "I would love to see them."

"Great! Follow me. Yeah it must have been a data entry issue." The M.E. reassured Titus.

They walked through a set of double doors and then turned down a wide hallway. As they approached the door, the Doctor was required to type in a code to gain access to this secure section of the morgue. "We have to keep this area secure because we don’t want the residents escaping." At this, the doctor gave a quick chuckle at his humor. Upon seeing Titus' serious expression, he added, "You know cause they are all dead… and couldn’t leave anyway."

There was a long pause in the conversation as they walked through the door and down the corridor. After a few turns they reached the storage section of the morgue. Dr. Graham tapped a button on the wall and a holographic display popped up in front of him. He began navigating through the system by sliding his hand along pushing files past. He speed through the first section of files but then abruptly stopped and smiled. "There they are."

He perused the file. His smile began to wane and then completely disappeared. "Hmmm… now that is weird?"

"What!? Are they missing?" Frustration and anger creeping into Titus' voice.

The doctor waved his hand dismissively. "They are in here somewhere. I know because I put them in the system myself…. Now this is peculiar."

"What? Did you find them?"

"Not exactly, but yes. You see, I have a system for the storage of bodies at my morgue. I go in a particular order and I never deviate. Storage for autopsy are these numbers.” He pointed out the highlighted section. “Storage for cremation are these numbers. Looking at this right now though, there are two empty slots where, according to my system, there should be two bodies ready for autopsy." Dr. Graham looked agitated and perturbed.

"Those must be them then!"

"We shall see." he announced as he strode across the room. The doctor typed in the code numbers related to the specific pods that the two men were supposed to be in. There was a slight sound of mechanical whirs and clicks and then the two pods extended about two thirds out of the wall. "Here they are. Let's see what's inside."

He bent down and pulled the latches on both of the pods. With a hiss, both opened. There was nothing in them. They were completely empty.

"Now this can't be!" cried the doctor. "I know I put them in the system. I know the date. According to how I do things, these pods should have bodies in them!"

"Can you think of any other possible explanation for this? How could they accidentally be disposed of?"

"Impossible. As a precaution, I am the only one with clearance to authorize disposal of a body. I did not dispose of them. They were here. They should have been in these two pods."

Titus couldn’t believe it. His last hope for evidence was gone. There had to be a way to salvage this investigation. Titus stood, slowly running his fingers through his hair with the other hand on his hip; his fierce gaze taking in every detail of the morgue and the empty pods. The place was imaculate. The sterile environment also gave off a subtle odor of cleaning solution. "Doctor, is there any way to determine if they were ever in these pods to begin with?"

"Well I could swab the pods for microscopic data. We always thoroughly clean every pod after its use. If these were truly empty, then they should have almost no microscopic data on them. "

Titus pondered that possibility for a second. There could be a chance that the body snatchers had not thought of that possibility. Maybe they had overlooked this aspect. "Let's see what we get Doc."

Dr. Graham quickly got some supplies and quietly began his work. He seemed just as eager to get to the bottom of the mystery as Titus.

During this time, Titus began quickly reviewing all the information he knew. The attack had been well coordinated, without warning, and was very effective. The men had been extremely proficient at infiltrating, achieving their objective, and then disappearing like ghosts with minimal casualties. They had left no trace of who they were and seemed ahead at every turn. Now bodies were missing. Something else that felt weird to Titus was that the company he currently worked for, Ab Aterno, was not a group to be taken off guard. They had a seemingly endless resources, power, and influence. No matter how you looked at it, there was no easy answer. Titus knew what all of these factors could point to. Firstly, there was someone at Ab Aeterno who had betrayed them. Secondly… Titus paused in thought. “Do I really want to dredge up the past… my past?” He though to himself. He realized that he didn’t want to recognize the second conclusion. He didn’t want to admit it was a possibility. Behind the dread though, he felt almost an eager apprehension to realize the truth and go on the hunt. Titus cleared his mind and faced the reality of the situation. The only way the attack could have happened was if an organization with more power, influence, and resources than Ab Aterno had coordinated this attack. There was only one organization that he knew of that had that kind of reach. Titus couldn't bring himself to think of their name. His hand balled up into a fist. He wondered if he should come forward with his theory to the council. Without legitimate leads, they would rightly call it just conjecture, and not actionable. He needed proof. He knew that it was time to dive back into his investigation into the organization known as…

"Ahem" the doctor cleared his throat. Titus’ startled but quickly locked eyes with the doctor.

"I have some possible answers."

Titus eagerly rushed to the lab table Dr. Graham was working at. "Please tell me you found something!"

"I did indeed. There is finally proof that neither of us is going crazy. On both gurneys, I found trace amounts of DNA."

"Great! Who's are they?" Titus could barely hide his enthusiasm.

"I don’t have that information yet" replied the doctor. "It will take a week at the earliest to run the DNA through the system to get a match. Once I have the information I will contact you so that you can come by and pick it up yourself. I would hate for this information to go missing just like the bodies.

…