“But secondly you say 'society must exact vengeance, and society must punish'. Wrong on both counts. Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.” - Victor Hugo (The Last Day of a Condemned Man)

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Lucas Alescio was expecting lots of things when he woke up that morning.

But receiving a call about a possible homicide and then driving all the way out to some forest in the middle of nowhere only to find some body hanging upside down from a tree with obvious signs of torture on it is not what Lucas had in mind that day when he’d woken up.

Lucas sighed even as he looked up from where he’d been scribbling in his trusty notebook over at the cordoned-off area where not only the members of the Forensic Department that were called were gathered. Louis Krusen, also more commonly known as Lou amongst his closest friends, was also assisting them. It took only a moment for Lucas to remember that before joining Misha’s team, Louis was part of Forensics and even one of their best.

And from the rumours that Lucas had heard, Louis was damned good at it, despite his age. So good that the head of Forensics was fighting tooth and nail to keep Louis within his department when there was a request to transfer him to Special Operations to join Team Delta.

Somewhere in the bushes behind him, Lucas can hear the sounds of Maia Travis throwing up. How that girl can be a medic and still get queasy at the sight of dead bodies is a mystery that Lucas will likely never be able to solve.

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Meanwhile, half of Lucas’ teammates, along with that of Misha’s team were currently checking out that shack not far away from where they’d discovered the body. Last that Lucas had seen, Misha was leading the team investigating the shack as well.

To be honest, if not for some courier that seems to make weekly supply runs to the deceased, the body would likely never be discovered, due to how remote the area is. The poor courier likely had lost several years of his life when he came for his usual weekly delivery only to chance upon a dead guy hanging from a tree.

Lucas is no forensic expert, but with the dried blood and even how the body is already starting to decompose slightly, he can make a vague estimation that this body must already been out here for at least two days or so, and had been dead for just as long.

“Lucas.” Leonid’s baritone voice caught Lucas’ attention just then, and he looked up just in time to see his second-in-command making his way towards Lucas, his expression grim.

“How is it?”

“I left Taylor and Elijah behind at the shack. They’ll continue investigating.” Leonid informed Lucas, eyes flickering towards the said shack. “Forensics need to perform a much more thorough autopsy back at headquarters, but the little that they found here can already paint a pretty obvious picture of what had happened.”

Leonid held out an evidence bag towards Lucas. Within the bag is a severed hand. A quick look over at the body where the people from Forensics were carefully lowering the body to the ground in a way to disturb the crime scene as little as possible told Lucas that this severed hand belonged to the murder victim. This also explains why Maia Travis is currently emptying the contents of her stomach behind Lucas.

And Lucas, as well as any member of his team—heck, any ESA agent who had dealings and encounters with the underground knew what this severed hand meant. It is like a silent calling card by a member of the underground—informing them that this murder victim had crossed the wrong person, and was dealt with. And that whatever he had done to the underground to warrant this retaliation was bad.

Lucas wanted to groan. This murder case had just gotten more complicated.

“The deceased’s identity?” Lucas asked instead.

“Jonan and Allen took DNA samples before I sent them back to headquarters. They’re going to be doing matches through the database.” Leonid informed Lucas. “I think this is as much as we can do here. At least, until Elijah and Taylor have finished the investigation on the shack.” He added, eyes going towards the said shack.

Lucas nodded in agreement. “Let’s pack up.”