“So… which car are we taking? Ours or yours?” John asked, once they got out of the building.

 “We’ll take our car, you can take yours and follow us. Were not going far, just back to the station. We’ll requisition a room there for privacy,” special agent Reily explained as she walked toward her car, Dillian and Malcolm following after.

 “Understood,” Kyle said as he headed for his own cruiser, pulling John with him.

 They entered and Kyle set the CI to follow the agent’s vehicle, causing them to pull away from the curve and enter traffic in unison.

 “Are you sure about this? I don’t like it,” John said.

 “It’s the only way that we’re going to get answers about what happened at that apartment, and potentially what Ms. Miller is wrapped up in. I for one want to know what happened and I know that you do too.” Kyle said clinically, turning to stare at his friend.

 Wincing, John rubbed his head. “I know, I know, It’s just… this is giving me a real uneasy feeling. I don’t like it. It’s too cloak and dagger.”

 Kyle studied his partner for a while before nodding. “Noted,” he said, turning back to watch the road. Kayle knew to trust John’s guts, they’ve been right in too many circumstances for him not to.

 As the drive continued in silence, they eventually pulled up to the police station and got out.

 Agent Reily and her group immediately started for the door leaving the two detectives scrambling to keep up.

 “I messaged ahead while in the car,” She explained quickly when the two caught up. “They should already have a room set up for us.”

 Stepping through the door a reception bot greeted them. “Agent Reily, your conference room is A-12, on your right.”

 The agent simply nodded and made her way right.

 “Malcolm sweep the room, everyone else, take a seat,” she said once she entered the room and made her way around to sit at the head of the table. Malcolm nodded, already pulling out a small device and scanning the room.

 John and Kyle shared a look before they took seats across from one another and waited patiently for Malcolm to finish.

 “You can get started on your work Dillian, you already know everything that I’m going to share with the detectives,” Reily commanded.

 “Right,” Dillian confirmed and focused on the box in front of him.

 Kyle watched as his eyes began to glaze over while his face started twitching erratically.

 “Strange to watch isn’t it?” Reily commented, noticing Kyle’s interest. “Don’t let it bother you too much. This is normal,” she explained as Malcolm finished up with his scan.

 At his thumbs up, Reily finally relaxed. “My apologies for my brisk attitude Detectives but as I mentioned before, we’re on a short timetable.”

 “No worries Special Agent, we understand,” Kyle responded.

 “Good, good,” she muttered as she began fiddling with her V-screen. The lights in the conference room dimmed and the holographic projector in the middle of the screen turned on, displaying a ‘top secret’ symbol.

 “Alright you two, I trust that you’re aware, but this is top secret. That means that it does not leave this room. We do not need the media to get a hold of this.”

 Both nodded.

 At their confirmation, Reily pulled up a picture on the projector. “These are who we’re calling ‘Ghosts.’”

 Kyle studied the photo hovering above the table. It showed a figure in black holding a gun in their hands and pointing it out of shot. Any further details were obscured by the blurriness of the photo.

 “They are highly skilled assassination artists that we’ve known about for about ten years now, but evidence suggests that they may have been operating for more than forty.

 “They do not have any allegiance as far as we can tell, having assassinated officials in Russia, Brazil, the CEC, India, and here, in the USA. Every attempt was meticulously planned and executed, with most targets not even knowing that they were being targeted.

 “They favor no political faction, ideology, or religious group, targeting officials seemingly at random. We at first assumed that they may be mercenaries but mercenaries tend to advertise themselves in some manner, which they have not. If anything they’ve tried to squash any mention of themselves in the criminal underworld.

 “We have conclusive evidence that they’ve been involved in at least seventy assassinations but some suggest that that number may be in the four hundreds,” Reily explained gravely.

 “As for their actual capabilities… we don’t have much. Most of what we know we learned only in the last week or so.

 “They’re preternaturally fast and agile, able to move limbs faster than the eye can see. Their armor is able to deflect magnetically assisted 7.62mm which can punch through three layers of steel without issue. They walk in complete silence and can hold so still that the eye naturally ignores them. Combine that with the color scheme of their armor and they can become invisible to human eyes in sufficient darkness.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

 “Thermal imaging cannot capture them, either because of a modification, or an aspect of their armor. If their blood is spilled then it immediately begins to degrade making genetic tracking impossible. Wounds will stop bleeding extremely fast, even if they are normally fatal. Again, whether this is because of a modification, or an aspect of their armor is unknown.”

 “They will also explode if they are killed, or incapacitated to prevent capture,” Reily finished, looking to the detectives.

 “Wait… that explosion at the docks two nights ago-” John started before being interrupted.

 “Indeed, that was us. We managed to intercept two Ghosts at the docks when they arrived by ship,” Reily answered.

 The incident they were talking about had made the local news but had been explained away with a gas leak. Kyle had heard about the event and there had been a brief investigation but nobody had been hurt as far as he knew of so the case was dropped fairly quickly.

 Suspiciously quickly now that he thought about.

 “We only knew about their arrival because of the DPD. A Precog there reported it and we were able to set up a trap in advance. We thought that those two were the only ones arriving… we were wrong.”

 “So what's all this have to do with Ms. Miller? Why would she be targeted by these Ghosts?” Kyle prompted.

 Reily looked at him confused. “Who’s… Oh, you mean the civilian? Nothing. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time I suspect. No, the Ghosts target was Doctor Jamie Fawks,” She explained, pulling up another picture on the projector. “Or as you may better know him as, Miracle Man.”

  A sharp gasp drew everyone's attention away from the revelation.

 “Ma’am,” Dillian said sharply, breathing heavily with sweat dripping down his face. “You're gonna want to hear about this.”

<( o )>

 Anna yawned as she rubbed her eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them. Reaching for her V-screen to check the time, she paused when she found only air.

 Growing confused, she cracked one eye open and looked over to find her nightstand gone.

 Growing even more confused, Anna’s sleep-addled mind finally kicked into gear and began processing information again.

 “Well… shit."

 Getting up off the moldy couch she was laying on, she started studying the area she was in.

 If she remembered correctly, Paradise had said that it used to be a gang hideout with more than twenty people living in it. Looking around, Anna had a hard time imagining that.

 It was small, smaller than Anna’s apartment by an order of magnitudes. There was a couch, a table with some chairs, a cracked sink, a dirty bathtub, and a door that probably led outside. The walls were made off thin sheet metal and poorly put together, with gapes that the sun was shining through.

 The place looked barely habitable.

 ‘And I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future… Greeeeat,’ she grumbled to herself.

 Sighing, Anna checked on the other inhabitants staying in the hideout. 

 Jamie was still completely passed out, laying on the floor. Anna checked his pulse and found it still beating so she didn’t worry too much. [Greater Restoration] should heal any damage if he’d been poisoned but it apparently didn’t fight against nonharmful toxins.

 ‘Good to know,’ she noted while absentmindedly playing with his hair. Stopping as soon as she realized what she was doing, Anna flushed and retracted her hand. 

  Looking away from the handsome features of the doctor she turned towards the less pleasant sight of the armored figure laying in the tub. Anna vaguely remembered telling Paradise to grab them but most of the night after that was a blur.

 Exhaustion is not conducive to clear thought.

 Walking over, Anna warily surveyed the individual that had given her so much trouble.

 They still wore their armor, red domed helmet and everything. Their arm was still missing, it hadn’t regenerated, and they still seemed unconscious from whatever Paradise had done to them last night. Peering at the stump, Anna winced.

 It was completely severed where the shoulder met the torso and Anna could see a small bit of bone sticking out. Scraps of flesh hung off from the wound dangling freely while a mess of scabs lay underneath that. 

 Anna gagged and moved on, looking around the hideout once again. Spotting things on the table she headed over to study it. On the table were three things.

 A gun, a note, and another gun.

 Picking up the note Anna read it aloud. “Gone for the day. Stay inside. I’ll be back tonight to help with the interrogation. Paradise.” 

 ‘Huh? Interrogation? Who are we…’

 “Oh… that interrogation,” She said aloud, gazing toward the agent sleeping in the tub. “That makes sense!” She proclaimed, proud of her deductive reasoning.

 Giggling at her own antics she turned back to the table and the two guns laying on it. One was quite clearly her own weapon, the MAG-50-WSE, that disarmed her enemies previously. The second was a las-pistol, most likely from the agent.

 A fly buzzed in front of Anna’s face making her wave it away. “Stupid fly,” she muttered.

 Turning around, Anna regarded the shitty hideout, in search of something else to explore.

 She found nothing. The sink didn’t work for whatever reason, the table chairs were rickety and unsteady, and the whole space was about twelve feet by twelve feet of empty space.

 Rubbing her shoulders, slightly cold from the breeze passing through the shack, Anna moved over to the door.

 ‘Paradise said I shouldn’t go outside but a peek should be alright, right? Right.’ she questioned and answered as she cracked the door slightly, peeking through.

 ‘We’re on a roof… huh.’

 Shutting the door, Anna walked back over to the couch and sat down. “Wow. Who knew being in hiding could be this boring?” she asked, staring at the ceiling.

 ‘Guess I’ll just go check things out in god form,’ she thought before she heard a low groan. 

 Flicking her eyes over to the tub in a panic, Anna was relieved to find the agent still inert. Shuffling sounds came from her right and Anna watched as the doctor slowly sat up like an old mummy rising from its sarcophagi.

 “Hey, you. You’re finally awake,” Anna commented nonchalantly.

 "Ms. Miller?" Jamie questioned as he rubbed his eyes and looked around. "What happened? Where are we? WHY IS THERE A BODY IN THE TUB!?"

 Shifting uncomfortably, Anna scratched her head. "Yeah... that's gonna take some explaining..."