The sun was about to set as Luna exited the inn. She carried with her two paper bags filled with various meats and other dishes that the inn owner was happy to give away to her. Even the bestian workers gave her more sweets and a bottle of wine. This was her second night in the mountain town, but unlike last night, the streets were much calmer. Luna put away the food on her bike when an automobile stopped and two local enforcers came up to her. They looked relieved that they somehow managed to catch her before she left.

“Excuse me ma’am. Are you the bounty hunter from yesterday’s raid?”

Luna closed the trunk and placed servo on the handle bars. “Yes, But sadly, I’m not taking any more contracts at the moment. Good night.”

She was about to board her bike when the other enforcer tried to make her stay.

“We are not offering a contract, ma’am. We were hoping we could borrow your professional advice regarding a murder reported this morning.”

Luna exhaled loudly.

“Again, I apologize, but I cannot help. I do not and sadly cannot offer any advice regarding matters that are undergoing an official investigation.”

Luna pushed her bike and got ready to leave, but the enforcers would not relent.

“Please ma'am, with your experience and expertise, we can solve the case in record time. The constabulary office is even prepared to-”

“Officer.” Luna stopped and climbed aboard. “I know you mean well and are only doing your job, but you are asking the wrong person for this. You do know that bounty hunters cause crime scenes, not help solve them?”

“We are not asking for help regarding a crime scene investigation, ma'am; we need your help in identifying the weapons used against the bodies. We ask that you do it not for us but at least for the children’s families.”

Luna stopped as the two enforcers waited for her reply. It took her a long time to answer as she stared ahead.

“Fine. Lead the way.”

=0o0=

When they arrived at the station, there was a crowd of people. Some cried and yelled to be let inside. The enforcers went ahead inside while Luna grabbed servo from her bike. Inside the small station, there was a small crowd with some women, clearly the mothers of the children, who wept loudly. A group of men, on the other hand, were being held back by enforcers as they demanded to see the bodies of their children.

The two enforcers led Luna past the room and down into the morgue.

“We found the bodies sometime around three in the afternoon, but the mortician said they died much earlier. The estimate says they died in the early hours of the morning.”

Seven bodies in different beds that were covered in sheets greeted them. The two enforcers then removed the sheets halfway to show the bodies of six human teenagers and a cat bestian worker. The bodies were beaten, clearly with a blunt object, before they were killed. Luna removed her hat and approached the bodies, only to find they all had gunshot wounds in the heads.

This is not a simple murder; this was an execution. A crime of passion...

“Where were their bodies found?” Luna said as she placed servo on top of the body of a dark skinned male teenager.

“They were found in a butcher’s larder, ma’am. Butcher said he did not check his cellar in the morning. They only noticed the bodies late in the afternoon due to the smell.”

“So what is the issue you need my help with?” Luna asked them as the servo approached the head of the body. A small metal probe came out, and the little bot seemed to poke the wound.

“We know the victims were executed at point blank range, but we are not sure with what weapon the suspects used. The bullet seemed to have vanished inside the skulls of the victims, which is why there are no exit wounds. We were hoping, being a bounty hunter, you would have the knowledge on what type of weapon or bullet they used.”

The two enforcers stood still as she checked each body without touching them. They watched as the little machine she brought probed around the skull of the body. Luna then took out a small bronze telescope from her bag and used it to check each corpse. She saw the smaller details, and each body had gunpowder soot on their wounds. Luna observed that the bestian worker had an injury on her head and very noticeable choke wounds around her neck. The head injury seemed older, while the choke wounds on her neck seemed to be fresher.

Servo suddenly chimed like an alarm clock. Luna walked back and, from her bag, got a parchment. She placed the paper near the machine, and it wrote chemical names with numbers on it, and when it was done, it returned to its ball form.

“You were right, officer. The bullet did vanish inside the victims' skulls.” Luna said as she read the parchment and handed it to the officer. “These are all the foreign chemicals my bot has found in their heads.”

The two officers read the parchment while Luna continued.

“The chemicals found in the skull are the same materials found in gold. And there is a large amount that my bot found that you can recreate a bullet with it. The rest of the chemicals in that list are components of royal water, but clearly a more extreme version of it, making our suspect either a well versed chemist or a professional killer.”

“Royal... water, ma’am? What’s that? And how did you come up with those results from this paper that barely make sense?”

“The killer knew that royal water could melt down gold. His chemicals, however, are altered to make sure they dissolve completely. My guess is that the killer was using this method so that his gold bullets would dissolve in the bodies to throw investigators off their tracks. Had I not been here, it would have worked on you as well.” Luna then put on her hat. “But gold bullets are an unusual calling card. Aside from its worth, manufacturing them is not an easy task to do unless you have well-backed connections.”

“Do you have any idea who can do such a thing then?”

“Unfortunately, no. All I can surmise is that these teenagers got into a fight with someone of influence, a well-connected criminal, or...” Luna stopped when she got the answer. “A bounty hunter... This is a very crude hunch, but I may have a lead on who your killer is.”

“You do, ma'am?” The enforcers were surprised at this sudden revelation.

“It is just a speculation, but it may be a bounty hunter named Treese Bats. He disappeared last night after attempting to take control of the raid, and we have not seen him since. As for the reason why he would do this, I am not sure.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“If he is a bounty hunter, he will be using his status to avoid any consequences, ma’am. He can just easily have any charge against him thrown out.”

“Not entirely. If he has done this without a contract, it is outright murder, and he may not be protected by Ablan or his bounty hunter status, especially if there is solid proof. Allow me to help create your reports and include my name in the investigation. Send a copy to the brotherhood and I will personally make sure he is accountable or at least be subjected to questioning for his involvement in all this.”

The enforcers led her back upstairs. As she wrote down her findings on the bodies, the parents of the corpses were allowed to go down into the morgue. Even one floor above, Luna can hear the devastated cries.

“I would like to send an encrypted message as well.” She showed them her shadow's mark, which she slid the sides to reveal the blood-red eyes inside. “It is part of the investigation.”

They guided her to a small room big enough for one person. Inside was a machine attached to a mechanical copper skull. Luna pulled out a glass cylinder with a metal cap. She placed it on the skull's eye, and it shone an ominous green. Luna then put some numbers into the machine and put in her first message. She repeated this again with another set of numbers, and once she was done, she took out the cylinder from the skull.

“I sent a message to Ablan and another individual who can help us apprehend the suspects.” The enforcers guided her out of the station. “Hopefully, we can find him before he goes beyond our reach. My advice is to contact every enforcer from here to Ablan and the Border States. Tell them as well to invoke the compliance act to ensure his cooperation.”

“Thank you ma’am. It may not seem much, but your help will hopefully bring justice to the victims and their families.” The enforcer said as they shook hands.

“Do not thank me yet, officer. Thank me when we bring the murderers to justice.”

It was well and truly dark now, as the whole investigation must have taken her an hour or two, but it was well worth it. Treese was rotten from the moment she saw him, but at least Luna can do something to bring the thug posing as a bounty hunter down for good.

She placed servo back on her bike. Once it gave her a happy chirp, she set off into the night.

=0o0=

Normally, riding through the forests of the badlands at night is the riskiest idea any traveller can think of.

The paths through the forests are pitch-dark and numerous dangerous beasts infest the mountainside, using the cover of the night to strike at those who foolishly trek through the darkness. Yet the usually quiet and dark forest was broken by the roar of Luna’s steambike, and the bright light it shone from its headlights scared any creatures that got in the way. She checked the small clock on her bike’s dashboard and found it was nearing nine o’clock.

They left the mountain town two hours ago, and they made a record time, which means they should reach Yeten by after midnight. Luna stretched her arms to fight off the exhaustion, yet her steambike kept going straight. She reached for a compartment on the side of her bike, where she had an almost empty bottle of wine. She bit off the cork and finished it all, which caused servo to chirp angrily at her.

“Technically, you are driving, so I can drink as much as I want.”

Luna ignored Servo's chirps once more. They continued to ride for another hour. Luna started another bottle when servo started to slow down.

“What is it?”

Servo replied with five timed chirps, which put her on alert.

They were in the middle of the road deep in the forest, and the only light was her steambike’s headlight. As they moved forward, they found the road ahead was blocked by fallen trees. Luna thought this is what Servo had found, but her bot chirped repeatedly, which made Luna reach for her staff as she looked for the threat.

“I can’t see anything.” Luna barely saw anything in the darkness. “Are you sure you picked up something else?”

Her steambike moved ahead and shined its light towards the trees to their right. Luna inspected where servo pointed her. At first it wasn’t visible, but the more she looked, the details started to emerge. On the ground were truck tracks, which seemed to lead off the road and into the forest. The trees had paint scratches and signs of being smacked by the side of a truck. She and Servo followed the tracks on the ground that led deep into the forest.

They moved slowly as Luna guided her bike through the forest, and it wasn’t long before they spotted a dim light ahead. Luna stopped and got off.

“Servo sentry mode.”

The bot chirped and turned off the steambike’s headlights. She pulled out her staff as she cautiously headed towards the light up ahead. The light came from a truck. It was one of the trucks that contained the civilians, and it seemed to have caught on fire, but that seemed to be a while ago. Only the engine was still on fire, which made Luna run to it. She pulled out an electric torch and the moment she shined the light towards the truck, the first sight that greeted her was charred corpses.

Luna froze as the back of the truck was filled with corpses, all now burnt beyond recognition. The charred smell made her want to gag as she stepped back.

Why on Pandora was this truck filled with people?!

Luna moved to the front and found that the front seats were empty.

This is one truck, and there were seven of them. Where was the rest?!

Luna returned to her steambike. “Servo, follow the tracks and find the rest of the convoy. Also try to track the ground for any other additional tracks aside from the ones coming from the trucks.”

The small bot popped off her bike and a propeller started to come out of the top of its body. It whirled and lifted the small bot into the air. Once it was high enough, it emitted a bright green light that covered the area, then the light started to flicker in timed succession.

Once the bot began to move forward quickly, Luna sped up and followed it. She followed Servo until they reached another truck. It was just like the one they left behind, charred to a crisp with burnt corpses in and around the truck. Luna did not stop as Servo kept going forward; they passed four more trucks, with each scene more demoralising than the last. Each site was covered with charred remains that Luna wished she could scrub from her mind.

Suddenly, the child she talked to, the one that asked her to be her bodyguard, came to mind. Luna remembered that the first truck, the one ahead of the convoy, contained all the children. She revved her bike to go faster.

Let them be safe at least. Maker let her be safe at least.

In the back of her mind, Luna hoped the last truck got away. That they escaped whatever attacked the convoy. Her heart seemed to stop when servo began to slow down and what she saw made her gasp. The last truck was burned as well, but the light that came from her headlight showed the burnt remains in the back of the truck and all over the ground.

No, no, no.

Luna got off and slowly approached the remains. The bodies she found were small and badly charred. She saw one small corpse with the burnt remains of a cast on its arm.

Luna did not even have the strength to walk towards it. She just slowly knelt on the ground as she cursed loudly, so loud it echoed throughout the area. The little girl came back to her mind. That she was now a burnt corpse somewhere around her made her cry out in rage. She should have taken the child’s offer; maybe she could have fended off whatever attacked the convoy.

Luna thought back and remembered the time she was back in the mountain town. While she enjoyed her dinner and wasted time, the children were being burned like animals. Luna rubbed her head violently in frustration as she cried.

This was my fault! I should have been here!

Suddenly, servo chimed at her three times. Luna quickly got to her feet.

Somebody is close!

"Lead me to them."

Servo led her a few feet away from the wreckage and what Luna saw made her yell out.

"Ketil!"

The captain was slumped by a tree, and he was covered in blood and gunshot wounds. She rushed to his side and dropped her torch. Luna put her finger on his neck to check if he was still alive. There was a pulse, but it started to fade. Luna ripped open his coat and shirt, and what she saw were wounds on the captain’s sides and stomach. It caused him to bleed out, and by the amount of blood on his clothes, Luna knew she had arrived too late.

"Ketil, Ketil, look at me alright?" Luna held his hand and tried to lift his head to see if he would respond. "Ketil, it’s me, Luna."

She could see his eyes tried to look at her.

Luna gripped his hand tightly, and Ketil weakly tried to do the same. With his other hand, he tried to point in a direction past him, towards the trees. Luna gripped his hand to let him know she understood. Ketil then gripped her hand one last time, and he drew his last breath.

"I'm sorry, Ketil. I'm so sorry."

Luna closed his eyes. She looked at where Ketil pointed, and she knew there was a reason why he held on for that long. There was something there. It was a tight feeling in her heart, but she was sure there was something Ketil wanted her to follow, to find.

Servo landed on her shoulder as they walked back to her steambike. She opened the back to reveal a folded body of a combat automaton.

"Servo combat mode."