As Mar expected from Mel, she has a splendid imagination. Sitting with Mel whilst reading a book, he considers this visit with her well worth the effort it took to convince his new foster mother.
He had to work hard on his foster parents to arrange this play date. As a young couple, they didn't have much experience with children. So going with the flow, they really liked to monopolise him in a good way. His new foster mom particular was doting on him endlessly. Despite the failure of numerous hints and nudge remarks, eventually Mar was able to make a very convincing argument. After having his foster parents to admit that Mel indeed lives next door, he threw the king of tamper tantrums practically bullying his parents. Pushing hard on emotions in adults is one thing he perfected in his previous 'employment' with his handler. But thinking such thoughts feel like ice running down his spine. He did not feel good in deceiving them and really needs to apologise later for his behaviour. But this was this and that was that. He absolutely needed to meet Mel.
Together with Mel, the two spent some time rooting through her pile of board games and after playing a few Mel wanted to get back to her dolls. So Mar gave in and played house with her. Unexpectedly, as they played, he discovered Mel's fondness for books. She cannot read yet but she really enjoys listening. Since Mar is able to read already (thank you, reincarnation with memories) he could mesmerise Mel easily enough. Mel's mom was out of ear shot and Mar avoided unwanted attention. Mar and Mel spend a lovely afternoon with listening to stories for one of them and admiring Mel's mind sky for the other one.
Whilst Mar is reading, he noticed light foggy swirls of Mel's thoughts leading out unhindered. As he allowed the gentle swirls to enter his mind the white noise, the buzzing of the thoughts of other people and whining of the objects around him dissolved. He can finally hear silence. For the first time since he got enlightened he was alone in his mind. It was absolutely beautiful.
###
On the operations floor the staff is currently preparing for the next report of 'steel hook'. The handler had issued instructions to hook his personal phone up to the conference speaker in meeting room 'alpha'. For his private calls the handler has obtained an extra phone.
Right on queue the phone rings. Not the old phone that he had hooked up to the conference speaker but the extra phone he just purchased. The handler swears under his breath as he pulls out the new phone. As expected the report follows the protocol to the letter.
"Code in", he asks for authorisation
"Cheese cheese cheese", the automatic caller sends a voice authentication challenge.
"Mist mist mist", the handler responds appropriately.
"Confirmed reporting challenge".
There is a 5 second silence.
"Report start"
"Runtime remaining 1392 hours. "
"Status code: yellow. "
"Coverage: 90%. "
"1 possible identification event to report."
"End of Report."
The handler raises and eyebrow. "That fast?". And into the phone he states.
"Report on details of events".
"Event ID: 125329"
"Date: ..."
"Time: ..."
"Observation location: Cash point at corner ..."
"Event details: currently last known sighting of target"
"Acknowledge report", the handler completes the request and the line went dead.
The team looks at the wall map. An assistant pulls up the location and displays it on the large screen. The map contains all known events and any details of points of interests, including the location of all known former clients of Baldr.
"This is close to the location we found the dead Claire, a former client. She must have provided a safe house.", the handler mumbles.
"Please dispatch 5 groups of agents to that location and branch out. Maybe we are in luck and pick up a trail.", the handler orders.
"Dismissed!"
# # #
The handler returns to his new office. It has been cleaned now and because of the lingering metallic smell of blood needed a repaint. Of course, the handler also ordered new furniture. He skipped the lavish installation that he was due as part of the promotion. Instead he had the furniture from Baldr's recent stay in the hospital brought over.
He sat down in the chair Baldr was sitting before and stares for a minute at the patient chair Baldr recently modified.
"So, you stayed at Claire's for a night and then you killed her. You burned all the bridges now, I guess. But I bet all of my meagre salary that you have a plan. I wonder what you are up to."
For a while he sits on the desk with his elbows on the table, his fingers interlaced and the index finger making a steeple. Rhythmically, he taps his nose his the index fingers. Suddenly he ruffles his hair with his hands and then picks up his mobile phone.
">REPORTING SIGHTING OF MAR IN TOL. HIGH PROBABILITY BALDR IS STILL IN TOWN!"
He takes a couple of breaths
[SEND]
Then, very carefully, he puts down the phone on the table. As soon as he releases it from his fingers it vibrates. He jerks with a start. And just as he is touching it again, the message jumps into his head making him nearly pass out in pain.
">YOU ARE TOO SLOW REPORTING. YOU ARE SLOW CATCHING HIM. I AM LOOSING PATIENCE."
After that the handler sat frozen for 5 minutes before carefully getting up. Although he isn't normally praying man, he sends a word of gratitude to the saint of incontinence pads. Then slowly, with his legs wide apart, he walks to the nearby rest room to clean himself ... again.
# # #
The day after the visit to Mel, Mar is indulging his foster mother to a shopping spree. She wanted to go yesterday already but Mar's tantrum did not allow for it. Of course, she is unaware that Mar is fully self sufficient. Intuitively, Mar can fabricate most materials and patterns. However, after misbehaving so badly yesterday he feels a bit guilty. So he shows some eagerness today just to reward his new parents. They are, after all, a lovely couple and very nice to him.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Mar is somewhat happy but often thinks back to his parents and Claire. As his foster mother and him walk towards the shopping centre, he looks up to the sky.
"Your plan worked spot on. And as a bonus I met someone very unique. Where ever you are, I hope you can see it too.".
The plan he discussed with Claire was to join someone as soon as possible. So it might as well be Mel's neighbours. Living next to the mysterious Mel and he has hopes for many opportunities to be close to her. And now, as their first duty, his new foster parents are supplying him with a new clothes and necessities. Also, they enrolled him into a Kindergarden for a few hours every day. His foster mom was keen for him to make more friends.
It helped Mar's plan that the couple fostering him where an easy target. Being unable to bear children herself, his foster mom was a pushover. There was almost no work to tweak her mind so that she want's to be a foster parent. "Converting" his foster dad was a little bit more work. Mar felt a bit strange whilst he was coercing them. He never fancied himself as an evil manipulator. But looking at his actions over the last days, he has clearly turned to the dark side.
Looking back through the memories of his previous lifes, he is aware that killing, betrayal and coercion is not a strange behaviour for him. Then again those old memories are not really of himself. Well, they are of him but not of this him. It is almost like he is reading his auto biography with minute details of all the facts and events. Even though he doesn't like some of them at all, these are, without a doubt, his memories.
"Mar, which colour do you like more ?", his foster mom interrupts his thoughts. She is holding two different T-shirts in front of him.
"Ah, never mind, we take both", she continues before he could even look at them.
Mar smirks. She is in the zone. Even without his gift, he can sense her enthusiasm and excitement. It is a gently lemony smell that makes him want to burrow his nose into. He follows close behind his foster mom. This somehow makes his mom even more enthusiastic and she starts heaping even more affection and attention on him. It is as if she wants to make up for the last 5 years of Mar's life. Mar doesn't mind. Eventually, after spending a fair amount of money, they end up eating ice cream in the food court to wind down.
"Is there anything else you need ? Anything you can think off ? ", she asks while crunching on the chocolate flake.
Mar shakes his head sideways.
"Well, we run out of time today. But if there is anything else we can certainly get it the next time".
Mar shakes his head sideways even harder. "No more shopping please.", he pleads.
His foster mom laughs hard. "I see. You are, after all, I man!".
# # #
The Enemir has completed scanning a month worth of data and is correlating the flow of people. Using secret algorithms and statistics, it has shortlisted millions of events for further investigation in Tol alone. One aspect of its computer power is currently crunching a number of remarkable events in the see of events:
...
Event 834966: At location id 341742 person X enters house but does not leave. PRIORITY NOTICE: location in area of high interest.
...
...
...
Event 835006: At location id 341742 person Y leaves house but has never entered. PRIORITY NOTICE: location in area of high interest.
...
...
Event 844966: At location id 426452 person Z enrols person Y for civilian child care facility. PRIORITY NOTICE: person correlation to priority event 835006
...
...
Event 844966: At location id 132648 person Z, person Y spends an unusual amount of money classified as regular living expenses on items not normally of interest. PRIORITY NOTICE: person correlation to priority event 844966
...
...
Meticulous, the Enemir is correlating the events judging them thousands of times a second. Using the unstoppable force of a computer clock the time is ticking down to the next report.
At around the same time on the operations floor, agents are sifting through the video feeds from Event ID 125329, reported by Enemir at the cash point location. Spooling through the recent recordings from the cash point surveillance camera, the agents try to piece together the occupants of the flat in question. Unfortunately, the camera is designed to only record the ongoings at the cash point and will pause recording 30 seconds after someone used the cash point. But, on the good side the available pictures are of good quality.
The agent is sipping instant coffee from a plastic cup with one hand whilst shuffling printed screen shots from some of the other, lower quality recordings from civilian recording devices around. Some printouts are strewed about and he orders them one by one to make up a timeline. After dropping his eyebrows, he stops. Then he shuffles through the stack of printouts again and pulls out some other prints.
"There is something missing", he mumbles setting down the cup. His freed index finger now points to an open door.
He goes back to the recordings of the area on the computer and compares the time stamps. He tracks down the time reference before and after the door was opened. One shows a small kids walking away from the house. He puts his cup down hard, circles the picture of the kid and shouts: "I found him".
Minutes later the handler and some executives are gathered at a round desk. Strewn on the desk are maps and a series of pictures shows Claire and Mar. But the key picture was the kid circled in it code named Baldr v2 (then handler's choice of names sucks). Although the quality was bad, the picture allows some features of Mar to be visible.
"Well done team. Distribute the picture to the teams in the field.", the handler concludes the meeting.