The Fallen Hunt

Chapter 15: Briefing (2)



"Yes, sir."

The presenter nodded, swiftly pressing her tablet. Soon, the walls of the conference room began to dim, reducing the amount of natural light that streamed into the chambers.

Another press on the tablet brought up multiple images of the victims on the holographic screen behind her. She moved to the side, giving everyone a full view of the screen. While the commanders all had their assigned files before them, they mainly contained the files of their assigned victim.

'Tsk, that bastard always does what he wants, and the boss simply bats an eye over the issue.'

Jordan was still bitter about the stranger Dave brought along. His focus was on the projection, alright. But from time to time, he would look over in Kael's direction, eying the strange man carefully.

Sure, he had heard of the man's name before, but what had that got to do with the case they were currently working on? Was David looking down on the abilities of the other Field Commanders? Jordan could not understand what David was thinking.

Unfortunately for him, he was unable to act at that moment. Kellan's words were law within the organisation. Whatever he said was final, regardless of how others felt about it. Additionally, he held a great deal of respect for the boss.

After all, he needed his favour in his plans. He couldn't afford to be on the boss's bad side. Sitting across from Jordan, Riley glanced at Jordan and couldn't help but sneer in her heart.

'He's always been at odds with my Dave,' she thought to herself. 'What's his deal? He's not even based in this city, yet he always seems to have a problem with David.'

"As of eight pm last night, we received reports of the death of all thirteen future chosen heroes." The presenter's voice snapped everyone out of their inner thoughts, drawing their attention to her.

"From what we've already investigated, the thirteen chosens had just taken their break from training. At 1500 hours, the children departed from the training facility, and under the protection of their guardians, they were escorted to their home cities."

This was new information to Kael as he furrowed his brows in thought. Looking at the images on the screen, he noticed that the clothes most of the victims wore were typical of those anyone would wear when travelling.

"All the children were able to make it back to their family homes as reported by the guardians." The presenter took a brief pause at this point, looking at the screen. "This was where things took a turn for the worse.

"Because the homes of the future chosen heroes are funded and maintained by the government, their guardians were not as vigilant since the estates had another level of security.

"Blake Aldridge of Westmere City, Chloe Harlow of Ashland City, Kendall Prescott of Eastwell City, and Silas Vaughn of Eastwell City." As the presenter mentioned the names of these victims and their hometowns, she changed the images accordingly, displaying the profile photo and scene photos.

The commanders assigned to these victims looked on carefully. None of them were familiar with the chosen heroes as they were in entirely different worlds. However, it was now paramount for them to know their victims to solve the murders.

"These four were the exception to everyone else. They were found dead outside, and under even stranger conditions. There were no witnesses, and their hidden guardians did not realise what was happening until the heroes fell dead."

"..."

Everyone remained silent, absorbed in their thoughts as they tried to make heads or tails of the images they were looking at. To die in a city full of people without any key witnesses was as bizarre as the sudden appearance of a snail at your doorstep.

There was no premise, no signs—they just appeared or happened, in this case.

A few of the commanders had questions about some of the cases. However, the presenter did not have those answers. It was up to them to find out as detectives. What they had at the moment was preliminary information they received less than 24 hours after the incident.

This briefing was meant to give them a picture they could follow to solve the cases, find connections, and propose theories as to what could have possibly brought about the death of the children.

After several moments of silent musing, the presenter received the signal from the boss to continue. 

"Forensic reports from the scene and victims revealed a few interesting things about the murder of the future chosen heroes. While a few of the children had wounds that might have been the cause of death, many among the thirteen did not have such wounds."

This was what Kael had been mulling over. The case he and Dave were working on had the victim's heart pierced with a sharp circular object. However, some of the victims had their wounds on their palms, either on the left or right.

Those locations were not enough to cause someone's death. 

"This begs the question: what actually dealt the killing blow?" The presenter continued, expressing the question on everyone's mind. "Analysis performed on the wounds did not reveal any trace of a foreign object either."

This was one of the mysteries they needed to figure out.

"Furthermore, a few of the victims..." The presenter switched the image once again, bringing up Aiden Carrigan's picture of him lying lifeless on his bed. "As you can see, some of the victims had strange symbols when they were found. However, they disappeared after a few hours."

Had all the children had those strange symbols, perhaps, it could have created a solid enough lead to follow. Unfortunately for them, the few they had did not make sense or match anything in their database.

Regardless, Kael was going to follow the strange symbols to find a connection. This was the root of his hypothesis. It might not lead them to their killer, but it might shed light on the elusive why.

"This is the extent of everything we know so far," the presenter turned to the table and said. "The various teams are already building individual profiles of all the victims to analyse their lifestyle, behaviours and connections."

"Thank you, Hailay." 

Kellan nodded at the presenter, Hailey, who nodded appreciatively in return. She had done her part. It was time for the commanders to present their thoughts on the cases.

Looking at the seated men and women before him, Kellan asked, "So, what do you make of this?"

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