"Of course."

"That means you find the place, you handle reserving it, you manage the expenses, and you handle any and all damage control," he finished with a smirk. "And also," he pointed at Drake with his fork, "No drugs or alcohol whatsoever, or this will be the last party you'll ever want to throw."

"I've got it."

Tony smiled. He took a bite of his salad before he asked how Rachel was.

10: 53 PM.

Baltimore, Maryland A mug of black coffee cooled on the detective's desk. Sage hadn't touched it since Chief Johnson dropped it off on his way out for the evening. The Chief had a wife and two little girls, whereas Detective Sage didn't have anyone waiting back at his very shoddy apartment. Johnson had a small gathering years earlier and Sage happened to meet the chief's youngest, Ca.s.sidy. She asked Detective Sage if he worked for her daddy, which he told her he did, in a manner of speaking. She then asked if he liked her daddy, which Sage a.s.sured her he did, with a smile. Ca.s.sidy nodded in agreement just before her mother rushed her off to bed. Sage knew Johnson would have been right at his side in the investigation years ago, but his family was his highest priority, which Sage understood.

The evening shift neared full force and filled the station with faces Sage only partially recalled. He hadn't pulled the graveyard shift in years and it wasn't with the Baltimore Police Department either, but he did work nights frequently, though his entire focus was always on whatever his investigation might have been in then.

His newest investigation was dubbed the 'Cladis Investigation,' based on the a.s.sumed alias of the killer. The detective had a total of nine murders connected to the villain with a tenth victim on the way. What made matters worse was the completely bare list of suspects. Forensics failed to find any concrete evidence that managed to lead to any positive suspects. What fingerprints or trace hair particles they ever found always belonged to a family member or friend, all of whom had solid alibis, not that anyone's genetic material was ever found at more than one crime scene.

Detective Sage added Caroline Reynolds' information to the case file, which happened to be scattered across his desk and office chair. Photos of her body, the scar on her forearm, and the bloodied sheet of paper from her notebook were pinned to the corkboard mounted on the wall behind his desk. On the wall adjacent to the corkboard was a map of Baltimore, which had a total of nine pins across the map, the most recent at the residence of Carolyn Reynolds' parents. The deaths of all of the victims were spread across the city, with no migratory pattern in the slayings and without any sign of where in the city the next attack would occur.

The rate at which the killer, Cladis, murdered was erratic at best, from what Detective Sage could see. At times there were only four or five days between deaths while sometimes there was only one day, and in one instance a span of nine days. There was also a complete lack of shared traits in the victims; some were male and others female, young and old, a variety of races, varying social and economic standings, married, single, widowed or divorced, along with a plethora of other differences. The only connection he knew was that the current target of Cladis would meet the following target before they died, between the window of when the previous victim perished and when the target would be killed. Beyond that highly abstract lead, Detective Sage was at a loss entirely.

Sergeant Geoff Murdock knocked on his door and walked in. He set a small stack of papers on Sage's desk. "They asked me to bring these to you," he said with a glance at his work. "They finished up with the diary and there's nothing that indicates anyone other than the girl or her family had contact with the journal."

Sage frowned and asked what the doc.u.ments were.

"Photo copies of the pages for the past few weeks," he told him. "I took the liberty of looking through the journal once forensics was finished with it and found a few notes that might help."

"Did they check the handwriting?"

Sergeant Murdock nodded and told him they confirmed it was Caroline's. "As I was saying, I leafed through the last few pages and found something, though I think it might be a load of bull."

"What was it?"

"Super powers." Murdock folded his arms across his chest and explained, "Caroline Reynolds recorded in her diary that she accidentally dropped a gla.s.s on the wood floor of her parents' house and caused it to shatter, however when she started to pick the pieces up to toss the gla.s.s out, the shards reformed and the gla.s.s was whole again."

Detective Sage frowned and checked the doc.u.ments himself.

Aug. 10, ...the weirdest thing happened today. I dropped a gla.s.s on the floor in the kitchen and broke it, but when I gathered the pieces up in my hand, the gla.s.s fixed itself. It was completely fixed as if I hadn't dropped it in the first place! I told my parents but they just a.s.sumed I was lying about it, that or they ignored me...though I have to admit, I'm not sure I'd believe it myself if I wasn't there.

Sage put the pages down and repeated, "'The gla.s.s fixed itself...' Do you think"

"No," Murdock cut him off. "There's no chance. Super powers? Sage, this is fiction. Caroline must have mistaken dropping the gla.s.s in the first place, or someone else picked it up and she didn't realize it. It just doesn't seem possible. It's impossible."

Detective Sage nodded and agreed. "But it is something to consider."

"Just don't let it dilute your focus Sage." Sergeant Murdock headed for the door but stopped to remind him that he was always available to help with the investigation, if he ever needed or wanted it.

Sage waited until he knew the sergeant was gone before he started to read the entries in the girl's diary, though the pages were covered in blood and made the copies difficult to read.

Aug. 9, ...school was interesting today, our history teacher's dad is in the hospital, so he's going to Wyoming to see him, tomorrow we're getting the intern at the high school as our sub for the next week or so. I heard that she's kinda weird, but I haven't met her, so we'll see. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll just as soon cancel cla.s.s for a week or so while our regular teacher's out.

Sage found someone she hadn't met, the only person she'd mentioned meeting that far. He continued to read in an attempt to learn more about that person.

Aug. 10, ...the weirdest thing happened today. I dropped a gla.s.s on the floor in the kitchen and broke it, but when I gathered the pieces up in my hand, the gla.s.s fixed itself. It was completely fixed as if I hadn't dropped it in the first place! I told my parents but they just a.s.sumed I was lying about it, that or they ignored me...though I have to admit, I'm not sure I'd believe it myself if I wasn't there.

Aug. 11, ...something weird is going on, I noticed it first yesterday and I thought it was a fluke or something, but now I did it again today. I went to pick up a gla.s.s of water I had, and my hand moved through it. I thought at first that I missed it, then I picked it up and was halfway to my room when it fell, my hand went through it again! I know I didn't just drop it, because my hand was soaking wet when it hit the floor. What's going on?

Aug. 12, ...I found that I need to concentrate when I'm holding or carrying gla.s.s, but anything else is fine! Bowls, plastic cups, books...it's just gla.s.s...something else happened, I dropped a gla.s.s again, but when I went to pick up the pieces, the gla.s.s repaired itself, no cracks, nothing was wrong with it! What on earth is this? What is going on?!

Sage stopped and stared at the entries. He reread the entries twice and then took out a note pad and scribbled a few notes before he read the final entry.

Aug. 13, I found something really cool today. I tried it out once my parents left for their dinner. I tried walking through the sliding gla.s.s door that leads to our porch, and I walked straight through it! I think I walked back and forth about twenty times before I finally ran upstairs and tried it out on the triple paned window in my bedroom, which worked too! After that I had to come and write this down! This is so cool!

Detective Sage stopped reading. There wasn't anything left. He set the pages aside, looked back at the information he had on the previous victims, and for a second believed he'd found something.

He examined the notes on the first victim, Red Irons, and recalled that he'd spent nearly a half an hour under water before the second victim, Breanna French, dove in and saved him. Sage jotted down a few notes, though they were merely ideas, and continued down the list.

Chapter 3.

August 16th, 2029 9:15 AM.

Baltimore, Maryland "You've lost me," Felton told Detective Sage as they both hunched over his desk.

The desk in question was blanketed in doc.u.ments which ranged from photos of Caroline Reynolds' diary to crime scene information and doc.u.mentation. Detectives Felton and Sage studied the small set of notes Sage compiled on everything he knew about the victims and what limited connections he believed they shared. Chief Johnson joined them with three mugs of coffee, two of which he handed out to the detectives.

Johnson asked Felton, "What's this about?"

Sage took a breath and said, "I believe I've found something." He pointed to pages spread across his desk and explained, "I didn't think anything of it at the start, but something in Caroline Reynolds' diary made me reconsider."

"What?"

"She wrote that she could walk through gla.s.s," Felton told him.

Johnson stared at them both, with a c.o.c.ked brow, and asked, "Like, through it, without breaking it?"

"Yes," Sage reluctantly confirmed.

The chief rubbed his eyes and found a seat. He groaned and muttered, "Why on earth would you even think this is relatively plausible?"

"Chief"

"Sage," his eyes shot over to him, "This is insane. People do not have super powers."

"Then explain how Red Irons was able to remain underwater for over a half an hour before Breanna French dove in to save him. Better yet, explain to me how she even knew he was down there considering she was out jogging and wasn't anywhere near him when he tried to kill himself."

Felton grimaced as he looked at the rest of Detective Sage's notes. He read the entries in Caroline's diary and admitted, "It doesn't sound so improbable when you've got a fourteen year old girl writing about it in her journal."

"That isn't a binding fact though," the Chief told them. "We need hard evidence, not fiction."

"Chief," Detective Sage looked at him, "This might be all that we're going to get."

Johnson closed his eyes and thought a moment. The three of them didn't move, or speak, and hardly breathed for quite some time. One of their radios transmitted a signal about a robbery on the east side, but none of them paid any mind to it. The chief finally asked, "How are we supposed to investigate something like this? Even if there are people with super powers and none of us have known about it until now, how are we supposed to go about finding this Cladis guy who supposedly knows about these people, and stop him?"

Felton shrugged, "How we usually go about these sort of investigations, we look for other clues, interview those closest to the victims, and try our best to find any leads we can that could lead to us capturing this killer."

Johnson rubbed his head and relented, "Fine. Just, please, don't mention these powers or whatever they are to anyone else. The last thing we need is the press, the people, or anyone above us believing that we've suddenly lost our grip on reality. You two investigate this as if it truly was a lead and if anything concrete surfaces, you let me know." He looked at his watch and swore, "If you'll excuse me, I have to go and explain everything about Caroline Reynolds' death to Commissioner Schmitt."

He left the detectives and they returned to the case on the desk in front of them. Detective Felton scratched his head and asked, "How are we going to go about this anyway?"

Sage told him about what he'd read in Caroline's journal, about how her cla.s.s had an intern subst.i.tuting for their teacher. "I'll have to go through the school district to get this intern's name though, which might be a bit of a headache seeing as school's out for the summer."

"Are you going to ask if she's suddenly displaying supernatural powers and abilities?" Felton asked with a smirk.

Detective Sage frowned and admitted that he might have to. "I don't even know how to ask that without her dismissing it altogether."

Felton shook his head and chuckled, "You're a bright guy, I'm sure you'll figure it out," he said with a smile as he handed Sage the phone. "I'll be back, I've got to go and check up with Brown about a few things involving some shoplifters we caught last week."

Sage nodded and dialed Caroline Reynolds' school. He waited for an answer but only managed to receive a message that informed him that the secretaries and school administration were out of office until the seventeenth of August. Sage left a brief message, hung up, cursed, and returned to gathering information about the other eight victims on the list.

12:50 PM.

Both.e.l.l, Washington Drake sat at his desk with a distant gaze upon the static game of solitaire he left on screen. He shuffled through his deck twice, before he finally decided to wrap the game up and within a minute had the cards flying across his screen. Afterward, he closed the application.

His lanky coworker, Jeremy, approached his desk. He took a seat and began their conversation without hesitation, "Drake, I recently inherited an old turntable from my grandfather. Do you happen to know where I could find some old records for it?"

Drake blinked a few times before he realized he was asked a question, "Ah...you can obviously check online, but I'd imagine if you checked around you could find someone in the area that sells them. p.a.w.n shops may have them too."

"Great, great. Sorry about such a stupid question, but as you know, I'm new here and I'm still getting my bearings in the area." Jeremy glanced past Drake to find Sanderson closing in on them. He adjusted his gla.s.ses and spoke, "So Drake I've been talking with Donna in customer service, she says that there've been some complaints with our server speed recently," Sanderson stopped by them, "She asked if you or Sho could take a look to see if anything's up." Satisfied, Sanderson left.

"Good cover," Drake complimented his coworker, who only smiled and set off for his desk again. Drake then muttered to himself that he didn't work in their information technology department.

His phone rang once Jeremy had left, "Yes?"

"Drake, there's someone here to see you. Should I send them over?"

Drake sighed, "Yeah, thanks," he hung up and counted backwards from twelve, at which point Nick found his desk. "Hey take a seat."

Nick did and then asked, "Is your m-manager going to d-drop by?"

"I don't know, he might." Drake took out a paper from his desk and handed it to him, "That's the flyer for the party. Since Ian's leaving on the twenty-sixth we're throwing it on the twenty-fourth."

"That should b-be fine."

"I found a place for us to use, but I told them we're going to provide our own music since it's cheaper and all that club usually plays is electronic and trance," Drake told him.

"And y-you want me t-t-to find the DJ?"

Drake nodded, "It shouldn't be too difficult."

Nick sighed, "Great, m-more work."

"That's all you've got to do. I've got Jordan making fliers and he's getting Coop and Wally to help distribute them." Drake smiled, "You should consider yourself lucky in comparison to him."

"Okay. Any other j-jobs f-for me?"

He shook his head, "Not unless you want more."

"N-No, that's f-fine." Nick gathered his things and started off.

A woman in her mid-forties walked up to Drake's cubicle and told him someone was at the front desk waiting for him. Drake scratched at his eyebrow and asked if she knew who it was. "Jonathan Vane."

"Right...who is he again?"

"The chief operations officer."

"Right right...perfect, thanks."

Drake rose from his seat and walked out to the receptionist's desk with his hands deep within his pockets. Jonathan Vane was a few inches taller than Drake and never seemed to be caught dead without a suit and tie. He wore thinly framed gla.s.ses that complimented his slender figure and face. Jonathan Vane also always wore his salt and peppered hair slicked back with what Drake a.s.sumed was the largest amount of the most expensive hair product imaginable.

"Drake Winchester," he said with a smile, "You seem to be taller every time I see you."

Drake begrudgingly shook his hand and failed to give any retort. "Nice to see you too Jonathan."

Jonathan paused, cleared his throat, and suggested they talk in private. Drake led the way to the conference room and promptly took a seat at the head of the table, which allowed Jonathan to take a seat near the door. Jonathan composed himself and began by asking Drake how closely he followed their flagship t.i.tle.

"Creeping Darkness? Fairly closely, even though it isn't really my department."

Vane smirked, "Yes, I'd imagine it isn't...anyway, your father and I spoke and decided that we'd like to send you to j.a.pan alongside some of the game's engineers to represent our company."

"For the Tokyo Game Show?" Drake asked as his attention and interest piqued.

"Yes." Vane adjusted his gla.s.ses before he told Drake that this would come as a promotion. "Your father knows you must feel quite undervalued at this level and wants to broaden your horizon, in a manner of speaking. We haven't hammered out the details, the position, or the t.i.tle for that matter, but we will shortly. But in any case, we would like you to head to j.a.pan at the start of September to represent Winchester Enterprises as the face of our company. What do you say?"

Drake let a smile form and quickly agreed.

"Good. You'll be briefed long before you depart, but it wouldn't hurt to brush up on the products we plan to showcase, all of which you'll receive information on soon enough."