Chapter 80 - 717 Eckert Way

Finn and Zwei exchanged nervous glances as they looked down the empty, shadowed hallway beyond the door that had just opened by itself. Finn’s mouth was dry as he said, “It was locked just a moment ago. I’m sure.”

“Maybe the latch was loose.” Zwei replied softly.

There was an eerie energy radiating out of the house, a looming feeling, like there was something within that darkened space hiding within the shadows. They found themselves hesitating without realizing why. After a moment, Finn stepped forward, taking the initiative.

“Since the door is open, let’s investigate.” He said, summoning some bravado in front of his junior. “Perhaps the supervisor is waiting for us inside.”

They stepped in together, their footsteps heavy on the plank flooring as it creaked loudly beneath them. The hallway was short, with a door at the end and another on their right. The walls were simple wood boards, crudely put together, with cracks between the planks that gave glimpses of the darkened rooms on the other side.

Finn tried the wooden handle of the right door and found that it was barred from the other side. He didn’t pause to investigate but continued past it to the door at the end of the hall, which opened into a wide room.

The room was the common living space of the house. It had two square windows with no glass, and shutters that blocked out the light from outside. A border of daylight filtered in through the edges of the shutters, dimly lighting the room. Shafts of light hazily illuminated the dusty stale air. 

In the far left corner of the room was a small standalone wood burning stove with two chopped logs beside it. Around the stove were old chairs and a simple bench. A table had been made from a tabletop that rested upon stacked bricks. On the table were several half-used old candles and a chipped ceramic plate. The only exit other than the one they came in from was to the left of the hallway door. It was simply a door frame - the hinges still remained from the missing door. The room beyond was completely dark and draped in shadows.

The house seemed completely abandoned and in disrepair. It did not feel like a meeting place for a police task force.

The pair stood in the center of the room, looking around. Once again, they exchanged nervous glances as they failed to find any signs of the supervisor that they were supposed to be meeting. 

A faint scratching sound caught their attention from the darkened room. From the dim light that barely penetrated the shadows, they could see that it was a storage room. There was a skittering noise for a moment, then silence.

Finn took the lead as he stepped into the doorway to investigate the sound.

“You heard it too, right?” Finn asked, as Zwei followed him in.

“Yeah.”

The room was small, too cramped for both of them to fit inside comfortably. All four walls were lined with shelves, which were mostly bare and covered in dust. Only a few lumps of cloth-wrapped objects were scattered on the shelves, likely dried out root vegetables or stale bread. Zwei peeked in from the doorway as Finn looked around, eyes squinting to try to make out the contents of the room in the dim light.

“Nothing in here.” Finn said after a moment, “Maybe a mouse?”

Zwei shrugged. Finn sighed softly, slightly irritated at his rapidly beating heart. Logically speaking, there was no reason to be uptight, yet his senses were still on the edge for an inexplicable reason. He glanced across the shelves, his eyes ending up resting on the left wall. This was the wall shared with the left side of the entrance hallway, the one they could partially see through the cracks between the planks. Finn could see a bit of light beyond the cracks.

A flicker of a movement caught his eye as he saw a shadow pass by one of the cracks. He reached out quickly to Zwei, who followed his gaze. Both of them looked at the gaps in the wall at around their chest level right as an eye suddenly appeared in the crack and stared directly at them.

“Uwa!!!” Both Finn and Zwei jumped and dashed out of the room, rushing back into the living space.

As they ran back into the room, the door to the corridor opened calmly and a tall man dressed in heavy clothing stepped inside. Immediately, without consciously understanding why, Finn and Zwei experienced an unpleasant feeling of repulsion from the stranger as they stopped in place and even backed up slightly from him. 

The man was dressed in a slate grey police uniform, complete with an officer’s hat. He wore a double breasted trench coat and black leather gloves that covered his hands. His face was covered by a smooth grey ceramic mask with slanted eyes. Beneath the mask two cold blue eyes peered out at the two young men, the same eyes that had peered at them from the crack in the wall. His upper face was covered by the mask, with his lower face revealed. He had pale skin, thin, hard lips and a strong jaw. His skin wasn’t smooth, but had an irregular rash-like appearance, as if the skin had been rubbed raw in several places. There was no visible skin on his body aside from his lower face. Even his neck was covered by a black turtleneck.

The door shut behind the man and the room fell silent as the masked man slowly looked over the two young officers in front of him. Since he was wearing an officer’s uniform, both young men calmed down a little, recognizing that this was likely their new supervisor. Finn returned the gaze seriously, quickly regaining his confidence with his posture. Zwei also did not let his eyes falter before the stranger, his eyes solemn and patient. They each felt unsettled, but did their best to hide it.

“My name is Locke.” The masked man observed them coldly for a moment before breaking the silence. He stepped forward, his leather boots heavy on the creaking wooden floor. His voice was gravelly and strained, as if each syllable was painful to utter. “Let me get one thing straight from the beginning.”

“From this moment on you report to me and only to me. You are my subordinates first, and a police officer of Noga second. If you have a problem with this, leave now.”

Finn thought the man was a bit over dramatic, but he kept his expression calm. When meeting a superior, first impressions were vital. The same was true for the supervisor as well. By entering with such a strong statement, Locke was impressing on them that he was in charge and that his word was final. He was likely the kind of supervisor who wanted complete obedience and shows of subordination. 

It wasn’t to Finn’s liking, but for the time being Finn could work with this. Patience was the key here. Once Finn heard what this ‘Locke’ had to say, he could carefully formulate his questions to get the information he wanted, while giving a good impression.

Zwei spoke up first from while Finn was considering his options, “Chief Fang said we’re a special police task force, which department do we fit into?”

“Jintang can call this a police task force if he wants, I have nothing to do with that. You’re not in any department. You belong to me.” Locke said. “I’m here for one specific task, and you two are assigned to me to help me complete it.”

“And that task is...” Zwei continued.

“To investigate the truth behind Chief Yun’s death.” Locke said.

“It can’t be that simple.” Zwei said. His eyes had a glimmer of defiance in them as he challenged Locke’s words. “This kind of task isn’t something you’d give to two rookies.”

You’re the rookie here! Speak for yourself! Finn bit his tongue as he resisted the urge to talk back. He wished he could tell Zwei to shut up and stop asking pointless questions. It was obvious from Chief Fang’s brief introduction earlier that this task force was outside of the regular departmental organization. If Zwei kept on like this, Locke’s first impression of them would drop straight to rock bottom.

“Indeed.” Locke’s cold blue eyes showed no signs of emotion, “I do not know why Jintang chose you, but it is none of my concern. What matters to me is your aptitude for investigation.”

“Do we know who was responsible for his death?” Finn asked, trying to get the conversation on track.

“That is one of the questions that must be answered.” Locke said.

“In that case,” Finn continued, “I already have a possible lead as to who the responsible parties might be. I led an investigation yesterday up to Cloud Peak that uncovered what might be a crucial piece of information.”

Finn was already planning to discuss his findings with regards to the relationship between the Marked Devout and Cloud Peak Monastery. He wasn’t sure it had something to do with Chief Yun’s death, but he was strongly expecting them to be related. After all, he had received two very strong leads from the monk Banmi and Edwin’s Master Ming Ru that something important would occur overnight. Chief Yun’s death was likely closely if not directly part of last night’s events.

Revealing this at the start would hopefully offset Zwei’s poor first impression. At the very least, Finn wouldn’t be grouped into the same category as Zwei. 

“Good. Work with your partner to verify that information, then.” Locke said without any hint of interest. It was a cold response that made it clear that he did not care to hear more about Finn’s findings. Finn, who had his hand in his pocket ready to present the engraved leather wristband, could only swallow his pride and nod.

Presently, Locke reached inside his jacket with a black gloved hand and pulled out a large sealed envelope. Finn and Zwei stepped aside as he passed between them and set the envelope down on the makeshift table. 

“This envelope contains the summary of the events of last night. I secretly copied it. Read it, then burn the contents.”
 
Locke turned around and looked at each of them in turn as he said, “Your first mission is to investigate the details around Yang Yun’s death. Use whatever means you need to do so. Investigate whatever leads you find interesting. In three days, report back to this house with your findings.”

“Are there any leads that you think we should follow up on, or directions you think are important?” Finn asked.

“No.” Without any further elaboration the masked man began walking towards the door.

Finn considered pressing the point once more but decided against it. Without turning around Locke left the room, closing the door behind him.

This supervisor’s tone was completely different than the DVMP’s Chief Luan. Luan was meticulous, thorough and micro-managerial. Finn’s impression of Locke was that the man couldn’t care less about the results of the investigation.  Finn’s lips twitched in irritation as he listened Locke’s footsteps head down the corridor and leave the house. After a moment he sighed under his breath, turning his head to look at Zwei with a frown.

Zwei had a nonchalant expression on his face as his eyes remained on the doorway. When it was clear that their supervisor had left the building and was out of earshot he met Finn’s eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know why you talked back to him like that.”

“Talk back?” Finn raised an eyebrow.

“You asked him for leads when he clearly said we were to figure it out ourselves.” Zwei said.

“That’s called looking for clarification.” Finn said. “Narrowing down the operational parameters. Making sure we’re all on the same page.”

“It’s clear that he’s using this ‘mission’ to judge us.” Zwei said, “He expects us to fill in the pieces ourselves. Otherwise why would he be so vague?”

“He’s obviously judging us.” Finn said. “But the more details we have, the better we’ll be able to succeed. To just throw two rookies blindly into an investigation like this is asking for failure.”

Zwei raised an eyebrow, peering out at Finn from under his bangs, “You really hated me using that term for you, huh, mister six months.”

“Time has nothing to do with skill.” Finn put his hand down on the envelope that had been left on the table, “You said I was talking back to Locke, but did you notice how he avoided discussing the case at all? He didn’t seem to have any interest in supporting us, or even in the outcome of the investigation. He basically had no faith in our ability to succeed.”

“I got that impression too.“ Zwei nodded.

“Well, if we had managed that better, he might have felt more confidence in us and given us more direction. Rather than look and act like rookies, we should be impressing on him that we were the right people to be assigned to the job.”

“In other words, you’re blaming me for making us look bad.” Zwei said.

That’s exactly it. You blew our first impression, and now we have to prove ourselves to him first before he’ll actually work with us. Finn thought, but didn’t say it out loud.  He looked down at the envelope, playing with the seal as if he were focusing back on their mission. 

“I emphasized the rookie part on purpose.” Zwei countered after a moment, “To get a grasp on what he was expecting from the two of us. What his goals were. Why we were chosen for this task and not others with more experience.”

“And what’s your conclusion?” Finn avoided rolling his eyes in exasperation. None of those things were important. They had nothing to do with the mission.

“I don’t know.” Zwei shrugged, looking back over to the door, “But I don’t trust him.”