Chapter 81 - Pretense of Cooperation

“I don’t trust our supervisor.” Zwei said with a frown.

“Don’t trust him?” Finn asked incredulously, feeling his irritation start to boil over. He couldn’t hold back his resentment at being paired up with this brand new rookie anymore. “Don’t trust him? This isn’t a lover’s relationship, this is the police force. This is your first day so maybe you still have some romantic idea about what it means to be an officer. But to me, that’s all idealistic nonsense. We’re officers. We take orders from superiors and we accomplish our goals. Trust has nothing to do with it.”

Finn shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Look, I get that you’re new, but if you keep this kind of attitude you’re going to get stuck pushing papers and managing crowds for your entire career. You should be grateful that you have the opportunity to be assigned to an investigative team on your very first day.”

Zwei kept looking at the closed door to the corridor, with a bitter look on his face. “He didn’t even ask for our names.”

“What does that matter?” Finn asked.

Zwei shook his head, sighing. “Never mind. You’re right. I guess I had a different idea of what things would be like.”

Me too, but we can still salvage this. Finn thought to himself as he picked up the envelope and broke the wax seal. He pulled out a sheaf of papers written in formal script. The brushwork was crisp and precise, written in small print that filled the page. The paper was thick and high quality, and each page was sealed in the bottom with a red stamp that indicated its authenticity. His intuition made him pause as he instantly realized something was off.

“Strange.” Finn muttered to himself as he sifted through the report. It was about a dozen pages overall, each page dense with the same delicate brushwork. He frowned, unable to formulate his suspicions as he handed the papers to Zwei, “Ignore the contents for now. Do you notice anything off about this report?”

“I haven’t seen a report before.” Zwei said as he carefully thumbed through the pages. “It looks normal to me. What do you think is wrong with it?”

“I’m not sure. But something seems strange.” Finn replied, deep in thought. “I thought since you specifically haven’t seen an official report, you might notice something I wouldn’t.”

Zwei scanned the documents seriously. “These look like official documents. Is there something wrong with the paper? Or the seal?”

“No… It should be authentic.” Finn muttered, the edge of his mouth twitching in frustration. “Forget it. Maybe it’s nothing.”

“Alright.” Zwei said, handing the papers back to Finn. He then looked around the empty, decrepit room and said, “Maybe it’s not the papers. It could just be this place. I can’t relax here, it feels like there’s something watching us.”

All this time the oppressive, unsettling ambiance of the house was slowly eating away at the pair in the background. They had been distracted from it, but now that Zwei had brought the matter to the foreground the feeling grew sharper in their minds. They suddenly became painfully aware of the dusty smell of the air that intermittently carried whiffs of a putrid, unfamiliar scent. Their ears prickled at the creaking of the wood beneath their feet, the quiet fluttering of wind through the walls, the soft skittering of unseen rodents and creatures.  They found themselves subconsciously scanning the cracks in the exterior walls and the space between the shutters of the windows where light was streaming in.

He returned the papers to the envelope and tucked it into his jacket as he nodded and said, “Let’s leave.”

~

The afternoon sun beamed down on Finn and Zwei as they walked away from the house at a quick pace. They didn’t speak, each of them internally fighting off the unsettling thoughts gnawing at their minds. The heavy feeling stayed with them until they were a full two blocks away, at which point their breaths calmed down and they began to relax.

They glanced at each other, not saying a word as they quietly acknowledged that both of them were experiencing the same psychological distress. It was a feeling similar to walking alone in a mist-filled graveyard at midnight, or traversing across a spooky swamp. An unsubstantiated fear that couldn’t be explained rationally.

“Officer!” A voice suddenly called out to them, causing both Finn and Zwei to jump as they were jolted out of their thoughts.

“Y-Yes, what is it?” Finn asked in an aggravated tone as he looked over to see a middle aged man with a pot belly approaching with an axe in his hand. His clothes were ragged, but he had a friendly face.

“Can you help us, we are trying to clear out some vines over there, but they’re too heavy. We need a few more hands.”

“We’re too busy-” Finn began.

“I’ll help.” Zwei said, interrupting Finn as he stepped forward. He glanced back at Finn and said, “It’s not like we are in a rush.”

“Thank you!” The man pointed the axe over to a building, “Vines’ve blocked up the alley behind the restaurant over there. There are a few families that can’t get out of their homes.”

Zwei followed the man at a half-jog as Finn trailed behind, hiding his annoyance behind a cool expression. A block down the street they reached the blocked alley, where two men were hacking away at vines that were as thick as their torsos. The dark woody plants oozed with a viscous, sticky sap when cut. A pile of smaller vines had already been dragged over to a pile in the street, but there were large, heavy sections that even the three men together had trouble lifting.

Zwei and Finn were greeted with tired, focused grunts of appreciation as they immediately asked for help dragging the large sections of vines away. Zwei rolled up his sleeves, looking expectantly over to Finn.

“Our priority is the assignment.” Finn said bluntly, “If you want to help them, I won’t stop you. But I’ll be reviewing the documents over there in the meantime.”

He pointed to a cafe across the street. The cafe itself was closed, but there were several chairs and tables outside that offered seating.

“Suit yourself.” Zwei said.

Finn took a seat that faced the alley that they were trying to clear of vines. As he read through the report he looked over occasionally to check their progress. They didn’t cut down all the vines, which would likely have taken the entire afternoon, but cleared a tunnel to gain access to the alley. Their clothes were soaked in sweat and yellow sap as they finally cleared through the two meter wall of vines.

There was a brief cheer among the rescuers as they made their way into the alley. Zwei ducked in with the other men to check on the status of the people who had been trapped inside.

After a while Zwei exited from the alley, said his goodbyes and walked over to where Finn was sitting. He had a calm expression on his face as he wiped his hands off on his pants.

“Eight families were stuck in there. Two of them had turned into vampirs during the night and had been thrown out the windows. They didn’t dare leave their houses. About a quarter of them have sores and signs of illness.” Zwei said, reporting what he’d found, “The conditions here are so cramped, and the only way to exit their homes are out into the alleys.”

“It’s common in this part of town.” Finn said bluntly, flipping past another page in the report.

“What have you found out?” Zwei asked.

“Here.” Finn said, passing the report across the table. Zwei started reading the document as Finn summarized. “Last night Chief Yun led a special ops team of six, including himself, to a woodcutter’s cabin in the forest. The operation was reviewed and vetted by Chief Fang. The goal was to disrupt a ritual, however it appears that the mission failed. Four officers and Chief Yang himself died. One officer who was not part of the initial assault survived. He has been moved to a secure location for his safety and to ensure there are no abnormalities in his condition.”

“The wooden cabin was investigated by Homicide several hours after the defeat of the monster. It was burned down completely. No bodies were located at the scene. Only Chief Yun and Officer Reese’s body was recovered from a field on the outskirts of Noga during the search. Reese’s eyes and neck had been sliced. Chief Yun died from a blade that punctured the back of his skull. The weapon is locked up in Special Exhibits in the basement of the main station.”

Zwei skimmed the report front to back and then returned to the first page. His expression changed subtly as he focused on the seal at the bottom of the page. 

“What’s the matter?” Finn asked.

“Locke said that he copied the report.” Zwei stated.

“Yes-“ Finn agreed. His eyes fell on the seal as well as he realized what had been bothering him earlier.

“If it’s a copy,” Zwei asked, “Why is there a seal?”

The seal marked the paper as an official document, verifying its original contents. This was important to mark its authenticity. However, Locke had said he had secretly copied it, indicating that it wasn’t an original.

Finn frowned, not able to come up with an answer. “I’m not sure... Perhaps he’s a perfectionist? Perhaps he somehow had the clerk make two copies in secret?”

These were ridiculous conjectures, of course. Perhaps the report wasn’t copied in secret at all - Locke had simply lied to them. This seemed at least somewhat reasonable, though Finn couldn’t think of a purpose for doing such a thing.

“In any case, does it matter?” Finn asked, “Copy or not, we can only assume that the contents are accurate.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter.” Zwei nodded with a dissatisfied expression. He dropped the topic, flipping casually through the papers again, “The report is only a summary of the events. There isn’t any conjecture or theories presented in it.”

“Check the appendix at the back.” Finn said, “There is the original mission briefing that provides some leads. It was located in Chief Yun’s secure lockbox in his office.”

“Cleric of Yuima.. Marked Devout...” Zwei flipped to the back and scanned the pages, “Do you know who these groups are?”

“Yes.” Finn said casually, “I was investigating into the Marked Devout last night. There is a little bit of literature on them in Secure Records. Your badge should be able to get you in if you need to do some reading.”

“I’ll start there, then. I need to get up to speed before we can decide where to investigate.” Zwei said. Finn noted a slight tick of annoyance in Zwei’s otherwise lazy expression. His dig at Zwei’s lack of experience and knowledge had not gone unnoticed.

“You can do that.” Finn said, “I already have a lead, and we don’t have time to waste if we need to report in three days. You should go do your research so you’re not completely lost. Then when you’re ready you can join me.”

Zwei paused as he read between the lines, his expression darkening, “So that’s how we’re doing this.”

“Yeah.” Finn said, ending any pretense of cooperation.

“Fine by me.” Zwei replied. He tapped the sheafs of the report on the table to gather them together and held them out to Finn.

“You can take it.” Finn said with a wave of his hand. He’d already memorized the contents.

“I’ll burn it on the way home, then.” Zwei said coolly.

They looked at each other with cold expressions. It was abundantly clear to both of them that neither of them liked the other. Both of them were fine with going their own ways. 

With luck, in three days he’ll have accomplished nothing and Locke will kick him from the team. Finn thought. Then I’ll either get assigned someone competent, or better yet, be entirely entrusted with the assignment.

“In a way, this is the most efficient use of our time.” Finn said, with a grin. “Two of us can get twice the work done.”

“Neither of us will hold the other back.” Zwei replied.

“My thoughts exactly.”