The four men quickly found the Soother again for questioning.

He, who had at first been indignant about being knocked out, had a 180° attitude switch upon hearing what his reverse-soothing would have caused. Probably scared shitless by his own near-death, the man went above and beyond to answer anything and everything they asked. Judging by his zeal, he would probably not even hesitate to tell them the color of his underwear.

The company he worked for, Soothe Inc., was an external contractor that had been working for the Peacekeepers for several decades now. Whenever Peacekeepers needed services of a Soother, they would request a dispatch of a Soother from the company. The company would then send one of their Soothers to do the job.

This time, it was seemingly no different than usual. The man had received a call from his company telling him that there was a power rampage at the restaurant, and he should use reverse soothing to settle it.

When the four men heard that the man had received an explicit instruction to use reverse soothing, they shared a grim yet meaningful look between themselves.

After speaking to the Soother, they visited his company next. There they learned that although most of the work Soothe Inc. did was for the peacekeepers, they also accepted jobs from other sources. For an appropriate fee, anyone could hire a Soother.

And that’s precisely what happened this time. The initial dispatch call wasn’t issued by the peacekeepers but was requested by and paid for by a third party.

The Soother himself didn’t know that. The Soother had assumed that his assignment had been issued by the peacekeepers, because who in their right mind would hire a Soother, out of their own pocket, to settle a power rampage, which would get settled for free if they called 101?

Settling a power rampage was the kind of job Soothers always received through their cooperation with the Peacekeepers. No one was stupid enough to pay for a service they could get for free.

And indeed, five minutes later, when the incident happened, peacekeepers received many 101 calls for help, and had then, called Soother Inc. to dispatch a Soother. The company had subsequently determined that they had already sent a Soother to handle that specific case and ignored it.

The bad guys came up with a brilliant way to cover up their tracks! The Peacekeepers called for a Soother, and a Soother arrived very quickly. Nothing wrong there, right?

Only if the investigator carefully checked the times of the peacekeeper’s call and the Soother’s dispatch would they realize the problem. And why would they thoroughly check the two times if they didn’t already suspect foul play?

If Noah and Levi had died in the incident, there would be no one to point out the problem of timing, and the investigation would have missed this detail!

Impassioned by their findings, the four continued digging.

Soother Inc, as a contracted company working for the peacekeepers, was very cooperative with their investigation, and soon enough, they had all the available information on their hands.

The person, who they now suspected to be a terrorist, had hired Soother services through the company web site. They didn’t provide contact details, and they paid with a prepaid gift card that could have been bought anywhere. The four did manage to get the serial number of the communicator that the web site had been accessed from. However, upon running the serial number through the city’s database of communicators, they got no hits. It was an unregistered communicator whose owner was unknown; in other words, either black market goods or something bought in another city which didn’t require owner registration.

And thus, this promising lead became a dead end.

“Well, all this digging wasn’t a total waste of time,” the little ball of sunshine, Noah, always looked at the bright side. “At least now we know that we are very possibly dealing with terrorists who wanted to kill off everyone on the scene. And now that the peacekeepers had issued an official warning to Soothers against using reverse-soothing, the terrorists won’t be able to achieve their aim.”

Fynn rubbed his aching temples, “Power rampages are dangerous enough on their own, and we still don’t know how they are causing them.”

“What could POSSIBLY be causing them?” Levi rolled his eyes at Fynn, “It’s obviously either a drug or an unrecorded power. If it’s a power, then its user had to be on the scene to use it, and we are looking for a person who was in the vicinity of both incidents when they happened. If it’s a drug, then we need to find out how it is being administered.”

“An unknown substance or a new type of power that has not been documented yet?” Fynn ignored Levi’s sarcasm since none of them were in a good mood after doing all that investigating only to reach a dead end. “Excluding Aris and Trey, we have no other recorded witnesses that were on both scenes, which is not surprising. The perpetrator of the incident would have kept a safe distance and then blended in with the fleeing crowd to leave the premises. He wouldn’t have stuck around to be questioned by the peacekeepers.”

Fynn shrugged, “Having said that, my money is on the drug. Men had powers since the dawn of time, for a new power to appear just now seems very unlikely. Even more so if it is a power capable of affecting someone else’s mental power. Stuff like charm abilities, mental control, hypnosis, and the like are pure fiction. The only reason why Soothers can affect mental power is because they wouldn’t be able to heal it otherwise.”

Noah nodded, “That’s true. Soothing wasn’t meant to be used in a bad way. Although high-ranked Soothers are capable of reverse soothing, causing a power rampage would still be very difficult to achieve. Not only would it be a very draining and unpleasant process for the Soother, but it would also carry a significant risk of receiving recoil damage.”

“The substance is the more likely candidate,” Levi nodded as well.

“I agree,” Fynn grunted tiredly, “But hey, I’m not a doctor, so we should probably talk to someone who is.”

And that’s how the four of them found themselves on their way to the central hospital.

Only then, when they were sitting in a Magcart headed towards his fiancée’s workplace, did Levi remember her existence.

Mn. He really had to talk to his fiancée ASAP. This matter couldn’t be prolonged any further. The sooner they broke it off, the better.

And thus, while Noah was calling his doctor buddy Shaw to ask if he was available to assist them on official peacekeeper business, Levi was sending a “strongly worded” text message to his fiancée:

“We need to talk. Urgently. As soon as you get off work. Critical importance.”

Reading that ridiculously vague message, Blackie, who was eating metaphorical popcorn on the side, snickered. Maybe he should hack into the sister’s communicator? He was dying to see her facial expression when she read the message!

Yeah, he should totally do that. Blackie, the ultimate AI with internet access that could totally solve this entire case in a jiffy, had no intention to mention his abilities to his host. In fact, if his host asked, he’d just lie through his teeth, like he did most of the time, and claim his abilities were limited.

I mean, it’s not that he was lazy, heavens no! AI’s couldn’t possibly be lazy; they weren’t programmed to be lazy! No, no, he just determined that it would be more beneficial for his secret mission if he let his host solve this one on his own. And also, he didn’t want to spoil his host rotten, making him rely too much on his, Blackie’s, cheat abilities. Yes, let him grow into a capable young man that can solve everything on his own so Blackie can just lie back and enjoy his free entertainment. ?