Chapter Eight

BTB

Philip and Zi received the news that Stuart and Grant had been able to find the missing parts of the mirror with great pleasure. Although, the news that the MCIT van had gone missing was bad ones for the investigation. Philip could imagine the row Grant would be in if they didn't find it quickly. Police units in the area were already on the move to search the surrounding area for the vehicle, with the help of traffic drones and security cameras. But so far the search was proving fruitless.

The FRT team was heading back to the building with their precious cargo, but Grant and Stuart were heading out on an operation with another patrol. Stuart had asked to join the police team as support in the search for the missing van, as the reason could be due to someone wanting to abduct the body of the deceased Sil Moore. The case already had the qualification of a Dark Event and, under those circumstances, any procedure should have a SID observer or a relevant grade agent to help in case something worse could happen.

So far Sil Moore remained a missing corpse, while almost everyone felt that the mirror situation warranted further attention. This was because it was a dangerous object and they needed to find out how it had gone unnoticed for so long.

Meanwhile Philip couldn't do much, he was glad they had found what they were looking for, but he wasn't going to rest easy until he could see his partner out of the damn mirror. The two of them were left with three policemen guarding the room, while the police robot was at the front door.

The fact that Zi might not be alone behind the mirror made him nervous, but Zi didn't seem nervous at all. It was strange but she almost felt a familiarity with the mirror. Maybe it was because both, she and the mirror, came from the same place. The Other Side.

Still, just to make sure, she checked the reflection space, but found nothing. There was no one else in that place. And even the fact that she couldn't see her reflection in the mirror made her feel even more isolated, even though she knew that, just a few meters away, her partner was there.

[What a night,] Zi sighed. She was sitting in front of the mirror, on the floor, with her legs stretched out.

Philip was pacing around the room in circles. "You don't say." Then he walked to near the mirror, he felt kind of stupid looking at his own reflection but he knew that therein lay the reason he had decided to continue working as a special agent for so long. "Aren't you hungry in there? Thirsty?"

[... You were angry at me because I ate your dinner just a few hours ago.]

"You're always hungry."

[Don't call me hangry.]

The truth is that to Zi's surprise, she was curiously not hungry at all, not even thirsty. Although it had only been a couple of hours since she had been trapped inside the mirror, she had no desire for any food. She didn't know if that was the weirdest thing, or that at that moment she could see two Philips. The real one behind the glass, and the reflection on her side.

[I wonder if that's what those three feel like?]

"Who?"

[Mai, Liz and Shin. Mostly Shin I guess.]

"Shin? What's he got to do with all this?"

[Two girls... I really don't understand how those three have a relationship. It's already complicated with two people, imagine with three.]

"Especially if the person you love raids the refrigerator at midnight."

Zi laughed at that, and she added. [I didn't update my last will…]

"Oh, shut up. In a little bit, you'll be out...don't think stupid shit." Phillip looked at the mirror again and said. "If it makes you feel any better, I haven't updated mine in years either."

[It's all yours anyway.]

"Same with mine. I'm inheriting everything in my fridge."

[Why do we always remember that crap when we're about to die?] Zi asked, stifling a laugh and stretched out her feet.

[Five minutes, lovebirds,] Oxy's voice, intruding, snapped them out of their musings.

"Five minutes what?"

[The FRT is arriving in five minutes. They're going to put a sheet in front of the mirror so they can transport it.]

[What?]

[You don't think we're going to do the procedure in the building, do you?]

"No, but then… where?"

Oxy was about to answer when the three of them heard police noises outside the room. It felt like they were greeting to someone. A second later a fey woman entered the room. She was as tall as Philip and blue-eyed, blonde hair in a bun, except for a long strand covering her right eye. She wore a long, closed uniform of blue and black, with some horizontal white stripes on the right top. The woman took a few steps inside the room, but did not walk to the mirror. Her boots were not covered like everyone else's, so Philip judged it was to avoid contaminating the scene.

Bloody hell, Philip thought. I wasn't expecting her here.

[Well, only someone from SIGN was missing,] Zi said.

[Agents Cook and Zi,] the woman said in a polite tone, which didn't disguise seriousness either.

"Claymore Emmeline," Philip greeted, with a slight bow.

Although the woman could not see her, Zi responded in kind.

"Is she there?" Emmeline asked, glancing toward the mirror.

[Yes, ma'am. I'm here.]

"Oxy just filled me in, because of her little problem."

[Not true... she called Grant first,] Oxy whispered.

"Problem?"

"You're looking for a facility to see if you can get your partner out of the mirror, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." The truth was that they had thought of moving the mirror to one of the nearby Nevermore stations. Even so, Philip nodded.

"We have an old parking building nearby to store vehicles in need of repair. If you need it you can do it there."

Philip was waiting for Oxy to say something, but she kept quiet.

"We appreciate it. I honestly didn't expect the Claymore of Scotland herself to be here."

Emmeline walked over to Philip and said something in his ear that only Philip could hear. "The council is watching our actions as well, you are not the only ones. It is always better to have friends rather than gaolers. Don't you agree Special Agent Cook?"

"Absolutely right..." admitted Philip. What is this woman up to?

Emmeline struck up a private conversation with Zi and Philip, to make sure no one was listening in.

[Ma'am, it's a pleasure to meet you,] Zi said, now that the woman could at least hear her.

[Same here, Agent Zi.]

[What's this about?] Philip asked.

[Oxy, why are you so quiet? join the chatter,] Emmeline invited.

[I'm here, I don't have much to add.]

[In these days you never know who might be listening. This information has been going around the Ministry of Defense for a few hours now. Do you know the fellow known as Black, The Bard?]

[Everyone knows him,] Philip admitted.

[Yesterday we had some problems with the power supply around the city, as you know.]

[Yes, we know, it's one of the reasons why the FRT has been moving between the different districts.]

[Wherever this man shows up, there have always been malfunctions. Not counting the appearance of that giant moth. This was captured yesterday at noon, by one of the cameras near Queens Drive,] Emmeline said, sending a photo via Neurowire.

In the CCTV photo capture could be seen a man in a jacket, wearing torn jeans, playing some kind of big cello, on a set of stone steps.

[Where is Queens Drive?] Philip asked.

[The picture is of one of the entrances to Holyrood Park, near the Gateway Tree,] Emmeline explained.

[Were your people able to follow his route?]

[By the time we were aware of his presence he disappeared... the strange thing, as usual, is that once he disappeared the problems in the power supply disappeared with him.]

[That's not all,] Oxy pointed out.

Emmeline began to walk around the room looking at the mirror. [We have another record from BTB, from several years ago.]

Zi furrowed her brow and looked at Emmeline [What record?]

The woman turned to the mirror and said [It was produced outside of here, in the Orbital Belt, more specifically in one of the tree up there.]

[Was he seen there as well?]

[Yes. That's not the strangest thing though. There was an accident that same day. On the same day that it happened, the girl who lived in this apartment was with her parents up there.]

[...!]

[I don't think it's a coincidence that, on the same day she lost her parents, and then on the day of her death, BTB was around.]

Philip looked at Emmeline, with a gesture of doubt. [We have no evidence that the victim has ever been involved in any DE case before. Her parents' dead is listed as an accident.]

[Things are rarely what they seem in this line of work. Not to mention that her body just disappeared, right?]

[So you're suggesting that the Mothman, the flaws, the ley lines of the trees and BTB are related to this girl?] Zi asked.

[You're not suggesting that she's a new fey?] Philip added.

[I don't know either. In case she was a new fey we wouldn't be having this conversation either.]

[… Because her existence would be completely erased,] Oxy added.

[From what Oxy told me, this girl was interested in composing through her body, right?]

[That's what she was apparently doing before she died,] Philip admitted.

[BTB always appears when the trees seem to suffer some kind of problem in their energy emanations.]

[The music… could be a connector between BTB and Sil Moore?] Zi ventured.

[If so… what's going on with this mirror?] pointed out Emmeline.

[Could she be a Chaos Vortex? We have no evidence that she is a Thelesis user.] Oxy said.

Emmeline shrugged. [Her, BTB, the trees, who knows.]

[We still don't have a clue as to who might have wanted to kill her.]

[The fact that she bought a mirror from the Other Side the day before she was killed is suspicious.]

[This mirror is invaluable to someone who knows about Ooparts...] Oxy said.

[… But she still wasn't killed because of it. And whoever did it wasn't interested in the mirror either. Only her head.] Zi added.

[Unless someone moved the pieces around, so that the mirror was right here at that moment.] Philip thought.

[Divide and conquer.] Emmeline said, looking questioningly at Philip.

[… ]

[The only ones who could move pieces that way…] started Zi.

[… Shadow People.] Oxy finished.

[If so, we're screwed. How do you stop someone who is always one step ahead of you?] Philip asked.

[They don't intervene…]

[Unless it's in their interests.] Emmeline objected.

Philip scratched his temple grumpily. He wasn't expecting the case to be related to the creature that had been seen, but even less did he want to imagine that it was related to another group that had appeared several times in Nevermore's files.

[One problem at a time... for the moment let's try to get Zi out of there first,] he said, snorting.