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Episode 047 |
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“I
didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you.” Robert J. Elkins Sarah opened the door to Assif’s office, stopping as
Alex turned to her. She paused for a
second, then she looked at the chief.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Please,
explain this to me again, slowly this time.” Assif looked at Alex with a sympathetic look, then
closed the file in front of him and sat back in his chair. “A paranormal organization calling
themselves the ‘Clan of Caine’ have requested that the body of the creature
be turned over to them, so that they may perform the proper burial rights for
it.” Sarah blinked.
She looked at Alex. “Is he
kidding?” “’Fraid not,” he said glumly, settling into his seat. “The group is of some renown in “They generally deal with human rights, if such a term
can be used, of paranormal creatures,” Alex said, trying to sound unamused. “Great,” Sarah said, sitting down in the chair next to
Alex. “The paranormal equivalent of
the NAACP is asking for us to release a monster’s body.” “Now,” Assif said, turning in his chair a bit. “I find this slightly suspicious. I have seen some crazy things in my time,
but I have never seen anyone request the body of a monster for burial.” He turned to Alex. “I want you to get Jin and whomever else
you need. I want you to research
international law, especially concerning extradition. These guys are already throwing a fit over
the autopsy. I want to find some legal
claim to keep them from the body.” “Legal?” Sarah exclaimed. “They’ve gone through legal channels, so we must as
well,” Assif insisted. “If they make a
move to take the body by force, we’ll act accordingly. But right now, they have filed an official
petition of release with the UN, one that the UN has ordered us to comply
with.” “When did ghouls and goblins get lawyers?” Sarah asked
to Alex. “It was the Free Representation act of 1834,” Alex
joked. “Alex, the Free Representation Act wasn’t ratified
until 1906,” Assif reprimanded. Alex froze.
“There was really a Free Representation Act?” he gawked. “Don’t joke about something unless you know for
certain,” Assif said with the tiniest smirk before looking to Sarah. “I want you to oversee the preparations for
the body to be moved to “Yes sir,” she said, standing. Assif
looked to Alex. “Yes sir,” he said,
standing as well. The elevator doors opened to reveal a roof top
patio. Sitting underneath an awning
umbrella at a wrought iron garden table, Emma was bent over a red-bound book,
scribbling down notes. Jason stepped
out of the elevator, covering his eyes as he stepped into the dwindling
sunlight from the twilight sky. As he
approached, Emma looked up, taking a sip from her glass of iced tea. Jason sat down next to her, about to speak. Before he could, she held out her
glass. “It’s gotten warm,” she said in
a spoiled tone. Jason gave her a harsh
look, but she glanced up, smiling harmlessly.
He accepted her glass and closed her eyes. Holding his hand over the top, he focused
intently. After a moment, the glass
began to chill, condensation gathering along its body. He handed it back to her. “Thank you,” she said gratefully. “How’s it coming?” he asked. “Not bad,” she said, sipping from the glass. “This thing’s pretty much like a glossary,
but I’ve gotten a few interesting things gleaned from it. I want to send some of my notes to my
magical studies professor from “That’ll take a month,” Jason chided. “I know,” she agreed.
“Still, better now than never.
The big thing is that I’ve confirmed that if we can get more than one
book, then it will be easier to find the others. It’s like charting points on a graph. With one book, you’ve got a pretty vague
idea where the point you’re look for is.
But with two or more points, it becomes much easier.” “If you say so,” Jason allowed. He sat back, looking out over the small
French suburb. Similar looking
buildings surrounded the horizon while the sound of the rambunctious night
was beginning to grow. “Anything
else?’ “Yes and no,” Emma said, making Jason turn to her with
piqued interest. “The book, the books,
for the most part, are written as text books and history books, right? Stuff in the past.” He nodded.
“Well, the only thing that seems odd is there are a couple of references
that I’ve found so far that speak about the future. It’s nothing really specific, but…” Her voice trailed. “It always makes me uncomfortable when
anything starts talking like that.” |
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