Not down on any map

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Rika stands in the floor instead of sitting at her desk. Hank opens his mouth to ask what’s troubling the officer, at the same time following her eyes with his. When he sees what Rika sees, the man is speechless for a moment:

Four leading DPD officers plus Daniel Reed are lying in a large puddle.

“The water has stopped flowing”, Rika whispers. “Is that a good or a bad sign?”

But the other officer present, Eloise Deckart, has no answer.

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Rika addresses Hank with his old rank: “Captain Anderson!” Then she explains how Tina had found Chris and Connor having taste-tested the water sample.

“Daniel touched Connor. I think he was also reaching out to him with his mind, because next both of them keeled over. Whereas Tina carried Chris all the way from the parking lot with no ill effects.”

Hank notices Daniel’s arm still being stuck in the position it had been in when he had touched Connor. The android has locked up, probably needs a reboot.

“Then Tina slowly slid down the bench, and only when she hit the floor, did we realize that she was unconscious, too”, Rika continues.

That makes sense to Hank. After all, Tina and Daniel are fated mates, each carries a splinter of the other’s soul.

“And then Gavin lost it…”

Well, that makes sense, too. His best friend and his husband dropping in front of the man’s eyes, Gavin NOT freaking out would have been the bigger surprise. Anybody would have reacted like that.

“…and I think at one point he bit Connor, in any case now he’s old cold, too”, Rika finishes recounting what has happened during Hank’s absence.

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Hank hears Rika’s voice like from far away. He tries to focus on the clues, tried to find a rhyme to all of this, but instead finds himself walking over to Connor as if in trance. This cannot be happening! A father shouldn’t have to hold his son’s dead body. Not again… Not again!!!

The blue circle on Connor’s temple, his android LED, is flashing, but at least it is still blue. That is a relief. Were Connor and Daniel (and by extension the human and the vampire) seriously hurt, their LEDs would have turned yellow or red. For now the patients were stable, but how long? The dread of what might happen overrides both hope and reason in Hank’s mind.

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“All this sweet suffering”, Sigstein murmurs to himself. “What’s it good for, if the one who caused it cannot watch the result of their doing?”
It’s baffling, but then again, Sigstein doesn’t get paid by the DPD to ponder the state of humanity, but to assist with the case. If the culprit didn’t drown their victims for the joy of it, then they must have had an ulterior motive. That stands to reason.

“There is a non-zero chance”, the spellcaster says out loud, “that this was a targeted attack at the DPD. By someone who knew that sooner or later Captain Anderson jnr. would taste-test the water.”

From Hank there is no response.

Officer Deckart kneels down next to her former boss. “Let’s get the patients out of our foyer”, she says.

The elder still doesn’t respond. Only after Eloise and Rika have gently removed Connor from his embrace, does life return into Hank. His voice is still weak, when he gives orders to the others. They need to call a doctor and a mechanic, also inquire with Detroit’s hospitals about similar occurrences, involve the forensics and paranormal departments… There is much tor organize that Hank’s tongue and hands are perfectly able to do on their own. But while his body goes through the routines, the man’s heart just won’t stop crying.