Case - 1 : Tragedy

As they paid attention, everyone noticed police officers escorting two thugs held in strays, still paralyzed from neck down, using hover carts. They slowly landed on the curb outside Mr. Waltinger's house as they began to pull out a particular tool from their tool kits on their saddlebags, one that everyone recognized, a Wavelength ID copier.

The Cadets performing the demonstration sent me a message asking if they should begin, and I responded with the go ahead with some praise, "Good job, bringing the two fools there. You may begin."

The cadets held the copiers up to the bodies of the still paralyzed A.V and K.M as their machines picked up the wavelength ID's and copied them.

"Please move to Mr. Waltinger's house and place the copiers at his doorstep and turn them on."

The cadets did as they were told, patiently walking over and placed the scanners at his door step, and after moving about twenty feet away from the house, sufficiently away, they activated the copiers to emit the exact same signal they had copied.

But nothing happened.

"Erm….Sarg was something supposed to happen?" Larkin asked, but I ignored him and looked at Revanche who had scrunched up brows.

"Can you see Mr. Sterling? The two thugs you copied the wavelength ID's from wouldn't have been able to enter Mr. Waltinger's house no matter what. And it was Mrs. Morrigan's testimony here stated that she saw one of them enter the house without force."

"That doesn't mean anything to me. I didn't do anything there. I was in my house. My Wavelength ID records that you have access to should easily disprove any of my involvement in this." Revanche argued back.

"How long do you want to pretend, Mr. Sterling?" I asked, giving him one final chance, "Confess now, and I could try and work out something for you in your sentencing period."

But Revanche just glared back at me with force.

So with a mental sigh, I ordered the Cadets who were still at the demonstration spot, "Come to my location. Bring those two along with you."

"You have a dog, Mr. Revanche. Don't you?" I asked, turning to look at him and then pointing at the dog that was in the same room as us and was comfortably sleeping behind a metal gate blocking off a portion of the room.

"So?" He asked.

"Does he have any prosthetics on him?"

"...no." Revanche replied.

"I see. So your case for your wavelength ID being unique to you is not the case when it could've been just as easily faked, because he could mimic your ID at home." I left the rest unspoken since everyone knew that two similar people, either those who had prosthetics or those who didn't, could mimic each other's wavelength IDs and moved to the next point of the case.

"Mr. Sterling. Anneliese here remembers seeing someone that is present in this room before she'd actually known them. Apart from me, of course, she'll identify them. I can show you my A.R glasses records to prove to you that I've never shown her pictures of this person." I said looking at Revanche who now looked positively angry.

"Anneliese please, will you?" I asked her as I pointed at a few family pictures, of a man, a woman and a dog, on the wall behind her.

Anneliese turned around and for a second didn't recognize anything or anyone, but a second later her eyes widened with slight shock as she pointed at the picture of the woman and spoke, "She's the one."

"You mean she's the woman you saw come into the Wastok Casino along with Mr. Waltinger? Cassandra Sterling? Revanche's wife?" I asked while I watched Revanche's hands tremble.

"Yes…" Anneliese responded in a slightly soft, saddened tone that caused Revanche to almost fly into a fit of rage that I had to, along with Larkin's help, hold back and stop him from flying at her to choke her.

"WHERE WERE YOU!!?" Revanche shouted as he looked at the frightened Anneliese.

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO HELP!"

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WANTED TO GIVE HER JUSTICE!"

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN SHE KILLED HERSELF!"

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU WERE NEEDED!"

"WHERE WERE YOU!"

Larkin and I barely stopped Revanche from jumping Anneliese when Vera walked up to him and calmed him down by holding his arm as tears streaked down his broken looking face.

"So you confess?" I asked, but Revanche just glared at me along with Vera and spat, "No. I didn't do anything."

I felt saddened to do what I was going to do, but then continued anyway, "I see. Then let's carry on." and let him go as he seemed to calm down better under Vera's presence.

"Mr. Sterling, Cassandra was mindwiped by Mr. Waltinger over a long period of time which you misunderstood as Cassandra having late stage Alzheimer's. Unfortunately it turned out that Mr. Waltinger was using his connections to fool you wih the help of his doctors into thinking so."

"Even that doesn't prove that I killed him." Revanche spat.

"How do you think he killed him Sarg?" Larkin asked. 

"Given that you don't have any way to prove your presence at your house other than the wavelength ID; Which could've been faked by your dog during the time of murder. Coupled with Anneliese's testimony gives me enough probable cause to get a warrant to search your house and other records to find other links you may have to Mr. Waltinger other than your wife who was working under him dying under 'mysterious' circumstances. So let's save each other the trouble of having to go around, why don't we investigate your records right now?"

Revanche with a venom filled voice, spat back, "No." once again.

"I see. Well, then even without that, let's start with your house. Your house is positively empty. Can you explain why?"

"I want to simulate the-"

"You weren't in the business of planning for people's events before your wife's death?"

Revanche stayed silent, so I continued, "The pictures on the walls say otherwise. All your pictures also include the same sound system you're currently using. And that one even has the same poster that Mr. Waltinger currently has in his home." I said, pointing at the picture on the wall, in which Revanche, his wife and his dog all three stood in front of a wall that had a poster on it. The same poster of a girl sitting behind a man on the hood of an ancient car that was in Mr. Waltinger's home.

"Enough of this farce, Sergeant Dave, all I can see is you torturing innocent civilians for your own good." Gracewell interrupted my deduction, causing everyone to turn and look at her.

"Yes! Stop with this farce at once!" Vera shouted out along with Revanche whose eyes were already bloody like he'd kill someone if he wasn't being held back.

"You'll regret supporting her." I said, just shaking my head a little but tried to continue nonetheless but was interrupted again when Gracewell said, "If you really claim that Mr. Sterling was the murderer. How do you propose he got the Wavelength ID's of the thugs who actually murdered Mr. Waltinger?"

"I do wonder. Who knows, maybe his wife was running a drug cartel on the side? Perhaps she was helping Waltinger manage his drug cartel business by being the connection between him and BloodSHA?"

"May I kindly remind you that these are just speculations, Sergeant Dave."

"They are. And they are not related to this case." I said and then turned to Revanche. "Because a more accurate guess would be, Mr. Sterling, have you lost your kidney in an operation that was done illegally in the outskirts?"

"I will not entertain this farce." Revanche said.

"I see. Makes sense since you thought there were no official records that I couldn't figure it out." I paused for dramatic effect, but Gracewell interrupted again. "If that's the case, then why does his Wavelength ID currently match with the ones in the govt. database?"

"A good question, lieutenant." I said and turned to Revanche. "I just so happen to know how." which caused Revanche to retort back with, "Then why don't you explain yourself if you proclaim to be so all knowing?"

"I think you forgot that I was just holding you Mr. Sterling." as soon as I spoke those words, Revanche's hand went to his back pocket which caused his face to relax after he felt something there and then morph into surprised anger after he realized what he'd done.

"Larkin, would you be so kind as to search Mr. Sterling's back pocket on the account that he is currently unstable and might be hiding a weapon?"

"Yes. Sarg." Larkin walked over to Revanche as he watched with clear tension burning in his eyes.

"Please raise your hands and lean over the wall on your side and move away from any people around you." Larkin said with his waver raised and slightly pointed in Revanche's direction, but not at him so that he wouldn't get more aggravated.

Revanche did as he was told and moved away from Vera, who was reluctant to let him go and leaned over the wall.

Moving towards Revanche and patting him down from the top, Larkin slowly moved towards the back pocket that Revanche had clenched as soon as I mentioned he had been close to me.

Patting it down, Larkin felt something and asked Revanche a question, "Is there something in this pocket that can poke, prod or harm me in any way, Mr. Sterling."

"....yes." Revanche answered.

"May I know what it is Mr. Sterling?" Larkin asked and Revanche said in a slightly soft tone, "A frequency device."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

Larkin used his hands to flush out the device that remained active out of the pocket and handed the nearly silent device to me.

"Oh…" I looked at the device confused since this wasn't what I had expected to find.

"See. You're just making a fool out of yourself, Sergeant Dave." Gracewell snided with a smirk on her face as I looked at the device.

"Sarg, how did he mimic a clean human's wavelength ID using a frequency generator? That wouldn't be possible, right? Since it is impossible to mimic the sound a real human's body generates purely using technology." Larkin asked.

'Whose side are you on, you fool!' I shouted in my mind as my head buzzed through all the details of the case.

'I'm missing something. But what?'

My eyes fell on Revanche who was still leaning on the wall and smirking, but I could sense his anger underneath it all.

'Why did he misdirect me?'

'Where is the real device that he used to fake his signal?'

'Did he stich it back into his body through some surgery?'

'Did he actually not do it?'

'Am I wro-'

'Stupid! I'm stuipd!'

I walked up to Revanche and pulled him and turned him around as I met his eyes. He tried to speak but the second he opened his mouth I said, "Larkin, please point your weapon at him."

Larkin immediately did as I had ordered but the tension in the room increased by many fold.

"Sergeant Dave, you're clearly not in the right state of mind, please lea-" Gracewell tried to interrupt, but I ignored her and spoke, "Don't move. If you do, I won't hesitate to ask Larkin to shoot you."

"And why's that? You've already been proven wrong, what are you going to say now? That I'm an android? Who knows, maybe you're an android too! Maybe everyon-" As Revanche began his rant, my hand swiped at his tie as I pulled away the clip that had been pinned on it.

Seeing the clip in my hand, Revanche almost pounced on me, but I side stepped him and moved behind Larkin who held down the trigger on his Waver partially as it buzzed and hummed to life, waiting to burst out a killer wave that would definitely take Revanche's life, or more like wipe him off the face of the planet.

Revanche froze, as did everyone else in the room, as I carefully examined the tie clip under the bright light that poured in from the open door. Except everyone could see it wasn't really a tie clip. It was a thin, slim box with a black mass moving around inside it that had been attached to the clip.

"Clever isn't it?" I asked no one in particular inside the room as the black mass inside buzzed and floated about. "Using insects to mimic the part of your wavelength ID generated from your missing kidney."

*Ding* *Dong*

A soft chime was heard throughout the house as an automated voice assistant spoke, "Change in wavelength ID detected, would you like to recalibrate house key ID?"

"Bingo." I said as I looked back at Revanche who looked desolate.

"But that still doesn't answer the question, how did Mr. Sterling know the wavelength ID of thugs?" Larkin asked this time.

"He met them. There would be no way to prove that he did, though, since his wavelength ID could be discarded and reactivated any time and anywhere throughout with the help of his dog, who could stand in for him. But there is one thing that might establish a weak link in between them."

"What might that be Sergeant?!" Larkin asked, almost glowing, knowing this was my moment.

'I guess he knows how to let me give a show! I should promote him.'

I looked out the door and saw the cadets I had asked to come arrive at the curb with both A.V and K.M so I said, "Why don't we just ask them."

The cadets brought the two captured thugs inside the now slightly overcrowded house as I walked up to K.M and pulled away his muffler all while he glared at me.

"Hello again, dear friend. We meet again. I was just finishing up your case."

"Fuck off pig." K.M spoke with his artificial voice as I smiled in return.

"Look, you're either going to be tried for murder or you can help me, and we can do something about that, what do you say?"

K.M glared at me, but then stayed silent for a few seconds and responded with, "Aight."

"Do you remember the person who contacted you for your distribution runs that day?"

K.M nodded and began to describe the person, "The guy had a voice mask that made it harder to understand him and had his face covered along with glasses that wouldn't let me see his eyes. I might have a record of the wavelength ID, though, but I doubt that'd be of any use to you."

I nodded and spoke, "True. But I think you're missing something."

"Huh?" K.M looked at me questioningly while everyone else thought I was trying to put words into his mouth and was doing it so blatantly, so I clarified. "From where did you pick up the habit of using a handkerchief."

K.M's eyes widened a little as he spoke in a hurry, "From that guy. He. He used to use a handkerchief, sniff it, it had the initials I.S in red on it. It was a fine way to keep myself high without having to worry about getting caught!"

I turned towards Revanche as I could see him positively shocked.

"Mr. Sterling, could you please give me your handkerchief and don't tell me you don't use one because I remember handing it over to you earlier today."

Revanche took a few weak steps back in shock, but eventually relented under my pressuring gaze and Larkin's still half activated waver as he pulled out a handkerchief that I picked up and unfolded to show to K.M who said, "Yes! That's the one.".

I sighed and looked at Revanche who looked a little miffed about what had happened, and so I spoke, "Please arrest him Larki-"

Before I could finish the sentence, Vera jumped shouting, "NOO!" at Larkin who in panic accidentally fired his waver which had been pushed away by Vera's hands as it fired into his own head and vaporized half of it entirely under the shocked gazes of everyone present.

Larkin collapsed under his own weight as I rushed to push Vera away and stab Larkin with as many Elixirs as I could that were in his tool pouch.

My head buzzed as all I could hear was the final ringing sound of Larkin's waver before it had been fired.

I felt like I'd just watched half of his head vanish.

And I was only watching it bled out into a wet puddle of red liquid with his other half already lifeless and dead, staring off into infinity.

'Fuck.'