Chapter ii:

  Homecoming

  As I pulled up to the scene, I thought chaos would’ve consumed everything. But it’s quiet. An eerie quiet. I put the car in park, I always like to take a quick pause before I get out of the car. If I'm being honest. . . I really don’t know what to expect, I didn't even have time to grab a suit. When I got the call all I heard was;

  “It’s bad Don, get to the Amazon.” And click!

  I look to my left and I see my assigned mBot waiting for me. No matter what they say about the bots, they are the perfect soldiers. I finally get out, the mBot meets me halfway.

  “Good morning General Sotto, I am Major General Sender. I will be a part of this case. It's currently 6:45am.”

  Sometimes I forget they’re bots, they look so real. But the medal hairline keeps us aware.

  “Thank you Major, before I walk behind there, I need to know why I was hauled off to the middle of the Amazon.”

  Sender doesn’t hesitate; “At 6:08 am, Princess Noriana Izocof emergency beeper was activated. Unfortunately, it took thirty-seven minutes for us to arrive.”

  “That’s unacceptable, what took you so long? Why didn’t they have the proper security clearance?”

  You can see his mood change at my dissatisfaction.

  “Sir, I’m sorry, but the beepers are old technology and it takes us longer to triangulate their location.” He puts a little attitude behind it.

  “I understand that sir, but we weren’t told by their government that they would be in the Amazon, they didn’t follow protocol.”

  I dismissed his plea, he just continued hIs report.

  “When we arrived on the scene, the cabin was on fire, we couldn’t save anyone. It took an hour for the fire to be put out!” says Sender.

  I’m curious as to why the fire didn’t spread, it's really dry out. Sender continues his report.

  “Eight hundred thirty four persons were accounted for, and eight hundred thirty two are deceased. One is in a coma, and the other is missing.” He says it so nonchalantly, that drives me insane.

  “Wait. . . Who’s missing?” I ask almost frantically

  “Kage Davenport. He’s the new CEO of Lambda Technology. His parents died in-”

  "Yeah I know the story. And what pompous rich kid is in a coma.”

  “It’s the Princess of Russia, Norianna Izakof”

  “WHAT!” What is wrong with this bot, why does it tell the news the wrong way.

  “That’s something you tell me right away, don’t wait to tell me. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”

  “YES SIR!” He responds quickly.

  I know it’s not fair putting the blame on him, but iota is one of the top security agencies in the world, we should’ve paid more attention. It seems we’re. . . Slipping. Sender pulls the white tent, but an all black helicopter comes flying in from a distance, it slowly hovers over my car. It tilts sideways, and a man jumps out. Landing on the hood, he stays kneeling as the helicopter pulls up. Once it’s clear he stands up, his long blonde hair reveals exactly who he is. Prince Adam Izakof, the most prominent man in the world. He jumps down from the car, I noticed the sender put his weapon away. As Adam walks up we both bow, it's a Global law that you bow in the presence of royalty.

  “What an entrance, I just got the car cleaned by the way?”

  “Ah, send me the bill!” His accent is Russian thick, he dusts off his suit, and fixes his hair.

  “What brings you all the way to the Amazon, your majesty?”

  “Don’t play around Sotto, I’m here on family business. My sister is she-”

  “Nori’s alive, but she’s in a deep sleep.” You can see a sigh of relief leave his body.

  “And what of our friends. . . How many?” Sender attempts to respond but I answer for him instead.

  “You know I can’t disclose that information at this moment. Major Sender has conducted a thorough investigation of the scene and once I perform my analysis, you’ll know just like everyone else. You're more than welcome to join your loved one in the medical bay.” You really have to put these Richies in their place, or they walk all over you. Adam storms off, and points to Don.

  Sender and I get back to work, he leads me through the Chaos. As I walk in there’s hundreds of bodies laid out on the grass, I almost have to step over them, but I find my way through without disturbing the bodies. Looking at this is too overwhelming, I know some of these people, some are better than others. It's sad to see the people you care about die, but I have a job to do. I grab a pen from my pocket and use it to pull the black sheet. The bodies are starting to have a little smell to them. I noticed some burn marks on her body, her bathing suit has burn marks too. I move to the next body, and to the next. . . more burn marks. When I get to this boy it’s different, he has a hole in the middle of his head, through and through. I flag down Sender, he jogs his way over.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Can you give me a scan of this whole please?” He uses his palm to scan it. He hands me his tablet and it shows me what he scanned. And whatever was used to kill these people wasn't a typical laser weapon.

  “Hey Sender, how many people with holes in their heads are accounted for.”

  “There were fifty people with holes in their heads, sir.” He didn’t have to say it that way, but why only fifty of eight hundred. I haven’t even gotten to the cabin.

  “And you consider the cause of death to be laser weapons.” He looks at me baffled, as if I asked him to rip off his own head.

  “Of course sir, unless you have any other suggestions. The drones scanned them as well.”

  “Oh no, It’s no worries on my end I just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page.”

  If I’m telling the truth. . . I’m lying. There’s no way laser weapons cause this type of damage. Laser weapons leave a burn after being hit. This weapon has a clean finish to it.

  “Sender what happened in the water? Some of the victims had burn marks on them.”

  “It’s unclear what caused the burns, but from my experience you can only get those burns from - electrocution. But I’ll have to wait for the autopsy report to come back, in order for my hypothesis to be true.” I nod my head in agreement. My curiosity leads me to the cabin, but Sender stops me in my tracks.

  “Sir, I can’t let you go in there, I had the drones take all the pictures just how you like. But we need to persevere the crime scene."

  It must be really bad, so I grab the tablet and begin to scroll through the gallery. And it’s horrible, the victims are unrecognizable fire and brimstone would have been a mercy. I continue to scroll, it gets worse. No one deserves this, no one. I cant look at this anymore, I and the tablet back. What could have caused this? And where is Kage? Is he a part of this? Why did the princess survive? Could this be from a natural disaster? There's no footprints or any clues that lead me to the truth. Why the hell did they call me? I must have been gone for a while cause Sender taps me on he shoulder.

  “The Corner is here sir.”

  iota has their own corner for situations like this, we send the bodies to a secret location, where the richies can come to receive their loved ones. Sender directs the corners on where to start. I want to dig in a little more, but the bodies need to be moved ASAP. My Phone starts buzzing, it's Headmaster Sotto, she can be a pain at times. I hit decline, this line isn’t secure, I can just call her from the car, Sender walks up to me:

  “Sir, what do we do next? This seems unusual, I know I'm new to high profile cases, but something seems off about this whole situation.”

  That explains a lot, but he’s right. This isn't some natural disaster, and with the whole in their heads, this seems personal.

  “You let me worry about that Major, but for now you are in charge of the transportation of the deceased, you can’t let anything happen to them. And also this is officially a homicide.”

  ‘Yes sir!” He marches off to finish up here, I’ll admit this is gonna be a crazy one, I have nothing to go on.

  I get inside my car aka my safe space, and my car phone rings again, it's her she must be on the edge of her seat.

  “Hey car, turn on red mode.” Red mode is just a beacon that turns on in the car to ensure that no one can listen to my calls.

  I finally pick: “This is General Sotto, and you are on a secure line.”

  “So tell me what happened in the Amazon, the world court is on my head right now I need to give them something. Is it bad?” She waits for my response.

  “Umm… It's worse actually. Apparently, the Princess of Russia had a birthday party last night and all eight hundred thirty two of her friends were found dead at the scene.”

  “And the princess…”

  “The royal is in a coma, her brother arrived just a few minutes after I did.”

  “Is he still there?”

  “As we speak he’s loading her into a chopper, I hate that we can’t keep her in custody , she is a part of a crime scene.’

  “You know the rules, we can’t question royalty without the presence of a world court leader.”

  “Anyway, to conclude this investigation, we have one missing person.”

  “Who?”

  “Kage Davenport, he and his friend Jake Daveroux were in attendance. No signs of a struggle or his traces.” There’s a brief silence.

  “Is Jake missing or is he dead too?”

  “Jake is verified dead, he had blood force trauma to the head, but it's more likely he fell from something. We’ve known the Davenport family for a long time, but do you think Kage could have been a part of this, I mean… he is a genius. And he’s been away for a while and his parents just died so he has a motive.”

  “Don, do you hear how you sound right now? His parents didn't raise him to be vengeful, and he’s a great kid, he helped change the world.”

  “I’m sorry, but it's my job to ask these questions. And besides, he wouldn’t be the only genius to go off the edge.”

  I really don’t mean to tarnish his name, on paper he does seem like didn't always want to be in the clouds, and I would have wanted to meet him one day. It's just super unfortunate that this is how I might find him, deranged or dead.

  “Thats true… look into everyone's financials, see where the money goes. For now, I've sent you the location for your press conference, I made sure it's far away from the crime scene. The only thing you tell them is what happened and the casualties, no names until we notify every last family member.”

  “But I don't have a suit, I feel so naked without it.”

  “I can have a suit waiting for you, upon arrival.”

  “Is it my suit?” I asked

  “Yes Don, it’ll be your suit.” I feel like I can feel her eyes roll through the phone.

  “And one last thing headmaster, Fifty of our victims were shot in the head, and it wasn't from a laser weapon either. Is there any other incident where this could be possible.”

  “No! Im… not sure. I’ll look into it. Now make your way to the press conference.” The headmaster never answered my question, or at least not how I wanted.

  I wait behind the curtain, in my full black & white three piece suit. I don’t why but it's something about a suit that makes me feel complete. The media correspondent is talking to me, try to give me pointers. Naturally I ignore how, not to be rude or anything, but I've been doing this since I was seventeen. These vultures are waiting for me though, not knowing the tragedy that awaits them. The correspondent starts to count me down, I enter out on one. The cameras are flashing like wild fire, maybe i shouldnt say that. But I made it to the podium, so unsure what to say, but I know one thing pops told us is “speak from the heart, and it makes everything clear.” I wait for the vultures to settle and stop circling.

  “Good Evening, for those who don’t know. I am General Don Sotto of iota, to say i come to you with a heavy heart is an understatement. Yesterday evening, the Princess of Russia held a secret birthday here in Rio De Janeiro, on neutral territory in the Amazonia Rainforest. Later that evening, the iota team found the member of the party dead. All eight hundred thirty three were found dead. And the Princess of Russia was unconscious, she has not fully awakened. On behalf of the iota team, we send our condolences to their family and friends. I will only take a few questions at this time.”

  One report shouts out for; “Can we get the names of who was in attendance?”

  “Not at this time iota thinks it's important to notify all members of the family before we disclose that information. Once we do that it'll be up to the families to do what they want with the information.”

  I point to a reporter in the back; “With all the rumors of war going on, do you think Russia has any involvement in this attack.”

  I hate when they ask the right questions; “First, I will not confirm or deny any rumors about war. You have alright to believe any conspiracy, and lastly, I never said that Russia was involved. The investigation is still ongoing, and we’ll keep everyone updated. I have time for one more question.”

  See why I call them vultures they pick and pick until there’s nothing left. Before I could get to my final question. The correspondent was giving me the signal to wrap it up, why so early.

  “Unfortunaly that was my last question, if you have any questions you can call the iota hotline at the bottom of your screen.” Even though I know something's wrong I walk off calmly, never let them see you panic. I approached the correspondent, and they handed me the phone. It's Sender on the line, he sounds out of sorts like he’s been winded.

  “sir … I tried … but they blind sided us . . . They took him sir. . . *COUGH, COUGH* . . . they took Jake Daveroux. . . they took him.”

  You have got to be kidding me how could he let this happen. I couldn't freak out because there was still media around, so I hung up instantly. I press a button on my watch, it signals for my car, it's there as soon as i leave the door i hop in and zoom off, what a horrible day.

  *****

  In an unknown world far away, where the day is clear, and the sun shines so bright. The ripples open, and it spits out a stranger, they are falling from the sky like an angel with no wings. *SMACK!* They hit the ground hard, as if they were a missile. The ground shakes violently, causing the ground to crack underneath them. They don't even move or cry out in pain. Are they dead? No one survives that fall and walks away. Where are they? It looks like earth, but something seems different.

  End Of Chapter II