Chapter 7: Poison II

It was a white room. White, as far as the eye could see.

White, as though it was made of ice, a room whose walls were set to glimmer by the faintest rays of light. Both the floor, ceiling and walls appeared exactly the same, and so bright they were, so empty they looked, that they ended up standing out more than anything else in the division, making its arguably spacious interior difficult to discern to the point that quite often it went unnoticed, altogether.

Surrounded in that colorless void stood a long, narrow table spanning several meters in length, a few more in width, around which eleven, solemnly dressed figures sat with leisure on rather extravagant chairs. Five seats had been placed along its sides, while the eleventh and final one was located parallel to one of the borders, further from the rest.

“What do we make of this development?” a certain woman spoke from one side. “With the storms and floods that have been affecting the upper East this last year, wild harvesting, cultivation and associated agribusiness have recently suffered a steady drop in revenue. It is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. If no measures are taken in regard to this, we could be facing the start of a crisis.”

“Suggestion: moderate budget increase, coupled with moral incentive fomenting new courses of action.” suggested one man, sitting to her left.

“I object.” declared another one, sitting two chairs beside him. “Current funding, scarce as it is, consists in a fundamental, indispensable implementation of other prioritized areas of our great nation. To so easily part with our funding for simple side hustles will only bring more issues in the long run.”

“I agree with the first suggestion.” she spoke once again. “And for our collective understanding, I further elaborate on its appeal: the primary sector in our Eastern District is a highly dependable source of natural assets and supplies, which must be maintained at any cost. Considering natural areas in this particular district are vaster than in any other, letting any more harm come to them could lead towards an irreversible impact on resource retrieval throughout the UDS.”

“I agree.”

“But wait, there is another factor we must consider regarding -“

“- Therefore, I will not condone the decision of -“

As more of the board members gradually joined the argument, suggesting and objecting one over the other in heated discussion, they were all suddenly interrupted by a grave, firm voice from amongst them, resounding cleanly from the table’s top seat.

“That is enough, ladies and gentlemen.” stated the large man sitting on the narrow edge, casually fixing his tie.

Aside from a vaguely stout silhouette, tall stature and light gray hair, loosely matching his outfit, there was not much worth to note about him at first glance. The sound of his voice, however, was all it took to prompt silence throughout the table. His name was more than his face, so to say.

“It is time to organize votes. Who agrees with Mr. Willard and Ms. Chen?”

Six of them lifted their hands. After a few moments, he resumed his speech.

“I see. We do have the necessary means, in that case. Taking my own redundant vote into account, Mr. Willard’s suggestion is therefore officially approved. Congratulations, Ms. Chen.”

The room retained its silence after that announcement, excluding the occasional whispers and quiet protests from some of the guests.

“Onwards, then. Who wishes to follow?”

Yet another hand was lifted.

“Mr. Reeves? Tell us what’s on your mind.”

Clearing his throat, a short man started speaking on one of the sides.

“It has been brought to my attention that a certain public security issue has arisen in the West during the past few months, more precisely around its southwestern coast.”

“Continue.”

“The phenomenon has been scarcely observed and verified throughout the whole of its coastal area, but the main focal point as of this meeting seems to be the general area comprising Seagate City, where the most incidents have been verified. I am, in this case, referring to a perplexing streak of homicides that have been taking place in the closed region.”

A few remarks and murmurs were heard across the whole table.

“A streak of homicides? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Preposterous!”

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“Are you perhaps suggesting a mere serial killer to be more relevant than...”

The plain-looking man at the top made himself heard once again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please calm yourselves.”

As his voice reverberated throughout, the whole room became silent once more.

“You may carry on, Mr. Reeves.”

“As I was saying, it seems an unknown entity has been the cause of countless public transgressions as of late, with a clear focus in this particular city, most often involving serious injury, and in some situations, what we could only interpret as a complete cease of operation of their victims’ organism. The UDSD has not acquired a single lead regarding this case as of yet. The attacks seem to be perpetrated by a single individual, and they have been quite frequent.”

The table had by now been filled with frowns and snide remarks, but those were duly ignored by the speaker, who then finalized his statement:

“What sets this particular series of events apart from the rest, making it a relevant topic of discussion among us, is the fact that most of these instances have taken place outside of buildings, and solely during nighttime, as the perpetrator’s main targets of aggression seem to be haema-spiked fellows of varying categories.”

A few more bewildered comments could be heard, but they soon halted, this time without prompt.

“Has proper visual record of these occurrences even been gathered?” somebody asked.

“Indeed, it has.” the short man replied. “As it should be known, my own Belem group has recently acquired Imagine-Gateway, along with all of its associated production lines and integration contracts. With that in mind, some of our security cameras around Seagate have been capturing some quite interesting footage as of late. If the chairman would be so kind as to…”

“Permission granted. Send in the video feed, Mr. Reeves.” he replied from the top.

“Very well.”

As if on cue, he pressed an imbued button on the table in front of him, and in turn a small keyboard rose from its surface, while a hardly noticeable holographic screen suddenly gained form on top of it. After pressing a few keys, a black and gray image appeared on the originally white wall opposite to the board chairman’s seat. In actuality, it was a video feed being broadcast on a large, seamless screen implemented in that meeting room. However, the personalized screen had been built in such a way that it seemed to be essentially part of the wall itself.

In the top right corner of the screen, various different numbers could be seen, a noticeable indication of time and date being among them. 01:25 A.M., 2093/10/14. The image itself was that of an elongated rooftop from a certain building.

“14th October last year, Seagate City North.”

Three middle aged, armed men gradually appeared, running after a fourth, similar to them as they let out loud, imperceptible yells directed at each other. Unexpectedly, a fifth individual landed next to one of them, coming suddenly from high up, and with a long laminated object in hand, cleanly slashed through one of the men’s neck without a second’s notice.

One of them let out a small cry, but the others remained silent, their mouths ajar as his head flew by them, nonsensically landing a few meters behind.

The surprise was quickly replaced by blind anger, but as they all rushed to grab the individual at once, they wound up receiving similar treatment, as pieces of their bodies scattered along the floor. The black-clad individual then left, not uttering a single word. It was hard to discern anything in particular about them, really, aside from the fact that they wore all back. The four ruffians remained there, seeming to wail weakly for a few seconds until eventually they stopped.

With the press of a button, Reeves fast forwarded the scene, several minutes, several hours. And during that time, not one of the men healed even slightly. None of them spoke, or wailed, or moved even once again.

On the contrary, the four bodies started to disappear. Slowly but surely, their deterioration went on as time passed, almost identical to that of abandoned corpses. Eaten away by time. One day. Ten days. A whole month. And then… Not an inch of the three men had remained on its surface.

All of the board members stared in awe, overwhelmed by the imagery before them.

“As you all can see, this is quite the peculiar situation.” added the short man.

“I cannot believe it…”

“Utter malarkey! Malarkey, I tell you!”

The whispers became gradually louder as the seconds passed.

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