Chapter 16: 16. Triumvirate

Rise Lavinia

The remainder of the brief didn't take long.

Rise was dumbfounded when Fate started reading through some of the case files during the brief.

Her mouth dropped open.

It wasn't until later that she realized that he read faster than everyone else combined.

The meeting ended shortly, but by the end of it, Fate had already managed to read enough to ask genuine questions about the case.

He asked about the killer's mode of transportation—due to the bodies being found all throughout New Eden, and he even asked if the arrangement of the bodies was some kind of code, or message.

Liliana explained that the task force used their time with the police's super computer to run analysis, but it came back inconclusive. It wasn't sure if there was a message or code hidden within the bodies—but it also didn't rule out the possibility that there is some sort of message.

When Kenzo gave Fate their hypothesis on transportation, he actually frowned when he heard it.

Rise though that was weird.

Why would he frown?

It was the best idea they had, and it took them weeks to come up with.

She wonders why he reacted that way, but thought that it'd be best not to ask.

Damian and Naoto also seemed surprised by his reaction. Maybe they weren't expecting him to react negatively?

Either way though, Rise couldn't believe how smart he was. She wanted to tell him how impressed she was, but decided against it.

Instead she tried to encourage him, telling him how much potential he has, and how amazing he is—even though he probably already knew that.

He completely brushed her off.

And he even began complimenting her while saying that he couldn't match up to her.

Really? Does he really believe that he's greatly inferior to her?

With the meeting finished, the task force gave an official welcome to Fate—everyone more or less decided to accept his involvement with the case.

Currently, Rise and the rest of the task force are idly working at their desks.

Once Fate was given an introduction to their filing systems, he immediately went to work—and has continued diligently working for the last six hours.

Rise admires how hard he works. She can't help but feel jealous of his ability to focus so intensely. She wishes she could keep up with him.

Apparently, Naoto feels the same. Rise's noticed him constantly looking towards Fate, but he never attempted to interact with him.

The only person that bothers Fate is Aria. She doesn't have much experience—so she's not great at investigation. As such, she's chosen to hover around Fate, becoming a sort of pseudo partner.

Watching the two of them, Rise can't help but wonder which one of the two is the senior investigator.

She keeps asking him questions, and he answers them without skipping a beat. Rise can tell that she's not exactly helping him with anything.

But because Rise and everyone else are busy—Fate's been left to work however he wants, with Aria supervising him.

Out of nowhere, Aria comes walking over to Rise with an excited expression.

"Rise! You were right! Fate's super amazing! He made a new map, and a whole new idea about the killer's transportation method. I think he's solved it!" Aria exclaims happily, before turning towards the room that Fate is in.

It's been six hours.

It took her team months to come up with a hypothesis—and since then, they've spent every day monitoring maglev routes because of it. But it's gotten them nowhere.

And now Aria comes up—claiming that Fate figured it out.

Rise doesn't know how to feel.

Aria looks ridiculous, bouncing from excitement.

She looks like an idiot.

But, Rise can't completely ignore her either.

What if she's telling the truth? What if Fate actually came up with something useful?

"Uh-Huh.. I'll make some time to check in with Fate later." Rise sounds as if she's talking to a brick wall—completely skeptical.

Aria scowls, "Don't try to act cool, just listen okay? This is huge!"

She's practically foaming at the mouth.

"You're exaggerating." Rise responds dryly, but decides not to push things further.

"Fine! I wasn't gonna tell you yet—but since you won't listen! He even found a surveillance video of the painter!" Aria shouts dramatically, before putting on the smuggest face she can muster.

What does she mean 'surveillance video'? Is she serious? How could someone find something like that in a few hours?!

By now, everybody hears Aria's yelling, and they start paying attention.

"Are you serious?" Damian asks curiously.

Kris nods along, and Rise is stunned speechless.

They haven't gotten a single trace of the killer in six months. And then suddenly—Fate creates a new theory about their transport method in a few hours, and finds a supposed video?

That's insane.

"Yeah, yeah I am!" Aria says proudly.

"So, basically what happened is—"

Before she can finish explaining, the Chief finally stops listening to her.

"Oh my god, let's just go talk to the kid. We need to move on with the investigation, and this isn't going to go anywhere." Chief Lynden snaps irritably.

Rise watches the scene unfold in shock.

The first hint of the investigation finally making genuine progress clearly put Lynden on edge.

Every investigator practically sprints to the room that Fate's been working in.

***

And there sits the teen in question.

He has a large map hanging on the wall, with dozens of red markers, which Rise recognizes as the location of victim's bodies, and there's also what looks like hundreds of random purple dots scattered across the map.

She has no clue what it means.

All ten investigators force their way through the door. They find Fate sitting on a chair in front of the map, surrounded by hundreds of files, listening to music without a care in the world.

No one speaks.

After several seconds of silence, Fate appears to notice that he's been surrounded by detectives. His eyes widen slightly, but he continues placing marks on his map.

"Hey there." Damian greets him cheerfully, and everyone follows suit, except Kenzo.

"Hi there. Sorry for interrupting your fun." The Chief adds sarcastically, giving Fate a glare.

Everyone ignores her, and begins speaking at once.

"Fate! What do you think you're doing?!"

"How'd you solve it so quickly?"

"Why aren't you using our system to track the killer instead of wasting time here!?"

"Stop being so rude!"

"Can you please answer a few questions?"

Everyone starts shouting at once, trying to figure out where to begin.

"Calm down, please." Fate finally speaks.

Everyone pauses, and turns their heads towards him.

"I understand that you're all curious. I don't mind answering your questions. Just give me some time." He replies calmly, still staring at the wall in front of him. His gaze looks distant.

Everyone takes a deep breath.

"I'm assuming Aria told you about the video." Fate remarks casually.

"sorry." Aria lets out a squeak.

Everyone nods.

"To start with, here's the video." Fate hits a button on a hologram. It begins playing a surveillance video. At first, nothing happens, but it shows a very tall man dressed in a black hoodie, and a mask. He's carrying a knife that appears to be slick with blood in one hand, and he has what can only be a body wrapped in plastic slung over his shoulder. He's getting into an automated cabin—but it's surprisingly a full sized bus.

"You're shittin me." Goerge can't help but curse seeing the video—he's dedicated countless sleepless nights to this case, and he hasn't gotten a glimpse of the killer.

Yet, Fate somehow manages to come up with a video of the killer transporting a body within a few hours?

It's impossible.

Rise, and everyone else feels the same way as George.

She feels her heart beating out of her chest as she watches it. Turning to look at her student, she sees him smiling gently.

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There's something different about him today—something more mature and confident than usual.

"Is that really the guy?" Damian asks skeptically.

"Yes. Here's another one." He plays a second similar video in a different location.

It also shows the same man wearing a mask and carrying a body wrapped in tan plastic. Unlike the previous video, this one clearly states the date, time, and place of occurrence. It's dated seven days ago, and films the most recent victim's body being taken, and placed inside of the bus. It even shows the body draped in the same covering that was recovered from the crime scene.

Everyone is stunned into silence.

This video is obviously fake. Right?

It's too perfect.

No one could possibly pull something like this together so easily.

Even Damian seems to agree—his jaw hangs slackened open. Everyone stares at Fate. Rise knows that it's real, but she just can't believe it. She slowly brushes her braids to settle her nerves.

"H-How did you get these?" Even the Chief is at a loss for words.

Before Fate says anything, Liliana activates the record function on her glasses, and starts speaking calmly "Our running theory was that they'd kill in one location, stuff the body into a duffel bag or something—before taking a maglev to a secondary location to do their butchering. How'd you know to even search for a bus? And how could he just put a body on a bus with nobody noticing?! There'd have to be at least one rider that would report it!" She continues getting progressively louder, and more excited the longer she talks.

Suddenly, Fate stands up from his seat, and walks to the side of his map—he starts gesturing towards the locations he's marked.

"Every red dot is where a victim's body was discovered. The theory of him using maglevs was certainly the most straightforward, but it doesn't account for the outliers. Some of the bodies are too far from maglev terminals." Fate cooly begins explaining his process.

"The next mode I decided to investigate is cabins—primarily due to the fact that some of the bodies can only be accessed by roads that solely permit automated vehicles—"

Before he can continue explaining, Kenzo suddenly jumps in.

"Every public, and private automated cabin is connected to the city's network! They're all traceable! We checked every single one in the vicinity of the crime scenes! None were used to transport bodies. This is clearly bullshit!" He snarls angrily, pointing at Fate accusingly.

His anger is palpable, and Rise can see everyone else feels unnerved.

Automated buses are generally considered public property. To use one, you must input your personal information, and payment details—which is something that the authorities would definitely take note of. And even private ones are always tracked by the network.

There's no way a killer could hide his identity while using something like that.

Every investigator knows this, so no one attempts to defend Fate, or argue with Kenzo.

Rise notices multiple investigators holding accusatory gazes towards Fate—she almost does too, but she sees that he looks flawlessly calm.

He's not upset or angry—just composed.

In fact, he looks almost happy.

"If that's really the case, then how do criminals smuggle contraband, and evade law enforcement? They constantly travel through roads that only allow cabins—yet they're never caught." Fate counters back calmly, he sounds tired while explaining—as if it's not worth his time.

Kenzo glares at Fate, who remains unfazed.

"So with that in mind, I did some research. The crime syndicate known as the Triumvirate has expertise in modifying automated cabins, particularly bus models—they're capable of making them function while remaining invisible to the network's tracking." Fate answers calmly. He looks directly at Kenzo, waiting patiently for his response.

Please don't fight each other.

You're on the same side.

"Wait, you said that the Triumvirate has expertise in modifying automated cabins! Even I know that! Why didn't someone factor that in earlier?!" George demands towards his colleagues, sounding exasperated.

Nobody meets his gaze.

"Because you never thought that a psychopath like painter would be part of a crime syndicate, and have access to that kind of tech... You always assumed that the actual killing was done in isolated areas—with no witnesses." Fate replies simply, talking to no one in particular.

He continues to look towards Kenzo, waiting for a response.

Why are these two be so against each other?

When he doesn't say anything, Kris interjects—trying to end the standoff.

"So..What exactly did ya do?" He asks curiously.

"Once I had the idea to look for a bus model cabin, I then marked down known smuggling, and transport routes used by the Triumvirate. The purple dots on the map denote known locations they use. Because I had an idea of what to look for, all I had to do was skim through surveillance footage near their routes, and take note of any buses active around the time of the killings. I got very lucky though, I thought this process would take weeks." Fate answers casually, moving back to his chair.

"The only reason this was possible is because of the art he makes. It's impossible to do it on the fly. It simply takes too much time. Just as you all thought, he had do move the bodies to a secondary location."

Everyone is silent, staring at Fate—who seems oddly unaffected by the situation.

It's flawless.

There's no way he could've done this in six hours. But here it is.

Everyone must realize it too, because everyone is staring at Fate in awe.

RIse can't mask the joy she feels.

Her student is amazing.

"That's incredible." Liliana murmurs under her breath.

"Wow. That's crazy." Avery sounds impressed.

"Wait a sec, does that mean our murderer has active ties to the Triumvirate?" George asks curiously—but he fails to hide the hatred dripping from his voice.

"Yes. He uses their materials, routes, and smuggling network to transport the bodies, so he has to be involved with them in some way." Fate explains.

A tense atmosphere settles in, every investigator is familiar with them.

"W-Wait, there's only two videos, and he's putting bodies on the bus, not taking bodies off." Naoto adds.

"That's true. These are the only videos I've found so far, I can't do this alone. I'll need your help to search everywhere we can for this bus—and any others used by him! If we can do that, we'll be able to bring this murderer down together!" Fate admits while speaking in a motivational tone.

Naoto's downcast expression lights up the moment Fate mentions that he needs his help. 

They shake hands—appearing to be genuinely glad to work together

Fate's already gotten a video of the killer, and he's still coming up with plans for the future...

It can't be real.

Rise doesn't know how to feel anymore. She's spent nearly a decade working as an investigator—she's dedicated her life to pursuing justice, and teaching the next generation how to do the just thing.

Being faced with a heaven blessed genius like Fate...it's terrifying in a way.

He's not human.

His skills are inhuman.

She wonders if everyone else feels the same, but she can't bring herself to ask.

She can't help but feel as if her world's about to crumble. He flips her whole understanding upside down.

Rise hoped that Fate would be able to progress the case forward. But she thought that she'd need to spend a lot of time teaching him the ropes—getting him acquainted with the process. Instead, it's as if she needs to learn from him...

She has to admit that she underestimated him.

But why?

She's always known how incredible he is, but...

She was told that he had changed over the last couple years.

Wasn't he supposed to be a coward?

Before asking for Fate's help, she met with her childhood friends, Mayumi and Annette. She needed to know what they thought about him—if he was going to be involved with a case like this at such a young age.

They described him as someone with a genius level intellect, but—although they wouldn't outright say it, they more or less implied that he was aimless, had no ambition, and his personality made his intelligence worthless. Or as Annette said "He's the kind of person that can't commit to anything, he'd rather give up."

Regardless of what they said to her, she chose to rely on, and trust in the Fate that she knew—that she taught from a young age—not the person they were trying to describe to her.

If what they said is true—how could he possibly accomplish everything that he has thus far?

Hmph.

She ended up being right.

She still has half a mind to go and lecture Mayumi for not having faith in her own son—especially when she's rarely there for him.  The only thing keeping Rise from confronting Mayumi is knowing how much she loves her son, and how much she worries about him.

Still, Rise can't help but feel disappointed in her friends.

Even if that's how Mayumi sees him, it shouldn't matter.

She should still have faith in his abilities.

After all, Fate is a good kid.

"G-Great job Fate! Let's get to work everyone! Naoto, Liliana, Kenzo, Rise, go and gather all surveillance footage available in the areas around Fate's markers, and bring it here. Avery, Damian, Kris, Aria, go and rearrange the office—we're going to need a lot of room to go through all the footage. George, pull up all info on the Triumvirate. Get to work everyone!" The Chief gives out precise orders. She's already recovered her usual demeanor.

"Yes ma'am!" Everyone simultaneously shouts in response, and they all begin rushing to finish their assigned tasks.

Kenzo slams his fist into the table on his way out, muttering a curse under his breath. Rise follows after him, feeling uneasy.

"I'm sorry lad...solid work." Kris whispers softly, looking at Fate apologetically.

"Don't worry about it." Fate replies quietly, seemingly unbothered by Kris' apology.

"Thanks Fate, fantastic job... I owe you one." George adds.  When Rise hears that, she's reminded of how much he despises the Triumvirate.

As Rise rushes from the room, she unmistakably hears the Chief saying something to Fate. She can't make out what she's saying, but her tone sends a chill up her spine.

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