“Wait a minute, what the hell is a Grand Reaper?”
Niall shook his head. “Best guess, a Reaper for Immortal souls. I have no idea. No one has ever come back to tell us what happens to us next.”
“Okay, so she feels responsible and wants to help?”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“It seemed that way.” Niall answered.
“So, what are we supposed to do about this now?” Joe wanted to know. “How can she help us?”
“She gave us a name,” Lacey told him. “We’re looking for it now. She’s not sure if he’s still using it, but we may be able to use it to track him down. Colton and Kazz are doing that now.”
“Mr. Pratt.” Niall spoke up again. “Ling said she must be present when we find him. She says it’s a law of Reapers, that she be the one to punish him, to Reap his soul.”
“How in the hell are we supposed to have a dead Reaper show up at trial?” Joe’s demand was loud.
“Again, I don’t know. She’ll meet me again, when I’ve recovered my strength, and maybe I can learn more. But I had to come back when I did, I was losing energy rapidly and I couldn’t take the chance that I wouldn’t be able to return.”
“I appreciate your efforts, Niall, honestly, I do. Please, don’t put yourself in danger, if at all possible.”
“I, too, feel responsible, in my own way. I’ll keep trying to make this right.”
“Are you going to be able to get all the souls back where they belong?” The ADA wanted to know.
“Regrettably, it seems that some of them may be lost forever.” Lacey looked directly into the screen as she replied. “Doctor Ingold?”
Jaidon stepped forward, giving the attorney a brief summary of what he found while researching African tribal beliefs. “Niall says the first victim he attempted to track may, in fact, already be lost to us. We have to assume there are others.”
“How many others?”
“There’s no way to know, until we catch this guy. Maybe we can compel him to confess.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be willing to bare his soul, no pun intended,” Lacey pointed out. “Niall, did you get any sense of why he’s doing this? Did Ling have an idea?”
“She mentioned that she should have known he wasn’t completely acceptable, so I guess something he said or did gave her that impression. I’ll have to speak with her again to get more details. Perhaps that is part of the reason she feels responsible.”
Right then, Lacey’s tablet beeped, signaling an incoming call. She looked at the screen. “Joe, it’s the lab. I’m going to conference you in with them.” Tapping a few keys, she answered the call and put it on the screen. The image shifted, split down the middle with Joe on the left and Linus at the lab on the right. “Linus, you’re on. Also with us is ADA Pratt.”
“Hey, Joe.” Linus said. “Okay, here’s what we’ve got. It seems like Niall’s impressions were correct, the young lady’s umbilical was trying to follow the unsub in the physical world, so we have multiple overlapping areas. I got you as close as 12 city blocks, but that’s the best I can do.” He tapped some keys, and his image was replaced with that of a map of a Dallas neighborhood.
“This is the best you can do?” Lacey was crestfallen. “We can’t possibly find one man in that big of an area with nothing else to go on!”
“Sorry.” Linus sounded depressed. “I can’t get any closer than that. If you could see the telemetry, you’d understand.”
“Perhaps, I can astral project again, now knowing the area of the city we should focus on. I bet that whatever souls aren’t too far gone are all still trying to return to their bodies. I might be able to find him.” Niall stood and approached the screen.
“Not right now, doctor,” Lacey snapped. “We don’t need you to push yourself to exhaustion. You’ll be no good to us that way.”
“She’s right.” Marcell stepped up to Niall. “You need to rest.”
“Okay, maybe for a few hours.” Niall conceded. “The good news is, we won’t need Cherri for this part. We won’t have to sedate her again.”
“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled about that.” Lacey knew she would be if the tables were turned. “In the meantime, I need to get back to the lab.”
22
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see. ~~Winston Churchill
Lacey made it back to the lab in record time. She found Linus working at his station, but didn’t know where her partner and Kazz were. Linus glanced up from his computer as she approached.
“Lacey! Wow, that was fast. They’re in there.” He waved a hand in the direction of a small office.
“Thanks. Anything more?”
He shook his head. “I can’t narrow it down any further than I already have.” She could hear the frustration in his voice. “I’m sorry. I wish I could do more.”
“It’s okay, I know you worked hard on this. I appreciate it. At least we’ve narrowed the search from worldwide to Dallas. It’s a start.”
She turned and went to the office, where she found both Colton and Kazz working at computer stations.
“How’s it going?” She asked.
Colton snarled. “Slow.” His voice was a growl. “I’m trying to eliminate businesses in the target area, and Kazz is working on narrowing down residences rented or purchased by single men. But there’s a lot of ground to cover.”
“What about the name?”
He shook his head. “It’s not pulling up any records. So it doesn’t seem that he’s still using it.”
“Wait a minute!” Kazz jumped up from her chair. “They said he was Oriental? I think I remember something...” She trailed off in her excitement.
“Spit it out!” Lacey demanded.
“Oriental names. Their syntax is different than ours. They put the family or last name first, and the given or birth name second. They’re backwards to us.”
“That’s right.” Lacey agreed. “Start a new search, but switch the names, see what we get.”
Colton turned to his computer, fingers clacking on the keyboard. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about!” He sat back in his chair and watched as data started coming in. “Well, shit.”
“What is it?” Lacey was concerned.
“Look at all this crap! Apparently, it’s a very common Oriental name, and there’s hundreds of thousands of internet hits.”
“We have to find a way to narrow that down.” Lacey leaned in, looking over his shoulder.
“I don’t know how. We don’t have any other criteria that could possibly help!” Colton was clearly frustrated.
“Start searching records in the Undead Registry. If this guy holds a job under this name, he should be listed.”
Ten minutes later, Colton slammed his fist down on the table. “Damn it! There’s still way too many of them. There are well over 800 possibilities.”
“Cross-reference those names with leases or purchases of property here in Dallas,” Lacey ordered.
“I’m already doing that,” Kazz spoke up. “I’ve got it down to maybe 60 or 70 possible buildings in our target zone.”
“That’s still not good enough.”
“I know, I know.” Kazz was evidently as frustrated as Colton; Lacey saw a dark brown tail, about two feet long, swishing anxiously back and forth from her chair. She smothered a grin. Guess I know what her frustration tell is, now. Wonder if she’s even aware of it? “I’ll keep working at it.”
Lacey paced, her own frustration getting the better of her, as the other two members of her team struggled to eliminate some of the variables and narrow their search window to something more manageable. After two hours, and not getting any further, she cleared her throat. “Take a break,” she ordered.
“We don’t have time for a break.” Colton, of course, was the one to argue.
“Take a break. You’ll be no use to anyone if you don’t.”
“Lieutenant, do you think that’s a good idea?” Kazz spoke u
p hesitantly. “We’re so close.”
“Do it. Get a drink, stretch your legs. A few more minutes won’t matter.”
They looked at each other dubiously, but climbed to their feet and left the small office. Lacey noticed that Kazz’s tail had disappeared. Ignoring her own order, Lacey stayed in the office and pulled her tablet from her pocket.
“Yes, Lacey?” Marcell’s warm voice greeted her. “How’s the search going?”
“It’s not. Or not really,” she amended. “There are too many possibilities and we don’t have enough variables to narrow it down far enough. Can Niall be persuaded to go into the astral plane again?”
“I believe he is about ready to.”
“Keep me informed.” Lacey ended the call before he could speak again.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“Will you shut up already?” Xiong bellowed. He paid no attention to the fact that he was alone in his apartment. His brain was full of his victims, all of them screaming and trying to get his attention.
He stood up, pacing around his small living room. When he started his quest for unlimited power, he had no idea the repercussions it would cause. He didn’t realize that his body and soul, though especially hard-wired to contain the power of a single soul as he performed his regular duties, wasn’t set up to control the full power of a host of stolen spirits.
“Please, you’ve got to let us go.” A female voice pleaded.
“I’m not letting you go!” He yelled. “And even if I did, where would you go?”
“I wanna go home. I want my mommy!” It was a child’s voice.
“You’re in a better place,” Xiong tried to soothe. “You’re better off, now, with me.”
“This isn’t right, and you know it.”
Xiong growled at the male voice. “You all just need to SHUT THE FUCK UP! I’M SICK AND TIRED OF LISTENING TO YOU!”
He fisted both hands in his long black hair and screamed. Thanks to the soundproofing installed in his apartment, the neighbors wouldn’t hear a thing. He threw himself on the soft couch like a petulant child, curving his body in the fetal position. Alternating sobs and hysterical laughter escaped his lips.
“Ling, I wish you were here now. I need your help!”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Ling stood before him, her beautiful and exotic body an ethereal echo of what it once was. Her dark hair and dark slanted eyes contrasted against the shimmering white and silver of her astral body. The eyes that once shined with love were now full of pity and disappointment.
“You should be ashamed of yourself.” Her voice, as usual, caused an instant erection, one that could not be satisfied by anything other than her. “You’ve taken a sacred duty and twisted it, perverted it, into something unrecognizable.” Her sad voice echoed as the flowing tendrils of her astral body pulsed.
“I’m simply doing what we were meant to do,” he argued. “Don’t you see? We were meant to dominate the human spirit; why else would we be able to do what we do?” He took a step closer to her.
She recoiled in disgust. “You have no idea what you’ve done. To upset the balance of the Universe this way.”
“But I am so strong. Each one makes me stronger still. Soon, I will be all-powerful, and I’ll be the one to rule the Universe. You can rule with me, at my side.” He pleaded with his mentor, attempting to bribe her with greatness. “You’ll get due credit. After all, you were the one who taught me our ways. And you will become the most powerful Queen the Universe has ever known!”
“It’s too bad you didn’t learn the lessons properly. You’re using sacred powers for the wrong reasons. You will get what’s coming to you in the end. Karma always wins.”
“What do you know? You’re not even here anymore. You left. You left me, like my mother left me! You’re no different from that whore!”
Ling’s astral body began to fade away. She shook her head. “Karma wins, in the end. Karma always wins.”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“No, don’t leave me again!” Xiong shrieked as he watched his mentor and lover fade away. “Please don’t leave me again!”
He remained curled on the sofa, rocking back and forth in time with his sobs. Again, he was reminded of how alone he was in the world, and he knew now that Ling would not join him in his quest for power, would not sit at his right hand as he envisioned. She recoiled from him, rather than stroking him with love as she did before. She was repulsed by him. Xiong would be forced to take the next step completely on his own.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Niall took a deep breath. He wasn’t at all certain what he would encounter this time, but he was hopeful that it would be easier without having to use the extra energy to concentrate on Cherri’s soul. He knew he must get in contact with Ling, for only she could give them some of the answers they desperately needed.
He and Marcell were in the room next door to Cherri’s on the otherwise empty hospital wing. Since the young woman wasn’t needed for the next steps, Niall left word with the nurse that she was to rest as much as possible. But he told the girl he would be available and if she needed anything, she was to call for the nurse. He was excused from his regular duties at the hospital, and had the rest of the day free of any other obligations. So, he sat in the darkened room, head once again covered with electrodes, and tried to relax.
Once again, Niall stepped from his body. The hospital room faded into the background, turning dim and less lifelike. It took on the appearance of looking through a fish-eye lens. His own astral body seemed more real than anything around him, except for the bright silver spark of Marcell, sitting in a chair and watching him.
I am okay, he sent to his watcher. I’m going to seek out Ling.
“I will be right here.” Marcell’s voice held a soothing tone, which bolstered Niall.
He zoomed through the ceiling into the sky. Though it was daytime in the physical world, here there was no sun, but perpetual stars. The astral plane was always a peaceful place to him, for there was no pain, no suffering, no evil in this place. At least, not until now. Niall could feel a discord, something not quite right, not quite in sync with the Universe, and saw a black smoke hovering threateningly throughout the landscape. A tension, like the sensation of calm before the storm, swept over him. He was suddenly gripped with a sense of urgency.
Her voice was stronger than before, and felt closer to him. He glanced around, trying to pinpoint where she was.
A white mist developed in front of him, swirling, reminding him of steam belching from the city storm drains during a crisp winter morning. It coalesced into the shape of a young Oriental woman. Long, dark hair flowed from an almond-shaped face to spill across her shoulders and down her back. Exotically slanted eyes were full of pain. He watched, somewhat amused, as her astral body formed into a more solid figure.
Her voice was sad.
your city,> she responded.
23
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride. ~~Sophocles
Frustration was palpable in the tiny office. Colton and Kazz were hard at work at the computer terminals, while Lacey did research on her tablet. Colton spewed inventive curses every few minutes. Progress seemed to come to a complete stop. Lacey quashed the urge to throw her tablet, knowing it would do no good but that it would feel so satisfying. Lacey could almost hear the sound of brakes squealing as their case came to a screeching halt.
“Still have 40 or 50 possible buildings to check, Lieutenant,” Kazz reported.
“Damn it, we’ve got to get closer than that. We don’t have the manpower for that kind of search!” Lacey snapped, and immediately regretted it. “I’m sorry.”
Kazz gave her a look of understanding. “We don’t have enough criteria to narrow it down any more. Maybe Doctor Matthews will be able to help some.”
Lacey took her phone from her pocket, sending a text message to Marcell. She didn’t want to call, in case Niall was still concentrating on the astral plane. Anything new?
She didn’t expect a quick response, so she nearly jumped out of her skin when the phone vibrated against her hip. She pressed her thumb to the screen, unlocking it and reading the message. He’s talking with Ling. Nothing yet.
Again, Lacey felt the urge to hurl the device. How many victims are out there, waiting for us to find them? How many more can he victimize before we get to him? She turned back to her team, then her phone rang.
“Anderson.”
It was Marcell. “We may have something for you, Lieutenant.” His voice betrayed his excitement.
She hit a button on the phone. “You’re on speaker.”
Souls of the Reaper Page 22
