Emma kept moving the joystick and on the monitor began to show a pair of man and woman stood together. “I saw you, get ready in five seconds,” Emma said.
The sound of the engine louder. Most of them were buzz sounds like a pack of bees. And the room was bright, especially in the white platform area and in a moment a body of a man and woman in a black suit appeared.
“Julia and Todd?” Kate whispered while made a warped face with Emma. And Emma nodded strongly for the answer.
Jason looked at Julia and Todd, who had just arrived. They looked serious and still talked continuously. He could only hear the end of the last sentence.
“..... You are too soft, Todd,” Julia said and Todd just paled. “Don’t think that a young naive girl can’t do embezzle or receive money under the table,” She continued, took off the sunglasses and kelp it inside the suit. She had long reddish-brown hair, bending the ends made the hairspring lively when she walked and she was walking toward them and stopped a little when she saw Jason and then turned to stare at Kate unpleasantly.
“The rumor is true,” Julia said. Jason noticed that Kate began to pale and speechless.
“I hope you know what you are doing. If you are not considerate me, you should respect Jason,” Julia continued with an unsatisfactory expression. Although she was a beautiful woman but her eyes were cold.
“Well,... I…I just want him to help me with the serial murder case,” Kate replied. She didn't even dare to make eye contact with Julia. Surprisingly, before this time, she has recently talked to Prompt the director of ACPSP with confident. But with Julia, she looked like a new trainee agent who was just blamed in the first day work by a senior.
“You should find a new partner to work with, not looking for new Jason, Kate,” Julia said in a cold voice before turned to Jason who was sitting with blank. “You look like Jason ... but dirtier,” she said, glanced at him with the corner of her eyes.
Jason's appearance was messy hair and didn’t shave for almost a week that wouldn’t be a favorite of a woman like her. “Oh ... pretty if you see me yesterday, the word dirty is not enough,” Jason replied, laughed for his own joke. But it seemed the atmosphere wasn’t better. Julia looked at him disgustingly and led Todd out-off the room.
Kate sighed with relieved but her eyes still worry. She looked at Emma uncertainly. “I made the wrong decision, didn’t I? To let Jess to help the case,”
Emma looked at Kate and sighed. The size of a large woman like her had stood still when Julia beamed her cold eyes at. “Kate, you know what kind of person Julia is. She likes to judge others according to her own thoughts. You don't know whether you made the wrong decision or not, you just have to prove it, my dear,” she said cheered up.
“Don't want to interrupt but who is she?” Jason asked curiously.
Emma looked at him. “That’s your wife, Mr. Smith,” she replied.
“.... My wife? I haven't been married,” Jason replied frowning.
“She’s Julia Smith. Jason's wife,” Kate said, worryingly.
The boring Jason Smith was married? No wondered why when she saw him she wasn’t satisfied. She still sad because her husband has gone. Meeting Jason Smith from another parallel universe sitting around and replaced him probably was the most furious thing. But what should Jason do with this situation?
Jason looked at Kate and Emma didn’t know what to say for encourage.
“….I’m hungry…” Jason said.
Chapter 8
“Kate, I apologize for what Julia’s said. You know, she’s in a feeling of....um...sadness ...then quite easy to be irritable,” Todd said after met Kate and Jason were sat together having lunch in the cafeteria.
“I understand, Todd. It’s my fault I forgot about her feeling. I just think about the case, so I haven’t think carefully. Maybe I should find a new partner from our agency,” Kate said guilty.
“Are you going to eat this?” Jason, who was starving used a fork pointed at two meatballs on Kate's plate. Kate looked at his hungry eyes tiredly. He didn't know the situation?
“No, Jess, you can have it,” she said and thrust her plate for him. Jason hurriedly grabbed and eat greedily. Although he just ate fried rice and onion soup.
Todd looked at Jason gobbled a lot of food, then looked at Kate.
“He had just vomited the breakfast out when training using wormhole,” Kate explained calmly and Todd made an understanding face. Then he sat down at her side.
“Are you sure he can help you?” Todd whispered to Kate seriously. Asking this kind of question in front of Jason was clearly inconsiderate.
Kate sighed. This was probably a question that many people would like to ask her again and again.
“Yes, Todd. When he saw a set of numbers on the dead bodies, he could immediately tell that it was a binary code. Can you remember I've shown those numbers to you and you spend almost an hour to understand it,” Kate said to him. Jason smiled proudly, even in his mouth full of meatballs and spaghetti.
“.... That… is not bad ...” Todd said awkwardly, turned away from Jason.
“Back to work, Todd,” Julia called him from the cafeteria entrance. Then Todd quickly followed her.
“This guy really obey her,” Jason said, wiped his mouth. Now his stomach was full and seemed to be too full because he has to move the belt out.
Kate smiled, “Todd and I have come to work together. We were separate to work with Julia and Jason. They are our trainers. Teach us everything for work and take care of us. It's not strange if Todd has considerate for her,”
Considerate for her? ...Maybe this more than considerate.
After lunch, Kate and Jason came back to see the information about the case again at Emma's lab. She said that Todd and Julia have no more traveling schedule for today.
“The three women must have something connected with the killer. It's not a random kill because in many parallel universes they were also killed. The killer may have a lot of anger with them.” Jason said after reading the information about the case from many parallel universes.
“They may have attended with the same school, their age was the same,” Jason said.
“I’ve checked it. They in every parallel universe have never ever studied together,” Kate said.
“So, they may be in the same neighborhood,” Jason said.
“I’ve checked that already. They are not in the same neighborhood,” Kate said.
“.... You probably didn’t accidentally check that they never work at the same place. Never know each other and never participate in any activity together, right?” Jason said sarcastically.
But Kate nodded as an answer that she’s already checked. “We may have to check their relationship on other issues. Jess, but I still don't know what it should be, school, neighborhood, workplace, club or even hospital,”
“The age of the victims were the same. May the killer be about this age too?” Kate asked.
“Well,...but I think he should be older, like middle age. From the condition of the women’s bodies, they were frozen, which means that the killer would have a room or space for keeping three women. Who able to have these items should have been working for many years until they have enough money to buy or supply these stuff,” Jason analyzed.
“The killer also took their hearts. It’s possible about love. But the age of the killer still in my concerns. He may be older than the victim or middle-aged. We have to find more evidence so we can cut some points out, so the age range of the killer can be determined more precisely. Now it’s 25-40 years old. It's too wide,” Jason said.
“Do you want to go to see the scene in B07, Jess? It’s where the first group of women disappeared. But it may not be left anything useful. It happened several months ago and when we and the police have known the cases of other universes, those areas were used normally,” Kate said.
Went out to see the scene was good for a change of scenery. If there was anything the police had missed they could take care of
it. At least, better than stuffy in this building with a strange lab.
“Not bad. I want to go,” Jason replied enthusiastically.
“Oh, you have to come back for training using wormhole in the evening. I already confirmed an appointment with Ted,” Kate said, put all the tablets in the boxes prepared to go field work.
Already confirmed an appointment with Ted in the evening? Never ask him what time would he want to vomit? “....... um, thank you, Kate…” Jason replied a little bit sarcastic and sulky face.
Then, Kate took Jason out of the building that surrounded by many skyscrapers and the streets were filled with cars. Jason saw a car was pulling off from the roadside parking with its four wheels gradually turned perpendicular and able to exit parallel parking easily like a crab walk. Then the wheels were twisted back straight in the normal direction.
“These cars are non-driver running by electric power can both move in vertically and horizontally direction,” Kate explained, pointed at the corner of one of the roads that was vertical with the ground for going up to another road at the top. All roads have magnets for helping push the car moving both horizontally and vertically.
“I really like the moment of moving down. It’s like sitting in roller coaster,” Kate said in a good mood “The accomplishment of the grandchildren of Nikola Tesla. This family is a true genius. In the past, Tesla invented the light bulb, alternating current electricity, high-performance dynamo and continuously developed until it became a lot of hi-technology machinery today,”
“Nikola Tesla invented the light bulb? I thought Thomas Edison did,” Jason said.
“Thomas Edison? Who?” Kate asked with puzzled.
“...a person who invented the light bulb and the first patented for commercial and there were also many inventions he made,” Jason explained.
Kate frowned tried to think. “Um…well, ... I… don't know him. I know just Tesla who was a successful inventor, also won the Nobel Prize. We have a lot of history of him to read on the internet. If you want to know him, I'll find it for you,” she said.
This universe didn't know Thomas Edison? “But in my universe, Thomas Edison was a well-known inventor. Science textbooks always have his story. But Nikola Tesla, although he was a genius, but wasn’t successful and be alone and poor without even family,”
Kate looked at him and frowned again. “Um ...well, it's probably a difference in history between our universes. Sometimes when we decide to do something or not do something, it causes a new parallel universe. For example, buying a lottery, it will become a universe which we decide to buy a lottery and the universe which we haven’t buy a lottery. Your Thomas Edison may be successful in your universe, but here is the universe that Nikola Tesla succeeded and we don't know Thomas Edison,” She explained.
Jason looked around the city with impressed that just difference in the history of the inventors and scientists caused a great civilization like this. Thomas Edison of here might abandon the light bulb invention or work in other careers.
“I will call the car to pick up here,” Kate said. Jason saw her used a smartphone to send a location. “I'm identifying where the car should be park for us,” she saw Jason peered at her smartphone interestingly.
It was convenient to just send a location to the government vehicle service center for delivery and pick up anywhere. Didn’t have to worry about parking at all and also free.
“You will have a badge, identity card, smartphone, uniform, and a sonic gun tomorrow morning,” Kate said.
“Your new smartphone can connect with people here, even in other parallel universes, and we can follow the signal and get you there. But you have to tell the details of the building and the floor that you are in. It better if there is a window,” Kate explained.
“Then Emma could calculate the distance. You’ve seen a giant light bulb in Emma's lab. That light will guide her to be able to see you more easily. That light can penetrate through all parallel universes, so don't open your eyes or look at the light directly without special sunglasses again,” Kate said seriously.
Jason nodded slowly. He knew the power of the light well, but yesterday, who knew what that light was.......
For a moment the vehicle that Kate called came to where they stood. The look was like a modern car but dull with just a rectangular shape. All four wheels could twist, then the car could run by side direction. And the wheels could move to the side of the car for running on the vertical road. Difference from cars that Jason’s known that ran forward and backward and turned with a limited degree.
The inside has a long seat surrounded in U shape. At the console, there was a driver's seat and a steering wheel in case of an emergency that might need to drive by a human.
Their car moved out when Kate informed the destination for the computer. They passed through many roads, both horizontally and vertically. Even when the car moved in vertically would make Kate scream as fun as sitting on a roller coaster as she had said, but for Jason, it made him want to vomit. If there wasn’t the scenery outside to fool his attention, then he would be in trouble.
Fortunately, there were not many vertical roads, most of it for changing the district or highway. The footpath area has shady trees, but there were not many people walking, probably because it was work time. They dressed as normal as Jason’s universe. Designers of here might not different from his universe.
Their car began to slow down and pulled over near a footpath at a large skyscraper, shaped like a colored pencil. “How high is this building?” Jason asked, looking up. There were a lot of buildings at the same level around here.
“This place is probably 180 floors. Most of the buildings in this area are around this height. Some buildings are up to 250 floors. Most of them are rental offices. In other big cities, there are tall buildings like these, but in the countryside, the buildings have more short and some have houses with lawns. I think I prefer that,” Kate said.
If most of the buildings were so tall like these, Godzilla has probably got neck pain because looked up at the building.
They walked into 180 floors building in front of them. When the automatic entrance door has open, inside looked like a lobby in a five-star luxury hotel in Jason’s universe. Big eighteen layers chandelier was hanging from the high ceiling, but when Jason looked at it in detail. He found that it was floating in the air and the light has reflected glittering on marble polished floor. Kate led Jason to the elevator which opposite the entrance to go up to the 98th floor.
The 98th floor was a beauty service office. The whole floor was divided into dozens of rooms, including consultation rooms, treatment rooms and office departments.
“We come from ACPSP. We would like to check the area where Jessie Lee's disappeared again,” Kate said to the receptionist in front of the counter. She was as beautiful as Miss Universe and sexy. Jason looked at people walked inside the office. The men were handsome and shapely like a model. The women were beautiful with Miss Universe standard. Never seen these people in his universe. This might be a heaven.
“This way, Jess,” Kate called Jason, who’s enjoying watching girls around there.
They walked to the storage room on the corner of the fire escape.
“The witness said that she was inside this room and the security camera showed that, too. She never comes out. Her colleagues said that she never had a rift with anyone here,” Kate said, opened the door to get inside.
The storage room was filled with shelves and cabinets for storing equipment and cleaning stuff and also contained broken tables, beds, cabinets and tools which were waiting for maintenance.
“The police were reported by her family that Jessie had missing after one day. Police tried to find her at home, friend houses and workplaces. They watched the security footage and saw that she has entered this room before missing,” Kate walked inside and explained.
“They found traces of traveling with a wormhole in this room. But not very clear because while the police were searchin
g the evidence in her house, this room was still being used as usual because it was a workday, so some traces were erased. At first, the police assumed that she might flee on her own until they realized that someone had found her body at B09, then the real investigation’s started.” Kate said.
In this room, there was just a small window for air vents. Surely Jessie Lee didn’t go outside by using that way. This was the 98th floor. Who wanted to stand outside with this height? On the ceiling, there was also no exit to the outside.
“Could the killer use the wormhole to travel freely?” Jason asked.
“In fact, wormhole traveling requires a registration. But there are also illegal wormhole, too. Just having a normal bedroom can make it be a wormhole lab. We try to follow then close its many, but it seems to increase every year because it is difficult to track. We need to random and get information from people in the same area to help. But unfortunately, most people ignore other businesses. Sometimes it may be found that illegal wormholes have been using for many years,” Kate said, nudged one shelf off.
“This was the area we found trace of wormhole traveling,” She pointed at the floor.
Today, it looked like a normal marble floor. Traveling by wormhole was difficult to keep track, because when the time’s passed, there was nothing left.
“The case has occurred for months,” Kate said.
Jason looked around the storage room. He asked for a tablet from Kate to open the file of the pictures at the scene when the police investigated. It looked like there were some signs of fighting or resistance. The shelf that Kate just moved was scattered. Or the victim just shocked because the wormhole was open in this room and then crashed into these shelves.
Jason wasn’t sure about that but obviously, she was unwilling but kidnapped.
“After of her missing only two days, Piper Mason missing. At that time, we still didn't think of a serial killer case because we couldn't find their bodies. Until a few months had passed, it was reported from B02 about the bodies of women who were not their people. Then our agency took place,” Kate said before led Jason out of the storage room.
The Traveling Killer and Jason Smith Page 7
