Cruelty is Bitter Bane Log 1

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Kane reaches St. Louis and has a talk with the head of the Field Office.



Kane got out of his rental car and pulled on his FBI windbreaker despite the heat. It was important to establish his identity, and based on what the guys at the Field Office hinted at, the local PD were in no mood to be helpful. The St Louis County police department was an old sprawling red-brick building. The FBI had set up their command here instead of the Field Office, likely hoping that proximity would help them find out more information.

He walked in, flashing his identification to the desk sergeant and walked through until he came on a black woman arguing with a detective. The detective looked unimpressed and walked away as she was mid-sentence. Kane held out the coffee to her as he watched her try to smother what had to be a long list of expletives.

"Special Agent Wallace? I'm Agent Kane."

"Dunc told me that you were coming. Thanks." She took a sip from her cup. "You get that?"

"The not terribly disguised 'fuck you'? Yeah, I got that. Fred mentioned there was an issue here."

"Blue flu. Local PD isn't going to invest a minute of their time in any case where the vic is a mutant. Every time I bring something up, I'm told that they'll hand the information to SHIELD."

"Shit. Can you bring me up to speed. Fred sent me some of the details about the kidnappings, but there's no pathology reports, autosy results, lab work from the crime scenes."

"Like I said, blue flu. Hell, the coroner went on vacation on short notice." She sighed, once again packing her anger down as she waved him into a seat. "Two weeks ago, a teenager named Aaron Hicks disappeared. His family contacted the police, said they'd been contacted about a ransom. They reached out to us but during the interview with the family, it came out that Aaron's a mutant. Weird eyes, can see some other spectrum or something. Police decided to sleepwalk through the process of trying to get him back. A few days later, another male teen disappears. He's got a juvie record for shoplifting, in which it identifies him as a mutant."

She reached into the desk drawer and drew out two pictures. He could see the oddness of Hick's eyes; bulging slightly with silver irises. The other one looked normal, no obvious physical mutation. They were both around the same age; short dark hair, similar colouring.

"I know you're going to ask. Similar height and build. Both were also found dead in the last four days. Killed with a single shot to the head at close range. According to the families, it was because they had contacted the police. News has gotten around. Which brings us to Devon DeMattis. Family reported him missing two nights ago. They reached out and then got a call from the kidnapper. They've refused any kind of further discussion with the police or the FBI. They're new money; a lot of new money and they've got political pressure on us not to interfere."

"Devon similar to the others?"

"A bit older, but similar in looks. We don't know if he's a mutant yet. There was some kind of incident at his school but we can't confirm any thing. Like I said, lots of new money and they're willing to spend to keep things quiet."

"The profiling of the victims suggests a serial killer, especially if DeMattis turns out to be a mutant. But a serial killer running a kidnapping for profit angle is pretty unique, and inconsistent with the usual profile."

"That's why you're here, Agent Kane. If there's any hope of stopping this, I need the full range of FBI resources. But thanks to these assholes, I don't have enough to send to Quantico to get the process started."

"Are the police actively sabotaging the investigation? We could reach out to Internal Affairs."

"They're doing nothing that I'm not willing to chalk up to old fashioned incompetence first. They've got their worst and least experienced leading this, but to my knowledge, those guys are at least trying. They just aren't capable of handling it properly."

"Why the blue flu on this?"

"Seven months ago, when M-Day hit, the officer working in the armory room at the range turned out to be a mutant. When he went off, he cooked off every piece of ammunition and explosive stored there. Whole side of the building came down - 16 officers killed. Since then, being a mutant has actually become worse than being black in the eyes of the law in St. Louis. That's why I need to go outside of the local police."

"So we need pathology reports and a statement from the family to go anywhere. I can't promise anything, Agent Wallace, but I'll do my best."

"Appreciate it. I'll have the Field Office send over everything we've got to your hotel room. Meet me back here tomorrow morning and I'll listen to what you have to suggest."

"Great. I'll-" Kane's phone buzzed an he pulled it out of his pocket. Thumbing it on, he almost immediately stuffed in back in his pocket.

"Bad news, Agent?" Wallace said with a slight, one-side smile.

"Nah, just... not safe for work." Kane said as he left.>