Flight School: Predator

The Center of a Storm

A/N: I've been having questions about Viktor's name usage in the book, and I'd like to casually point out that I use 'Viktor' on certain occasions and 'Jae-min' on others. It's actually kinda easy to tell when I'm going to use which! Hehe.

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"You called for me?" The girl asked upon entering the darkness of the room, turning to the familiar silhouettes hidden among the shadows. She remained unfazed despite the abnormal setting.

"Jane. It's about Tori," Viktor's voice sounded low and still in the aged air, a result of a cramped and stuffy room. "And something else, as you and your friends may have guessed."

There was a Merlin in the room, or so Jing would have known only because his Avian always seemed to bother her. The other student, she was familiar with as well. She would not have liked to admit it, but their acquaintance was mostly formed by race and language—something she would have considered small in comparison to the predator-prey divide.

"Did someone die?" She'd decided to go straight for the kill, seeing no benefit in beating around the bush when death was the inevitable end. It was a deduction that she had somehow made along her way to the meeting room.

Ye Zijun laughed. "厉害~"

"Please refrain from speaking anything other than English in our conversation," Viktor directed this primarily at the Merlin who was so fond of joking around. How he was coincidentally one of the best investigators in the school, Jing herself did not know.

"And yes, someone was killed." The condor had went on to say, turning towards her with a folder in hand. She took it. "It was a sea eagle. He hadn't been attending class for almost a week, and by the time the report came in and his dorm was checked, he was no longer in the school."

Jing frowned as she glanced through the file and flipped the pages of the report, coming across a crude and unsightly photograph of what looked to her like the remains of a human head. She picked it up and stared.

"A rifle."

"Yes, he was shot. The rest of his body and where it went however, remains unknown." Viktor flipped through the folder himself and pointed out a location circled on a poorly-drawn map. "Zijun tracked the location of his last mission. Paid, of course—just failed. He found him there."

It made sense to the phoenix. Weekend jobs were often taken up by students looking for extra credit to spend, since the monthly allowance given by the school to predators was at times sparse. To be attacked on the job however...it was both unfortunate and unlikely.

"Head on a stick," the Merlin added with a grin and received a well-deserved whack on the back of his head by the hawk standing behind him. "What?"

Viktor sighed, explaining to the phoenix that the sea eagle's head had been found skewered on the lowest branch of a tree. "There was a trail of blood, but it's already been a week and the rain's washed it away."

Zijun added that he had attempted to seek out the scent but it was far too weak. "I asked for vulture nose? But he said no free." The rest of the room turned to him with raised brows and shaking heads.

"What? What. My English not very good don't ask me talk English."

"Then, don't talk." Jing took in the one who had spoken. The hawk was someone she had seen around Zijun during lunch, but wasn't familiar with his name and the exact breed of his Avian. Reasons for her to raise her guard.