The Partner

Chapter 5

She eats a ration and figures she might as well go into headquarters. She'll need a computer and help to do her investigative digging. Not at all looking forward to seeing her squad again so soon, Anvy drags her feet getting ready. She puts on her dress and boots, but ditches the cloak. Technically, she's not on duty and isn't working for the Haunt Squad right now. Her uniform is suggestive at this point. She's always hated the identifying cloak, letting other eructa know what she is right away. And that wouldn't bother her if they didn't look away in fear or stare intently. Haunts are always treated like the odd ones.

Anvy finishes and teleports to headquarters. Following a ride on the elevator to the floor of her squad's room, she finds the gang in the small dimly lit room full of computers, TVs, and other high-tech gear. Paenn and Saad are on computers, typing away while Joi and Vane are sitting in chairs, watching a TV that's airing some news story about a huge fire. And then Sheam is in the corner, leaning against the wall as he looks at his phone. But he looks up as soon as she enters the room. "Anvy, what are you doing here?" He inquires.

Everyone turns their attention to where she stands in the doorway. She smiles weakly. "Hey, guys."

Paenn snickers at her. "Look who it is. I thought you're working with the Shield Guild now?"

Anvy places her hands on her hips. "I was assigned this job, guys." Her defense sounds logical enough.

Saad tilts his head to the side. "You didn't seem too sad about it."

"So I wanted a change of scenery. Kill me."

"What are you doing here, Anvy?" Vane demands irritatedly.

She grimaces at his harshness. "I need help. I need to look into a few things in our archives."

Joi stands up and walks over to Saad and Paenn. "What's wrong with the Shield Guild's archives? I'm sure they have ones you could use." She sounds genuinely curious.

Anvy shrugs. "My temporary partner and I are dividing and conquering. We have different resources than the Guild and I thought it would be useful to find what I can here while he does the same over there. Now, can you guys help me or not?"

Saad sighs and trains his eyes on his computer screen. "What do you need to know?"

Not hiding her victory grin, Anvy dashes over to his station and tries to ignore the stern glare she gets from Vane. "I need a list of all the spells and potions that can give a reaper enough juice to kill eructa with just a touch. And it would be great if this list also contained the ingredients for the spells and potions."

Joi touches her shoulder gently. "You think a reaper killed the Archdaemons?"

"I think so. I found someone who witnessed the attack and saw a person kill them with just a touch, reap their souls, and then teleport the bodies away. A reaper is the only creature I know of that can do that." Anvy tells her squad, seeing Paenn, Joi, and Sheam look shocked. Saad seems uninterested whereas Vane seems mildly entertained.

Vane raises a brown eyebrow at her. "If there was a reaper going around killing people illegally, they'd never leave a witness alive to tell the story." He scoffs.

She raises an eyebrow in return to her commanding officer. "Not even a ghost?" Now he's the one shocked.

Sheam rejoins the group. "Wow, a ghost witness...good work, Anvy. That was clever thinking." He taps her shoulder reassuringly. Sheam looks to the other reaper. "Wasn't that a great job, Vane?" The smug bastard nods grimly, not able to pay the compliment directly. It doesn't make Anvy feel any better, but the praise from Sheam is a nice touch.

Saad types some stuff on the keyboard and when he presses enter, the screen shows a loading icon and it's generating pages. He leans back in his wheelie chair. "This is gonna take a while."

Anvy stands behind him, waiting with Joi, Sheam, and Vane still nearby. Suddenly, a message pops up with a loud sound jolting her body. Saad sighs. "A job. Who's going?" Anvy doesn't volunteer, using her temporary reassignment perk. She's gonna milk this for a while.

Joi and Paenn open their mouths to respond, but a red alert message fills the screen reading RESTRICTED AREA. A restricted area? What's that? She's never heard of such a thing. Vane straightens up and starts walking out. "I got it."

"What's a restricted area mean?" She asks out loud.

"It's a new thing the squad has started. Apparently, there are some areas that only certain reapers and wraiths can enter for the job to get done. Vane is the only person on our team with the clearance for restricted area jobs." Paenn answers casually. This is not the first one they've had clearly.

Anvy eyes the other reaper. How does Vane have clearance over Sheam? Sheam has been here three times as long and is a better leader, employee, and person overall. Though very quiet and stoic, he has a cool head and most haunts respect him. She can't say the same for Vane. He's arrogant as hell which means he has just as many enemies as allies. He's also not the smartest person; the Haunt Squad could have definitely found someone better to lead their squad.

She eyes the doorway he just exited out of. "How long has this been going on?"

"It started around three months ago. At first it was just every once in a while, but now it's more and more frequently. And when Vane goes on these missions, sometimes it takes a lot longer than the usual hits. I don't know what's so special about those restricted areas..." Saad says in annoyance.

"Just ask him."

"It's confidential." Sheam replies.

"Of course it is..." Anvy tsks with a roll of her eyes.

Sheam's phone starts going off. He answers it, mostly listening to the person on the other end. His expression turns more and more concerned by the second. He finally ends it with "Okay, I'll let her know. Thank you for the info." He hangs up and shoves it in his pants. Joi, Paenn, Saad, and Anvy all look to him with questioning faces. His eyes meet Anvy's. "That was a message for you, actually. Apparently a squad in New Hampshire discovered a dead adhene that had a soul of an Overseer on its person. When they reported it in, headquarters thought you might like to know about it because of your case."

"A dead Overseer?" Anvy is completely taken off guard. She didn't see that coming.

Neither did the others. A hand flies to Joi's throat. "First three dead Archdaemons, now this. What's next? Is this like a hitman?"

Anvy shakes her head. "I don't know, but I'm gonna find out." She looks back to Saad at his computer. "I need you to look up how many souls have been found by squads, not killed. And in addition to that, I wanna know how many of those were members of government. Okay?"

He nods, typing away. "You got it."