Henry stood there frozen as he stared at the projection. His mouth hung open with a cookie on his lips. He didn’t even hear what anyone was saying. All he could feel was the gut punch in his stomach. There on the projection was the cutest little angel he has ever seen. As she relayed the news to Raven and Claire she reached for her glasses, straightening them on her nose. Henry could barely breathe as he fell under her spell. Claire bumped him, bringing him out of his trance as she stood up.
“I know what it is.”
Claire repeated what she said as she bounded up and down on her feet. Henry slowly shrank back out of sight as Claire grabbed onto Raven’s shoulders in her excitement.
“I know what it is!”
“Well what is it?”
Claire held out a finger as she started to speak but stopped. She snapped her jaws shut and ran to the break room. Raven chased after her to see her fumbling about, looking for something. Finally she squealed as she held up a newspaper clipping from the bottom of the stack on top of the file cabinets.
“Here it is. I knew I read it somewhere.”
She pushed the clip in Raven’s hands. He stared down at an old picture of a group of scientist. There were five of them, all male and wearing lab coats. Three of them stood at the back towering over the shorter two in the front. The foot notes named them as doctors in the field of magical research.
“What is this?”
Claire pointed to the article next to the picture, “It’s an article talking about this Brain Wave project. They were using Brain Wave magic, like mind reading and such, and trying to find cures for mental illnesses.”
Raven scanned the article as Claire talked some more, “They were saying that they could cure paranoia and schizophrenia. At least that was the hope.”
He finished reading and looked up as Claire crossed her arms, “What’d you mean?”
She rubbed her neck as she sighed, “The project was shut down. There was paranoia that the same research could be used to control someone’s mind.”
“Isn’t there already mind control magic?”
“Well yes, but,” Claire sighed again as she tried to explain, “that’s a little different. Mind control magic has a limit. There’s only so much you can do controlling someone and only for so long. No matter how strong the mage, the magic will eventually wear out. But the fear was that, with this research, in the wrong hands someone can figure out how to permanently control someone’s mind without any limits, without any magic. They could be able to control anyone, anywhere in the world. The mastermind doesn’t even have to be a mage, they could be human, and that’s why it was shut down.”
“Ok,” Raven turned the clip over in his hands and set it aside crossing his arms, “How does that relate to our case?”
“The Zinc!” Claire clasped her hands together in excitement waiting for Raven to join in but when he only stared she explained further, “During the project they were having difficulties projecting a solid controlled signal to the subjects so one of the scientists created a special Brain Wave gun. It’s like a stun gun for the brain. It shots a metal zinc needle projectile to the back of the head.”
“And from that the shooter’s able to control that person’s mind.”
“Without the limits that regular mind control magic would have.”
“Then what was Bron’s case? You said the project was shut down. What happened to the scientists on that project?”
Claire’s enthusiasm dropped as she hasn’t thought of that, “I assume they’re all dead. The project was well over 50 years ago.”
“Then someone related to that project killed Bron or knows who did. We have to find everyone who was involved in that project.”
“I’ll ask Abby to look it up. She can find data on anyone.”
“Who’s Abby?”
Raven watched as Claire flicked her left hand open and her wrist began glowing, “My Handler.”
He didn’t question anymore as a mini holo version flickered in Claire’s hand, “Abby, you busy?”
“Continuously. What’d you need?”
Abby set the file she was filling out aside as she concentrated on Claire, “Think you could help us out? There’s evidence suggesting that our culprit is related to that Brain Wave project 50 years ago. We need a list of everyone who was involved.”
“Oh is that all?” Abby crossed her arms as she thought of all the extra paperwork she’ll have to do.
“Actually you know what,” Claire tapped her chin as she thought, “Find out which scientist created the Brain Wave gun. That was used on our victim so only those close to that scientist would know how to create it.”
“That narrows it down. Alright, I’ll let you know.”
Abby cut the call as Claire turned to Raven proud of her achievement. Raven didn’t want to but he cut her excitement short.
“We still don’t know how Bron ties in with all this.”
“Oh you’re right.” Claire’s face fell as her wrist beeped. Flicking her hand open she answered the call, “Hello?”
It was Elizabeth, “Claire, I think I found it.”
“You found the artifact?”
“Not quiet. I’ve narrowed it down and I need you to come down to see if you can recognize the magic.”
“Ok got it. I’ll be there soon.”
She turned to Raven as she hung up the call, “Go. I’ll see what else I can dig up on Bron.”
She flashed him a smile and twirled her hand. Quick as a flash she was gone. Raven stood there staring at the spot she previously stood. He felt a torrent of sorts twisting within him, but he refuses to dwell on it. He stomped out of the room and back to his desk where he plopped in his chair, sighing into his hands as he leaned on the desk. Psyching himself up he turned to his computer to search for the daily activities of James Bron. Wheels squeaked as Henry rolled up beside him.
“Who is she?”
Not moving his eyes from the computer, “Who is who?”
“That girl. The one that was on the computer.”
His fingers froze as he turned to look at Henry raising an eyebrow, “You serious?”
Henry waved his hand, “Yeah.”
Raven propped his elbow on the desk, “What about that other coroner? The one whose number you got before.”
Henry shrugged his shoulders, “This one’s cuter.”
Raven lightly tapped his finger to his chin as he studied Henry up and down. He tried not to show it but Henry was nervous.
“Fine. Her name’s Tessa Mills. Guessing she’s our new ME.”
Henry whispered the name over and over as he rolled back to his desk, probably to look her up. Raven chuckled as he turned back to his case. He pulled up file after file but James Bron lived nothing but an ordinary life. No rap sheet, no juvie. Salesperson working his way through business college. Even his credit score was perfect and not a penny in debt. Raven was shuffling around his online profile when he came across something interesting.
“I’ve got it!”
This time Raven gave himself some credit as he only slightly jumped as Claire slammed a book on his desk. She was leaning over it smiling at him as he looked up. She flashed her teeth in a grin as she opened the book flipping through the pages.
“It took a little longer than usual but we finally found it.”
“The artifact? You actually found it?”
Raven leaned over the book as Claire stopped at a page pointing to the illustration, “Tears of Ice is what it’s called. It’s an artifact that concentrates the crystallization of ice into a single point. Liz didn’t think of it at first because the artifact went out of commission some 50 years ago.”
“50 years huh? Seems to be a reoccurring theme in this case. So we’re definitely looking for someone related to that Brain Wave project. Is there any way to find out who the owner of the artifact was?”
“There is but there’s no guarantee that that will be our killer. We have two very different forms of magic used. They’ll lead us to two different wielders.”
“But they can still lead us to our suspects.”
“Yeah. I contacted Tessa while I was over at Liz’s. She’s gonna concentrate on the Wave Energy magic and run some test to find the wielder. Liz is going to keep looking for the owner of the artifact.”
“Great. You’ve got time then.”
Raven got up and walked out of the building with Claire hot at his heels, “Time for what?”
“Lunch. I’m starved.”
He made his way to his car, Claire stopping him in his tracks, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, we’re going my way this time.”
She begun to drag him back around the building towards the public port as Raven dug in his heel, “Hell no. No way I’m getting into one of those glorified death traps.”
He yanked his hand out of her grip. Claire sighed in exasperation as she placed her hands on her hips. She blew a strand of hair out of her face as she glared at Raven, “Raven, you have to trust me. We can’t be partners if you can’t trust me.”
Raven pointed a finger in her face, “I don’t need a partner.”
Claire crossed her arms, “Why not? Is it because I’m a mage?”
Her accusing eyes cut into Raven’s gut, “No.”
“Then why do you refuse to trust in me? In magic?”
“Because no good has ever come of magic!”
Claire felt her eyes widen as she saw the anger in his, “Is that you speaking, or your family?”
Raven glared as violence surged in his blood. He turned away from her and snatched out a cigarette, quickly lighting it and smoking it down. Finally with his blood under control he turns back to her.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Claire saw the tortured look on his face and couldn’t say if he was having issues because of his family or not. Deciding to believe in the best in him instead of his name, Claire gently held his hand as she led him to the port.
“It’s ok. I’ll be with you the entire ride.”
Raven clenched his jaw shut as the port opened and they stepped inside. The holo fairy appeared and Claire suggested her favorite Chinese place. Raven said nothing and Claire gave the destination to the fairy. He clenched her hand hard as the magic began to hum. He saw her smile as she brought their conjoined hands forward and patted his hand reassuringly. Raven forced his concentration on her smile and forgot everything else.
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