13 Degrees of Separation (53 page)

“I
don't like where you are going with this.”

“Okay,
how about this, there have been 22 Neo deaths in the river. All in 6 months
ago, all in a one month period. All young or female, all felines. All in the
flume, where according to records, only 2 deaths have been reported in a
century?” he asked.

“Now I
definitely don't like where this is going.”

“Right.
It could be an initiation thing, it could be a dumping ground for a gang, but I
don't buy it.”

“Crap.”

“We
need to check it out.”

“Sure,
now
he says we. I... yeah. Let's go.” Climb into air car and head north west. Note
cops scrambling to follow.

“Should
we go back and get them?” Nohar joked.

“Let
them figure it out on their own,” Magnum growled. “It'll do them some good to
do some real detective work for a change,” he said. “Bobby's getting flabby as
it is.”

...*...*...*...*...

They
flew in silence, over the city and then into the hinterlands of jungle forest
and hills. Epsilon was a pretty world, Nohar thought, hands gripping the oh
shit bar for dear life.

“Not
into flying?” Magnum asked.

“No,
not especially,” Nohar ground out.

“Pity,”
Magnum said. “I could put the top down,” he offered. Nohar growled. “Or not,”
Magnum muttered. Nohar wiggled his whiskers.

When
they got to the top of the flume site Magnum poked him. “Okay, keep an eye
out,” he said. “Watch your side, I'll watch mine,” he said.

“What
are we looking for?” Nohar asked. He didn't have locations of each incident,
just that it happened here. He looked at the dark wood trestle. A box funneled
the water. Rails and a wood plank path were on top. A dark
wet
wooden
path not even a meter wide. He for one wouldn't be stupid enough to walk that,
even with his claws. They passed over a ravine, an easy 200 meters down. He
shivered.

“Got
one,” Magnum said, leaning to his left and looking down.

“Got
one what?” Nohar asked, just as he spotted a white cross on one side the of the
ravine. “A cross?”

“Yeah,
you got one too?”

“Yes.
More than one,” Nohar said, pointing.

“Shit
how many?” Magnum asked as they flew on. Nohar counted a dozen near the dirt
road that intersected the flume. It was most likely some trail, either for
loggers or for working on the flume. With the rails he wasn't so sure.

“I've
got ten,” Nohar murmured. “And counting,” he said as they passed over four more
crosses. They seemed forlorn, a cheap reminded of how fragile life was, he
thought with a pang. Just two sticks of wood painted white to remember someone.

“Got
more,” Magnum murmured. “Kind of odd to have this many don't you think?” he
asked.

“A
doubling of deaths in the area in less than a year? That's a Major spike. Most
were accidents, a lot of drowning and falls. I don't know about you, but I'm a
suspicious type. When no one falls for so long, the last was thirty years ago
here,” Nohar said, still counting crosses. “Then I'd get suspicious,” he said.

“And no
one did. Not even me,” Magnum murmured, feeling like shit.

“No,
because no one thought to look. Or no one cared, until now. Until it became
personal. Some of these were considered suicides,” Nohar murmured as they
passed over a bridge that had a few crosses wired to it. A human pedestrian
looked up at them and then back to the trail he was on.

“Bit
strange for city folk to come out here to die,” Magnum murmured. “And my count
is way beyond 22.”

“Yeah,
mine too,” Nohar replied.

“Odd.”

“Yeah,
you'd think that,” Nohar said. “Can we land soon?” he asked.

“Yeah,
let me find a clearing,” Magnum replied, looking around.

“Preferably
one close to a group of crosses.”

“Think
you'll scent something?” Magnum asked, looking at him.

Nohar
snorted. “No, not in this area. Too much time has passed, too many people have
been here. Cops, lookey-loos, no, but there might be something. I don't know,”
he murmured.

“Okay,”
Magnum said, landing in a grotto. He reached down and flipped the turbines off
and then hit his seat belt and the door latch. “Let's go walk about,” he said.

...*...*...*...*...

They
got out and checked the area. Nohar scented, sniffing about, but the wet and
mildew, not to mention the passing of time covered anything he might of found.
He knelt on one knee, checking the soil. “Give it up, no way will you get lucky
and find tracks,” Magnum replied, crossing his arms.

“No,
but I'm  curious about this. Did you notice the clustering?” Nohar asked.

“Clustering?
No...”

“In
certain areas the numbers peaked. I'm wondering if someone made an assumption
or if they found signs there. And what signs they found. Obviously not enough
to rule it a homicide.”

“You
are wondering about the feline signs?”

“Yeah.
But not here,” Nohar pointed to the cell of rock where the nearby cluster of
crosses were. Someone had staked the crosses out either in cracks in the rock
or to trees and in the soil behind them. Nohar turned and sat as he shifted his
bag to his lap. He pulled out his trusty lap top and pulled up an area map.

He felt
the human look over his shoulder but ignored it as he zoomed into the area they
were in. He had paid dearly for this map, he'd paid a visiting freighter a lot
of credits to do an orange peel of the planet, mapping it for him. The
continent they were on had a vague North American shape. They were in the
southern peninsula though, near where Honduras would have been on long lost
Earth. He found the flume on the map and then traced it with an index finger.
He didn't have a birds eye, but where he recognized points where there had been
crosses he tagged them. He finally found their spot by the flume and marked it.

“We're
about...” he checked the scale. “About two and a half kilometers from the power
house. There aren't any other roads to the flume, and the only way on it is by
that train that rides on top.”

“Or on
foot.”

“Or on
foot. But all these sites lead to part of this supply access road here,” he
traced his finger along a dirt road. “Which forks to each of these points.” He
traced his finger along the path to each point. “And the road passes here,” he
pointed to a cluster of farm buildings, “and meanders along the river, across
the bridge, and then back to Ring City.”

“Don't
forget the fork here,” Magnum said, kneeling and putting a hand on Nohar's right
shoulder. Nohar turned to look but the human's right hand was reaching around
him to point at the screen. “See here? This southern bridge is for the railroad
that comes into Ring City. There have been a lot of deaths there too. But the
deaths are all from people from the city.”

“Right,”
Nohar replied with a nod. “Which makes me wonder if someone got tired of the
transit time involved and just decided to dump the bodies? Or do they think the
cops won't care?”

“I'm
more concerned about any missing persons,” Magnum mused darkly. “Those aren't
reported in the media,” he said.

“Crap,”
Nohar breathed, closing his good eye. He hadn't thought of that, he'd focused
on the deaths. He did a quick search, no missing persons were in the news. He
hadn't copied the classified ads though. Someone could have put something
there. He groaned. “Damn,” he grumbled.

“Not
your fault, I just thought of it,” Magnum replied. “I had a couple of missing
person cases, but all were dead ends. Now I'm wondering how permanent those dead
ends were. And where the bodies are.”

“Dump?”
Nohar asked.

Magnum
grunted, getting to his feet. “Maybe,” he said.

“Or the
sewers,” Nohar said thoughtfully. “The flood control sewers for one. Dump a
body there and they'd go right into the ocean. No muss no fuss,” he said.

“You
are starting to sound way too much like our killer,” Magnum replied. The water
spray was getting to him. That or being so close to the predator and this
barren dangerous place.

“That's
what I'm afraid of,” Nohar replied getting to his feet once more. He put the
precious laptop away. “But you want to know another one?” he asked.

Magnum
grunted. “No, but spit it out anyway,” he said as they made their way back to
the aircar.

“What
if he's eating them now?” Nohar asked.

Magnum
turned back suddenly and stared at the cat. Slowly Nohar nodded grimly.

“Sprite
of space,” Magnum breathed softly. “Tracy,” he said. Nohar nodded again, even
more grimly than before.

...*...*...*...*...

On the
way back Nohar spotted a black spot framed by concrete. He pointed to it.
Magnum banked around the area to get a better look. “Oh, that's the old tunnel
project,” Magnum said.

“Tunnel?”

“Yeah,
it's what put Ring City on the map. It cuts through the mountains in this area,
but it had to be abandoned because the area above is so steep there are
frequent avalanches of mud or snow.”

“Snow I
can understand but mud?” Nohar asked, waving his hand to the trees and rocks
all around them.

“You'd
be surprised what clear cutting can do to the soil when the rains come,” Magnum
replied, sounding aggrieved.

“Ah,”
Nohar sighed with a knowing nod. He got it now. “Can we land?”

“Why?”

“Perfect
den sight,” Nohar said, pointing again to the tunnel opening.

Magnum
craned his neck to look and then swore. “Shit,” he said softly. “Help me find a
damn place to land. This is it though, we're on fumes as it is,” he ground out.

“Gotcha,”
Nohar replied. “I so didn't want to know that,” he sighed.

...*...*...*...*...

A few
minutes later they picked their way through the scrub bushes and trees from
their landing spot on a cell of rock over 20 meters wide. It was a bit steep,
but once they got to the low entrance they found a bit of an ankle deep creek
flow. “What the hell? Thought this was a train tunnel?” Nohar asked, picking
his way through the water.

Magnum
grunted. “It was. It closed thirty, no, forty years ago I think. This is river
melt. According to the gossip the tunnel caved in about a kilometer inward,” he
said.

“Great,”
Nohar said, looking around. There was a wooden barrier about a meter high
blocking the entrance. Water had eroded a path under the makeshift barrier. A
faded 'do not enter danger' sign was fluttering in the light breeze. He
snorted.

“Still
want to go in?”

“A bit,
just enough to satisfy my curiosity,” he said.

Magnum
looked at him. “You know if anything happens to me you are SOL right? On foot?”

“Yeah
well, I'm just looking forward to you climbing back to the car. You remember
where we parked it right?”

“You
would remind me of that,” Magnum said. Nohar picked up a scent and then froze,
Neo feline definitely. It was faded. Suddenly he had Matilda in his hand.

Magnum
immediately crouched, drawing his side arm as well. “What?” he asked softly.

“Feline,
Definitely. Not sure how long,” Nohar murmured. He stepped over the barrier and
then went into the dark, eyes adjusting. He heard the human behind him swear
and then followed.

“Do you
have to make so much noise?” Nohar demanded, not looking back. Magnum grunted,
but continued to splash in the water. Nohar paused at the sign of a fire on the
dry ledge against one wall. He smelled burnt flesh, signs of a barbeque.

“Probably
kids,” Magnum murmured.

“Yeah,
the victims,” Nohar said, spotting a crushed skull half buried in the dirt. He
pointed to it. Magnum used a pocket flashlight to view the skull. He swore
again. It was a Neo feline, not more than a few years old.

“Yeah,
not liking this,” Nohar said looking around. He counted three other skulls
before he gave up. “We need to call this in,” he said finally. There was no
sign of the killer. Just a faint scent and some signs of someone having a
little too much fun eating their prey.

“Yeah,”
Magnum said. Nohar turned to see the human wiping at his mouth with his gun
hand.

“Need
air?” Nohar asked. It was a little rank. There were some flies, but who ever
had done this had picked the bones clean. They'd even broken them open and
sucked the marrow out. Pretty gruesome. Possibly the work of scavengers, or so
the humans would say. A denning scavenger maybe, but then again there wouldn't
be so many bones. A scavenger took what it could, usually easy parts and left
the torsos and other bits behind. Here he could see ribs and vertebra. He'd
checked too, this continent had some predators at one time, but over hunting
had killed them off centuries ago.

Besides,
no predator would bring its' game back to its' den. No, that would attract
other competing predators in the area to where you sleep. If there were cubs
that would be considered a bad thing, competitors were down on competition.