Bureau of Collections || ONC2021

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221 grimaced as he gazed around at the carnage. This one had been nasty, and he'd been late. His fault. Entry delayed by a locked broom cupboard that had left him with a soggy left foot, inconveniently dunked in a bucket of dirty mop water.

He had not quite got the hang of this form of travel, the dimensional gateways were trickier than expected. It was an archaic form of travel used by the lower bureau's but he would have to make do. He had a wager to keep and if his investigations were correct, then being demoted here had been the right decision.

One of their own had slaughtered these women, no human could cause this kind of bloodshed in such a short amount of time. What was worse, the souls were damaged. Entire segments obliterated, and the murderer had left nothing of their mortal bodies but an explosion of viscera and blood-soaked clothing.

If only he had not been late.

He looked down at the gold locket and acrylic yin yang earring in his palm that he had used to collect what it left of the two women, feeling their confusion and hurt radiating from the trinkets.

"404, are you still with me?" he asked gently, noticing her unusually long silence over the comms. He did not relish exposing her to this. The operators at this level rarely saw violence of this magnitude. "Hey!- Kid?"

"Um, no, I'm-I'm here. The system is just slow."

221 frowned, "Just follow the protocol. Souls are collected. Last two of the day I believe."

Silence.

"Focus on the job, 404 Step eighty-four." he prompted. It had not taken him long to learn her habits over their first few weeks. The lengths of her tolerance and reactions to more violent deaths were intentional. He'd been conditioning her for weeks and knew he had picked correctly, his hunches were always right. He needed someone who would do the right thing. It was the only way he was going to get Death to notice and stop this monster.

"Right. Um-Okay. Home base. There is an office entrance through the doors in front of you, then go to your left. I'll activate it."

"Thank you, 404."

"221?"

"Yes 404?"

"This warrants escalation. Do you comply?"

He suppressed a smile. Good girl, don't wave it aside like the others. "Confirmed. I'll see you soon and we can go for a drink after our shift. I think you and I both need one."

Taking one last look at the carnage, he turned toward the door, tensing as a soul suddenly burst through with a fire extinguisher raised high above his head in fear. He locked corporeal eyes with 221, the improvised weapon suddenly losing its tangibility above his head and dropping right through him with a heavy thunk.

What on earth? 221, tilted his head to get a clearer view of where this soul had come from. A third? But where?

"Hey 404, there were only two souls on this work order, right?"

"Yes, just two. Why?"

"Are you even looking at the feed?"

"Sorry, I-I turned it off-" she fumbled.

"Stay with me. I need you to verify what I am seeing. Entryway to the room."

"What on earth?"

"Yeah, exactly." he responded grimly as he reached for his gun-like reaper.

"There are no other collectors in the vicinity. You have authorization to identify."

"Roger roger." 221 strode towards the soul without hesitation. If this one could lift objects in this state, then this soul was a freshie, maybe only a cycle or two old. Holding tangible objects in that state took a lot of energy and the older the soul, the less they kept.