Kedric and Dena: space-agents

Donut interruption

As always, Kedric Gerson and Dena Sprinkles were sitting in their spaceship. They did not expect anything special to happen, as the main reasons why they had to jump into action were usually because of grandmas having accidentally thrown their cats into their spaceship engines or kids who had accidentally shot their cuddly toys into space.

The policeman and woman were each sitting in their separate chairs as they looked through the window of the spaceship's cockpit. A large sphere, which we know as Earth, floated in front of them. 'You want one?' asked Dena, with a box of sprinkled donuts in her left hand. Kedric did not like it when Dena was chewing loudly with those sugary glazed pastries in her mouth, especially not on the job. But on the other hand, they looked damn delicious, and it was too tempting to not take one. And so Kedric stretched his hand and took a donut with sprinkles coloured in all tints of the rainbow on it. 'No wonder your last name is Sprinkles.' Kedric said with a subtle smile as he looked at Dena who was swallowing another pastry, it must have been her sixth by now.

That day had been completely normal until a scratchy noise sounded through the ears of the partners, who were until then in a fully relaxed spirit as they ate more pastries and told all sorts of diverse anecdotes to each other. Dena had even been so relaxed that she sat with her two trousers-covered legs on the dashboard of the cockpit. 'Am I speaking to Gerson and Sprinkles?' was the question that came through the voice com. 'Yup' Dena said shortly, wiping a few of the donut sprinkles of the edges of her mouth. 'It's urgent, so pay attention' the manly voice said, still through the voice com, who apparently knew Kedric Gerson and Dena Sprinkles were rather nonchalant beings (especially Dena). Nonetheless, they did always do their job. |

'There's been a murder on Mars.' said the low voice 'I've been trying to call you two all day! What the hell is even going on out there?!' Kedric looked at Dena and remembered the dozens of times they had muted the voice com today. 'Hey it won't be anything important Ked, relax' Dena said each time the voice com had started making noise. Then she had waved her hand as to say, 'I'll handle it' and after a split-second, the mute button was pressed. 'Well, you know, sir, we were busy... uh... Stopping thieves and saving cats!' the female police agent said whilst shaking her head, as if she was trying to forget her mischievous behaviour. The bossy voice answered with a grumpy noise (he didn't seem to want to go into further detail) and then said: 'All right now, Sprinkles, Gerson, I want you two at the crime scene as soon as possible. This time it's not a cat you're going to need to save, or a thief you must stop. This time, yeah, this time it's serious.' Kedric and Dena looked at each other, suddenly their faces had become much more thoughtful. They had never heard the word 'serious' sound through that voice com, so naturally they became engaged and pulled in closer to the speaker. 'Go on, sir, we're listening.' Dena said, slightly impatiently. 'I'd suggest you go see for yourself; I've sent the coordinates.' Only silence now sounded through the speaker as the two partners looked at each other. 'Buckle up Dena, I have a feeling something interesting is crossing our path.'

The police agent's spaceship flew through the emptiness of space and saw a round red globe flying in front of them with large green and blue spots spread all over it. That was the planet of Mars, and the lazy colonists hadn't even bothered to terraform all of it (even though they had the resources for it). Well, that didn't really matter for Kedric or Dena, they were here for their job after all. And so, their ship flew steadily closer, until Mars filled their field of view. Soon after that they had parked their ship on one of the many landing platforms of Robinson city, which was the capital of the planet, and were soon greeted by a bunch of humans who were impatiently waiting to show them the (horrible) crime-scene that was awaiting them. After passing dozens of skyscrapers, snappy vendors who tried to convince them they had the most delicious sushi available, crowds of all sorts of creatures, beggars and flashing neon signs, the men who had welcomed the two police agents showed them the way into a certain hotel. It had seemed like a very high-class sort of lodging with hanging crystal chandeliers and staff that wore very expensive suits made of the finest silk available in the known universe. Everything had seemed completely normal and fitting, until one of the men (who they now knew was also a police agent), opened the door to room 11. The two partners slowly approached the bed, slightly worried of what they were about to see, with Kedric first and Dena (who usually was pretty cheerful but was now nearly dripping sweat on the carpet) behind him.

When someone would have seen Kedric passing by on the street, they would have thought he was the ultimate tough guy. That nothing could bring him down. But when he looked at the crime scene of room 11, he almost immediately had to gag. Ironically enough, Dena, who had always seemed more of a softy, looked seriously and thoughtfully at what happened to the victim that was lying in the bed. She didn't gag but rather contemplated on why someone would do something like this. Unlike her partner, she closely examined the blood-stained bed and female body. Dena also noticed the words 'I did her a favour', which were drawn on the wall in front of her. The victim, who seemed to be a woman around the age of 20, lay with her arms open on the bed. Her private parts were covered with the bedsheets but, aside from that, all her skin was completely visible. Kedric didn't feel like looking, even though he would have to at some point. Dena, however, stepped closer and noticed something peculiar: around the body's abdomen: there were stitches running across all over. 'Surgical precision' Dena said, talking to herself. Kedric looked at her, surprised that she didn't seem to care about the blood on the wall at all. 'Really?' He said, 'this doesn't bother you at all?' Dena now glanced at her partner, as if she had awoken from a dream. 'Ked, this is our job, if you want it or not. We ought to know who committed this horrible crime and the only way to do that is to examine the crime scene. And yes, it does bother me. But you know what bothers me the most, Ked? The fact that the lunatic who did this is stilling running free. So, I'm asking you as a friend, pull yourself together.' Kedric Gerson hadn't expected those wise words from his partner. Usually, she had always made dumb jokes and eaten dozens of donuts, but now something had changed. She had become more serious, more focused. More determined to do a great job than ever. No more donuts, no more jokes. Yeah, now the game was on. 'You're right' he said, now looking straight at the bloody writings on the wall. Kedric also stepped closer to the body and now understood why Dena had said the words 'surgical precision' earlier. 'I-I think I get it. The message, I mean. It's not about her death, he must've removed something from her body. The only question is what...' They both were in their own world of thoughts now and not a soul in the world would've guessed where this would take them.