Limitless

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Chapter 25 - Harmony

Alec meets me outside my house and we take a stroll around the city. 'Harmony, I've been meaning to ask you...' He hesitates. 'When you were with Hope, did he kiss you?'

I pause. The mike. That's how he knows; I must have accidentally turned it on. 'Yes, he did.'

'Why'd he do it?'

'I don't know, maybe he found me attractive. But I guess its just because he drank too much of some cheap wine. I went with it. I didn't want to make him suspicious.'

We stand in silence for a moment, then before I can protest, his gloved hand brushes against my chin and he leans forward to kiss my lips. I pull away before his mouth can touch mine, but his hand is around the back of my neck. I push it away. I'm surprised at how repulsed I fell. All I can see standing in front of me is a man with blood on his hands.

He stares at me for a while, and then moves away. 'Good night, Ms. Hunt.' He walks away towards his house, and I walk to mine. I open the doors and am greeted by my parents. I head straight up to my room and shut the door.

I try in vain to fall asleep, but I know it's useless. Too much has happened today, the Chancellor, Hope's interrogation, Alec trying to kiss me. I decide against lying in bed and stand up and get a glass of water, then turn on the monitor. I might as well use my time wisely and sweep through Hope's background once again.

The 200'000 Units I got as a reward for capturing Hope is tossed around at the corner of the room. I know I have to keep it in a safer place, but right now, I don't care about the money.

I put my verification code for accessing the Internet, and open the files that Commander Jacobs sent me. 'The internet used to be so much better in the old days.' Raiden used to tell me. 'Until the sun flares and floods destroyed most of our data.'

I skim through the information and my mind sorts out the details.

BIRTH NAME: ETHAN ALEXANDER KNIGHT
AGE/GENDER: 15/M
HEIGHT: 167.4 CM
WEIGHT: 49.6 KG
BLOOD TYPE: AB NEGATIVE
HAIR: BLACK, LONG. BBCTCL
EYES: BLUE. B2LBE
SKIN: T2L362
DOMINANT ETHNICITY: MONGOLIAN
SECONDARY ETHNICITY: ANGLO
FATHER: ALFIE RICHARD KNIGHT. DECEASED
MOTHER: LIANA JASMINE KNIGHT. DECEASED

Again, I picture the woman crumpled on the ground covered with her own blood, I quickly shake the image away.

SIBLINGS: ROYCE OWEN KNIGHT, 9,M

Then comes pages and pages of documents detailing Hope's past crimes. I try to skim through them as fast as possible, but in the end I can't help pausing on the last one.

FATALITIES: CAPTAIN RAIDEN HUNT

I close my eyes. I didn't kill your brother. That's what he told me. But you might has well have pulled the trigger yourself.

I force myself to scroll past to the next document. It's the photos of Raiden's dead body.

Raiden's cold, lifeless face tilts up to the sky, and his hair fans out in a small circle under his head. Blood stains his shirt. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and tell myself to concentrate this time. I'd always managed to get through reading the text of the report, but I could never bring myself to study the photos. Now I have to. I open my eyes and focus back on my brother's body. I wish I'd studied the wounds more closely in person when I had the chance.

First, I make sure that the knife is indeed buried in his chest. Bits of blood stain the hilt. I can't see any of the who blade. Then I look at Raiden's shoulder.

Although his sleeve covers it, I can still see a sizeable circle of blood there. It couldn't be a spillover from the chest; it has to be a different wound. I zoom into the photo. Nope, too blurry. I cant see anything and the knife is blocking the view.

I close the photo and click on another one.

That's when I realize something.

All the photos on the page are taken at a certain angle. I can't see the wound in any of the pictures. Why aren't there any close-ups of the wounds? I frown. Poor crime scene photography. I scroll through the pages again, searching for pictures that I might have missed. But that was it. Then I look at the same photos again and try to make sense of it.

Maybe some of the photos are classified. No, that's just stupid. Then why would she send any of the photos at all? Then I think of the alternative.

What if Commander didn't send me some photos because she wanted to hide it from me? But that's impossible. She loves her soldier. And she wanted Raiden to be in her patrol. She is the one who promoted him to captain.

But I doubt the crime scene photographer was so rushed he took such bad photos.

No matter how many times I think and rethink of it, I always end up with the same conclusion. The report is incomplete. I brush my hand through my long hair. I don't understand.