The Irangel | Prequel Story |

Chapter 21 ~ Satellite View

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~ Satellite Control Center
Poland ~

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Though the world knew not of the irangels, a satellite camera did. Janetia Myörs, one of the government employees assigned to the satellite monitors, noticed a strange thing that made her ask her supervisor to come over.

"See this? Is this even legit?" she asked, pointing at a footage of Cole flying out above the forest. There was more footage of him at the university campus, one of him breaking into a gun store and stealing a gun, and flying in the sky. It was cut off when he neared two hundred kilometers before the border of Wachstyen Forest, making them assume it was a place of bad network issues or a no signal zone. Forests were known not to have the best reception.

Gilbert Dren, her supervisor, stood frowning in confusion, his chin rested in his hand as he watched closely. "It's probably some guy dressed in a costume," he finally said, though doubtedly.

Both watched in surprise as Cole flew efficiently over mountains and rested on a cliff before continuing his flight. Janetia zoomed in on his wings, confirming they looked like they were a part of him and not part of a costume. That was just even more confusing to them, for they had never seen anything like this before.

"There must be some kind of mechanism or something that keeps him in the air so effortlessly," said Gilbert, doubting his own words even as he spoke. There was simply no real explanation as to how a guy could fly effortlessly with wings. Unless....

"Maybe he's a projected illusion, like a movie effect?" Janetia spoke inquiringly, glancing at her supervisor. "Or an alien from outer space?"

Gilbert pulled up the results from the face recognition scan. "His name is Cole Matthews. He is a student at Blümenheig University southwest of Munich, in the city of Stattfinden, Germany. He went missing before he suddenly made an appearance to a former roommate and a professor. He has no previous criminal history, not even a speeding ticket in the past five years. He seemed like a good kid, had a girlfriend and was very close to graduating with honors. His girlfriend claimed he could glow in the dark. She believes he may have taken some kind of drug that made him sparkle. I wonder what happened to him," he said thoughtfully, watching the footage closely.

Janetia noticed Cole crying in some of the footage. "Something tragic must have happened to him," she said softly. "It must've been something very bad."

"He was last seen at a large tech store the day he went missing," said Gilbert. "There were limited security cameras outside of the store. Only one of them showed Cole walking outside with a pair of stolen earbuds, so there's no telling what happened outside. But the inside security cameras showed Cole walking around and putting a pair of expensive earbuds in his pocket. It was the first and only instance of him doing any sort of crime prior to the gun store incident."

"Was there anyone else in the store?" Janetia asked.

"Besides the store manager and employees, there were about thirty or forty other people in the store," Gilbert replied.

Janetia sat back, pondering. "What could be the sudden motive to steal?"

Gilbert turned to look at her. "That's the funny thing. He bought those same earbuds a few days ago, then returned them the day before he stole them."

"That's weird," Janetia muttered.

"Yeah, the police are baffled." Gilbert crossed his arms, once again studying the footage. "We contacted his divorced parents. They were the ones responsible for making him return the earbuds. They were very shrewd parents who watched every Euro he spent."

"It's no wonder the guy went off the wrong path," Janetia remarked. "He must've really wanted those earbuds and when his parents wouldn't let him have them and forced him to return them, he decided to steal them."

"Those are pretty good earbuds," Gilbert admitted. "One of the best brands."

"I bet his parents may have had some kind of influence over his sudden turn of decisions and events," said Janetia. "Are they being held in custody?"

"Yes, they are, until we can figure out what exactly is going on with this guy."

"A lot for sure," said Janetia, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Wish we could get a hold of the guy ourselves. Then we'd be able to find out everything for sure."

"Good luck on that," said Gilbert, going over to pick up some stuff. "I'm heading to lunch. Let me know if you see anything else."

"Sure will, Gilbert," said Janetia, her eyes intently focused on the screens, waiting for the slightest hint of Cole's reappearance. "Sure will."