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Deck 3: Queen of Hearts

     It was over. The Prima Facie was burnt to the ground a week after the mysterious explosion that had no evidence pointing towards any sort of suspect. There were, however, as scorched as they were, corpses. One of the nine belonged to Mazie Hawthorn, a former missing person now found dead with her face completely melted and disfigured by the burns. Although a bitter end to her case all those years ago, it was the beginning a fresh new one. This time, much bigger than just one missing person, but hundreds.

     Through some investigation, a few witnesses came up claiming that they last saw her alive leaving an abandoned building east of the strip. The boys in blue pressed on and discovered an old mall to find out that the basement of it was being used as a human trafficking center. The victims were liberated of their captors, but to the police's surprise, the workers confessed to similar sites existing, as well as their locations.

     The bread crumbs led from one building to another, people missing from up to five years ago being found once more, if you could still call them "people." Many of them were hollow shells of what they were before, broken and tossed from one person to another. Those who were destroyed even more than the others already found ways to end their torment before they could be saved. Even the most collected of officers gagged at what they saw. Finally, the endless nightmare of the cartel was brought to light.

     After six of the thirteen facilities were discovered, the leader of the Prime Facie cartel turned himself in. Aleph Minstrel was a 56 year old man who pulled the strings behind the whole organization. When he was questioned, his reasons were because he wanted to entertain. "This is Vegas, is it not? I provided entertainment to many. I was just following along with other businesses." This statement brought shivers to everyone's spines; all except one of course. The man who sparked the chain of events that caused their downfall. If you can call an explosion a "spark" that is.

     The T.V. screen continued dictating information about the case as Lucy and Ryder ate breakfast. After the long week, Lucy came to a realization that a bodyguard posing as a classmate meant that she had a permanent study buddy following wherever she went. Although that wasn't his purpose, she continued to ask for his help on assignments she needed assistance on, and derivatives were always a tough subject for her.

     Lucy tapped her pencil on the table, looking back and forth between her textbook and the piece of paper she used to answer the questions. Ryder was already done with his homework fifteen minutes ago. Even though he's a bodyguard undercover, he was still considered a student.

     The girl gulped, somewhat intimidated by the boy's consistent stare locked onto her paper, as if she was doing something wrong. After five minutes of being stuck on a problem, she finally mustered up the courage and gave in.

     "The derivative of inverse sine is one over the square root of x squared minus one, right?" She glances over at Ryder.

     The boy shakes his head lightly. "One minus x squared." He says blatantly, correcting her mistake of reversing the two values underneath the square root.

     "O-oh..." Lucy drags her words as she begins erasing all of the work she has done for the problem.

      "Also, shouldn't you get going now? You made plans with your friends today, remember?" He picks up his bowl of cereal, brings it to the sink, and starts washing it. Considering the lack of things happening to Lucy, Ryder seemed more and more like a butler or caretaker than a bodyguard nowadays. He didn't mind it either way though. As long as there was a task for him to accomplish, he finished it with maximum effort, as unbelievable as that sounds when he makes nearly everything he does look so easy.

     "Okay, okay, I got it. Since when did you become my secretary?" Lucy huffs and leans back in her chair, watching Ryder take her finished bowl and wash it as well.