G.I. Joe: Agent Blue Jaye and the Beasts of Lakeside

Chapter 13

Flint and Ben walked up to the large red brick house with the yellow wooden trim at 233 Pine Street. The storm had subsided, and giant puddles remained along the sidewalks. As they reached the apartment building and turned down the walkway, an officer came out of the front door to meet them.

"This is a restricted area. Both of you need to turn around right now and walk the other way." The officer had placed himself in the walkway blocking their path. Flint casually removed his wallet and handed it to the officer.

"My name is Flint. My office had contacted yours recently and we have been granted full access to investigate this crime scene." Flint stated and waited patiently as the officer read his credentials.

"I am going to call this in. Wait here please." The officer replied and went back into the apartment taking Flint's identification with him.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Ben asked, looking a little doubtful and less brave than when they first left the bar.

"Just give it a few moments." Flint said as the door to the apartment re-opened and the officer reemerged.

"Sorry for that." The officer said as he gave Flint back his identification. "Your information checks out. Unfortunately, your friend is going to have to wait out here." The officer pointed squarely at Ben.

"That's fine." Flint said to the officer. "However, this man is a key witness in this investigation, and I will need someone to stay with him until I come back out."

"Yes Sir, not a problem, I can do that." The officer confirmed. Ben had a faint look of desperation on his face. After witnessing the murder the previous night, Flint realized Ben was probably ok not returning to the scene of the crime. Flint turned to Ben.

"I'll be right back. When the boy was attacked, where did it happen?" Flint asked. "Everything happened in the backyard, straight through the kitchen." Ben said. Flint nodded, patted Ben's shoulder, and headed into the house.

The small backyard was empty and cold as a thick cloud cover still blocked out the sun. A small folding table stood in the left corner of the yard. Flint looked up to see the tall branches of the oak tree rising high in the sky. He put his finger to his ear and clicked on his earpiece.

"Breaker, do you read?" Flint asked quietly.

"Yes Sir. One second, let me do a scan. Just keep looking up into the tree please." Breaker asked as Flint continued to look up. "Ok. A little to your left I found one of the broken branches. Turning on your view now."

In an instant, the contact lens in Flint's right eye flashed. Flint then saw the green outline of a scope like on a rifle. Quickly, the scope began to zoom in and scan the branch. Flint saw Breaker highlight the broken area in detail. A series of numbers and equations ran down the right side of the screen above a single word of text that read Processing.

"Ok, based on the angle of the break, age of the tree, and applied pressure, whatever jumped off it weighed between 210 to 220 pounds. The trajectory of the jump shows that the landing would have been down to the right." The screen in Flint's right eye began to create a digital path mapping the trajectory of the jump. As he moved his head along the trajectory, Breaker stopped at another branch. Flint saw the outline of the branch flash and zoom in as Breaker began to analyze the data.

"Looks like similar data from the angles and breaks of the first branch. Whatever was in the tree weighed between 210 to 220 pounds, was powerful, extremely agile, and athletic. Calculating the landing trajectory now." The screen in Flint's eye flashed again and he saw the digital trajectory of the landing path begin from the second branch and end on the grass by a slew of police flags and markers leading all the way to the base of the hedge.