Hollow Point Happiness

Case 3: Armor Plate Prison

Chris walked down the road towards the site, it was a massive charred husk of an armored truck.

"Good fucking lord, that's not something you see every day." He tapped his knuckles against the frame of the truck, "I thought SCI shit was supposed to be indestructible."
The head officer spoke, "Well Agent Cartwin for any normal person it is. But..."
"But what?"
"Whoever did this came overly prepared. They were trying to send a message. The bullet pierced straight through the heaviest plates on this thing. It barely stopped on the driver's cage."
"Ok, but it didn't hit anyone, right? And why is the car destroyed?"
"It detonated, from what we can tell it was some sort of plastic explosive mixed with thermite as the payload inside the round, anyone within 30 ft of it was instantly turned into charred flesh or a fine mist if they were lucky. We guess, and I do say guess, that there where about 8 people in the car and at least 8 were killed outside the car during the blast."

Chris let out a long whistle, "Do we know what it was? Where it came from? Anything?"
"Ya, we got a call from a building about 3 miles down. Claimed the building was shaking like it was going to collapse. We didn't think anything of it till we arrived and found the caller and one other dead, throat wounds, gunshots to the head, we also found a weapon on the roof, whoever used it just dumped it there. According to our records, it's some prototype out of Archangels that never got licensed or something, designed to take out heavy mechs, armor, you name it."

Chris took a sharp breath in, "Do we have Facial, DNA, Fingerprints?"
The policemen tapped at his tablet, "We have a video that cuts off, the assailant shot out the camera, but we got DNA and Fingerprints from the weapon."

Chris took the tablet already knowing what he was going to see. He watched the video, the girl in the video once again was entirely different, hair, body shape, height. The DNA and the Fingerprints also didn't match either of the last to hits. Chris pulled out his phone to call the chief.

"Chuck, please give me some good news, we still don't have anything here, and our wraith is starting to get bold."
"I got a few things, for one we think we know the target, it was an Earl Stevens, one of the SCI's biggest investors and shareholder. Apparently our wraith as you call her switched sides." Chuck gave a laugh, "Anyway, we checked the account and there was another transfer, 95k this time, came from ALPHA Tech. We also managed to get into the car's black box and from what we can tell the car's engine was hacked as well as the doors by an off-world satellite called... let's see... DFRG."
"Hacked by a satellite?"
"Ya, our hitman didn't want anything left to chance. She shot it knowing full well that no one was getting out of it, ever again."
Chris massaged the bridge of his nose, "We need to find something soon, this is escalating, quickly, Chuck."
"As much as I hate to say it I think your right. The Corpos are starting to take their potshots."

Chris finished doing everything he could at the scene. He was exhausted so he was happy that it wasn't a long flight home.
"AVA take me home. And tint the windows I want to sleep."
The windows faded to black and the car grew dark, "Of course Agent Cartwin."

Chris was thinking again about everything they had.
Speaking to the empty car, "Huh, all we know is that all, what 3 now, are girls and that they are all somewhere between 20 and 30. Other than that they have nothing in common, none of the DNA or Fingerprints are even remotely similar so they are probably not related. Which also sucks because with each hit we have more and more non-existent people killing very existent people. And they have access to an off-world satellite that can break into SCI tech, and that's not the only SCI thing they can break. Where in the world did she get access to prototype military tech? I'm sure we could ask the Corpos but... giving out any more tax cuts and it's going to be me and Chuck that are on the hit list next."

He gave a long exhale and sat in silence for a long time, his body lulling him to sleep.

Chris blinked his eyes trying to focus them as he woke, he laid on the ground in an alleyway, the general din of city nightlife echoed off the walls. He tried to stand up but found his arm handcuffed to a metal pipe on the wall. He gave up trying to break out of them as a woman wearing a black business suit squatted down in front of him.

"Christopher? Or do you just go by Chris? Regardless, good evening Mr. Cartwin."
Chris continued blinking trying to focus, his head swam, and he was groggy, "Who...are you?"
"Someone you should be very afraid of Mr. Cartwin. Unless you play nice and do what I ask."

Chris's eyes felt heavy as he started drifting back into sleep. He barely managed to force himself awake for a moment to look at the woman in front of him. She wore a mask and all he could make out were her eyes, her radiant blood-red eyes. Something pricked his neck and he fainted.