He’d finished in 548 seconds, well under the time he had allotted himself for inspecting the crime scene. With a satisfied smirk, Richter holstered his scanner and turned to Captain Bradley. “Captain, the inspection is complete, and I’ve located the residual magic. It is time for your... unit to begin the signal trace.” Looking over the motley-dressed personnel that made up the magical phenomenon investigation unit, Richter couldn’t help but load the word ‘unit’ with sarcasm. It implied a level of professionalism that was lacking.

Captain Bradley beamed back at him. “No can do, sorry Ricky. While you were strutting your stuff, me and Olive here agreed I’d run the trace as part of her inspection. So... I can only move on her say so.”

Richter scowled at him to no effect, an expression which further intensified when he caught sight of Olivia leaning against the wall, smirking. Ignoring the provocation, he continued to focus on the MPIU captain. “And if the signal disappears while she’s playing at detective? This isn’t a game, Captain.”

The sunny smile never left Captain Bradley’s face. “She agreed we could start while she was looking over the scene. I’m just waiting for you to give Olive the go-ahead. Since you’re, you know, technically in charge.”

Richter considered arguing, pulling rank, or wringing the Captain’s scrawny neck, but precious time was slipping away. With a sigh, Richter turned to Olivia. “Fine, go ahead, Olive.” He let the emphasis lie on the last word, and felt a small tingle of satisfaction as her fucking smirk faltered. Then, still fuming, he stormed past her, settling against a wall next to the uniformed guards.

Olivia turned back to Richter and gave a mocking bow. “By your leave, Ricky.” Richter kept his face placid, not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction. With a huff, Olivia turned towards the crime scene, and nodded to Captain Bradley. On her signal, the whole MPIU jumped into action, hauling themselves off crates and lugging those crates into the hexagonal control room. Olivia wove throughout the tumult, conducting her investigation.

Bah, he’d let her have her hollow victory. Who cared if that MPIU bastard was a backstabbing pile of shit, or that the MPIU report was being filed with Olivia’s instead of Richter’s —like it was supposed to be. The chief would remember the MPIU had been his idea. When they caught the Crow, it would be his accomplishment, not hers; no matter what the reports said.

Richter watched as three tripods topped with intricately carved jade were set up around the point he’d identified. If it weren’t for Olivia inspecting the corners of the room for dust or aberrant DNA, he could almost imagine they were acting on his instructions. Richter snorted. She was wasting her time; the Crow never left any DNA evidence.

Three of the men had taken up their stations next to each tripod; a bespectacled fellow was holding an open briefcase in one arm and operating the electronics within with his free hand. Meanwhile, the Captain was watching his team set up. Once all the tripods were in place, and each member of the team had called out readiness, Captain Bradley turned, winked at Richter, and then signalled for his team to begin.

The bespectacled operator pressed some buttons; magic crackled off of the three MPIU members stationed at the tripods and arced between the jade carvings. As the arcs shifted and danced, Richter swore he saw an afterimage of mathematical equations burned into the air. Once each of the jade carvings had absorbed enough magic, it started to glow, and the arcs stabilized, forming a crackling circle of lightning parallel to the floor, within which the air seemed to shimmer.

Captain Bradley turned his attention to the shimmering mirror his team called into being. His eyes glowed purple, and he began to drift upwards, until he was floating above it, staring downwards.

The briefcase emitted a series of beeps and flashes; the operator’s fingers flew across the knobs and dials, adjusting settings.

Out of the corner of his eye, Richter noticed that Olivia had abandoned her hunt and was staring at the MPIU captain, awestruck. Pathetic. She couldn’t even complete the simple task of casing of a crime scene without getting distracted.

A few minutes later, Captain Bradley touched down; then he, and the three men stationed at each tripod, collapsed simultaneously. The magic flickered out of existence, leaving the room, with its fluorescent lights, feeling cold and sterile. And the air, leaden.

Olivia started towards the fallen men, but halted when Richter fixed her with a cold stare. “They’ll be fine, just get the coordinates from Specs and we’ll be on our way.” The aforementioned MPIU member nodded, seeming to affirm Richter’s statement.

“I’m not done with the crime scene.” Olivia protested.

Richter barely kept himself from shouting that ‘there was nothing else to find’. But, he had to play nice, he doubted Specs would give him the coordinates otherwise; given the Captain’s agreement with Olivia. With a sigh, Richter said. “Fine. You have 600 seconds, then we move, we can’t afford to waste time here.”

Olivia nodded and got to work on the computer logs. She was retreading territory he’d already covered, what a damn waste of time. Richter pulled out his phone, and began preparing the crime scene report; he made sure to note the time she was currently wasting. It was a little thing, but when her report didn’t turn up a scrap more than his did... Well, let’s just say he was looking forwards to the Chief’s reaction.

587 seconds later, Olivia left the crime scene, holding a glowing chip that Specs’ machine had spat out. 12 seconds later the chip was in her phone, and after another 5 his phone buzzed, alerting him of the file transfer.

Richter opened the map she’d sent him and cursed. The coordinates the teleportation trace had uncovered weren’t close to any of the nexus gates. In fact, it appeared as if the location had been deliberately chosen for its remoteness. Richter did some quick mental calculations. Even if they jumped to the closest nexus and requisitioned the fastest ship it would still take more than 40 hours to arrive. Best case scenario the Crow was still there, worst case... well, 40 hours was a long time for a trail to go cold.

Making a snap decision, Richter turned to the nearest uniformed guard. “Assist Specs in packing up the MPIU unit and carry them out to their car. We might need them again.”

The guard saluted, and the group of them leapt into action. Richter smiled at the efficiency and turned his attention to Specs. “I’ll need you to head to the Sirius nexus, Olivia will meet you on the far side.” Turning his attention to her, Richter continued. “Olivia,requisition the fastest ship available at the Sirius nexus; I’ll get the chief to put in the stakeout order.”

Richter turned on his heels and left before Olivia could reply. He didn’t have time to waste on her nattering. As he walked the empty corridors, Richter thumbed the phone in his pocket. He could call it in, but the commissioner’s office was in the same building, so he might as well see him in person. Between the stakeout, vehicle requisition, and extension of the MPIU operation, there were surely forms he’d need to sign. Even in a crisis, the bureaucratic leeches of the UMC were relentless.

It took him 318 seconds to reach the Commissioner’s office. Every step of the way, Richter felt the tension building in his body. After years of dead ends, he was closer than he’d even been to catching the Crow.

Most of his walk had been spent alone, with just his thoughts, nerves, and the echoes of his own footsteps. But, as he closed in on Commissioner Adette’s office, he heard the sound of raised voices. Rounding a corner, Richter saw a queue of irate-looking politicians shuffling about. Beyond them, though the Commissioner’s prized glass door, Richter saw a silver-haired statesman in the midst ofscreaming at the Commissioner.

Richter pushed through the milling politicos. One of them tried to block his way, said something about “needing to wait his turn.” Richter kept walking; the man didn’t move in time and was sent crashing into the women behind him. The pair began apologizing profusely to each other; Richter left them to their pageantry and slipped through the door to the Commissioner’s office.

The first words Richter heard were something about a mistress, bad luck, and electoral consequences. Behind him, a chorus of tittering laughter and whispers arose. With the door open, the soundproofing was meaningless. Despite the urgency of his request, Richter couldn’t help but share in thegeneral amusement. As a committee member, the statesman hadn’t experienced misfortune in years: one of the perks of ‘service’.

The irate man spun towards the door, searching for the source of the laughter. His face was red from shouting, and his bloodshot eyes were livid. Richter preempted any continuation of the tirade by fixing the man with a cold stare and saying. “Get out. Now.”

The man stuttered, tripping over the words he’d been about to begin, incredulous. Nobody talked to a committee member like that. When the man didn’t immediately vacate the office, Richter grabbed him by the collar and forcibly removed him. He took a particular grim satisfaction in the statesman’s expression of disbelief, as the man stared at him through the glass door. Richter flipped the latch, engaging the lock, and turned to face the Commissioner.

The Commissioner was laughing. “Fuck me, I’d pay to see that again. The look on that prick’s face was priceless. Though, I’m certain to never hear the end of it.” Pushing the open files out of the way, Commissioner Adette gestured for Richter to take a seat. “So, what did you find, Richter?”

Richter sat, puts one hand under his chin and leaned forwards. “A lead.” He slid his phone across the table, map open. “Chief, I need you to authorize a code 5 on that location, get the local UMC officers on the case, tracking anyone going in or out until we arrive. Also, I sent Olivia ahead to the Sirius Nexus, she’ll need a requisition notice for their fastest ship.”

The Commissioner nodded. “Very well, you’ll have it.” While he spoke, the Commissioner opened up a drawer and began fishing out forms. “Anything else?”

“We’ll be taking the MPIU with us, just in case.”

The Commissioner nodded thoughtfully and pulled out a second thick sheaf of paperwork. He slid the stack of paper across the table. “Just sign all the boxes, I’ll fill out the rest.”

It was a breach of protocol, a welcome one. Richter had places to be, the commissioner didn’t. Richter signed them.

The Commissioner stood and walked him back to the door. As he did so, he said, “I’ll have the luck monitoring stations notify you if they turn up anything. Oh and Richter, good luck.”

When Richter stepped through the door, the statesman was blocking his path, demanding an apology. Richter casually unholstered his sidearm, and the man found an excuse to be elsewhere. Pushing through the crowd of outraged politicians, Richter made his way out of HQ and back to his vehicle. He punched in the Sirius Nexus as his destination, and let it whisk him away.

Olivia was waiting with the MPIU unit and the keys to a high speed courier shuttle when he arrived. When he laid eyes on the vessel, Richter groaned. It would be lightning-quick, sure, but he was pretty sure the shuttle that he’d used to move out of the UMC academy dorms had been bigger, and he was going to be stuck in it for days with six of his least favourite people, and sundry supplies. To keep from going insane cooped up on a ship with the insufferable MPIU unit Captain and Olivia, Richter found a crate he could use as a desk and busied himself with work. He finished his report and started scouring the network for all the information he could find out the old warehouse they were bound for. Floor plans, ownership details, anything and everything he could get his hands on. Throughout the voyage, his work was interrupted by regular updates from the stakeout team, nobody had been seen coming in or out. Though, since they were dealing with a criminal with teleportation magic, that was scant comfort.

They were several hours out from their destination when Richter’s phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello, this is Detective-Inspector James Richter.”

“Lieutenant Jardin, Long Range Detection. I’m supposed to report to you about a luck-based anomaly detected by our scanning system. At 21:43, thirty minutes ago, our system detected a sudden spike in luck. However, attempts to localize it failed due to a power loss at the facility, and the subsequent malfunction of our back-up generator. I’ve contacted five other facilities, in each instance, their systems also detected a significant spike of luck. But, every facility failed to localize it due to malfunctions, which knocked out both their primary and the secondary backup systems. We’ll be coordinating with the other facilities to piece together a rough location based on time of detection, but I don’t have an estimate of how long that will take. Do you have any questions, sir?”

There was a pause, as Richter considered everything he’d been told. “No questions, just keep me briefed of any additional changes or status updates.”

“Sir.” There was a click as the connection terminated.

With one hand, Richter massaged his temples. More bad luck. Tracking down their lucky thief was going to be a major headache.