Chapter 6: A Ball in Motion

“Unacceptable,” Paro said. “They’ve gone too far this time.”

Kazou watched the way his team-leader struggled to contain the seething hatred from leaking into his voice. Glancing down, he saw the way Paro interlocked his fingers, attempting to steady his shaking hands.

“Easy now, Paro,” Kazou said. He placed a hand on Paro’s shoulder and shot nervous glances at Sarah and Michael. It went unsaid that the least productive thing that could happen at a time like this was for Paro to explode with rage and possibly take down the building around him.

It was no secret that Paro was very powerful, the depths of which even he didn’t possess a clue about. Kazou estimated that, at the very least, Paro alone had the power to destroy a small army. He had met many Psychs since he began working for Paro’s team, but none of them came within a fraction of his ability.

“Don’t tell me to be ‘easy’,” Paro growled. “Look at this, Kazou. Look at what they have done here. They even killed the little girls.”

The once well decorated home was now covered in blood and tissue. It was to such an extent that Forensics had issues determining where one body started and another ended.

The blood covered the walls, floor, and in some cases even the ceiling. The victims appeared to have been shredded, their skin peeled from their bodies with evidence suggesting painful, agonizing deaths. From what Forensics had pieced together, the mother had crawled several feet before dying, dragging clumps of skin along the floor with her.

“I’ve got no choice,” Paro said. “I don’t care if we’re dealing with children anymore. In fact, my feelings on this no longer matter. We’re out of options here. I have to put out the kill order. The Operations division will handle this from here on.”

As if her life depended on it, Sarah, in a blinding flash snapped her head around at Paro and roared at him. “What did I just hear you say? Hey!”

Sarah had wept upon entering the scene, whereas Michael had said nothing, forgoing his normal one-liners, but Sarah had been hit hard. Kazou hadn’t been on the team long, but in the time he had, he couldn’t recall having ever dealt with a murder on this scale. Even still, Sarah had composed herself and done her job. At least until Paro’s remark.

“Take it back right now, Paro. Take it the hell back.”

Sarah glared at him and planted her feet into the ground. Kazou couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The usually soft-voiced Sarah was snarling and growling demands.

“You know I can’t do that, Sarah, even if I wanted to. This is over our heads now. Look around you. Look at what’s been done here. Don’t you think I’d like to solve this without loss of life? That’s no longer possible. We’re out of options here. And trust me—the gravity of what I must do is not lost on me. I promise you.”

Kazou, although upset by the decision, did not voice any protest. He knew it was necessary. For Paro to even be considering it, let alone following through, meant it was nothing short of vital.

The Psych-Ops were divided into two broad categories—Investigative and Operative. The job of the Investigative teams was to inspect, arrest, and handle the vast majority of crimes. They weren’t fighters or killers, and the use of force was intended to be kept as minimal as possible.

The Operative teams, on the other hand, had only one simple job. They tracked and they killed, nothing more. They received a target, the list of crimes, and all information found by the investigative team that pursued it. From then on, they did not rest until their target was found and eliminated. But if only that were all, Kazou could have rested easy with the decision, yet it didn’t end there.

For one, the Operative teams did not have the authority of negotiation. Once a target was found, he was eliminated despite any pleas, begs, or even offers of surrender. A target may, and in the past have gone as far as, spreading their hands wide above their head, going to their knees and assuming a position of surrender. For an Op. team this was nothing more than an easy kill.

Once issued, a kill order was irremovable. There were only two conditions by which a person may escape death. The first was if they somehow contacted the Investigative team that pursued them and negotiated their surrender or turned themselves in. That, of course, relied on the team making it in time to secure the arrest, as even in the event of surrender no time would be bought for the target. In fact, if a bloodthirsty Op. team followed an investigative team in route of pursuing a surrendering target, they would be well within their legal rights to tail the team and kill the target upon arrival.

The only other way to escape death was to never be caught. Large bounties would be placed on the targets’ heads, and the target would then have to live their life knowing they were being hunted.

Among Psych-Operatives, there was no love lost between the Investigative and Operative branches. It would be more accurate to say there was a form of hate. The Investigative teams despised and looked upon Op. Psychs with disgust. Those choosing to enter the Investigative branch did so because they believed in stopping crime and enforcing justice, not blind murder. If asked, any member of the Investigative branch—including the members of Paro’s team—would all agree on one thing—the Operations branch should not exist.

It was for all these reasons, Kazou knew, that Sarah was now trembling with anger. She was standing close enough to Paro that her nose could poke him in the eye, and she began jabbing him in the stomach with a finger.

“Can’t or won’t, Paro? It’s not our way to throw people under the bus, especially children. How can you stand there and order the execution of … of children? How dare you look me in the eyes and tell me you have no choice? There’s always a choice. We’re not killers—we are a force of justice. I don’t care if you’re the leader of this team, and I don’t care if you can lock me away for disobeying you. I joined this team so that I could be one of the few people in this world that does what’s right. And this isn’t. Children aren’t sentenced to death, they are rehabilitated. Isn’t that what we’re all about? Isn’t that the reason we work in the Juvenile department in the first place?”

Paro recoiled as if hit by a train, and Kazou knew how he must have been feeling. Without a doubt, Paro was revolted by what he felt he had to do and deeply ashamed of it. Kazou was sure that they all were. But what could be expected?

“Sarah, I—”

“I don’t want to hear it, Paro. Place that kill order and I’m off this team. I will not be part of another excuse for those … animals to murder yet another victim, let alone a child.”

“Same goes for me.” It was the first thing Michael had said since arriving on the scene. His voice was different from normal. Every last trace of his usual sense of humor had vanished.”

“Paro, we’ve been through a lot as a team. Hell, we’ve seen firsthand what children are capable of more times than I reckon I’d like to remember. We’ve tracked and captured more than I can count. But one thing has never changed—the reason we do what we do. You keep telling us to take a look around us, and ya know what, buddy? I have been. What I see is someone who’s really messed up and needs help. What I see is the reason I joined this team. If you take out that cell of yours and call the Op. teams, well, I’ll finish this on my own—sanctioned or not.”

Silence took the team over for a while, seconds that seemed to stretch for hours. During this time, Kazou stared blankly at the myriad of officers, profilers, and forensics teams shuffling in and out of the house. More than a few stopped to stare at the four of them, no doubt wondering what their big secret was, and why all authority was deferred to them. Paro shook his head and turned to face his team.

“I’m sorry everyone. You’re right. Sarah, Michael, I was acting in the heat of the moment. We need to continue our investigation and find out who is responsible for this. I can’t believe I almost ordered the deaths of kids. Thank you for making me see the error of my ways.”

I thought you were right, Paro. I still do. What does that make me?

Kazou shook the thoughts from his mind. Contemplation was not a luxury he could afford.

“Is there anything here that can help us?” Kazou asked. “Why has the M.O of the killers changed? They targeted children, followed soon after by an old woman and now an entire family? This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Ah, actually I think it might.” Michael cast his eyes downward at the sea of blood staining the carpeted floor. Kazou had never seen him like this. He was showing a level of professionalism that Kazou didn’t expect from the man. Even more off-putting, Kazou wasn’t sure if he actually preferred it that way.

“I know you guys are gonna try and call me crazy and say I’m just commin’ up with wild theories and stuff, but umm, hear me out for a second, kay? I know I’m normally the dumb one here, but there’s something that’s been bothering me about all this. We all keep saying that it would be an incredible rarity for more than one or two Psychs to be in the same school. But what if there was?”

Paro’s eyebrows rose. “Interesting, what is it you’re thinking?”

“Well, it’s like this. Supposin’ for a sec here that the kid who did the fire wasn’t involved in the old killins’ right? What would the real ones do?”

Sarah gasped. “My god, they would recruit him. It would make perfect sense if you think about the killing spree that went on tonight. Everything from the old woman to what happened here, good God it was an initiation!”

“Yeah, ya see that’s what I’m thinking. They probably found him somehow and made him do some of this stuff. And it’s got me thinking, right? That if he went from an old woman straight to here, he was buildin’ up to it, ya know? It’s like he or she had a choice to do whatever they wanted, and it ended up with this. No one told the killer what they had to do. They figured it out all by themselves.”

“Damn,” Paro said. “I think we have a very serious problem.” The three of them looked at Paro, worry on their faces. “The forensics team said that special attention was paid to Richard, that the other killings were done as a result of the first and that his was prolonged and personal. Among the students in the class of the fire-incident, wasn’t there one who the school reported as having a feud with Richard? Someone who would fit the description of harboring rage, perhaps someone often bullied?”

Kazou felt a sickening despair. “I was so sure it was the now deceased Richard that I never even considered … Oh, god.” Kazou struggled to contain himself.

“I thought for sure it was that Adam boy,” Sarah said.

Paro slowly took his cell phone out of his pocket. “She was right. We didn’t listen to her, but she was right. We can’t panic. It may not be too late. She’s got an overwhelming tendency to deal with things by herself, but in the end it was my fault for letting her go off alone.”

Sarah’s eyes sparkled with the beginning of tears. “Paro, tell us the truth. Is she with him right now?”

“Yes. She has good intuition. She told us she had a feeling about that Jack Harris, but I looked at his profile and it didn’t seem possible. She begged me to let her investigate the lead on her own. I told her she was wasting her time but to do what she felt was necessary. She … she’s with him right now. Alright, we need to calm down. We need to get organized and—Michael, wait! Where are you going? Hey! We need to stop and think for a minute!”

“Like hell I’m gonna let one of our own get picked off like some animal. She’s just a kid. Damn you Paro, damn you to hell! I told you she was too young to join a team, but you didn’t listen to me. I ain’t gonna let her die like that family in here.”

Michael dashed out of the house, running like a madman, prompting the officers nearby to throw a questioning glance at Paro.

“We need to go after him!” Paro yelled.

****

“Okay, I’m just gonna right come out and say it—there’s no way Spider-man would win in a fight against Wolverine. For one, let’s talk powers. Spider-man has great reflexes, and yeah, he can dodge quite a few hits, but he can’t dish out any damage, you see? Wolverine has been hit by buses. At the very least, if the two ever fought, I’d say it would come to a stand-still. See, Spider-man could just run away or hide on a ceiling or something, and Wolverine wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. That is, of course …”

Could I have really been wrong about him?

Jack had been rambling on about the “X-mans” or the “Spidermans” or some kind of nonsense since they left the house fifteen minutes earlier. Mostly, she knew, because he was nervous being alone in her presence, and needed some way to break the silence.

It did make her feel guilty to take advantage of him and trick him this way. She had even led him on a little, but she needed to get close. She needed to be sure. He wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, with his sloppy hair and playful personality, he was kind of cute.

That he was a Psych was no longer up for debate. It didn’t matter what Paro said about the odds of there being a third Psych—well, a fourth, really—in her school. The empathy he showed when the murders were announced, the sadness she could feel within him—he couldn’t have done it. Besides, he’d been home with his mother the entire night, waiting for her to show up.

The fire, though, that was him. Whether he did it on purpose or not was irrelevant. She was in that room. She wasn’t a Telepath, but she didn’t have to be one to know he was responsible.

When it was happening, she had immediately put up her guard. Never in her life had she been so frightened. But later, when he’d approached her in the courtyard and started speaking with her, it seemed to all fall into place. A monstrous killer wouldn’t set a classroom on fire just because he missed a homework, but Jack was a simple-minded boy, and intentional or not, that was the kind of thing she’d expect from him.

As she walked over the soft grass three blocks from his home, through a park with a majestic water fountain carved from stone, she felt the building remorse. She was going to break his heart. Even if he didn’t commit the murders, he still had to be tagged and released. He’d committed a crime, and unwittingly or not, he had to be brought in. She knew it shouldn’t matter to her what he thought of her, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Jack would hate her when he learned the truth. More so, she wondered if he was even capable of hate.

“Which is why if they ever made a sequel to Episode VI, they would obviously have to find all new actors.”

Melissa smiled. “You think so, Jack? I actually haven’t seen those movies.”

Jack looked as if he’d been punched in the face. “What! You mean you haven’t seen Star Wars yet? Oh man, Melissa, you have got to come over and watch them. I’ve got them on VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. We could make a thing of it! I know, first we’ll watch the originals, and then the special edition. Then, we can watch the new trilogy. Wait, actually we should watch the new trilogy first, since it’s in chronological order and then you could … Wait, that’s a bad idea too. I don’t want your first Star Wars experience to be soiled by 'Phantom.' Okay, here’s what we’ll do, we’ll—”

“Jack, stop for a minute. I need to talk to you.”

“Oh? What’s up, Melissa?”

They took seats on a low to the ground section of the giant water fountain. She enjoyed the moist, delicate wind that caressed her skin as it cooled off from the fountain behind her.

“This isn’t going to be easy for me to say, but there’s some things you need to know.” She tried to think of how to tell him what she must. She needed a delicate way to explain to him why he might not be able to return home for a few nights.

As she opened her mouth to speak, the phone in her pocket went off. “Just a sec, Jack.” She raised the phone to her ear. “This is Melissa.”

“Melissa, thank god you’re okay. It’s Paro. Are you with the Harris kid?”

“Umm, yeah, he’s right here. It’s as I thought, but there’s not much to worry about. He’s exactly what we thought him to originally be. No link whatsoever.”

“No, you’re wrong. Listen, we found out some stuff.”

Melissa tensed as Paro spoke. She shook her head instinctively as she listened to his theory.

“No, that’s not possible,” she said. She turned to Jack. “Jack, you were with your mother all day, right? I mean, after you got home from school?”

Jack looked puzzled. He definitely had no idea what the phone call was about or who she was speaking to. “Umm, no, I didn’t get home until about a half-hour before you showed up. I was busy doing some stuff with a friend.”

For the second time that day, she felt the cold touch of fear.

“Melissa, we’re already on our way. Just keep him there and don’t do anything stupid.”

“Wait a minute, Paro. You’re wrong about this. I’ve gotten to know him … It can’t be.”

“You should know by now that anything can be. It might even be possible he doesn’t realize what he has done. Who can tell what is inside the mind of a killer? But what we do know at this point is that we have every reason to believe he is either an initiate of the original killers or solely responsible himself.”

Melissa looked over to Jack, who was now oblivious to the conversation. He seemed to be preoccupied reading some kind of black-and-white comic book on his phone.

“It’s almost impossible to believe.”

“It often is. Just hang tight, and don’t let him leave. We’ll be there within five minutes. And Melissa, thank God you’re okay. We were worried sick about you. Just hold on and be safe.”

Melissa gulped as she hung up the phone. So, this was the monster they were looking for? Without realizing it, her fear turned to anger.

Don’t worry, Paro, she thought to herself. He’s not going anywhere. Not unless it’s over my dead body.