“So, captain, how long have you been operating this safe house?” Kevin looked around the interior of the house around him. It was pretty nice for a safe house. The rooms were spacious, shelved with an abundance of emergency food, first aid kits and some restricted or even outright forbidden weapons, like concentrated pepper spray, stun guns and small caliber pistols. In the living room there were two very comfortable looking luxury chairs, one sofa large enough for one to sleep on, and a simple looking but sturdy coffee table.

“Several years. Doesn’t matter right now.” Captain Ko tossed a string of keys to Keryn: “Here’s the key to the house and other cabinets and drawers. When I leave, you must lock the place down. There’s another exit in the level below, you can drive out there or you can go into the sewer tunnels following the blue pipes over your head. There’s also some talismans and incense here - just in case you need it.”

“Is this place - hardened?” Mick looked around: “Like - like your house, I mean. Captain…”

“Not as safe as my place - I’ve spent most of my time and energy there. But in this place you still have some basic protection.” Captain Ko checked his phone: “Alright, it’s time for me to go. I still need to handle the business in the precinct. You guys stay safe and stay low. I have a computer in the other room, but it’s not connected to the outside world. You can read the documents I have in there, print something if you’d like - just be careful not to write anything down or spread what you read around.”

“Thank you - captain.” Keryn nodded at the captain.

“No problem. Stay safe.” Captain Ko sighed: “Oh - there’s food and drink in the fridge. Nothing fancy, but better than nothing.”

“Fuck!” Kevin collapsed into one of the comfortable chairs. After almost a whole day on the run and stressful conversations and the meeting in the city hall, the exhaustion was a bit too much to bear. A blanket was placed on the back, and he pulled it close to himself.

“Really, you wanna sleep? Now?” Keryn chuckled.

“I’m fucking drained, it’ll just be a minute.” Kevin yawned and rubbed his eyes.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll help you look.” Mick also yawned, and picked up the folder marked “1148”: “1148, what is this for again?”

Keryn hesitated for a moment, then exchanged looks with Kevin before answering: “This is - this is actually for Marcus, or - actually, to Gloria Lee.”

“Gloria Lee, that consultant from the South-Eastern District?” Mick frowned: “Why?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“This is her token, her payment for helping us.” Kevin answered while curling into the blanket with his eyes closed: “And captain agreed to the deal. We don’t know for sure why she wanted it. It’s just - something she wants.”

“Okay - this is interesting.” Mick nodded and flipped open the folder: “‘... the peculiar missing, or theft of this unknown grimoire raised concerns in the city, not in the city hall itself, but in the department that interfaced with the South Eastern District. In fact, the community collective had requested several times that they take over the investigation, or at least collaborate with the city in the investigation, yet all these efforts were delayed or had faced hurdles due to various circumstances. Eventually the focus on the case dwindled, and the case was left cold.’”

“A grimoire? What does it do? What did the community collective say about it?” Keryn looked up from the 1149 folder: “This is - I hope this is not getting more disturbing.”

“Let’s see - ” Mick checked the notes behind a picture of the grimoire: “‘According to the investigators and ritualistic officers from the community collective, this is a grimoire documenting a series of old, forbidden and even some barely tangible ancient rituals and spells. This was found in a secret temple during the conflict between the city and the South-Eastern District. And at the request of the community collective, it was not destroyed, for it being a cultural relic. But it was held in the city, against the protest of the collective.’”

“That sounds like trouble. That’s - that’s some horror movie shit! Why didn’t they just burn it?” Keryn sighed and shook her head: “Okay - but why does this - Gloria chick want it? Why does she want to know about this grimoire?”

“Marcus likes working with her. He told me she was friends with a watcher and a clergyman of a small temple, so she knows a lot more about this - paranormal stuff.” Kevin answered with his eyes still closed and his entire body curled up in the blanket: “It’s probably got something to do with some kind of paranormal shit that happens in the South Eastern District, right?”

“Well - I guess…” Mick scratched his jaw as he looked through the report: “It was missing without a trace, looks like they checked the security footage, access logs to that vault and even searched through the workers’ private property. They couldn’t find anything - And, uh, please remind me, why is it only a South-Eastern District thing?”

“What do you mean?” Keryn and Kevin asked at the same time.

“Well - ever since I came to our precinct, even when I’m not doing active paranormal investigation, I still hear a lot about ghosts and spirits appearing somewhere in the South-Eastern District. Sometimes it’s a wandering spirit, sometimes it’s a dead person appearing in their place to haunt people. I’ve only heard some random story when I was back in my old precinct, ghost stories are just stories, I never thought - ”

“Yeah, we all kinda wanna know that.” Keryn chuckled and sighed: “You may not believe this, but we haven’t known everything we know now longer than you. Because - you know, the city’s position on this. Come to think of it, if it weren’t for that rotten Benson kid - ”

A bolt of lightning struck Kevin as he was both trying to take a nap and sort through the chaotic threads in his head. He shot up from the comfortable chair, throwing the blanket on the ground: “Wait - wait wait wait wait - wasn’t there some - some kind of infrastructure project a few decades ago? One that involves power lines?”

“What? What kind of project?” Keryn was not sure what Kevin was talking about at first.

“Yeah, I remember that.” Mick scratched his nose: “A new kind of transformer and circuit system. Smart grid or something, if I recall correctly. It’s smart and can auto-relay power in times of outage, and it’s easier to maintain, saves energy… My parents know people who were involved in that project, they’re mega rich now. But - ”

“Nonono, I don’t care about that.” Kevin picked up the 1033 folder and opened it with his fingers trembling: “Power lines, the answer is the power lines and those electric stations!”

“What - ” Mick was confused now.

“Hence the electricity. Almost all the deaths are around energy outage areas or during low energy availability time! ” Keryn threw the files in her hand down on the ground: “Holy SHIT! Holy SHIT! You think they know!? You think they KNEW!?”