Short Story

“While we're out, we might as well check on some of these other alibis. Especially Reno’s cousin. I just left him another message, but I don’t expect that he’ll return my call.”

"He brought the watch back, but it was scratched and the bezel was broken. Then I noticed other things missing. I questioned him, and he lied about it."

“So, did you learn anything about who did this?” Ethan asked, stepping into the passenger side of my white jeep. “You didn’t really say much over the

Smiley looked a little hesitant at first. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a bomb inside. On first sight, my antennas went sky high. I got the feeling the good-for-nothing was up to no good. I didn’t want to go around in circles with him, so, I let him go play in traffic before things went south.”

“We should get up to speed on the Dexter file. I’ve been studying over the weekend and…”

"I can understand why Steve looks for a distraction, but it's still frustrating. It makes me wonder whether if I'm just another distraction or not."

“Sure, bring him in and let’s see what he has to say,” Detective Ward said.

“In a manner of speaking, I was,” Lathan replied as he looked over the area. “It was only a temporary setback luckily. But it would seem we’ve still got a matter to deal with. What information have you gleaned from the area.”

“Right, that info was doubled checked by Preston himself using that CRV trance-like state stuff to determine if anything was there.”

“Alright then. I’ll give a try.” He begins typing and clicking on the computers, his narrow eyes constantly shifting from one screen to another, his face lightening up as the screens shifted colors. “You know most people who come in here, they know exactly who they’re searching for and just need a location of where they’ll be and when. But you….” He titles his head in a funny way like something is just barely off about this situation. He flashes a crooked grin at me. “Well, let’s just say it might take a little time and…patience.”

“ — everything’s moving in the wrong direction.” Mizai finished for him, leaning back in his desk chair. “Yes, I noticed. And yes, it is very strange. Still...leads have been sparse. Every time I thought I was getting close, I’d either hit a dead end or turn up a bunch of low-level guys whose only purpose was to take some of the heat off the investigation. Listen, I know you’re adamant about this, but...I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.”

William: “That hacker right? Yeah, I remember you talking about him. Why? What about him."

You growled and lashed out at the boy who stood in front of you with a knife wielded in their hand. The person simply dodged and kicked in the back of your legs,making you fall back onto the muddy grass that you were training on.

“No, but I could forgive you your mistake. You’re here because you didn’t die. You’ve spent the last several hours being healed, true, but that was simply to get you mobile as soon as possible. By the time we’d found you after your failure to report for transplant, you’d already grown most of a new liver. It had, admittedly, been several days that you’d lain on the floor, so I had you brought here so I could study you.” Lung-Tze cocked his ancient, wrinkly head to one side. “You’re not following, are you? Let me condense the story.

“No more than you would,” Agent Shan responded. He checked his chrono and sighed. “All right, I’d better get moving. The faster we start running, the easier this will be. We’ll send word as soon as we have something, and then see what this Revan guy is really made of.”