Marshal Carper -- Character-first adventures! - CDM 4, Chapter 5: On Loan

“Thank you for bringing me along,” Intern Ali said as we crossed the Monongahela River, heading toward Mount Lebanon. 

“You’re better at this than I am. With you around, we might have a chance of finding the vampire.”

“That sounds harder than finding something like a goblin.”

I sighed. “You’re not wrong. A killer with human intelligence in the middle of a densely populated area? That’s tough.”

“Chance for cameras to pick it up, though.”

“Yes, but that’s been a dead end so far. Did you see the location for the latest death?”

“Mount Lebanon Cemetery,” Ali replied.

“That’s right next to a T-station and on the border of Dormont, not to mention Washington Road is always packed with traffic.” The “T” was Pittsburgh's public train system. Many people who lived outside of the city used it to commute in and out, just like any other metro in the country.

“Lots of ways to get there and back out again,” Ali guessed.

I nodded.

“The murder before that was on the Mount Lebanon Golf Course…” Ali flipped through the pages in the file. “Before that was in what used to be a drugstore, and then one in a house listed for sale. Oh, that sucks for whoever owns that house.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, that can’t be good for your asking price.”

“Do you think Dempson is right about some people tasting better?” 

“I hadn’t considered that before this case, but it makes sense. How a cow is raised and its health affect the quality of the meat, right?”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Maybe it’s the same for people and vampires.”

“I bet I would taste like Taco Bell and energy drinks,” Ali mused.

And I would taste like squids, the monster variety, not the terrestrial variety. Or maybe a day wasn’t enough to taint my system completely, but eventually that would be true.

We pulled onto one of the cemetery drives and drove toward the mass of police vehicles and news vans. A few of the cops saw fit to pull off into the grass to get better parking spaces. This was a cemetery, however, not your buddy’s lawn at a cookout, so we got as close as we could without leaving asphalt and walked the rest of the way.

One of the police officers minding the scene lifted the yellow tape for us to pass beneath.

“Enforcer Carmino, I presume?” an old detective with a military crew cut said, tipping his head forward to look at me over his glasses.

“And this is Intern Ali,” I said.

“Zelinski. Glad you boys made the trip out. Let me say up front that I don’t care about who gets credit or any of that bullshit. I just want this guy off my streets.”

“Or girl,” Ali said reflexively, his eyes already scanning the scene.

Detective Zelinski considered Ali for a moment but didn’t reply. I took that to mean that the gender of the suspect actually hadn’t been confirmed, so Ali was right to point that out. 

“This victim was walking home from a yoga class a little after 10 p.m.,” Zelinski began. “She lived five blocks away in a two-bedroom with a roommate and took that class three times a week. We confirmed with the studio that everything seemed normal when she left, and the victim had mentioned to one of the other students that she was excited to catch up on a show she liked when she got home, so it sounds like she didn’t have plans to go anywhere but right back to her apartment.”

“And you think the vampire was interrupted?” I asked.

“There are cameras at every entrance to the cemetery. Two teenagers drove in a little after midnight, which isn’t unusual. We catch a few people a week who come here to neck at night. We haven’t located those two kids yet, but we have their plates. Based on when they came and went, they weren’t aware anyone else was in the cemetery with them. No one else shows up on the cameras, by the way, since you’re probably going to ask.”

Which wasn’t surprising. The cemetery didn’t have a wall or a fence, so someone on foot could easily come and go without using one of the official entrances.

“The body was behind that mausoleum there,” Zelinski said, pointing at a stone structure the size of a camper with a weathered copper door and “Benson” written over the doorway. “She’s with the medical examiner now, obviously. We got DNA from the bite wound, but it’s not in any of our databases. No other trace evidence as of yet.”

“Signs of a struggle or anything like that?” Ali asked. When I was an intern, I would have been too scared to interject in a situation like this, but I was glad he felt comfortable enough to do that here.

“A vampire bite has a paralytic effect,” I explained. “Only takes a few seconds.”

Zelinski nodded. “Might have been a scuffle when they first attacked, but after that, the vampire could carry her wherever they pleased.”

I wandered around the crime scene, looking for clues, but I wasn’t hopeful. Police had already combed the whole cemetery and contacted every home and business that bordered the property to see if they had security cameras.

“How much traffic goes through this area?” Ali asked, scanning the perimeter.

“Washington Road can see 20,000 vehicles a day, easily,” Zelinski answered. “The T as a whole sees about the same number of riders. The station across the street there averages around 3,000 passengers a day.”

Over my shoulder, I noticed two patrolmen looking in my direction, whispering. I tried to ignore them.

“Welp, you’ve been here for about 10 minutes,” the detective joked. “Got a case-breaking idea yet?”

“Wish I did,” I replied. “So your people have or are in the process of looking through security cameras in the area, and you’ve spoken to witnesses and searched each scene for physical evidence.”

Zelinski nodded. 

“Okay, then we can focus purely on the monster angle of the investigation instead of retreading the same ground. Does that work for you?”

“Sure does.”

“Great. We’re going to go look at the other scenes.”

“You’ve got my number, and I got yours. Keep each other updated?”

“Deal.”

On the way back to the car, Ali asked, “Think we’ll catch them?”

“I have no formal training in investigation,” I admitted. “I’m definitely not going to be better than a professional crime scene investigator. I kind of understand monster hunting, but this isn’t a nest of goblins that leave tracks everywhere.”

“Dungeon vampires have that demon ability. Do Earth-born vampires have the same thing?”

In dungeons, vampires often assumed a giant bat-person-like form. It wasn’t a total transformation like you’d see with werewolves, but they grew claws, longer teeth, and wings that attached to their underarms. 

“That’s a good question,” I replied. “I don’t know.”

The next scene we visited was the vacant house. The street was dense with residences, but on the side where the murder took place, the backyards butted up against a somewhat steep embankment. At night, someone could reasonably use the back door unnoticed, especially since the people who lived around here seemed to prefer their fences tall.

“If you want to go have a look, I’m going to make some calls for a minute,” I said when we parked.

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Let me know if anything catches your eye.”

When Ali was out of the car, I opened my personal Instagram, an app I hadn’t used for a few months and hadn’t posted to in over a year. When last I checked, I had 500 followers or so. I was up to 50,000 now, even with no activity and my profile set to private. 

Maybe that attention would work in my favor for a change. I sent a handful of DMs out and went to join Ali in inspecting the crime scene. On my way to the front door, I got a call.

“Ali!” I shouted inside. “We have to go.”

He came around the corner, perplexed. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Not at all. The Rapid Response Team just got called in.”

***

“There’s a C-ranked gate in Kittanning that is about to surge,” Megan explained as Nathan drove us north of the city. “This is a bad one, guys. Three RAID drones have been shot down, and Blast Furnace is already on site. They can’t get to the gate because people are shooting at them from windows and rooftops, so we don’t have any eyes on the gate itself.”

“People?” de Saint asked, seeking clarification. 

“They’ve confirmed 7 so far,” Megan answered. “Local police pulled out as soon as they heard a gate surge was imminent, and the National Guard is on its way to offer support, but they’re at least 2 hours away, so Blast Furnace is our only source of information right now. And we’ve got civilians all over too.”

I pulled up the map on my phone. The gate was on Market Street, which was basically Kittanning’s Main Street. It was lined on either side by storefronts and other businesses. It wasn’t the densest urban environment out there, but a few of the structures were as tall as three stories. Assholes with rifles had a lot of options for nests.

Our constitution scores meant that bullets were slightly less dangerous for us, but we weren’t bulletproof by any stretch. A shot to the head was game over, and a hit to anything vital was still a concern.

“We’ve never gone into something this blind before,” Megan continued. “Blast Furnace is coming at the gate from the east and wants us to come up Market Street from the southwest. Whoever gets into the gate first tries to close it while the other team works to neutralize the threats outside. We aren’t doing that, though. I am not going to have us run down the middle of an open street with snipers around.”

Hornby and Giago visibly relaxed, which gave me some comfort. If they were relieved by Megan’s approach after all of their time in the military, then they agreed that her call was the smart one.

“We’re going to come down Patterson Way and enter this building here from the rear. We know at least two gunmen are inside, and the gate is right out front. We have… 25 minutes until the surge, so we’re going to try and get Gray and Hornby to a spot that’s good for their bows when the monsters come through, and along the way, make sure none of us get shot.”

“Blast Furnace disagrees?” de Saint asked.

“I’ll be in some shit after this,” Megan admitted. “Their squad leader tried to claim seniority, but we have the same rank, technically, and his plan was dumb as shit.”

“We’ve got your back, Osheski,” Giago said. “For what it’s worth, I agree that running up Market Street is a dumb fuck idea.”

Hornby nodded.

“Thanks, guys. Once this gate surges, anyone trying to stop us will have to watch their own asses. We don’t know what kind of dungeon we’re dealing with, but whatever comes out will want to kill them too. Kimmy, Rainy, you’re going to drop us in the supermarket parking lot here, then I want you to pull back before you settle in to play support. I don’t want you getting caught in the surge or attacked by whoever these assholes are.”

“Roger,” de Saint replied.

“Uncle Gray, I know you know this, but mind your shots. We have to assume civilians are in every building.”

Megan swallowed. She was doing her best to look calm and collected, but I knew that the inside of her mind was the same as mine at that moment.

We fought monsters, not people, and had never been in a warzone. I was so scared my hands shook, and my breathing felt strained, like I couldn’t get enough oxygen out of the air.

McDouglas was completely MIA. Chapman was doing her best to provide support, but with RAID drones unable to get close, she was effectively blind. The best she could do was relay scraps of intel and update us on the progress of backup. 

CDM employees were on their way to help, which Chapman hoped would help buy time for the National Guard and possibly other crawlers to arrive. 

I wasn’t hopeful, however. This was a C gate. The average CDM employee was between levels 5 and 8 and had run nothing but E and D gates their entire careers. Whatever came out of this gate would be much more serious than a roach run. Putting our people in the path of those monsters bordered on cruelty, in my mind. They simply weren’t prepared for the fight ahead, and many of them could die if they engaged C-ranked monsters directly.

Then again, they were the people we had, and choices were few.

When a dungeon was about to surge, all of the best options had already failed.