Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (6 page)

Drake,

Your
school hasn’t started has it? Well it is sort of nice not having to return to
school this year. I had an interesting week with Kyle just so you know. (I’ve
told you about Kyle before right? He’s an overbearing guy who literally has an
opinion about everything). But anyway, we were out at a club and Kyle’s going
off on how beneficial socialism could be (or something along those lines…I
wasn’t actually there for this part, I was getting drinks) and Kyle goes on
pissing about half a dozen political science majors in the bar. (He might have
insulted their choice of study too, since Kyle thinks a political science major
is absolutely useless…though he said the same thing about a formal education
from any university for that matter, so he might have been an ass about their
university now that I think about it). In any case, a brawl erupted, I had to
jump in, and one thing led to another and two of the guys are in the hospital,
one with a ruptured lung and a couple of broken ribs and I broke the other
guy’s arm at his elbow. Needless to say, Kyle and I are laying low for a bit,
and I don’t think I’m going clubbing with him anymore.

But
in other news, thanks to Kyle I finally made myself a shiny new email address,
so you should let me know what yours is so we can put this outdated medium to
rest. Plus we’ll be able to write more frequently too.

I’ve
gotta get going though, (Kyle’s about to start
Firefly
from the
beginning and I haven’t seen it in a long time) but I’ll send you an email as
soon as I hear back from you.

I
hope the rest of your break is good too.

      ~Yong

“Jonathan,
tell Kitayama that we’ll make our final decision later in September.” Tony
continued his discussion.

Drake
took the letter and replaced it into the envelope and dashed back up to his
room. He set the letter on his desk and took out paper and pen and wrote back,

Yong,

I’m
a bit jealous that you’ve completed school, but aren’t you going to attend a
University later anyway? I know Kyle would say it’s pointless, but you can’t
get a decent job without one. (What does Kyle do for a living anyway?) Either
way, have a good time while you have this time off (and try your best to stay
out of trouble).

Kyle
seems like a bother though. I don’t know how you put up with him, though I know
he offers a deep videogame and movie collection, so maybe that’s it. But these
fights you seem to stumble into keep you sharp I guess, so there’s one positive
aspect in all of that trouble he seems to bring you.

And
where is Kyle from anyway? Maybe you can come to the States if he travels back
here sometime.

      ~Drake

“Dinner!”
Tony shouted a flight below.

Drake
set the letter next to the one Yong wrote him. He returned to the kitchen and
joined his father, who had dished them both up. They said a prayer before they
ate; their meal consisted of cheese covered pasta with a thick tomato sauce, a
side salad, steamed green beans, and fresh baked bread with a light garlic
buttering. They both drank water.

The
two ate in silence for only a moment before Tony broke it and asked, “So what
were you up to today?”

Drake
swallowed and countered with his question, “D’you mean my day at work? Or my
life afterwards?” he smirked.

“Either,
or both.” Tony smiled. Drake chose not to talk about work and started off by
telling him about Jordan and Rachel’s relationship. “Rachel Lee, Rachel? Your
cousin?” Drake nodded, “Interesting…Well just make sure he takes good care of
her.”

“Of
course.” Drake gave way for a slight pause before he added, “She mistakenly
insulted Nick today.”

“Was
it bad?”

“Well
it wasn’t so much as an insult,” Drake corrected himself. “She tried to poke
fun at him but hit a nerve.”

“Ah.”

“Anyway,”
he changed the subject, “I’ve told you that Ian’s moving to London at the end
of the month, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well
I’d hoped to throw a farewell bash for him.” Drake looked at his father and
said, “I could work my way up to this or just ask, is there any way I could get
some money to throw that party for Ian?”

Tony
quietly sipped his water before he made his decision. He nodded and told Drake,
“I want you to do all of the planning on your own, alright?” Drake agreed, and Tony
continued, “I don’t care if you get Nick or Jordan to help you get the word out
or to help you manage some of the finer details, but I want you to work on
this, alright?”

“Of
course.”

“That
means you find the place, you handle reserving it, you manage the expenses, and
you handle any and all damage control,” he finished with a smirk. “And also,”
he pointed at Drake with his fork, “No drugs or alcohol whatsoever, or this
will be the last party you’ll ever want to throw.”

“I’ve
got it.”

Tony
smiled. He took a bite of his salad before he asked how Rachel was.

---*---

10: 53 PM

Baltimore, Maryland

A
mug of black coffee cooled on the detective’s desk. Sage hadn’t touched it
since Chief Johnson dropped it off on his way out for the evening. The Chief
had a wife and two little girls, whereas Detective Sage didn’t have anyone
waiting back at his very shoddy apartment. Johnson had a small gathering years
earlier and Sage happened to meet the chief’s youngest, Cassidy. She asked
Detective Sage if he worked for her daddy, which he told her he did, in a
manner of speaking. She then asked if he liked her daddy, which Sage assured
her he did, with a smile. Cassidy nodded in agreement just before her mother
rushed her off to bed. Sage knew Johnson would have been right at his side in
the investigation years ago, but his family was his highest priority, which
Sage understood.

The
evening shift neared full force and filled the station with faces Sage only
partially recalled. He hadn’t pulled the graveyard shift in years and it wasn’t
with the Baltimore Police Department either, but he did work nights frequently,
though his entire focus was always on whatever his investigation might have
been in then.

His
newest investigation was dubbed the ‘Cladis Investigation,’ based on the
assumed alias of the killer. The detective had a total of nine murders
connected to the villain with a tenth victim on the way. What made matters
worse was the completely bare list of suspects. Forensics failed to find any
concrete evidence that managed to lead to any positive suspects. What
fingerprints or trace hair particles they ever found always belonged to a
family member or friend, all of whom had solid alibis, not that anyone’s
genetic material was ever found at more than one crime scene.

Detective
Sage added Caroline Reynolds’ information to the case file, which happened to
be scattered across his desk and office chair. Photos of her body, the scar on
her forearm, and the bloodied sheet of paper from her notebook were pinned to
the corkboard mounted on the wall behind his desk. On the wall adjacent to the
corkboard was a map of Baltimore, which had a total of nine pins across the
map, the most recent at the residence of Carolyn Reynolds’ parents. The deaths
of all of the victims were spread across the city, with no migratory pattern in
the slayings and without any sign of where in the city the next attack would
occur.

The
rate at which the killer, Cladis, murdered was erratic at best, from what
Detective Sage could see. At times there were only four or five days between
deaths while sometimes there was only one day, and in one instance a span of
nine days. There was also a complete lack of shared traits in the victims; some
were male and others female, young and old, a variety of races, varying social
and economic standings, married, single, widowed or divorced, along with a
plethora of other differences. The only connection he knew was that the current
target of Cladis would meet the following target before they died, between the
window of when the previous victim perished and when the target would be
killed. Beyond that highly abstract lead, Detective Sage was at a loss
entirely.

Sergeant
Geoff Murdock knocked on his door and walked in. He set a small stack of papers
on Sage’s desk. “They asked me to bring these to you,” he said with a glance at
his work. “They finished up with the diary and there’s nothing that indicates
anyone other than the girl or her family had contact with the journal.”

Sage
frowned and asked what the documents were.

“Photo
copies of the pages for the past few weeks,” he told him. “I took the liberty
of looking through the journal once forensics was finished with it and found a
few notes that might help.”

“Did
they check the handwriting?”

Sergeant
Murdock nodded and told him they confirmed it was Caroline’s. “As I was saying,
I leafed through the last few pages and found something, though I think it
might be a load of bull.”

“What
was it?”

“Super
powers.” Murdock folded his arms across his chest and explained, “Caroline Reynolds
recorded in her diary that she accidentally dropped a glass on the wood floor
of her parents’ house and caused it to shatter, however when she started to
pick the pieces up to toss the glass out, the shards reformed and the glass was
whole again.”

Detective
Sage frowned and checked the documents himself.

Aug. 10,

…the
weirdest thing happened today. I dropped a glass on the floor in the kitchen
and broke it, but when I gathered the pieces up in my hand, the glass fixed
itself. It was completely fixed as if I hadn’t dropped it in the first place! I
told my parents but they just assumed I was lying about it, that or they
ignored me…though I have to admit, I’m not sure I’d believe it myself if I
wasn’t there.

Sage
put the pages down and repeated, “‘The glass fixed itself…’ Do you think–”

“No,”
Murdock cut him off. “There’s no chance. Super powers? Sage, this is fiction.
Caroline must have mistaken dropping the glass in the first place, or someone
else picked it up and she didn’t realize it. It just doesn’t seem possible.
It’s impossible.”

Detective
Sage nodded and agreed. “But it is something to consider.”

“Just
don’t let it dilute your focus Sage.” Sergeant Murdock headed for the door but
stopped to remind him that he was always available to help with the
investigation, if he ever needed or wanted it.

Sage
waited until he knew the sergeant was gone before he started to read the
entries in the girl’s diary, though the pages were covered in blood and made
the copies difficult to read.

Aug. 9,

…school
was interesting today, our history teacher’s dad is in the hospital, so he’s
going to Wyoming to see him, tomorrow we’re getting the intern at the high
school as our sub for the next week or so. I heard that she’s kinda weird, but
I haven’t met her, so we’ll see. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll just as soon
cancel class for a week or so while our regular teacher’s out.

Sage
found someone she hadn’t met, the only person she’d mentioned meeting that far.
He continued to read in an attempt to learn more about that person.

Aug. 10,

…the
weirdest thing happened today. I dropped a glass on the floor in the kitchen
and broke it, but when I gathered the pieces up in my hand, the glass fixed
itself. It was completely fixed as if I hadn’t dropped it in the first place! I
told my parents but they just assumed I was lying about it, that or they
ignored me…though I have to admit, I’m not sure I’d believe it myself if I
wasn’t there.

Aug. 11,

…something
weird is going on, I noticed it first yesterday and I thought it was a fluke or
something, but now I did it again today. I went to pick up a glass of water I
had, and my hand moved through it. I thought at first that I missed it, then I
picked it up and was halfway to my room when it fell, my hand went through it again!
I know I didn’t just drop it, because my hand was soaking wet when it hit the
floor. What’s going on?

Aug. 12,

…I
found that I need to concentrate when I’m holding or carrying glass, but
anything else is fine! Bowls, plastic cups, books…it’s just glass…something
else happened, I dropped a glass again, but when I went to pick up the pieces,
the glass repaired itself, no cracks, nothing was wrong with it! What on earth
is this? What is going on?!

Sage
stopped and stared at the entries. He reread the entries twice and then took
out a note pad and scribbled a few notes before he read the final entry.

Aug. 13,

I
found something really cool today. I tried it out once my parents left for
their dinner. I tried walking through the sliding glass door that leads to our
porch, and I walked straight through it! I think I walked back and forth about
twenty times before I finally ran upstairs and tried it out on the triple paned
window in my bedroom, which worked too! After that I had to come and write this
down! This is so cool!