Chapter 354: First Lead
Jace stepped out of the vehicle and walked toward the garage as the garage opened up. Then it began closing behind him after he stepped inside. He looked around for a moment before he listened closely and could pick up the girl’s heartbeats. They were sleeping up on the second floor with Cho. He quietly climbed the ladder and saw they were in a cuddle pile.
He climbed back down and then moved to quietly move a few things around. For now he would have set up everything so he could build it when they would wake up. Then he would have them help him since they had nothing better to do. Cain seemed to already understand because he was having the Hollows move the last of the metal scrap quietly to the material converter.
Once Jace was done with the planning outline he had nothing else to do and it was looking like the girls were going to be asleep for a few more hours. So he pulled the information that White gave him.
She was right about him not letting it go. But not for the reasons she thought. He figured he would get a chance to establish himself locally with this. He just had to hope he would not end up with the wrong reputation.
After a few minutes he left through the back door, leaving Cain to watch the girls. There likely was not a threat now from the Waterboys. But there was also a chance that they would go against White’s orders anyways. He had been bitten in the ass by similar experiences several times in the past before he went to the academy.
He had taken the information that Mistress White had provided and had mapped it. Marking the locations of the kidnappings and disappearances. Finding that there were three places of focus. One area of kidnapping is around a cafe but the disappearances mostly occurred during the early morning. The second area of kidnapping is an open market place and disappearances occur between the middle of the day to when the average citizen’s workday ends. The third and last clear location where kidnappings occur is along a line of transit stations.
The transit stations were a form of public transportation. When the Princess’ Pride had first undergone construction they were used to move materials and workers around the station using a network of tracks. All based around the initial central structure of the station where the space ships docked. But after the station was complete it could have been scrapped, but the Princess had decided to instead convert it into public transportation for the entire station.
While it did work to lessen traffic it also prevented the new police from dividing the station into sections. Without natural barriers a person could travel to a neighboring district where no one knows them and commit a few crimes before moving on. But that was more of a communication problem than anything else.
Jace went in the direction of the second area since it was just after midday. He would be able to investigate and see if he could find the culprits. It was the only lead he had at the moment.
Jace arrived at the open market place eventually. There were a number of products on display. He decided he might as well look around to see if he can find anything interesting. He was still fixing up his place so he could use something made by hand. While he was looking he would focus his ears on listening to hushed conversations.
He walked past a few stands that were selling some hand made trinkets. Then stopped at a stall that was selling hand made rugs. But Jace recognized a discreetly carved emblem that was on the window. It indicated them as a weapons merchant. The pale looking man leaned forward and smiled with bags under his eyes.
Jace could pick up the distinct smell of blood. Not just coming from him as a whole. But also from his mouth, then a container hidden under the container. There was also a faint one coming from the fridge in the back. "A vampire, how rare." Jace admitted as he trained his ears elsewhere. This may be a vampire but he was too weak to be a threat.
"Indeed, but I am several branches off the mainline so I get all the negatives and none of the good stuff." The vampire chuckled, "now an observant fella like you should know what he wants." Just as Jace thought. This vampire was weaker than even a normal human that did a bit of strength training. Their deterioration from the main bloodline was a big reason that vampires had not spread and branched out recklessly.
"I want a red, beige, and black carpet design. I have a lounge area I want to place a carpet in. I also wanted to see if you had any interesting weapons." Jace informed him as he caught the snippet of an interesting conversation that was happening nearby.
"Give me a few minutes. I need to get appropriate catalogs for both sets of items." The vampire nodded his head and then stepped back. Hobbling over to a digital terminal and began interacting with it.
While Jace took the moment to focus on the conversation he was hearing. "-sure that this is the place? Disappearances have been reported all over the district and in nearby districts as well." One man told another as they sat at a cafe and drank coffee.
"The guy the Victorium military sent over managed to help us figure out this place within an hour of looking at the information. Apparently the focus of the abductions were here and two other places. But those other places were at a different time of the day. Now focus and look for anything suspicious." The other person responded.
It sounds like the police were following the same lead he was but glancing at a reflective surface he released they were clearly police with their stiff mannerisms and how they were looking around. The culprits will manage to spot them from a mile away. They were not blending in the slightest.
But it was interesting that the Victorium sent over people to help solve some of the crimes. It sounds like the High Priestess was delegating quickly to keep up with the change that was occurring throughout the former Vexical territories. She was also probably hoping to integrate a few of the Victorium species with the humans by having them help on the more civil level.