A Devil of a Job

[TennyoCeres84]

"How do we prevent that, though? The fact that poison was involved with one Fae's death means that the killer is able to find vulnerable spots and inflict harm on a close range basis," Aislinn mentioned. "What do we do? Monitor everything the child eats or drinks? It might do to make a talisman to protect them, wouldn't it?"

[IamLEAM1983]

Three gave Archie a reassuring glance, then spending a few seconds to sit himself down.

"Let's consider the facts. This guy bypasses common household security measures and poisons stuff he's sure the kids are going to use in the immediate. This means locks and security system keypads aren't too much trouble for him. Let's also assume he knows his way around run-of-the-mill ward jobs. We know there's been hits in very distinct parts of the globe, but I can think of one thing we have in common with the UK," he said. "Regional headquarters for Griffin Securities. The city's covered in GrifSec home defense tech and this isn't the kind of stuff any old serial killer could mess with using a pwnbox."

That made Zebediah blink. "Excuse me - Pone-box?! What the Hell have I missed now?
- It's spelled P-W-N-B-O-X, Zeb. It's a homebrew device that people make for bypassing electronic systems. Seeing as I doubt our guy has that, this leaves us two options: either we rule out everyone in town who's covered by GrifSec, which considerably reduces our amount of houses to check, or we assume that our guy has connections to someone on the inside, who supplies him with hardware. Either way, we'd know which residences to check out. As far as testing for poisons go, I think Rendell could give us an edge without even being involved..."

This time, it was Archie who blinked. "How will that maniac be of any use to us?
- Not him personally," replied Three, "but any old cell culture the HPD's Forensics department keeps. He's undead and a regenerator by default. Poisons don't work on him, but his cells do react, and the sample resets itself after being exposed to poison. We take a Petri dish from Forensics and submit it to a bit of everything from houses that aren't fully protected or that have had recent B&E alerts. If we remove all the dead kids from the list, we know which residences to test."

The Clank was perplexed. "This could work, but it would take far too much time. How do we compensate for this fact?
- He's killed several kids per night," replied the soldier. "This means Michael hits houses in clusters. If one house checks out, we square out all those that aren't within an immediate radius. I'm thinking - guy has a car, he's motivated but doesn't want to be too reckless, so... four or five blocks."

[Weirdlet]

Being somewhat peripheral to the investigative side of things, Tam hadn't been part of the meetings regarding the latest big case- but that didn't mean word didn't get around. Apart from the contrasting bubble of 'yay, work!', she'd felt the palpable dismay at the reality of the case- there were children, dead, and more being targeted. And while the whole gang was in a unique position to actively do something about it- that didn't mean that the sick sense of helplessness at what was and had already happened wasn't still lurking there.

Blue knuckles rapped sharply on one of the doorposts, as their mechanic stood there with a disposable aluminum tin under one arm, a box resting on top of it that likely held donuts.

[IamLEAM1983]

Bucky's eyes immediately snapped on the Drifter's offerings. "Oh, you sweet Glucose Fairy," he called, "you've brought us the ideal remedy for these doldrums!"

Three flashed a grin at Tam, but he didn't exactly cheer up, either. "Spector's in lockdown, coordinating operations for a nation-wide manhunt of the same guy. He's zeroed in on Hope, but he can't really lend us any serious assistance with what he has to do. There's always the possibility that Michael might grow a brain and figure out he's better off making tracks for another part of the country. So... that's more or less why we haven't heard about letter agencies taking the lead. Spector's not in any position to stick to the we're the guys in charge, now routine - and he's never been one to condescend on the local force."

Archie opened up a folder he'd carried with him. "Our man is apparently intent on communicating, as with all other serial killers. Prior to his victims' deaths, several parents reported slips such as the following being dropped in their mailboxes."

Three picked a photo of one of the college-ruled sheets of paper that had been recovered. Printed on the page was a sequence of numbers. "Did the HPD's cryptographers give it a run-through?
- Yes. These numbers refer to a well-known Bible verse. Suffer not a witch to live. The other sequences that were recovered do not offer matching Biblical quotations.
- Any other hypotheses?
- Other religious texts may be involved, or perhaps works mired in the occult. Women who sired Changelings were not always treated with the utmost care and respect, as History has shown us, and I can think of no worse treatment than having your child removed in such a cruel fashion."

Zebediah shrugged. "Look for the Witches' Hammer, then. The Malleus Maleficarum. Ask d'Aubignier, he is bound to have a copy."

[TennyoCeres84]

The selkie offered a smile and a wave to the much taller woman. "Hello Tam," she greeted. Aislinn had not had much of a chance to get to know the Drifter and hoped to do so. Outside of her sister, Sophia and Aspasia, there weren't many other women in the fledgeling superhero group.

"I can swing by d'Aubignier's and cross-ref anything that might be in The Witches' Hammer," Aislinn offered. "Michael might be an alias for all we know, right? The killer might get a kick out of using an angel's name to carry out his "divine" mission."

[Weirdlet]

Tam set both down on the surface of the table, sliding the flat box of donuts off and into hand-range of folks other than just Bucky.

"The other's going in the fridge, barring a great and pressing need for tuna-noodles right now."

[IamLEAM1983]

Three smiled to Tam, the gesture quickly fading into matter-of-fact seriousness. "What I've got a pressing need for is an ace in the hole. You remember George Gammell, the, um, man we freed from Erasmus' cult back in June? Our guy's calling himself Michael and he has some serious past acquaintances with the Fae. We could pack regular hardware, there's plenty of iron in there - but I want assurances. We need a wild card; something no bargaining attempt or mundane weaponry could bypass. Something a Fae killer couldn't trace.

He joined his hands together on the table. "So I figured you could stop by Gammell's Toybox and place a special order. Take whatever scrap Frank's got and fuse that with George's material. It just can't look like a weapon. It has to be something someone could reasonably pull out of a pocket - easily concealable. You provide the generally harmful bits and bobs, he'll stick 'em into a conveniently impossible footprint."

Archie nodded satisfactorily. "Good. In the meantime, we shall procure samples of objects and consumables touched by the deceased, as well as one of the central precinct's cell cultures from Rendell. With that said, you lot - do be careful when visiting these residences," he demanded, sweeping a gaze across the young selkies. Deaths like this leave traces not only on the physical realm, but also as arcane emanations. If these children's spirits have not found peace, their former homes may appear unsettling or disquieting to you. We require these children's former favorite snacks, their toys - anything they may have touched prior to their observed demise."

While he seemed to agree with all this, Bucky looked to Starr. "Why don'tcha take the first orbital to London?" he suggested. "Guy still had his connections with GrifSec, maybe their HR department has outstandin' cases o' vacation requests or dodgy plane ticket purchases - somethin' that might validate the Former Employee track. You could always try the local headquarters, too. Maybe working with Nigel's gonna make things easier or faster."

[Karl the Mad]

"I can do that," Katherine replied confidently. "Wyvern has a few strings we can pull, I'm sure." She got on one of her devices and started making arrangements.

"Wha' 'bout me?" Charles asked. They'd know by now that the vet was good for more than just chaos and violence, although he perhaps spent more time playing shooters and Grand Theft Auto VI than the others did. For his part, Preston was already at his station, muttering to himself and into a headset as he did whatever he did.

[IamLEAM1983]

"We're teaming up," replied Three. "I'd like us to go over the first of the murder sites and a few surrounding locations. There's no B&E evidence anywhere, nothing like the result of a gunshot - but some modern tools security grid repairmen use have to be at a certain distance from the house you're running diagnostics on. It's all laser-guided as of the last three or four system generations, so sightlines matter as much as they would as if there'd been snipers staking out a kill zone. We'll bring the rifle pointers along."

The rifle pointers, as their name suggested, had the vague appearance of a firearm. However, pulling the trigger only launched a laser pulse, calibrated so a third observer would be able to spot the red dot it would leave on surfaces it crossed paths with. Maintenance laser painters were typically used on particularly nervous security systems, like a rod being stretched between two bars to grab a key or move a switch. It was all a matter of establishing a connection via sightline and sending the proper commands. Three and Jenkins would have to at least check and see if it was possible to "hit" a few of the control panels from nearby rooftops.

[Karl the Mad]

"Magic, maybe?" Charles suggested. "Teleportation?" He liked the rifle pointers, and looked forward to using them. "Which buildings we gonna scale up?" Likely he was looking forward to a bit of urban spelunking...