Bitemarks 3.2

Bitemarks 3.2

"What is it?" Skarletta asked, not looking up from the sheets of printed paper she held in her hands.
"I need to feed again..." said David, wringing his hands. Skarletta sighed and looked up at him.
"Then go feed child. You do not require my permission or blessing. Come, go, as you please. Just as long as this research is completed as quickly as possible."
He hung there for a moment.
"Begone!" she cried, swinging an arm in the direction of the doorway and watching as he scampered off.
She turned her attention back to the documents she held. He'd done a good job. She had to give him credit for that. She had expected it to take longer but already she could see many things of interest to her.
Firstly the planet's fluctuating temperatures. Not particularly out of its original tolerance either way. This was enough to convince her that either the device had not been activated, or if it had it must be too far away from the magnetic pole which had caused it to malfunction. Had she had it on her all those years ago at the Arctic? Or, as she presumed, had she been there on recon, the device still safely stored aboard her ship. And that raised the ultimate question, who had her ship now? Where was it? And the answer loomed back at her from another sheet of paper. Copies of information relating to the sale of two books written in an unknown script sold to an overseas collector by an antiques dealer in Coventry. It was close enough that she wanted to visit it. She needed to find out who had bought these two books. She had no doubt that they were written in Karal. Everything she had researched about unknown scripts had pointed to two things. A useless book called the Voynich manuscript that she had already determined was not written in Karal, and a scanned page that was definitely written in Karal taken from one of the two books. There were others of course, but even her eyes could discount them as old, half-formed Dherroine languages or works of fanciful gibberish or complex ciphers invented by novelists. No, these books were definitely Karal in origin and whoever bought them knew damn well what they were buying and Skarletta would bet her life that they knew where her ship was.


Ed stood near his parked car and looked over the edge. He'd parked on top of a multi-story carpark, giving a decent view of an area of the city around where the bodies were found. He looked out over that area now with a pair of nightvision goggles. He hadn't seen anything unusual in the last few hours and neither had Katia yet. He pushed the goggles up onto his forehead and returned to the car and slid into the driver's seat. On the passenger seat behind him was the laptop. He sent Katia an instant message.
"Anything yet?"
and then checked his mail to see if there was any more news from the Bureau. His inbox was still empty and the instant messenger application beeped at him. He checked Katia's reply.
"Not a thing. I'm gonna leave the car, take a look around. Maybe ask a few people."
He sent back a quick "OK" then went back to his post. The view was good up here but maybe he should follow Katia's lead and take a look around street level too. He tossed the goggles back into the car and locked it then made his way down the car park.

A few minutes later he exited the car park and looked around the streets. No surprise they were empty. Most people were tucked up in bed by this time on a Monday night. He took a left, making for one of the quieter side streets. The most recent bodies had been found not far from here. Just a street or two away...
A scream cut through the air at that moment and Ed's ears pricked up. He'd heard the direction it came from and ran without thinking into a darkened alleyway. There was a shorter cry, much quieter this time, but close. Around the next corner, thought Ed as he ran. He reached the next right hand turn and stopped, peering around the corner. Less than ten feet from him a man held a woman up against the wall. The lack of light made it difficult to see but the man had the woman pinned and was leaning close. Ed could swear he was leaning in to bite. He reached under his coat and pulled his gun and stepped out from his cover.
"Hold it!" He called, raising the gun and aiming at the man. He let go of the woman, who fell to the floor. It may have been dark but Ed was certain she was dead already. The man seemed indecisive, not knowing what to do faced with this threat. Fight or flee? He made the latter choice and as he ran Ed fired after him. Just one shot, he saw it strike him, saw his footing slip for a second, and then he was gone. Ed moved to the woman, reached down and felt her neck. He hadn't bitten her but she was dead. He moved the head a little and confirmed what he'd thought. Her neck had been snapped. He stood back up and was about to holster the gun and return to the car when another voice shouted out behind him.
"Freeze buddy!"
Ed froze.
"Hold it right there mister. Hold the gun out, arm's length."
Ed did so.
"Drop it, kick it away and turn round."
Ed sighed. This was something every agent dreaded. He knew without looking that it was a cop behind him, with gun drawn no doubt. He couldn't run for risk of being shot. He couldn't fire on him, both out of conscience and Bureau rules. There was a system in place. A system every agent knew only too well and hoped they never had to implement. Ed dropped the gun and kicked it aside and turned around. He'd been right of course and the cop kept his gun trained on him.
"Is she dead?"
"Yes." said Ed. There was no need to lie.
"Lie down with your hands on your head."
Ed did so and heard the cop radio in for backup. This was going to be a long night...