Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (9 page)

Once issued, a kill order was irremovable.
There were only two conditions by which a person may escape death.
The first was if they somehow contacted the Investigative team that
pursued them and negotiated their surrender or turned themselves
in. That, of course, relied on the team making it in time to secure
the arrest, as even in the event of surrender no time would be
bought for the target. In fact, if a bloodthirsty Op. team followed
an investigative team in route of pursuing a surrendering target,
they would be well within their legal rights to tail the team and
kill the target upon arrival.

The only other way to escape death was to never
be caught. Large bounties would be placed on the targets’ heads,
and the target would then have to live their life knowing they were
being hunted.

Among Psych-Operatives, there was no love lost
between the Investigative and Operative branches. It would be more
accurate to say there was a form of hate. The Investigative teams
despised and looked upon Op. Psychs with disgust. Those choosing to
enter the Investigative branch did so because they believed in
stopping crime and enforcing justice, not blind murder. If asked,
any member of the Investigative branch—including the members of
Paro’s team—would all agree on one thing—
t
he Operations
branch should not exist.

It was for all these reasons, Kazou knew, that
Sarah was now trembling with anger. She was standing close enough
to Paro that her nose could poke him in the eye, and she began
jabbing him in the stomach with a finger.

“
Can’t or won’t, Paro? It’s not our
way to throw people under the bus, especially children. How can you
stand there and order the execution of … of children? How dare you
look me in the eyes and tell me you have no choice? There’s always
a choice. We’re not killers—we are a force of justice. I don’t care
if you’re the leader of this team, and I don’t care if you can lock
me away for disobeying you. I joined this team so that I could be
one of the few people in this world that does what’s right. And
this isn’t. Children aren’t sentenced to death, they are
rehabilitated. Isn’t that what we’re all about? Isn’t that the
reason we work in the Juvenile department in the first
place?”

Paro recoiled as if hit by a train, and Kazou
knew how he must have been feeling. Without a doubt, Paro was
revolted by what he felt he had to do and deeply ashamed of it.
Kazou was sure that they all were. But what could be
expected?

“
Sarah, I—”

“
I don’t want to hear it, Paro.
Place that kill order and I’m off this team. I will not be part of
another excuse for those …
animals
to murder yet another
victim, let alone a child.”

“
Same goes for me.” It was the first
thing Michael had said since arriving on the scene. His voice was
different from normal. Every last trace of his usual sense of humor
had vanished.”

“
Paro, we’ve been through a lot as a
team. Hell, we’ve seen firsthand what children are capable of more
times than I reckon I’d like to remember. We’ve tracked and
captured more than I can count. But one thing has never changed—the
reason we do what we do. You keep telling us to take a look around
us, and ya know what, buddy? I have been. What I see is someone
who’s really messed up and needs help. What I see is the reason I
joined this team. If you take out that cell of yours and call the
Op. teams, well, I’ll finish this on my own—sanctioned or
not.”

Silence took the team over for a while, seconds
that seemed to stretch for hours. During this time, Kazou stared
blankly at the myriad of officers, profilers, and forensics teams
shuffling in and out of the house. More than a few stopped to stare
at the four of them, no doubt wondering what their big secret was,
and why all authority was deferred to them. Paro shook his head and
turned to face his team.

“
I’m sorry everyone. You’re right.
Sarah, Michael, I was acting in the heat of the moment. We need to
continue our investigation and find out who is responsible for
this. I can’t believe I almost ordered the deaths of kids. Thank
you for making me see the error of my ways.”

I thought you were right, Paro. I still do.
What does that make me?

Kazou shook the thoughts from his mind.
Contemplation was not a luxury he could afford.

“
Is there
anything
here
that can help us?” Kazou asked. “Why has the M.O of the killers
changed? They targeted children, followed soon after by an old
woman and now an entire family? This doesn’t make any
sense.”

“
Ah, actually I think it might.”
Michael cast his eyes downward at the sea of blood staining the
carpeted floor. Kazou had never seen him like this. He was showing
a level of professionalism that Kazou didn’t expect from the man.
Even more off-putting, Kazou wasn’t sure if he actually preferred
it that way.

“
I know you guys are gonna try and
call me crazy and say I’m just commin’ up with wild theories and
stuff, but umm, hear me out for a second, kay? I know I’m normally
the dumb one here, but there’s something that’s been bothering me
about all this. We all keep saying that it would be an incredible
rarity for more than one or two Psychs to be in the same school.
But what if there was?”

Paro’s eyebrows rose. “Interesting, what is it
you’re thinking?”

“
Well, it’s like this. Supposin’ for
a sec here that the kid who did the fire wasn’t involved in the old
killins’ right? What would the real ones do?”

Sarah gasped. “My god, they would recruit him.
It would make perfect sense if you think about the killing spree
that went on tonight. Everything from the old woman to what
happened here, good God it was an initiation!”

“
Yeah, ya see that’s what I’m
thinking. They probably found him somehow and made him do some of
this stuff. And it’s got me thinking, right? That if he went from
an old woman straight to here, he was buildin’ up to it, ya know?
It’s like he or she had a choice to do whatever they wanted, and it
ended up with this. No one told the killer what they had to do.
They figured it out all by themselves.”

“
Damn,” Paro said. “I think we have
a very serious problem.” The three of them looked at Paro, worry on
their faces. “The forensics team said that special attention was
paid to Richard, that the other killings were done as a result of
the first and that his was prolonged and personal. Among the
students in the class of the fire-incident, wasn’t there one who
the school reported as having a feud with Richard? Someone who
would fit the description of harboring rage, perhaps someone often
bullied?”

Kazou felt a sickening despair. “I was so sure
it was the now deceased Richard that I never even considered … Oh,
god.” Kazou struggled to contain himself.

“
I thought for sure it was that Adam
boy,” Sarah said.

Paro slowly took his cell phone out of his
pocket. “
She
was right. We didn’t listen to her, but she
was right. We can’t panic. It may not be too late. She’s got an
overwhelming tendency to deal with things by herself, but in the
end it was my fault for letting her go off alone.”

Sarah’s eyes sparkled with the beginning of
tears. “Paro, tell us the truth. Is she with him right
now?”

“
Yes. She has good intuition. She
told us she had a feeling about that Jack Harris, but I looked at
his profile and it didn’t seem possible. She begged me to let her
investigate the lead on her own. I told her she was wasting her
time but to do what she felt was necessary. She … she’s with him
right now. Alright, we need to calm down. We need to get organized
and—Michael, wait! Where are you going? Hey! We need to stop and
think for a minute!”

“
Like hell I’m gonna let one of our
own get picked off like some animal. She’s just a kid. Damn you
Paro, damn you to hell! I told you she was too young to join a
team, but you didn’t listen to me. I ain’t gonna let her die like
that family in here.”

Michael dashed out of the house, running like a
madman, prompting the officers nearby to throw a questioning glance
at Paro.

“
We need to go after him!” Paro
yelled.

“
Okay, I’m just gonna right come out
and say it—there’s no way Spider-man would win in a fight against
Wolverine. For one, let’s talk powers. Spider-man has great
reflexes, and yeah, he can dodge quite a few hits, but he can’t
dish out any damage, you see? Wolverine has been hit by buses. At
the very least, if the two ever fought, I’d say it would come to a
stand-still. See, Spider-man could just run away or hide on a
ceiling or something, and Wolverine wouldn’t be able to do anything
about it. That is, of course …”

Could I have really been wrong about
him?

Jack had been rambling on about the “X-mans” or
the “Spidermans” or some kind of nonsense since they left the house
fifteen minutes earlier. Mostly, she knew, because he was nervous
being alone in her presence, and needed some way to break the
silence.

It did make her feel guilty to take advantage
of him and trick him this way. She had even led him on a little,
but she needed to get close. She needed to be sure
.
He
wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, with his sloppy hair and playful
personality, he was kind of cute.

That he was a Psych was no longer up for
debate. It didn’t matter what Paro said about the odds of there
being a third Psych—well, a fourth, really—in her school. The
empathy he showed when the murders were announced, the sadness she
could feel within him—he couldn’t have done it. Besides, he’d been
home with his mother the entire night, waiting for her to show
up.

The fire, though, that was him. Whether he did
it on purpose or not was irrelevant. She was in that room. She
wasn’t a Telepath, but she didn’t have to be one to know he was
responsible.

When it was happening, she had immediately put
up her guard. Never in her life had she been so frightened. But
later, when he’d approached her in the courtyard and started
speaking with her, it seemed to all fall into place. A monstrous
killer wouldn’t set a classroom on fire just because he missed a
homework, but Jack was a simple-minded boy, and intentional or not,
that was the kind of thing she’d expect from him.

As she walked over the soft grass three blocks
from his home, through a park with a majestic water fountain carved
from stone, she felt the building remorse. She was going to break
his heart. Even if he didn’t commit the murders, he still had to be
tagged and released. He’d committed a crime, and unwittingly or
not, he had to be brought in. She knew it shouldn’t matter to her
what he thought of her, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Jack
would hate her when he learned the truth. More so, she wondered if
he was even capable of hate.

“
Which is why if they ever made a
sequel to Episode VI, they would obviously have to find all new
actors.”

Melissa smiled. “You think so, Jack? I actually
haven’t seen those movies.”

Jack looked as if he’d been punched in the
face. “What! You mean you haven’t seen Star Wars yet? Oh man,
Melissa, you have got to come over and watch them. I’ve got them on
VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. We could make a thing of it! I know,
first we’ll watch the originals, and then the special edition.
Then, we can watch the new trilogy. Wait, actually we should watch
the new trilogy first, since it’s in chronological order and then
you could … Wait, that’s a bad idea too. I don’t want your first
Star Wars experience to be soiled by 'Phantom.' Okay, here’s what
we’ll do, we’ll—”

“
Jack, stop for a minute. I need to
talk to you.”

“
Oh? What’s up, Melissa?”

They took seats on a low to the ground section
of the giant water fountain. She enjoyed the moist, delicate wind
that caressed her skin as it cooled off from the fountain behind
her.

“
This isn’t going to be easy for me
to say, but there’s some things you need to know.” She tried to
think of how to tell him what she must. She needed a delicate way
to explain to him why he might not be able to return home for a few
nights.

As she opened her mouth to speak, the phone in
her pocket went off. “Just a sec, Jack.” She raised the phone to
her ear. “This is Melissa.”