Next time I casually mention that it's been rather slow, and that I'm bored, I must remind myself to kick myself. Twice. What the frack was I thinking when I said that? Actually, the probability that I had not been thinking was rather high, in the mid-nineties, I would guess.
I checked the paper in my hand again, and shook my head. Of all the assignments, this was one I had thought I had managed to avoid rather neatly. "Number of kidnappings this week up to twelve people," the paper declared rather proudly. "No comment from police or the department".
Heck yeah no comment. What are we, mind readers? This latest wave of kidnappings was completely different from all previous abduction sprees in recent memory. They appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be completely random -- a person here, a person there, and another one from their home, one from the hallway. Given the sheer distance between individual abductions, if it hadn't been for the sheer number of them, happening so quickly, no one would have noticed at all.
All the usual keys and clues were simply not there. It was there in black and white, on the bit of paper I was holding. "The victims vary in age from twelve-standard years to sixty years old. Seven are females and five males, six human and six of miscellaneous other species'.
I twisted my face into a bitter smile, and pulled out a cigarette. This job was going to give me an ulcer. Unfortunately for my stomach, I enjoyed the work.
"Time to dig up some dirt," I muttered under my breath. The files I had been given concerning this case did have some details about the victims, but I always preferred to do my own legwork. Relying upon the research skills of some intern was something I had only done once, and once had been enough.
"Janas Ke... Janas Kea... Janas, Janas, Janas... aha, Janas Keep." I wrote the number and address down, and then stepped out of the com booth. "Finally," said some annoyed two-headed alien, as it stepped in. "Took long enough..." continued the other head.
To start with, I would hit up where he had been working. Then, I'd try his parents. I always tried it in that order, and I don't know why. Just seemed to work better for me, I guess. My file said he worked at a cleaners, and a quick call to a friend at the Astral Globe confirmed that little tidbit. Exactly which cleaners was the hard part. There were a million of them.
I checked the paper in my hand again, and shook my head. Of all the assignments, this was one I had thought I had managed to avoid rather neatly. "Number of kidnappings this week up to twelve people," the paper declared rather proudly. "No comment from police or the department".
Heck yeah no comment. What are we, mind readers? This latest wave of kidnappings was completely different from all previous abduction sprees in recent memory. They appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be completely random -- a person here, a person there, and another one from their home, one from the hallway. Given the sheer distance between individual abductions, if it hadn't been for the sheer number of them, happening so quickly, no one would have noticed at all.
All the usual keys and clues were simply not there. It was there in black and white, on the bit of paper I was holding. "The victims vary in age from twelve-standard years to sixty years old. Seven are females and five males, six human and six of miscellaneous other species'.
I twisted my face into a bitter smile, and pulled out a cigarette. This job was going to give me an ulcer. Unfortunately for my stomach, I enjoyed the work.
"Time to dig up some dirt," I muttered under my breath. The files I had been given concerning this case did have some details about the victims, but I always preferred to do my own legwork. Relying upon the research skills of some intern was something I had only done once, and once had been enough.
"Janas Ke... Janas Kea... Janas, Janas, Janas... aha, Janas Keep." I wrote the number and address down, and then stepped out of the com booth. "Finally," said some annoyed two-headed alien, as it stepped in. "Took long enough..." continued the other head.
To start with, I would hit up where he had been working. Then, I'd try his parents. I always tried it in that order, and I don't know why. Just seemed to work better for me, I guess. My file said he worked at a cleaners, and a quick call to a friend at the Astral Globe confirmed that little tidbit. Exactly which cleaners was the hard part. There were a million of them.