Phantom
I examine the images on my tablet, the crease in my brows deepening with each swipe.
Gory visions stare back at me, of men mutilated and torn apart—images on images of corpses rotting under an afternoon sun on a familiar airfield.
“An entire family is murdered in the span of one night,” I speak into the earpiece slowly, “and you’re telling me someone used an entire zoo to wipe them out.”
January isn’t even over, and I’ve already started the new year with a very expensive joke.
“In a manner of speaking.” The doctor sounds unsure. “This is a very… strange occurrence, sir.”
My eyes narrow with new suspicion as I look up from the images, “Did you buy your license online, doctor?”
“I—I assure you, I didn’t, sir.”
You never know these days.
“Then be coherent.” I keep my voice calm, but my mood is plummeting quickly.
I’d been financing the Lester Family’s operations for years since they picked up the Harvester. Guts like that—to go behind the Taiga’s back and beneath their noses—takes money.
I was that money.
With my investment gone, the chances of me surpassing last year’s returns are already on the ropes.
“The causes of some of these deaths are from an array of vicious creatures, sir,” the doctor explains quickly with new conviction. “Except the last two, Lester and his daughter.”
And I’d liked her ideas so much too.
Almost as much as she liked my money.
“Again,” I find my temper flaring, for the first time in a long time—
“What I’m hearing, is the Taigas have recently taken to animal taming as a means of disposing of their enemies… and are keeping a zoo somewhere in their basement.”
“If these animals were all to gather in one place, animal tamer or not, it would’ve been their first instinct to kill each other, not these men.”
“Now I find myself further confused.” My voice, though light, is tainted with something sinister—the last tendrils of my temper rising to the surface. “Are you licensed in forensics or zoology?”
“Both, sir.”
I’ll be fucking damned.
“The last two victims,” the doctor’s voice drips with new curiosity, “their wounds don’t seem to have come from a man, or an animal. The girl’s insides were plucked from her chest… like plucking an apple from inside the trunk of a tree.”
A most insensible analogy but I understand his meaning. My temper stutters with new intrigue and my thoughts begin to turn new possibilities, “You’re saying someone carved out her organs with nothing but their hands?”
“… It appears so, sir.”
Whatever it is, whether it’s a weapon or a wildlife collection…
I want it.
“This way, sir.” A curvy woman in a white coat gives me a professional smile before gesturing for me to follow, and I nod to her as she leads me past a wall of refrigerated storage units.
It’s by my achievements alone that I’m granted access to the restricted areas of the Portland morgue. As an underworld financier, there’s a certain satisfaction in cashing in favours from those in power, especially when they come from deep within the Feds.
The assistant pulls five trays out from the wall—five bodies the country’s top authorities kept their hands on and refused to release to the public.
What should’ve been four.
The doctor is still on the line when I walk down to the last tray, a tray that shouldn’t be, and look down at a familiar face, burned almost beyond recognition.
Almost.
The burns are devastating… but the face peering back at me is one I’ve already committed to memory, ever since I discovered the name of the person who dared to shoot my brother in the throat.
The face of Christian Adler.
A rare itch flares to life in my chest—an excitement triggered by such a fascinating new development.
Things are becoming so much more interesting; it’s as though I’ve been placed in the front row seat of a spectacular play.
“Get rid of everything, doctor.” The corners of my mouth curve slightly, my orders delivered with quiet certainty, “And tell my men to finalize their preparations.
It’s time we start a war with the Taiga Family.”