Director Ogushi was working late. The Empyrean War was good for business, warship sales were up, but it had been putting a strain on him. He was going through the monthly sales reports when his secretary buzzed him.
"Sir, there are two men from Internal Security here to see you."
"Tell them to come back in the morning."
"Sir, they say it's an emergency."
"OK, send them in."
Ogushi leaned back in his chair, this was the last thing he needed. He saw the two men enter and approach his desk.
"Sorry to disturb you at this hour Sir. I'm afraid there has been an incident..... involving your daughter"
Ogushi groaned. "Not again!" he thought. In the last two years his daughter had gone from a well behaved 16 year-old into some rebellious terror. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd had to bail her out of jail or call in favours to stop charges being pressed. As the daughter of a mega-corp director she had everything she could ask for, but she always wanted something else. What was it this time? The last incident required him to hire a capsuleer to rescue her from a notorious criminal’s pleasure hub. As well as the millions of ISK he had to pay from his own pocket to the agent, the gang had tried to protect the facility with a fleet of battleships and cruisers. He'd heard the death toll was in the tens of thousands. They may have all been criminal scum, but it was still a huge loss of life. All because his little angel had tried to score. He retrieved his datapad thinking whatever it was, it was going to cost him. Fines, compensation or bribes, she always cost him when she had an “incident”.
"What's she done this time?"
"I'm afraid it's bad news sir." said one of the officers "She is dead!"
-o0o-
Inspector Avi was consulting the star charts when the report came in. Two victims at another location that meant the perp was no longer using the Interbus shuttle network. There is no way he could commit those crimes on those separate stations without having access to his own ship or chartering a ship. He started as a petty thief so owning a ship was out, he’d not made enough to buy one. Chartering a ship was very expensive too, so unlikely. The last possible explanation was that he was crewing on a ship. That would explain how he was being able to move about so freely. He'd also killed two women in a single night. He was upping his game. The Inspector hit the comm channel for the security datacentre.
"This is Inspector Avi. I'm sending you a list of stations and dates. I want all ship docking registers for those stations and crew manifests. See if any individuals are showing up at each of those locations.”
“Yes sir. Do you want just the main hanger logs or shall I request the egger hanger logs too? That would require a class 2A authorisation.”
Inspector Avi thought about it. It would take too long to get the authorisation and it was highly unlikely the guy was crewing on a capsuleer ship. No crew member for a pod jockey needed to conduct petty theft as this guy had been doing, they were too well paid.
“No, just the standard ships. No need for the Capsuleers.”
Avi then thought about the victim before the last two. She had elevated O2 levels as you would find in someone who lived on a larger capsuleer or navy ship.
“Wait. Actually yes, include the Capsuleers, I’ll wake the Chief and get you the authorisation.”
Avi went back to the star charts.
“May be not crew, may be something else?” he thought.
-o0o-
Director Ogushi stood in the morgue. In front of him was a slab covered by a white sheet.
"Sir, I would strongly advise against this. We can confirm identity with DNA. You do not want to see your daughter...... like this" one of the medical staff said.
Ogushi shot him a look that immediately silenced him. The officer carefully folded the sheet down to expose the girls face.
The director let a sob escape his lips as he gazed at his daughters face. It was covered in lacerations. Her lips had been removed and her exposed teeth made her look monstrous. He grabbed the sheet and pulled it off her body. After glancing at what had been done to the rest of her body he spun around and vomited in a sink.
"Who did this? Who..... mutilated my little girl?" he growled after he had recovered.
"We are still investigating.” one of the security officers replied “It would appear she met a man in a bar last night and left with him according to some witnesses. However, the report has been flagged by the Caldari Navy Police and they are sending an Inspector here."
"The CN Police? Way out here? Why are they getting involved?"
"We understand that there may be connection with other deaths in the sector."
"Lock-down the station down now! All undocking requests are to be denied. I want this sick fuck found!"
-o0o-
Inspector Avi was reading the news on his datapad as his ship entered the system. The top local story was about Director Ogushi's daughter. Whilst they had tried to keep the story quiet, details had leaked. Refusing undock permission to captains was a sure way to get the news spread. The article made for some quite disturbing reading. Towards the end of the article Avi stopped dead and muttered "No!" and shook his head. His job had just got infinitely more difficult.
"Director Ogushi's office decline to offer any official comments on the hideous death of his daughter other than to say a reward of five hundred million ISK was being offered for information that led to the capture and conviction of the killer. The bounty is to be doubled if he is delivered to any of the mega corps security teams for trial.".
“First a private dic, now I’m going to have every wanna-be bounty hunter getting in the way”
-o0o-
Marcus watched the small drones cleaning his quarters as he sharpened his blade. Each blood splatter on the walls and floor were removed by the insect like robots. The pool below where his last victim hung was more substantial and was taking some time to remove.
The "Brace for jump" alarm sounded throughout the ship. He placed the knife on the table between the three jars, two holding a different coloured eyeball and a third holding a pair of lips, and braced himself for the unpleasant sensation of gate travel.
