Noah, City of Von, 2067
The air was cold, and the silence was loud. Noah and Lucas stood there as they watched an old man get beaten to death. And sitting on top of the breathless old man was Rooney, who had tears coming down his face, while his hands were bloody.
Noah had no words for what happened. Instead, he looked at Lucas, who nodded his head in horror.
Clenching his fist and hiding any bad feelings, Noah bit his lips and opened his mouth.
"Lucas and I will be leaving now." Noah Pauses. "I'm assuming you will help us now, right?"
Levi and Alexander exchange glances, but eventually they nod their heads.
As Noah and Lucas begin their walk back, Lucas, out of nowhere, stops. His fists were clenched, and he was biting his lip. His police uniform had small blood stains.
"Am I supposed just to overlook this?"
Even though Lucas was trying to hide it, the anger on his face was as clear as day.
"I–I'm a cop."
Noah had his back faced towards Lucas, making it easy to hide his emotions. "We might need them if we want to find Rudolph and A-3. So, please. Just overlook this." Noah says, tightening his mouth.
The rest of the walk back to the car was silent.
***
Back at the police station, Noah and Lucas exit the vehicle, walk up the steps, and go through the sliding police doors.
"We need to find out where Rudolph and A-3 are as soon as possible," Noah says as he jolts towards Rudolph's desk.
Lucas, still upset about what happened on the bridge, follows Noah at a distance.
At Rudolph's desk, Noah pulls out the chair and sits down. When he sits, he turns on Rudolph's computer and looks through his search history or any notes or documents he might have had. For the most part, there was nothing, except for one note he had. The note read: "Possible missing girl?"
'Is this the last thing he was looking at?' Noah thought.
Noah jumps up out of the desk and looks at Lucas with determination.
"We need to look for any girls who may have been reported missing recently."
Putting his hands on his head, Noah suddenly thinks about the time Amelia Ashford went missing. Then it clicked.
"Let's narrow the search down to young girls in their late teens."
Lucas nods his head and walks over to his computer.
"We should be able to find any recently missing person pretty easily."
Noah faintly smiles and goes back to sit in Rudolph's seat. The thought of this missing girl was now roaming free in Noah's mind. It was like he knew something, but couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"I got it!" Lucas shouts.
Noah jumps up from the chair and runs over to Lucas's desk. Once at Lucas's desk, he looks at his computer. What was on his computer made Noah's eyes widen and stomach churn. The computer showed a dozen missing girls within the past two weeks.
'That's insane.' Thought Noah.
Lucas quickly put on a faint smile as he was able to tell what Noah was thinking.
"Don't worry. The computer shows a dozen missing girls, but in reality, maybe only three are truly missing. The reports list the others as runaways."
Noah glances down at Lucas.
"But there is still a chance that they are missing, right?"
Lucas's face tightens, unsure of how to respond.
"Yes, I guess that may still be true."
Noah looks at the three most likely to be missing. More specifically, he looks for anyone who disappeared relatively close to the police station. Then he saw one—a person who disappeared from the Stacks.
Her name was Lily Phillips. Her description is long black hair and a slim body. The last time someone saw her, they said she was wearing unicorn pajamas.
This description of Lily irked Noah. He got that same feeling, like he knew something, but for some reason, he couldn't remember anything. Still, Noah knew he had to think of something. That's when he decides to return to the place where he was attacked.
"Lucas? You know where I was attacked, right?"
Lucas looks up at Noah, confused.
"Yeah. Of course. Why?"
"Let's go. I need to test something."
Lucas was still confused, but he knew there was no persuading Noah.
"Alright, let's go."
Lucas gets out of his seat and leads the way outside to the last place where Noah was attacked.
"So? Is this it?"
"Yes."
Noah and Lucas were standing on a snow-covered road. Street lights lined the sidewalks. And standing in the cold, Noah closed his eyes and tried to remember anything about that night. And in a flash, it came to him. He remembered a girl wearing what he thought were ragged clothes being dragged across the ground.
"Lucas, I remember what happened that night."
Lucas looks over at Noah, confused.
"I remember someone being dragged. But I can't remember who the person dragging her was."
Lucas walks around kicking the snow. "Do you happen to remember any physical features like his build?"
Noah thinks for a moment. It was dark, and the streetlights weren't illuminating this mysterious person. "Ummm, the only thing I can remember is he sorta had a big build to him. And I mean like large." Noah uses his hands to make out the size of the person's chest.
Even though Noah didn't give much information, Lucas had an idea based on who Rudolph might be investigating.
"I think there is a small possibility that this person is William Frances."
Noah gives Lucas a look of confusion and surprise.
"Don't you think that might be a stretch?" Noah starts to laugh nervously. "I mean, why would one of the biggest CEO's in the city be involved with serial killers?"
"I don't know. But it was one of the people Rudolph was investigating."
Snow had begun to fall out of the sky. Noah's and Lucas's footprints trail across the snowy ground. By this point, there were too many questions with so little time to answer any of them. With one of the main questions being: Where does Rudolph tie into this?
On the way back, Noah pondered how to handle this case. Ultimately, all the ideas he had trailed right to William Frances. But thinking about William Frances sent shivers down his spine. Noah was scared that, even if there were a slight chance they were right, with how powerful William Frances is, he would just kill them on the spot. With some thought, Noah wanted to avoid William Frances.
'What should we do? Even though I want to avoid William Frances, it seems the only way to get decent information is to question him.'
"Lucas, what should we do?" Noah had that face of determination again. "Knowing Rudolph, he went and tried to question William Frances."
Lucas stops walking and breathes out some cold air.
"As much as I don't want to, I think we should go and question William Frances."
Noah hesitantly nods his head.
Entering the vehicle, Noah and Lucas start their way towards Robot's Specialty.
***
Noah finds himself standing in front of a very tall building. The words Robot's Specialty wrapped around the front. Just outside Robot's specialty, crowds still filled the streets, even this late.
With some hesitation, Noah and Lucas walked through the doors and entered the main lobby.
After entering, they walk up to the main desk.
'Their name is Bell.' Thought Noah.
"Whoa! Are you a robot?" Asks Lucas.
Bell smiles.
"Yes, I am a robot. So how can I be of help to you fine people today?"
Lucas glanced at Noah. Then he reached into his right coat pocket and pulled out a police badge.
"We would like to ask William Frances a few questions."
"Oh. I'm sorry, sir, but William Frances is currently out at the moment."
Noah leans over the counter and stares at Bell.
"What do you mean, William Frances is out at the moment? We need to really ask him questions about a missing person…a cop."
Bell looks at them, confused for a moment.
"Oh. You mean the cop who came in a couple of days ago?"
"Yes! Him!"
"Here, I'll just tell you what I told them. William Frances is staying in a vacation house up in SunnySide right now."
Noah looks at Bell with a cold stare.
"Do you happen to have an address for that vacation house?"
Bell looks at Noah and then at her computer. She slowly starts typing each key until she is ready.
"Here." She says, handing Noah a printed copy of the address.
Noah grabs the address from her hands and slightly bows, showing his thanks.
"Thank you!" Lucas says, following Noah.
Walking out the doors, Noah and Lucas take a breath of fresh air.
While taking a minute, Lucas taps Noah on the shoulder and points to Noah's left.
Their eyes widen in surprise and fear.
Standing a couple of feet away from them was A-3—same blue suit and black tie, along with his white shining eyes.
But to add even more to the shock, Noah sees a butterfly flying around in the sky from the corner of his eye.