She stood over the body and breathed heavily. He was having a hard time breathing as well and she could tell he knew it would be over soon. She almost pitied the man but that emotion was a vestige of her former life. Even as a “hero” she learned a new kind of compassion, yet she still had some limits.
She put a high-heeled boot on his hand and heard the broken bones grind. He winced and so did she.
“You are the last one I’m going to try to talk to about this. What happened to the shipments meant for Vigilance?”
Vigilance was the name of a special operations unit designed to combat super-powered actions and threats. The group consisted of very well trained mercenaries and some metas willing to work for a para-military outfit. Yet, it was the hardware that gave Vigilance their strength. Having their “toys” go to the wrong hands would be disastrous.
Gazing up at the Scarlet Scorpion through his broken visor, he started to remove it with a free hand.
Scarlet allowed the movements but was wary. His rifle lay too far for him to reach and Sky Raiders were not known to have any superpowers: the high-tech weaponry they were infamous for aiding their viciousness. Still, she had come to learn that villains came in various sizes, shapes and abilities.
He coughed up blood and wheezed, “They were diverted. The paperwork was forged. It was Katcher’s plan ever since the beginning but he didn’t know where the shipments were really going.”
That fit what she found out already. Scarlet started putting the pieces together. Her contact will not like what she will tell him. B ut still, one part vexed her more than the others: Captain Indomitable . She grew up hearing tales about the man and even had a crush on him as a child. She had to know for certain. It was hard enough to discover his body yesterday. The police department was gracious enough to let her keep his bracers as a souvenir for her service, but it was a bitter gift.
She snapped out of her reverie and returned to her stern look. “Who is Katcher? You have nothing else to lose now and you know it.” She applied more pressure and more bones cracked.
He smiled weakly and whispered, “He was tracking the shipments and got a little sloppy cleaning up after himself.” He smirked and blood trickled from his quivering lips. “He discovered the truth but it was too late. We used all of it already.”
Scarlet leaned in, putting her weight on his hand. He flinched but the pain didn’t bother him much. That meant time was running out.
---
Scarlet sat down hard into her chair at Dawn Patrol HQ. As she closed her eye and tried to collect her thoughts she was washed with a feeling of exhaustion. She put her head down and nuzzled into her arms on the desk.
Three men: the former General of Vigilance, former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Captain Indomitable had a meeting in an abandoned office in King’s Row. They were almost killed by the Sky Raiders but she was tipped off and rescued them in time. They were extremely resistant to discuss their affairs and Scarlet knew it was not her place. Still, she decided to track the Raiders movements and learned they were going after the three men again but separately.
The General was saved when Scarlet and a short-lived team-up with Xiana stopped the Raiders from reaching him. Scarlet found the deputy secretary and put him in a safe house. He said Captain Indomitable went to a warehouse to check on some shipment irregularities meant for Vigilance that came from Europe. Chasing after Captain Indomitable, she found his body and paperwork that pointed everywhere but to Vigilance headquarters. All the shipments came in to the Talos Port Authority managed by Irving Katcher, whom she rescued from a Sky Raiders assassination attempt. The last Raider on that mission spilled the beans.
At this recollection she forced her tired body to sit up and look at the file she created for this puzzle. The pieces were there and now it’s time to make a picture.
Irving Katcher was the mastermind that diverted the shipments. But he thought it was for the black market and planned to make a lot of serious money. As nefarious as that plan was he was also just a dock manager and didn’t seem to be the kind of man to pull off a grand scheme.
So, what was happening? Scarlet laid out the papers on her desk and stood up to look at them from a different view. Her eye darted from one sheet to another: columns, rows, scrambled …
Something caught her attention and she leaned in.
Hand written on each of the documents was a small letter ‘D’ scrawled in different locations. Always by itself and not connected to invoice numbers, item codes, contacts ... nothing.
She took a few steps back and looked to the ceiling deep in thought. Ok, that’s it. That’s all you have: a dead hero, lots of documents, the letter ‘D’, and the Sky Raiders.
Sky Raiders.
Like a thunderbolt Scarlet darted from her office and ran to the mainframe. She hurriedly sat in the chair and entered passwords in a flurry.
“C’mon, DOGMA. Show me the truth,” she whispered. Dogma was the name Scarlet gave the Dawn Patrol mainframe. Since she joined the Dawn Patrol nothing impressed her more than what this computer could tell her about anything. From the mundane to the complex, whomever inputted the information seemed to leave nothing out.
Window upon window opened on the main screen: Sky Raiders documented history, recent attacks, DP patrol entries, dossiers …
That’s it! Colonel Duvay, commander of the Sky Raiders. ‘D’ for Duvay.
At least Katcher did something right. His simple bookkeeping note was enough to remind him about these shipments, but not enough to save him anywhere else. Scarlet sat looking at Duvay’s name for long seconds. She closed the files and patted the top of the user screen. “Thank you, DOGMA.”
She stood and walked back to the locker room while putting the pieces together in her mind’s eye.
Colonel Duvay tricked Katcher into sending the Vigilance weapons and supplies to Duvay’s contacts. Katcher discovered this and wanted out, revenge, or a piece of the pie. Whatever he wanted, Duvay didn’t agree and wanted him dead. Meanwhile, the three men that started the game became a thorn in Duvay’s side somehow with Captain Indomitable being the most troublesome.
She closed her locker door with the thought: the Sky Raiders have been using the equipment meant for Vigilance! Or rather, that the Sky Raiders exist because they have been using the material meant for Vigilance.
Their secret would no longer be secret soon. It was the least she could do for Captain Indomitable.
