Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 56

[[Didn't get a lot of writing time today, Unedited]]

"This is the most I can do. He knows. Keep her hidden" 

The little USB had appeared useless when Anton plugged it in. But Dion, the null in Forensics who specialized in IT had a hunch about the dozen or so pictures of beautiful sunrises. The pictures were simply named, each one had a year and month date, going back for nearly sixteen years. 

The only uniform aspect of the pictures was that they were all of sunrises as seen out in various parts of nature. Some desert, some over the ocean, some in the forest. One, Anton had immediately recognized as the very same outcrop that they'd found Farin's body under. 

It was puzzling, because none of the pictures seemed to match in size or quality. Some older photos were in high resolution while others were grainy and lost quality despite being rather new. The one that overlooked Farin's unceremonious grave had a watermark from a stock photo site that had gone under far before Farin's death. Others had extremely rough, touristy angles to them.

But luckily Dion was a master of a bit more than just helping everyone with the servers. He sat down in the conference room with now with the new file printed. Or rather, twenty-three new files. 

Jack and Fate were seated next to the pile, as bare bones as they still were. Anton had run off to make some calls when they'd arrived and hadn't said much on what all these pictures meant. 

Dion, being a null, wasn't much affected by Jack's presence and had immediately hit it off with Fate when she complimented his nerdy badge lanyard. Jack was trying his best to be calm, but even if Dion was a null, he was still a handsome young man who  was happily chatting with is guide. The back of his mind wanted to remove the interloper as soon as possible, but he managed to contain himself. That is, after making a big show of sitting between the two with his arm possessively around the back of Fate's chair when they entered the conference room.  

Like most nulls, Dion was much less susceptible to sentinel pushiness and continued trudging along on his explanation of what he'd found. 

"Every picture in that plug is pulled off Google. They're all public lands, parks of some sort, nature preserves, hunting farms, wide open spaces. It could have been a lost item really. There wasn't a readme or anything. Just those photos." 

Fate was intent, studying the files, most of which just had the photo from the USB printed and the reverse-searched name of the location. 

"So, you had to reverse search these? Did you get the location of the user from the metadata?"  

Jack was trying to pay attention but their IT speak began to fly right over his head. He floated off in his own headspace for a while, his eyes tracking on the conspicuously sentinel friendly pattern on the ceiling until he felt a soft touch on his inner arm. He snapped back to attention. 

"So what you're saying is the meta data has all been edited?"

"Yes, purposefully. Marina left us a lot of information in the photos, names of the parks, some names of people that we havent cross checked yet, and even this note," Dion pointed back to the screen where the cryptic message was displayed. 

Fate nodded, her brows furrowing. She felt a tickle in her brain looking at the pictures, but it floated away before she could address it. It was a similar feeling to what she had in the forest before they found Farin's cache. 

"He Knows. Keep her Hidden," Jack murmured, stroking his beard in contemplation, "So we can guess who He is. But what does He know, and who is the Her we have to keep hidden?"

"That's what we all want to know," Anton said as he reentered the conference room. In his hands he had a box of pastries from the bakery across the way. 

He gestured to the box magnanimously, "Eat up, we're going to be in a while. You see, these twenty-three spots -not including Farin's- are all secluded overlooks. Not that uncommon, there's plenty to be found. It's just that the meter data-"

"Meta data," came Dion's exasperated correction.

"Yes, the META data gives us coordinates a lot like Farin's. Secluded patch, no known trails, generally dangerous or restricted terrain. And not all of it's on US soil." 

Anton clicked through and brought up the photo that was listed as somewhere in South America, another click, Canada.

"It's all contiguous continent, but we're talking a serial killer operating on a scale that we haven't seen before." 

Jack's face had hardened as he saw the photos continue to roll through. Anton was right. Historically serial killers operated in a tight radius. The radius of control made it easier to keep tabs on evidence, to skirt around people who may get too close to the source. A few notable ones had managed a cross-country spree, but the sloppiness came in when the paper trail needed to get on trainsa nd planes caught up with them. 

But this... The dates listed for these photos went back almost half his own life, and spanned from Alaska down to Brazil.

"Are we really sure these are just one killer?" Dion said, going to a laminate map on the wall and starting to dot the approximate locations and putting the year. 

"Some are happening in the same month!"Dion pointed to a point in Arkansas and Ontario. 

"Well, that's for us to find out," Anton sighed, "We only have the modus operandi for one victim so far. We don't have the others, haven't even confirmed Marina yet."  

 Dion nodded, "Well, you'll have to catch me up. I'm no fancy sentinel but I can be your fresh look." 

A pair of brown eyes flashed to Fate and Jack's grip tightened on the back of her chair.  He didn't need some IT guy making excuses to hang around while they did actual life saving business. 

"Considering the state we found Farin's grave, we can assume the killer's a sentinel. The place was immaculate except for the trophies," Jack blustered through,"So you'll need at least a bonded prime on each of these locations." 
 
His own green eyes gave a pointed look back at Dion. The null remained oblivious however, uninterested in the sentinel's posturing. 

Anton nodded, "Yes, that's why I need you to call in the request. This is international, but I'm wary of throwing this at the chief. It can't get into the papers. Whoever this girl, this 'Her' is, she's in danger. This guy knew Marina had him figured out. He probably advanced his schedule because of her. I doubt we can save Marina, but we're running down the clock on this mystery girl." 

Jack nodded, "We can't bring the NOGS in on this either. They don't like bad press on sentinels. Don't... Don't even write down that we think it's a sentinel until we have the perp in chains." 

Anton nodded. For all that they promoted the peace and harmony of sentinel-null relations, the NOGS was still a massive government entity, and like most big federal entities, the people at the top were far more concerned with protecting their own neck. They kept a careful stranglehold on the public persona of sentinels. In most cases it was parades and showy events, but it also meant that they kept any unsavory information completely out of the public eye. 

Jack had learned that pretty clearly when he was told that his guide's medical history was maintained in federal NOGS records and he-her bonded sentinel- would still need to have the official clan head sign off and file for the request. 

"That's a good idea. I'll get you the data. I know it will be a lot of coordination, but we can at least get some sweeps started. And Fate-...Fate?"

Everyone turned to see Fate staring eerily quiet at a photo in one of the files. It was one of the worse images, a stock photo with lots of grain. Her emotional signature seemed steady, but she was staring at the picture with the same hyper focus as a sentinel would a particularly complex pattern. Her face was perplexed. It didn't make sense. The sunrise in this image felt so familiar and so beautiful that she wanted to cry. 

But she had no idea why. She could only feel the tears burning at the bottom of her eyes, could smell the crisp ocean air and hear the waves, feel the cool sand on her feet. 

But she'd never been to Venezuela. 

Right?