Chapter 14: Straight and True

Veronica Haskins sat at her makeshift desk in the police station, she was looking over all the reports again, for what seemed like the hundredth time. Simply put, since she had joined the F.B.I. this was the most bizarre case she had ever seen. A few months ago, one girl age eleven disappears. She is reported as a missing person, but as in most cases little headway is made by the local authorities. Then a short time later five more kids disappeared all on the same day. The crazy part about the five disappearing is it happened while they were at home. The father of the first girl said his daughter was displaying 'supernatural physical effects', but the other five were reported to be behaving perfectly normal. Then to make it all worse everyone passed a polygraph, even the father with outrageous claims. Just what in the hell was happening in this small country town. Just then there was a knock at her door, she set the report papers down,"Come in", her partner Dan Myers came into the small office,"Got some new news for you, seems all the parents received some letters from their children." She blinked in shock,"What....", he held up a envelope,"I got copies of them for you, want to take a look?" She stretched out from her desk and grabbed the envelope from his hand,"Did you read them?", he nodded,"Yes, they sound like what you would get if your kid was at summer camp. I also had the writing analyzed with example from the children, it's a perfect match." She opened the envelope and began reading the letters...I'm fine...having a good time....don't worry..., she set the letters down she couldn't take reading them. He was right sounded like summer camp, she wanted to rip her hair out." Who in the hell ghosts kids away just to show them a good time, is this some kind of wacky anti-villain or something!" Dan just held up his hands apologetically. Then she remembered something,"What about the surveillance crew and their cameras?" Dan's face suddenly got serious,"I wanted to talk to you about that, I think we were hacked. I got the footage on my laptop ill go get it." Dan left and came back a few minutes later, he set up his computer on her desk and brought up the footage. She couldn't believe what she saw, the mailbox was right there then it opens and a letter appears. That's it, like some top tier magicians trick. She slumped in her chair,"You have to be kidding me, are you sure we didn't follow a white rabbit to this town Dan?" He chuckled,"No, that's why I say we were hacked, the audio didn't pick up anything either. I'm not sure how they did it, but they are good. Who ever pulled this off is in a league of their own, I recommend you call the higher ups and get a whole team down here. We are going to have to comb this entire town." She hated to think about that, but he was right this person or persons, had this planned out real well."Ok I will make the call, Mike is going to give me a hard time about this, but we are clearly in over our heads." She pulled out her phone...that was weird no signal,"Please don't do that if you find us we will just leave.", the third voice in the office startled her so bad she nearly jumped out of her skin, and Dan spun putting a hand to the gun at his waist. Both of their eyes went to the corner of the room where the voice had come from. There was a young girl standing there and Veronica recognized her, she had studied her picture long enough she could pick that face out of a crowd. It was Alise the first girl to go missing. Veronica wanted to groan in despair, her instincts were telling her this all was about to get a lot weirder, but she had to be professional,"What are you doing here, are you ok?" The girl smiled,"I'm fine and so is everyone else. I know your just doing your job but you need to stop. I have come to negotiate the terms. I doubt you have the authority to do so, but I'm sure between the F.B.I. and C.IA. you could arrange a meeting with the President. I even practiced speaking nice and proper just for this occasion." Veronica couldn't believe her ears, was this kid insane. Dan moved toward her,"just calm down Alise, everything will be ok. Would you come with us and answer some questions?", his hand stretched towards her but stopped when she turned an icy glare on him,"I would like this to be as civil as possible, I would prefer not to use force. I guess the others were right, I'm too young for the world to take serious." Use force? Veronica recovered from her shock and began to study Alise, she was wearing a brown leather vest and pants. She could see no weapons on the girl, that aside now that she took a good look the young girl was incredibly fit. Her muscles didn't bulge like a body builder, but they were well-defined and looked sleek and hard. Veronica recalled all the photos of Alise she had seen, that was her face but that wasn't her body. Her fathers words all started to make sense now." Dan stand down. Miss Alise I'm sorry for my partners behavior, we are all just a little confused and frustrated. Would you mind enlightening us on the situation?" Her face flushed a little,"My aren't you nice and polite, but I still can't talk to you. It is too dangerous for you to know anything. I must talk to someone higher up the ranks. Could you at least get me an audience with the Director of the F.B.I.?" Veronica countered,"If its dangerous for me then what about you. Are you in danger?" Alise just gave her a flat stare,"Please stop trying. Can you help me do this the easy way, or is it going to be the hard way?" Her threat was very clear, but Veronica couldn't determine what gave her the confidence, perhaps she really was delusional. This was no good, there clearly was no way to get through to the kid, She glanced at Dan and gave a nod. He shot in fast, but Alise gracefully stepped to the side and plated a firm chop across the back of his head, he crumpled to the floor unconscious. Her eyes drifted from Dan to Alise's face, she wore a strange smile,"That wasnt a nice thing to do. I did say we should be civil." Her smile grew wider, and the blood drained from Veronica's face, just who the hell was this girl....