Chapter 89 – Codename Swiftrain

Fynn nodded, “My first thought was that your brother-in-law’s pressure had destroyed it, but then I started to think. If the Fluxer and the Blazer had also been hit with a dart, why is it that we were unable to find the dart?”

“Right before the Fluxer went berserk,” Levi opened his golden mouth, “he had slapped his neck as if he had been bitten by a mosquito.”

Noah nodded, “Right! He must have felt the dart prick him, and instinctively slapped his neck!”

After chewing off the majority of the chicken drumstick, Fynn took a bite of a buffalo wing, “The Fluxer is taking longer to regain consciousness than the Blazer, so I still couldn’t get his statement. However, I went back to talk to the Blazer.”

Fynn stopped to chew and swallow, “After mentioning a prick, he suddenly remembered. He said that he did feel a prick before the power rampage, but he didn’t think much of it at the time, so he had completely forgotten about it.”

Noah’s amber eyes narrowed, “So all three had been hit by a dart, but afterward, there was no dart left on the scene…”

Fynn continued, “That’s why I was thinking, perhaps the dart isn’t injecting the substance, but…” Fynn’s eyes locked with Noah’s, who with a jolt, finished his unspoken half of the sentence:

“The dart IS the substance!!”

Noah’s palm smacked against the table, “We couldn’t find the dart because it had already been absorbed!”

“Exactly,” Fynn nodded, “No dart, no evidence of the crime. Without the dart, the only proof that the incidents are premeditated is the sniper. Thus, if you hadn’t noticed the sniper at the scene of the first incident, the case might have ended up as a dead-end.”

Noah lowered his head to ponder, “Do you think they are holding a grudge against me for ruining their plans from day 1? And that’s why the power rampages keep happening around me?”

“Who knows,” Fynn shrugged, “But their attacks are clearly premeditated, and considering that you have been involved in all three incidents, I think they are definitely targeting either you, your brother-in-law or both. This got me thinking about their real goals.”

Fynn picked up the Caesar salad bowl, “They are obviously targeting specific people, but they clearly also want to implicate civilians to cause chaos and terror.”

After filling up his plate, Fynn returned the bowl back, “But, wait… since causing a power rampage is as simple as hitting someone with a dart, why only execute a single attack per day? Why not execute multiple attacks at the same time? Not only would the peacekeepers and paramedics be unable to keep up, but you, an SS-ranked Soother, can only stop one incident at a time. Regardless of which one you end up going for, the remaining ones would likely succeed in causing casualties. Wouldn’t this be a better plan of action?”

Noah’s eyebrows furrowed, “It… indeed sounds like a better plan… Do you think… it’s not that they don’t want to execute multiple attacks, but they can’t?”

Fynn’s eyes lit up, “Indeed. That’s the conclusion I came to as well. Which brings up the question, why can’t they execute multiple attacks? Do they lack resources to perform more attacks? Is it that they lack Shooters capable enough to shoot the targets with the darts and get away with it unscathed, or is it that they have limited quantities of the substance they are using to cause power rampages?”

Noah leaned forwards on his elbows, making Levi’s hand in his hair slide towards his scalp, “Did you have a breakthrough? Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Fynn raised his hand as if to say ‘patience’ and slowly chewed on the vibrantly green leaves of the salad, “I have no way of knowing whether it is a problem with the limited quantities of the substance. Without the dart, we can’t even identify the substance, let alone investigate its source.”

Before Fynn could continue with his deduction, Noah interrupted, “I think I know what the substance is.”

Fynn stopped mid-chew, his eyes darting towards Noah. Levi’s heated gaze also locked on the little one next to him.

“When I was soothing brother, I felt that his mental power had been invaded by a large quantity of foreign mental power. This foreign mental power caused an intense rejection from brother’s mental power, which led to…” Noah paused, “Well… it lead to what happened today…”

With all eyes on him, Noah continued, “I suspect that the dart is made out of mental power. The dart doesn’t just disappear; it mingles into the target’s own mental power causing an intense rejection leading to a power rampage. This is also why blood tests and Shaw’s scans are unable to pick anything up. It’s not in the blood, there is nothing it can pick up.”

Fynn’s breathing sped up, and he dropped the fork he was holding, “The dart was made out of mental power?! So you are saying that the dart isn’t a drug but a manifestation of someone’s power?”

“I don’t know how it’s made,” Noah shook his head, “But I can tell you that it would require a large amount of mental power to make a single one. It is highly possible that the reason why they can cause only a single accident per day is because they can only make a single dart per day–” Noah halted mid-speech, “No, if they were aiming for lower-ranked power users, then they could probably execute multiple attacks per day using a smaller dart.”

“But they are not,” Fynn mused.

“Right,” Noah nodded, “They are targeting A-ranked and S-ranked power users who themselves have a high amount of mental power. They need the invading mental power to be large in quantity too; otherwise, they won’t succeed in causing a power rampage.”

“I see… But…” Fynn’s eyebrows shot up, “If it’s someone’s power, why would they need a Shooter to shoot it out? Wouldn’t its user be able to control his own power better?”

“Perhaps the owner is a bad shot?” Noah mulled over it, “Or creating the dart is too taxing, so they can’t control it properly after? Or they just don’t want to risk getting caught? The creator should be a precious resource, they wouldn’t want to risk losing them.”

The three shared a weary look, their shared conclusion obvious.

They needed to get their hands on that dart.

“What about the Shooter?” Noah reminded Fynn.

Fynn wetted his throat with a glass of water, “At the time, I had no information about the dart, so I could only consider the lack of human resources. I assumed they only have this one Shooter capable of performing the attacks. It seemed likely, since the man – or woman – has very high accuracy and is very proficient at… well… not getting caught. That made me think that this person might not just be a random member of the terrorist organization.”

“You suspect they have special training?” Levi’s deep voice sounded out.

“Yeah. That’s why I contacted several of my colleagues from different departments and had them send over some of their Scenters.”

Judging by the glint in Fynn’s eyes, Noah guessed, “Good news?”

“Indeed! One of their Scenters managed to recognize the scent of our Shooter! He is a hired hitman going by the codename Swiftrain. They have been trying to catch him for quite some time now.”

❗ Important News ❗

Recently Good Novel is doing a LGBT promotion and I noticed a sudden surge in subscriptions. Since there are now a couple hundred readers here instead of a handful, I'll resume posting SSC on Good Novel once more. (If you are wondering what this notice about, I moved SSC to other sites half a year ago because there were no SSC readers on Good Novel, which is why the date of the previous chapter is in December.)

P.S. I would be most grateful if you could leave a review on SSC to let others know that you enjoyed it and they too should give it a shot.