Chapter Text
Grace had been looking forward to a lifetime chained to her desk, given what had happened the first and only time Dempsy had sent her out on the field, but unfortunately, barely nine months later, she was summoned to her boss’ office once more.
“We have a new case on our hand that requires your particular… expertise.”
Grace frowned.
“Sir?”
“I just received a call from the main office, and they need an analyst on sight.”
“Oh… I’m-I’m sure there are p-plenty of other analysts…”
Dempsy sighed and so she didn’t bother finishing her sentence.
“Unfortunately, for better or worse, you’ve just become our foremost expert on all things bioweapon.”
Her eyes widened.
“There’s a… b-bioweapon involved?”
“That’s the prevailing theory. I need you to confirm.”
Grace pondered the predicament. It was sadly true that she had far more experience with bioweapons and the Connections than anyone else in the department, and as much as the idea of going back in the field concerned her, she wasn’t about to let a BOW roam free.
“I-I might need some time, sir… To find a babysitter.”
“No need, you’re not going anywhere. The body was found in Columbus.”
BOW activity in the city? This wasn’t good at all. While Grace was doing her best to shake off the shock, Dempsy placed a little note in front of her. It was an address and a phone number.
“Two agents are already waiting for you on the sight. Get to it.”
Grace picked up the note, looking it over with a little frown before nodding.
“Y-Yes, sir.”
And so, she drove out to the intersection between 5th Street North and Lafayette Street East, and let the yellow police tape guide her to the crime scene. A light spring shower was falling over the city, which wasn’t unusual for the month, and Grace didn’t even bother with an umbrella as she stepped out of her car. The old Ford Fusion was costing her more and more to maintain, but she’d rather die than part with it.
Making her way toward a covered parking lot on the ground floor of an apartment complex, she fiddled with the zip of her backpack’s front pocket to get her badge out. She was holding it between her teeth, struggling to close the pocket up again, when a cops stopped her at the tape. She opened the badge, quickly double-checked that it was right side up, then showed it off. The cops let out an exasperated sigh and called:
“There’s another one.”
He let her through, and she made her way into the dark parking lot. The shallow cover of clouds didn’t help the visibility, so big spotlights had been set up on the edge of the crime scene to light up the place. As soon as she saw the body, Grace swallowed. The harsh lights falling on it were unforgiving, illuminating the carnage in bloody details. Before she could approach further, however, a man in a suit stepped in her way.
“You agent Ashcroft?” he asked in a strong Texan accent.
She fiddled with the badge still in her hand, and the man glanced at it before giving her a once over.
“Sweet Jesus, how old are you, fifteen?”
“I’m… t-twenty-six,” she muttered. Freshly twenty-six, twenty-six and thirty-nine days, but twenty-six all the same.
“And you’re the expert Dempsy promised?” the man asked, still in disbelief.
She probably looked young to him because he looked very old. Grizzled, like the cop in a Clint Eastwood movie, with gray hair and a leathery skin full of wrinkles. He was clean shaven though, and didn’t sport a cowboy hat, so the clichés ended there.
“Will you let her do her work, then?” came the voice of a woman from behind him.
She was also wearing a suit, and was older than Grace, though not as old as her partner. Her long black hair was tied back in a ponytail. She had been handling something with gloves, and slid it into an evidence bag, sealing it before she removed the latex gloves. Then, she approached Grace, offering a firm handshake.
“I’m Agent Liu, this is Agent MacArthur.”
“Grace Ashcroft,” she replied as she shook her hand, and hoped she wasn’t blushing too hard.
“Here is what we have so far, Agent Ashcroft,” Agent Liu began. She showed off the item in the evidence bag, and Grace saw that it was a bloodied wallet. “One of the neighbors called the police. They were trying to leave for work and the body was in their way. Fortunately, they stopped before rolling over it.” Grace winced at the thought. “The cops initially thought some wild animal had had a feast, but, well, I’m sure you’ll see that it doesn’t look like any animal I’ve ever seen. The victim’s wallet identifies him as Riley Barrett, twenty-four.”
Grace nodded along as she assimilated the information. A young man, seemingly attacked by an animal. Then why was she here?
“W-Why are you suspecting a b-bioweapon, then?”
Agent MacArthur indicated over his shoulder.
“See for yourself.”
One of the cops taking evidence presented her with a pair of gloves and a breathing mask, for which Grace was grateful. Nothing would ever smell worse than the bowels of Rhodes Hill, but the coppery stench of blood was already in her nose. She put her badge away as quickly as she could, grabbed an elastic band from her wrist to tie her hair back, then equipped herself.
She approached the body with as much professionalism as she could. Though her eyes trailed over the face first – or what remained of the face – she swallowed down the rush of pity to focus on the data in front of her. The body was mangled beyond recognition, far beyond what a dog, or even a pack of them could have done. Her initial instinct convinced her that only a swarm of something was probably responsible. Not a zombie, then. But still, in all the gore left hanging loose, she had trouble making out what could be responsible. Though a huge chunk of the muscles had been eaten, most of the organs were intact. The heart was all but gone, and only part of the liver had been left, and yet the lungs were seemingly untouched. Whatever had eaten him up had a preference for the juiciest parts, so to speak.
“So, in your expert opinion?” MacArthur asked behind her.
Grace ignored him, completely focused on the body. Her eyes zeroed in on the edge of the victim’s arms. While a large chunk of the front of the body had been eaten, the back of it seemed intact, which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual were the tiny bites on the edge of the bigger wounds, as if part of the swarm had moved to a less busy area. At first, she thought of birds, perhaps crows, but those could also be bug bites, if the bug was big enough.
“What m-made those, do you think?”
She looked back to the two agents, and Liu looked at MacArthur with a smirk. He shrugged.
“Alright, she’s not too bad.”
Liu pushed herself off the wall on which she was leaning and said:
“Walk with me, Ashcroft.”
Grace stood and followed the agent as she walked a couple of feet away from the body. A trail of blood led toward the side of the parking lot, where a knee-high wall served to delimit the building. Liu stopped before, in front of one of the evidence cards, marked 4. After giving an uncertain glance at the older agent, who motioned for her to go ahead, Grace crouched in front of it. There was a big bug dead on the floor. Though Grace wasn’t an expert in insects, she thought it looked like some sort of fly. She didn’t have a ruler her but she was pretty sure that if she compared the mouthpart and the little bites at the edge of the victim’s arms, they would match.
Behind her, Liu continued to walk toward the low wall, so Grace scrambled on her feet and followed. The blood trail continued here, going over the wall and into the street. Arms crossed, Liu stopped and turned to her.
“This is the third body like that we’ve found in Columbus. Mac and I have been following a trail of bodies that started in New York City about eighteen months ago. All the same thing. Men, half eaten by what seems to be a swarm of bugs. And the surveillance camera gives us next to nothing.”
With her chin, she motioned for the camera attached to the corner of the parking lot.
“Back in October we thought the trail had gone cold, but a couple of weeks ago, it started again here.”
Grace’s eyebrows furrowed as she listened. Her gaze glanced up at the camera again, then the drops of blood on the low wall.
“D-do you have a suspect?”
“Glimpses of her. You’ll see what I mean when you see the camera footage.”
“Her?”
“Oh yeah, our monster is a woman.”
Grace nodded, filing the information with everything else for her future report. Liu looked out onto the alley beside the building, where enough rain had fallen now that the sidewalk had darkened.
“I’ll let you do your thing. Come get us if you need anything.”
She’d only taken a couple of steps before Grace called her back.
“Did… the victim, did he have his car k-keys?”
Liu stopped and smirked.
“I guess you really are that good. No, no keys on him. We’ll need to access his phone to see if he took an Uber. There’s a nightclub across the street, it could be he was leaving.”
Grace turned back to the trail of blood. Definitely not leaving, more like running away. Rummaging through her bag, she pulled out a UV flashlight and illuminated the alley beyond the wall. Though the rain had washed away most of the blood, traces remained, and shone brightly under her flashlight. Grace stepped over the wall and removed the face mask, letting it hang around her neck as she followed the trail. The victim had definitely crossed the street, emerging out of the alley between two brick buildings. One seemed deserted but the other was probably the nightclub Liu had mentioned. Grace entered the alley, flashlight still aimed at the ground, until she reached a metal door, probably the club’s fire exit. Here, the rain hadn’t been powerful enough to clean the big blood stains from the bricks, though the color of the two mingled. As there was no blood on the ground beyond that point, Grace was certain that the victim had stepped out of the club and been first attacked there.
She returned to the parking lot, where Liu and MacArthur were caught in conversation about the camera footage. From the snippet she understood, it seemed the footage would be harder to acquire because the camera didn’t belong to the city, and it was annoying the Texan. Grace stood beside them, waiting to be noticed, for a long minute, before she cleared her throat.
“What?” MacArthur roared at being interrupted.
Grace swallowed.
“I… I-I can’t confirm that… t-the victim was at the club. Before…”
Grace waited by the front door while Liu and MacArthur spoke with the owner inside, her back pressed against the damp brick wall. From there, she had a clear view of the parking lot, and the police still gathering evidence inside. She was lost in thoughts, pondering over all the information Liu had given her. So this woman was going around and killing people with bugs. Did she control the flies, or did she turn into the flies? When the thought first entered her mind, she thought it was crazy, but then she reminded herself of all the crazy things she’d seen at Rhode Hills and Racoon City.
Speaking of crazy and improbable, her phone buzzed in her pocket and she took it out. It was Emily’s sitter, Laura, texting her to tell her that Emily’s tutor had left for the day. While Grace had appreciated the regular reports at first, by now she didn’t feel she needed them anymore. They’d found their grooves. Emily was making great progress, and her tutor was sure she would be able to enter an actual school in September – Grace was really nervous by the prospect, but she knew it would be fine. Though she’d asked Laura to inform her if anything was wrong, the sitter had continued to text her throughout the day when things were fine. But then again, what else could she expect from a BSAA agent.
She was putting her phone away when the front door of the nightclub opened with a groan and the field agents stepped out.
“We’ve got a lead,” Liu announced, and Grace smiled.
“G-Good. That’s good.”
“The whole club was privatized last night for a party. Some end of year thing the science department at Hopewell University. They’ve been organizing it every year. Only someone with the University’s ID card can come in. So either our killer was waiting in the alley or…”
“A University s-student?” Grace pondered.
MacArthur was already on his way back to the parking lot. Liu placed a hand on Grace’s shoulder.
“Get going. We’ll send you everything we have and let you know when we need your brain again.”
“Okay…”
Liu followed her partner. Grace checked her phone again. She could go back to the office, but then she’d only have a couple of minutes before the end of her day anyway. She might as well head home straight away. Maybe she’d have a bit of time to play with Emily before she needed to get back to work.
When she arrived home, she was greeted by the usual sight of Emily sat at the dining table and Laura beside her. As soon as she saw her, Emily smiled and jumped out of her chair to run over and hug her. She always launched herself into Grace like she wanted to topple her, and Grace had learned to brace herself. She hunched to hug the little girl back.
“I learned about dinosaurs today,” Emily said against her legs.
“But you already knew about dinosaurs,” Grace replied with a hint of amusement. “You remember? T-the museum.”
“And now I know even more.”
Emily, despite her young age, had a great sense of diplomacy. Grace didn’t know whether it was a good sign, or a sign that she was always trying to appease others.
When Emily let her go, Grace set her backpack down and removed her leather jacket. That was the sign for Laura to stand from the table and take her leave. In those past couple of months, Grace had never quite managed to figure out Laura. She looked like a really tough person – unsurprising for a BSAA agent – and the way she left without so much as a goodbye to Emily made her think that she didn’t care about the girl at all. However, when Grace had asked Emily how she felt about Laura, the girl had said that she was really nice and even funny sometimes. Grace didn’t see it at all, not when Laura crushed her fingers in a handshake before saying:
“Good evening, Ashcroft.”
And then she was gone, like she had better things to do – she probably did, she was a highly trained agent.
Grace received Liu’s data packet shortly after arriving home, and as much as she would have loved to play with Emily, she needed to start working on this now if she wanted to get some sleep. Setting her laptop on the dining table, she began looking through the many reports. She was careful not to open any images, especially when Emily came to sit at the table beside her, her curious eyes on the screen.
“You can go play,” Grace told her. “I’m sure you-you’re tired of sitting at the table all day.”
“I want to stay with you,” Emily replied while she looked at her with those huge green eyes of hers.
“Okay…” Grace conceded, because she couldn’t really deny her anything.
She expected Emily to grab a book or get her drawing kit, but the girl only sat beside her without a word, legs kicking gently beneath her, and her hands set on the table. Grace would glance toward her every so often, expecting her to look bored, but she looked lost in thoughts, her gaze staring far beyond the white-painted wall. Though Grace itched to ask her what she was thinking about, she personally hated being interrupted when she was daydreaming, so she wouldn’t do that to someone else.
When dinner time rolled around, Grace shut her laptop and headed to the kitchen. Then, like a statue coming to life, Emily reanimated and joined her. As much as it would be far more convenient to order in tonight, Grace had made rules for herself, if she wanted this parenting thing to work, and one of them was no take out every night. Alyssa might have been super busy and always running around the country, dragging her along for the ride, but she’d taught her many important life skills, including how to cook a basic meal. That Grace had never been really good at it was more her problem than her mother’s, but she did her best to manage.
“Can I help?” Emily asked as soon as she entered the kitchen.
Grace smiled at her, but it really didn’t take two people to boil pasta water.
“Why don’t you… s-set the table?”
She grabbed two plates from the high cupboard and placed them in Emily’s waiting arms, then watched as the girl returned into the living room. She was absolutely adorable as her naked feet patted over the synthetic floor, taking great care to bring the plates to their destination.
Dinner was just spaghetti Bolognese, but Emily seemed to enjoy it, if the smeared sauced all over her face and stains on her sky-blue tee-shirt were any indication. Like a book, Emily could repeat everything she’d learned with her tutor that day, between mouthfuls, and Grace was always impressed by her vivacious mind.
After a much-needed bath, Emily was ready for bed. Grace tugged her into bed as she clutched her favorite plush, a yellow rabbit she’d called Corn Flakes. Grace pressed a kiss on her forehead and adjusted Flakes’ bowtie, which made the little girl giggle.
“Can I read?” Emily asked.
“J-just one chapter, okay? And… I’ll come to check s-so no cheating.”
Grace passed her the book on her bedside table, Ozma of Oz. Last winter, Grace had been the one reading to her every night, but now that Emily was once again a confident reader, she liked to do it herself. Emily opened the book on her bookmark, which she’d made with a lot of glitter, and she started reading. Grace lingered by the side of the bed, but she knew she had a lot of work to do still, so, with a sigh, she stood.
“Good night.”
“Good night, Grace,” Emily replied without looking up from her book.
Reluctantly, Grace returned to much less pleasant affairs. Twelve bodies last years, three in the past month and a half alone. The pictures were gruesome to say the least. All similar: partially eaten and left in alleys, in parking lots, in empty buildings. The medical reports all described the same state that she’d observed that afternoon. Twenty-something men. A couple were university students, but never from the same college, though Grace quickly noticed that they almost all had in common the fact that they studied biology. She wondered whether Liu and MacArthur had made that connection already.
With only video footage left to scrub through, she braced herself for the worst. In fact, she saw basically nothing. Now she understood why they had yet to identify the woman. Every time the victim rushed into frame, the camera would soon be obscured by so many flies that she couldn’t see the act itself. Only after, the flies would take off into a swarm, leaving the victim behind. Every so often, she camera would catch a figure emerging out of the swarm. Grace paused on the best footage they had so far.
She couldn’t see her face, only what she imaged to be blood-stains on her face. Her long, luscious looking hair cascaded behind her back. Though Grace squinted and leaned as close to the screen as she could, she couldn’t make anything else out about the woman, caught in a swarm of flies. However, the harsh blue light of the screen reminded her that her eyes were burning and dry, and it would be annoying as hell to remove her contact lenses. After writing down her final remarks, she shut the laptop for the night and glanced at the time. It was well past midnight. The orange light of Emily’s bedside lamp illuminated most of the apartment. Grace had been so absorbed in her work that she’d completely forgotten to check on her.
Glancing into the girl’s bedroom, she found her dead asleep, Corn Flakes tugged against her side and the book sprawled on top of her. Taking care not to wake her, Grace put the bookmark in, set the book aside, and placed another kiss on her forehead before turning off the light.
Grace had been writing her report on the parking lot victim when she was summoned to her boss’ office again. This time, she was surprised to find MacArthur and Liu already there.
“Yes- yes, sir?” she muttered as she stepped into the room.
“Close the door, Ashcroft.”
She obeyed in a hurry, then found herself standing in front of him, the field agents on either side of her.
“We’ve made some progress on the case,” Liu informed her. “You were right, our killer has a thing for biology majors and graduates. So, we cross-referenced new students in the department at Hopewell, and we’ve singled someone.”
“O-okay…” When the silence stretched on, Grace pursed her lips. It became so awkward that she had to ask, “N-now what?”
“Agent Liu and MacArthur came with a proposal,” Dempsy explained.
“We’re afraid that if we approach the killer, she might try to flee or worse. We need confirmation without raising suspicion.”
“We need someone undercover,” MacArthur put it plainly.
“That makes… sense…”
Silence fell over the office once more and all eyes landed on her. Grace hadn’t felt this cornered since Zeno was threatening her and Leon at the PANDORA.
“He means you, Ashcroft,” Liu explained. “You’d be going undercover.”
Grace’s heart stopped in her throat as she gasped. She knew she definitely looked like a fish, but she couldn’t shut her mouth. This was insane. MacArthur echoed the sentiment:
“I just don’t think it’s gonna work.”
“You said it yourself, she looks young enough to still be in college.”
“Just cause she looks young don’t mean she’s got the skills to pull this off.”
“I can vouch for Ashcroft’s skills,” Dempsy interjected. “In fact, I’d advice not to underestimate her.”
Grace would have taken heart to her boss’ compliment if she wasn’t still so shocked.
“I… I-I-I can’t go… undercover. I-I’m not a… a field agent…”
Liu turned to her once more.
“You wouldn’t be making any arrest, and Mac and I will be nearby every step of the way. You wouldn’t be alone, this time.”
Grace chewed her lips as she thought it over. It was stupidly dangerous, just the kind of danger she’d told herself she would never take. But she also knew Liu was right. If the killer knew they were onto her, she might run and disappear.
“If-if I agree to this, and I’m not-not agreeing, but if… What will I d-do?”
“Just talk to them. Do your best to figure out what they’re hiding.”
“You’re good at that, ain’t you?” MacArthur asked. “Reading people?”
Grace rolled her eyes. She could examine data and find patterns, but she wasn’t Sherlock Holms. She ignored him and focused her attention on Liu.
“An-and if I-I’m compromised?”
“We pull you out, simple as that.”
Grace had a very bad feeling about it, but the pressure in the room was mounting, and like everyone, she wanted to get to the bottom of this. She sighed, then reluctantly muttered:
“Alright…”
Agent Liu had advised her to try and make herself look even younger. Grace had no idea how she was supposed to do that. In movies and on TV, whenever they had to make an actor look younger, they gave them glasses and bangs. Glasses were already her usual, and there was no way she was giving herself bangs. She searched through her closet, unsure what she was supposed to wear. She settled on an old, faded tee-shirt at the back of her closet, the poster for Buffy the Vampire Slayer barely legible anymore, and jeans. Before leaving home, she put on a light jacket and picked up her backpack. If Laura thought she looked less professional than usual, she didn’t say anything. Grace gave Emily a hug which eased her anxiety, and then she was off.
She met Liu and MacArthur some distance from the school. Their surveillance vehicle was disguised as a plumber’s truck. When she knocked on the side-door, MacArthur opened and gave her a once over.
“She looks like a highschooler now.”
Grace rolled her eyes and pushed past him to join Liu into the van. Liu looked equally exasperated by her partner.
“You look fine. Here.”
She handed Grace a button that read ‘Every day is fantastic (with coffee).’ Grace thought it was the most ridiculous accessory she’d ever seen, but then she noticed the microphone and camera hidden in the dots of the two i. With a nod, she let Liu pin it to the lapel of her jacket.
“We’ll be stationed on the other side of campus, keeping an eye on you. For today, just walk about and see if you can spot anyone that matches our description. The summer session just started, so things should be much calmer than during the rest of the year. If you spot anyone, we’ll advice you what do to.”
Liu picked up a tiny coms from a box of them and handed it to Grace, who tugged it into her ear, cringing at the cold sensation, then hid it with her hair.
“Perfect. There’s a bus station around the corner. Take the 7.”
Grace obeyed, exiting the van and making her way to the bus stop. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long for the bus, however, that meant she had even less time to prepare for her first – and she hoped only – undercover operation. As the bus halted every few meters, she found her heart did the same. Why in the hell had she agreed to this? As if she hadn’t had enough action back in September, now she was throwing herself after a woman with nebulous intentions who may or may not control a swarm of flesh-eating flies.
She was so lost in worried thoughts that she would have missed her stop if someone hadn’t brushed past her on their way out, reminding her that she was supposed to step out. The day was bright, and so she wasn’t surprised to see many college students lounging on the quad. Doing her best to look inconspicuous, she chose one of the paved paths that traversed the campus and started walking.
While Grace had a degree in criminal science, she’d never really set foot on a campus before. She’d done all of her schooling online, too anxious to attend classes. She was sure her mother would have loved to see her go to college, but, well, it wasn’t like she’d had the chance to say anything about Grace’s choice.
Keeping her head on a swivel, Grace scanned the grass for a woman with light and long hair. There were many blondes, hanging around in small groups with their friends, and every time Grace turned the button toward them, Liu would tell her, in her ear:
“Not her, keep going.”
So, Grace walked the length of the campus two, three times, until she thought she’d seen everyone there was to see. This had been a waste of time, she thought as she stopped in the center of the quad. Four paths converged there into a circle of pavement, with a low wall all around it and a couple of benches. Grace sighed and pulled up her phone to text Liu and ask her if she could leave now.
“Are you lost?”
Grace had been so focused on her screen that she hadn’t noticed when someone sat on the low wall to her left – or perhaps the woman had been there before, and she’d just missed her. She turned to look at her and her eyes widened.
The blond woman was sat with her hands on either side of her, fingers gripping the edge of the wall. She had the most vibrant amber eyes; they looked almost yellow in the sunlight. Her hair looked like satin as it fell over her naked shoulders. She was smiling in a friendly manner, though it didn’t reach her eyes. She was wearing a black top with spaghetti straps, high-waisted blue jeans and, despite the nice, warm weather, a loose, soft-looking beige woolen cardigan was wrapped around her elbows. A black chocker with a ruby in the middle was wrapped around her pale neck.
In the second that Grace stared at the woman, she became absolutely convinced of two things: she was the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen, and she was the killer they were looking for.