Chapter 67: CEO Trouble

“...that's right Kommy. Mr. Watopod, the rich CEO of the largest factory of wrist datapads in the Mega-city was found dead in this alley late last night. He was a major supporter of helping push Mother and Fathers views into reality.”

Thud!

Arron slammed the APC's door shut, drowning out the news playing on the dashboard.

“Look over there! The M1 has decided to show up as well. Late as usual,” said the female reporter that both Arron and Kix had been watching just moments before.

“We got here the fastest we could. What does she expect us to do, teleport?” muttered Kix.

“It seems like the chief is always giving us these odd-end missions. What was so urgent we had to deviate from our planned patrol today?” asked Arron as they walked to the alleyway.

The female news reporter, along with several drones hovering around her, stood outside the alleyway trying to see inside but both her vision and the drone's cameras were blocked by the opaque and sound-deadening holo screens covering the entire alleyway.

“M1! Can you update us on the investigation? Who killed Mr. Datopod? What was their motive?”

“No comment,” said Kix, sidestepping the noisy reporter.

The news drones swirled above their heads taking close-up shots of them. Arron was extremely glad that their helmets had mirrored visors which were currently blocking the cameras from catching a glimpse of their faces.

“How should we know something like that when we just got here?” asked Kix over the helmet's secure comms.

“What are they doing here?” asked Arron as they reached the alleyway entrance.

Three Office of Reason Agents stepped out from inside the alleyway passing through the screen to meet Arron and Kix.

“Tooth?” asked Arron.

“The orders for all of this seem to be coming from the very top. Mother and Father are putting pressure on everyone to find the culprit. It has already exploded in the news and on all the approved social media,” said Toothbrush in the top right corner of the helmet's visor screen.

The office of reason agent walked up to Arron and Kix and stopped them.

“You were the only people sent here?” asked a large black suit-wearing male. His large head was bald and his eyes were covered by a black visor.

“Yes, due to the short notice everyone else was busy,” said Kix.

The large agent shrugged his shoulders and motioned them to follow him into the alleyway.

They passed through the water-like screen which did not allow for any gap to appear as they passed through so the news drones were still unable to see what was on the other side.

On the ground were two white leather tarps placed over two bodies.

The large black suit agent pointed to the bodies, “You can take over the scene and do the rest of the investigation. We have more important things to do.”

With that, the three Office of Reason walked out the rear entrance of the alleyway.

“That's it? They aren't going to help?” asked Arron. “With the funding they have, we could complete this far faster...”

“The Office of Reason just sent us the information that the inspection drones have gathered so far. I'll send it to you now” said Tooth.

Ping!

Arron's NerViz notified him of a new file received.

He tapped on the blinking notification and opened the file letting it flow on the lower right side of his visor so he could quickly read it while also scanning the surrounding area.

[Mr. Zrist Watopod, male, 43. SCS: B, CEO of Watopod wrist-datapads. Cause of death: Gunshot to the back of the head.]

[Ms. Selkry Tariy, female, 30. SCS: C, assistant to Mr. Watopod. Cause of death: Stabbing.]

[Mr. Watopod was reported missing at 12:21 a.m. by his wife when he failed to return home from work. She was the first person to find him.]

“What's with this bare-bones report? Is this it?” asked Kix.

“This was all that was transferred to us.”

Arron walked to the two dead bodies and lifted the leather tarp to inspect them with his own eyes.

The gruesome wounds looked to be as the short report stated, a gunshot wound to Mr.Watopod's head, close to his neck.

Ms. Tariy's body was nearly drained of all blood from all of the stab wounds on her body. Her face had also been carved up and stabbed as well.

Each of the deceased's NerViz system had been damaged and the cloud chips had been dug out of their hands.

Arron used his helmet’s facial scanner and made sure to double-check that they were actually the two victims listed in the report as it was hard to tell by just looking.

“What kind of psychotic person did this?” asked Kix, while he crouched down next to Arron and inspected the mutilated bodies.

When the scan came back as a positive match, Arron let the leather tarp fall back down to cover the dead bodies and the large pool of blood.

“To me, it looks like an affair gone wrong,” said Arron.

“It says here that the wife was the one to report him missing, so maybe we should have a chat with her. Where can we find her Tooth?” Kix asked Tooth.

“The local sector 8 police are comforting her right now and are keeping the media away from her. She is not that far from the two of you. Just go around the corner and you will see the Watopod main office building down the street.”

Arron and Kix exited the Alleyway to see that four Sector 8 police officers had arrived and taken up position outside the screen to block the several reporters and the dozens of flying news drones that had started to show up.

“Keep them out of the alley until the coroners remove the bodies,” ordered Kix.

The officers scoffed and ignored Kix not wanting to acknowledge him or Arron.

The reporters standing nearby all swarmed towards Arron and Kix, their news drones flying in trying to get a good position which caused several mid-air collisions sending them spinning out of control.

The reporters paid the news drones no attention and were focused on asking thousands of similar questions just worded differently, all trying to get a scarp of news or gossip.

Arron and Kix pushed through the small crowd and escaped the area in the APC.

The ride to the main office was short as they only had to drive to the end of the street to reach the main entrance to the Watopod office building which was attached to one of their large factories.

The reporters started to flood down the sidewalks like lemmings as they chased after them hoping to get lucky.

Arron and Kix showed their identification before walking past the police officers blocking off the entrance to the building.

The chattering lemmings quickly arrived and were stopped from following Arron and Kix inside. Several loud outraged chatter and cries were heard before the doors closed behind them.

“She's on the 69th floor,” said a police officer inside the lobby guarding the magshoot.

After saying that he ignored the two.

The two entered the magshoot and typed in 69 on the holographic number pad that popped up and then pressed enter.

“Did we do something to piss them off? I'm getting the feeling they don't really like us,” said Arron.

“Don't pay them any attention, just a bunch of old grumps,” said Kix.

“I'm impressed they actually have a magshoot in the office,” said Arron as they shot up towards the 69th floor.

“Of course, there would be one, he's rich! Why would he even think of having a set of stairs in his office building?” asked Kix.

Ping!

The magshoot stopped at the 69th floor and opened its doors.

The two stepped out of the magshoot directly into the office that took up the entire 69th floor.

The office was wide enough to hold a party of over 1000 people but was fairly empty. Its walls were bare except for several painting holders that seemed to have held paintings at one time in the past.

The bright lights shining down from the ceiling were reflected off of the glossy red stone floor which was bare of any carpet.

The only furniture in the room was an old wooden desk, several filing cabinets embedded into the wall behind the desk, and a tattered white couch that a distraught woman and two police officers were sitting on.

“This... was not what I was expecting,” said Kix over their helmet's secure coms.

“Yeah when someone says rich CEO, I thought this place would be filled with expensive junk. Seems he likes living frugally?” said Arron.

Kix shrugged and said, “Maybe that's how he was able to become so rich?”

The two picked up their pace and walked over to the couch to introduce themselves.

“Hello, Madam Watopod. I am M1 officer Upreeme, and this is my partner officer Wynterz.”

The slumped-over and distraught Ms. Watopod was draped in a blanket that had been on the couch and was using it like a shield as she rocked back and forth.

Hearing her name she looked up to see Arron and Kix standing only a few paces away from her. Her eyes were puffy red from crying and had dark rings from lack of sleep and stress.

She just stared at them in a daze not saying anything.

After standing there in awkward silence for over a minute, Arron decided to break the ice and try to ask a question.

“Madam, we were sent here by Mother and Father to help you find your husband's killer. Can you tell us who might want to harm him and his assistant?”

Arron and Kix waited silently for her response.

She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out for over a minute.

“...ret,” she mumbled quietly.

“What?” asked Kix.

Ms. Watopod cleared her throat and then looked to Kix.

“Despite the image he presents on the news and the company ads... he has a deep secret...” she said in a quiet voice that was still hard to hear.

“Do you mean he was having an affair?” asked Kix.

Ms. Watopod shook her head no.

“... he was a heavy drug user.”