The Terror that Came to Winslow: 3

Primary POIs (Persons of Interest) are those individuals who have been directly exposed to the Master, or who may be the Master. In all cases when interviewing a POI, the interviewer must be linked to an offsite monitor. Furthermore, POIs may be detained without warrant for up to one week, in order to verify that they are not the Master or under a long-term Master influence.

However, it should be noted that POIs under a Master’s influence are victims, not criminals and care must be taken to de-escalate the situation. Most notably, many civilians assume that any victims of a Master will be treated like victims of the Simurgh and may respond with fear or even violence, to say nothing of the potential for implanted commands. For this reason, any interviewer should be prepared to use non-lethal means to render the victim harmless…

Policies for Investigating Masters, chapter 4, Interviewing POIs.

*****

When Colin drove up to the house, he’d read everything needed via his helmet monitor. The family was a foster family, after a string of… unfortunate events. Two children, both in primary school, two parents, both workers, all taken into custody without incident.

Several BBPD vehicles were outside of the house, police forming a cordon, while a PRT team got ready.

“Any signs of activity within the house?” he asked.

“No sir, except for a cat—heat sensors indicate it’s asleep in the younger child’s room.”

“We’ll close the door to that room then.” Colin had experiences with angry or panicked pets and if you got filmed being anything other than sweet to the animal getting ready to tear your face off, be prepared for “Is this the next member of the Slaughterhouse” comments on media… He took a deep breath. “Follow me.”

The door was easy to unlock, the alarm system equally easy. But that didn’t mean there weren’t surprises in there. Masters sometimes came with Tinker support and while Colin didn’t think this was the case, “I didn’t think” was on more than a few morgue reports for Protectorate investigators.

“This is Armsmaster. Is Oversight ready?”

“Yes, Armsmaster.” The voice was voder-scrubbed, and he didn’t know who it was. Even if a Master took him over, he didn’t have the information needed to run a convincing fraud.

Over the top? Possibly. But years of experience had taught the Protectorate that sometimes, over the top was your best bet.

“I am entering the house. Scanners indicate no active security measures beyond a conventional alarm. The only active appliances are the refrigerator and heating system.”

Several minutes later, Colin stopped and nodded, looking around the nicely done living room. “I am confirming no tinkertech or other alarm systems or traps. The investigation team may now enter.” He turned to them “Beware of cognitohazards, and verify that your telemetry systems are active.”

The team stopped and checked. Masters, even the best, often left a spike in vitals when they first took control—they or any presents they left.

Fifteen minutes later, they had nothing, save for a book hidden under Julia’s bed. Armsmaster took it, even as his helmet came digitized the letters, and converted them to a blocky script.

“Oversight?”

“Yes?”

“We have proof that Julia was the Master.” He flipped through the pages, quickly reading them. “Apparently her father abused her. One entry… ‘nobody listens to me, they just listen to HIM. I’ll never get away…” He flipped through it reading pages at a glance. “He touched me, but now I can touch him. People are looking at him like he’s the bad guy…”

“So, a power to mark a single individual?”

“Possibly. But I’m rating this Master as incapable of creating cognitohazards. We can go to level 1 protections.”

There were sounds of relief throughout the house.

I can understand why. The last Master capable of creating independent cognitohazards had seen an entire small town almost destroyed via riot and murder.

Which didn’t mean they wouldn’t be careful with the book. But even so, as Colin went through it, it told a depressing story.

A familiar one.

Masters almost never had easy triggers, even as such things went. Most Masters came from situations of desperate loneliness, or persecution, and were handed a power that allowed them to turn on their tormenters, real or imagined. The PRT offered a way out… but that required coming out as a Master and the public were always very nervous around them. How could you be certain that your thoughts were your own? Masters existed under scrutiny beyond anyone else, where even the most innocent misstep might be taken in the worst possible way.

“Everyone hates him now. He tries to explain himself, but they hate him.” Colin kept reading. “Oversight said nothing. “Now we’ll see how he feels…” He flipped a few more pages. Then he paused.

Fuck.

“I can’t make people believe me! I just can make other people hate who I mark, but they still don’t believe me!  If I tell them, they’ll say I did this because I was lying!” the words were written like someone had driven a pen into it, some parts of the page torn. “Fuck them, fuck them all! I’ll have fun then!”

He skimmed a few more pages and then put the journal in the evidence bag.

A very familiar story. A Master, growing in confidence, losing any restraint, coming to see it as a game. Colin had a feeling that more than a few cold cases were about to be reso—

“Armsmaster, this is Piggot. We have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“It appears we have two Masters at Winslow. You need to head to the Hebert’s home. Now.”

“Very well.”