Tulpa
Three containers of helium; it was far too obvious where the criminal was heading and what they were doing... and it was too damn serious for just a thief. Helium was absolutely useless in most cases, it wasn’t like they were going to launch a rubber balloon assault. No, there could be only one other use for the gas, one not too commonly known.
As I brought my leg carefully over the bike, and then assisted Celeste in mounting the back of the vehicle, I found myself scrutinising the plausibility of my suspicions; could someone really have access to that kind of technology? Well, that wasn’t really the question; it was more who would need that kind of technology, in something as simple as a robbery. I began to pull my dark helmet down before the woman from the shop ran over, waving her hands to halt us. I turned across to her.
“You forgot this, I’m sure you’ll be able to find something on there.”
“Oh, a tape. Of course, thank you very much,” I smiled, before passing it backwards to Nova.
Once again I flicked the stand back up and revved the engine, before accelerating away from the car park.
“Amateur mistake,” I heard Celeste’s laugh over the intercom inside the plastic dome. “You forgot the tape!”
“I didn’t ask for a reason,” I replied.
“Oh, really? And why was that?” I could almost feel the womanly disbelief in her voice.
“We’ve got to wait until our evaluation at the end of this month before we are completely certified. If I had requested the possession of the security footage, it would be a breach of privacy; luckily the owners didn’t mind that too much.”
“Anyway, helium. Why helium? It’s not like they’re going to rob stores with balloons or anything.”
Heh, great minds think alike. “Well, aside from parties, there’s only one alternative that I know. And it’s a long shot off realistic.
“And that is..?”
“Cryogenics. But like I said: why would any thief need to freeze anything on that scale?”
I backtracked the route we had taken towards the street-corner store, all the way back into the garage in the almighty HQ building. It was a funny thing, how I had given birth to a new method of crime solving, yet I would have to wait a few weeks to discover if it was all in vain. I had tried to avoid letting slip that if we didn’t pass judgement of the local council, everyone would have to go back to their regular lives, and the problem was that many of the team didn’t have one in the first place.
As I steered into the white concrete room, I had already formed an order of which to progress with the operations we had become engaged with.
The enormous screen of the communications room demanded my undivided attention as I sifted through each and every camera’s footage with Nova sat behind me sipping (rather noisily) on an ice-cold cola and reading and humming a familiar tune to herself. I had done well to cope with the distraction as the time rolled by, despite the fact that it had amazed me that the girl could do all three activities without disrupting the others as a result.
A sudden cough came from behind me, once again from Celeste, who proceeded to frantically poke her chin in thought, as if she had forgotten something vital, sometimes I wondered if she woke up having forgot how to breathe. “Something the matter?” I inquired, pausing the evidence with the click of a button.
“I just thought of something I found earlier... what was it? Um, oh, oh,oh. Err. It’s on the tip of my tongue!”
I rolled my eyes and tapped my forearm in impatience, yet she became quiet, eyeing me. Oh, she wants me to refresh her memory. Well, um... “Err, is it to do with the crime?”
“Yes! Yes, but, I can’t recall what it was.”
“Perhaps... a name?”
“Nope, na-uh. It was...”
“Something to do with the criminal?”
“Yes! Definitely! But, it wasn’t a name.”
“Location?”
“No, no, no. It was... err,” she pointed to her head, almost subconsciously.
“Erm. Would it be hair by any chance?”
“Yes! Of course! I know now! At the scene of the crime, on the criminals bag, there was a red, ginger I suppose, hair.”
“So chances are that the perpetrator has ginger hair?”
“Most certainly.”
I sighed deeply. “And, you failed to mention this earlier before I scanned for simple suspicious persons for two hours?”
“Sorry, I forgot.”
I chuckled. “Sure, I do wonder if you’d forget your head if it weren’t screwed on. Now, make yourself useful and contact the rest of the crew, I sure hope they’re holding their communication devices. Check what the teams have managed to scrounge from the scenes.”
“Can do,” Celeste smiled, as she walked spritely from the room, humming the tune from earlier. I sighed again, rewinding the footage for a second, more thorough examination. “Okay, we’re looking for redheaded males, hopefully acting suspiciously. If all goes well, this’ll be a simple case and we can get on with getting ranking as an official policing service. If all goes well...”
