2 - Cold Case

The Puppeteer
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[CONTENTID1] The Puppeteer [/CONTENTID1]

 

[CONTENTID2] Two [/CONTENTID2] 

 

[CONTENTID3] [/CONTENTID3] 

 

[CONTENTID4] 

 

 

Mingyu froze.
"It's a joke." He stuttered.
"I'm afraid it's not a joke." Taeyong explained.
"Jisoo can't read the minds of dead mutants. You know that, boss! That's mental suicide!"
"That's where Jeonghan comes in. He's a specialist in body control but also mind protection. He'll stabilize Jisoo´s consciousness and lead him safely out of the victim's mind."
"You want this Controller to stabilize my mind while I have visions with a dead mutant?" he heard Jisoo's question.
Taeyong nodded.
Jisoo stood up and threw his police badge on the table.
"I quit." He said and left the room.

 

 

 

Wonwoo looked after Jisoo in bewilderment.
A second badge landed almost simultaneously on the table, and  Mingyu walked behind him. "You know very well that I don't accept anything that concerns his safety. I thought you knew that by now." Mingyu snorted at Taeyong and left the office.
The Chief sighed deeply.
"Let me off the team. This won't work." He heard Jeonghan's voice, but the Chief stubbornly shook his head. "This is an important case."
"No case is important enough to open a Catcher's mind enough for a Controller to have access and trust that he will have the ability to save his consciousness." Jeonghan stated, grabbed his jacket, and left the room.
Wonwoo propped his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands as he stared at the three empty chairs.
"Chief?"
"What is it?" his boss sighed.
"I graduated a week ago and I thought I knew all about mutants and their abilities. But I realized I don't know about them. What's the problem now?" he asked.
Taeyong looked at him. "You know Jisoo's basic abilities?"
"I thought so, but apparently I don´t know anything."
"Well... how do I explain this...The human brain has one entrance and one exit. It's a bit rude to say, but it's quite simple. A mutant's brain is a real labyrinth. The Deathcatcher can only get out with help to stay on the right path. When Jisoo reads the thoughts of a human victim, he can concentrate on the process. He taps into the last moments, so to speak, and then leaves the victim's mind. With a mutant, we are talking about a brain structure that is unsurpassed in complexity. The fact that mutants can have these psychic abilities makes it difficult to read their thoughts, for example. Mingyu could read the thoughts of a human and a mutant without any problems, but the mutant would notice or sense that someone was in his mind." Taeyong explained.
"And what does that have to do with Jisoo's little drama?" Wonwoo asked, confused.
"With a mutant, Jisoo could lose his exit. He can get into the mind and read the last moments, but it would be impossible or almost impossible for him to get out of it. A Deathcatcher concentrates on the path, finding his way to this thought and taking the same route out of the mind. In the case of a mutant, however, the exit could lie elsewhere due to the complexity. Alive, it is no problem because it is possible to search for it. But if the target is dead and Jisoo tries to leave the mind the same way but does not find the exit, at some point, eventually, his mental stability will collapse. Simply put, he would only find the way back and run in circles once he forgot how to breathe. And the only person who can prevent that is Jeonghan. He would stabilize Jisoo´s mind and let him concentrate on the thoughts.To explain it in human terms, he would hold the flashlight for Jisoo and show him the way back. But if Jeonghan s up, Jisoo would be done for."
Wonwoo slowly understood the problem.
"Stabilizing means that Jeonghan would have to enter Joshua's mind and could do anything he wanted. Move his body, mess with it, or destroy it." Wonwoo asked.
"Yes." Taeyong stated.
"But that doesn't make sense. If Jisoo can't enter the mind of a dead mutant without getting lost, why can Jeonghan? He's just as in if he helps Jisoo somehow, right?" asked Wonwoo after a moment.
"That's because Jeonghan doesn't have a direct target in the victim's mind. He is not entering that labyrinth. Jisoo has one target, the victim's thoughts, so he can't concentrate on anything else. But Jeonghan's goal is to stabilize Jisoo's mind and not get distracted by another task like Jisoo would have to deal with. He can concentrate fully on Jisoo while Jisoo has to concentrate on both if no one would support him."
"Something like a guide for the blind. He has to adapt to the situation by thinking and acting like a blind person, but he can still see whether a car is coming or the traffic lights are green?" Wonwoo asked.
"A strange comparison, but yes." said Taeyong, nodding.

"I doubt that it will work. Firstly, the three have a problem with each other. That makes it almost impossible to work based on trust. And secondly, Jeonghan seems to be very reserved, and that's probably why Jisoo is worried that he's neither confident nor good at what he does. I don't want to be cheeky, but I'm sure there have already been better ideas for solving a case." Wonwoo said and grinned after a few seconds.
Taeyong stared at him. "Not bad. You've got guts... so get that Controller back into the room, okay? I will get our two divas." 
Wonwoo looked at him in surprise. "And how are you going to do that, Chief?"
"Just let me do it." Taeyong mumbled and left the room.

 

 

Jisoo rushed to the elevators, and Mingyu was right behind him.
"The boss has lost his mind." Jisoo growled.
Mingyu agreed with him. This was insane. There was no way Jisoo would voluntarily allow a Controller access to his mind and be trapped in a vision with a dead mutant by himself. And there was no way that Mingyu would allow him to get into this situation. A bond among mutants was very strong, and Jisoo was very dear to him. He would rather chop the Chief´s head off. 
And he worried about the Saver because humans could not block a Controller´s attack. Mutants could at least sense it and stop it to a certain extent. 
All a controller needed was visual contact. Of course, the controllers' abilities were also limited, so the idea that Jeonghan could kill a person in the basement just because he felt like it on the upper floor was very far-fetched.
"Gentlemen?"
Mingyu groaned as he heard the Chief's voice behind him.
"I already quit." He heard Jisoo growling, and Mingyu stubbornly waited for the elevator.
"The victims were slaves." Mingyu froze when he heard Taeyong's voice and saw Jisoo stiffen beside him.
"Male?" Jisoo asked quietly.
"No. Female slaves. All had strings around their necks when they were found." Taeyong whispered.
Jisoo stretched and stepped back from the lift.
"Were there any other injuries?" Mingyu whispered.
"The murders seem to have been planned in detail." Taeyong said and made way as Mingyu also took a step back from the elevator, slowly turned round, and walked back down the corridor to the office with an effortlessly calm demeanor.
"What injuries are we talking about?" asked Jisoo, who joined Mingyu.
Mingyu knew what answer would come. He knew what injuries the slave girls would have besides the strings around their throats. 
"Their eyes were removed." Taeyong said.
Mingyu swallowed the angry curse that almost left his lips.
 

 


Jisoo gritted his teeth.
"Cause of death?"
"Blood loss. The victims had a huge number of cuts in their bodies." The Chief's voice became quieter.
Jisoo closed his eye." So it's the cold case from 1980?" he whispered and already knew what the Chief would answer. And Jisoo knew that the moment he saw the expression in Mingyu´s eyes.
"Yes."
Mingyu nodded towards him."I swear, this time, we get that er."
"Let´s get started." snarled Taeyong, and Mingyu didn't hesitate as he followed him.

 

 

Wonwoo strolled through the office, and after a few minutes, he found who he was looking for.
"Tada!" he tapped Jeonghan on the shoulder, and a second later, he dropped to his knees.
"Never scare a Controller! They are... dangerous." he heard another officer´s voice, helping him to his feet. Disgusted, the officer backed away from Jeonghan, who stared at him.
"Sorry. You caught me off guard." Jeonghan mumbled and turned away from Wonwoo.
"Did you just control me ...?" Wonwoo couldn't help but be curious.
"By accident. That gives me enough time to react if the surprise is not to my liking."
Wonwoo swallowed hard. He couldn't even remember moving his body.
"I have the record of the conversations and a lot of other files to go through. Can you help me with that?"
"You want me to dig through ing papers?" Jeonghan smiled bitterly.
"A team is a team." Wonwoo smiled.
"I left the team."
"And I invited you back. Come on, let's work this out. The Chief said he will get the guys back as well and I don´t want to sit around and do nothing."

 

 

Jeonghan was deeply confused.
This little human was not afraid. He had accidentally controlled his body for a second, and Wonwoo showed no disgust or anger. He just accepted it. And he did NOT get that he would not work on the case.
But something about this guy was interesting. He was cheerful and hyper.
He groaned in annoyance over his own stupidity as he followed him to a desk with a mountain of papers.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes." Wonwoo pouted. "I need to create a simple file system with this information, and it'll be easier if you help me save it."
"And how exactly am I supposed to do that?" Jeonghan ask

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Comments

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DJCyrus
#1
Chapter 11: You’re back! It’s been a while and I had to read the previous chapter to remind myself of what happened😅
Shinee2020 #2
Chapter 6: Are there new clues added? Should I reread it once you are all done to see any missing clues for future chapters to figure out who's the bad guy? ;)
friendstolovers18 #3
So cool!
friendstolovers18 #4
Wait wow the effort in this story
Ghad20
31 streak #5
Are you reposting the entire story ?
Shinee2020 #6
Happy New Year! :) Can't wait for you to get back to new chapters... ;)
Carat_Authornim
#7
Well we are revamping some things 😀😃🙂
DJCyrus
#8
Chapter 1: It’s like I’m reading for the first time haha
DJCyrus
#9
Chapter 37: Love the flow of the story, although I have to tell you that I was frustrated with Wonwoo for being a about the marking. I really really didn’t want to read their ‘second’ second date because I was convinced that he will screw it up again. Thank god he didn’t. Haha
On a side note, I wish they could’ve solved and figured out the stuff a little bit more with the clues they had.
Can’t wait to see if they can stop the killer this time with the help of vernon.
Lakanamihan
#10
Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Yo ngl, the part with Vernon is confusing. I'm assuming he ended up like that bc a Controller messed him up, but that's all I can deduce with how the facts are presented. Also the system and worldbuilding with mutants doesn't make sense. Does proximity/parameter affect mind control and other such ability? Do they rely on focused/immediate contact? For example, this is my theory: since it is virtually an intangible ability, you cannot constrain it with physicality and direction, (I hope I can explain this well but bear with me) so you have essentially no bounds as to where it can reach, how far, and in which direction it will travel to--since no laws of physics is applied. Or am I wrong in seeing it like this? I am asking because I think this is essential to the plot: if you consider this aspect, some things regarding the case would be solved by now: logically speaking, they can do so much more than ordinary, no-superpower police officers. Also: I had to wonder, if this is 100 years into the future, would there have been more tech advancements by the time? Like, think of this: 100 years ago today was 1923, and everything else is so different and almost everything is accessible to us now that didn't use to be accessible to people in 1920s. The way I see it, the characters are still bound by lack of resources, police and suspect alike. I would think that the enslaved victims were trafficked by underground orgs, because it doesn't make sense that the killer would just pick them up randomly from the streets. (The iron collars proved this to be an organized thing, for one.) If that is the case, the officers could easily look into that as well. Or if the iron collars are personal branding thing by the killer themselves, then that could easily be the most solid piece of evidence. They can narrow it down to one individual, no? Since no other slave owner is branding slaves like that. Another thing was also the fact that the killer was in Danbi's apartment, should there not be surveillance footage that would capture him being there, even in the hallways or lobby at least? Some bases are not being covered, which makes it unnecessarily convoluted, and things and people are being added by them bringing seemingly new things that the old characters could have discovered themselves had they looked for things in a different manner.