[CONTENTID1] The Puppeteer [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] Three [/CONTENTID2] 

[CONTENTID3] [/CONTENTID3] 

[CONTENTID4] 

Everyone had gathered in the briefing room again. After Wonwoo got over his shock at having to secure data from thousands of papers, they all decided to examine only the facts they already knew and then go through them one by one.
Mingyu knew it was a case that would not be solved in a week. He had worked with Jisoo on this case for years until it was suddenly closed in 1994 as unsolved, and the information regarding the investigations was classified as confidential.
Mingyu looked over at Jisoo hoping he would take over the briefing, but Jisoo avoided his gaze and played with the pen on the table.
- Thanks. - Mingyu's subconscious grumbled. He didn't have to think long, and he didn't need a file of the first victim. The cruelty of those murders had been burned into his memory like a scar.
He sighed, reached for an envelope with pictures, and opened it. He reached in, and his fingers closed around the photos of the murders. After a few seconds, he took his fingers out of the envelope again and placed it on the table.
"The first case..." Mingyu started but got interrupted by Wonwoo.
"Wait a minute." Wonwoo mumbled next to him, and Mingyu looked at him in annoyance.
Wonwoo touched his tattoo lightly, and he seemed to want to record the conversation.
He grimaced briefly. It seemed to hurt him. Finally, he nodded.
Mingyu walked around the table and stood next to a large glass panel that began to glow green at his touch.
 

"The first case attributed to the perpetrator is from the spring of 1980.  The victim is female and was estimated to be about fifteen to seventeen years old. The first victim's name is Park Eun Sung." Mingyu and Jeonghan peeked at Wonwoo. He seemed to record the conversation, so Jeonghan put down the pen and leaned forward to concentrate on the information.
"Do we have the pictures from the crime scene?" asked Jeonghan.
Mingyu looked at Jisoo, and Jeonghan noticed that they both looked nervous.
"Later. First we should go through the key data." Mingyu mumbled.
"Key data is information, such as photos of the victims or the crime scene. It makes more sense to go through the whole thing per victim with all the information instead of just a few pieces of information in between." Wonwoo interjected.
Mingyu looked at him almost petulantly. "As you said earlier, you can create the rough profiles first. You explained it to me earlier, so take care of it now."
Jeonghan looked at Mingyu in surprise. The Mind Reader had used a tone of voice that was much more aggressive than necessary, and Mingyu seemed to notice it simultaneously.
"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. The case is just... problematic."
"That's why we should go through all the evidence." Wonwoo said, and Mingyu sighed and started the overhead projector.
"Okay." Mingyu grabbed a large envelope and placed the pictures on the overhead projector. The images appeared on the big screen. He handed out several other photos to the team members.

Jisoo closed his eyes. It had taken him over ten years to forget those pictures and another ten years to not think about the case.

Jeonghan's eyes grew wide as he stared at the picture.
"What..." he stammered, trying to keep his composure. -You're a police officer. Calm the down. -
It was essential to search the pictures for clues, and he tried to control himself so he could see as much detail as possible in the photos that could help as evidence, but all he could think about was what had happened to that little mutant girl.

Wonwoo bit his lip.
All he could see was a... thing.
"As you can see, the victim was stabbed. The cause of death was blood loss from the injuries she sustained. Some scars were older than others, and we believe she was tortured during her slavery."
Wonwoo focused on Mingyu´s voice, but it didn´t work. His eyes wandered over the body in the picture that was covered with knife cuts. Just minor scratches, but they seemed to have a shape. It almost looked like gills.
"When we found her, she had been dead for a couple of days. The iron cord around is a typical sign of slavery. It left deep flesh wounds but was never tight enough to strangle her." Mingyu continued but Wonwoo heard the slight shaking in his voice. 
"What.... What were the whereabouts of the crime scene?" Wonwoo stammered. That wasn't a girl in front of him. It was a collection of flesh sliced like a cucumber.
"We found her in Seogyedong, behind a shopping mall." Jisoo added to the conversation.
Wonwoo took a deep breath, blinked twice in succession to save the conversation as a separate file, and generated a new file folder for the individual cases. He noticed that Mingyu seemed to be waiting as he looked at him.
Wonwoo nodded.
Mingyu took a deep breath and touched the glass panel. The picture disappeared and made way for a new one.
"The autopsy team counted about two hundred cuts. As you can see in this picture, her eyes have been removed and ... inserted into her right arm. It seemed to be the final injury that ultimately led to her death." Mingyu mumbled.
A dead silence fell over the meeting room.
After a few seconds, Wonwoo heard Jeonghan clear his throat.
"Is there... Are there any clues as to why this injury was inflicted? It doesn't look like an impulsive act. Usually, this is something planned."
Jeonghan's voice trembled, and Wonwoo couldn't blame him.
"All of his victims had these injuries. We'll go through the others in a moment, but I can warn you now that this son of a cut out the eyes of all the mutant girls only to put them back in another part of their bodies." Jisoo said quietly.

Jisoo stood up to take over for Mingyu. The younger looked stressed.
"There were no witnesses. None of the residents in the neighborhood or the big shopping street a few minutes away had heard anything or seen anyone suspicious. Mingyu and I were assigned to the case at that time."
Mingyu sat down, and Jisoo walked toward the projector. He hesitated for a second and looked at Wonwoo.
Wonwoo saved the information on the first victim and quickly created a new file when he saw Mingyu touch the screen again.
"Song Chun Hei."
The image was thrown back on the big screen, and he heard the whole room groan. Jisoo knew this picture and avoided looking at it. He knew them by heart anyway.
"Fifteen years old. We found her in a garbage can in Namsan Park. The injuries are the same, and her cause of death was blood loss. But her eyes were removed and embedded in her left arm."
"That's so sick... what information do we have about her case?" he heard the Saver's voice, and Jisoo looked at him.
"Not much. And again, no witnesses. It took us about two months to identify the girl. We found her on a list of missing persons." Mingyu added to the conversation.
"That iron cord around her neck, what exactly does it mean?" asked Wonwoo.
"Iron cords showed to whom they belong." Mingyu explained.
"Can't you call it belonging? Humans or mutants don't belong to anyone. Why the hell are slaves allowed at all?" Wonwoo snorted in disbelief.
"It's not that they're allowed. It's a sensitive issue, and you have to remember that in 1980, the rules weren't so strict with... mutant races who had it easy when it came to this kind of pastime." Jisoo said, staring at Jeonghan.
"There were other breeds as well. Stop pretending that the Controllers were the only ones." Jeonghan said suddenly and Jisoo stifled a y comment.
"You can't tell me that's still allowed nowadays. No way." Wonwoo finally said when he seemed to realize what that meant.
"Of course not. But just because something is forbidden doesn't mean that something has stopped. You, of all people, should know that. The crime rate in our country is almost ninety percent for humans. Stop acting like your race isn't a lot more disastrous than mutants. Humans are not even capable of agreeing on something, that should be wrong." Mingyu suddenly snapped, and Jisoo sighed..
"Okay, stop it. That's no good. We have more important things to do here than act out prejudices." Jisoo tried to defuse the situation.
Jeonghan finally cleared his throat after a moment. "So...was there any connection or relationship between the two victims?"
Jisoo was relieved when the Controller rescued him from his miserable situation. "No. Absolutely none."

Wonwoo stared at the glass and the pictures.
After an awkward silence in the room, Jeonghan took a deep breath. "How about a short coffee break? We can continue after that."
Wonwoo felt Jisoo's eyes on him and tried to keep his composure: "Sounds good."

Jisoo stood up and walked over to Wonwoo, trying not to be too obvious.
Wonwoo shivered slightly.
Jisoo led Wonwoo towards the toilets without the human noticing. As soon as they were in front of the door, Wonwoo started to tremble.
"I need a moment..." he whispered, and Jisoo nodded. 
Wonwoo fled into the toilet, and Jisoo sat down on a chair by the bathroom. He felt sorry for the Newcomers in situations like this. The guys were eager to work on cases and help the police, but this particular police department was known for their special agents. Many mutants worked here, meaning the cases weren't ordinary either. And to be honest, getting this case first was an absolute all-kill. It took Mingyu and him several months to investigate the first two victims, and a new victim was added every few weeks. No matter how much and how often they had gone through the information, they had yet to get anywhere.
Jisoo sat down a little more comfortably.
If he judged Wonwoo correctly, it would take a moment.

Wonwoo wiped his lips after throwing up several times.
He was sweating.
What the hell had he been thinking? He was such a naive and useless guy. He had dreamed of working on exciting cases and arresting suspects like in the movies.
But this... was just sick.
The bodies of the two girls looked like a mess of sliced flesh, and there wasn't a single part of their skin that wasn't bruised. And their eyes...who removed a young girl´s eyes just to cut open other body parts to insert them?!
He took another five minutes and left the cabin to wash his face. He gathered all his willpower and opened the door. Jisoo looked at him.
"Better?" he asked.
Wonwoo nodded.
"Coffee?" Jisoo asked, holding out a cup.
"Please..." Wonwoo whispered and followed the Deathcatcher back to his room.

Jeonghan avoided Mingyu's gaze. There it was again.
It had mostly been the Controllers who had kept slaves. With their ability, it was easy to keep the girls quiet. But that had stopped around 1990 as the first Controllers started to work for the police and were able to arrest every single bastards that were involved in that business. He had never done anything like that. Controllers had a bad reputation, but many humans had forgotten their past and worked with them. In his old department, he had a human partner. He had never