The Dark Cycle

[Euca]

Brandt's Flat, Sector 8, Harburg City, Planet Hamburg.
07/10/822 A.S

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I had to hand it to them, the CTI were efficient. Cristofer was killed a mere three days ago, and already command had reassigned my position. They were chipping away at the datapad and the servant, Joachim, day and night. The most recent development was that the datapad had been accessed not long before the owner's death, and some contacts had been highlighted for investigation. Progress was slow, due to heavy encryption on the datapad. That wasn't stopping the CTI though, they were furiously digging through encryption code and data, combing out the fine information. I was stuck in Harburg though on extended stay until they can dig up another HVEB operative to assassinate.

This brought me no ease. Now, the scope of potential villains had been expanded and I saw my neighbors and acquaintances with suspicion and anxiety. All of them were suspects. All of them could have been conspirators. I didn't know it at this point, but I was slipping into the dark cycle. Paranoia was the first sign, seeing everyone else as a threat. Should have been smarter. Should have been able to see past that.

Mind you, that was only two days in. It got worse. Fast.

On the second day of my extended stay, I was tasked out to one of the contacts we'd decrypted. A nurse, 36 years. Knew Cristofer as a college friend, apparently. The news had spun his death as an armed homicide, I was Detective Kohlberg for the Harburg Detective Service. His sudden homicide alerted the service, since violence was on a slight decline in the city, and this spontaneous death was a shock to the law.

Down the winding, grey streets, up the vertical towers, crossing pathways, riding elevators and climbing stairs. Sometimes, Sector 8 felt like a maze, never being able to traverse on one plane, but always being forced to pass across many. The chilling cold never helped either. The pricking of the wind on my skin was the looming sense of darkness, the cycle trying to consume me. I reached her house. Knocked on the door, she opened.

"Detective Kohlberg for the Harburg Detective Service. May I come in?"

I made my way to the couch while she fetched a photo album. She lived humbly, in comparison to Cristofer. A worn carpet dressed the floor, her table was made of simple oak, and instead of fine porcelain ornaments, she had photos of family and friends. On her dining table, she sat a clean, pressed nurses uniform. Always on call, I thought.

She sat down, placing the album in front of me. I wondered why the photos were printed, and not digital, but I looked around the modest room again, and figured it out for myself.

"Cristofer and I went to college together. He majored in economics, I minored in it." She spoke, and I took notes. "He was enthralled in it. Every graph, every equation, just won him over." She herself seemed charmed by him, he was hypnotic to her. I almost felt bad.

"Economics? What did he do with that after college?"

"Opened his own manufacturing branch. Had success with it too. More success with his economics than I did. She smirked as she nodded to the uniform on the table. I took note. Naturally, the HBEV would target someone like Cristofer: an economically minded character with his own money to burn. He was too good to pass up. I asked about that elusive name, that didn't sit right on my tongue: Jane.

"Did you know a Jane at all?" She squirmed uncomfortably.

"My sister, but, he didn't really know my family." She glanced away, then back at me. "Sorry, but what do these questions have to do with his death?" I frowned. This Jane almost seemed like an illusion to her. Someone not entirely there. I took note, then spoke.

"We have reason to believe that he may have been affiliated with criminal activity from his college days." She seemed shocked. I thanked her for her help, said my goodbye and left. I pulled the 'we have reason to believe' jargon. Should have seen it then. Should have seen the dark cycle. Maybe I couldn't see it because it had already consumed me. I don't know.

I wondered back into my flat. Sat down. Another ping from my watch. To my amusement, a list of candidates appeared before my eyes. It dragged on, and on, and on. There was a note at the bottom:

"Be quick. We need this done as soon as possible."