Episode 2 - "The Unit, Part I"

     Jennifer Ashe unbuckled her seatbelt the second the light turned off, grabbed her mission folder, and deplaned ahead of everyone else. That wasn’t particularly difficult, seeing how the division director had booked her a front-row seat in first class. She had served under Domingo Henry twice before, both times as now in the FBI, so he knew she did her best work when surrounded by creature comforts. Since the private jet that had been requisitioned for VCU wasn’t ready yet, the first-class seat was his way of keeping her happy.

     Ashe exited the gate and made her way to baggage claim. She normally flew United Airlines, but that would have put her arrival in Terminal 7, which was on the other side of the airport from where the murders had been committed. Taking Continental had put her that much closer to the crime scene.

     She got to the carousel and waited for the baggage to arrive. It soon did, and she grabbed her overnight bag. After checking that her sidearm and ammunition were still there, she headed for the exit. That took her past another carousel, and she absently glanced over to see what other people had brought to the Big Apple. Aside from regular luggage, there were several duffel bags in military camouflage, a set of golf clubs, a steamer chest, and a baby stroller. What caught her eye most of all, though, was the black tech box with stickers from all over the world; she smiled as she saw a few that had been added since she’d last seen it.

     Knowing there would be other gear to weigh down its owner, Ashe reached over with her free hand and picked up the box.

     “Please put that down,” came a familiar, slightly nasal voice behind her. “It’s government-issue.”

     “I know,” Ashe said, “I issued it.”

     She turned around and gazed at special agent Marco Polo, whose bright blue eyes and buzz-cut blond hair belied the intensity of his personality.

     “Jennifer,” Marco said with a wide smile before remembering their once-again working relationship. “I mean Top. We’re working together again.”

     Ashe resisted reminding him that she had requested him for the new unit. Marco plucked another tech box from the conveyor and placed it on a nearby cart.

     “You are not wheeling that dorky thing to my crime scene,” Ashe told him.

     “Yeah,” said Marco’s ex-wife, Natalie, who came up next to him. “Besides, airport security will never let it past the curb.”

     “Same flight, huh? You two back together?” Ashe asked.

     “Please,” Natalie said. “He was visiting the kids when we got the call.” She was the opposite of her ex, shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes with a laid-back chill, though she always did her job with perfection.

     They grabbed the rest of the gear and headed for the exit. They crossed a busy road and headed for the parking garage. An NYPD officer stopped them.

     “Do you have a car inside?” He jerked a thumb behind him.

     “Nope,” Ashe answered. She pulled out her newly issued ID and showed it to the cop.

     “VCU? What are you, an extra on Law and Order?”

     “That’s SVU,” Ashe pointed out. “We’re the Vampire Crimes Unit.”

     “Oh, then you can go in. Are they with you?” asked the cop. Ashe took her agents’ IDs from her pocket, show them to the officer – who just had to comment on Marco’s name before clearing them – and passed them out.

     “Jeez,” Natalie said with a roll of her eyes, “you had to use the photo from Quantico? I was just about to sneeze when they took it.”

     They entered the garage and quickly located the scene. Marco cracked open his boxes as Natalie started casing the bodies, which had been ordered to be left as-is until they got there. Ashe identified the cop in charge and went over.

     “Special agent Jennifer Ashe, VCU,” she said, extending her hand.
     “Detective Sam Alston, NYPD,” he said in return, taking the hand. “For the record, I don’t agree this is a Federal case.”
     “Is that because the perpetrator is likely local or because fellow LEOs were killed?”
     “A little of both,” Alston admitted. Then, with a mild dig, he added, “I hear you guys are new.”
     “The unit is new. This is our first case, actually, but we’ve each got at least ten years with the bureau. I have seventeen.”
     The detective held up his hands. “My apologies for impugning you’re professionalism, special agent.”
     “That’s all right,” Ashe said. “I would have done the same, and with a lot less restraint. So, three vics?”
     He led her to the bodies. “National Guardsmen, one shredded by a vampire, the other two shot repeatedly with the first man’s rifle.”

     “Any suspects?”

     “Not yet,” Alston said. “We have agents reviewing video feed.”

     “I’d like that streamed to my man,” Ashe told him. She pointed to Marco. Alston nodded and gestured for a cop to take care of it.

     “Witnesses?” Ashe asked.

     “Hard to say,” the detective answered. “The gate is automated, the Guardsmen’s rifles have been fitted with silencers to avoid scaring the public, and no one has come forward.”

     “Vampires are still a largely unknown quantity at this point,” Ashe said. “There could be several people who saw what happened but fear reprisal if their names are leaked.”

     “That’s what I figured,” Alston said. “What I’d like to know is why the perpetrator ate one but shot the other two. Was he no longer hungry?”

     “That’s possible,” Natalie said, “but look at the positions of the bodies. Torres and Jones, the two he shot, are in the middle of the aisle, but Carson is lying between cars. He could have felt cornered.”

     “They would have flanked him,” Ashe said. She saw and pointed to scuff marks on a portion of the aisle floor between Torres and Jones. “Carson came on him first, and the vamp jumped him. That brought the other two, and the vamp pulled Carson between the cars for defense.”

     “Shell casings and bullet holes indicate Jones and Torres shot at the perp, but they wouldn’t have jeopardized their partner by initiating the exchange,” Alston said.

     “No,” Natalie said, “And the vamp wouldn’t have had the time to eat Carson and then dodge the bullets. The vamp definitely feasted first. Then he was shot at, he got a gun and returned fire, and then took off.”

     “It’s hard to tell if he’s naturally vampire-vicious or it was a situational thing and his human half regained control. Your bolo should warn about a possible lethal threat.”

     “It needs a physical description first,” Alston pointed out.

     “Marco,” Ashe called out, knowing the answer that was coming.

     “Polo,” he shot back. Ashe found it comforting. She and Alston walked over to where Marco had his satellite laptop on the hood of a Maserati Quattroporte; the computer was more souped-up than the car.

     “Get the video feed yet?”

     “Yes, Top,” Marco answered. He paused and minimized a window with a camera view inside the terminal and brought up one looking outside. “Torres alerted her partners to something strange, and here they’re seen heading for the parking garage. There are several people in front of them, and I’m running facial recognition to identify them, but the quarry might already have gone inside the parking structure.”

     “What about inside the terminal?” Ashe asked.

     “I’m looking at that now,” Marco replied. He pulled up the first window and restarted the stream.

     Ashe turned to Alston. “I need to know every car and person who entered and left this garage from two hours before the approximate time of death until the bodies were discovered.”

     “Anything to help you catch this man,” the detective said.

     “Animal,” said a six-foot-three, broad-shouldered man who came up just then.

     “Pardon me?” Alston asked him.

     “You said ‘man,’” the hulking mass said. “No man did what I just saw back there.”

     “And you are?” Ashe asked the newcomer.

     “I’m special agent Kurt Reed.” He flashed a VCU ID. “And if you’re Jennifer Ashe, I’m your new partner.”

     Ashe bristled. She hadn’t had a partner in almost a decade, and she wasn’t about to do so again now.