The Great Call of Duty

From here on out, the story will return to the usual third person telling, so 'I' if used outside quotes will refer to me, the author and not Dr. Myth

"Really now? I was just getting started, the story would have been so much more fun if I, the great and powerful Dr. Draconias Myth wrote it." ~ Draconias

Detective Dan's office, Everleason Police department, Everleason, Cascoss, July 28th, 2006, 10:04 A.M.

Daniel Smith was testing some paper planes that his grandson, Thomas Smith sent him. After he threw each one, he stored information on their flights. He retrieved each plane he'd tossed and transferred the notes in his mind to the plane he picked up.

Daniel's phone rang and he picked it up.

"Hello, D…" Daniel began to say.

"Hello! I am the Most ha…" The voice on the other side interrupted.

"Hey!" Dan shouted. "At leas…"

"Gasp! One does not si…"

Daniel knew that this was going to be a battle. "I'll interrupt who I want!"

Silence.

"Sorry, do go on."

"Thank you. My name is Daniel Smith, how may I help you?"

"I am the great and honorable Dr Draconias Myth. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Dr. D. S. Smith." The voice on the other end spoke in an eloquent manner. It was if his words were spoken the way baguet script regular looks. "Now, Dr. Smith, I would like to ask you to apologize, as I had tried to establish earlier, one does not simply Interrupt the great, powerful, and handsome Dr. Draconias Myth."

"Very well. Then I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies, but it was you who interrupted me first."

"Gasp surely, you must be mistaken. The great and awe-Inspiring Dr Draconias myth would never dream of cutting of a man of your status."

"If you like, I can get a written version of this call's transcript." Daniel said in a smug tone.

Silence.

"Let's say you and I just sweep that insignificant matter under the rug for the time being, do you know where I, the great and magnificent Dr. Draconias Myth am?"

"I haven't a clue, but the caller ID says you are in Arkihimious."

"Bravo detective, they should give you a reward."

"But what would a resident of the town of Arkihimious want from me? If I'm not wrong, which I'm usually not, Arkihimious is outside of FORMAL authority."

"Ah, but If you get paid, what was It? 12.50 Ascossian dollars per hour? You are obliged to Investigate. Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not. So, I take it you will be paying me? If I may ask, what is your request."

"I will Indeed be the one paying for your elegant services, for the matter that I wish for you to come here and resolve, the mayor's assistant has been brutally slain and the officers of the AKPD have yet to resolve the Issue. They thought that I may have killed him, but the receptionist and the cameras both attest to me never being there. Their only lead, a Mr Feral Ferox, mentioned by name mere moments before Drew's death, was clearly not guilty. The alibi he had was more watertight than a damn built by a person with the master class ability."

"If I recall, the AKPD has a good record of having most of their cases solved in less than a week. So, I must ask then, if you are calling me, does that mean that the victim had died more than a week ago?"

"Ha ha! I knew you were the right man to call. You are Indeed a very great man Daniel. Yes, the crime occurred on the 14th by the calendar of Australia, the foxes use the Australian calendar to set their unique events by, and that day was a special day."

"How so?"

"That day happened to be 'look like someone else' day. The victim looked like Lila, except for his face, and Lila looked like Drew, except for her face."

Daniel nodded. "Sounds like an interesting day. What about the mayor? Who did he dress up as?"

"Nobody, he looked exactly like himself, he must have forgotten what day It was."

Daniel nodded. "Perhaps he got to his office earlier than the other two, Drew and Lila."

"That he did, he said so himself in the interviews."

"I see."

"So?"

"So?"

"Do I have to beg?"

"I do not even want to know how you beg."

"Then you will come to Arkihimious? I swear I have enough Rhombodian currency to pay you for however long it will take you to figure this out."

Daniel thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. What are the stakes? I mean the last time I worked for pay outside of FORMAL was when the owners of a trading firm requested my help. They had someone doing inside trading and that person had killed one of their employees. They would have gone bankrupt without my help. But you have already been cleared, yes?"

"Yes"

"Is one of your loved ones being charged?"

"No."

"Then why do you need me? The AKPD should be able to resolve the matter."

"Daniel, it was the mayor's aid that has been slain, do you understand? The mayor's aid. They haven't solved in two weeks, the killer is out there, who knows if or when he will kill again."

"That's rather presumptuous, believing that the killer is a male."

"Well, don't professionals always donate a person of mystery as male?"

"Personally, I never had."

"I see. Ok, if you won't do it to potentially save the mayor's life, will you do it for money?"

"You believe that the mayor's life may be in danger?"

"How would I know? I'm just a great and wonderful Rhombodian vulpinologist."

"You study Rhombodian foxes?"

"Yes, what did you think I meant; did you think I meant that I was a vulpinologist from this planet?"

"That was the other possibility I had in mind."

"Well, anyway, I'll ask one more time, will you please come and sort this out, you are the best, or so I keep hearing."

"So, the details of the case you have presented so far are as follows: The mayor's aid, while wearing a disguise to look like Lila, was killed by a Feral Ferox, a fox who had a perfect alibi?"

"That's right."

"You will be paying me for my involvement in the matter."

"Every cent."

"You will not become quiet until I take on the case."

"You might spend the rest of your life on this phone call."

"Very well then. I will start looking, but as soon as I lose interest I'm heading back home, and you can forget about the fee."

"Thank you so much Daniel Smith, you won't regret a thing!"

Finally, the owner of the far too eloquent voice hung up. Daniel did some relaxing breathing. Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this Dr Draconias Myth. He thought to himself. He hoped that he wouldn't regret his decision, but he had to go. Daniel Smith never backs away from a promise and he certainly would never turn away from a good mystery.

#

AKPD headquarters, Arkihimious, Cascoss, 11:00 A.M

Daniel knocked upon the door to Colonel Jundice's office.

"Come in." Stated the raspy voice of Argyle Jundice, Colonel of the AKPD.

Daniel opened the door to see a man smoking a magical cigarette and the spiciest scent filled the air. Daniel coughed and his nose began to run.

"Oh sorry." Argyle said and he put out the cigarette and he use some fox magic to remove all the smoke from the air. "I take it that you don't like 'dragon's tongue.'"

Colonel Argyle Jundice was a short man in his human form. He could have chosen anything to wear when he went from fox to human, his selection of close for this day was a brown jacket and a shirt with pool balls on it. There was a blue pen and a notepad sticking out from his left side pocket. His pants, unseen by Dan, were black, long and made from linen. They were stained with correcting fluid on the left knee. The man was balding, and his face reminded Daniel of a hardboiled egg. His lips were a tad dry, and he wore a very tiny moustache. He stunk of a ridiculously cheap cologne.

"Colonel, that is a strange title for a policeman." Daniel noted.

"Well, we have our system and you have yours." Argyle said in his raspy voice. Perhaps he used to smoke real cigarettes in the past, but Daniel wasn't going to ask. "So, if I may ask, what is a member of the EPD doing in our humble city?"

"I was invited by Draconias Myth."

"Drake? You know that man is bad luck, he is trouble."

"How so?"

"He came here four months ago to study our habits, like a famous vulpinologist does. Over those months there have been a total of fifty crimes committed in our dear city, not too bad if you ask me, but for thirty of them, he had been nearby and for twenty of those, he'd been a witness. He was at the mayor's office to meet with the mayor's aid on the day in question. He still hasn't told us the reason that was yet. We thought that he might have knocked Drew off, but the cameras didn't see him, or the true culprit enter or leave, so we are stuck."

"I'm aware of that, the reason Draconias asked me here was to solve what you couldn't solve, and he will be paying me."

"Oh, I see, and will he be paying us too?"

"If it's money in exchange for services you want, then I'd happily pay you for using the resources you have to offer."

Argyle laughed. "It's a deal. Call us when Drake pays you and we'll send you the receipts for the use of our resources which you agreed to paying back."

"Shall we shake on it?"

"We shall." Argyle reached over with his right hand.

"Um, that's the hand you used to put out the cigarette."

"So?"

"The amount of capsaicin in that cigarette was enough that even breathing in the smoke gave me some irritation. If the amount is high enough it can injure your skin, so if there is a high amount of capsaicin on your hand and I shake it, my skin will become irritated."

"Oh right. You're a human." Argyle reached over with his other hand and shook Daniel's hand.

"So, I take it that the scene is no longer there?"

"The mayor's office and his assistance's office didn't move, but yes, the scene has been cleaned."

Daniel looked down hearted.

"Oh, don't be sad." Argyle said as cheerfully as he could despite his raspy voice. "We have something futuristic."

"Oh, right, of course you would have, Rhombodian is far ahead of Earth. So, please, lead the way." Daniel said in a more triumphant tone than usual.

So, Argyle showed Daniel a very peculiar room. It was whiter than white, and there were stands with goggles on them. "Oh! It's virtual reality."

"Oh, you're not surprised. I thought someone of your age would be incredibly surprised."

"Don't count me out because I seem like a dinosaur, I may outlive you."

Argyle laughed. "Oh, I don't doubt that at all. So, how come you know about this. It can't be in your blood."

"My grandson and I raced using a VR machine. He whooped my ass, or so he claims."

"An innocent one, is he?"

"Yeah, the guilty ones never say such vulgar things."

"Oh, are there children in your family that aren't innocent."

"Two of my sons, but they fixed themselves before doing anything criminal."

"How many children do you have."

"Are you really interested in my life? Or are you trying to get as much money out of me as you can?"

"You catch on fast, every minute you spend in here is more money for me. The others are keeping a track of every second, they are already aware of the deal that you made with Drake."

"Did you speak to them with telepathy?"

"Yes, I did, you must have figured that out quite easily since we didn't bump into any of my people on the way here."

Daniel nodded and put on his VR goggles, and Argyle typed something into the keyboard. He typed so rapidly that not even I know what he wrote.

#

Mayoral Tower, Drew Archive's office, Virtual world, 11:11 A.M

Digital Daniel Smith enters the digital crime scene. Everything looked as real as it did on the day in question. The officers who took the photos must have taken them from every angle. This was fantastic work, but Daniel didn't expect anything less from Rhombodian technology.

Argyle joined Daniel and was by his side. He was smoking yet another 'dragon's tongue' flavoured cigarette.

"Seriously?" Dan noted.

"Don't worry, I turned off the smoke." Argyle laughed and coughed.

Daniel looked over the scene. All the pictures upon the wall were straight. There were no marks on the carpet except for the victim's blood behind the victim's desk.

The only thing the killer knocked over was Drew's pen cup when they reached over the desk to stab him. The computer was the way it was before the crime was committed, straight and the monitor turned a bit to the right. The keyboard's right side was closer to the body then the left side, the killer touched it while reaching over to stab the victim.

Drew was on the floor, his chair knocked down with him. The force of him falling was so great that the blond wig he was wearing to look like Lila had come dislodged from his head, revealing the dark black hair he had underneath. Dan was not sure if the hair he saw atop the victim's head was his style as the hair could have moved too while he fell.

Drew's face was very masculine, there was no way he could have completed the illusion of being Lila, not in a million years. He was wearing a pink dress, and underneath at the top Dan spotted a bra. A purple one. He believed that Drew put little padding under the bra he donned as Lila's breasts were all but flat, so completing that part of the illusion wouldn't have been too difficult for him. He wore pantyhose and there were probably ladies underwear underneath the dress' skirt, but Dan wasn't going to look. The shoes he wore were a man's size, but they looked so much like a woman's shoe that you wouldn't have been completely certain of that fact.

"Why did the victim dress up as Lila? Who is Lila?" Dan inquired.

"Drake didn't tell you. He just said, 'here's a mystery, go solve it?'" Argyle replied.

"That's the gist of it. He only mentioned her by name, he was mentioned, if my recollection is correct, name first and profession later." Dan said.

Argyle put his hand on his face as if he didn't like hearing this even though he was used to hearing things like this. "That's Drake for you, drag people into a situation first and then explain everything afterward."

"Is he really like that? He doesn't present himself that way."

"Oh, believe me. We all had to deal with him for four dreadful months, I do hope he finishes his research and go to a much quainter fox forest."

"So, about Lila?"

"Yes, she was the mayor's secretary."

"So, they all worked on the same floor in this representation of the mayor's tower?"

"You didn't need to add the 'representation' part. They can't work here; this is the digital world."

"I guess I let my words get ahead of me. So, they worked on the same floor in the mayoral tower."

"That's right. The mayor's office is just behind that door." Argyle pointed over to the mayor's office door on the north wall of the room.

"So, that door to the south?"

"That takes you to where the secretary works."

"So, the only three there at the time were Gary Avalong, Drew Archive and Lila." Daniel concluded.

"Oh, you can read the mayor's name from here." Argyle chuckled looking at the mayor's door.

Daniel picked the name plaque of Drew's desk.

Drew Archive, aid to mayor Gary Avalong

"I suppose you could say I was indeed able to read the mayor's name from here." Daniel returned the chuckle.

"Oh, right. The name plaque. I forgot about that. Good observation."

"Were there any fingerprints on the scissors or the keyboard?"

"Do you think the case would still be open if we did?"

"Good point. Forget I asked."

"No, no. You're fine Daniel. It's sometimes good to ask stupid questions. Shows that you're at least giving it some thought."

Dan nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"So," Argyle said, gesturing to the air to summon the icon of a trash bin so he could dispose of his virtual cigarette. "Any thoughts?"

"Not really. But is there any other way to get to the crime scene?"

"Through the mayor's door, but we already checked the cameras nobody went in there."

"So, there is another way through to the mayor's office without passing his aid."

"Yes, the hallway."

"Could the mayor have done it?"

Argyle summoned a cup with some odd gestures just so he could take a sip and at once spit it out in shock, that's how ridiculous the idea was to him. "No, he said he was knocked unconscious by the killer."

Daniel nodded. "Sorry, I didn't know that."

"Besides, his aid was like a son to him, he wouldn't have killed the guy in a million years, there's zero motive."

"Was there motive for the person that Drew mentioned."

"He used to embezzle funds from the mayor's office, the mayor's aid found out and made sure that he was punished. He had to clean the streets for thirteen weeks."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"Arkihimious is like New York City, it is excessively big and there is more trash here than anywhere else, you won't believe the crazy things you find when you start clearing away the muck that lay in our darkest alleys. He was scared by what he saw and promised that if he had the chance then he would give the mayor's assistant an equally harsh punishment."

Daniel nodded. "But the person in the disguise, surely Drew would have recognised him, after all you said that Feral had a watertight alibi."

Argyle shook his head. "No, the victim would not have recognised his killer by face."

"Why on earth not?"

"Because the victim suffered from prosopagnosia, he was face blind."

"Now you tell me. So, all the killer had to do, if they knew about Drew's condition, is to make the features of themselves that Drew could recognise look like the features of Feral."

"Bingo."

"I think it's best that I speak with the people involved, maybe I can get a clearer picture on this whole affair."

Argyle nodded. "Ok, but please be careful around Drake, you're liable to get struck by lightning even though he's taller than you."

Daniel removed his VR goggles and Argyle removed his. "So where do I find Draconias?"

"Just start walking to the mayoral tower, I'm sure that you will bump into him on the way, after all, where Drake goes, trouble is sure to follow."

Daniel nodded and left the AKPD. Daniel still felt like he really didn't want to bump into Draconias, his character just seemed too intense for Dan to handle.