The detective's voice dropped to a hard edge, filling the silent office. "You're under arrest for the suspicion of murder!"
"Murder? Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit here?" Riven stood from his chair, his footsteps slow and deliberate as he approached the coffee table, a small, relaxed smile painted on his face.
"How about you introduce yourself over a cup of tea?" he pointed towards the tea set placed on the coffee table. "Or you take me down to the station first and ask me some questions before assuming I murdered some useless swine."
His voice was edged with subtle anger and disgust. Murder!? Him!? The almighty Paragon of Doom, whisperer of the apocalypse, bringer of disaster. If he wanted someone gone, the world wouldn't even know the person existed.
"So, detective, what'll it be?" Plopping down onto the chair, his legs folding over the other as he swiped a cup of tea from the table, and took a sip of it. His gaze locked onto hers.
The detective closed her eyes, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry, you're right. I'm Detective Patricia Winters with the Zeon City Police Station. I would like you to follow me down to the station to answer a few questions."
"Alright, but are the cuffs necessary? I would prefer we get to know each other first before you use them." Patty's gaze met his, expression blank.
"Alright, alright, that was a bit much." Uncrossing his legs, the tea cup landed on the table with a soft clink. Standing, he shoved his arms out before her, "Go ahead, put them on me."
She shook and sighed, "That won't be necessary, you're only coming down to answer a few questions."
Riven shrugged, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Suit yourself, that was your only chance to achieve the impossible and ascend."
He smiled at the thought of it. What would she become? Some herald of justice or a paragon of sorts, an impossible feat like that would surely be worth something in the eyes of the universe.
He'd find out later, he reckoned, leading her out of the office and down the hall.
***
Riven leaned back in the metal chair, his foot tapping lightly to the melody of an unknown song.
A lamp illuminated the room, hanging far above the metal table. To his left, a piece of one-way glass stretched across the wall. Turning towards it, he smiled before looking ahead.
On the other side, Patty, Maria, and Jerry watched him. Their expressions were a bit weird after he smiled at them.
"Well, that was weird," Jerry mumbled.
"I can't believe he willingly came in," Maria uttered in surprise.
Patty nodded as she quietly watched Riven. "That's just how the Damocles are. A family more dedicated to following the laws than anyone else."
This, of course, wasn't completely accurate. The Damocles family were dedicated to upholding the law rather than following it, even if they had to resort to illegal means. It was believed to be a noble duty to protect the continent they were dubbed kings of.
And of the five remaining family members, three uphold this duty.
Unfolding her arms, Patty turned away from the glass and approached the door. "I'm going in to talk to him."
Back in the room, Riven's foot had stopped tapping, his eyes locked onto the door as it opened with a low groan. "Might want to put some WD-390 on that," he said, returning to tapping his foot.
"Oh yeah," Patty looked back at the door momentarily before taking a seat across from him. Setting a bunch of folders in front of her, she straightened her back while clearing her throat.
"Where were you—" Riven sighed loudly, looking at her with a bored expression. Patty coughed before asking again. "Where were you—"
Riven sighed loudly once more, looking at her with an expression that said, 'Are you really going to ask me that?'
"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Damocles?"
"Are you really going to ask me that? Why don't you get to the point already and save us both some time?"
"Mr. Damocles, I understand you are upset I interrupted your time with your daughters, but I have to follow procedure."
"Fine, I was home with my daughters and niece these last two days. This can be correlated by family and my home security cameras."
"Alright then." Taking a photo out of the folder, she slid it across the table. "Do you recognize anything in this picture?"
Riven scanned the picture, taking everything in. Did he recognize anything? Of course, the pale-ish blue arm from some corpse, the small holes covering it, and many other simple things that, if mentioned, would have her looking at him with disdain for being a smartass.
The simple answer would be. "Based on the diameter of the hole and a bit of reasoning correlated to the reason you brought me here. I could only assume a Hymenoptera did these; it could be an Apoidea or Vespoidea."
"I can not confirm or deny your reasoning."
"Either way, it couldn't have been from any of my companies."
"And why is that?"
"Of the two companies, they both use bees or Apidae. In which one uses Bombus terrestris and the other Aureapis imperator. Let's first focus on Bombus terrestris, or the bumblebee."
"My company, Aegis Defense Systems, has a product modeled after bumblebees, citing their defensive nature as the reasoning behind said choice. And to fully realize said intent when building our robotics, hundreds of different fail-safes are added, on top of the fact that these robots can only inject a low dose narcotic into the system.
"Only enough to knock out a healthy adult male for an hour." He paused, giving her a second to process and write down everything he said.
Moving a loose strand of hair back into place, Patty looked up at him."Ok, and the other company."
"The other company, Verdant Core, is focused on the culinary arts and food in general, along with other related industries like agriculture. Our largest ranch, where we grow our prized products, is in the territorial zone of the Aureapis imperator or The Sovereign Crowned Bee."
The 8th continent is large, encompassing the region that was once known as the Ring of Fire, turning the northern reaches where Hawaii once stood into a chain of islands and archipelagos. While the rest of the continent expands into a large landmass no smaller than Australia.
Its reach stretched far down south, nearly touching Antarctica's edge. It would only take a day to reach Antarctica from its lowest point.
Filling the continent were over two hundred thousand species across land and sea, and many local endemic lineages only found on the 8th continent. Of these was the Sovereign Crowned Bee.
With the smallest nest having drones the size of hummingbirds, their appearance was notably special with thick, iridescent fur that shifts color depending on light from purple to gold. Crown-like protrusions of chitin around the head, and four wings with the inner pair humming at an ultra-low frequency.
Not only were they one of the rarest species on the continent, with barely three hives found on half of it, but they were hyper-territorial towards others in the same order and species.
This alone meant that no matter where the hive was, it'd be impossible to find other bees within a hundred miles.
"Okay, but what if some else manages to hack one of your bee swarms?"
"Impossible. Like I said, hundreds of fail-safes, not hyperbole. There are hundreds of different fail-safes on each swarm, not to mention the queen, which we keep in case of emergencies; she has hundreds of thousands of fail-safes and many ways to wipe out the swarm."
"Alright." Patty nodded, closing the folder gently. Rising to her feet, she tucked it under her arm. "Thank you for cooperating with me and answering my questions. If you'll excuse me for one second while I talk with my colleagues."
Not waiting for his response, she walked out of the room, disappearing beyond the door. Left alone, Riven dived deep into his thoughts.
'Bees in fall? Rare but not unheard of. But enough for that many sting marks on just the arm, you'd be looking at twenty bees or a few really pissed off bees.' The more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense.
'If there were no hive or anything else in the area, then the bees surely wouldn't care, right? So those stings are most likely not from bees but some other Hymenoptera, unless it was a silent weapon meant to mimic the holes, but then they wouldn't have called him down.'
The logic was sound, but something was missing, something most would overlook…
'Oh, wait.' He paused his train of thought as something else came to mind. "I forgot to mention we wouldn't let our sovereign bees travel far around this time because of ghost lilies blooming around this time."
Ghost lilies are large, carnivorous perennials with waxy, pale flowers that glow faintly at dusk. They produced a sticky nectar and minute barbed pollen that were really good at attracting insects.
What made them especially troublesome was that they specifically evolved to capture large pollinators and small vertebrates. Their nectar is unusually viscous and adherent, and extra frustrating to clean off the bees.
Not to mention not wanting to get it into your bloodstream because of the Ghost-lily alkaloid, which was highly lethal without individuals who know CPR nearby.
Though Ghost lilies weren't found around these parts and were further north, it wouldn't hurt to mention it.
Just then, the door to the interrogation creaked open as Patty walked back in. "Sorry, Mr. Damocles, for making you wait so long."
She sat down in the chair across from him, her expression a bit more relaxed. "I know you must want to be spending time with your daughters and all, since you missed sixteen years of their lives. So I'll just ask a few more questions and get you out of here."
"Before that, I just remembered something that may or may not help."
"Oh, and what is that?"
"Ghost lily alkaloid, it's something you can't forget when you're talking about pollinators on this continent. If you look closely at any Hymenoptera's stinger or sting sites and surfaces." He prompted her to take out the photo.
Once she did, he leaned in close, pointing at some pale, iridescent blue crystalline residue barely noticeable, but due to the high-quality camera was visible on the arm. "This faint residue is normally left behind when they come into contact with it."
"I see." She commented as she pulled her head away, her mind already racing to re-contextualize the already gathered evidence.
Rising from her seat once more, she looked toward Riven, her eyes faint with gratitude. "Thank you very much for this bit of information. I don't have anymore questions, so you are free to go."
Standing, Riven straightened his suit jacket before pushing the chair in. Walking over to her, he held out his hand. "No problem, I'm glad to help. So if you have any other questions, don't be afraid to come ask."
"Sure thing." Grasping hold of it, she shook it firmly. "Allow me to walk you out of here."
As they walked out, a thought came to mind that made Riven smile. 'If the devil can do it, so can I.'