Landfall

David caught a frisbee midair as if he had foreseen the throw beforehand, then raised an eyebrow at his fourteen-year-old, his mouth creasing into a frown. “Sol! What have I told you about throwing frisbees inside? Now off to your room till Mom says you can come out for dinner.”

As he saw his son scamper upstairs, David shook his head as Melanie, his wife voiced her concern as well: “You’re treating your son like one of your rookie agents again Dear. He’s just a boy, not some junior police officer.”

“Mel, if he doesn’t start to wise-up and begin acting like a proper policeman’s son, I’d hate to bear even thinking what he would be up to when he’s old enough to decide for himself,” said David as he plopped down on the couch.

Melanie lifted her husband’s chin to that their eyes met, and she smiled with an assurance that was hard to ignore. “He’s still young, fourteen. He will have plenty of time to grow up. I know a particular young man who got into all sorts of trouble as a teenager…am I right?”

Coughing uncomfortably, David continued shaking his head, tearing away from his wife’s locked-on gaze. “That’s exactly why I want him to mature, to avoid the mistakes I made when I was his age.”

Melanie walked back to the kitchen to mind the food being cooked, but not before countering her husband’s point of view: “It’s hard to learn without making mistakes. They say pain is the best teacher of all. If all Sol knows is rules and boundaries set by you, he will not fully understand why the rules and boundaries are there in the first place. Help him realize the purpose of the rules, perhaps from your own experiences, and it will go a long way to helping him mature.”

“Your insight into child behaviour never ceases to amaze me, Mel. No wonder you’re a school principal!” David admitted.

“And the way you interrogate our son, I’m not surprised at all that you chose to be a detective for the police force,” snorted Melanie, unaware of David approaching from behind quietly.

“As a detective, I’ll have to arrest you for a crime young lady,” David spoke softly.

Melanie crossed her arms and turned around, hiding her surprise at seeing her husband so close. “And what crime would that be Mister Detective?”

“Stealing my heart!” shouted David as he smothered his wife in kisses.

As she turned red with embarrassment, Melanie swatted her husband away, glancing to make sure their teenage son didn’t catch his parents sharing such an intimate moment.

After the quick, romantic escapade, David sat back on the couch and turned on the news, hearing of an incident which happened not far from their hometown in the Cascadia range.

“A rock slide near Vender claimed the lives of eight people, when it swept away their vehicles off the arterial highway connecting the city with the coastline. Traffic has been blocked in both directions for several hours now, with no clear time when the highway will be repaired and reopened. Crime scene investigators are looking into the event, but were not able to rule out if the event was intentional in nature.”

Not long after, David got a call from the office, with his supervisor calling him that he would be assigned to the landslide case, to be started tomorrow morning.

“Yeah Mel, it’s on the other side of town, so I should probably leave half an hour early to get to the crime scene on time. Boss wants me there by six in the morning.”

Melanie stirred a pot of curry, simmering on low heat and wafting aromatic notes of spices into the house. Still listening and digesting her husband’s new case, she kept an eye on the naan to make sure it did not burn in the toaster oven. It wasn’t often that the family had authentic Indian food, but having spent many-a-vacation to Northern India, Melanie had learned how to cook food that would rival the dishes of any small Indian restaurant in town.

When Melanie looked at the clock, she figured it was time to call her frisbee-throwing son down for dinner. “Solomon! Time for dinner!” Not hearing a response, she kept glancing back at the food, juggling the act of looking for her son and minding the cooking all at once.

“Sol? Dear, could you go get Sol? He’s probably got his headphones on again.”

Intrigued as he was about the news story of a double homicide in the downtown area, he tore away from the TV and headed to his son’s room, which was eerily quiet, with the occasional crunch of chips and gulping of soda pop.

David knocked politely on the door, to which his son responded back in a loud tone, “What’s up?” as his father opened the door slowly and entered his room.

If he was working as a detective, he would certainly consider his son’s room a crime scene, with clothes thrown all over, overripe socks laying on the floor and pictures of muscle cars taped onto the walls. “Dinner will be ready soon Sol,” he paused as he saw the empty bags of chips, “you’ll ruin your appetite eating snacks so close to dinnertime,” warned David.

Sol’s arm froze, a chip halfway to his mouth before he devoured it in several bites. “Sorry Dad, I got hungry waiting for dinner,” apologized Sol, slipping off his headphones and looking up at his father, as if trying to find some inkling of empathy.

David looked at his son’s sad puppy face and found it extremely difficult to stay upset at him, even though Sol should have known better. “Go wash up and head on down, your mother made her special Indian dinner again, you don’t want to miss it!”

After David was confident his son would come shortly, he walked back downstairs to see Melanie lay out the multi-course meal on the table, seemingly almost too beautiful to eat. Sol joined him shortly after and was equally amazed at the meal.

“Well boys, don’t just sit there gawking at the food! Dig in!” exclaimed Melanie.

Her husband and son needed no second bidding, and soon all three were transported back to India in their minds, where the smell of authentic curry and butter chicken emanated from the dozen or so street vendors selling food for the afternoon lunch rush.

With dinner settled, the men helped wash the dishes while Melanie took a much-needed breather from all the work. While technically not working, she contented herself with reading the comments she got from all the first-grade students who had wrote personal messages thanking her for being their principal. “Haha, Dear, listen to this one: ‘Me and my daddy think you’re very pretty,’ isn’t that cute?”

As the dishwashing was nearing finished, everyone started drifting upstairs to prepare for bed. As David dreamed of the case he would be working tomorrow, he could see himself walking around the crime scene, taking photos and looking for footprints. He then walked up to the bluff above the highway and searched that area as well, looking for any evidence that the suspect might have left behind; or if there was suspect at all. Then, hearing a low growl behind him, he slowly turned his head and saw two narrowly-slitted eyes piercing the morning fog from the bushes. As he backed up to the edge of the cliff, his footing slipped and he fell for what seemed to be an eternity before waking up drenched in sweat. He looked over at his wife, who was still sleeping and making dainty snores every time she exhaled. He then sat on the edge of the bed, trying to shake off the disturbing nightmare and assured himself it was just a dream. After he had washed up and changed, he packed his things and left the house at half past five, giving himself half an hour to drive to the crime scene.

When he arrived, his supervisor was already present, as well as several junior officers who would be assisting the case.

“David! Glad you could make it. Apologies for the late notice but this case needs to be started as quick as possible,” shouted Dan his boss.

“What’s with all the commotion? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary crime scene,” questioned David, looking around confusingly.

“Don’t leak this out but apparently two of the four vehicles swept away were part of a motorcade for the Prime Minister. We’re investigating this as a possible assassination attempt on the Prime Minister,” Dan uttered under his breath.

David whistled as he now understood the gravity of the situation.

“We need to know who did it, why they did it, and how we can prevent this situation from blowing up, which means finding the conspirators and shutting them down.”

“Have we checked the top of the bluff yet?” asked David hesitantly, recalling flashes and images of his nightmarish dream.

“Officers have sealed off access to the bluff, and you’re free to investigate the area if you want. Our initial comb through that area didn’t produce any leads. Well, if you need me, I’ll be at the tent over there. Media and reporters are expecting another update in about half an hour,” said Dan as he headed back down the side of the bluff.

Up on the bluff, David took out his camera and began snapping shots at anything that looked out of place. Some disturbed vegetation, scratch marks in the ground, and most puzzling of all, tuffs of fur caught in the branches of several bushes nearby. As he put on surgical gloves and picked up a sample of fur, he deposited it into a small bag, sealing it and labelling it for analysis later.

The detective then decided to document and follow the cluster of pawprints leading to and away from the bluff’s edge. It would have seemed a large animal approached the area slowly, then ran off in a hurry. Uncertain as to what it all meant, David scratched his head wondering if it was a coincidence that animal activity and the landslide occurred side by side.

Far away from the bluff, a large Grizzley entered back into its pen, allowing its owner to remove the camera attached to its collar. Ruffling the fur on the bear’s head, the owner immediately got to work reviewing the footage, hoping their plan had worked. While the local news had offered some clues as to whether their mission was as success, it was uncertain if the Prime Minister was among the eight confirmed fatalities. They had spent countless hours, training the bear, whose name was Bonecrusher, to push the specified boulders off the cliffs in the area at a particular, precise moment. Knowing the Prime Minister’s motorcade was heading back to Vender that day, Viktor had to time the act at just the right moment, communicating to Bonecrusher by a set of verbal commands via walkie-talkie. Holding his breath as the bear looked over the cliff for a split second, Viktor snarled in frustration. He had been a second too late and the Prime Minister’s car had just passed as the landslide came thundering down. Two vehicles, which were part of the motorcade were successfully crushed, but Viktor’s prize had eluded him. He had spent days relishing in the imagination of getting revenge at the Prime Minister, who had ordered a crackdown on illegal immigrants; two of which were Viktor’s parents. Despite having subsisted in Cascadia for over ten years, working under-the-table jobs, even paying taxes, the immigration office finally caught up with them, and once identified as illegal immigrants, they were deported back to their home country, leaving Viktor alone in foster care. It was five years later, when Viktor tried reaching out to his parents when he found out they had been kidnapped by a local gang, tortured, and killed for not revealing the presumed riches they had accumulated abroad in Cascadia. Resentment in Viktor led to anger, and anger led to spitefulness, as he became increasingly fascinated with revenge on the Prime Minister, who failed to help his parents. They were practically Cascadian, yet they were treated like dogs on the street, deported to be someone else’s problem with no regard for their wellbeing.

As he got up from his worn-out office chair, he decided to initiate Plan B of his mission, which was a failsafe if the initial plan had failed for any reason. Opening up the aviary, he powered up the wireless signalling device, which communicated orders to the dozen or so large birds residing in the space.

Immediately after turning on the signal, the birds’ eyes snapped open, and immediately followed instructions to fly to Vender, and in particular, to the Prime Minister’s residence by the river. Each bird gently grappled onto an explosive device, ready to be dropped on the specified target. From owls to falcons, the large birds took to the air, making a b-line for the target imprinted on their minds.

The edges of Viktor’s mouth creased into a smile; there was more than one way of catching a mouse.

“David! Get back to Vender! The Prime Minister’s house had just been bombed!”

The detective rushed to his vehicle, hearing the panicked voice of Dan on the other side of the phone line. “What do you mean bombed? I thought we have state of the art radar and tracking systems to prevent that sort of thing!” replied David, as he gasped for breath having ran all the way to the temporary parking lot.

“We still don’t know what happened, nothing appeared on the radar and suddenly the PM’s house is on fire. At least five large explosions hit the house, with several exploding in the river. David, the army has been called in and they are now considering this a real threat to national security. We need all the evidence you’ve collected along with your findings back here at base as soon as possible.”

David groaned as he heard Dan’s orders to return to base. Tonight was supposed to be lasagna night for the family. Perhaps Mel would save him a portion for tomorrow.

Parking at the defence base, David ran inside, flashing his ID card and rushing to the board room where military and local authorities had already met and had begun discussing the repercussions of the latest attacks.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we have a real threat to the safety of our Prime Minister, and for his safety and the safety of his family, they have been relocated to an undisclosed safe house for the time being. Now I want to know what we have uncovered thus far in the investigation.

The awkward silence spoke to the lack of intel the group had, and the lack of leads was frankly embarrassing.

“I found Grizzley bear fur in the bushes on the bluff above the crime scene. The pawprints also suggest the bear may have pushed the boulder then retreated back into the forest.” David’s voice sounded weak and uncertain.

“Are you telling me an animal is deliriously obsessed with killing our Prime Minister?” snorted the Army Commander.

“Sir, he may be onto something. While our radar didn’t detect any aircraft around the site of the bombings, but there were several large birds that flew over the area seconds before the explosions,” one aide pointed out, receiving many nods that the idea might be plausible.

“Well, if that’s the case, do we know where the bear or birds went after their attacks?”

“Satellite shows the birds retreating back to a large abandoned building outside of town in the park reserve area.”

“Well ladies and gentlemen, looks like we got a lead. I want a full force investigating that area with a shoot-to-kill for all animals but I want the person responsible alive. They will face the full force of the law and they’ll spend the rest of their miserable life rotting in prison!”

As van after van of military, police and federal intelligence vehicles converged at the hideout, Viktor knew that his plans had all failed, and that capture was imminent. Caressing Bonecrusher’s muzzle, he gently removed the collar and ushered him into the backwoods where he might have a chance of getting away. Nuzzling Viktor’s hand, the bear did not want to abandon his owner of five years. As a cub, he had been rescued by Viktor, and now to leave him was hard for the animal. Likewise, the birds in the aviary were hesitant to leave their home, despite being freed from their collars.

With hot tears running down his face, Viktor pushed Bonecrusher away, knowing it would not bode well for either of them if they got caught. Giving one last whine, the bear turned and ran into the woods, but was immediately greeted by a salvo of semi-automatic fire. Bonecrusher stumbled almost drunkenly back towards Viktor, but fell dead metres away from his owner. Likewise, the flock of birds who were spooked by the first shots were fired at, and one by one they fell out of the sky, landing with a thud, dead as a doornail.

As the SWAT team arrested Viktor and pulled him away, he took one last look at the sightless eyes of Bonecrusher, who had been his best friend and most loyal ally. “I’m sorry Buddy. I failed you. I failed you all.”

The next day, David was eating leftover lasagna and watching the news story as did his wife and son. Intrigued at the unbelievable facts of the case, Melanie had to confirm with David that she wasn’t hearing things.

“Reports state that Viktor Leeroy had trained and cared for multiple animals for over five years, teaching them to perform certain acts of terrorism in an attempt to kill the Prime Minister and his family. From a landslide caused by a Grizzley Bear, to incinerating bombs dropped by eagles and owls, it all seems to be out of an action movie, but is indeed real. Vigels for the eight dead from the landslide were held last night, even as agents infiltrated Viktor’s base with a full show of force. All animals were killed to prevent further damages, and Viktor is now in custody, facing eight charges of first-degree murder. He is due in court on Wednesday, and has pleaded not guilty to all counts he is charged with. His lawyer is adamant that Viktor is not criminally responsible, and that his years in foster care had warped his mind into the troubled man he is now. Families of the eight deceased are hoping for the death penalty for a murderer that had, for the first time in Cascadia history, used animals to commit the killings.”

At the Prime Minister’s safe house, they were also watching the news, and shaking his head, the Prime Minister was in a state of disbelief.

As the security detail prepared for a change of shifts, a new guard stepped in and nodded to the Prime Minister who was seated in the couch next to the TV. “All quiet outside Sir. We’ll let you know if something shows up.”

Right before the door closed, a small rat carrying a smoking device on its back sneaked into the room. Aiming the nozzle towards the Prime Minister, the rat began to spray a green hallucinating gas, wafting towards the unwary victims, who did not notice till it was too late.

The End