Copperheart

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

It was just after three in the cold dark morning when the metallic '68 stingray blew past Krisatinas patrol car. With hardly a thought the skunk flipped on the lights, crushing the accelerator pedal to the firewall. Monika quickly peeled herself out of the bucket seat, grabbing the radio mic. "Base, this is 42. Were in Northbound on Five-Three-Five, passin' Sunset Boulevard now. In pursuit of a 1968 corvette stingray, copper in color." She grabbed the binoculars from beside her, focusing on the rapidly dwindling license plate, "Texas plates. Dog Oscar November Alpha Serria Kilo". She glanced outside, catching another landmark, then made the mistake of checking their speed. "KRISTI" she screamed as she saw the pegged needle. "Headed for the city, coming in HOT!."

"Orange County base, 42, understand. All units in..." Slowly the cruiser edged up on the speeding corvette as the lights of Winter Garden grew in the windshield. "What's that mounted above the OH SHIT" Kristi screamed as a multi-colored parachute billowed behind the speeding car. Suddenly there was nothing in front of the cruiser but empty road. Monika gritted her teeth as the skunk slammed on the brakes, releasing them just as the cruiser started its spin. As it slowly turned Monika slammed her foot back on the accelerator. Fishtailing, smoke billowing into an thick fog around them, the police car slowed to a stop across from Fire Department Station #34. Men started running out as the huge vehicle shuddered to a stop.

"I don't wanna know" Monika gasped, her stomach and chest burning from her seatbelts grip. Somehow in the back of her mind she knew she was going to have an interesting set of bruises in the morning. "I don't wanna know. She's gotta be miles away by now."

Slowly the cloud drifted away in the light early morning breeze. "Nope" Kristi replied, staring through the soda splattered windshield towards lights a over a hundred yards away. "She's calmly packing her chute." Putting the cruiser back in gear she roared up to the parked corvette.

Both women leapt from the cruiser, Monika taking shelter behind her door, aiming her twelve gage at the black dressed woman while Kristi ran up, her service revolver held ready. "ASSUME THE POSITION BITCH" Kristi screamed. Adrenalin was still dumping into her system, making control difficult. The corvettes driver sighed, dropping the almost packed parachute and leaning against the cars trunk, hands and legs stretched seemingly painfully wide. Kristi edged up, searching the woman from weapons but her leather outfit made it almost impossible to be sure. "LEFT HAND BEHIND YOU" Kristi screamed, her blood still on fire from the chase and resulting semi-controlled crash. Quietly the woman complied, in minutes Kristi and Monika were searching the corvette as its driver sat in their cruiser, watching.

".357 magnum in the trunk" Monika called. "Laser sight, unloaded, no drugs I can find but Phil will be here with his dog soon." She held up a heavy, sealed metal box. "Military seals, we'll have to leave this for the office." Kristi just grunted. The chipmunk was dressed like a drugrunner, drove like a drug runner, but they had only found less than a hundred dollars cash in her purse, a Texas drivers license, and unsurprisingly... a pilots license.

Pulling herself out from under the dashboard Kristi pushed her hair back from her face. "I don't get it, a hot car, hot babe, and nothing illegal except the gun. Whats going on here?" Getting up she walked back to her cruiser, absently noting both front tires had gone flat from the spin 'Oh well, they needed replacement anyway' she thought. Stepping up to the door she stared down at her prisoner. "Okay babe, lets hear it."

The chipmunk looked up, "Kristinia Baker, daughter of Major Ray Baker. Orange county sheriffs department, likes to drive fast." She glanced down the road, the lights of several cruisers were visible. "Pretty damn good driver at that, if it hadn't been for NASCAR's Good old Boy Humans Only attitude we'd been fighting for first out of four a long time ago."

Under her fur the policewoman flushed with a mixture of anger and fear. "I didn't ask you about me, I want to know what you are."

The chipmunk looked down at herself. "Well, your not blind so you know I'm a woman, and non-human. My names...." She shut up suddenly as Sgt. Mueller and several troopers drove up.

Almost running the heavy Police officer took one look at the chipmunk, another at her car and tensed up. "Let her go" Muller ordered, still staring at the woman in Kristi's cruiser.

"But Sarge..." Kristi started as Muller suddenly grabbed her arm, pulling the shocked skunk aside. "I said, let her go. Now DO it." he hissed. "And no report, nothing happened." He glanced at her car. "Some punks left a board of nails or something on the road, that's all."

Kristi nodded, Muller had never, ever, grabbed her before. Something wasn't right and for once she wasn't going to be on the short end. Muttering to herself she motioned the chipmunk to strand up and turn around. As she released the handcuffs it suddenly came to her how tall the woman was, a full three inches taller than herself. "What are you" she whispered as she fought the stubborn lock.

"You don't need to know" the other whispered back. "Trust me on this, you really don't want to know... yet." Released she turned and saluted the two officers as they climbed back into their car, then walked back and calmly started packing the chute again. The other cruisers quickly, and silently departed the scene, leaving the lone crippled cruiser facing a rocketship on rubber.

"What's going on?" Monika asked as they watched the woman work. "Why are we..?"

"Don't ask" Kristi growled, wiping at the congealing soda with a rag, "Just don't ask." Crossing her arms she stared at the corvette and fumed. Half an hour later the tow-truck had arrived, the corvette had rumbled away and Kristi was still mad.

Two days later Kristi and Monika found themselves sitting in Sgt. Muller's office. Everyone else had left, the office was almost empty and Kristi was running through everything she'd done in the last month to get her into this kind of trouble. Finally Muller entered, followed by the chipmunk from the corvette, who was again wearing handcuffs. "Alright you two, it's time you got briefed and introduced to your new 'partner.'" He stepped to his desk and opened a folder. "That stunt a few nights ago was a test, a test by the United States Air Forces OSI. That's Office of Special Investigations in case you didn't know. You passed, they want you." He released one of the cuffs, then handed the folder to the chipmunk. Without another word he walked to the door. "Let me know when your through" he growled, slamming the door behind him.

"Do you know you can get arrested in that outfit?" Kristi asked.

"Only if I cross my legs in public, while sitting" the agent replied, carefully sitting on Muller's desk. "Listen, I'll put it bluntly because you deserve it. My names Vanderspoon, Captain Merry Vanderspoon and no jokes, please. At least not on duty. Two weeks ago one of our best operatives ended up dead here. You probably know the case, the feline floater in Lake Taylor?" She tossed the folder into Monika's lap. "Every drop of blood was gone, as well as a few.... parts." The chipmunk shivered a moment. "It's a pattern that started in New York seven years ago an' has been moving south slowly. Always female, always non-human."

"What's this got to do with the Air Force" Monika asked. "It sounds more like something for the FBI."

Merry stood, walking over to tower over the human. "The FBI isn't interested in 'animal cases'" she answered, staring into the humans eyes. "Not unless someone from Congress starts asking, or it's some agents informant or 'friend'. Since the majority of the victims have been military, they most graciously turned the investigation over to we 'Sky Jockey's.'"

"What about the Army, Navy and Marines?" Kristi asked, handing the folder to her partner. "Why aren't they involved?"

"Navy's never gotten over that sex scandle, Marines are too busy saving raciest humans from killing each other in Europe and the Army, well... There's Okinawa on their minds at the moment... for example." She absently slapped her thigh, "I'm here for a lot of reasons, mainly... Mainly because I'm non-human, and Sherry was my best friend."

"Sherry?" both police officers asked.

"Your floater, we were teammates until she was posted here. I intend to get the Purity boy who cut her heart out." Moving back to the desk she slid back into a sitting position, accidently giving Monika a show. "So far, all we know is that he, or she, seems to befriend their victims. It's the only way to explain why there's never been any sign of a struggle. Their blood, heart and liver... " she gestured at the folder, shivering "Are removed. Whatever is used its not very skillful work, report is there are signs of tearing, as if a claw-like tool is used. You don't just let anyone do that to you. What's frightening is, there no sign of drugs or restraints. Somehow he's getting them to LET him kill them."

"No sign of molestation" Monika noted as she glanced at the reports. "Strange, in mutilation cases like this you'd expect it." She shut the folder. "Maybe its a vampire."

Merry snorted, "Vampire bats were tried, they couldn't get the intelligence level above a dog in those flat skulls. Even the crazy scientists gave up, moving towards more 'exotic' animals. No, we've checked the DNA evidence. It's all one person, human. Sex tests have been inconclusive for some reason, so treat everyone you haven't known for at least... ohh.. two months as a possible perp, male or female."

Monika tapped a fingernail against the chairs arm. "We're looking for someone strong, someone nobody notices at night. Hummm... Not a local so with our tourist levels, that's only a couple hundred thousand people. Piece of cake."

Merry shook her head, "Less than that, you don't have that many visitors staying two months and fewer still that match our profile." She studied Kristi for several moments, making the skunk uneasy. "And you've got a problem Kristi... You fit the victim profile to a 'T'".

>the beginning<