Chapter Text
April 14
Blackgate Hospital
11:00 AM
Pieter Fury
Unsurprisingly, the trek down to the basement was exhausting for me. It really was a shame my body had taken so much punishment over the years. I would have once been able to handle this without any issues, and I would have felt just fine doing it too. Now though, I'm in a bit trickier of a situation, and I have been ever since I was taken in by Occisor. Even all these years later, my body was still struggling with it, and I was almost certain it was going to be struggling for the rest of my life too. At least I was able to do something to claim my autonomy again. It was a miracle I wasn't just forced to spend the rest of my days in a bed waiting for something to change but knowing it never would.
I kept one hand on my sword when we arrived down in the basement. I was relieved to be finished with the walk down beneath the main levels of the hospital, but I couldn't help feeling uneasy. I looked around for any signs of something changing around me, but I didn't see anything immediately. Perhaps we really were about as fine as we could have been.... Though that did very little to fully shake off the dread that came with being in the same building as someone who had almost killed another person. I didn't know what the full story was behind the culprit here, but I was certain it wasn't going to be pretty when it finally came to light. There was no way a situation like this could have been pretty given what we knew about it.
"Here we are," Ms. Toshi said, gesturing ahead to the security room. There were other branches of the basement, but there was only one place we really needed to check out because of what we were there for. It was time for us to go on and take the plunge, and I could only hope it led us somewhere helpful in the end. I didn't know what I was going to do if this didn't take us where we were planning it would.
Ms. Toshi opened the door to the security room, and as soon as the interior of the room was revealed, I was assaulted by all sorts of noises I never would have expected to hear. There were machines whirring, and that was definitely to be expected in a place like this. I didn't expect to hear so many people buzzing around one another anxiously, terrified of every way this could have been wrong. The news of what had happened had spread down there clearly based on the fact that other parts of the building were already on lockdown, and no one was taking it particularly well. I couldn't say that shocked me at all. It would have been a much bigger surprise if anyone felt fine about what had happened to Mr. Crowley since all of this started.
I winced at the noise, and Nevada pressed her hands over her ears in an effort to censor it. She didn't seem to be having the best luck at it though, and she pushed her hands closer and closer to her skin in an effort to find some degree of quiet. She normally seemed like she thrived in quiet, but she didn't feel that way now. Maybe there was a level of noise that was just too much for her sensitive ears. If there was ever a place to trigger a feeling like that, then it was bound to be a place like this. I couldn't blame her body for reacting the way it had.
There was one man at the center of the chaos wearing a lab coat and a frown on his face. He looked beyond stressed, but he was doing his best to seem as composed as possible. He didn't want to let anyone else figure out just how anxious he was, and he wasn't doing the best job of burying it. I could only assume that sense of responsibility had to belong to the head doctor Ms. Toshi had brought us down here to see. There wasn't much of anyone else who I would expect to feel the same way.
"Excuse me... Dr. Sturgeon?" Ms Toshi said slowly, and the man immediately whirled around upon hearing his name. Ms. Toshi flinched at just how suddenly he had turned, but she quickly recovered from her surprise. "I'm here with the investigative team. Can we talk about everything that happened with the crime up stairs?"
The man, seemingly going by the name of Dr. Sturgeon, nodded and then ran a hand through his hair. It seemed like he was normally very meticulous about keeping all of the details of his appearance in order, but there was only so much he could do on the matter when he was this anxious about everything that had found a way to go wrong in the hospital that day. It would have been a much greater miracle if he was at all composed given the circumstances. "Ah, yes... Thank you for bringing them down here." Dr. Sturgeon took a moment to brush his fingers through his beard in an effort to claim some bit of control over his facial hair. He had already lost his grip in so many other places, and this was the only way he could think to keep his composure. I felt horrible for him because he had been put in this situation, but there wasn't much of anything I could do to help him other than get to the bottom of this case. "My name is Harlow Sturgeon. I am the lead doctor here at the hospital. I'm also doing what I can to try and get to the bottom of this absolute mess."
"A lot has happened today... I know exactly why it would stress you out so much," Sora told him with a sympathetic smile and a shake of her head. "I'm sorry you've had to put up with all of this. I know there's a lot for you to resolve in a situation like this... But that's what we're here to help you with. If there's something we can do to help you, then we want to try and contribute it. So just let us know if you need something. Where do you think we should be starting here?"
Dr. Sturgeon paused for a moment, running his hand through his beard once again in an effort to calm himself down. Just like before, it didn't seem like it was entirely working. "What is it you need from me?" he asked in return. "I get the feeling you came down here because you had something you needed from me. You could have just looked around the rest of the hospital if there wasn't anything you needed my help with."
Sora let out a small laugh before shaking her head. "You may have read me like a book there... We're here because we were hoping we would be able to learn more about the security system," she explained. "There's a lot going on right now, and we need to get to the bottom of how the security system works if we want to find the truth. It wouldn't be right for the culprit to get away because we didn't have enough information on the matter."
"That makes sense... The security system is very important in times like this," Dr. Sturgeon hummed. He took another few moments to think quietly before looking up. "Do you want the basic rundown of how the security system works? There are a lot of important details that help it to function the way it does, and I know it's a bit overwhelming for an outsider to find out about for the first time. Still, I'll do my best to teach you more about it."
"That would be incredible," Deirdre nodded. "We heard it was possible for the security system to activate in specific ways that let you close down the hospital's entrances with just a little bit of button work down here. So I was wondering if you might be able to tell us anything more about that. How does the security system work? How does it join with other factors of the hospital to truly keep this place under lock and key?"
Dr. Sturgeon stood up a little bit straighter, pride washing through his eyes. "The security system here at the hospital was all my idea," he began. "Since it seems like there are always crimes occurring around the city, it felt like now was a good time to spring into action and make sure everything was as okay as it could have been. We could do something to make sure our patients were kept safe from all the dangers of the outside world with a security system, so that was why I proposed this. We decided it would only make sense if we made sure every single possible entrance to the hospital was secure, so all of the doors leading outside are on a strict surveillance system. If anyone tries to get inside, then they have to go through our security team. That also applies to all of the windows. If someone wants to open a window, then they have to send a request for it down to the security team."
I had to admit that this part specifically felt like it wasn't the best idea ever. There were a lot of ways something like this could go wrong, such as in case of a fire or other emergency, but I chose to not comment on it. "We think there's a strong chance the culprit managed to get into the building through a window," I told him. "It makes a lot of sense to us. There were no signs of a person getting in through a door leading outside, but it would have been possible for them to slip in through a window."
"Even though it was on the fifth floor of the building?" Dr. Sturgeon asked, his eyes going wide. "What a fascinating theory... I trust you have some backing for this. I can't just show the security system and everything included in it to anyone. You may be members of law enforcement, but I need to make sure I know what I'm doing before I agree to this."
"The room was as good as locked before the crime took place," I explained. "It would have been impossible for anyone to get in unless they went through the security guards watching over the door, but no one did that. There was no evidence of anyone going through the front door, and the guards did not say anything about someone trying to get past them. That means the only way into the building was through the window looking outside."
"But that doesn't make any sense," Dr. Sturgeon muttered, pressing one hand against his chin. "In order to get in through a window, they would have had to get permission from someone through our system. Our permissions system is very strict, and someone has to submit a ticket before it can get approved. We have certain guards here looking over the tickets at all times to make sure they are genuine requests... And you can't open the windows from the outside either, so someone couldn't have gotten in that way."
"There were no nurses in the area at the time of the crime though. There was no one who could have gotten into the room to submit a ticket from the inside," Ms. Toshi said. "The only option I'm seeing here is that someone managed to hack into the security system and then get inside from there. I know that's not something you want to hear, Dr. Sturgeon, but I think we're going to have to consider it."
"That..." Dr. Sturgeon trailed off, pulling his hand away from his facial hair. "It shouldn't be possible for someone to do that at all. I don't understand how it could have happened. How did no one catch what was happening at the time? How did the culprit get away with all of this when it should have been the furthest thing from possible?"
"I don't know how it happened either, but I know that we need to do our part to try and get to the truth here," Mukuro told him. "So if you could show us the records of the security system in the area around the time, then we would greatly appreciate it. We're going to need that information if we want to figure out who was responsible for all of this."
Dr. Sturgeon hesitated for a few seconds before he sighed and turned to look back at the screens. "Fine," he muttered, though I could tell he wasn't happy about agreeing to this. It didn't seem to me like he was unhappy because of the fact that we would be looking into the system though. If anything, he was upset because it seemed like his security system had failed so completely so soon after he put it in place. That shouldn't have been impossible, and yet, it was happening right in front of him. "Let's see what it could mean. I'm not sure if it's going to help us, but we may as well try."
I nodded my thanks, and I watched as a few of the security guards began to type away on the computers lining the room. There were at least a dozen screens scattered around the edge of the room, all of them giving new information about the hospital from some angle or another. It was overwhelming at best, and my eye couldn't seem to figure out where it was I was supposed to be looking. I just hoped it would take us somewhere helpful in the long run.
The screens all shifted to focus on the fifth floor of the hospital, and I focused in on the exterior of the room where Mr. Crowley was staying. It shouldn't have been possible for someone to get into the building from the outside, but that was the only theory we could come up with as to what had happened. Surely we were going in the right direction to find the truth by thinking this was the case... I wasn't sure what I was going to do if this all turned out to be a mistake.
"Sir! We found something!" a guard cried out, and I looked up at the screen in front of him to find that he was right: the window just outside of Mr. Crowley's room had sure enough been opened around the time of the crime. My eyes widened, and I felt a surge of excitement rush through me. We had been right in thinking this was what had happened. Somehow, our culprits managed to get in through that window, and that was how he was attacked. This locked room case wasn't much of a locked room at all.
"I'll be damned," Dr. Sturgeon muttered. "I never would have thought it was possible, but if it's happening..." He took a moment to think through his next words before shaking his head. "It shouldn't be possible at all. No one should be able to get into the building like that. If you want to get inside, then you. need to go through a door. The windows don't even open from the outside anymore. The security system is supposed to be strong in any situation... This shouldn't be possible. How in the hell did they do this?"
"We already have something of a profile for our culprit, and as far as we've come to understand, they're very good at managing technology," Sora explained. "The entire security system runs on technological devices, doesn't it? That means it would be possible for someone to hack into it and then infiltrate the building."
"I never thought..." Dr. Sturgeon began, trailing off a moment later. He began to rake his fingers through his hair like he was planning on pulling clumps of it right out of his scalp. "I never imagined it would happen like this... I thought the security system was as strong as they come and that it would make sure to keep out any and all intruders. How could someone have gotten in when we weren't paying attention? I thought we made it to be stronger than this, but if we didn't, then..."
"It's alright that there was a mistake in making the system," I assured him. "I know there's a lot going on right now, and we're going to do what we can to get to the bottom of it. There was an error that let someone else get in, but we're going to be able to close it up by the time all of this is over. I'm sure of it. All we have to do is get to the bottom of this case and then figure out how it was they were able to get inside. That'll make it a lot easier to manage a situation like this in the future."
"We've been working for quite some time to try and track down people who are responsible for horrific deeds, and there's someone in their roster who knows a lot about what it means to work with technology. We've run into quite a few issues of this breed where the culprits were using different types of technology to get in the way of what we've been trying to do," Deirdre explained. "The fact that it's happening again is proof of the people we suspect being involved with all of this, and hopefully, that will make it a little bit easier for us to get to the truth. If we have a better idea of what we're dealing with, then that should help us to get to the heart of the matter of soon as possible."
"I can only hope you're right, but it bothers me that this happened at all," Dr. Sturgeon sighed. "When I first proposed the idea for the increased security system, I wanted to make it so the hospital was completely impervious to any crimes or anyone trying to break into the building. I mean, I know this city can be dangerous at times, and it didn't feel right to just leave some people high and dry when we could also get in the way and save them from danger. If we could do something to keep the hospital secure, then we would be able to fight back against the risk that seems to surround us every single day... But if someone could get inside, then it didn't work at all. If someone got in here, then we failed completely at what we set out to do."
"I don't think you should be so harsh on yourself," I told him carefully. "I know this is a lot to have to hear about, but we're going to manage it once everything is said and done. Right now, we just have to figure out who got in and then make sure we stop them. If they slipped in through a window, then they must still be here in the building. We can just comb through everyone here and figure out who it is, right?"
"We've had our guards doing that already," Dr. Sturgeon told me. "As soon as we realized something had gone wrong, we made sure to get as many guards on the job as possible to try and get them out of here. It's not right for our patients to suffer because of something like this, so we were determined to stop them as soon as possible. We haven't found anything though, and it's driving me up the damn wall."
"They have to be in here though... You've been making sure no one has been able to enter or leave, and all of the windows are bolted down from the main system too," Mukuro frowned. "I don't think the culprit would have been able to get back out of the building the same way they came in even if they used the window. They would have been caught by someone at some point or another just because of everything going on. The machines Mr. Crowley was hooked up to started yelling almost as soon as he was attacked, so that drew a lot of attention..."
"Even if the culprit is still in the hospital, there's no guarantee we're going to be able to find them before it gets to be too dangerous for us to keep the building on lockdown," Dr. Sturgeon muttered with one hand on his chin. "There has to be some way for us to accelerate our search a little bit more and then figure out where they are. They can't have just disappeared into thin air. There must be some evidence left behind to show where they could be."
Mukuro opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off by her phone starting to ring. "Oops. I think I need to take this," she said. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and then stepped a short distance away to talk to whoever it was had called her. I could only hope the call was going to help us to get to the bottom of this case. I didn't know what I was going to do if it turned out that we had to keep going through the motions without any other information.
"The culprit got in through the window, and after that, they were able to get away... Somehow," Nevada concluded. "But they couldn't have left the building again, so there has to be some place they hid in after they were found. I mean, was there a closet in the room we were in before?"
"There's a small closet in that room, yes, but the guards already searched it as soon as the crime was discovered," Ms. Toshi confirmed. "There was no one inside of it at the time, and since they looked through the area so soon after the crime took place... I don't think the culprit would have been able to get away in that time. It just wouldn't be possible."
"But there has to be someone out there who got away... And there has to be some way they got away too," Susumu frowned. "I don't know what it is yet, but I feel like we have to be close to getting to the bottom of it. If they didn't use the window, then they must have done something else to try and slip away when we weren't paying attention."
One of the guards sitting in front of the computer gasped, and I turned to look at the screen. The man was typing away furiously at his keyboard with a frown on his face. "Something... Something is happening!" he cried out. "Someone just erased the record of the window opening earlier today! They were able to completely purge it from the tracker of what opens and when!"
"What?!" Dr. Sturgeon demanded, leaning over the table and pressing one hand against the wood. He searched for any signs of the record only to find nothing just as the guard had already told him he would. "Damn it... Something is going on here. They have to know that we're trying to get to the bottom of this, and they want to make sure we're not able to chase after them again. I guess they know that we know how the culprit got in here, and they want to cover their tracks however they can... Damn it all!"
"We have to be getting closer to the truth now then, right?" Sora pointed out. "If they're willing to go so far to erase the record of what it is they were up to at the time of the crime, then that means we're on the right track... If we could see that something got wiped at all, then we're able to know something is going on."
"But that's another issue for us to resolve, isn't it?" Deirdre countered. "If there's someone inside of the security system right now, then that means they're going to be able to let the culprit out again. They probably thought they would be able to get in and out before they were caught for stabbing Mr. Crowley, but that wasn't how it turned out at all. Now, their outside helper who knows how to get into the system is going to keep hacking into it to make sure they can escape before we're able to chase after them. We're at a major disadvantage here."
"Then we have to find them and then put a stop to this... But how are we supposed to do that?" Susumu asked worriedly. "We don't know where they could be or what they're up to right now... I have an awful feeling about all of this, and I don't know if it's going to get much better from here."
I hesitated for a few seconds before the screen began to flash once again with a notification. The entire record of the doors and windows opening at the hospital was gone now, and that was proof as good as any that the culprit was trying to get away. Their outside help was making sure to create a distraction for them, and this was as good a way to do it as any. If the record was being purged, then it was just a matter of time before the security system loosened up enough to make sure they could slip out of the building too.
"I'm stationing guards at all exits and entrances immediately! Anyone who opens a window is going to be in more trouble than they'll ever understand!" Dr. Sturgeon declared. He reached for a small device in his pocket and began to tap away at it, and I could only assume it was a communication device of some kind. I didn't know if it was hooked up to the security system or not, but if it was, then he was bound to find a bunch of trouble soon enough. I would argue that we had already found ourselves in a bit more trouble than we knew how to handle, and it was only going to get worse from here.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Nevada asked. "We're probably not going to be able to catch the one behind all of this at all if this keeps up for too much longer. There has to be some way we can speed up the process and then get them in our net!"
"We need to go and look around the room where Mr. Crowley was being kept."
Mukuro's voice cut through the chaos, and she tucked her phone away into her pocket. "I got an answer back about the blood we found on the floor of the victim's hospital room. It belongs to the victim just like we thought, but it's not in a place you would expect it to be at all. I think that means we have to go and search for as much information as we can find," she explained. "If there's nothing else for us to do here, then we should try to figure out what's going on with that blood and then get out there to find the culprit."
"I guess that's our only option right now..." I agreed, shooting a glance over my shoulder at Dr. Sturgeon. He seemed to have forgotten entirely about the fact that he had company, too caught up in trying to activate the security system to give the rest of us a second glance. I couldn't say I blamed him for not knowing how else to handle a situation like this. I probably would have felt like I was falling apart from the inside out if I was in his position too. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to stress Dr. Sturgeon out any more than we already have."
With that, our entire group slipped out of the room and into the rest of the basement. We had as much of a plan as we could have had, but it still didn't feel like it was going to be enough. At this rate, it was starting to look like the culprit was going to get away long before we had the chance to catch up with them, and I hated it deeply. If they were in the security system, then we wouldn't be able to chase after them quickly enough to make sure they were caught. The accomplice was a real issue, and I could only hope we could get to the bottom of it all soon enough.
"I'm going to give him one more suggestion before we go," Ms. Toshi said, reaching for her phone and typing out a message to Dr. Sturgeon. "If he has anyone who knows how to do it, I want him to try and trace the location of the person who is hacking into the hospital's system. If he can do that, then he should be able to figure out who is behind it, and that will make it a lot easier for us to find them and then put a stop to all of this... At least in theory."
"I think that's a good idea," Sora nodded. "For now, we should head back up to the room to see what we can learn. If there's anything we can find out about the blood on the floor, then we have to try and get to the bottom of it. I'm not going to let the culprit get away without a fight."
I nodded and started toward the staircase. Going up all of these stairs was not going to be fun, and I could already tell my body was going to hate me for trying... But it wasn't as if I had much choice in the matter. This was what it was going to take for us to track down the culprit, and I would do it for the sake of stopping an attempted murder.
We didn't have much time, so I started moving as quickly as my body would allow me.