Chapter No.14. Mystery.

A week passed before Robert got a call from the two FBI agents, He assumed it was another evil devil case, but when he teleported to their office, they told him about something completely different.

"We have a case that's been bothering us for several months," Mark Stetson, the head agent said. "We've found bodies of murdered young women. They're always naked and have their throats slit. Autopsies reveal that they were pregnant, usually not more than a month, but no evidence has been found that could identify the killer."

"I don't know how much I could determine from a body," Robert said. "I don't think I can resurrect a person that has been dead for any length of time."

"Most serial killers have a signature method of killing. The autopsies have been unable to determine the method the killer used."

Robert rubbed his jaw. "That's interesting. I thought you said the killer slit their throats."

"Yes, but that wasn't the cause of death. It's more of a ritual marking of the corpse."

"As in a satanic rite?"

"That's what we think and the reason we called you."

"Well," Robert said after a pause. "I'm not all that up on satanic stuff, but I'll give it a try."

The agents escorted Robert to a mortuary in the basement of the headquarters, a creepy place despite all the efforts to make it more business-like. A worker pulled a corpse out of a refrigerated storage unit and wheeled it over to an examination table. The head agent pulled down the sheet covering the corpse to reveal a body that didn't look all that damaged or had signs of an autopsy.

Robert swallowed hard before using his powers to search the body for clues. After several minutes, he looked up at the agent. "I'm detecting a tiny round object that's in the pituitary region of her brain. I don't think it's a projectile and there is no obvious way that it was inserted into that location. I believe that the capsule contains an explosive."

The agent stared at him with surprise showing on his face. "What sort of explosive?"

"I think it's anti-protons preserved in a magnetic field."

"How can you detect that without instruments?"

"I don't know, but that's what I can see."

The two agents exchanged glances before Mark said anything. "How in the hell could someone insert something that . . . that crazy into a corpse?"

Robert ran a hand through his hair. "Let's look at this more analytically. First of all, antimatter is not easy to produce."

"Yes, antimatter has to be created in particle accelerators," Mark said. "And there are only a few large colliders that could do it in any appreciable amounts."

"Only two I know is the Hadron in Switzerland and the Russian device near Moscow," Robert said. "And, in order to trap antiprotons, they have to be slowed down considerably. The technology to do that is limited and only available to the main military powers."

"Even if they could be produced in sufficient quantities to create a weapon, why would they be inserted into a corpse?" Joe, the other FBI agent asked.

"I think that Otto wasn't the evil one," Robert said. "He was only the first test to determine what I could do. Think of it this way. If he, whoever he is, wanted to get to me, knowing that I am coming to the FBI, he could do it by inserting the weapons into corpses that would end up here."

"Yeah," Joe said. "Normal crime victims end up in local morgues, but these victims here are not normal,"

"Right," Robert said. "And all it would take is for someone to retrieve one of those capsules, allowing light to hit it. It would explode and cause the other capsules to detonate, destroying this building and most buildings near it."

"No one is going to believe any of this," Mark said. "How could we get those things out of the corpses without detonating them?"

"Good question," Robert said. "The only possible way I could imagine is for these corpses to be transported to an underground place that's totally dark. I could then remove the weapons and transport the corpses back here. Then I could expose the capsules to light while I teleported back out of the place. However, the explosion that would result from this would be visible to satellites, which means that Russia and China would accuse the US of conducting nuclear tests."

"Maybe we should run this past the chief?" Joe said to Mark.

"There's no way he's going to believe us," Mark replied. "I don't think we have any other choice than Mr. Steris' idea."

Joe nodded his approval.

"Okay, now I need a dark underground place that won't cause any problems when it blows," Robert said.

"The only possible location is a cave in Nevada near the original underground nuclear test site," Mark said.

"I'll go explore that location."

Robert teleported to the original Nevada Nuclear test site, a place where several nuclear bombs were detonated both above and below ground. Many of these tests were visible from Las Vegas. He walked around searching for an underground cavity.

He found a dark underground cave that had enough room for him to do his job. He started by transporting the corpses from the FBI morgue. Even though it was totally dark, he was able to use his powers to extract the antimatter capsules from them and place them on the floor. He also activated a delayed flare.

But then he sensed that something was not what he had expected. The women were alive and standing. It caused him to forget that the flare was about to go off.

The explosion was horrific. It blew out the cave and left a hundred-foot-wide crater. Robert assumed he was dead, but he looked at his hands and they were not harmed. The four women were standing around him dressed in white gowns.

"Who are you?" he asked them while looking at them one at a time, which he decided that they were identically dressed.

"We are the Vestal Virgins," they said in perfect unison.

Robert wasn't sure what they meant. Vestal virgins were a semi-religious group of women in Rome. He decided that it was time to get out of here, so he turned to begin a difficult climb out of the crater. The women followed him to the surface and away from the hole left over from the explosion. Dirt and stones had been blown out over a mile-wide zone of destruction. He had trouble understanding how he survived the conflagration without injury.

He stopped walking and they did too. He stared at them and then decided to teleport back to his home. They simply stared at him with unemotional expressions on their beautiful faces.

When he reappeared at home, he saw that his wife was at work and James was in school. He sat down in the family room and turned on the TV. It wasn't all that long until the news services began reporting that there was a massive explosion in Nevada. He could only imagine what sort of a shit show that that was going to cause.

The phone rang and he knew that it was the FBI agents, so he decided to transport to their office.

"What the hell happened?" Mark asked, his face twisted with concern. "I thought you were going to send the corpses back."

"I was, but it turns out they were alive."

"What!"

"Yeah. They were dressed in white gowns and claimed they were Vestal Virgins."

"How in the hell are we going to explain what happened to the corpses?" Joe asked.

Mark rubbed his face. "I don't know. This is beginning to take on a supernatural flavor."

"I think this is the work of the true evil one that I'm supposed to stop.," Robert said. "If we assume that Russia is the only logical place that he could obtain antimatter, maybe it would be a good idea to search for a possible operative from there."

"We can try that, but I'm not sure how much information we can dig up. Most espionage data is in CIA systems. "

Robert sighed. "I'll leave that up to you guys. I'm sure my wife is wondering where I am. I'll catch you later." He vanished, leaving the two FBI agents confused.

Later that evening, when his wife and son were home, he waited until they mentioned the event.

"Do you know anything about the explosion in Nevada?" his wife asked.

Robert sighed. "Yeah, that was me."

She frowned, "Now what?"

"I think that this Otto character wasn't the one I was supposed to take care of. The real evil bastard is really bad. He killed four young women and planted explosive capsules in their bodies. I had to take them to a cave at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site to safely remove the explosives and allow them to blow. However, I was in the cave when it exploded along with four women who were not only alive but dressed in white gowns. I asked them who they were, and they said they were Vestal Virgins."

"That sounds like a really good superhero movie plot," James said, grinning. "Maybe they were Amazons like Wonder Woman."

"Unfortunately, it's real, and I'm having trouble understanding why I wasn't killed when the explosion occurred, an explosion that was probably at least a megaton."

"The Wonder Women saved you," James said.

"Let's assume that. Even though Wonder Woman has amazing physical powers, she could be harmed and even killed. I think they might have been angels."

"If they were angels, why would they have had explosives inserted into them?" Janet asked.

Robert gave her a brief smirk. "Good question. Maybe they were victims of the evil one and I turned out to be their savior."

"It looks like you need to team up with them, Dad," James said.

Robert wasn't so sure if that made sense, but then again, nothing was making sense of late.