ACK expression was one of lost confidence. His own sponsor was gone, the man to which he was faithfully reporting anything that was told between the member of this strange Strikeforce, that for the fist time (this was the third incarnation) was made of strongly independent people, more interested at doing good than to money, fame, or power. No one now was going to talk in his favour. But maybe that occurrence was what he was needing to leave the scene.
"What can we do? We call the cops?" asked somehow innocently the armoured man, while thinking of a way out.
A punch in the face, the fourth of fifth of the day, silenced the man.
"Police of what country? We are the police here, idiot" said Brandon Mullarney, younger brother of Frank, the Hero who saved Paris from the falling meteor. Or, at least, that Merlin had the people of the planet to believe he did. "We have scientists and doctors on this very satellite. We'll find who killed Merlin and we'll execute him".
ACK frowned, surprised.
"I mean, we'll assure him to justice, to have him executed. That is, after a regular trial" corrected himself Hero.
The young man pushed a button to activate a communicator, and called on Doctor Auguste Von Brown, the size-altering scientist known also as Graviton, and Doctor Harvey Mc Neil, the lizard-man known as Freak, official physician of the Strikeforce 3 team.
The two arrived after a few seconds, as the orbital base was not very large. Both remain speechless at the sight of the cadaver.
"Strange" said Mc Neil. Killed by someone standing in front of him. "It seems the bullet hole in the forehead is the entrance hole. The one that shot him had to be known and trusted by Merlin, to leave him without the time to do a step."
Graviton frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Merlin metagene's power is the ability to walk across space. He can walk over the air, and also teleport. He just needs to do a step with his legs, and he jumps for one place to another. That's how he survived the T-rex attack in Tokio, in September. I was with him, and I saw it. He made me swear I wouldn't have revealed it to anyone for safety matters, but I have checked the files, and in the Strikeforce One he was even called the Walker, as a nickname. For the meta-discrimination, he had the press revealing it was a cybernetic implant to give him the teleportation and air-walikng powers, but it was just bullshit. It was his metagene" explained the Freak.
"So you say that for not having made just a step it should have known and trusted the killer. When the mysterious man had taken out the gun, he had not the time to make a complete step with his legs, before the bullet penetrated his cranium?" asked Hero.
McNeil nodded. "Or he was sleeping".
Al the presents looked at the bed, that was stained with blood and brain matter like the rest of the room.
"No, he was not on the bed. There would be the hole of the bullet in the mattress" said Graviton.
"Right!" exulted the New Zealander. "Let's look for the bullet!"
And the four of them, kneeling down, began to search for the bullet in the chaos of the private room of Merlin.
"Now that I think of..." said Graviton, "why if he was a teleporter had a teleportation tube in his room?"
"For his dates" explained ACK. That's why he didn't wanted any security camera or device here... he didn't want any records of the young boys coming here."
Hero grimaced. "Let's find that bullet, OK?"
