Chapter 63: Sherlock Tedd

Sherlock Tedd bade farewell to the nurse he had been speaking with and thanked her for her time before stepping away from the station. Since the person they came to question was still hospitalized, the procedure required him to consult the medical staff responsible for Red Deer Rhos’s wellbeing before leaving.

The interrogation had lasted longer than he originally thought, and regardless of how the investigation was official government business, he did not possess the authority to interfere with necessary medical care.

Fortunately, the nurse had assured him that Mr Red Deer’s condition was stable. His healing cycle had been completed successfully, his heart was functioning normally, and there were no immediate complications from the injury.

Fatigue was expected, along with some temporary discomfort around the regenerated tissue, but nothing about the interrogation appeared to have endangered him.

Tedd had nevertheless requested that the nurse inform the attending physician if Rhos showed any unusual symptoms over the next hours. It was better to be safe than sorry.

The agent walked for a bit and met up with Kay Loki who had been waiting farther down the corridor beside one of the windows.

Her visible emerald eye reflected the light rays of the outside, making her look almost solemn. A cigarette was hanging between her thin lips, and one hand was cupped around a lighter she prepared to ignite.

Tedd furrowed his brow.

He walked past her and quickly plucked the cigarette from her mouth, leaving her lighter to click against empty air.

"Sherlock"

Her eyes followed the tall, slender man continuing to walk with her cigarette without looking back.

"The hospital has health regulations prohibiting smoking inside the building. Those regulations exist to protect patients, staff and visitors from unnecessary exposure. Wait until we’re outside, please"

Kay followed him while playing with the lighter in her hand, a bit irritated.

"You told me I could smoke when we’re finished. Aren’t we done here?"

"Not quite. Our business here is finished, yes, but I never said you could smoke inside the hospital. Many patients admitted here suffer from respiratory illnesses, compromised immune systems or injuries that leave them particularly vulnerable to airborne irritants"

He gave her a sideways glance.

"Not everyone is fortunate enough to possess our constitutions, Miss Loki, and being mindful of those less fortunate costs us very little"

Kay stared at him for a few seconds before shrugging and extending a hand.

"Fine, I get it. No smoking inside hospitals. You don’t have to lecture me about it. Now give it back... please"

He handed the cigarette back without further complaints, and she tucked it into the small box inside her jacket pocket before slipping her lighter away as well.

The two government agents continued down the corridor in silence.

It hadn’t been long since their interrogation ended, yet the young man had left quite the impression on Tedd’s mind.

Red Deer Rhos was intelligent.

Actually no, that wasn’t accurate. The right way of putting it would be, he was streetwise..

There was a discernible difference between possessing raw intelligence and understanding how to apply knowledge under pressure, and Mr Red Deer had demonstrated enough of the latter to make Tedd interested.

The young man understood interrogation tactics, he controlled the timing of his responses, and answered simpler questions without wasting time. He even saw through Tedd’s tactic of using silence against him.

Throughout his career, he found that silence made people uncomfortable, especially when they knew they were being evaluated. They usually started explaining things nobody had asked them to explain, correcting statements that hadn’t been challenged or adding unnecessary details in an attempt to appear cooperative.

But the young man was different.

’Very good for one so young’

Mr Red Deer put on a good show, but it wasn’t enough to completely fool this experienced agent.

He was extraordinarily observant. It was both his greatest talent and one of his greatest annoyances. This trait had always existed long before he awakened his Patron Spirit.

Tedd was not born into wealth or government influence. He grew up in one of Elderwood’s middle residential rings as the son of a schoolteacher and an administrative clerk.

His family wasn’t rich, but neither had he suffered the deprivation common throughout the lower rings.

There were always books in their home. He attended a respectable school. If he became interested in a subject, his parents usually found some way of giving him access to material about it.

So Tedd studied. Then studied some more in various fields pertaining to psychology. The more he learned about human behavior, the easier people became to understand, and after his awakening, understanding became observation taken to an uncomfortable extreme.

Now that he thought about it, that was where his alienation began.

Tedd had become strangely good at knowing information about individuals from even the smallest of clues.

A person’s shoes could tell him where they had been.

Their hands could tell him what they did.

Signs of discoloration around a finger could reveal jewelry recently removed. The smell caught in someone’s clothing could hint at where they spent their morning.

Their posture changed around people they feared, admired, loved or disliked.

A few poorly hidden glances could expose an argument they had before entering the room.

There were more such examples he was able to pick up about people’s behaviors.

It made Tedd good at his job.

It also made him yearn for true companionship.

As a child, he wanted friends desperately enough that he would occasionally practise conversations before approaching other children.

But the moment someone stood in front of him, little details began piling up until Tedd knew things they hadn’t told him and once he revealed them, he was seen as a stalker.

The two eventually reached the hospital reception area, where patients and visitors occupied rows of chairs. Tedd offered a courteous nod toward the receptionists as he and Kay passed, then stepped through the automatic doors.

Morning air immediately washed over them.

The World Tree Yggdrasil dominated the view beyond the hospital grounds. Tedd had seen it nearly every day of his life but the sight of it could never become ordinary to him. Even if he saw it a thousand times.

It was just that majestic.

There was a flicker sound beside him. Kay placed the cigarette between her lips and ignited it before taking a long drag.

She held the smoke for 3 seconds and released it as they descended the hospital steps. The first smile he had seen of her today appeared on her face.

"Oh, Monkey, that’s much better. I can hear myself think again"

Tedd returned her smile with his own.

"I’m glad to hear that. If your mind was too clouded, I fear it would’ve complicated our journey back"

Kay gave him a side eye.

"You’re not funny"

She took another drag then asked in a more thoughtful voice.

"Red Deer was lying, right?"