“Yes, and it didn’t work.”
“Why not?”
“We’re not sure, but higher-ups think maybe it’s just too different from most psychic ability.”
“What does that mean, too different?” I asked.
“It’s like I don’t understand the necromancy enough to trace it.”
“Or he’s better at detecting you, like Anita,” Larry said.
“He doesn’t feel as powerful over the computer as she does sitting here,” Gillingham said.
“It’s not as strong over the computer sometimes,” Brent said.
“You pick it up, too?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’m not nearly as gifted as the three of you, but I actually seem to get more via electronics. One of our instructors says that he’s found other computer techs who actually have more talent to feel things over the computer than in real life. They don’t even have a name for it yet, but apparently it’s a talent just like the others.”
“That might explain why so many techies spend all their time online; they get addicted to feeling the buzz,” I said.
“We think so,” Brent said, smiling as if I’d said a smart thing. It just seemed logical to me.
“So what’s a live feed?” I asked.
“It’s real time,” Brent said, “and in this case the customers can call in and suggest what they want the zombie to do. Depending on what they want, they pay more money to get their idea onscreen.”
I blinked at him. “Okay, ick, but okay.”
“The more odd your request, the more they charge you, and if it damages the zombie they charge a lot more.”
“Damage the zombie, I don’t remember them doing that.”
“There’s been a new film. It was never live to the general customers, but only put online once the customer who requested it saw it live.” Brent’s face was a little gray around the edges.
“I don’t like the look on your face right now. How much worse could it be than what we’ve seen?” I asked.
“Technically even though they look alive, they’re zombies, so it’s not murder, and it’s not convictable for the customers really. Now that the word has gotten out about how lifelike the zombies are, the films are attracting people who usually haunt more serial killer sites. By that I don’t mean real serial killer videos, but people pretending to film things that you could only do once in real life. Pretend torture and snuff films, and some real torture with willing victims.”
“Real torture, or real BDSM?” I asked.
“BDSM for the most part. I’m told other divisions have traced people who were torturing people for viewers online, and shut them down, but for the most part it’s all consensual and no one gets hurt more than they’ve bargained for,” Brent said.
“Technically, the only way we got these films to be investigated this seriously was to raise the question of, if the soul is in the body, then is it a zombie, or is it a person?”
“You got to investigate this by raising a spiritual debate at the FBI?” I asked.
She made a little shrug and wobbled her head at the same time. “Yes, no, sort of, but once a voodoo priest told us that they had to be capturing the soul at the moment of death, then we treated it like any other serial killer case with magic added.”
I looked at Gillingham. “So, if I can trace this via a live feed, then what do we gain? I mean, it’s not like I’ll be able to trace it back to an address. At best I’ll get a taste for his power.”
“Would you know the feel of his talent again if you felt it?” she asked.
“If I got a good enough feel for it, yeah.”
“It might not work in court, but it could help us narrow it down once we have some suspects,” she said.
“Okay, when’s the next live event?”
“They only announce it close to the actual event.”
“So what, you keep me on speed dial, and then what?”
“We have someone undercover as a customer. You’ll be in the room while he types at them.”
“Is this a group live event, or one of the special customer things?”
“It’s group, but if this doesn’t get us the information we need, then we’re trying to find something for our undercover agent to request that is different enough that they think it would work as a film.”
“Do we want to know what this new video is?” Larry asked.
“Do you think what you’ve seen so far is awful?” Manning asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you probably don’t want to see the next one, because you’ve got about another three hours of watching the milder stuff,” she said.
“If I think I’m going to throw up, I’ll just leave, and come back,” he said.
“I thought I was the one that threw up at crime scenes,” I said, trying to lighten things up.
“I never saw you do that, but this . . . I don’t think it’s the sex, I think it’s the terror in their eyes. This is just so wrong, no, so evil.”
“I’m not sure the FBI lets us use the word evil in official reports, because it’s hard to prove something, or someone, is evil in court,” Manning said.
Brent added, “But what they’re doing is evil.”
We all just nodded, even Gillingham. “If you can stop messing with me long enough I might be able to tell you if this guy is the animator who raised the zombies, or just a client of the animator.”