Historia

I guess I just said that." Jilin adjusted the folder in front of him a little. “It was really just a coincidence. And only because of this, the other three Iuba were not killed, but captured. They also have numbers in their ears. "

"Who tattoos proles?" I asked.

Reese seemed confused too. "Historia does that."

“Yes, but they haven't been to Historia yet. Or?"

Jilin shook his head. “No, they weren't, but Reese's train of thought is not bad. These three Iuba also come from a research institution. Only this was directed by our esteemed Doctor Christopher Krynick. "

My mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"Wait a minute," Reese said, leaning forward a little. "Are you saying that these three Iubas are from the first generation?"

The first generation, the proles, who were born in the research laboratory of the dear doctor and thus were the forefathers of all descendants today.

"It looks like this." Jilin ran her finger over the edge of the folder. “The tattoo numbers were compared with the research papers from Riverton and matched a few of the listed proles one hundred percent. There is no doubt that these three Iuba are among the proles who escaped from the laboratory at the time. "

Escape was good. Better to say let loose in the world.

Exactly how many proles were released has not been known to this day. There couldn't have been very many, but due to their disposition, the proles had also been able to mate with normal animals and reproduced so quickly. As a result, the original seven groups quickly became ten.

"That was seventeen years ago," I said quietly.

"Almost eighteen," Jilin corrected me. “And according to the records, these Iuba were grown up when they escaped. That means you can put on at least another year. "

"Nineteen years." That was hard to believe. I knew Historia was home to ancient proles just to explore. But outside of the research laboratory, no descendants of the first generation have been found for years.

"It seems that this pack has been in remote parts of the country for many years, which is why they have remained undiscovered for so long."

"That explains why they survived so long," Reese said.

That was true, but a much more important question came to mind. "Why are you telling us this?" Not that that wasn't interesting, but it didn't explain my boss's behavior.

"There's a very simple reason for that." Jilin hesitated a moment, then pushed the folder towards me. But she left her hand on it. “That is all the information we have gathered about the Drein so far. But not all of them are beautiful and some of them can bring back bad memories. ”Jilin looked me in the eye. “Grace, these tattoo numbers have similarities to another case - the sequence of numbers, if you can see what I mean. We therefore suspect that these three Iubas, together with their offspring, burst into the sixth birthday of a little girl fifteen years ago. "

Suddenly I was freezing and that had absolutely nothing to do with the weather. "What are you saying?"

“Back then, the venator profession was still in its infancy. There were far too few hunters to master the problem. I know your story, I read the files from back then and know that not all descendants of this pack could be eliminated. "

Look, Gracy, the funny dog. I called it plush because it looks so plush.

My fingers tightened on the edge of the desk.

It was fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago my little sister Wynn had sat by the fence in our garden and said those words and turned my life into a nightmare.

Was Jilin trying to tell me that these beasts killed my parents? My friends who never had a chance to grow up? That was ... not possible.

A rough, calloused hand came over mine. "Shanks."

I shook my head, trying to get that memory out of my brain. "That can not be."

"That something like this will happen is extremely unlikely," said Jilin. "But it doesn't mean that it's excluded."

Not, but the probability was so negligible that I just couldn't imagine it. But what if she was right? What if these three Iubas were really the same ones who turned my sixth child's birthday into a bloodbath? Did either of them kill my mother? Or my father?

Or maybe we just misinterpreted the clues and these three had nothing to do with the massacre back then.

Oh what was I kidding myself? The population of the proles was so small at the time that it would have been a great coincidence if there were still a Juba pack in the area. And the number sequence of the tattoos matched. On the other hand ... what did the word coincidence actually mean?

Jilin's voice softened a little. "I realize that this thought is not ..."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I interrupted her quietly.

She sighed. "Counter question. What would have happened if I had withheld it from you and you had found out about these Iubas at some point? If someone tells you that I also knew it without telling you about it? "

I would have believed that she would have abused my trust and withheld information that was important to me. If what she said was really true, I would have felt betrayed. After all, it was this event that got me to where I was today. It had been a desire for revenge. And now she was telling me that the monsters that had destroyed my family were still alive. That was ... unthinkable.

"Grace." Jilin lifted her hand from the folder and placed it on top of mine.

But I withdrew from her. I pulled away from Reese too, crossed my arms over my chest and stared at this folder. "You're still alive." I felt the old pain that threatened to tear my heart apart. Even today, in my dreams, I kept hearing my parents' screams. I saw how they had torn them, how the blood flowed and how the light of life had disappeared from their eyes.

"Yes, and you have to go to Historia."

Very slowly I raised my eyes to her face. "What do you expect from me now?"

“I expect the same as always: that you go about your work as conscientiously as possible. However… ”She paused for a moment. “I didn't tell you this to reopen old wounds, but because I believe it's important to you. And you now have two options. One is that you just accept what happened, leave my office and we forget about the whole matter as if it never happened. "

"And the other one?"