Through Glass Darkly Episode 1 by Peter Knyte

were in the Expanse, and yet somehow it found them in the morgue and it destroyed them again.
    ‘I don’t pretend to understand it Captain, but it made me angrier than I thought I could ever be. There was a part of me that just wanted to taste that things blood in my throat, just wanted to see the light die in its eyes, irrespective of the cost.’
    ‘And when you see it again?’ He asked simply.
    ‘I don’t know,’ I had to admit. ‘I feel . . . I feel different. Changed somehow, released almost. It’s strange now that I try to describe it, because I feel calmer and more focused that I ever have, and yet even now I feel that smouldering pit of anger burning within me, and it seems natural.’
    The Captain seemed to think about this for several moments before finally responding to me.
    ‘I’m not sure I fully understand what it is you’ve experienced Ashton, but I can see you are indeed changed, and right now that change seems to be working to our advantage,’ he said, before hesitating again. ‘I trust you’ll come to me if you start to struggle with what’s happening to you.’
    I reassured him I would, and thanked him for his understanding.
    We talked some more about the hunt for the creature, and I mentioned the scent dogs that were being brought in to try and follow the trail from the most recent murder scene, as well as from the point where the creature’s blood was discovered.
    I also asked about the repairs to the ship, but it was still obviously early days.
    It was almost time for the briefing by the time I finished talking to the Captain, so I headed back down to the lakeside.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 15 - RECRIMINATIONS
     
    I reached the briefing in good time, so had a minute or two to exchange a few words with Riley and his men while everyone else turned up. There were another seven dedicated search teams like Riley’s, many of whom I’d been introduced to when I first joined the search, but I could only remember one or two of their names. In addition to the search teams there were a dozen or so detectives and associated other police officers who were allocated to the search in other capacities, and finally Chief Wright was also there with a couple of his people and a scattering of others I guessed must be from other bits of the city’s officialdom.
    To begin with it seemed as though it was going to be much the same as several of the other meetings I’d been allowed to attend. But where I’d either been ignored or barely tolerated previously, I was now greeted and welcomed like a comrade in arms. Even the people I’d not met before came over to exchange pleasantries or introduce themselves.
    It was the same once the meeting got underway, at every turn someone wanted to know whether I agreed, or had any additional insight to offer.
    I knew it must all be related to what had happened the previous night, but whatever they now thought of me, I still viewed the evening as a failure, and a failure that could’ve so easily been a success if I hadn’t made the mistake of jumping down onto that already unstable rooftop. The more I thought about it the more idiotic I realised I’d been.
    I could’ve just stood where I was and shot the thing with every bullet I’d got, reloading until I’d run out or it had died. Or I could’ve just shot out its grip on the rooftop and let the fall to the pavement below kill it. Even if I’d just kept it pinned where it was until help and other guns arrived. . . But instead I let my anger rule me, and as a direct consequence it had gotten away.
    I realised I’d been wallowing in my own regret and ignoring the briefing that I was there for, so deliberately pulled myself together. Jenkins was part way through recapping what we knew about the creature in order to make sure everyone in the room was on the same page, but then the leader of one of the other search teams piped up with something I’d not heard before.
    ‘I don’t know if