BOOK 1:THE BEGINNING:CHAPTER LII:TRUTHFUL FINDINGS

At noontime, the sun was still shinning radiantly on one side of the cityscape whilst the other remained in partial darkness when Sermond and his small group of investigators arrived at the central hospital building in a taxi cab where Pennant had paid a visit to see the NAS agent a week ago back before the incident of the two murders was broadcasted on every channel on live television. the time on Leonardo's wristwatch was already reading thirty minutes past four pm in the late afternoon by the time the taxi driver dropped them off at the medical center instead of being transported in their own car and he parked the car by the roadside after a two hours drive from Sermond's mansion.
None of his three escorts had disputed Sermond's decision to keep a low profile by using the city's public transportation to convey himself and the other three escorts to ensure that he would likely succeed in getting the desired results. His eagerness to find out firsthand if his unproven suspicion was correct had compelled him to be the first to come down from the taxi on the sidewalk follwed by his son alongside Simon and then, Pennant who was the last to get out of the taxi from the back seat to where three men had stood waiting for Simon to pay the taxi cab for his services.
"Here you go, old timer",
Simon said taking out some cash to the cab driver from his black wallet and he gave it to the driver after selecting some dollar notes to pay for the fare but his fingers seemed rather feverish to get the money outside and the others including Sermond were getting a impatient with his sluggishness.
"Give me that, will you?",
The driver snarled as he snatched the cash from Simon's fingers. Then he retracted himself back to his front seat with his left hand back to the steering wheel while his right hand kept the money inside one of his pockets and ignited the car engine leaving Simon in shock before driving away to pick up another customer around the area.
Simon took a minute to recover from the surprise and looked bewildered at the others standing next to him including Sermond who did not waste another minute to see his open mouth gaped in astonishment upon the realization that the driver took more than half of his money meant to pay the bills for the road transit to the hospital.
"Let's go inside",
Sermond ordered putting his right hand inside his right pocket as he walked away leading the others who followed behind towards the door of the hospital building, not too concerned about the sunlight bearing hard on their faces as they trekked to the door where other people kept coming in and out of the gigantic building. They were careful enough not to expose who they were by wearing fancy clothes particularly Sermond who wore a grey unbuttoned overcoat exposing his straight black pants and white top. Pennant clad himself in his usual black suit and black lace up shoes while Leonardo as well as Simon, cloaked themselves with the simplest outfit they could find in their closet to match their purposeful intentions of visiting the hospital with distinct pairs of shoes covering their feet.
A fairly large number of people were already being attended to by a few of the younger doctors as well as some nurses taking care of admitted patients on rehab by the time they joined those already inside the first floor of the building
well ventilated with a lot of fresh air coming out from the air vents on the ceilings above every one's head in the room which sparkled with the mixture of bright light emanating from the electronic lights as well as the daylight radiating into the evenly spaced compartment through the transparent glass covering the windows together with some sections of the wall on the left flank of the room.
Sermond was pleased that those following behind were not too emotionally distracted by the little group of handicapped victims they saw being rolled around on wheelchairs by the nurses while they waited for their leader to get the intel they need to see the surgeon who performed the surgery including the autopsy from the hospital attendant who was also a nurse on receptionist duties and he was quick to receive directions from the young lady to venture to the elevator which will take them to the sixteenth floor of the building. The nurse peered suspiciously at Leonardo as they left the counter but he ignored her intuition with him strolling ahead of Pennant followed by Simon. Sermond was the last one to leave and he had to make sure the others had gone ahead before he could join them.
"Thanks for your help",
Sermond appreciated the nurse and walked away to the hallway that led him to the elevator with the others ahead of him.
As they approach the elevator, Simon felt the need to let out his doubts about the whole situation which he had heard himself from the Alpha's son at yesterday's meeting at the underground crypt below the abandoned Cathedral.
He shifted closer to Leonardo with his back facing Sermond who was still a long way off from the them than Pennant who was a bit closer enough to listen to what he had to say about their efforts.
"I seriously doubt that this is the handwork of our clan",
"I know that, Simon. That's why we are here to confirm if indeed the victim was attacked by a werewolf and so far, we are the only wolfs hiding in this city disguised as humans",
"I think this would definitely cause another rift between us and Lyoana if they are in involve in this",
Simon replied with one hand tucked inside his left pocket and he stopped as soon as they arrived at the elevator which opened wide by itself and the trios entered immediately.
They waited patiently for Sermond to catch with faces turned facing him and the duo quietly resumed their conversation.
"A rift will inevitably lead to war once the Vampires are confirmed to be the mastermind behind these two attacks",
"Unless this is just a case of a serial killer on the loose, I'm sure your father believes the Lyoana are responsible for this one",
"I understand what you mean. He knows that we can't afford to have any more murders that perpetrated by a werewolf",
"You got that, right",
"It would risk exposing us to every human being",
"Then I guess you better be careful henceforth because you'd be the first to be caught since both incidents happened in your school",
"What?",
Leonardo questioned but Simon was refrained from speaking when Sermond entered into the elevator. He quickly pushed the button indicating the sixteenth floor and shifted a bit further away from the elevator door which closed automatically before ascending up the building. They were patient enough to wait for the lift to climb up the building for fifteen minutes till it eventually arrived at their destination. With the Alpha in front, the group left the elevator into the sixteenth floor and wandered off into another bright hallway where some nurses kept walking in and out of the wards on both sides of the lengthy corridor.
For a quick reminder of whom they were looking for, Sermond asked a young male nurse whom they coincidentally meet along the hallway where they could find the forensic scientist who performed the autopsy of one of the victims and he waa showed the last ward by the left up ahead of them.
Sermond and his group finally got there following up the nurse's instructions only to find out that it was actually the morgue the male nurse had shown to them but the ward wasn't housing lifeless corpses like the men had expected it to be. The entire interior was cleaned up and lacked the stench of bad blood when they walked inside to check out if the surgical surgeon was somewhere inside.
Sermond was the first to see him staring, with his arms folded, at a television screen hung on the opposite wall facing him which displays some x-rays pictures of the victims internal wounds including that of the man who was already dead before his corpse was taken to the hospital, inside another room. A glass frame protected the inner room from them and they moved closer to get a better look at the images displayed on the screen.
Oblivious to the presence of the four men, the surgeon remotely kept sliding the all the pictures on the screen which he himself had taken from the body of the two victims with a digital camera of his own when both victims were brought to the hospital since their wounds were said to be fatally larger than normal. Sermond fixed his eyes on the screen till a particular photo of the fresjh injuries sustained by the first victim the very first time he was moved here after the incident occurred. He as well as those with him, could see the terrifying claw marks on the side of the arms which was gushing out blood and his neck largely chewed on one side by the assailant that laced the basketball player with a deeper bite mark that almost severed his throat while his a whole part of his attire was roughly torn up to expose some minor bruises laced on the abdominal region of his body.
They were aghast to see the terrible wounds the victims had sustained when he was rushed to hospital, even Leonardo who had first recognized the victim and had seen what happened to him was still highly horrified to look at the fatal wounds once again.
"He's the guy I told you about, dad",
He managed to speak after several minutes of silence. Sermond heard him but refused to speak out his thoughts just yet and kept on reading the wounds with a bit of more curiosity to decipher what on earth had inflicted such deadly wounds to the human He knew at first glance that it was of no doubt that the attack on this first victim was done by a werewolf and that his son was right when he told him about the two incidents though he was still yet to confirm the second.