sketchier, but it is commonly said that a single well made Doll completely destroyed the organization.
"The other Mob families and larger gangs listened up after that. The whole affair gave quite a bit of leverage for future Dollmakers and also opened up a new market for the less scrupulous ones. Now it's fairly common practice for a Dollmaker to send a Doll to the major players in an area when they are moving in. Either to tell them that they are around, to get out, or to offer their services. Most of the larger organizations have had some kind of dealing with Dolls before though they won't really know what they are. They warn off anyone else. It helps us control the amount and kind of attention we get which is paramount for a Dollmaker. We don't tell the police or others that we are here because most of you tend to bring the kind of attention we are trying to avoid. Close scrutiny."
"As far as this situation specifically, I assumed that word of Dolls coming into town has been around, since you were investigating it. That probably reached the criminal element as well. They might even have heard that two fighting Dollmakers were coming in and that would send most people packing quickly. Though most of the lower and mid-level guys will have no idea why."
Morgan felt doubt's cold fingers on the back of his neck. Major gangs and mobs were afraid of these things and he was sticking himself in the middle of two of them. He glanced over at Mei-mei's innocent figure on her stool.
A moment of amusement wormed it's way through his foreboding apprehension. He had the been the only one willing to look for them, and now one of the 'Dolls' he had been looking so hard for was sitting here helping look over the materials that had led him to try and find her. She was far from what he had expected to find, and perhaps even more dangerous.
Mei-mei was fully repaired and looked from every angle and distance just like a little girl. There was no wood grain on her face, or strange creases in her wrists or joints. There was not a single screw or nail to be seen. Just a little girl in a blue dress, with jet black hair and unnaturally pale blue, pupil-less eyes. Morgan had stared when he first arrived, enough so that Arthur reluctantly explained why she looked so human. Though part of it was clever construction, paint and skill, each doll is covered by something called the “Illusion of Life”. It was what made the dolls look, move and appear to be, alive. It was what hid the grain of the wood and made the neck appear to have skin that stretched as she turned her head. While she was being repaired, the illusion was weakened. Now fully repaired she was indistinguishable from a real girl but for the eyes, which Arthur was proud to say was common for him. If not for things that he occasionally included to be different no one could tell they were dolls. At least until they spoke or moved.
“Yeah.” Morgan cleared his throat and came back to the task at hand. “We plotted on the map all the violent incidences that could be connected. A lot of them are in the gang turfs coming out of this industrial area, but there have been pockets of violence and isolated incidences all over the city. It's one of the reasons that most of the task force is working on the turf war angle.
“Most of it seems to centre on this area here, but almost all activity there stopped after the first week.” he jabbed an area near the middle off all the red dots. “But there was nothing to find there, old buildings no one is using, all the drug dealers are gone and it was kind of neutral Gang territory as far as organized crime knows.
“The rest of the crimes have spread out over the city, a lot of them coincide with industrial thefts, though there has been a rise in thefts both with and without violence. All in all there isn't a lot of cohesion in the crimes, so everyone assumed that the thefts and the 'gang violence' weren't directly related.”
“That makes sense, from the businesses in these areas.” Arthur pointed to the outlying pattern of thefts and attacks. “And the items stolen, he is gathering materials. Likely sending his current doll out to gather materials without any instruction to avoid people. Actually knowing him he probably told her to eliminate witnesses, as I said she shares his violent streak.” As he concentrated on the map, Mei-mei was mostly hanging off the table top by leaning over her elbows that were soundly planted on it, toes barely touching the stool. Morgan found it disturbing to see her act so much like a little girl when she acted so oddly at other times.
“Materials for what?” Morgan asked.
“For Dolls obviously.” Arthur responded. “What else would a Dollmaker need materials for? Looks like he is trying to incorporate some newer materials. Fibre glass; dense plastics, and a few alloys and other materials that need some heavy equipment, so he can't just make them. Hmmm, I wonder how those would work.” His gaze wandered, seeing nothing as he got lost in thought. “Work well at the start I suppose, but repair and replacement would be a ridiculous pain and just fabricating the shapes...”
“Arthur!” Morgan snapped his fingers in front of the man. “What about the initial centralized violence?”
“What?” The thin man jumped a little. “Oh ummm, he is probably working out of that area. With the materials he is stealing he is going to need some kind of machine shop or industrial fabrication equipment.” He double checked the list of materials stolen as he talked. “He either let his, rather temperamental, Doll get bored or as I mentioned earlier it's fairly common practice to rid the area of unwanted attention. Each Dollmaker has their own idea of how to achieve it, but overall we prefer to stay quiet and unobtrusive. A lot of people get uncomfortable with what we can do.”
“I can't imagine why.” Morgan mumbled. “I think there is a machine shop in the area.” He leaned over the map , shuffling over to adjust his view while he rifled through old memories. “Right here there is a small business that was actually a mechanics garage, but it had a machine shop, or at least a lot of the tools for it. They used to machine all new parts or actually go out of their way to 'fix' broken things rather than just replace them. Most of their tools were old and fixed in place so they left them when they moved.” Morgan marked the building location on the map. It was almost perfectly centreed amongst all the violence.
“What happened to them?” Morgan jumped as Mei-mei's voice came from right beside his elbow. He hadn't realized he had gotten so close to her little stool. “The family with the shop?” She specified when he didn't answer.
“The business got going really well and they moved to a larger city if I remember correctly.” She was listening with rapt attention, and he considered her carefully as he answered her question. “They got a bigger place with a whole new set of tools I believe.”
“Interesting. So this was good for them?” She queried with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah I guess so.” Morgan replied hesitantly.
“That is...” she stopped to think about the word “good, to hear Officer Morgan.” She went back to leaning over the map on her hands and kicking her small feet up, tapping her toes back down onto the stool one at a time.
He couldn't quite get used to the fact that the little girl beside him wasn't real. He had seen her with her head disconnected from her body and knew she was made from wood and glass and a variety of other things. Sometimes though she moved and acted just like a curious little girl. She rarely spoke like one, which made her questions and comments just that much more disturbing. More and more often he found the need to stop and remind himself that he had seen her viciously attack another doll just the other night, smashing her opponent's leg to bits with a mace. He did that now and it brought a frightening question to the front of his mind.
“Arthur, why did Mei-mei and the other doll use older style weapons instead of guns? They are clearly smart enough to use them.” Morgan asked and unconsciously checked his sidearm as he did so. A shiver ran through him at the thought of one of the nearly indestructible Dolls wielding an assault rifle.
“That is a very good question. They are smart enough but for some reason there is some disconnect with a Doll's understanding of just how they work.” Arthur surveyed the building marked on the map, interrupting his response b
riefly. “That sounds like the most likely place to find him if it has the facilities you claim.
“Anyways, every Doll is different. They have different abilities, but though most can be said to throw fairly accurately I've never seen one that can operate a gun with any dependability. They can't even really use a bow and arrow properly though at least with that they remember to knock a new arrow. Most of the time they don't have the reach, or the weight to use either properly. Even when they do use a gun they shoot wildly, rarely hitting anything at all, then forget that it is more than a hunk of metal when they run out of bullets. I think it has something to do with the number of subconscious systems involved. Never let one drive either.”
“Good to know I don't have to worry about guns at least. As for the driving thing, I will file that bit of information away in my 'advice I will likely never need to use' drawer.” Morgan couldn't help but put a healthy dose of sarcasm into the remark, trying to hide just how much relief the answer had given him.
“You never know” Arthur responded in a sing song voice before bringing the conversation back to their purpose there. “We need to move quickly. Sooner or later someone is going to notice the