As they were gathering their gear, preparing to leave, Irin reached back to the desk to pick up a book when his hands touched something soft.
He wondered why the surface of the desk felt soft when suddenly, something on the desk blinked its eyes.
Irin yelped and jumped back.
"What in the name of-!"
The others turned and quickly reached for their weapons. They looked around the room for any sign of an intruder.
"What is it? What did you see?" Cassian asked, positioning himself in a combat-ready stance.
Irin pointed a trembling finger at the desk next to the book. As they watched, the deep reddish-brown color of the desk changed into a scaly gray, emerald-green color.
A large chameleon sat there, staring at Irin.
They all sighed in relief when they saw the cause of Irin's sudden panic.
Violet burst out laughing, leaning against the board. Even Edmund chuckled, shaking his head.
"It's just a chameleon, Irin."
Levi, who had been watching the whole show, let out a sharp whistle. The chameleon scurried up his arm with speed before settling on his shoulder and shifting its color to match the mottled brown of his cloth.
Cassian walked over and tapped Irin on his shoulder as if he knew what Irin was thinking.
"Don't let the size fool you. That's no ordinary chameleon. Levi is a Beast Tamer, and he's pushed his little pet through a quick-evolution process. Their minds are linked."
"Of all the beasts in the world," Irin thought, wiping sweat from his forehead, "and it turns out to be a chameleon? You're a beast tamer, and you chose a garden lizard?"
"Linked? Irin asked in surprise.
"Yes," Cassian continued. "Levi sees what the chameleon sees and senses what it senses," Cassian explained.
"If we need to hear a conversation through a keyhole or track a target without being spotted, we send the chameleon. It's the fastest chameleon ever known. It's capable of climbing any surface and, as you just discovered, can blend into its surroundings unnoticed. It goes where we cannot. It's our best spy."
"If that little thing is in a room, Levi knows the color of the target's eyes and the number of times their heart beats before they even know they're being watched," Cassian explained.
Levi patted the creature's head with his finger. "Its name is Gizmo. It's better than any hound. And it's a lot quieter. He'll probably be watching you on your first case, Irin. Just to see how you'll be doing."
Edmund quietly walked towards one of the tallest shelves in the room. With the help of a ladder, he climbed to a section of the shelf and pulled out a stack of files.
He walked back to the desk, dropped the files, and laid them out in a straight line on the desk.
"The rules are simple, Irin," Edmund said. He didn't look up from the last file as he adjusted it by a fraction of a millimeter.
"On the desk are different unsolved case files. From these, you will choose. Whichever one your hand lands on will be your first case."
Edmund stepped back to join the semi-circle of the other senior detectives. Cassian, Levi, and Violet all exchanged their gaze from Irin to the files on the desk.
"The floor is yours," Edmund pointed out.
Irin stepped forward and stood before the desk. He looked at the six files placed before him. Six files, all with different possibilities.
He squeezed his eyes shut and trusted his instinct to choose for him. Irin let his hands drift across the files for some seconds before his fingers finally settled on one file.
"Open your eyes," Edmund commanded.
Irin's eyelid slowly opened. His hand rested firmly on the third file from the left. He pulled his hand back and stepped a few inches back.
"Read the file code," Edmund said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Irin cleared his throat and read aloud.
"File code 206."
The other three reacted with surprise. They all gasped at the same time.
"What? Not that case file," Violet uttered.
Levi laughed so hard that his eyes almost turned red.
"Of all the files in this godforsaken world, he chose that one?" Levi choked out.
"File 206? Are you joking? Irin, you've picked one of the hardest cases that has buried every lead we've had for fourteen months. None of us has been able to solve that case."
Irin's blood ran cold.
"What?" he blurted out.
He flipped the cover page and saw the bold, handwritten title written on the front page.
CASE NO. 206: THE STRANGE CASE OF A SKIN THIEF.
"What does that even mean? Irin asked in confusion.
"You read that right. Yes, the strange case of a skin thief. You're dealing with someone, or maybe something that steals people's skin," Violet explained.
Irin flipped the front page, and the top corner of the next page was the: FIRST EVIDENCE.
Pinned to the first page was a small brown envelope containing a piece of what looked like dried paper. But as Irin leaned closer, he realized with horror that it wasn't paper at all.
It was a piece of human skin.
"The piece of skin you're seeing was found in the bedroom of a high-ranking merchant. Someone skinned him alive. The only skin we could find on him is the one you're looking at," Edmund pointed out.
"The skin thief hadn't taken his gold or his valuables. The thief skinned him as one skins a rabbit, leaving only the muscles and innards of the man."
"You wonder why this particular case was hard to solve?" Edmund continued, pacing in a small circle around the desk.
"Every time we tracked a lead to a suspect, we always found the suspect dead before we got to them. We don't even know what the Skin thief looks like, and that makes the entire case difficult."
"Don't worry, you'll be given a book that details the little we know about this skin thief to guide your first case."
Edmund dropped a book and a compass on the table.
"This compass is the Philosopher's compass," Edmund explained.
"Whenever you come into close range with the skin thief, the compass needle will point you in its direction. Be careful… for the Skin Thief you sought might be anybody."