3 letter word for embrace

Gladys lead Helen and Davis into the debris of the crumbled condo. The back of the giant’s head was facing toward them. There were several other goblins there, surveying the giant’s upper body. All of them were wearing black coats with yellow, official looking patches. Helen eyed them. Each patch had the image of a pair of goblin hands holding the letters GTG between them.

“I am not familiar with the work of the GTG, officer Mary. Enlighten me.”

“Certainly, Miss Marks,” Gladys pulled her techpad from her coat pocket. A small hologram projected out of its surface displaying the same hand logo the team around them were wearing. “GTG stands for the Goblin Tasks Group. We handle the- messier situations.”

“Messier than the Sixth Precinct?”

“We normally handle more corporate messes than anything. They are normally not as destructive as this particular case,” she paused and looked to the giant, “Normally.”

Davis suddenly let out a sneeze that jolted through his system uncontrollably.

“You alright there, Davis?” asked Helen.

“Yeah, chief, I don’t know- AHCHOOO!”

Gladys pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Davis.

He accepted. “…Thanks.” After a rather unattractive trumpet into the cloth, Davis straightened up. “I’m sorry, I have terrible allergies. I don’t sneeze like that unless there’s wild flora around.”

“There a plant here?” ask Helen.

Gladys nodded toward the giant. “This way.” She led the two over to the head of the giant. “His face.”

Helen and Davis leaned walked around to the front of the giant’s head. Helen’s nose crinkled in disgust. Davis sneezed again.

The giant’s face laid there, mouth agape, eyes open. Or at least one eye was open. The other eye had exploded out of its socket and a large, wilted Venus fly trap of a plant was in its place. The roots crawled out of the giant’s nose and between his teeth. A terrible stench came forth from the plant.

“That thing is dead, right? Have you removed the spore sac?”

“Yes, Miss Marks. My team has already terminated this flora and the poisonous sac has been extracted.”

Davis sneezed. “Extracted? Did you take it somewhere?”

“The GTG is interested in studying the effects of the spores. We’ve taken it to our labs.”

“The effects of the spores?” snapped Helen, “The effects are that they kill people!”

“That is not always true, Miss Marks. Sometimes they only cause nausea, headaches, or in Mr. Lee’s case, they cause unvolatile-“

“AH-CHOO!”

“If I’m still sneezing, does that mean the spores are still present?”

“Trace amounts, Mr. Lee. Nothing lethal.” Gladys displayed her techpad and tapped the hologram. Another image came into view. It was a projection of the giant’s head. It began to slowly spin and as it turned, it depicted the flora sprouting out of the giant’s eye. “We suspect that the victim unfortunately missed the sprite he was trying to catch. The sprite landed on the victim’s eyelashes and began to take root. The roots quickly spread into his head and killed him.” The projection disappeared and Gladys put her techpad away. “It was a quick death and according to the scans it would have been rather painless.”

Helen leaned in closer to the giant’s eye. “Painless? The sprite was being merciful?”

“It’s doubtful that the sprite had anything to do with the quickness of the giant’s death. Record shows that 50% of the sprites that fall are already dead in the air. 45% are unconscious and only 5% have ever been found to be aware in the morning.”

“5%?” asked Helen. “Where do you get your information?”

“The GTG has been at this for a while now, Miss Marks. Much of our data was classified.” Gladys turned to the giant. “As I was saying the victim missed the sprite-“

“What was his name?” asked Davis.

Gladys paused. She glanced at her techpad. “Victor Un’Gryphon. 89 years of age.”

“That’s still rather young for a giant,” noted Davis.

“Most giants his age have a hard time finding decent work,” stated Gladys, “My sources say that he got his job via his only living relative. An aunt.”

“Officer Mary, I would like to know why you needed to speak to my partner and I,” said Helen, “Your team seems to have the situation completely under control.”

Gladys turned to them. “Don’t you think it’s strange that you’d be called out to a crime scene involving giants and sprites considering your personal record, Miss Marks?”

Helen crossed her arms. “What do you know?”

“I know enough, Miss Marks,” replied Gladys, “I had to make a few calls to your department to get you sent out here this early in the morning to get to on a crime scene that you would normally be forbidden to even glance over the report of.”

“Damn- she’s got you, chief.”

“Give it to me straight, Mary.”

Gladys smiled. “Perhaps if you’d both follow me to my car, we could discuss this further?”

Davis glanced at Helen. She sighed and rolled her eyes as she nodded toward the tiny goblin in from of them.

“Splendid! This way please! My associates will take care of the mess.”

Gladys then walked away from the giant’s corpse. Helen and Davis followed. Davis sneezed one last time before the GTG team began to torch the flora and the body.

“What’s big enough to kill a giant?”

“Was that a pun, Hel?”

“Heh, shh, they’ll hear you.”

Helen Marks and Davis Lee approached the crime scene. A large corpse laid over a collapsed two story home. Its leg bargained the main road. A pleasant traffic jam was being redirected into side streets by several police officers.

“Damage report?”

Davis pulled out his techpad and a small digital hologram projected out. “Alright, chief. At 5:45am, the owner came home from a night of ‘leisure.’ At 5:46am he was unlocking his front door when the giant fell onto his condo, destroying it and-“

“It crushed my car!!” shrieked a disheveled man in party-stained business attire. “What are you going to do about my car!?”

“Sir, your car is private property, the public is not required to reimburse you for lost property,” replied a policewoman in the calmest voice she could muster.

“But that thing- that giant is under some government jurisdiction, isn’t it?! It was doing whatever job the big guys want it to do!”

“Sir, I’m going to ask you to remain calm.”

“This is bullshit! That giant doesn’t have the common sense to look where it’s falling?!”

“He died, sir. He could not control where he fell.”

“Who the hell are you anyway? Are you even human?” The man yanked the officer’s hat off her head revealing her long, pointed ears tucked away inside. “An elf!? Fuck this! Why am I even talking to you!” He threw his intoxicated body toward her, thrashing about like a spoil child. The policewoman coolly stepped to the side and let him fall. “ARGH HELL!”

Helen placed her hand on the policewoman’s shoulder. “We’ll take it from here, officer.”

“Please do.” She turned and left.

Davis tried to help the man up. “Sir, I’m officer Davis Lee with the Sixth Precinct, this is my partner, Helen Marks. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

The man shoved off Davis’ hand but soon found it was harder to stand without it. “Yeah, so- what do you want? Are you going to replace my car?”

“You don’t have insurance?”

“Yes, but I hadn’t registered this car with the company. Just got it yesterday- after I was promoted.”

“But before you went out to celebrate?” asked Helen.

“Yeah, so I went out for a couple of drinks.” Mr. Beck eyed Helen’s figure pasted her leather jacket and jeans. “How about you and me get a few drinks? It’ll make me feel a whole lot better.”

“Just trying to get a feel for the situation, mister-“

“Carlyle. Carlyle Beck.”

“Did you know this giant personally, Mr. Beck?” asked Davis.

“Of course not. Why would I?”

“So you’ve never seen him before today?”

“No… Maybe? I don’t know, they walk around every morning doing a job, right? Catchin’ the sprites out of the air or something before they hit the ground? I’ve seen them in the morning if the big oaf wakes me with its goddammit feet.”

“The giants provide a much needed service, Mr. Beck.” stated Helen. “If they didn’t patrol the streets of suburban neighborhoods like yours, the sprites would land and start sprouting out flora like you wouldn’t believe.”

“I think I’d rather deal with a couple of daisies than have my home and car smashed!”

“It really wouldn’t be much different, Mr. Beck.”

“Well, you know, they’re just letting everything that can speak two words together right have a job in human districts nowadays. It’s isn’t right.”

“Miss Marks?”

Helen looked over her shoulder. There was no one.

“Look down, chief.”

Helen looked down and was greeted by a rather short creature with pale green skin, large, crooked ears and large eyes. “Hello, Miss Marks, I’m Galdys Mary. I’m with GTG and I believe I have some interesting information for your investigation.”

“Fuck this! A goblin now? They’ll let anyone through-“

“Mr. Beck?” Helen turned to the drunk and eyed him up. “I think you’re done here. Please be quiet and leave.”

“This’s my house! I’ll stay here and shout if I goddammit feel like it! All these dammed things running around my house! I demand justice, you harpy!”

“I’m surprised you were insightful enough to figure that out.”

Mr. Beck’s mouth fell slightly agape. He looked Helen up and down. “You- you’re a half-breed?”

“On my mother’s side. Goodbye, Mr. Beck.”

Helen turned and walked away with Gladys. Davis leaned over and gently closed Mr. Beck’s mouth. “Have a good one, sir!” He said, almost a little too happily before he turned and caught up with Helen.