War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (11 page)

"We have work to do Ulisse," Donnchadh said
before he had the chance to ask him why he was here.

"We just got back Donnchadh. What is there to
possibly do?" he slumped. "We usually get a couple of weeks off
between missions."

Donnchadh folded his arms. "We take time off
when it's permitted. Right now we get to go kill the Queen. Is that
something that you want to turn down?"

"How much time do we have before we go?"
Ulisse nearly jumped in excitement.

"We have three days before we depart Erebos,
preferably sooner if you're able to work quickly. Kirill has
already arranged everything for the mission." He unfolded his arms.
"You need to make a poison that is undetectable and will show
natural causes of death."

"Three days and natural symptoms," he
muttered. "How are we delivering this to the Queen exactly?"

"There will be someone on the inside. All we
have to do is get in undetected. After that we get out of the
Palace and back to the ship to wait for confirmation, which won't
take very long if you choose something that acts quickly."

"Okay, so that means the hard part will be
getting in. Or let me rephrase that, close to
impossible
. Do
you know how much security there is at the Palace?"

"Not as impossible as you would think,"
Donnchadh held up his hand. "Remember, I used to work for the Queen
and I know her home very well. On top of my experience, we have
Kirill's, which is much better than mine. He is providing us with a
updated layout that has all the secret passageways marked on
it."

"Nice, Donnchadh," he said, nodding his
head.

"We get it in and out undetected. We kill
nobody
but
the Queen."

"Quick, silent, and almost simple. Sounds
like a good plan."

Donnchadh nodded. "We both know it won't be
that simple, but we're planning on simplicity. I chose Sanguinarius
to come along with us as backup just in case things do go
haywire."

"We haven't failed a mission together yet and
we won't start now."

"That's right. We won't start now," Donnchadh
hesitated. "I'm going to let Sanguinarius know that we're leaving
in three days to go to Hera."

"Alright. I'm going to go to start creating a
the poison for the Queen," He turned around and went to his lab
bench.

Donnchadh watched as he started pouring
liquids into beakers and set up racks and tubes to create his
poison. He didn't understand any of that stuff and that only made
him respect Ulisse that much more for his masterful
concoctions.

He turned around and left the room so Ulisse
could make his poison without any further distractions. He slowly
made his way down the hall to tell Sanguinarius that he would be
coming along on the mission too. Sanguinarius wouldn't be too happy
that he was more of backup, just in case things went wrong, but he
wouldn't turn a mission like this down, just like Donnchadh himself
hadn't turned it down.

Abdul paced back and forth across his chamber
with his arms crossed behind his back. He had called the Council
together the other day and had encouraged them that having the
Queen's daughter brought back would be the best thing for Hera.
Some had disagreed at first when they found out her daughter hadn't
really died, but they all eventually came through and agreed.

He had counted on the Council's persuasion to
get the Queen to bring her daughter here, but he hadn't counted on
her not knowing where to find her. The hope had been that she had
known all along or that Armino had left an easy clue somewhere; but
he should've known Armino would never be so easy.

Abdul continued to pace back and forth across
his room, frustrated that he didn't know where the Queen's daughter
was and there was no way for him to find out. He would go the
Adira's chambers later and ask her if she had found anything, but
now he had to contact the Gaean authorities so they could pick up
Anlon.

He twiddled his fingers until a blue
holographic image appeared in front of him. "Hassental District
Police. How may I help you?"
"My name is Abdul Hakim. I am on the Queen's Council. There has
recently been a murder of a family whose last name is Valens and I
needed to know if you could get me in touch with someone working on
the case."

"One moment please," The officer said, typing
something on a computer. "Okay. There are two officers working on
this case, but I'll put you in touch with Giustino Ignace. He's the
Chief here at the station and has more experience than the other
officer on the case."

"Alright thank you."

"I'm sending his contact information to you
right now so you can contact him directly," The figure was silent a
moment. "It's on its way to you now. You should be able to contact
him. If you have any problems, just give me a call back."

"I will," Abdul said, terminating the
connection.

He entered the number that had just been sent
to his comlink and tried to relax.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Giustino
asked.

"I am told that you are the one in charge on
the Valens case?"

The blue figure nodded his head. "I am. Who
is asking?"

"I'm Abdul Hakim. The Queen has given me the
job of making sure that the surviving son makes his way to
Hera."

"Oh, Anlon. Why does she want to see
him?"

Abdul make a clicking noise with his mouth.
"She says she has questions for him."
"We have full reports that we can send you. He didn't tell us very
much because he doesn't know very much. It would be a waste of time
and effort to send him there."

"Yes, I know about the reports," he said,
irritably. "I have already told her he doesn't know much, but she
still insists."

"Why does she want to see him personally?
Does she know him?"

"No, not the boy, but his father she knew
well. The two of them were very close from time growing up
together. She made a promise to take care of his family in case
anything happened to him," He took a breath. "So besides trying to
get more out of him, she wants to protect him."

"I can assure you that there is nothing more
to get out of him. We've tried and he said he knows nothing more
than what I typed in the report."

Abdul pursed his lips. "Maybe not
everything
. The report shows he lied about some things that
could be vital to finding the killers. I'm not saying he does know,
in fact, I don't think he does. The Queen doesn't want to leave any
stones unturned though, and has ordered to see him."

"You know, the machines are wrong sometimes.
He saw a lot of things that night and he probably heard a lot too,
but like he said in the interview, so much was happening there was
no way he could remember it all," He shook his head. "Hell, I don't
blame the kid. I wouldn't have remembered half of the stuff that he
told us if something like that had happened to me."

"I'm with you Giustino, but the Queen has
requested that he be sent here. He w
ill
be sent here. This
is not a debate and I have spoken enough to you about it."

"Alright we can get him there. How soon do
you need him?"
"Immediately."

"Immediately?" Giustino repeated.

"The Queen doesn't want to wait," he nodded.
"Is that going to be a problem for you?"

"No. It's just that transportation will have
to be arranged and that could take some time."

"Transportation has already left Hera and
will be arriving tomorrow. I want him on that ship and here no
later than tomorrow. That gives you plenty of time to encourage him
to come see the Queen."

"He'll be there."

"I'm counting on you Giustino. The Queen is
also counting on you to get Armino's son here," He lowered his
comlink. "Tomorrow."

Giustino leaned back in his chair and put his
feet on his desk. Why did she want to see Anlon in person? Did she
really think she was going to get answers out of him? Or had he
been waiting for her call, intentionally holding back vital
information from them?

It bothered him that Anlon could be lying
about how much he really knew. He didn't have much of a choice in
this though, the Queen had ordered it. Intentionally not sending
Anlon against the Queen's orders would be treason and he wasn't
about to be charged with that.

This case kept taking turn after turn and he
was getting nowhere with it, though he couldn't get rid of the
feeling that someone else was. It had looked very promising at
first, but with no planet or names it was going to be unsolvable.
With the line of work Armino had been in, it was impossible for any
regular law enforcement to find those guys and track them down. But
the Queen, and all the contacts she had, she could easily catch
these guys given a few more pieces of information.

Anlon awoke to loud banging on his front door
and rolled over to look at the time - 6:00 a.m. Who could possibly
be at the door at this time in the morning? He swung his feet over
the side of the bed and groggily put some clothes on while walking
to the door. The banging got louder on his way down.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he shouted.

He pulled the door open and took a step back,
unsure of who he was going to see in the doorway.

"We need to talk," Moran pushed his way in.
"Are you here alone?"

"Of course I am," Anlon shut the door and
turned to him with a confused look on his face. "Why are you
here?"

"I held some things back from you the other
day because I didn't know whether I should tell you everything," he
answered. "I've had a change of heart since then."

"I figured you'd come to your senses and help
me out." Anlon grinned.

"Don't push it kid," Moran warned. "I was
afraid you would do something stupid the other day because you're
so much like your father. So instead of letting you do something
stupid on your own, I decided I'm going to help you do something
stupid. That at least gives you some chance of living."
"What makes you think I'd do something stupid?"

"Your Dad talked enough about you for me to
know what you'd do if I gave you any information regarding
Donnchadh."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I
wouldn't have done anything foolish."

"Really? You want to play this game Anlon?"
Moran glared.

"I don't know what game you're talking
about," Anlon persisted.

"Why else would you keep information from the
police? Why else would you come to my apartment to find out more
information?" Anlon started to respond, but Moran held up his hand.
"Do you want my help or not?"

"Yes I want your help."

"I thought you might," he nodded. "Before any
of that though, I think you should know about Donnchadh. You were
right to think that this wasn't a random murder. Your father and I
knew Donnchadh. We knew him very well, to tell you the truth."

"How?" Anlon asked.

"Let me start from the very beginning."