War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (7 page)

Giustino smiled. "Sounds like a great idea. I
was about to suggest the exact same thing. I worked all night on
the case and I haven't gotten any further."
"I'm ready to go," She stood up. "What are we waiting for?"

Moran turned a walked out the door. "This our
last option to get anything else on the case. If Moran is a dead
end, we're stuck until a miracle happens."

"He has to know something," She jogged to
keep up with him.

Kanti could tell that Moran was in a big
hurry because when they passed his office she saw that he still
hadn't gone inside. She didn't blame him since he had been up late
working on the case, she just hoped that this Moran guy could
actually help them out. If not, maybe all hope was lost for the
case.

She entered the elevator and stood next to
Giustino silently as they descended down to the first floor of the
station. Giustino quickly got off and briskly made his way towards
the parking garage with Kanti trying her best to keep up. The
circular door recognized the sensor that was embedded on the strip
of Giustino's I.D. and automatically opened.

He took a right as he went through the door
with Kanti right on his heels, not wanting to slow him down. She
stopped on the passenger side of his metallic silver coupe and
waited for him to unlock the doors. It was a much more elegant car
than her piece of junk, but she knew that she would be able to
afford something like this eventually, maybe even a cruiser if she
was lucky.

When she heard the door unlock she pressed
her four fingertips on the sensors of the door and it quickly
responded, opening straight up for her to enter.

Giustino glanced over to Kanti. "Tell my
mapping system the address to Moran's place of residence."

"1575 Woodburn Lane."

"Now mapping together a route to 1575
Woodburn Lane," The car responded.

Before the mapping system had finished
creating the route for Giustino, he was already pulling out of the
parking garage. The entire ride to the city was accompanied by
silence. Kanti was eager to talk, but she wasn't sure that Giustino
felt the same way, so she kept quiet.

After entering the main city where Moran
lived, Kanti looked around confused at what she saw laying before
her. The whole city seemed to be falling apart. People lay sleeping
in the streets and drug deals were going on out in the open for
everybody to see. She didn't understand why there weren't officers
patrolling this city, but opted not to ask Giustino since he was in
charge of the District.

As Giustino neared a huge one hundred story
tall apartment building, the mapping system alerted him that he had
arrived at his destination. He stopped the car and looked out the
window then over to Kanti.

"Are you sure this is the right address
Kanti? The building looks like it has been abandoned since Exodus
Era."

Kanti looked down at her notepad. "It's the
address that came up on the database. Unless the database was
wrong, this is the place."

Giustino nodded his head and opened his door.
"If that's what was in the database, then we're at the right
place."

Both officers approached the building and
entered through the broken door. Giustino looked around to see if
there was anyone that could help them, but all he saw were broken
tiles, chandeliers, and glass scattered all over the floor.

He heard a crunching of glass to his right.
"Could I help you find someone?"

"We're looking for a Moran Borislav," Kanti
responded to the robot that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Floor fifty-two. Room two forty-seven," The
robot replied without hesitation.

Giustino went towards one of the five
elevators that were directly in front of them and pressed the call
button. They both entered and Kanti pressed the floor. The elevator
lurched up to the fifty-second floor of the old, beat up, building.
Kanti was the first to exit when they had reached their floor.

She pointed to the left. "Let's start this
way. I don't see any directions on the walls."

Kanti took the lead down the hall and within
a minute she was staring at room two forty-seven. Giustino knocked
on the door and took a step back. The door opened and a large man
filled the doorway.

"How can I help you officers today?" The man
asked.

Giustino cleared his throat. "Are you Moran
Borislav?"

"Yes, that's me. What can I do for you?"

"I'm Officer Giustino and this is Officer
Kanti," he motioned. "We just wanted to ask you some questions
pertaining to the recent death of Armino Valens. It is to our
knowledge that you were close to Armino and we thought that you
could help us."

Moran moved aside and put his arm out. "Then
come on in officers. I'll help you as much as I can."

Kanti and Giustino walked into the apartment
and sat next to each other on one of the couches in the living
room. Moran followed behind them and sat in a chair across from
them with his hand on his legs.

Kanti cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to
intrude on you like this Moran, but we really need your help. We've
hit a dead end and you're the last person there was to come to if
we have any chance to solve this case."

Moran smiled. "Don't worry, you're not
intruding. I'll do everything that I can to help you find who
killed my partner and his family."

Kanti squinted her eyes. She hadn't mentioned
anything about his family, but somehow he was already aware.

Giustino took out a notepad. "We know that
you're a part of the GSOU, so we'll try not to ask any questions
that you're not allowed to answer due to confidentiality, but
remember, we're trying to do a job too."

Moran shook his head. "Understood. I'll help
you as much as I can."

"We have reason to believe that this was a
planned out murder, Moran. Given the line of work you and Armino
are in, we think someone may have been seeking revenge," Kanti
informed him.

"What makes you think that it was planned
out?" Moran asked.

Giustino took out some pictures. "Very
advanced weaponry was used, except for one death, and every person
was killed one by one with Armino being the last one killed,
according to Anlon."

Moran picked up the pictures. "So Anlon
watched the whole thing?"

Kanti shook her head. "He was tied in a chair
the entire time and was forced to watch. He told us exactly what
kinds of weapons were used and the races of all the killers. That's
all he knew though, he didn't hear any names or where they may have
come from. Nothing that can really help solve this case
quickly."

"That's where you come in," Giustino picked
up. "We thought that if they knew Armino, that there was a chance
that you may also know who these races are and where we can find
them."

Moran let out a breath. "Well, tell me the
races that were involved and I may be able to help you out. I'm not
making any promises, but it can't hurt to see if there's any that
I'm currently after that are involved."

Kanti looked down at her notepad. "There were
three involved in the murder: a blue and grey Arachnid, a black
Malak, and a red and black Darza."

Moran rubbed his head for several seconds.
"They all sound very familiar, but I can't say I know exactly who
they are or where to find them. Not one of them jumps out at me, so
none of them have been part of any recent assignments. Armino and I
hunted down and stopped all kinds of threats. There are countless
races we hunt in our line of work on a daily basis. I'm sure that
the killers are a part of a group we took out, but honestly, I have
no idea off the top of my head."

Giustino looked at the floor and slowly got
up off of the couch. "Well, thank you for your time Moran. If you
don't know anything about the races, I'm afraid that there's not
much else we can do that wouldn't be wasting your time. We fully
understand you see a lot every day in your line of work, but we
thought we might give you a try since we've lifted every other
stone."

"Sorry I couldn't help with identifying or
locating these guys for you. If I do think of anything, I'll make
sure to give you a call right away," Moran lied. "How is Anlon
doing by the way?"

"He's handling it all pretty well from what
we can tell. He's helping us as much as he can and is still
clinging on to hope that these races will be found," Kanti
responded. "Unfortunately, it's looking slimmer by the day."

"I'm confident that there's hope that they'll
be found, it might just take a while," Moran said. "Guys like this
make it their job to stay hidden, but even they make mistakes that
get them caught."

Giustino held out his hand to Moran. "I'd
like to thank you again for your time."

Moran grabbed Giustino's hand. "If I run
across anything that may be of help to you and the case, I'll make
sure to let you know immediately."

Kanti smiled and wrote something on her
notepad. "This is the number you can reach us at if you do."

"Thank you. I'll let you know as soon as I
know anything," Moran reached out and took the paper from her. "I
wish you guys the best of luck at catching these races."

Moran opened the door for the officers to
leave and watched as they made their way back to the elevator. He
shut the door as soon as he saw them enter the elevator to descend
back to the ground floor, knowing that he had just lied to two
District officers which could land him in a heap of trouble if
caught.

Little option was left though, after Anlon
had left he had thought long and hard if he should let the boy know
the truth about the identity of the Malak. He had laid on the couch
thinking if it was the right thing to do and had completely lost
track of time; his robot alerted him that there were two police
officers heading up to see him while he was still deep in
thought.

Armino had always talked about how Anlon
would be a great fit in the GSOU, so this was something he could
surely handle. Since Anlon wasn't trained as GSOU yet, he could
technically go out on a mission without any repercussions for
breaking rules because he was bound by none. Moran would have to
find races to provide equivalent training to the GSOU and several
other things, but it wouldn't be too hard. This probably wasn't
something that Armino would recommend, but he could hardly keep
himself from going out and killing the races himself. He had a
feeling that this kid would do more than just go out and kill the
races that killed his family; he had a feeling that this kid was
going to change Orion completely.

Giustino sat down in his black leather chair
and stared blankly at the computer screen. He had been so sure that
he would've found something out when interviewing Moran, but
nothing at all turned up. Moran claimed he knew nothing at all, but
he wasn't buying it. Whether it was true or not, Giustino didn't
know for sure, but he would find out in time. If Moran knew
anything, anything at all, it was crucial for solving this case.
Having just a name or planet could be a breakthrough for this case
and that's why he needed every minute detail.

Giustino started typing a report of the
interview on his computer, frustrated that nothing had come up. He
put everything in that Moran had told them, which amounted to
nothing new at all. He didn't want to skip the report though, this
was a big case for Hassental and skipping a report for a case like
this would raise questions later that he didn't want to be hassled
with answering. Giustino saved the report to his computer and shut
it down. He left his office and locked the door behind him, giving
the case a rest for the day.

Kanti was in her office typing up a report of
what she had found out in the meeting with Moran. He hadn't
revealed any new groundbreaking information to them, but she had a
feeling that if anyone could find anything out about this case, it
would be him. She was finishing up her report when her phone
vibrated. She looked down at the phone and read the text that had
just come in.