War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (8 page)

"Do you want to go out tonight to the
Planerizza at 7:00?"

She smiled at the text and responded. "I
would love to go Anlon."

Kanti finished up her report, saved it to her
computer, and left to go home for the remainder of the work day.
Other than this case and other miscellaneous work, she really had
nothing to do in Hassental. She hadn't gone out much with anyone
since she had come to Gaea a couple of months ago and was looking
forward to finally hanging out with an actual person.

Camillus heard the ding go off that had been
set up to tell him when either Giustino or Kanti saved work under
the
Valens Murder File.
The humanoid wanted to keep up with
this case so he could know everything that was going on at every
moment. The best way to do that was to set a tone that alerted him
whenever Kanti and Giustino saved their work. They were the two
main officers working on the case, therefore, they would have the
most information.

Camillus knew if any of the officers were
aware that the humanoid in the basement could keep tabs on them,
they would destroy him and replace him. None of the officers knew
he could do things on his own without being programmed to do them
and that's how he planned on keeping it. No one, but a select few
who weren't on Gaea, knew Camillus was built for much more than
keeping the database in order. The person who had built Camillus
had much more in mind for the humanoid.

Camillus walked over to the computer that had
just gone off and read the files that it had downloaded.
"Interesting. He would probably like to hear this later," He
plugged a cord behind his head and downloaded the file into his
memory for later.

Anlon had arrived at the Planerizza fifteen
minutes early to hang out with Kanti. She hadn't arrived yet, but
he had a feeling that she would be right on time since she didn't
have many other things to do outside of work. They had hit off from
the first time they met and he figured she'd be the only chance of
a friend that he'd have for a very long time.

Anlon saw Kanti pull up to the Planerizza
parking lot in her beat up sedan and he quickly exited the building
to show her inside. He walked up to where she was parking and waved
at her as she her got out of her car.

"Hey Kanti!"

She waved back and smiled. "So this is the
Planerizza? Interesting."

It was a tall building with eight legs for
the base that all came together in the middle to create one long
pillar pointing straight up to the sky. The building was made out
of glossy red metal and tables were spread around the entire base
of the building.

He blushed. "My family loved to come here and
eat when my Dad was home. I guess I was thinking about them when I
decided to come here."

She hugged him. "I'm sure it'll be great.
Let's go get some food."

They sat down at a table that was under the
giant pillar and ordered their drinks from the chubby waitress who
had greeted them. When the waitress came back with the drinks,
Anlon already knew what he was going to order for the two of them.
His father had always gotten it for the family whenever he came
home from work and he thought it was the best thing on the
menu.

"I would like the Orion Plate," Anlon told
the waitress. "Make it with extra of the exotics."

The waitress wrote the order down and walked
away. "What's the Orion Plate, Anlon?"

He smiled. "I know you're from Demeter, so
you obviously haven't tried everything on Gaea yet, or the rest of
Orion for that matter. This is a big meal where they give you
different things from all over Orion. My Dad would always get it
when he was home so we could try different things that he got to
try while he was traveling for work. The exotics are always the
best because the change regularly. Of course, it's not exactly the
same as on the planet, but it's close enough for two humans who
haven't tried the real thing."

They talked about their lives and how they
grew up while they were waiting for dinner and all the way through
dinner. Anlon could tell this was the beginning of a really good
friendship of two humans who were in very similar situations. He
wasn't sure what he was going to do about the killers, but he knew
that he would let Kanti know before he did anything, even if she
was a District officer.

Kirill opened up his hologram. "What
information to you have for me about Armino?"

The display was of a hooded figure, with an
unrecognizable face. "The boy, Anlon, is still alive. Your men
didn't kill him like they were supposed to."

Kirill's face reddened. "Does he pose any
threat to our future plans?"

The hologram was silent for a moment. "He
knows a lot. The men you sent out were very careless on this
mission. He knows that they have a link to Armino, along with
races, names, and a planet."

"Has he said anything yet that will lead the
GSOU to come after us?"

"He hasn't and he doesn't appear like he
will, but Moran lives nearby. He may not tell the officers
anything, but that doesn't mean he'll keep quiet with Moran."

"Moran... that may be a problem. Has the boy
talked to him?"

The hooded figure shook his head. "He did
before any officers could arrive. Moran provided no information to
the officers, but it's unclear about Anlon. If he did, Anlon hasn't
taken any action yet, but we should know soon."

Kirill stroked his chin. "Keep an eye on both
of them. If need be, take them both out before they can do anything
that will mess with our plans," Kirill got up. "I don't need some
boy trying to be a little hero and screwing up my plans."

The hooded figure nodded. "I will keep you
updated and provide you with more information as I receive it."

Kirill shut off his hologram and headed to
his dark quarters. He had given Donnchadh the mission of revenge
that he had been begging for since he joined the Deimos Brotherhood
and he screwed it up by letting Armino's son live. Anlon was by no
means anything like Armino, but Kirill had a feeling that he could
be an even bigger problem than Armino due to the fact that he could
link the murders to the Deimos Brotherhood.

Since he was just a kid and it didn't look
like he was going to reveal anything, Kirill decided to let him
live for now. There was no point in going back to kill a kid who
posed no immediate threat. It wasn't worth the risk, not with the
other plans that Kirill had falling through right now.

He would still have to approach Donnchadh and
tell him of his failure, but he would do that later. It would be a
long and drawn out conversation and he wasn't in the mood for it
right now. He sat down at his desk and continued to perfect his
plan that would eliminate the Queen of Orion.

Queen Adira urgently walked to the Council
Chamber, trying her hardest to keep the anger off of her face. She
wasn't angered easily, but the Council was well aware that this was
interfering with the meeting scheduled with the Prime Minister of
Ares.

When she reached the tall wooden doors to the
chamber, she stopped and took a deep breath to ease her mind. She
opened the doors calmly and strode into the octagonal room. The
entire Council was seated in the center of the room patiently
waiting for her to take her seat at the head of the table. Sunlight
beamed through the windows making Adira's deep blue eyes glitter,
her blonde shoulder length hair shine, and her olive skin look
flawless. She lifted her dress as she made her way up the steps and
took her seat as the rest of the Council stood.

Abdul was the last to take his seat. He was a
very odd looking race that had originally come from Apollo to serve
on the Council before she took the Throne. He had been an
experiment of sorts for the race of Apollo to test their medical
expertise on after dying of old age. A few doctors had decided to
take his organs and put them in a flesh-like machine to see if his
brain, heart, and other vital organs could function, allowing him
to live until the organs failed. Luckily, or unluckily depending
how one looked at it, Abdul survived and was able to continue
living inside of the machine.

The doctors had done a superb job at creating
him. The outer coating of the machine was an artificial black skin
and at the top of his head was clear glass with his brain visible
through the liquid. He was the only creation of this kind on
Apollo, legally and known anyway, because it was quickly banned
after word of his creation leaked. The King had deemed it as
dangerous, but they did acknowledge the advanced medical expertise
of the Apollons and allowed Abdul to live until his organs
failed.

Adira looked around the table to her Council.
Her predecessor had made sure that her Council consisted of one
individual from each of the eight planets, except the planet she
had been born on. He had believed that a strong and cohesive
Council would help insure the fairest decision making for
Orion.

Adira cleared out her throat. "What is this
urgent
business that you all insisted I come down here for,
forcing me to
cancel
my meeting with the Prime Minister of
Ares?"

Adira looked around and saw some of the
Council fidgeting, but none of them appeared as if they were going
to answer the question. In fact, they were all looking to Abdul as
if the question had been directed to only him.

She looked over at Abdul. "Abdul?
Why
am I here?"

"Your majesty, Armino Valens has been killed.
I didn't know any better way to reveal it to you but in front of
the entire Council."

Adira squinted her eyes and looked around the
table. "I didn't know that Armino was sent out on any missions. Did
you all approve of this without my consent?"

The room was silent and Abdul spoke up again.
"He wasn't on a mission. I misspoke. I should've said that he was
murdered. Along with the rest of his family, with the exception of
his oldest son who escaped the attack with a few minor wounds."

Adira felt her heart drop in her chest. She
had been a very close friend with Armino from their time growing up
on Gaea. He had heard at a young age that she was going to be Queen
one day and had told Adira that he wanted to protect her. When she
had become Queen she remembered that promise and gave him a
position in the GSOU. He did everything she told him, and more,
very rarely failing her. She knew that he ran the risk of getting
killed on the job, but she promised him if he did die she would
take care of his family.

The two of them had shared many deep secrets
together and had a relationship that could be taken the wrong way
if anybody were to find out. Only two people knew how close they
were - Abdul and Marguerite. Both of them knew that is was nothing
other than an extremely close friendship, but politicians would
surely twist it if they found out he was more than just someone who
protected her.