1 Day Later. August 17th, 2267. 06:00 New Xenuvian Headquarters – 1st Floor

Time felt like it had paused. Only the ticking of the wall clock could be heard. Daphne and Viviana both looked like a mess. Their makeup was streaking all over because of an evening of crying. Their clothing barely hung on by literal threads. Alberic was having a hard time staying composed because he was fully aware of the outcome of their fun evening out.

Constantine stood next to Elias, but unlike Elias, he showed no emotion. That was in stark contrast compared to Elias who looked like his head was going to explode in anger. He paced back and forth in the room.

“Draco and Katherina, I find it difficult to justify any punishments for the two of you. We’ve confirmed the traffic en-route to our headquarters was the cause of your late arrival. As you are a betrothed couple I can’t, nor will, speak ill of your desire to have some private intimate time with one another. As such I find no reason to punish either of you,” Elias sighed, “Ironically the desire to fornicate with one another very likely saved your lives.”

“Thank you, sir,” Draco said quickly and somewhat embarrassingly.

“I’m ignoring whether or not any imbibing was done on either of your parts. See to it that it doesn’t happen any longer,” Elias said.

Katherina nodded, “Apologies and we won’t do that anymore.”

“The two of you are excused from this mess,” Elias said calmly.

Ellie then spoke, “Have the police indicated when they are going to release the bodies?”

Constantine spoke, “They are not releasing any bodies or possessions seized as evidence until they finish their investigation. The lieutenant I spoke to presumed that would take at least two months or more.”

Elias didn’t want to answer any more questions, or even talk to anyone else. There was only one person he wanted answers from. Not that there was any justification for ignoring curfew and binge drinking that late at night. Or dressing like a two-dollar whore. Daphne tried her hardest to disappear from view, but she hardly could because her infractions made her as tall as the tallest mountains on Nu Prime.

“Daphne you stay, everyone else leave the kitchen and dining room,” Elias said through clenched teeth, “You are confined to your quarters until I have a chance to process this clusterfuck of a previous evening.”

Moments later everyone else left the first floor. Daphne stared at Elias’ shoes; she wouldn’t dare cross his gaze. It wasn’t guilt that she felt but shame. A realization that everything that she had known was coming to an end.

A loud slap rang out in the kitchen. Elias backhanded across the face. Daphne fell to the ground, and any emotional control that she had was lost. She began to cry and wailed out like a banshee. That did not have the reaction she expected, Elias pulled her up by the hair and shoved her into the refrigerator.

“Everything you touch gets destroyed. Give me one good reason why I don’t kill you right here and right now!” Elias hissed the words as he was millimeters from her face.

“It wasn’t my fault!”

Elias shoved her hard into the fridge and wall next to it and stepped back, “Curfew was set, yet you ignored it. If you had just come home, they’d be alive. Four people Daphne, FOUR FUCKING PEOPLE ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!”

“How was I supposed to know there’d be a gang attack…”

Elias slapped Daphne again, “That’s it, that’s always it. You never fucking think. It’s always about what you want, and you never give a single thought about anything else.”

“That is...”

Another slap smacked into Daphne’s cheek, “You narcissistic bitch. Yes, that is exactly what happened. Both Renata and Mirabella said they should go home. Thirty minutes late, but they said that everyone should go. As did Alberic. But you convinced Viviana who then helped convince the others. You aren’t above the law. Your specific actions caused this.”

Elias turned and let out a large sigh, “Draco and Katherina are getting off because they had the good sense to do their duty in an hourly hotel and arrived home about the time this entire shitstorm happened. Late, but not so late that they were disregarding orders entirely like you. Get your stuff out of my room. You’ll be confined to room six until I know what to do with you.”

“No, don’t do this. This was…”

“An unmitigated disaster. Marion and Renata were shot and killed by gang bangers. Mirabella was trampled to death. TRAMPLED TO DEATH. Imagine how painful her end was. Or what about Quintinus who was run over by a car? None of this would have happened had you just followed the fucking rules. If you ever thought about someone else this would never have happened,” Elias turned and backhanded Daphne one more time, “I was prepared to give everyone today off too. And yet here we are with fewer members to do our fucking jobs. Everything you touch breaks.”

Daphne held her face and leaned onto the wall. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, further ruining her makeup. She had nothing to say. Guilt overwhelmed her, surprised at the violence she felt at the hands of her betrothed.

“What can I do to make this right?”

Elias balled his right hand into a fist at the sound of that question, “Make it right? Did I hear that right?”

“What do you want me to do? I’ll do anything,” Daphne pleaded for what felt like her life.

Elias wanted to knock her out so badly right then and there. This wasn’t just a minor mistake; this was at a minimum dereliction of duty. The crime for this was several months in a sensory deprivation tank followed by intensive re-education. In fact, it was unlikely that anything of who she is now would survive either punishment.

“Unless you can go back in time and talk yourself out of yet another bad idea of yours, I doubt very much there is anything you are going to be able to do to make things right,” Elias released his fist and sighed, “Now get out of my sight. You’ve done enough damage, and I can’t bear the sight of you at this moment.”

Daphne clutched her sore cheeks as she began to sob. Elias stayed in the kitchen by himself. Still angry about the situation. He walked over to the fridge and pulled it out, then put it back into its correct place. Constantine then walked into the room.

“I don’t want to hear ‘I told you so’ from you,” Elias sighed, “Even if you were right.”

“Truth be told I was thinking that, but I wasn’t actually going to go that far.”

“Have you confirmed that what we’ve heard is what’s happened?”

Constantine paused, “Marion was shot in the back while leaving the club. Nine gang members are among the dead. The club was supposed to check for weapons, but clearly did a piss poor job of that.”

“Why was Marion shot in the back?”

Constantine shrugged, “Neither I nor the police know that. The footage is chaotic at best. I’ve already received a copy of it, and it appears Marion bumped into a gang member. Another one fired, and then she was shot dead right there. Poor aim on one of the aggressor's parts.”

“I can’t imagine the pain Mirabella went through, or Quintinus for that matter.”

“The police said their ends were exceptionally painful. I find no comfort in knowing and sharing this information.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“If you were in charge, would you continue this mission?” Elias asked the question plainly.

Constantine turned and looked at Elias, “There’s an argument to end it and head home. But I doubt the home world would accept that. Irrespective of how you or I feel, the mission must go on.”

“And yet if I overwork the team that’s left, we’ll have a repeat of yesterday,” Elias sighed loudly.

“You’ll think of a plan to balance that. I have faith you are more than capable of that,” Constantine said as he left the room.

For now, Daphne would stay in her room. How in the world would they succeed? Elias sat down in one of the chairs on the wall and shook his head. He had absolutely no clue what to do.

15:45 New Xenuian Headquarters – Elias’ Office

After his pity party in the morning, Elias got to work. New schedules were created. Instead of working three shifts he backed it down to two and split the remaining team members to the morning shift or evening shift. There was some minor grumbling about who was going where, but the changes were made.

Everyone got two days off for every five days of work, with one day of them being on-call. Which meant they couldn’t stray far from the base. On the other day off they could spend eight hours off base. He didn’t want to enforce a curfew, but previous actions demanded one to be set at 22:00 every evening.

That, unfortunately, was the easy part. Daphne and Viviana both had issues, with the latter being the lesser one. What did he have to do with Daphne? And how would he ensure she wasn’t going to corrupt any other teammates?

Heva then entered the office with Daphne in tow, “Just buzz for me when she’s ready to go back.”

“Thank you Heva, but I’ll take it from here. Please close the door on your way out.”

Daphne looked like hell. Elias wasn’t entirely certain, but he didn’t think she had showered today. Her makeup was still smeared from crying, something that she appeared to have done a lot today. She stepped forward and stood in front of his desk.

“Take a seat,” Elias said as he rippled his fingers off his desk staring at her, “I’ll admit I’m at a loss for what to do with you. Time and again you are given the option to be the better person, to do right, but you continue to choose the wrong answer.”

Daphne took a seat and shrank into it, “There was no way to know that a gang war would’ve happened at the club we went to.”

“And yet if you followed the simplest of rules those four wouldn’t have died. You failed each and every one of them. Your desire to eschew our way of life for the seemingly niceties of these barbarous animals is why they are dead. Your indulgence in their decadent lifestyles proves that our actions are exactly what these people need. These unclean savages need uplifting to a better way of life.”

Daphne took a deep breath and looked like she wanted to say something, but she held her tongue.

“So, I can keep you on house arrest, but I fear that will not help anyone, and frankly now because we are so few, I must have you working.”

Daphne looked up, “Look, I’ll do whatever work you want me to do.”

“The terminal by the door, that’s where you’ll work. The one immediately outside the office is yours when I am in a meeting. Until the first of October, your free time off base is canceled. You will remain on call during your days off.”

“Ok.”

“You aren’t allowed to have anyone in your room. Neither are you allowed entry into any else’s room. Your personal tracker will be activated while we are in this facility. Failure to comply with these stipulations will result in forfeiture of future shore leave. Or worse.”

Daphne looked up at Elias with a puzzled look on her face, “Or worse?”

Elias opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a gun that he laid on his desk, “Make no mistake, if your actions cause the death of any more of our peers, I will put a bullet in your head and shit on your grave. Am I clear?”

Her eyes bulged with surprise, “You would murder…”

“I don’t care who you are or what you are to me. If your actions cause the death of any more team members, I will kill you. Do your job. Be smart. And follow the damn rules. Are we clear?”

Daphne nodded, “I will comply. What about us?”

“That is a discussion for another day. Right now, I don’t know. The woman I fell in love with doesn’t appear to exist. I want to think she’s in there someplace, but for whatever reason she’s been bullied into hiding, or she was just a figment of my imagination. In either case, go get cleaned up, your shift starts today at 16:30.”

And with that, a difficult discussion was made. Though thirty minutes later she was in the office working. But they worked in silence. Elias had nothing more to say to her.

If his leader put a gun to his head to make a decision whether or not to marry Daphne, he was forced to admit that he couldn’t find any good justification to do so. The prospect of being single and not having a family scared him to his core, but that seemed preferable to a life next to that woman. The scorn and contempt that would be directed at him as well if she went through reeducation wasn’t something he wanted to deal with.

The unfortunate truth for him, if he wanted a family he was stuck with Daphne. For good or ill, she was all he had. That was the damning part in all of this, his desire for a family was quite high, but he didn’t know if she was worth the hassle and baggage.

He tried to push those feelings aside and make a decision on them later. For now, they had a substantial amount of work. And everyone, himself included, was taking on more work because of their reduced workforce.

December 17th, 2267. 11:09 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead

Elias remembered those moments as if they were fresh. One question had been bugging him for four months. And now he remembered to ask that of the perpetrator.

“How did you create the gang fight?”

“Well, first you need to have a rival gang there. Luring them there was easy. Just create some bullshit beef on the local extra-net,” John smiled, “Getting them to fight one another was also relatively easy. Just had to wait long enough for the club to get sufficiently over the limit.”

“Why didn’t they go after you?”

“They didn’t know who shot at them. Didn’t matter if they were shot from behind or from the front. When they heard the gunfire and saw their dudes fall, it was game on. That I had a bead on any of the gangbangers was lucky happenstance on my end.”

“The real target was my team.”

“Yes, the one gal that came with you to your original visit saw and recognized me on the dance floor. Once I got the gang fight going, I just double-tapped her and headed toward the exit,” John grinned, “That the crowd eliminated one and a motorist that freaked out at the sea of people leaving the building was a bonus. As was ending up behind another one of your people during my exit.”

“How did you get out of there without being discovered?”

“I didn’t bother to stick around. I ran as fast as I could to get to my stashed motorcycle. Three or so blocks away. Just outside of the police blockade.”

Elias could hardly believe what he was hearing. The sonofabitch planned and organized everything that night. He personally killed at least six people and was directly responsible for every single death that night. He wasn’t wrong in saying Daphne’s actions did result in deaths, for if they followed the rules they wouldn’t have been there.

“Wait, you said you started a beef with them, how?” Elias said, “And how did you know they’d arrive when my people were there?”

“I’d been tracking your wayward people that evening. Talk about an insufferable group,” John smiled, “When they said they were going to that nightclub that gave me the perfect chance at thinning the herd while having the blame associated with someone else. Like my other kills previously.”

“Job well done on that part. The camera footage inside the club was terrible. The police presumed the gang bangers struck my people.”

“Footage that was made awful by me. Normally the club’s cameras are immaculate,” John chuckled to himself, “The club used to run a blackmail ring to married people who were cheating on their spouses there. Can’t say I’m disheartened by the elimination of this club.”

For some reason, Elias stopped being surprised. John was an exquisite agent. A man on a mission, some would say an unstoppable object. He had so fully pulled the wool over their eyes at every turn. Even though he felt something else was happening, there was absolutely no proof of that. That proof wouldn’t come until much much later, far too late to do a single damn thing about it.

“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking,” John said, “How’d the fourth debate prep go?”

“The prep work went fine. But I suppose those tabloid news reports were you’re doing around that time?”

John nodded, “When I was healing up from that little knife wound, I began sharing this information with the more out there tabloids. People would see the headlines but likely laugh it off.”

Elias shook his head, “Until you sent the Daily Mail some salacious details.”

“Salacious to you, but it was only unsubstantiated rumors about his cheating. From a decade ago,” John said, “As you are well aware, that was only the tip of the iceberg. Was he the right candidate to back?”

“He was flawed, like all of the candidates, but he was the only one that seemed both electable and easily enticed with money,” Elias sighed, “I suppose no candidate that we could buy would not have skeletons in their closet.”

“Usually if you can buy someone there are either some red flags we’re ignoring or some pretty beefy strings attached,” John took a drink and cracked his neck, “How’d meeting the candidate go that first time? I was surprised you did that in person.”

“As was I, however, I felt necessary given our issues. Since you had murdered Kaius the responsibility for communicating with him fell to me.”

“How’d you like him?”

“His campaign manager was a delightful woman. Incredibly smart and driven, I found it somewhat surprising that she would work with such a man. As for Dale, I suspect our opinions on the man are similar.”

“Arrogant and out of touch douchebag,” John snorted.

“Agreed.”

“Well look at that,” John started to laugh, “We do agree on something. What are the odds?”’

“That isn’t funny.”

“No, it isn’t, but it is factual.”

Elias paused to collect himself. He didn’t feel right agreeing with this monster on anything. Though it was quite difficult to like Dale Rosberg as a person. The man thought he was more important and intelligent than he actually was. The truth of the matter was that Elias left that first meeting feeling like he needed to take a shower after meeting him that first time.

“So, why don’t you go into detail on your meeting him before the fourth debate?” John’s question sounded oddly sincere.