Two days later. September 8th, 2267. 03:25 Elias’ Office
Elias sat down at his desk with an oversized mug of coffee. His eyelids felt so heavy at this time of the day. Well, it wasn’t just the time, a lot had happened in the past forty-eight hours. And yesterday was just an absolute mess of a day.
The police and paramedics arrived but not surprisingly there was nothing they could do to resuscitate Constantine. The round that struck him had annihilated his heart, there was no saving him. The police also made an arrest in record time, something Elias still couldn’t believe.
The arrestee was a local troublemaker that was known to make threats, brandish weapons, and was an all-around asshole. But prior to that night he had never actually fired a shot or followed through with any gunplay from his threats. More troubling is the suspect loudly proclaimed not only his innocence but also his never buying that specific rifle that the police claimed was used to murder a man.
Elias was not buying it at all. Not one bit, he was certain someone was gunning for them, literally. But the police considered it an open and shut case. The man had gunpowder residue on his hands, the rifle in question was stolen at a gun range frequented by the suspect. The suspect was seen walking out of said range that morning with an additional gun case that wasn’t his. He was also seen on camera purchasing rifle rounds of the same caliber used to murder Constantine and were the correct ones for the murder weapon.
His pleas fell on deaf ears. A police detective told Elias that never before in his life had he seen so much evidence from a single crime be right at their fingerprints immediately after the crime took place. There was also a video of him setting the rifle up on his patio, something the detective shared with Elias but not the public. It may not sound or feel right to Elias, but the police were absolutely certain that they had the right guy.
Just then the communication screen on his terminal flashed. A moment later a connection with Nu Prime, their home world, was made. Legatus Marius Sorana's smiling face appeared onscreen. He immediately began to talk.
“Apologies for the early wake-up, what time is it there my boy?”
“Uhm, early sir, after three in the morning,” Elias said, “It’s been a rough couple of days which is making me look and feel more weary than normal.”
“We just got your most recent update from last week. It’s a rough thing losing the election or at least having our candidate fail in the run-up to the election, but it looks like the work you did earlier in the summer set yourself up for success nonetheless.”
“Legatus, Constantine was murdered two nights ago. The police claim it was a local, but my gut says otherwise.”
Marius’ happiness went away immediately upon hearing that news, “That is most troubling indeed. His father is a former member of the interior and a personal friend of mine. He’ll want a proper debriefing. What happened?”
“The police believe a troublemaker shot and killed him two nights ago.”
Marius nodded, “What evidence do they have?”
“A substantial amount, it feels all so convenient. Gunpowder residue, possession of the rifle, purchase of ammunition…” Elias said sheepishly.
“Sometimes I wonder if as spymasters we lose the ability to trust other’s actions and determinations,” Marius said quietly, “We spend so long reviewing and ensuring everything is in line, but we lose the ability to take the most obvious answer as true. I understand why you are distrustful of them, but I must agree with the constables of the world you are on.”
The senior spymaster was looking at his terminal’s screens and shrugging.
“There doesn’t appear to be anything here to suggest it was someone else besides the rantings and ravings of a criminal.”
“Legatus, I know I don’t have any evidence of this, but I know there is an enemy agent running around. My gut tells me that all of the unfortunate things that have occurred are at their hand.”
Marius looked at Elias and shook his head gently, “It is wise to not underestimate an opponent. That is a concern I’ve tried to impart to our Army and Naval compatriots, but so too should we not overestimate the opponents’ abilities. I fear you are delving too deeply into the latter. Tell me, out of the best of the best we’ve ever had, could one of our agents stop your team?”
Elias shook his head, “I’ve heard a great many things of your abilities and so many others in wargames, but no, I cannot honestly say that a lone agent could stop our team.”
“More importantly, you’d be able to recognize the enemy attacking you or setting up for an attack, no?”
“Yes sir, especially with our control over the communications here. Though we have not had control over the military or intelligence channels.”
“But if memory serves,” Marius said, “You could see encrypted communiques using the channel, just not what they are?”
“That is correct. Both channels have been effectively empty. There have been messages, but they seem systemic but not originating from any person on or above the colony,” Elias admitted.
“Then consider this an order from a superior, unless you have firm evidence to suggest otherwise, you are to immediately end the lockdown and allow your team to freely move around,” Marius said, “Now then, how is the construction of the gate?”
“Proceeding ahead of schedule. Freighters are moving components into position. The bottom of the ring has begun construction. The locals are completely unaware that we’ve coopted their communications and have fed them malicious commands to take over their industrial output.”
“Excellent, and if I read correctly, you have effectively prevented three stations from being constructed?”
“Two actually, one’s been in planning hell since long before we arrived,” Elias took a sip of his coffee, “The other two have been delayed a great deal.”
Marius looked worried as the reception began to look worse, “It appears our update is at an end, good work. I know the loss of life is worrisome, but we expected nearly half of your team to lose their lives. Keep up the good wor…”
The conversation ended abruptly. Elias leaned back on his desk and sighed. No one believed him. Then again, his gut feeling was just that, a feeling. He had no evidence proving anything, and without hard evidence that someone was behind all, or even some, of the misfortune that befell the team, it was impossible to find agreement with anyone.
Elias sat in his chair for nearly thirty minutes agonizing over that decision. He didn’t want to do it; he knew he was right. But Elias wasn’t about to disobey orders. He was slow to type, as he reviewed everything numerous times, but eventually, new orders and restrictions were finished. He pressed enter before hastily getting up and heading to his room.
His disappointment was so high that he just wanted to get some rest. He was legitimately worried about what was to come for him and his team. Especially now that his leaders ordered him to lighten up from so far away.
December 17th, 2267. 12:05 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
John was washing out a pair of glasses and wearing a grin on his face. That stupid grin Elias thought to himself, how he’d relish wiping that off of him permanently. But not yet, there was still intel he needed to get from this abominable man.
“You’re welcome by the way,” John said as he was standing over his minibar.
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There were still two clean and unused glasses on the mini bar that hadn’t been used yet, a bourbon glass and one more clean Glencairn glass. John shrugged as he took the clean glass and picked another bottle of scotch. He grinned when he pulled the cork, this bottle cost him a small fortune. He poured a healthy amount out and then dipped a spoon in the water glass and carefully dropped two drops in the rare Ardbeg spirit.
“Why would I thank you?”
“I killed the asshole that was fucking your girl,” John shrugged as he brought the glass to his nose and sniffed deeply, “Well, I say your girl rather generally. She very clearly didn’t see things that way.”
“Hold on, you killed him? The police were absolutely positive that…”
“Oh yeah, man talk about a perfect setup that I walked ass backward into. That shit for brains stole a high-powered rifle at the gun club he frequented. I knew he had sticky fingers, but I didn’t think he’d steal the damn thing so quickly. From that point, it was a rather simple thing to use that gun to kill someone from your group. I was going to shoot into the building, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw those two start banging their brains out on the roof.”
“Why were you in his apartment?”
“I followed him, I wasn’t set out to kill any particular member of your team. I was going to kill someone and then frame him for that murder,” John turned to look at Elias as he took a drink, “I didn't want him to steal my rifle. You see Elias, I knew his character was pure shit and that his condo overlooked your building. Engineering the situation to get him to steal my property turned out to be comically easy.”
Elias gasped, “You wanted to murder one of my agents openly, and you purposefully let a man steal a rifle of yours?”
“He had sticky fingers. He saw me come to the range and drop off my gear. One of the employees wanted to inspect my firearms because I was a new member,” John smiled, “I spoke loud enough to make sure he could hear what I had. I knew when he heard about that rifle that he began eying the case.”
“Then you made yourself scarce from the case and then allowed him to abscond with it.”
John nodded, “Then it was just a matter of timing when he was in and out of his unit.”
“How did you know that you could fire on the building?”
“Basic geometry and research. The past listings for his condo had numerous pictures and videos taken. Along with fully interactive walkthroughs. Based on that I was able to tell that there were a couple of angles from his unit that I could shoot into your building. I was thinking I’d need to take the shot in the morning during breakfast.”
Elias shook his head, “How were you alone in his unit?”
John shrugged, “I followed him back to his place after he left. Made entry into the building but noticed that he headed to a shared space on the fifth floor after he dropped off his, and my, stuff. I went up to his unit and got prepared. That was around 22:00 or so.”
“You were alone in his unit for over an hour then,” Elias stared at the countertop, “What would you have done had he come back early?”
“Killed him and make it look like a suicide,” John said plainly without a hint of emotion, “Elias, I’m bloody good at what I do and utterly emotionless about what I need to do to accomplish my mission. But this particular situation that evening was literally perfect. Never before has everything come together as easily or quickly as it did that evening.”
“Do you know what that man’s fate will be?”
“Oh yeah, twenty-five to a life sentence if I recall correctly,” John took a drink and looked up at the screen.
“You were just going to let him rot in jail?”
“Well, if I survived, I was going to send a note from Naval Intelligence that he was collateral damage. The irony is that he was still convicted of numerous crimes besides murder.”
“Shit of luck, as you say?” Elias could hardly believe his ears.
“More or less.”
Elias closed his eyes as he shook his head. The overt murder of Constantine wasn’t a random act of violence but a very targeted one. In fact, like most of the other deaths they have suffered. But there wasn’t a hint of evidence to suggest the contrary. This man he was looking at was a master artist in death. And he had painted a masterpiece during his time on this godforsaken planet.
“And thanks to the orders I received from upon high, it made what was to come all the easier to eliminate my team,” Elias sighed, “Individuals from hundreds of light years away didn’t have the faintest clue what we were really up against.”
“To be fair to your leaders, it wasn’t exactly like you had evidence of overt actions against your team. You had a lot of sketchy bullshit that was causing your concern and worry to flare up,” John walked over to his chair and sat back inside, “The sad irony is that in hindsight, your gut was absolutely right. In the future, you should listen to that more often.”
“That point and your admission of that are definitely going to be brought in front of my leaders. I do appreciate your candor on this matter,” Elias said, “Or rather, your admission.”
“You still need evidence to prove your gut true. You didn’t have that until far too late,” John smirked as he sniffed the scotch, “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you planning to do with Constantine?”
Elias’ face turned to a scowl the moment he heard that name. A common reaction has occurred over the last two months. He hadn’t known the man much before the mission, but he respected him, nonetheless. Never in Elias’ wildest imagination had he thought he would have acted in the manner he did. Nothing in his character suggested that.
Then again, he knew his team quite well, and they behaved poorly away from home. Did he really understand their characters? Elias sat there silently stewing on the topic. He had misread the situation, and poorly so, that was the only legitimate and honest appraisal of the situation here.
“I’m not sure. Still, even today I want to burn his sorry reputation. I want his legacy to be sullied and watch everything that he touched back home crumble to dust,” Elias said, “Yeah, I want to see that asshole burn for everything he did.
“If I may, I’d recommend holding onto that hate. It may be more useful as a bargaining chip,” John shared some friendly and honest advice, “Now to be brutally frank, I’m still a rank amateur when it comes to the political games an officer needs to go through, but if the high positions back at your home are anything like mine, having an ace in the hole is quite helpful.”
“No, you are wrong. The truth needs…”
“Don’t be an idiot,” John said, “If his debased behavior can get you off from punishment, you use that. If they want to honor him and it’s not going to hurt you, well then…” John trailed off for a moment, “That’s when it gets tricky. You gotta shoot the right shot at the right time.”
Elias angrily shook his head. This conversation was not going in the direction he had assumed it would go. The advice was not at all what he expected or wanted to hear. Constantine needed to go down in ignominy, he shouldn’t be praised as a hero. But there was wisdom in holding the truth tight to his vest.
Should the leadership back homework against Elias, he could just go the nuclear route and burn anyone who behaved poorly during the mission. Perhaps that was the best option. Or he could use that to save his behind as John suggested. It felt dirty to do such a thing, but that was probably the best course of action to take.
“Were you keeping tabs on the election at this point?”
“I knew the information I leaked accomplished its job,” John smiled, “That one business owner is still pissed as hell at Dale after all these years. Even after being made whole, he still wanted his revenge. I made sure the other news organizations on the planet got word and investigated it.”
“Too often it seems the media plays favorites and tries to control messaging across your worlds,” Elias said, “That is not at all different from the Alliance or Union.”
“But is it any different for your people?” John threw an innocent but pointed question right back at him.
“No, no I don’t suppose it is,” Elias shook his head, “I suppose we have that in common. From your perspective, the common man and woman are more indoctrinated to believe our governments. If I’m not mistaken the citizens barely trust their own government to work in their interests, if not outright expect them to make the wrong decisions.”
“The joys of a democratic republic. The people elect people to represent them. Their representatives then go to the capital or an entirely other world to speak for them. From there they are inundated by thousands of requests to speak to corporations and other power players,” John snorted, “Career politicians weren’t something the founders of America ever thought could be a thing, yet here we are.”
“Do you ever wonder or worry about the chaos that you’ve wrought in your wake?”
John nodded, “Certainly I do now more than I did in my youth. I had a massive ego, hell, I suppose I technically still do, but I had a victim complex that made me a downright evil bastard when I was an agent. Torture wasn’t unheard of, nor was exacting vengeance on my targets. Now I am much more aware of collateral damage and try to avoid it.”
“Yet you murdered the woman that was with Terry. The night you killed Kaius.”
“True, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I transferred a fair sum to her accounts so that her family will be repaid for their loss,” Joh raised a hand to stop Elias from speaking, “And yes, I’m aware credits will never replace her, but it is all I could do after the fact.”
“What of the men you had arrested for your crimes?”
“If one is truly innocent of all crime, then I will set things right at the completion of a mission. If they are not and the sentence they receive is commiserated with their uncharged crimes, then I call it a balancing of the scales,” John smiled, “I also ensured those orphans have enough money to live someplace safer until they all turn eighteen.”
“I didn’t think your Naval Intelligence department cared about orphans,” Elias spoke in a very mocking tone.
“They don’t. I paid for that out of my own pocket. Took fucking ever to get the credit transfers processed through your general blockage or slowdown of the communication channels,” John smirked, “Fuck you very much for that. But the trust I set up for them will work to ensure that they have a place to sleep and eat without worrying about how to afford either.”
“You? You would do that for someone else?” Elias sounded incredulous asking the question.
“I’m rich as fuck. Although I’ve been bleeding principle left, right, and center recently,” John grinned, “My VI has done a shit job of projecting the galactic markets. Ah well, we’ve still got loads of money to easily outlast our lives.”
“Any amount would accomplish that for you.”
John smirked, “I suppose that’s true; my time will be up within the next few hours. Say, what happened after that in your base? I’d make a presumption that things got much worse for you.”
Elias shook his head in disgust recalling those events, “Your presumption is not incorrect. In fact, they got so much worse.”