4 Days Later. October 1st, 2267. 09:50 Kenno Noir Building—1st Floor Living Room

Two days ago, in the dead of night, the Xenuians scurried off and ditched their second headquarters. No one in the area had monitored them. There were no drones up either. They absconded from their compromised building and found refuge in their tertiary location.

What would have been cramped and uncomfortable accommodation was an improvement over the Rose building. They lost a floor, but there was much more common space on both the first and second floors. The living room that Elias was standing in had space for four large couches surrounding the primary view screen while also having space for a pool table and other items. It was a very nice upgrade.

The white walls everywhere rubbed most of the group wrong. Even Elias, who didn’t seem to care about colors, found the specific shade of white to be off-putting. There were talks of getting some paint rollers and gear to begin painting some of the rooms.

Silvia Catullus was sitting at one of the terminals on the opposite wall from the main screen. She had used the group’s connections to the communication system to peer into the newly opened polls. The data that was being exchanged painted a poor, even worse than expected, picture of the election.

“What were the expectations you guys had come up with?” Silvia asked.

“Thirty-five to forty percent of the vote for Dale,” Alberic said, “On a best-case scenario.”

“Well, he’s sitting at seventeen percent of the vote right now. The exit polls are doubling Dale’s votes, do you have anything to do with that?” Silvia looked squarely at Elias.

He shook his head, “No, we didn’t pay for anything like that. Once Dale’s character was on full display for all to see, spending money on him simply wasn’t worth it.”

Bacchus then added, “When were reinforcements scheduled to arrive?”

“Early December,” Viviana said, “That is of course if slip space is kind to them. Thus far from what we’ve been told it’s been anything but.”

“Wonderful,” Bacchus said sarcastically, “I cannot wait to get home away from this godforsaken world and these awful people.”

“You and me both,” Castor replied as he looked at his screen, “The exit polls are not nice to Dale at all. Even in Dale’s core district, he’s losing by twenty percent.”

“That’s if those figures are even right,” Silvia said, “What district is that in that you are looking at?”

“Uhm,” Castor said as he exhaled loudly, “Twenty-two.”

Silvia squinted at her screen after entering some filters. She was taken aback by the results momentarily but then looked in deeper. A shrug of the shoulders later she began speaking.

“It’s closer to twelve percent loss, so the exit polls figures are just not reliable at all.”

“That makes sense, many people here don’t answer exit polls honestly,” Castor said, “And the government cannot comment officially or unofficially until after the polls have closed.”

“What I’m seeing though is every single district is for William. Dale isn’t carrying a single one.”

Elias shook his head in disgust, “What a colossal waste of time and money this whole damn operation has been. It isn’t lost on me that we didn’t even technically need him for anything.”

Alberic chimed in, “Our total control over the coms in the colony coupled with their fierce independence from the Confederate government was the perfect storm for us. And that’s ignoring how their government almost treats this world as if it doesn’t exist.”

Bacchus had a puzzled look on his face as he waved a data slate in his hand, “Am I reading this right? That the slip gate be finished with its construction by November eighth? That means the election effectively means nothing. Especially because of these forged orders and the outgoing government green-lighting this project.”

“But we didn’t know the construction would go as smoothly as it did, nor did we think those orders would be so blindly followed. The election was an insurance policy,” Viviana said.

Elias looked down at his data slate because it vibrated. He found a short message was sent to him from Alberic. ‘When do you want to deal with your issue?’ That was a good question. But it wasn’t yet time to deal with Daphne.

While he hated what she had become, or perhaps he hated her true self, there was a side of her that Elias was still in love with. He knew, of course, that she was a loose end that needed to be dealt with. But pulling the trigger himself was going to be difficult, and he was not yet ready to do that.

Elias responded to the message, ‘Unsure, I will message you when it is time to do the deed.’

“When do the polls close here?”

“18:30 for the city. Rural ones close at 17:00,” Bacchus said, “A long way to go.”

Elias stood up from the couch and then said, “I’ll be in my office. I’ve got a couple of reports to write and a few things to review. I’ll be back around lunch, but the door is open in the event anyone needs me.”

For the rest of the morning, most of the team was glued to the living room. Work was casual as election data was collected and disseminated amongst each other. Everyone was fascinated by the news station’s diligent coverage as the morning droned on.

The news never got better for Dale that morning. His hopes for being the colonial governor were long since dashed. This day was just making that presumption finally official. An hour before lunch Dale had crested thirty percent of the vote. A mark that he’d remain at, but not exceed for the remainder of the day.

18:35 Rear Deck

Lunch and the afternoon came and went for Elias. In fact, despite the food tasting overly bland, the day had flown by for him. But today was a reminder of everything that had gone wrong for him. No, it was not a reminder, it was confirmation of everything that had gone wrong for his team.

The door to the deck opened and Castor walked out slowly. He wore a defeated look on his face as well. He let the door close behind him before he sighed and took a deep breath.

“They called it instantly the moment the polls closed. Literally, within like ten seconds it was called.”

Elias knew that would happen and showed no reaction, “What was the final tally?”

“There are still people waiting in line, but Dale pulled in thirty-point-two percent of the final vote. Based on the number of people that were still in line that percentage is unlikely to move at all.”

“All that blood, sweat, and tears that we went through, and it was for a failed campaign. What a waste,” Elias said quietly.

“I’m not sure what else we could have done though. Everything was working, until it wasn’t…” Castor paused, reached out, and leaned onto the railing as he stared at the floor, “It couldn’t be. There’s no way…”

“What?”

“The enemy agent orchestrated everything. The killings, the leaks, everything.”

Elias scoffed, “There’s no way any man could…”

An awkward pause led to an uncomfortable silence. Elias stood up and rubbed his chin in thought. He was trying to think about it from a logical standpoint, could an enemy agent truly be as adept at murder as they were with misdirection and information control? His gut said no, but what if they were an exceptional case? Was it possible?

“Castor, collect everyone, we need to go over everything. The election is in the past, we need to understand the likelihood that one person managed this failure of ours.”

The pair hurried into the building. Elias walked through the second floor and headed right for the stairs to the first floor. He was skipping every other step and skimmed down them quickly. When he got to the main floor, he took a right and headed for the largest living room.

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Once he got there, he muted the televisions and activated the holographic displays. He looked for a spare tablet to more easily control them. He didn’t acknowledge anyone that entered the room.

But one by one the Xenuians entered. They were of course surprised to be pulled back into the room. And we're even more surprised at how frantic Elias looked and acted. It was a strange scene to walk into to say the least.

Elias turned on his heels and watched Castor and Ellie file into the room. He smiled and gestured for everyone to sit down. The team awkwardly did as requested. Bacchus hopped into a chair along the back wall and observed the situation. Silvia sat next to him.

Castor and Ellie were sitting in a loveseat. She looked a bit put off when Castor immediately leaned forward in the seat. The others looked downright concerned with this hastily prepared meeting.

“Ok, I apologize for this, but I feel that we are well past the point of having this conversation,” Elias said, “And the topic is our lost team members and our mystery agent that we are up against.”

Viviana rolled her eyes, “You don’t have any evidence that a single person is responsible for all of these deaths.”

“Let’s see how you think about that in a few minutes,” Elias turned and brought up a picture of Paulus, “Paulus was our first death, a murder.”

Linus then chimed in and took control of the second screen, “Confirmed murder by this fellow. Male, Six foot two to four, wide shoulders. Unknown hair color or race. Individual vanished into one of the squalid apartment buildings never to be seen again.”

“Didn’t someone get arrested for that?”

Linus nodded, “Yes, a vagrant. He is not a physical match though. We sent the police this angle of the murder, but their analysis suggested the attacker was not as large as we presumed them to be.”

Elias turned back to face everyone, “In this case, the presumption is that we are right, and a travesty of justice has been committed. It’s academic of course because we don’t have a good image of the individual that committed the crime. Next up are…”

Castor then spoke, “Milo and Fauna, their taxi was struck by a truck. Distracted driving while in full manual control of the vehicle. Neither the safeties on the taxi nor the truck worked as expected.”

“Moving these into the accident column. Aside from the loss of their lives, nothing felt like this was an act of intentional murder,” Elias then looked to the group, “Does anyone disagree with this?”

There was no dissent in the crowd.

“Good, the next loss of life was Kaius’. His was a death that we presumed was natural causes, but a recent review of the available evidence now suggests otherwise.”

Linus looked annoyed as he spoke, “Our cameras in the garage had been acting up but we didn’t prioritize fixing them quickly enough, a mistake that we won’t be making again.”

“That explains why you asked me to review that footage when you all got here,” Bacchus said, “There was a biker that followed him from one of the western suburbs to the city center. But we didn’t see the biker in any footage near your original base.”

“How big was this guy?” Viviana cautiously asked.

Bacchus grew a bit pale, “Athletic build, several inches over the average height. Was hard to estimate because of the bike but…”

“Same size as the one that killed Linus?” Elias asked.

Bacchus nodded, “Wore black biking gear and was on a black motorcycle.”

“Hey, I know you don’t want to talk about him, but wasn’t Constantine investigating a double murder in one of the northern suburbs?” Alberic asked.

“Kaius is in the murdered column. Constantine said the double murder didn’t have anything to do with this,” Elias said.

“Yeah, but he didn’t review the security camera footage that I just did that the police have. A large man on a black bike wearing a black helmet and leather was seen exiting the home in question,” Bacchus was waving his data slate in his hand, “Our homeboy got three targets in one night. The other man was employed by a company that the new governor-elect owned.”

“Fucking hell,” Elias said as he stomped his feet, “Kaius met a mole that evening. He got something from him…”

Castor’s eyes opened widely, “Holy shit, that agent never tried to kill us at that time. It was a false flag operation from the fucking start. Whatever Kaius got from that man was swapped with the garbage we received.”

Viviana covered her mouth as the realization swept over her, “It was encrypted in such a way to make it difficult but not impossible for us to break. Making us less likely to believe it was false due to the lack of ease of access.”

“Intelligent fellow, don’t you think? Now, that brings us to our next dark day. Quintinus, Renata, Mirabella, and Marion all died on the same day.”

Bacchus and Silvia looked at one another in horror.

“Renata and Marion both had gunshot wounds,” Linus said, “Quintinus was struck by a car and Mirabella was killed due to blunt force trauma. She was crushed in the stampede to exit the building.”

“I am told the cameras inside the nightclub were on the fritz,” Elias said, “Please tell me you’ve uncovered something.”

“We did,” Silvia said as she pointed to an image on the lefthand screen, “This man was caught entering the employee’s entrance. The records never recorded whose identification card was scanned, just that the door opened,” Silvia paused in horror as the third image of this mysterious man displayed on the screen, “Holy shit you guys. Holy shit.”

Linus then looked at the image alongside the other two images, “Roughly the same build and height.”

Viviana’s eyes were glued to her data slate. She was looking for something that triggered this reaction. What was it? She took a deep breath when she found it.

“Marion was found with gunshot wounds on the stairs near the exit, shot in the back. Renata was found shot multiple times on the dance floor, exit wounds were in her back.”

“Well, that doesn’t prove that he did them in,” Castor said, “Being devil’s advocate here. There were two rival gangs in attendance and gunplay occurred between them.”

“Yes, but here’s the thing. Numerous people reported the gunfire first occurred on the dance floor, where Renata was. Not the bar where the gangs were. It was only after the shooting happened on the dance floor that the gang bangers were shot. None of them died on the dance floor.”

Elias turned to look at Viviana, “That is witness testimony from the colonials…”

“And from Daphne. She said she heard gunfire near where she was dancing before it happened by the bar. I know her status is less than stellar due to her self-imposed exile but that’s your corroboration.”

“Holy cow,” Castor said, “Renata was shot at point-blank range. Her skin was blasted with gunpowder and the explosive gas used in burned powder. She saw her murderer up close in person. Marion was shot in the back at close range as well for that matter.”

“A murder of opportunity,” Linus said, “Jesus Christ, he was going to kill all of you that evening. But something happened. If she did bump into him on the dance floor, then…”

“Except Steven wasn’t in the city that night,” Alberic said, “I know where you’re going with that boss.”

“Let’s ignore him for the moment. Two murders he did. Whoever’s actions caused the other two’s deaths should be classified as murder, but for the sake of this discussion, we will classify them as accidents. Who died next?”

“Constantine, by a sniper on the rooftop,” Viviana said, “A resident in the high-rise near that building was charged and is awaiting trial.”

“You are not going to fucking believe this,” Castor said, “Did any of you read the police report filed with the murder charges?”

Elias chuckled as he read the highlighted part, “It was Steven’s gun. It was stolen from a gun club in town here. Stolen on the same day as the murder.”

Bacchus spoke up in a correcting tone, “Stolen before lunch. The police had filed the report and this Steven character was on the road home by 12:20. This murder occurred late at night. Not helping your case that this super-agent did this is that Steven’s fingerprints are not found on the trigger and the only place his DNA was found in more than trace quantities was the forward grip. This other guy’s fingerprints and DNA were all over the rest of the gun. Including the spent casing that was found in his apartment that matched the bullet that was recovered.”

“Murder, but not by the secret agent,” Elias shrugged then moved on, “Then next up were Draco, Katherina, and Aella.”

“An anarchist group took credit for the car bombing,” Alberic said, “It’s unlikely to suggest that an enemy agent did this. But…”

“The leader of the group was killed in prison under supposedly suspicious conditions shortly thereafter. The report is so heavily redacted and encrypted that we haven’t even seen the original yet,” Linus said.

“And no one has heard a peep from the group since then,” Viviana said, “All of the group’s electronics just went dark.”

“That sure sounds like something happened to them. They are a bunch of disorganized civilians. If one of our intelligence agents got near them it’d be a bloodbath,” Silvia said.

“Not exactly,” Elias said, “Our deep cover agents would do considerable damage, but all it takes is one good or lucky attack to end things.”

“I’m convinced,” Viviana said.

“Of what?” Silvia asked.

“Of Confederate resistance. I have the feeling the agents we killed weren’t the kind of operative this person is,” Viviana looked squarely at Elias, “I am convinced.”

“Now let’s get back to Steven. Here’s a picture of him,” Elias then pointed at him, “Six foot three, wide shoulders, athletic build, and very good with guns.”

“He’s Confederate Navy and despite growing up in an affluent family his father taught him how to use weapons and live off the land,” Linus said, “Crazy motherfucker for sure, but he’s on the run. His agitation could be explained by that and not anything else. He’s facing a lengthy sentence for a variety of felonies committed while he was a uniformed officer.”

“I agree, and not to be a buzzkill or anything, but he’s been in the city on only one of these murders, we have records of his truck speeding by our scanners out in the country. The real bugger of it all is that his truck is never seen anywhere near these murders,” Alberic added, “He’s been to the city center once this year with it.”

“Nor has he been sighted on a motorcycle. The guy wants nothing to do with people. Makes sense since he’s a poaching asshole,” Ellie said, “But I agree, someone is out there. I’m not sure if I believe it is him.”

“Alberic, I want you to come up with a plan to take him out at his cabin. We’re not going to move on this until we’re sure, but I want to…”

“Sir, with all due respect, he knew when you all went there. He is so far outside of the population that there is no way to hide an approach. The timing to do that would be to ambush him either on the road or when he’s in the city someplace, but the latter opens us up to significant risk.”

“I’ll help him with the plans,” Castor said, “Can’t hurt to have an extra set of eyes look at it.”

Alberic nodded.

“Thank you all, No one leaves this building alone. I’m sorry but we are so few and there is still work to do. Double up and I’d prefer the trips to occur early in the morning or evening. Now then, you can go back to trying to enjoy something after this god-awful day.”

One of the televisions then switched to William and accepted Dale’s concession. Elias shook his head with his hands on his hips. One by one his team left the living room until he was all alone.

It was an isolated feeling, but for the first time, the team believed as he did. Someone was out there, but whoever it was had done an excellent job at avoiding detection. That was not a reassuring feeling though, they were still out there. And no one knew when, or if, they would strike again. But this time, they will be ready and prepared for them.