1 Day Later. November 3rd, 2267. 08:05 Kenno Noir Building 1st Floor
Elias was scrubbing a plate in the kitchen. He was exhausted as he barely slept the previous night. As a result, his big morning plans had come and gone. Linus went to check on Daphne’s apartment, Elias made him swear up and down that it was just to surveil it and nothing more. He had to regain his honor in the eyes of some of his subordinates.
Coffee was now far more important to Elias than murder. He stood slumped over in front of the machine, painfully waiting for it to pour its concoction into his coffee mug. A loud and long sigh was let out as the liquid flowed into the mug.
“Anyone seen Viviana? She was doing some research with me yesterday, but I don’t know where she saved the information,” Alberic said from the dining room.
Elias slowly walked over to the kitchen table and looked out at the dining room, “She isn’t here?”
Ellie then stepped out of her office, “We were with her yesterday evening, but left when Daphne showed up.”
“Why didn’t you report that to me?” Elias’ question contained a hint of judgment.
“You were in the office by yourself and acting all broody. I filed a report about it,” Castor said, “In that report, I noted that Viviana didn’t leave as she was ordered to.”
“The two of them were thick as thieves when they were out and about,” Bacchus said, “And yes, we were ordered to observe your team when we could. Never did see Vee do anything untoward, but Daphne…”
Elias simply pointed at Bacchus to end the thought right there, “Where is she now? Ellie, please check her room to see if she’s there.”
Elias was now fully awake, not caffeinated, and highly annoyed. The coffee machine then dinged in the other room. That was his queue to solve at least one of his problems, albeit a minor one now. He walked back into the kitchen and grabbed his mug.
Then he walked back into the dining room took a seat at the table and waited for his team. Ellie was the first, her expression was easy to read as she walked down the stairs. Just as Ellie was about to speak Linus burst into the front door.
“Never a dull moment around here,” Elias said sarcastically, “Ellie, what did you find?”
“An empty room. I also checked the logins for entries to this building and she hasn’t been back here since she checked out last night.”
“Daphne’s apartment was full of people. Police officers were going through her apartment,” Linus said bluntly.
Alberic then joined the group as he sat down on the second rung of stairs, “Probably a good thing we didn’t go there this morning.”
“Ok, what in the hell happened?” Elias said in a very serious tone, “I want answers now.”
“Checking the news,” Bacchus said as he picked up his tablet.
“I’ll go check her room again,” Ellie said.
“Alberic, go with her. Check to see if anything is amiss.”
Ten long and excruciating minutes went by. Not a word was spoken in the dining room. Bacchus scoured the local extra-net for news. Castor did the same but was looking through the police reports. It was clear he had found something as he was intently reading a police report of some unknown nature to Elias.
Ellie and Alberic then reappeared as they walked down the stairs. They both bore looks of concern on their faces. Elias noticed this immediately and spoke.
“Clearly, we’ve found things. First up is you two, what did you discover in her room?”
“Viviana’s Confederate identification and papers were not in the room. Her Xenuian communicator was left in the room,” Ellie said cautiously, “Her sub-dermal device isn’t responding either.”
“And there appeared to be a device that likely shorted out her dermal implant,” Alberic said, “I’ll have to do some more work to confirm that, but that’s likely why she isn’t showing up in our tracking services.”
“That implies she’s absconding from her duties, but doesn’t confirm it,” Elias spoke carefully but directly, “Given her association with Daphne that is within the realm of possibilities. Bacchus, you are up next.”
“I did two things; I had the VI I’ve been used to scouring the news for any murders last night. I also looked into Viviana and Daphne’s expense accounts to see if anything was purchased,” Bacchus chuckled at what he was seeing, “Call it a stroke of luck for them to leave Daphne's account open. Two one-way tickets were purchased to the Eta Indi system.”
“That kinda pours water on any innocent reasoning she may have had,” Alberic said.
“Agreed. What did your other search indicate?” Elias nodded curtly.
“There were six murders…” Bacchus was then interrupted by Castor.
“Most importantly, there was a double murder-suicide at the Hilton Inn. Which just so happens to be a short walk from the Robinhood Apartments. And just down the street from the pub that we were at,” Castor paused, “There was a woman found naked and dead of a gunshot wound to the forehead. In the adjoining room, another woman was found strangled to death in her bedroom, and a man was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound laying atop of her.”
Ellie put her hands to her mouth in horror and was barely able to ask the question through the emotions she was feeling, “Were the women?”
Castor nodded, “Their Confederate IDs were found, they both tied back to Daphne and Viviana. They are now deceased.”
Elias clenched his fist into a ball and slammed it onto a plate on the table. The plate shattered into several pieces, cutting his hand deeply. The crimson blood dripped onto the table drop after drop. His fist was still balled together in rage.
Once more something happened to his team. While those individuals may have been traitors to the cause, they were his responsibility and now he’ll never make them account for their sins. He had forever lost the chance to do that, and instead, some mystery man was responsible for that.
“Castor and Alberic, work on getting security camera footage from the pub, the streets, and the hotel around the time of the murder. I want a profile run on any suspects they have, including the dead man. Bacchus, you and Silvia will work on that. Ellie, I want you to contact the coroner’s office and confirm that the two women were our one-time compatriots.”
Everyone in the room nodded silently. Two more dead. How much more will this world take from him? Elias was stewing inside. This mission had taken his fiancé and shattered his team. How much more would he have to endure before it was all over?
The burden of leadership was crushing him. There was a thin ray of hope in the construction project. But at the rate they were losing people, it seemed a stretch for them to last until the new year. Despite those grave concerns Elias began steeling himself internally, he had to because failure was not an option.
December 17th, 2267. 12:40 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead
The emotions within Elias flared up again. He gripped the gun so tightly he could feel the gun grip’s stippling dig into his flesh. His teeth were gritted together, and breathing became much more labored and audible. That familiar urge to kill grew within him once again.
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“That was you’re doing I presume?”
John shrugged, “I killed Viviana and the dude. Turns out that one was a serial killer. Daphne was his twelfth victim in the past fifteen months. I made it look like a suicide.”
“Which the cops bought, again. How did they miss the obvious?”
“Well, I think they were surprised about the DNA hit on that guy and while the modus operandi of one of the murders had changed slightly, tying him to both of these murders and the others made them care less about the change in MO,” John sighed, “That’s my presumption of course, I didn’t spend any time reviewing their file history to see if that was what they did. Plus, both women were recent immigrants with no real connection to the colony so no voices were screaming for justice and a more thorough and complete investigation.”
“Unlike you, my team and I did just that. And that is precisely what they found.”
John chuckled to himself, “The police in this world are very lazy, aren’t they?”
“Why did they have to die?”
John turned and looked at Elias. He looked confused. The question seemed ridiculous to him.
“That’s quite the audacious question coming from someone who is invading my territory. They all had to die because they were enemy soldiers. It is that simple, we are enemies,” John paused for a moment, “Had your superiors never sent you, or another team, into our territory under a hostile flag then their deaths would not have had to occur.”
“That isn’t…”
“Come now Elias, your nation has effectively declared war on mine by these actions. By your actions in this world. Surely you knew we wouldn’t take it lying down.”
“My people didn’t deserve to be butchered the way they were,” the paint Elias felt was given verbal form, “How the last three you toyed with them. Their wounds were fatal if we moved them to inspect their wounds.”
“I’ll concede the brutality part,” John said as he looked back at the screen, “Look, something big is coming.”
“My people deserved better than to be cut down the way you did.”
“No, my fellow secret agent, they did not.”
“Enemies we may be, but honorable combat…” Elias began to protest.
“There’s nothing honorable about war. Nothing at all. The only thing that happens in war is death and destruction,” John said quietly, “Crimes are committed, some hushed up never to be spoken again. Others are so public that the norms during wartime are changed to appear more humane. What is humane about a man killing another man?”
“That’s rich coming from a butcher like you. You have no right to speak of the dead in the manner you do.”
“I speak the truth. Brutality is at times necessary to temper our opponent's willingness to fight. To make them question their capability to wage war. Only a select few are capable of setting aside their moral compasses and doing what must be done to end a conflict. Or stop it before it starts. Very few of those individuals have the capability of functioning in society because at their cores they are all broken in some way, shape, or form.”
“Did it ever occur to you to do what we are doing now? To debrief them and acquire intelligence. It seems to me that you’ve entirely missed an opportunity to help your cause prepare for us,” Elias spoke in an accusatory tone.
John turned back to watch the screen. Slip wakes were begging to appear in real space. The larger the ship, the larger the wake. Whatever was barreling through slip space was massive. And it was just minutes away from temporarily ripping apart the very fabric of space-time. He was genuinely curious to see this behemoth of a ship.
“Truth be told, I hadn’t thought about it at the moment. Later on, I did and had some regrets about that. Thankfully, I was able to acquire one of your databases during my assault on your base today. It finished decrypting about an hour ago,” John smiled as he took a drink and looked out the window, “Since your stranglehold on your communications systems is no more Naval Intelligence has what you brought with you.”
Elias shook his head, “A captured enemy would be worth their weight in gold.”
“Maybe a senior officer, such as yourself, would be worth capturing. What I find is the lower ranks often don’t know nearly as much as you think they do. You and me on the other hand? We’re treasure troves of information.”
“Trying to save your life? If so, you are doing a terrible job of it,” Elias cursed at John’s statement internally.
“Once again, it doesn’t mean that I am wrong. You can pussy foot around the issue, but you know this, as well as I, that capturing me would be a coup to your military operations. While I may be a vile being, you cannot deny that I am not both intelligent and a reservoir of military intelligence that could aid you in your war.”
“You won’t help us willingly. You aren’t wired to do that,” Elias stood up from his stool and shouted.
“You are right, I won’t,” John said slowly, “I’m sure you have methods to extract such information from unwilling subjects like me. The real question here, which I am convinced you haven’t answered yet, is whether or not you are willing to capture me and pass me on to your superiors or just take revenge for the fallen comrades I am responsible, or indirectly responsible, for killing.”
Elias couldn’t handle that comment. His emotional wall broke. Rage built inside of him, and he saw red. In that momentary loss of control, Elias gripped the pistol as hard as he could. His trigger finger pulled the trigger past the point where the seer was engaged. The hammer fell yet the chambered round didn’t fire. More concerning for Elias was that he hadn’t noticed his actions.
For two minutes there was absolute silence in the room. The home’s furnace kicked on which helped snap Elias out of his bloodthirst. Elias was left with a feeling of pure disgust welling up in his stomach.
John, ever the evil bastard, was right. Elias knew that if his commanders ever found out that a man like his prisoner was killed and not captured, heads would roll. John was the perfect intelligence asset for them to use against the Confederates. If his superiors knew he had John in this situation, they would order him to capture him. Those were, in effect, his de facto orders now.
How in the heavens could Elias allow that to stand? This man, intelligent and well-spoken as he was, was evil. Elias had never met an evil person. He had been made witness to men doing evil deeds, but that doesn’t mean at their cores they were evil. There was nothing about this large man drinking comfortably in his chair that was good. He was an immoral and unethical man who used any means to accomplish his mission. Damn the consequences and may God have mercy on any innocents that get in the way or dare to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The silence continued in the room as Elias grappled with his emotions. He knew what was expected of him. But for all of those who died before him, he heard those voices more clearly than others. It was as if they were singing in a harmonious tune, they demanded justice. And Elias’ voice added to the chorus was one singing about revenge.
“You deserve to die.”
John chuckled, “Don’t I know it? I’ve earned that many times over. Cheated death just as many times though.”
“You think you can cheat death once more?”
“Who knows what the future will hold?”
Elias shook his head, “Stand up, unlike you, I’ll give you the dignity to face the one that ends you.”
John stood up and gestured to give him a moment. He picked up his glass and gulped down the last bit of amber liquid. He smiled as he turned to face Elias.
“Wouldn’t want to go out without experiencing that spirit one last time. I suppose I owe you thanks for that,” John’s smile grew as he stared intently at his would-be murderer, “Now then, let’s get this over with.”
A moment later John’s expression changed. Gone was the smile and the affable nature he had shown. Replacing it was a murderous intent. The mask was gone, and Elias stared at the true nature of his villain. If he didn’t kill him right then and there, he’d be the one that would be dead.
“I hope you spend an eternity rotting in hell for all of the pain and suffering you’ve caused.”
John not only didn’t flinch, but he also didn’t blink. It was as if he was peering into Elias’ very soul. Elias grasped the gun with his offhand and pointed it at John. The crosshairs were aimed squarely at his heart. Then he pulled the trigger again.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me, you got a hang fire?” John said incredulously, “Jesus Christ man, rack the fucking slide and do it properly.”
Elias fumbled with the gun but eventually ejected the defective round and took aim once again. He pulled the trigger after aiming, again. And once again, nothing happened. The visage of murderous intent evaporated from John’s appearance. Replacing it was general disappointment, which further confused Elias in the situation.
Four more times he repeated the same song and dance. Eject the defective rounds and try again. But try as he might nothing seemed to work. The last time he did that the ejected round bounced off a cabinet and landed on the countertop. It wedged itself under a plate.
Elias picked up the round and looked at it curiously. The primer wasn’t punched. The confusion grew until panic finally set in. His gun was useless. But how? How the hell was his gun not working? It made no sense.
He took his eyes off John for but a moment inspecting the ejected round. In that moment John leaned down and pulled a gun from his whisky glass tray next to his chair. When Elias looked back up, he was staring at a pistol being aimed at him.
And unlike him, he knew the tables had turned. Even more, he knew that John would not hesitate to act. The worst part about everything was hearing that aggravating and mocking chuckle that John was having at his expense.
Panic then changed to defeat when Elias came upon a stark realization. John wanted all of this to happen. All of it. Everything that had happened today had been scripted by him. All of the actors played their roles to a ‘t.’ Including him.
“Oh, my gods,” Elias said as he slumped his shoulders, “Everything. You orchestrated everything. All of our reactions today. You commanded everything.”
“Just about. I wanted you to come here to end me. But I needed you to have a heart and send the most broken member of your team to your ship first. That was crucial.”
“What did you say?”
“I had a feeling that your medic wouldn’t be able to manage the final brutal murders. My observation of her suggested that she was at her breaking point as all the death on the team was weighing on her more heavily than others. Castor, I believe that’s her boyfriend, picked up on it and tried to shoulder some of her emotional load, but she wasn’t willing to let him carry that. I had hoped that the three I killed this morning would result in an emotional breakdown.”
“What did you do?”
Just then on the screen, a massive ship tore into real space. Elias’ eyes bulged but a smile began to form. John used his gun to order Elias to sit down at the other table.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll have that drink now.”