“We’re going to do it,” Leon said as he exited the Black Shield base, Detlef trailing slightly behind him. “We’re going to get it out of the lake while we can.”
“Smart thinking,” Detlef said, agreeing that carrying out their absurd stunt without the Anbieter’s presence and with Jay’s occupation with overseeing the base the perfect way to distract them from what the two young medics had decided to do. Growing up with very few other children around him in the Glacial Lands, Detlef found himself to be very shy and socially withdrawn in the presence of others. The main exception was when he was in the company of other medics, people who had something in common with him. “But there was a reason they dumped the body into the lake and didn’t keep it in that forest.”
Utrium attracts Utrium. Nothing more, nothing less.
“My grandfather is one of the best doctors up here in the north,” Leon said, proud of his Bernard heritage. “He taught me well. We’ll get this done with by tonight and dump it back in.”
“I hear you.” Detlef said.
Using hovering scooters that glided over the sloping surface of the Marius Mountains, they descended the rocky giants in a matter of twenty minutes. Leon was grateful knowing that whatever Anwen put her mind to, she’d see it through to the end, and do it well too. They reached the shores of Lake Marius and rowed out for 15 minutes until they arrived at a point where Leon had seen the body of the Abnormal Titanian get dumped very early that same morning.
Detlef tethered the end of a long rope to the boat, while Leon removed his shirt, glasses and shoes.
“You’re gonna help me pull it up once I get back.” Leon said. Detlef nodded in agreement.
Granny don’t worry. Today, we’ll find out what the freaks who took you away really are.
Leon dove into the cool, calm water. His vision was less than ideal on land, even more so underwater. Thankfully, his memory which he had honed through years of medical study allowed him to determine the location of the Titanian corpse. The body had sunk due to large rocks in bags tied to its limbs, which he cut using a knife he’d kept in his pant pocket. He then looped the rope around its waist, tied it as tight as he could. He didn’t have to worry about damaging its skin, since its imperviousness remained even a day after its owner’s demise. He’d wondered for a moment how long it took the bodies of Angels to decompose, but he could ponder on later. He quickly returned to the surface before the air in his body could go stale and boarded the boat again. Together, Leon and Detlef tugged on the rope using all the strength in their bodies, careful not to accidentally capsize themselves as they hauled in the heavy body. Although, for its size and shape, Leon noticed that it was relatively light and minimally tiring.
Before wrapping it up in tarpaulin, Detlef noticed a metal shape hovering in front of its chest.
“I reckon that’s a dog tag.” he remarked.
“This bastard was in their military, after all. At least before he went berserk,” Leon said. He used his knife to cut the tag’s lace, before handing it to Detlef as a memento.
“You can keep that,” he said. “That’s yours. But the secrets of the body, those are mine.”
It was not long before the two reached the shores of Marius. They scanned the area to make sure no fisherman who were in the area could see them. Detlef couldn’t help but remember his own past of subsistence fishing, but Leon quickly determined there were no unwanted eyes. The two youths pushed the body over the wall that separated the beach from the Bernard house. It appeared to be empty inside, so they hastily brought it to the basement which was used not only as a space for storage, but also as a facility for Dr. Bernard to conduct post-mortems in.
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“The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we have less questions to be answered.” Leon said as he and Detlef heaved the body onto a metal table with a drainage hole that connected to the floor via a pipe.
The stairs of the old house suddenly creaked under the weight of a person descending them.
“Shit, someone’s here.” Detlef said nearly panicking.
“Don’t worry,” Leon said, patting his quiet, anxious friend’s shoulder. “It’s just my grandpa.”
“Can’t you let an old man be at peace…?” Felix grumbled. He looked about a half-decade older than he actually was, and it didn’t appear that he was going to fight back whoever had gone down into his basement. He turned the corner, a grumpy look on his face, but it quickly became a grin as he recognized his grandson. “Leon, is that you?”
“Grandpa, I’d love nothing more than to have a reunion now,’ Leon said in a stern but respectful tone. “But we have something big at hand.”
Dr. Bernard saw the foreign corpse lying behind the two young men. He knew what they were going to do. He didn’t have to ask any questions.
“Alright, lads,” he said, opening a cabinet to retrieve three pair of rubber gloves and three bandanas. “It looks like we’ve got some work to do.”
Two hours passed. The corpse was cut open, examined and sewn back up before being replaced in the tarpaulin.
“Why is it… why are they there?” Leon said, holding his head, barely able to stand as his body trembled. Detlef sat next to him on the ground, his head in his hands as he leaned against a wall.
“Those organs… their size, their shape, their locations…” Detlef muttered, both boys horrified almost beyond words by their discoveries.
“You boys need to do something for me,” Dr. Bernard said, much calmer but well aware that what he had seen was not expected at all. “Dump it back where you found it. And do not tell a single person about what we’ve found today. It stays between the three of us. Otherwise… the entire North will erupt into chaos.”
-
“So… you knew the whole time that Stefan’s mum was dead?” Anwen asked as she sat about two feet from Gareth outside of the barn, where they had allowed Stefan and Vigdis to collect their thoughts in peace. The Anbieter and the other soldiers worked not far away, digging new graves for the late inhabitants of Derban. Simple stones would be used to mark the final resting places for most of them. After some discussion with Vigdis and Jay via long-com device, he had decided that Kallista deserved to later be interred in a mausoleum. Fitting for a hero who attempted to fully liberate her land.
“I did,” Gareth admitted. “I didn’t watch it happen. She wouldn’t have died… had I arrived just a little earlier.”
“It’s not your fault.” Anwen said, aware that Gareth was trying to blame himself for it. She could tell that his reason of not wanting to distract Stefan from his training—he had been trying not to remind himself of what he thought to have been his failure.
“The Titanian military said I was the greatest threat to them they’d had in centuries,” Gareth said. “Yet I couldn’t even save one woman.”
“I’d like you to be honest with me, Gareth. And don’t default to beating yourself up again,” Anwen sighed. She’d been getting frustrated. Between seeing both her mentor and her best friend crumble upon learning the fate of a dear woman in their lives, and her father putting it on himself for having allowed it to happen, it had all made her head swampy and overwhelmed. She had to get something off of her chest, something to relieve a little bit of her anxiety. “What are you to Stefan?”
“W-What?” he stuttered, in a partial daze ever since Stefan learned of his mother’s demise.
“Why did you save Stefan all those months ago? Who is he to you?”
“The tattoo on my back,” Gareth said. “You remember it, right?”
“It’s a symbol of the Karesti family. They’re…”
How could he just tell her that the Karesti family were the rulers of the Titanian Empire?
“Some elite family on Titan, right?” Anwen said, remembering the book containing the Leistung protocol.
So the Anbieter must’ve whispered something in front of her about it. That saves me some trouble.
“The rulers, actually,” Gareth said. “Now, I’m nothing like a prince. I’m the farthest thing from one, but I hail from that bloodline. And, well, so does Stefan.”
“Y-You and Stefan are related?” Anwen said, astonished for the first time in quite a while. “Don’t tell me… are you, his dad?”
Gareth snorted.
“We are related, but not to that extent. He is… my nephew. The son of my brother.”
“You have a brother, too?” Anwen said, a nervous smile across her face. “Oh God, this is… so much happening at once.”
“I think we need to take a trip.” Gareth said. He got to his feet and headed for the craft, gesturing for Anwen to follow. She didn’t know what was about to happen, but she was both anxious and eager to learn more. Her emotionally distant father had finally decided to open up a bit.