One by one, the teams radioed in that they were ready. When all were in place, Tonya gave the signal and the teams executed their breaches. It was all over in less than five minutes. Mr. Sirling and his daughter were arrested at one of his residences. He had seemed surprised and offered no resistance. It was an almost anti-climactic end for Operation Moonlight.
It was not yet over in Amara’s eyes. She followed along as the teams searched the offices and properties and confiscated possible evidence. She knew Tonya’s people would go over it with a very fine comb and find whatever there was to be found.
Amara had her sights on the man himself. Sirling was fit for his age and seemed perfectly aware of what was happening. She could not wait to face the man.
Ninety minutes later, she was sitting opposite him. He had been quickly processed and immediately brought into an interrogation room. The president herself asking had expedited the procedure.
„I won’t beat around the bush.“, Amara began, „You might not end your life in prison if you cooperate fully.“
Stirling looked at her. He stared, almost. Then he spoke: „I am already dead. You killed me.“
Amara was surprised. From his biography she had expected haggling, a call for a lawyer, anything but what he had just said. But she kept her calm. Hundreds of diplomatic meetings had trained her to show no emotions she did not want to show. Especially not surprise.
„How so?“, she asked in the way one would ask for directions.
„You’ve done your homework, I assume.“, Sirling answered, „Your raid and the accusations raised are clear. Congratulations, you have shut down my operation. And with that, my lifeline.“
Amara looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
„Your records say that I’m 79 years old, don’t they? Well, they are wrong. I faked my age when I moved to Erulas. The record-keeping on Dephyr wasn’t perfect in those days and it was not too difficult. I’m 89, actually.“
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Amara kept looking, but she was internally fact-checking his words. Yes, she concluded, it fit the facts she knew. Sirling had come to Erulas in his mid 30s, after he had become wealthy. Four decades ago she could imagine a small change like that, one number just, to slip through. But why?
And no, he was fit for 79. She did not believe he was almost 90. Was he lying? What for?
„I can see what you are thinking.“, the man continued as if he was mocking her, „I don’t look my age at all. There’s the thing. A man of my wealth can buy almost everything. But even with the best human medicine, even with the private clinics on Dangorod, age is the undefeated master of us all. I spent two decades searching for a cure. I invested a fortune into research. To no avail.“
Amara began to see the piece of the puzzle falling into place.
„So“, Sirling went on, „when aliens with advanced bio-engineering offered me a deal that would prolong my life by decades, I took it.“
„At least a decade ago, I figure.“, Amara made a statement, not a question.
„Fifteen years about. Not long after the war, yes.“, Sirling admitted.
„Selling out your fellow humans right after a devastating war. Interesting attitude.“, Amaras words were cold.
„Humans lost the war, but the Qyrl suffered as well. They are more afraid of us than they admit. Their main interest, at least at that time, was preventing another war. And in that our interests aligned. I have no investments in the military industry. The war was bad for my business and another one would have been a disaster.“
Her face expressionless, Amara continued the questions: „What you did is high treason. Why admit it so readily? I’m sure you can afford lawyers that have a chance of getting you out on a technicality or something.“
Sirling sighed. „The Qyrl offered me rejuvenating treatments in exchange for my services. And the occasional alien technology. They intended to pay for the costs of the operation this way, but to be honest, I put quite a bit of my own money into it. I could not risk them pulling out of the deal. You see, the rejuvenation works. But it has to be constantly refreshed. It used to be every two or three years, now it’s at least once a year and it’ll get worse until eventually it can’t keep up anymore. If I don’t get my next treatment in four months from now, I will rapidly age and die. And since you demolished my network and arrested me, I am now worthless to the Qyrl.“
The man opposite Amara now made a much older, less alive impression than on the videos from his most recent public appearances.
„Even if my lawyers could bail me out.“, he concluded, „The Qyrl would always assume that you’ve turned me and I might have become a double-agent. And without my network of intercept stations, I have nothing to offer them. No value from me means no treatment for me.“
He slumped down in his chair, as if he had aged years in the past minutes.
„As I said. You killed me.“
He refused to answer any further questions after that.