Memory transcription subject: Estala, Prestige Extermination Officer, Krakotl to Venlil Extermination training leader.
Date [standardized human time]: October 18th, 2136
“By Inatala, by the Protector, by Solgalick and the Stars, we will succeed, no matter the cost!!”
I shouted the final statement at the crowd of Exterminators standing below me, my words filled with hope and denomination as they cheered and clapped in response, the energy picking up in the room of despondent people. I’d been invited to help the Dawn Creek Exterminator’s guild with their… incompetence problem, in response to the new horrors we faced. Of course, it was all lies; we were in our darkest times, our worst times. Kalsim had failed, the humans had allied with the Arxur, predators banding together to destroy all good-natured prey.
I gave an encouraging wave of my wing to the crowd as I stepped off the podium, keeping my appearance positive, even though my thoughts were anything but. This district was a mess. I could see the group of supposed Exterminators I’d been speaking to were all hung over. As if they were Junior Exterminators passing training, as if they’d seen the Extermination fleet arriving at Earth as a party, instead of the most dangerous time for Venlil Prime. They were lucky that Kalsim had failed, since had the predators triggered their fiendish plans, this group would have not been ready for them.
I slowly made my way towards the office of the man who was in charge here. A Krakotl by the name of Kevros. I quickly made my way as I followed him, feeling the anger and rage start to bubble up inside of me as I approached the private area, keeping my feathers from flaring up until I closed the door behind me. While I was of the opinion that there were a lot of Exterminators who needed shouting at, I’d never do so in front of their subordinates.
I watched as Kevros took his commanding position behind his desk, sitting upon his perch as I chose to stand, now my feathers flaring out in rage and annoyance as I glared at him.
“What in the Maltos cursed hells are you thinking!”
Kevros’ feathers flared momentarily before they soothed. “I am afraid you will have to clarify what you mean.”
“Where do I start with this mess of a district…” I continued, trying to keep my voice low enough to not be heard by anyone else. “That’s not a rhetorical question by the way, I’m legitimately confused about where to start with this disaster.”
I gave a deep breath, trying to keep my annoyance in check in order to avoid my voice travelling outside the room.
“Let’s start with the obvious, shall we. Why do the group of Exterminators that you’re supposedly in charge of, look like they just stumbled out of a paw long pub session?”
“Oh,” he chirped, “could it perhaps be due to the fact that someone as prestigious as Estala has lent a claw to help, as well as my actions in getting our full funding back being seen as a reason to celebrate?”
I gave the idiot a glare, my feathers flaring out as I spoke.
“Flattery will not get you out of this, don’t piss in my wind and tell me it’s raining! Unless you’re saying the entire guild managed to get drunk and then sober up for a hangover in less than a quarter claw, it’s clear why and how the entire office smells like a brewery.”
Kevros shrunk his neck. “That was- that wasn’t unique to here. It was our fleet, we had to celebrate their heroism.”
Kevros was kind of right, but in the worst kind of way, in a way that made everything worse. There had been a lot of shouting from myself at Exterminator guild districts who had made similar stupid mistakes of not being ready.
“If everyone else jumped into a shade stalker’s jaws, would you follow them? Just what did you think the humans would do if Kalsim was successful, just lie down and die? No! They’d be triggering whatever terrible plan they have. There are millions of the predators on Venlil Prime, and it’s our job to protect the Venlil from them. Not to get trashed as if you’re a Junior Exterminator.”
He opened his mouth but I cut him off. “We have to be representative of the safety of the herd! I know it’s not something people can be at all times, but we should at least be trying to show that!”
“I know that!” Kevros protested, “I got this position because the previous chief failed in exactly that! After the whole Tarlim debacle-”
“Oh let's talk about Tarlim, let's bring him up!” I interrupted with a squawk, “I thought that problem was solved, but seemingly I was very wrong, because somehow this district is still harassing him! And it’s the same people as last time! Why are those three patrolling in this district considering their history?”
“As opposed to?”
“Anywhere! I don’t care where they go. Any other district. Nishtal. The Sivkit Fleet. Even putting them on a spaceship towards the predator's home planet would be better! Literally anywhere that isn’t here! Because I checked their records, and the first thing they did after getting unsuspended was come up with some predatorshit excuse to go for a round 2 with Tarlim and enter his home under a circumstance that would not hold up in court.”
“That was a standard search for hidden predators after finding a victim of an attack! We did it with every apartment and building within a [five mile] radius of the victim. It’s part of the standard operating procedure-”
“No.” I interrupted his pitiful excuses, pointing my wing in an accusatorial manner, the word sternly cutting off his attempt to justify the wrong that had been committed. “I looked at the logs. Tarlim’s apartment is on the third of five floors, yet was the first place searched in the entire block. In fact, his apartment block was the first place searched in the entire investigation, even though Tarlim’s home is at the edge of the standard search area. I am not stupid. Judges in courtrooms are not stupid. Please do not insult my intelligence.”
“And if you also check those logs,” he countered, “You will further see that was brought about by Treven breaking ranks and charging there first. Why are you even caring about one PD weirdo?”
“Because he’s a member of the herd, one proven not to have predator disease, it’s your duty to protect him, not go around assaulting him!” My temper finally broke, my voice raising to an actual shouting squawk as the audacity of this statement finally got to me. This was the entire reason I was on Venlil Prime in the first place! “Even ignoring the ethical concerns, what about the legal ones? You realize that he’s the guy who slashed your budget right? That if Tarlim wanted to, he could sue you and everyone in this district and would probably win! I didn’t realize you were a religious man, but if you’re going to take a vow of poverty can you keep the Exterminator’s guild out of it!”
Kevros stayed silent as I shouted at him, a look of guilt, presumably due to the culpability in his actions in this entire ordeal finally got through to him. Just how much money and resources had been wasted on Tarlim, when there were bigger issues to talk about?
“It’s not even the worst thing this district has done. You endangered all of us and nearly set a human on fire, on live TV. As much as I hate to say this about a predator, there was no good reason for it, and people are justified to be angry at your actions.”
“The officer instigating the incident has been dealt with,” he stated instantly. “They burned bridges with even their family. Without their influence, Treven will no longer tread any guild hall.”
“You should have dealt with it before! You are the one in charge here, and Treven has been a known problem for a while!” I gave an exacerbated sigh as the true danger of what this district had done fully hit the both of us. “The only reason it didn’t escalate was because of the suit it was wearing. What do you think would happen if you’d actually killed it? Tarva is already wary of our interactions with the predators, making that worse isn’t going to help. Maybe that was their plan all along: Wait until someone freaks about their terrible stalking, then use that as a reason to have their cattle leading predator warriors to take over the Exterminators to ‘protect their people’!”
“And what am I supposed to do then?” He squawked, “every bit of this situation goes against everything in our training! All of it! Do you remember what we were told we should do if a predator made landfall on the planet? ‘Make sure to burn as many of them as you can before you die.’ The main office even authorized emergency extra supplies of stimulants after contact to assist in that very action! So what are you expecting everyone to do?”
“I… I don’t know.” I felt my anger dissipate at the complete lack of… way forward we had as protectors of the herd. “I don’t know what the predator’s plans are, the fleet was defeated, I just don’t know.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, the annoyance at this disaster of an Exterminator’s guild being replaced with a… tiredness, the stress of the humans invading Venlil Prime hitting me fully. I couldn’t sleep properly, constantly anxious and waiting for the inevitable predator attack.
“What I do know is, we have a responsibility Kevros. I know you didn’t do your training on Nishtal, but you’re still a Krakotl. A Krakotl Exterminator. People look up to us, to protect them, to help them. The Venlil are well known to be weak and overly empathetic, meaning it’s our duty to keep them safe. We have a responsibility to the herd, no matter how difficult or how obscured the path is.”
—----------------------
Memory transcription subject: Estala, Human Methods Advisor to the Exterminators.
Date [standardized human time]: March 19th, 2137
I sat on the seat, annoyed at the lack of perch to properly rest upon, waiting in the sterile blank room for the prisoner to arrive. Selalee Penitentiary was a minimum security prison, mostly because all prisons were minimum security. If you did anything serious that required more than that, normally you’d be sent to the PD facilities, but their recent closings meant that the system was struggling to work out where to place violent offenders.
I imagined Orhew was about to suffer worsening conditions. What he did previously could be explained away: Stress from the humans arriving, mental breakdown, trying to stop the meat factories from printing their gruesome contents. A favourable jury could be found in such circumstances, and no prosecutor would want to try their luck compared with getting an easy plea deal. Mute’s other crimes however…
I watched as the door was opened, several Venlil guards leading Mute to the opposite side of the table, staring at him warily as he was chained to the table to stop the once Exterminator getting any ideas. While I was certain I could kick his ass if needed, since all his victims had been untrained PD facility members, nobody was taking any chances. The results from the human forensics had come back, confirming that the claws and teeth we found were real, and matched several people on our list of possible murders. They also matched a lot of names that weren’t on our list.
Just how many people has this person killed?
It was difficult to get my head around: Orhew had always been an above average Exterminator, and as he sat across from me, I couldn’t imagine him being responsible for so many deaths. Just how many was the reason I was here: We had enough evidence to charge him without his confession, but really we needed a list of names so we could let their families know.
As he was placed in the chair Orhew just stared ahead. It was like he was barely putting in the effort to stay upright in his seat. His eyes didn’t even appear to be focusing upon anything l did, instead staring off into space as I sat on my own seat.
“Hey, he isn’t drugged, is he?” I asked, giving a sigh, wondering if this entire thing has been a waste of time. If he wasn’t of sound mind then nothing he could say here today would be admissible. “I need him to be fully cognizant… I thought we banned, or at least strongly advised against such practices being done any more?”
The guard flicked their ears in the negative. “He’s been mostly unresponsive. Still eats and cares for himself, but he’s barely reacted to anything beyond that. Only heard of him spe- ah- communicating with two other people while here. So whatever you’re wanting to talk to him about, I wish you luck.”
I shook my head, and set my pad to record the conversation. I had to be sure the annoying paperwork part of the situation was completed. Nothing would be worse than making this conversation inadmissible.
“This is Exterminator Estala, cond-”
He moved.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Orhew was now upright. Ears straight. Tail stiff and alert. His head pointed directly at me. I could even see his pupils had twitched, both now staring at my person. They seemed to bore a hole deep within my soul, as if he was sizing me up, working out who and what I was I my core. I’d faced off against Arxur, violent criminals and even a few Humanity First types. Those people at least had something behind their eyes. An intent. Even the Arxur had hunger behind them.
This was as if a void looked upon me.
I coughed, trying to reset my flow and remove the unsettling feeling creeping along my spine. “This is Exterminator Estala, conducting an interview at Selalee Penitentiary with previous Exterminator Orhew, also known as ‘Mute’. Orhew has been informed that this interview is voluntary, but if there is any information not provided at this time that he would wish to use later, that this may harm his defence. The time and date is [13:51, March 19th, 2137]. Can Orhew please verbally confirm this for the recording.”
His expression shifted at my words, a relief as it actually became an expression. It was… annoyance? His right paw drew up, chain catching on the desk as it reached its furthest extent. He waved his paw flatly across his throat, staring at me like a parent disappointed in their chick's report card.
Oh Inatala damn it! I forgot he was literally mute!!
Before I could respond, the door opened revealing a brown Venlil guard looking embarrassed.
“Sorry! I, uh, I forgot to put this on him.”
He held up what looked to be simple black collar, make of sleek black metal. It was handed to the guard in charge of securing Mute, who then walked it over to the prisoner. Orhew lifted his neck while letting out a sigh as it was secured tightly around his person. The guard gave a light tap to the part touching his throat and stepped back into his position, as Orhew gave an experimental cough before he spoke.
“I. Acknowledge the time. And agree.”
His voice, as it was mechanically supported, sounded scratched and robotic. But it was also unlike the few Electrolarynx users I had heard before. Their voices sounded like they were gargling gravel. But his… it was like he only had deep congestion. The collar wrapped around his neck also looked like no other device I’d seen before, and upon closer inspection, I could see strange alien human letters written upon them.
That was interesting, that the Heartbreak Killer would use a ‘predator’ device.
“So Orhew, you were an Exterminator from [June 8th, 2122] up until the present. Suspended between [May 3rd, 2134] and [July 12, 2136], correct?”
“Correct.”
“After your suspension ended, and you were reinstated, you continued your Exterminator duties until the time of the meat factory incident?”
“No.”
Wait, what? He was definitely part of the group reinstated… and he wasn’t part of that True Exterminators bullshit after the- wait.
“Did you continue or cease your duties upon the revelation that so many species were actually omnivorous, and thus considered predators?”
A spark flickered across his eyes. The first I had seen in them. One of nostalgia and… regret. “I had much to figure out. So much… wrong. Had to leave for something I thought pure.”
Well I knew that feeling. Admittedly I didn’t go off and kill a bunch of people and just embarrassed myself instead...
“During your suspension, what was your employment?”
“I had none. I had no need.”
“Do you remember what you were doing on August 7th, 2136?”
The spark I had seen faded. His expression became stone once more, staring me on. “What I believed to be my duty.”
It was basic interview strategy, get the target talking, get them comfortable and go over basic facts, before slipping in important questions in between everything else. A predatory way of trapping criminals, so obviously it was an idea I’d learnt from the humans.
“Do you know a Regven, do you recognize this Venlil?”
I positioned the pad I was holding to show a picture of the first known victim of the Heartbreak Killer. He looked happy in that photo, not a care in the world whenever it had been taken. But Orhew didn’t take his focus off of me.
“I know Regven. Do you?”
I could see the shift in his body language, he knew what he’d done, but the question was whether he knew that I knew what he’d done.
“Not personally, but I’m interested in his death. The ‘predator’ who killed him was never caught, and I know you were part of the first group to try and find the predator. Did you see anything strange or weird about the death? As an Exterminator you must have had some thoughts on what did it.”
I asked the question, hoping Mute would slip up before he fully realized what I knew. All I needed was for him to slip up, to say something he couldn’t know.
“I know what did it. Do. You?”
Okay, so he was already picking up that I knew something. I would need to throw him off balance, make him overthink his responses. Make blunders in his mental search for the perfect story.
“We’ll get back to that, the humans have some interesting theories. During your time at the Dawn Creek Exterminators guild, what were the rules around record keeping?”
He didn’t respond beyond a slight uncertain tilt of the head, so I continued.
“Because a lot of the Dawn Creek records have been deleted, I had to go to the raw logs to gather the autopsy reports. I then got IT to look at the logs of the person who last edited those files. Your name came up a lot.”
That was admittedly a lie. The system didn’t log changes and who made them, an oversight we needed to push and update for ASAP. Orhew probably didn’t know that little fact, however.
Yet while I spoke looking for fear and uncertainty to pass over his face, none came. Instead, his features relaxed into what I could only call relief at my words. “You know,” he stated with more emotion than he had given till now. “You know. You Know!”
It was like he was cheering. His tail was in a wag, his hands shaking, ears twitching in enthusiasm. What was this?
My mouth ran before I could stop myself. “Well, I don’t know everything. There are a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Maybe, maybe it was an accident, or predatory taint making things complicated. If that’s the case then I need that information, because without it, it doesn’t look good.”
It was another trick I’d learnt from studying the human way of doing things. Offer a way out, the ability to take the path of least blame while still forcing them to admit what they did. I still had the results from the shrine to bring this home later.
“Don’t lie.” Stated suddenly, cutting off my thoughts. “One as Pure as you. Should not lie. You know. Know what true Taint did.”
He breathed heavily, staring me down hard. “What proof. Did you find? So the truth will be known.”
Ugh, this was annoying. Just vague enough that a lawyer could argue it was about something else, while very clearly he knew that I knew. Not that it mattered. I guessed now was as good a time as ever to pull out the proper evidence. I changed the picture once again on the pad, this time showing the picture of the shrine.
“Are you a religious man Orhew? Do you recognize this shrine to The Herd?”
He relaxed back into his seat. “You found it. Did you find my desecration? Or was there none? As The Herd is another Falsehood?”
I paused for a moment, giving a deep sigh. That was probably enough to confirm it was him who had created the shrine and its grizzly contents, but that left the main question I needed to ask.
“I found some of it, the offerings. How many were there Orhew? That’s what I need to know. At this point the best thing to do is to allow the truth to set you free.”
His tail wagged. “I know you, Estala. You are famous. Pure.”
I gave a confused look at that statement. He kept calling me that.
“What do you mean by ‘pure’?
“You were as an Exterminator should be. Ordered. Firm. An inspiration. Caring. Good. You are Pure.”
That… that wasn’t creepy at all. Even ignoring him being wrong about my ‘good’ personality, being called ‘pure’ by a mass murderer left a terrible shiver running through every tip of my feathers. I suppressed a shudder before continuing…
“Why is me being pure so important?”
“You will know what to do. How to deal with my taint. How to deal with someone who has murdered so many.”
Again, creepy. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from Orhew, but it wasn’t this: this was unsettling.
“Well, in order for us to work out what to do next, I need to know the full extent of what happened.”
“There were ten claws. In the offering plates.” He stated with near rapturous joy at his confession. “I have purged 95 people more.”
I couldn’t stop my reaction, of pure shock as the sheer number he gave caused my calm demeanour to drop, feathers momentarily flaring out in a defensive display before I forced myself to flatten them back down. Over a hundred. By Inatala that’s… that’s.
“So the total is 105?” I couldn’t help the accusatory tone of pure horror to creep into my voice, breaking my ‘friendly understanding Exterminator’ routine I was attempting to play. “That’s how many innocent people you killed?”
“No, not all,” he stated. “There were those I know are Taint. I know even now. The Gojid. Kevros. All in that ship. They were taint. I know they are. They were good to be purged.”
Wait what? He killed Kevros? Kevros is dead?
I didn’t even know the Exterminator had been murdered. Sure, the Krakotl Exterminator had been missing for [several months], but that wasn’t uncommon with how the world had turned out recently. And ship? The only one I could think of that happened in Dawn Creek was the day before the Cilany broadcast.
I’d thought that was an accident, a pilot overworked or something. That was his doing? I could feel myself spiralling at the knowledge of what I’d uncovered, the sheer breadth of the crimes being committed by this one man. I decided to pull the conversation back to rationality, to simpler conversations.
“Why? Why did you do all this?”
“I thought them all Taint,” he stated. “The taint of Predator Disease. Of the false doctors running Dawn Creek’s Facility. Of those who would accept predators in their homes.”
He held my eyes again. “You know what we’re told. To protect the herd. What must be done to Taint.”
I stared at the Venlil opposite me, trying to keep my voice steady. “And what would that be exactly?”
“Burn me,” he commanded. “Get your blade. Cut out the seat of my taint. Carve out my heart, Estala. Burn it to purify whatever is left.”
“By Inatala’s Talons, what the fuck?” I felt everything in my mind break down at this statement. Who just comes out and tells you to carve out their heart and set them on fire. I could feel my voice getting higher in pitch as I jumped back out of the seat. “No! That’s not how it works!”
“I am Taint!” He protested. “It’s what is done. What else would you do?”
“You go through the court of law, that’s what my plan is because I’m a normal person. Now admittedly there’s a good chance you’re going to be sentenced to death, but that’s not my role!”
“They wouldn’t burn! They wouldn’t choose one pure! They wouldn’t purify the taint! I must be burned!!”
“No. No. No! You don’t get the easy way out, we don’t get the easy way out.” I stated, my voice turning far more stern. “We’ve hurt people, you more than me, but people are damaged by what we did. I visited the ex-facility members of Dawn Creek, they’re terrified of you, of you coming back. They think you’re an official part of the Exterminators! No, you go through the system so they can see what you did, see you are punished for it, and move on and heal. What you want isn’t the important thing here, it’s the victims you left behind who need help.”
Orhew suddenly jerked his paws back. The chain went taut, pulling hard upon the table. I could have sworn I heard it creak. “I can’t return! I must be burned! I will return without it! Burn me! You should be pure! Burn me!”
Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. Nope. I was not happy with how this had turned out. While anyone willing to kill that many people wouldn’t be normal, this was full on crazy. I very much did not want to be in the same room as this person any more. Unfortunately, the guard who had brought him in had the same idea. As I was backing away they were already high-tailing it out the door. At least they left the door open for me to follow. Which I happily did, slamming it shut behind me and silencing Orhews outraged and despairing bleats.
I could see Jkob staring at me with a shocked expression that mirrored my own. The Letian had been watching from outside the room, clearly as shaken as I was.
“How, how do you even deal with that?” He finally asked, looking to me for guidance where I had none to give. “Is that normal for Exterminator cases?”
“No.” I said, giving a sigh of my own. “That’s really not normal. I don’t even know what you do with that. My first instinct is this is actual legitimate Predator Disease, but with how everything’s changed I don’t know how you’re supposed to deal with that. Frankly, that part is not my job.”
I could see Jkob deep in thought as he spoke, just staring through the window at Orhew as he was being dragged away by three guards, fighting and shouting all the while.
“How many do you think are like him, that the Exterminators missed?”
That I didn’t want to think about, shaking my head as the thought of more of these people hiding amongst the herd sent chills down my spine.
“ I pray not many. This is why we need to change, Jkob, learn from the humans and their experience in this kind of criminal.”
The air between us grew sombre as Orhew finally disappeared behind a heavy locked door, hopefully the last time I’d see the Venlil ex-Exterminator.
“So what happens now Estala?”
“Well there’ll be the court case and the sentencing, although I imagine with a confession that won’t take long. Gotta talk to the media about this, get ahead of the ‘killer Exterminator’ headlines. And… see if we’re able to find any of his other victims. Any more of the 105. Do… do you remember how many we had on the list as suspected victims?”
“Our current list had a possible 27 names on it.”
27. Even discounting the number from that ship, that’s still so many unknown victims.
I gave another deep sad sigh. While this investigation had been a ‘success’, it didn’t feel like one. An Exterminator had killed over a hundred people while wearing the uniform, nobody had spotted it happening, and he would have never been caught if strange humans on the internet hadn’t taken an interest in three seemingly random predator attacks. There was still so much work to do.
“But first things first. I’m going to go home, take a deep long shower, then go to sleep for the rest of this paw. Everything else can wait till later.”