ANABEL
‘The worm has found a new home, here in this beautiful new land untainted by its corruption.’
Anabel pressed the flat tip of her pink highlighter on the page of the novel she was reading, and colored those words with a single firm stroke. She lifted the tip from the page just as the vehicle she was in slowed down to a stop. She put her book and highlighter away as she looked up through the windshield in front of her, and then to her left where her companion pushed a button to lower his window. An unarmed police officer approached them with his hand raised, and his eyes looking down towards their plate.
“A checkpoint? In Kallinikos Square?” muttered Anabel, as she took out her ID and badge. “Did something happen, Patrick?”
The driver shook his head and also pulled out his identification and badge, showing it to the police officer whose eyes alternated between the card and the person. “Don’t worry, captain. Just a precaution. There's a big election coming up. Tomorrow, people running for office will start arriving in Chrysopolis to file their candidacies. Security in the city becomes tighter in the weeks leading up to it. If you ask me, it becomes suffocating.”
Anabel looked forward and tried to see past the gate. “Is the park open to the public?” she asked.
“Yeah, it’s just that they have checkpoints at every entrance. Oh, look to your right, captain.”
Anabel followed her companion's finger and his words towards the right side of the vehicle, and saw a Psychic-type Pokémon levitating just outside her door. Anabel lowered her window as well, and gave a small smile. “Hello,” was all she said, as she showed the Pokémon her identification.
Anabel had had her fair share encounters with odd Pokémon, but the one checking her identification and badge was top of the list. Inspectrochos looked like a levitating steering wheel; Anabel did not know how else to put it. A lone eye occupied the center part of the Pokémon, a red orb staring unblinkingly at her with irides that expanded and contracted in a pattern she did not recognize. No spokes connected this eye to three rings that surrounded it, which were the color of polished bronze, and itself had four smaller eyes roughly corresponding to the cardinal directions. At least, that was how it looked to Anabel. Inspectrochos seemed capable of rotating its three outer wheels - each one bigger than the wheel closer to its center - independently. Anabel was still unsure of what the gesture meant, when the outermost circle rotated slower than the other two, and the ring closest to the eye rotated the fastest. They stopped with a clicking sound all of a sudden, and the Pokémon stared not at her badge but right into her eyes. Anabel had to think about not shuddering when she felt a chill run down her spine.
Inspectrochos made a noise that sounded like distorted buzzing and floated away. The security officer that stopped them gave them the clearance they needed, and the gate lifted to give their vehicle passage. Anabel released a slow breath as they drove past the checkpoint.
Past the gate that made them pause, the two entered Kallinikos Square. Anabel looked around as the car drove along the wide paved roads of the city park, recalling the last time she was here. The park side of the square was full of people and Pokémon, sitting idly by on stone benches facing the grand fountain and the garden surrounding it, or otherwise walking along the cobbled stone paths meant for foot traffic. She could see joggers along the edge of the square, sweat glistening under the light of the setting sun. Pokémon were as welcome in the park as the people were. There were Grass and Bug-type Pokémon being left to their own devices to play with each other on the grasses and the bushes, and the tall hedges that caused the southwest side of Kallinikos Square to resemble a green labyrinth. A low-stakes Pokémon battle between two children were commencing, with a Torchic spitting fire and a Froakie hitting them mid-air with its soap bubbles. But all the same, it was difficult to ignore seeing the navy blue uniform of the Apeironese police force. The Pokémon that Anabel saw accompanying the police were of a certain kind and type; usually canid such as Growlithe and Stoutland, but also bipeds like Machamp and the short-statured, Steel-type, soldier Pokémon called Spathritai, who followed the patrolling army soldiers with their small round shields and short blades for arms. They all seemed capable of combat. She noticed it relatively late, but these Pokémon were also wearing gear and equipment personalized for them, which to some Pokémon - like the Growlithe - looked cute.
The fountain and the garden was surrounded by sixteen metal poles that rose tens of meters high, and each of them hoisted a flag of a nation that was partnered with the Pokémon League Association. She did not need to trace the metal poles upward to know that the Apeironese flag was hoisted higher than the rest. The symmetry made her uncomfortable the first time she saw it, but she thought looking at them again after knowing all she knew now would give her a different feeling of dread.
“Is it your first time here, captain?” asked Patrick, a voice that cut through Anabel’s reminiscing.
She shook her head. “I’ve been to the square and in the IIA building before. But unlike last time, I'll be staring down a pack of wild wolves alone,” Anabel sighed.
“When was that? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Several years ago. I was a rookie back then,” she shrugged. “Uncle Nanu brought me with him. He said he was more comfortable seeing a familiar face before going to war.” Anabel found herself chuckling at the memory.
Patrick took his eyes off the road for a second to look at Anabel with a furrowed brow. “Going to war? What?”
“I don’t know exactly what they talked about there, Pat. Uncle Nanu’s colleague made me wait downstairs at the cafeteria. Best bagels I’ve ever had, though. And good coffee too.”
“You're just here to turn over some information to the Imps though, right?”
Anabel snickered at the word, one commonly used to refer to government agents in Apeiron. Short for Imperials, it was. “Yeah, just in and out. A day in the life of a bureaucrat,” she replied.
“That’s good. I heard two agents were given the task of organizing your lodgings. I’ll get you to your hotel after this meeting, captain.”
“Thank you, Pat.”
Anabel went quiet and her expression darkened as she looked ahead listlessly. No doubt the topic of this evening’s meeting was the recent busting of an infamous crime boss in Johto. Their investigations about him led them back to Apeiron, where they discovered a worrying history of allegiances in a life that was lived before crime became a feasible choice. His words seemed consistent with the attitude of some people in the region, per the reports she received from Interpol agents stationed in Apeiron and what limited observations she had made. The foreigners and the Pokémon League Association were unwanted at worst, and tolerated at best. Chrysopolis was already the most cosmopolitan city in the country, but Anabel still felt that the air was unwelcoming to her after she took in the sights of the “Golden City”. She wondered how Patrick handled his first few months in Apeiron, no doubt it was stressful. The last time she saw the young man, he styled his brown hair long and tied it with a low ponytail. When they met again for the first time in a while when he picked her up in the airport, she was shocked to see it trimmed short. He joked about it being burned by a Fire-type Pokémon, now Anabel wondered if he was actually attacked by a zealous nationalist somehow.
Patrick made a right turn towards the center of the park, towards the wide river that split the park and the city of Chrysopolis itself in two. A sturdy bridge connected both sides of Kallinikos Square, short but wide, with four towers standing on both sides of each end that reminded Anabel of the shorter, stouter versions of the towers of Skyarrow Bridge in Unova. Near the bridge to the right side was an artificial island in the middle of the river where a life-size copper statue of Emperor Constantine IV stood, raised above the ground by a stone pedestal. The emperor faced towards the fountain and the flags, his sword arm was raised and his weapon high above his head. Behind him, a replica of his hetairos stood: a black Charizard with its wings spread open and its partner’s saddle secure around its body, ready to soar to the sky at a moment’s notice. When Anabel saw the statue for the first time, she thought that the Charizard standing almost more than twice the height of the emperor was an artistic expression meant to make the monarch's partner Pokémon larger than the wild ones. But when she saw an actual untamed Charizard in the wilderness of Apeiron, the statue seemed smaller in comparison.
Even as they were still driving towards the bridge, Anabel could already see one possibly the most elegant building she had ever seen in her entire life. The biggest building in the city park was the Parliament Building, and it was the one that drew her gaze upwards now as it did before, along the soaring spires that also reminded Anabel of some of the oldest buildings in Unova. It was a stunning architectural masterpiece that embodied the grandeur of Apeiron’s national identity. The building’s façade was adorned with countless statues, ornate carvings, and expansive windows, while its central dome rose majestically and dominated the skyline. The Parliament's exterior was a harmonious mixture of pale sandstone and vibrant white, creating a striking contrast against the river’s deep blue waters, and made the building shine like gold at night when all the lights were turned on. Parliament loomed over Anabel and cast its shadow on their vehicle as it approached. It was a building built in the style of a storied past for the rest of the world, but to this country it merely heralded the beginning of the new.
But they were unfortunately not headed for Parliament. Anabel would have loved to walk along its splendid halls and enter the chambers that were open to the public, to stop by and examine the art pieces on display along the walls. “I’d have to come here another time and do a tour inside. Will you be my guide, Pat?”
The answer came quickly. “Of course, captain!” But it was followed by hesitation. “Depends on the schedule, I guess. But I’ll do my best for you.”
Patrick drove along the road in front of the building due west, and then turned right at the end of its long right wing. The road they were on continued to the back of Parliament and towards the northern end of Kallinikos Square, and Anabel was more familiar with this place than she was with Parliament. Here there were other government buildings, and each of them looked just as majestic as Parliament and built in the same style. They almost seemed like smaller auxiliary structures, merely part of the whole instead of separate buildings. They passed through the Apeiron National Museum, and then the buildings that housed several government departments - arrayed next to each other in similar-looking structures that almost seemed like duplicates. In here, there were no tourists - at least not at this time, and the Imperial Guards stationed here looked more ceremonial compared to their counterparts elsewhere. Their red dress uniforms seemed based on the attire of a similar type of palace guard in Galar, although their headwear differed and the soldiers Anabel was looking at wore white and gold capes that covered their left arm, with embroidery that mimicked dragon scales.
They arrived at the IIA building at the corner of the smaller square, the last in an array of similar-looking buildings that were only differentiated by the emblems they showed at the front. The entrance to the building was guarded by two sentries, unmoving like statues, and there was a small parking area in front of it. Patrick took the one spot that was not yet occupied. It was an unassuming building, now that Anabel had a good look at it. Nothing about how it appeared on the surface indicated that it was an efficient gatherer and processor of information from all over the country, and staffed by some of the toughest people Anabel had met in the field.
“The Apeironese are a proud people, are they not, Patrick?” she said. Her prior thoughts filtered through to her words, and Patrick was pulling up the parking brakes of his vehicle when the question was asked.
He nodded. “Certainly. They don't let you know, but you can see it with the way they look at you.”
Anabel smiled. “Must be hard, stationed here in the golden city. It seems the League's reputation is being dragged through the mud right now. And with it, the way the people view us.”
Patrick sighed and shook his head. “You just get used to it, I guess. It’s unfortunate, though. Apeiron is a beautiful country, and its people and Pokémon are just as amazing. We could’ve all gotten along better if the League just didn’t… shoulder it’s way through.”
Anabel stayed silent, but nodded along and listened to what he was saying. She knew it was a bad and dangerous idea to let her subordinate know about the thoughts that swirled inside her head, and the judgments that she made when she lay on her bed to rest after work. Being in a car in front of the IIA building was hardly the right setting to go about criticizing the League for actions that it took and those it continued to take. Even though she agreed with what Patrick said, he would not know that now. Anabel moved to open her door and leave the vehicle, when she was stopped by Patrick.
“I don't want to sound rude, but… will you let me handle all the talking until you get to the meeting room, captain?”
Anabel shot an incredulous look towards him, with a furrowed brow as she tried to figure out what he meant. Without letting him continue, she would never figure that out but she did notice that he was worried, and he was tapping his fingers at the steering wheel impatiently. She closed her door again.
“What is it? Is everything alright?”
Patrick shrugged. “It's… just the way they do things here. You're someone of rank, and certain things are expected of you. You'd need a chaperone, and you're not supposed to interact with people of lesser rank.”
Anabel blinked. “Not even the–”
“Not even the receptionist,” Patrick said, interrupting her with his words and his shaking head. “If someone like you goes inside there and your chaperone starts asking directions, that's already a bad look. Your subordinates should have already planned your route ahead of time. Less interruptions. So I go in there, notify the front desk that you're here, and then we go straight to the meeting room. I'll be waiting outside.”
Anabel felt a laugh creeping through her throat, and it came out as a giggle. She had to cover her mouth. “Okay that's… a little bit extra. Bordering on absurdity. I'm not a princess, Pat!”
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
“I mean,” Patrick looked away. “Some people would think you're a princess.” The young man shook his head and clapped his palms once, making a loud sound. “Anyway, we're in a land of empresses, dukes, counts, and knights. So we gotta play the part. Today you're a princess and I'm a knight. You don't need to do anything, captain. Just follow me.”
Anabel still had laughter in her as she nodded and conceded. She tried to regain her composure before she exited the vehicle, holding a brown envelope in her hands. Even those were taken from her by her subordinate who seemed a little too eager to be playing his role, and it almost made her laugh again. By the time the doors to the IIA building were opened to them, the pair looked like they were already practiced in the common customs and courtesies as Patrick described. True enough, everything was fast and they did not run into problems. He went to the front desk speaking fluent Apeironese and ostensibly alerted relevant parties to her arrival, and all Anabel had to do was smile at the ladies minding the front desk and other people they ran into in the hallways as she followed just a few steps behind her fellow officer.
It was perhaps a good idea to have Patrick lead her around the building. She would have been lost trying to find where she was meant to be. It was a maze of corridors and office doors, with little to no distinction between them. There were signs that were written in both Apeironese and Common, but if Anabel relied solely on those then she would be staring upwards after every turn and likely wake up the next day with a stiff neck. But she was right about an earlier assumption. This sprawling office space looked as contemporary as any other, and might even be equipped with more modern electronics and infrastructure compared to even similar buildings in Kanto. The air felt cool and comfortable too, and there was a sweet smell in the air. People milling about made the place feel alive, but it was not boisterous and chaotic in the wide hallways.
Down a hall, she saw a large space furnished with couches, a coffee table, a television, some vending machines and coffee machines, and even a stacked bookshelf that made Anabel slow down. The lounge was fully occupied but the people in there were either minding their own business with newspapers or phones or speaking with others in a casual, conversational tone. She felt at home in this environment, and recalled a time when she was still a fresh face in the force, working in Alola under Nanu. Was this place really all that different?
“Right here, captain.”
Patrick's voice cut through her reminiscing. The man was standing on the other side of the hallway, having just pushed a button that called the elevator to their floor. Anabel brisked her way towards him, careful not to bump into other people. She reached the elevator just in time as the metal doors opened, and the two stepped inside. Patrick took them to the seventh floor, which was already near the top. The elevator took a while, leaving time for her and Patrick to talk while they were alone.
“Where's Looker?” asked Patrick.
“He has bigger fish to fry,” Anabel replied.
She chuckled at her own remark. In truth, Looker was not informed that she was here and about to meet with some of the highest-ranking officials of the IIA. It would be chaos if he knew. He would have insisted on accompanying her, taking the role Patrick was currently doing right now. It became clearer to her now why he was sidelined for such a delicate mission that required a particular brand of subtlety that he lacked. Patrick seemed to have complete control over the situation, and was the right man for the job.
“Ghetsis is a pretty big fish too though. Right?”
Anabel turned towards Patrick and sighed. “It was supposed to be our biggest catch yet. But fate had other plans for us,” she said thoughtfully.
“I hope the meeting goes well. I have every bit of confidence in you, captain, but…” he stopped speaking, seemingly to reconsider his words. Anabel watched his eyebrows furrow and a pout form on his lips. “I'm more concerned about the people you'll be talking to. The IIA bosses. They have a reputation for a certain kind of stubbornness.” Patrick then looked into her eyes with a hopeful gaze, like he was hoping she'd know what he was talking about without him needing to say it. The camera in the elevator was probably recording, sound and video both.
But Anabel knew what he meant. It was heavy in the air of this country and she felt it the moment she stepped foot in it, and she imagined it was true for many foreigners like herself. Before she took up this new posting, Anabel studied the history of the place she would have to call home for the foreseeable future. Suffice it to say, everything she learned only served to make her understand why the League was so hated. During subsequent studies and inquiries towards experts, Anabel also learned that dissent of the League had largely moved away from public discourse and hid underground where it was only spoken about in secret societies and seditious brotherhoods that still wanted the foreigners kicked from their sacred shores, or in the countryside where the Pokémon League was never popular even to this day. Anabel took Patrick's words to mean that the people she was scheduled to meet with had certain sympathies. But how people reached so high up in the ladder of bureaucracy despite having such dangerous ideas, she did not know.
The meeting room was at the other end of the seventh floor from where the elevator was. Anabel and Patrick had to walk the entire length of the floor, and she observed that the other rooms were also used as conference rooms by the agency. Anywhere she looked, she saw holograph-capable monitors projecting visual aid into the very air where they were able to be interacted with through certain hand gestures that made it look like the projections and holograms were physical entities themselves. Anabel also did not hear a single sound coming from these rooms, and she had no reason to believe that the sound of her shoes hitting the polished marble floor made its way through the sturdy and clean glass windows to disrupt the meetings inside.
Patrick stopped at a room that did not look like the others. This one had a large double-door made with shiny dark wood that featured an unpainted carving of the imperial insignia right at its center. Anabel could see no window from which she could see through the other side, but Patrick nodded assuredly as if to confirm to her that this was the right place. He did not utter a word, but as the brown envelope passed from his hand to hers, Anabel began to more clearly hear several voices speaking behind the huge door. After a series of loud knocks done at a certain rhythm, Patrick turned to look at Anabel one last time before he pushed one door open for her to pass through. Patrick stood aside to let pass, and once she was through, he quietly closed the door behind her.
The smell of cigar smoke was thick in the air. It took all of Anabel's restraint to not cough and clear her throat, and she only barely managed to hide the discomfort she felt over her stinging eyes by closing them and then taking a bow. She kept a smile on her face.
“Greetings, gentlemen. I'm so thankful you can all spare some of your time for me today. I know how busy you are,” she said. “My name is Anabel, and I represent the International Police.”
She felt the stares all around her like needles pricking her skin. Anabel was in the room with three men: two older gentlemen and one that looked the same age as her. It was that last man that she did not account for, as she came into this meeting thinking that she would be conversing with just the chairman and inspector general of the police force. After a nod, Anabel seated herself along the elegant table made superbly with dark oak, and scanned the men in front of her quietly.
The chairman of the IIA was a balding old man with a heavy-set square face and a prominent nose. He was clean-shaven and wore round-shaped eyeglasses, and he smoked a thick cigar that was thicker than his fingers as naturally as he breathed. To his right was the inspector general, another older man who had heavy brows and piercing red eyes that made for a stark contrast with his dark complexion. He stared at her intently since she entered, and Anabel tried her best to ignore the discomfort. Whatever the case may be, the two did a good job at making her feel unwelcome. The third man was considerably younger, and Anabel had no idea who he was. He sat lazily on his chair, leaning back against it with one leg resting above the knee of the other, and his hands clasped together above his stomach. Unlike the other two and herself, he was not wearing his suit jacket and aviator sunglasses hung from the breast pocket of his white shirt. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and a full golden beard coveted his square jaw. In front of him on the table was a glass of ice and whiskey as well as an ashtray with a burning cigarette on it.
Anabel placed the brown envelope she was holding on top of the table, and slowly pushed it towards the middle.
The chairman looked at it as he puffed smoke through his lips. “This is all the information we asked for?”
Anabel did not respond right away. “All that we could gather from these past months since the raid. Personal records, background checks, former affiliations with as many records as we could trace. For some persons of interest, we also recorded their past residences and a majority are still being actively tracked.”
“We only want one name, Miss Anabel. And your records of him,” said the inspector general, who did not break eye contact with her even as he took a sip of his own glass of spirit.
“Kaisarios Onychas, of course,” Anabel sighed, as she reached for the envelope again and opened it. She began pulling out sheets of paper one by one, but many were still inside when she closed it again. “We have records of him extending all the way back to eight years ago, when he first appeared in our radar. We suspected that he was involved in the smuggling of contraband and dangerous substances. He had his underlings set up a fake furniture business in Unova, serving as a front for his operations as he pushed drugs to Kalos and Hoenn, and also locally. He has since expanded his operations to all countries, except here.”
“This is well-known,” said the chairman, looking at her with one eyebrow raised and pouty lips. The expression made him look grotesque.
The inspector general spoke again. “Tell us something we don’t know. He left Apeiron alone, and returned after all these years with a companion he seemingly values highly. Is this the person he’s running his cult with?”
Anabel turned to look at him. “Cult?” she echoed. That was the first time she heard of that, and she quickly sifted through her memories for information tangential to it. She did not need to reach so far down before one other name came to mind. Anabel swallowed a dry throat before she reached for the envelope again and took out another file.
“There he is. Your big fish.”
The blond young man finally spoke up. The grin he wore showed Anabel that his teeth were golden, or at least covered in gold. He pulled his chair closer towards the table and leaned forward, looking at the file in the center. His words caused the two other men to look his way, as if expecting him to continue. As for Anabel, it made her shudder when she recalled the conversation she had with Patrick in the elevator, and she pretended not to notice.
“This is him? Kaisarios is learning how to run his little cult with the help of this… Ghetsis?” asked the chairman.
Anabel caught the young man’s eyes, looking at her. He nodded at her as if to say that she needed to answer the question. She cleared her throat. “Until now, we did not know about this cult. We do not have visibility of his operations in Apeiron. But we have long suspected them both working together, and it was proven after the raid that blew all of this open. Ghetsis was on the site, but–”
“He slipped through your fingers, like the slimy snake that he is,” said the blond man, shaking his head. “How did that happen?”
“They were more numerous than we were led to believe, and enough of us had been misdirected,” Anabel replied.
She looked away, anywhere else but those boastful blue eyes. She could focus on nowhere else but the rich brown color of the dark oak used to make the elegant table. She lost many good men and women and their Pokémon in that raid that was one wrong move away from being a massacre, and they neither got the man they came for nor appreciation for their efforts. That raid was one of the events that Anabel played in her mind constantly, thinking of different moves and different outcomes, and quietly grieving for those who were lost.
“Pretty convenient, don’t you think, sir?”
“What are you suggesting, Constantine?” asked the inspector general, who now turned towards the blond male with the same intense gaze that he subjected Anabel to since she walked inside the room. “This all sounds circumstantial to me.”
“Kaisarios watched his back for eight full years, jumping from one country to another and avoiding us and Interpol like he was playing a game. He could have kept playing longer, were it not for the extradition treaty.”
Anabel perked up. That was the kind of news that people would read about once and then forget as they carried on with the rest of their lives. She counted herself one of those people. Now she was eagerly listening to the man named Constantine, while looking at his prideful eyes and his annoying smirk.
“He’s not in this for the money or the notoriety. More than anything, he wants to come home,” Constantine said with a shrug. “And he was right, was he not? He was caught by Interpol, and then he was extradited back here. He found his way around his exile,” he added with a laugh.
“He covered for Ghetsis?” asked Anabel, gathering the attention of the other men towards her. She hastily recalled events of that day, and where people were and what they were doing when Interpol sprung the trap. It all lined up. She remembered the look on both men’s faces, how calm they seemed to be in the midst of their capture.
“Possible,” replied Constantine. “I don’t know this Ghetsis person like you, Miss Anabel. I don’t know what he provides to the table, but Kaisarios clearly values him.”
The chairman spoke next. “Well, whatever his worth is, he is clearly part of our problem now. It sounds to me that Kaisarios has finished funneling money to his little clubhouse, and is getting boots on the ground.”
“It’s a problem, but it’s an internal one,” said the inspector general. He continued staring into Anabel's eyes. “Surely, by making us aware of this unknown factor named Ghetsis, you’d like something in return, Miss Anabel? What’s your price?”
The three men turned to look at her slowly, and bore into her with their eyes. Anabel did not appreciate the tone of the inspector general, and the assumptions that he seemed to have about her and the organization she worked for. She frowned and looked each man in the eye one after another.
“Not money, but opportunity. We’d like to be involved in your investigations of Kaisarios Onychas and Ghetsis. This entails information sharing between us, and joint operations if need be,” she said. She looked at them again before she continued, like she was giving her words time to simmer. “I do need to ask that Interpol be given police power while operating in Apeiron, specific details to be discussed at a later time and formalized through a written agreement. Ghetsis is a person most wanted by Interpol, and I feel there’s no better time to corner him than now, here in Apeiron where he is a stranger on a strange land.”
The three men almost immediately broke into speech in their native tongue, a language that Anabel had only just begun studying. She only recognized a few words, not enough for her to remotely know what they were conversing about. Whatever it was, the inspector general’s stoic facade faded in the face of Constantine’s calm but cocky tone, and the chairman just looked annoyed as he sat in the middle of their bickering. Anabel sat back, but she had thoughts of her own. The display in front of her proved to Anabel that the Apeironese cared little for foreigners, if they were not ashamed to break into an argument in front of her while leaving her in the dark about it by speaking their language. None of them even considered the possibility that the person in the room could understand the words they were saying. Unfortunately for her, they were right. It only spurred on Anabel’s desire to learn the Apeironese tongue.
She cleared her throat to center attention around herself again. “Gentlemen, I need an answer,” she said. “Kaisarios and Ghetsis are moving in our blind spots as we speak. I hope you can see the merit and the advantage in working with the International Police, for a common goal.”
The inspector general was still grumbling, but he was waived off by the chairman. “Your logic is sound, Miss Anabel. Kaisarios was unleashed to the world after he was exiled from our land. But he is a problem for Apeiron, and it shall remain that way.”
The answer made her gasp, and it caused her fingertips to tingle before she felt her arms go cold. “And Ghetsis?” she asked.
“Ghetsis will be evaluated based on how much help he offers our adversary, and what kind of help that is. Nothing is clear yet,” said Constantine. “Suffice it to say, he is not a priority. Kaisarios Onychas represents a destabilizing force in this country, as someone who fought to overthrow this government before. He will be eliminated. If Ghetsis stands with him, he will be eliminated as well. Otherwise, Kaisarios would have already eliminated him himself and he would cease to be our problem entirely.”
“How… How could you possibly know that?” Anabel raised her voice higher than she intended. The cold she felt in her arms was replaced with heat, as her hands curled into fists on the tabletop and her arms shook. She looked at each man again, and made no attempt to recover her composure. “You trust one enemy to get rid of the other?”
“You’re mistaken, Miss Anabel,” Constantine replied. “We don’t trust Kaisarios to do anything. But we can expect him to do certain things, because we know who he is. Though he is an enemy, the same blood flows in his veins and the soul that resides in his body is well-known to us all. He is Apeironese.”