“Good evening,” the man said, offering the four of them a deep bow.
Daye stood between him and White Shadow. “Meet Miyoshi Hiroaki, an old and very dear friend of mine.”
Hiroaki walked forward and extended a hand outwards, offering a suitable greeting he knew they'd be used to. “It's wonderful to meet you all.”
He shook Delta's hand first, followed by Charlie's and Sierra's, and finishing with Skye.
“So, who are you?” Charlie asked, unable to wait any longer for answers. “Do you work with the Tianzu?”
Hiroaki shook his head. “I do not work with the modern Tianzu.” He turned his head and looked in Daye's direction. “Rather, we founded the Tianzu.”
Skye's, Charlie's, and Delta's jaws all dropped at the same time upon hearing the news. Sierra watched on, intrigued.
“You founded the Tianzu?” Skye repeated. “You're their leader?” The revelation confused him all the more, and he quickly wondered whether they were indeed safe there or not.
“Far from it,” Daye said, dispelling any cause for concern.
“I merely founded the clan,” Hiroaki added, “along with Daye and Hongxue. The three of us created a group that was dedicated to protecting life and preserving peace.”
Daye stepped forward. “Until Kheree took control of it,” he continued. “He turned it into the group you know today as the Tianzu.”
White Shadow exchanged perplexed glances with one another. The explanation was far from satisfying.
Charlie's head spun as he tried to make sense of what was being said. “Wait, what? What do you mean?”
“So, are you Tianzu, or not?” Delta asked.
Hiroaki shook his head again. “We're not hostile warriors who are willing to kill in the name of peace. We won't harm you.”
The group's confusion was evident. Skye frowned as he tried to process the information. Before he could ask another question, Daye's hand landed on his shoulder.
“Perhaps that's enough for this evening,” the Kaipuran man said. “You've had a long night, and you need to rest.”
“We'll explain more in the morning,” Hiroaki said. “We have much to discuss with you.” He looked at the group and studied each of them hard, observing their current state of being. “You're all wounded,” he noticed.
Skye lifted his shirt, showing the gaping hole in his abdomen.
“They had an encounter with the others,” Daye whispered. “Karatsu is now deceased.”
Hiroaki looked down at the floor with solemn eyes. “I see.” He wasn't pleased to hear of the death of Karatsu, regardless of the warrior's actions. But he also knew it was a death that would need to be accepted, and there was likely to be many more to come.
Skye watched Hiroaki's face and read his pained expression. “He attacked us,” he said, justifying their earlier skirmish. “He had to be killed.”
Daye closed his eyes. “It's alright, Skye. Both Hiroaki and I know that the three clans are at war, and that others will inevitably be killed. But please understand that we swore oaths of peace long ago, so it's difficult for us to hear of this violence. Your lack of regret indicates to us you're capable of murder. However, for us, each and every death is a tragedy.”
Skye knew that Daye was right, and decided to remain silent.
“So what do we do now?” Sierra asked. “Are we really going to stay here?”
“Yes,” Hiroaki said as he turned his attention back to the group of warriors. “I'll help you clean any wounds you may have acquired, then I'll show you to your quarters. If Karatsu is dead, then I have no doubt the remainder of the Tianzu will now be doing everything they can to eliminate their biggest threat ...” He paused and looked each of them in the eye seriously. “And their biggest threat right now is the four of you.”
Forty-seven
Meili walked through the corridors of Government House with Guard Two by her side. It had taken her all day, but she finally determined she now had enough evidence to present to the minister of defence. She'd contacted Two, who then came to escort her to Li Xu's office.
It was late in Athenia, with the vast majority of the government now resting, save for a handful of personnel and several members of the Guard, who patrolled each and every corner of the stronghold.
The pair turned a corner and saw a familiar figure walking toward them—it was President Denning. Alongside was the odd and eccentric Night.
“Your Excellency,” Two greeted as she saw her leader.
“Hello, Two,” he responded, stopping before them. “I'm just retiring for the evening.” He turned his attention to the casually dressed woman with the guest pass around her neck. “And who have we here?”
“Sun Meili,” she responded, bowing respectfully. She paused for a brief second, cautious with what words she'd share with the nation's leader. There were still many unanswered questions, and caution was needed regarding who could be trusted. “I work for Union Security and Intelligence. I'm here to investigate the events that took place on Saturday morning.” She looked to his right and glared at Night's crooked face. She recognised him instantly from the villa footage. Meili kept her distance, very much aware of what this individual could do.
“Very well,” the president accepted. “Welcome to Government House, Ms Sun. Please let me know what information you uncover.” He turned and looked at Night himself. “I'd be very keen to hear your findings.”
Night grinned and stared back at the other three. “We should keep moving, Archibald. It has been a long day, and you need your rest.”
Guard Two twitched. “You shouldn't refer to our president by his first name; his title is 'Your Excellency'.”
Night's grin extended itself even further across his gnarled face. “And you should refer to me as 'Guard One',” he reminded, then continued walking, his clumsy gait noticeable.
The president followed after him, offering Two an apologetic look.
Meili and Two continued down the hall too, and soon after arrived at Li Xu's office. Two knocked on the door, opening it once commanded to do so from within. Xu rose as the pair walked in.
“Meili, what have you found?” she asked, not wasting any time on pleasantries. She appeared fatigued, no doubt stressed from the recent events.
Guard Two closed the door from the inside and remained in the room. Meili turned and looked at her, keeping her mouth closed.
“It's alright,” Xu said, noticing her concerned look. “I've given Guard Two authorisation on this investigation. She'll take over as the head of the Presidential Guard once we have enough evidence to have the current head removed.”
Guard Two said nothing upon hearing of her imminent promotion. She maintained her erect posture and professional demeanour.
Meili sat at the desk, as did Xu. “I ran into the president out in the hall. I had to tell him who I was.”
Xu waved her hand. “That's fine. I knew it was only a matter of time before he found out who you were.” She stifled a yawn. “Now, what information do you have?”
“I've uncovered much,” Meili began, holding out a portable drive to Xu, who took it and placed it on her computer. Within seconds, several files began to appear on the screen in front of them. Meili reached across and pointed to several different international identity card photos. “All of these people are involved in what looks like a massive conspiracy. Two of them are Athenian nationals,” she said, tracing her finger across the screen. “Some of them are residents of the Union, and the rest are all foreigners; mostly Alexan.”
Xu stared at all of the faces before her. She recognised the four who were found deceased two days ago. “I'm aware. My analysts have already given me the identities of those involved in the altercation in the park. What evidence have you found of a conspiracy?”
“Much of it is surveillance footage from inside the villa. The vast majority was deleted from the server, but I was able to restore it from an old backup. This man here, Nicholas Sweeney, looks to be the head of the
conspirators.”
Xu looked at the smug face of Nikolai, hating him more with every passing second.
“I found something quite disturbing,” Meili continued. “There's a video which depicts these three brutally murder several members of the Guard, along with two of the president's staff.” She pointed to Tahlia, Sabina, and Aurelius.
Xu clenched her fists and resisted the urge to take her rage out on her desk. She'd known from the very first minute she met Nikolai that he was a threat to the president. She cursed herself for not intervening sooner. “Thank you, Meili,” she said, her voice full of sorrow.
Xu continued looking at the files and the faces of those involved. There was one face she was yet to put a name to though. “Do you have any information on this man here?” she asked, pointing to the surveillance footage from the park. It showed a distant image of Raien. Xu had watched the video numerous times that day, studying their enemy and the terrifying abilities they demonstrated.
“No,” Meili said after hesitating for a second. She had to choose her words carefully. While she knew exactly who the man was, she couldn't risk giving away his identity without also implicating herself. “I can't find any match for his face. Either the image isn't clear enough, or he doesn't have an identity card.”
“My analysts couldn't find anything on him either.” One other unfamiliar face stood out to her. “Who's this?” she asked, pointing to a photo of Ren. “I haven't seen any footage of her. What's her involvement?”
“This woman here, Matsuoka Ren, is a Shizuno national.” Meili reached over and tapped the screen, opening a file. “I also found these.”
Xu studied the documents for a moment, but was unable to make any clear sense of them. “What's the relevance of these?”
“These are loss reports from Winterton Limited. It looks as though someone stole quite a large amount of money from them last year. I have reason to suspect that Ren is the one responsible. The majority of the money was deposited into over a dozen different foreign accounts. It took me some time, but I managed to link this back to Nicholas Sweeney's company.”
“I see. But how is this relevant to the president?”
Meili shifted her position in her chair, making herself comfortable. “The network logs in Government House indicate that a lot of information has been accessed by an external computer, and there have been several thousand attempts to access the system this year. Whoever's done it has made it appear to be a very idle threat so that the system doesn't deem it to be a credible threat to the government. It has also been disguised as a different network identifier in each instance, fooling the system into thinking each attack was made from thousands of different computers across the globe. But I've reversed engineered the attacks, and I've discovered that all of them have come from the same location—a warehouse in Nanping.”
Xu raised her eyebrows, surprised by the news. “So, the same person, or group, has been attempting to hack into our system?”
Meili nodded. “Correct. Whoever did it was very, very skilful. Network identifiers are difficult to override, and even if you're successful, each attack would leave behind a ghost address of the user's physical location. But this person was able to leave no trace behind, which is almost impossible. I've never met anyone aside from myself who's able to do this.”
“But if it's almost impossible, how are they able to do it?”
Meili shrugged. “They'd have to be a genius to do it.” Or a shengxian. “Most governments in the world would overlook this information and treat it as benign.”
“And you're certain you've made no mistake?”
Meili smiled politely and acted modest, but knew there was no mistake on her behalf. “I'm certain. This is the woman who made her way into our network and downloaded the president's itineraries on numerous occasions.”
Xu looked at Ren's identity card photo, staring into her eyes. “And what makes you think it was Ren?”
“I was able to hack into her own network and watch her through the computer's camera. She appears to be alone.”
Xu frowned. “You say this woman is an expert hacker, and yet you're able to hack into her camera so easily. Are you sure you're not mistaking?”
“I'm sure,” Meili said, half smirking. “Believe me—Ren's involved. And I wouldn't say that hacking into her camera was easy. I had to first disable several layers of security on her network, which took me over an hour.”
The minister of defence stared at the overwhelming information in front of her, impressed that Meili had uncovered so much, and in such a short time. She watched the footage of the massacre in the park again. “How are they able to move so fast? It's almost as though ...”
“They're not human?” Meili finished her sentence for her. “Whoever they are, they're dangerous individuals and are not to be underestimated.”
Xu watched as she saw several unnatural anomalies. A man swung a golden whip, and a woman in a suit was able to conjure balls of black energy. “The police who were attacked in Shangwu on Friday reported seeing this.” She pointed to Tahlia and the black matter. “But I dismissed it as some sort of firearm.”
Meili was unable to admit that she was well aware there were those in the world who were evolved, including herself. Instead, she said nothing and continued feigning ignorance on the subject.
“I wonder why they're attacking each other,” Xu said. “I've been wondering it all day. I assumed they'd be working together.”
Meili shrugged again. “A conflict of beliefs, maybe. But they're all a very large threat to Athenia and the rest of the Union.”
“Show me the footage from inside the villa,” Xu ordered.
Meili obeyed and tapped a file on the screen. “It's not easy to watch.”
“I need to see it.” Xu began playing the video from the hallway outside the villa suite. It appeared to last mere seconds as three of Sweeney's fighters slaughtered the Guard, all within the blink of an eye. Adam and Karen realised the danger they were in and began to flee, but weren't able to run very far. Xu watched on, disgusted. She was a seasoned fighter, but it was far from easy to watch members of the Guard, as well as Adam and Karen, die right in front of her eyes, and so gruesomely.
“There's more,” Meili said, taking control of the computer and showing her another video; this time of Night reanimating a corpse outside the villa.
Xu's eyes widened even further with disbelief. Her jaw dropped, but no words came out.
“It's hard to comprehend,” Meili said on her behalf, once again only feigning shock.
Xu shook her head, still unable to grasp what was happening. “We need to put a stop to them. All of them.” She pointed to the blurred image of Raien again. “Keep trying to find information on this man. I want to know who he is.”
“Of course. I'll keep searching for anything I can find.” Meili had purposely excluded any footage which showed Daye. She would not, under any circumstance, divulge information on the man who helped save her life many years prior.
Xu turned away from the monitor, not wishing for the grotesque murders to burn themselves into her memory. “I've seen enough. I want all of these individuals either arrested or executed.”
“We should act on Guard One,” Two suggested. “We know he's present in Government House. He can easily be subdued.”
“I believe we should wait,” Meili disagreed. “This man, Basterfield, is clearly a threat to the president, but I don't want to risk an assault when he's in such close proximity to Mr Denning.”
Two stood tall. “With all due respect, that's not your decision to make. The president's safety is my primary objective. I won't simply wait and hope that this bogey doesn't murder our leader.”
“Meili's right,” Xu said. “Leaving the president alone with this individual is a huge risk, but we shouldn't act on him yet.” She turned back to the screen and played the footage of Night once again. “Seeing what he can do frightens me. We'll need to be on high alert when we make a move. If we
make a single mistake, he may kill the president. In my opinion, that's the greater risk.”
Two remained silent and poised, unoffended that her suggestion was dismissed. “What do you propose we do?”
“Watch him,” Xu said. “Your orders are to watch Basterfield, and also to protect the president at all costs. If you believe the president's life is in immediate danger, you're permitted to take Basterfield out. Until then, we'll wait before we make a move.”
“It gets worse,” Meili added, remembering more information. She took control of the computer again and showed her more images, this time from inside a train station. “You were right when you told me Sweeney may be in Nishihama; according to transport logs and facial scanning at Nishihama International Station, they're all there. They arrived yesterday. Everyone except for Ren and Basterfield.”
Xu gritted her teeth and buried her head in her hands. The threat they faced was very real, and had now moved from Athenia to elsewhere in the Union. Shizudera was immensely larger than the small Athenian island; containing them would now be more difficult than ever. “I've already warned Azuma-jo, but I'll let them know immediately what you've discovered. I'll also update Sujian and tell them to arrest any of them if they try to get back into the country. We need to detain every last one of these people before they kill anyone else.” She rose and left her desk, heading for the door. “I'll have the military put on standby in Shizudera. If any of them resist arrest, the orders will be shoot to kill.”
Meili nodded, agreeing with the order. “What am I to do? Should I remain in Athenia? Or should I resume my investigation from Sujian?”
“I need you here—you'll be assisting the raptors when they arrive.”
Meili's eyes widened with surprise. “You're bringing the raptors here?”
“They're already en route. I made the call earlier. Your orders are to work with Eagle and Hawk. I'll have them bring in Matsuoka Ren. I want to know everything she knows.”
Meili rose from her chair, ready to return to work. “And Falcon?”
Eternity's War (Books 1-3) (Eternity's War Boxsets) Page 67