by R. E. Graham
He sure has been in there a while…oh no, the safe!
Eva sprang up from the couch and rushed to her bedroom. Internally her stomach churned as she passed the open door of her son’s bedroom. She forced her gaze to avert away from looking inside as she focused on getting to the bedroom quickly.
Her bedroom door was still slid open, so she poked her head inside and saw the light on in the closet. In a flash she covered the distance to the closet and gasped when she discovered Varius kneeling down in the left corner holding a small black device with a holographic Inquisitor’s badge floating above his hand. What was more surprising to her was the sight of Varius’ bare back. From beneath the towel up to the base of his neck was a metal construct with short metallic strips that stretched out from his spine. Small pale blue lights emitted from equally spaced points of the construct.
Eva forced herself to regain her composure and channel her fury. “I said you could find clothes to wear, not go breaking into things. You have no right!” she screamed.
Unphased by her excited volume, Varius looked up to her. “It’s yours, isn’t it?”
Eva’s shoulders slumped. She looked away and rubbed her left arm. “Yes…” she finally responded.
The Inquisitor stood up and held the badge in his right hand, his face was very stern. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
The woman’s face contorted in anger. She swiped the badge from Varius’ hand and looked at it intently as the badge floated just above the device. A flood of memories washed over her as she stared at the display.
“Eva?” Varius asked as he gathered the clothes he had found.
She thumbed the side of the badge base and the projection ceased. Without thinking about it the woman ran her free hand through her hair. She turned and looked around the bedroom.
“I can’t be in here…” Eva said before she left and headed back for the living room.
Varius decided it was best to get dressed before he followed after her. He went back to the dresser to retrieve a pair of socks and then left the room. The lights automatically shut off as he waved his hand over the door panel and the door slid shut.
Eva sat on the couch with her head in her hands. The Inquisitor approached quietly but knowing he needed answers.
“When did you retire from the order?” he finally asked to break the silence.
The woman looked up but away from her captor. She wiped away the tears that fell down her face as she tried to make her voice sound strong. “It uh…it was six cycles ago.” Eva sniffed deeply and took a big breath. “I was an Inquisitor for five cycles before I saw enough and decided it was time for me to get out.”
“What happened to make you want to quit?” Varius asked as he leaned against the wall. He knew of others who had left the order but had never taken the time to talk to any of them specifically.
Eva nodded to herself before she replied. “I was responding to a report that children were being abducted on New Prime. Local authorities were typically useless, so I did what I was trained to. I knocked some heads together until I found a strong lead on one particular little girl that had gone missing.”
Tears in her eyes began to well back up and her lips quivered. She looked to the floor and forced herself to continue. “Turns out that the little girl was sold into a sex trafficking group. I had seen sex rings before…but this one was bad. The girls were all four to twelve cycles old.”
Varius clenched his teeth tightly together and his face turned red. He caught the change in himself and slowed his breathing to calm down enough to listen closely.
Eva sat up straight and again wiped a tear from her left eye. The remnants of the eye makeup she had been wearing smeared when her hand slid away from her face. “Of course, when I came across the location I dealt with things. I killed six armed men before they all got the hint and scattered like insects. I didn’t know until things had calmed down that all but one of the girls had been killed as the crud-heads left.”
As her emotions stirred from the haunting memories the woman finally broke down and cried. The Inquisitor stood there for a moment unsure of what to do.
Using her right hand to wipe both of her red eyes Eva looked up at Varius. “You want to know the worst part? One of the men I killed was the governor’s son. His son! I figured that if his own flesh and blood was involved that the governor could be dirty as well, but I was told to stand down and not dig anymore. Before I knew it, my superior sent me to Zephyr for my next mission. That was when I knew that I was fighting for the wrong side. The Bureau was just as corrupt as any other branch of the Republic.”
“I disagree, the BCI is all that stands in many cases between the Republic and mass chaos among the worlds.”
“You’re delusional if you think that the Bureau isn’t just as dirty as organizations like the Keepers of Peace. You must have seen it. Just look at Titus!”
Varius picked at some stray skin on his finger.
Eva shook her head and sniffed deeply to clear her nose. “What about you, what happened to your back?”
The Inquisitor looked at the woman before he looked away to the window at the back of the condo. Sunlight shown at a downward angle through the glass warming the carpeted floor nearby. His eyes glossed over as he recalled the terrible events in his mind.
“Before I became an inquisitor I lived on Zenith with my wife and daughter. One day we were attacked in our own home by a masked gunman. I became severely injured and was unable to save my family from being slaughtered. He left me to die in a pool of my own blood.”
Eva’s countenance softened as she listened to Varius’ story.
“My spine had been completely severed and I had to have this experimental construct bolted into me…” he said as he pointed with his thumb to his back. “…so that I wouldn’t be paralyzed forever. Actually, the doctors said I wouldn’t likely be able to walk ever again.”
“Yet here you are” the woman chuckled through her teary eyes.
The Inquisitor smiled. “Yeah, here I am. The local authorities weren’t able to turn up anything about who attacked my family. So, after I went through therapy I vowed to join the inquisitors to make a real difference. The rest doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does matter Varius. You know, I started the Eden’s Forgotten Legion because I wanted to figure out a peaceful way to change things here on Eden. Now here I am… a fugitive and everyone else I cared about taken from me again.”
Varius pushed himself off the wall and stood up to his full height. “Come on, we need to get to your comm’s guy so I can contact Director Seneca.”
“Last I heard, Seneca was a good man” Eva said as she stood up as well.
Varius walked over to a short stool and sat down. He pulled over his inquisitor boots and began to strap them on. “He’s been my mentor since I joined the Bureau. He’ll be able to help us on his end by figuring out what Titus is up to.”
“Then what?”
“Then we’ll do what we were trained to” the Inquisitor smirked.
Chapter 19
Cycle: 412 Month: 7 Rotation: 13
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Eden
Location: Westside of Lucifer, Loading Docks
The pair had made their way through shady passages and back alleys until they were able to get to the Westside of Lucifer. Two times they narrowly dodged Keepers of Peace armored agents and their patrols. It was very clear that both Varius and Eva were intensely being sought after as their profile holograms were posted all over the busy city.
Eva led the Inquisitor to some small storefront called “Mik’s Techtopia” in the dingiest part of Lucifer he had the displeasure of visiting yet. He waited outside of the tech service shop while Eva went in.
While he waited he saw a patrol of three KoP agents coming towards him on the stonecrete sidewalk. Trash and other debris littered the walkway along the way.
With little option, Varius strolled over to a shop next door to Mik’s that had a
holoscreen showing the local news.
“We have more reports of violence breaking out across Eden as rioters smash windows and burn vehicles…” the news anchor said as they read the teleprompter.
As the two agents came closer and closer to the Inquisitor in hiding, Varius prepared himself for a potential strike. He hid his right wrist with his left hand as he activated his assassin blade and readied himself to strike quickly.
Trying to play off his anticipation for a struggle, the Inquisitor stared at the news anchor as the well-dressed man delivered the news to his televised audience.
Just before the agents stepped up to him, another man in a hoody happened to be crossing the street to avoid the agent’s path.
“Hey you, hold up!” one of the agents shouted out through his helmet’s speaker as the man crossed the street in front of oncoming traffic. A yellow hovercar braked hard narrowly missing the man and a wheeled truck coming the opposite direction.
The two agents chased after the man as he broke into a full run and Varius let out a sigh of relief. His assassin blade clicked as it retracted.
Eva poked her head out from inside the shop and whistled over to Varius. He checked his left and then walked over to Mik’s and went inside.
A pungent smell of some kind of incense assaulted the Inquisitor’s nostrils. He blinked twice as his eyes began to water.
Eva swatted his chest and grinned. “The smell is a little strong. You’ll get used to it.”
“I sure hope not.”
The woman giggled to herself as she led the way deeper into the shop. All kinds of computer consoles, sensor equipment, and more was strewn all about the shop in a messy way of organization. Varius looked up above him and was inspecting a shelf full of what looked like spacecraft scanners when he accidentally kicked a metal stool that had a pile of parts stacked on top.
Before the Inquisitor could catch it, the stool crashed to the ground sending the parts flying and clanging all over the place.
A lanky red headed man popped his head out from behind a wall up ahead. “Yo, you break it you buy it!” he exclaimed bitterly.
Eva smiled widely as she strolled up to the skinny pimply faced man. “Relax Mikkee, he’s real clumsy. But, his cuso will clear.”
“It better. This isn’t going to be cheap” the shop keeper said as he scowled at Varius who stared right back. The red headed man itched his nose and adjusted his taped together glasses on his nose. “Follow me, and don’t kick anything else.” Mik was a very tall man, easily a hold head taller than Varius. But, his incredibly thin appearance gave him an almost comical look.
Eva followed behind Mik with Varius close behind. As they went behind the wall that the shop keeper popped up from they found themselves going down a very narrow hallway. Even more parts and boxes filled the space on either side. Metal shelves lined the wall on the left while the right had all sorts of dramatic spray-painted art covering it.
Mik stopped about halfway down the hall and waved his hand over a portion of wall. A small door popped open where his hand just was, and he leaned in close for it to scan his retina. He took a step back and a door sized chunk of the wall pushed in and then slid into the wall.
The Inquisitor and the woman followed silently behind the shop keeper as they descended down a flight of worn metal stairs. While the stairwell was completely black and closed in, the lights and whirring of machinery up ahead alerted Varius.
When Mik hit the bottom of the stairs he clapped his hands together and pointed his two bony index fingers towards a door to his left. “Alright, that’s it over there.”
Varius looked around the large room and tried to take in all that he saw. Terminals seemed to fill almost the entire room. Colored cables of all sizes ran along the piping above his head in all sorts of directions as they connected various pieces of equipment with others.
“Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we need to talk payment. Where do you need to send a signal to?” Mik asked with a serious face.
Varius stopped looking around the room and made eye contact with the taller man. “I need to speak with someone on Foundation.”
“No problem, easily done. Who specifically?”
“Director Seneca in the BCI” the Inquisitor said.
“The Bureau of Central Intelligence?! You want me to contact the BCI with illegal equipment? Are you insane?”
Eva broke in. “Woah now Mik, he’s got the money for it.”
Mik glared at Eva with crazy eyes. “It isn’t about cuso Eva. I already have run ins with the law in my past. I can’t have inquisitors coming down on me with all this tech sending out private transmissions.”
“I think you mean “illegal”” Varius quipped.
“It shouldn’t be illegal to send transmissions from planet to planet. The government has no right to infringe on our speech!” the shop keeper said as he worked himself into a frenzy.
Varius held up his hand to calm the situation. “I assure you that if you assist me with this that there will be no government inspection of this facility.”
Eva smiled happily. “You see Mik, he’s an inquisitor himself. If he says it then he truly means it.”
“You didn’t tell me this slimey guy was with the law. I never would have agreed to it.”
The woman placed her left hand on Mik’s chest as she looked into his eyes lovingly. “Look, we are in a real bind here. It would mean an awful lot to me if you could help us out.”
Mik couldn’t help but loosen up some as he lost himself in her blue eyes. “Well, it isn’t going to be cheap…” he looked up to Varius before continuing. “10,000 cuso.”
“10,000!” the Inquisitor shrieked. “Just to set up a transmission?!”
Eva turned back to Varius with a look urging him to shut up. The Inquisitor noticed the look but plowed forward anyhow. “You talk about freedom of speech then extort people?”
Mik’s eyes raged with fury. “Don’t you dare lecture me!”
Not desiring to watch the argument explode further Eva shouted above the two men. “Stop it Varius. I know you have access to an endless government fund anyhow. It isn’t like it comes out of your personal account.”
“Well no, but it’s the principle of it” the Inquisitor argued back to the woman.
“Principle? Ha! The Prefect Major just manufactures the cuso credit system anyhow. There hasn’t been a real balance of currency in generations” Mik lectured to the shorter man.
“Varius, we don’t have time for this. Just pay him and let’s get on with it.”
Mik held up a portable scanner device with a code on the screen and grinned defiantly. The Inquisitor pursed his lips before he nodded and rolled up his left sleeve revealing his gauntlet. He punched several keys on his gauntlet then huffed. “There.”
The shop keeper flipped the device in his hand back towards his face and smiled greedily. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you. Go right into that room over there. You can enter the data to connect to your guy in the Bureau and I will sync up the link. Hopefully the KoPs aren’t nearby, and we all don’t die.”
“Thanks Mik!” Eva said cheerily as he walked across the room to a terminal and began typing with incredible speed.
Varius walked up to the solid black door and stood there looking around for a door panel. Mik hit a key on his keypad and the door opened. The Inquisitor stepped in and the door shut briskly behind him.
The room itself was very cramped and the only light came from the holoscreen projection that rested on top a countertop that extended from the wall. A keypad sat beside the base of the holoscreen. The projection itself was a slowly rotating skull and cross bones symbol with a flaming flag of the Corre Republic behind it.
Nice touch Mik…
“Key in the signal and connection point and I’ll do the rest” came the shop keeper’s voice through a speaker built into the ceiling.
The Inquisitor entered the information on the keypad and pressed the green arrow sym
bol when finished. After a moment the flag symbol disintegrated into a pile of blue pixels in a mound over the projector and then reassembled themselves into the upper torso and head of Director Seneca. Varius stood at parade rest with his arms behind his back.
“Sir” he said.
“Varius?” Seneca asked very confused.
“Director, I apologize for this transmission. Things have turned very badly here on Eden and I needed to contact you. Are you alone sir?”
Seneca got up from his desk and returned a moment later. He sat back down in his black leather chair and adjusted his uniform by tugging harshly at the bottom of his top. “Go ahead.”
“Director, I have an eye witness account that ties the situation here on Eden with Inquisitor Titus.”
“Titus? He was supposed to be out on a mission on the border of the Corpus Confederation” the older man said as he recalled the information from his memory.
“He’s here on Eden along with Inquisitor Vega. It seems that they are involved with someone in the local Keepers of Peace garrison force. I am not sure if it is with Legatus Aquilas yet, but I do know that this all does involve the Shadow Man.”
“And what of your eye witness?”
Varius stiffened visibly. “He uh…committed suicide sir.”
Seneca was clearly perplexed. “Suicide?”
“Yessir. In fact, that is the second person involved that I have interrogated here on Eden to take their own life to prevent giving me more information.”
The Director rubbed his smooth chin in thought. “Do you have any other leads at the moment?”
“Currently, no. I was considering going after Inquisitor Titus as he seems to be my only...”
Seneca held his hand up. “I don’t want you to make…ny…without my…ment…”
“Director?” Varius asked as his hands fell to his sides.
“Sorry, we are getting some interference” Mik said over the intercom. “Let me try…” he was interrupted by a muffled rumble.