Revelations - Rise of the Inquisitor

by R. E. Graham

  “That’s the best part, you don’t have to!” Knowledge said as he stepped into the light and walked right up to Varius. He grabbed him by the back of his head tightly. “Tell me what you know about the Shadow Man.”

  “Ergh…I’m not telling you anything! This is my investigation and I am going to see it through” the Inquisitor said through gritted teeth.

  “That’s fine” Knowledge said as he released his captive and stood up. He reached his hand out over Varius. “…I don’t need you to cooperate.”

  The Keeper’s hand began to shine orange and Varius felt an intense sharp pain stab straight into his mind. He held back a howl of misery as Liberty rushed over and gently placed her gloved hand on Knowledge’s.

  “What are you doing to him?!” Eva growled.

  “There is another way” the bronze keeper said calmly as she stared into Knowledge’s faceplate.

  Knowledge lowered his hand and the light dimmed. The Inquisitor took a deep breath as the pain subsided.

  “If he doesn’t start telling us what he knows, then I will dig it out myself” the dark blue Keeper said as he stomped back out of the glow of the light above.

  Liberty nodded her head and looked back to Varius. She squatted down, and her helmet disappeared into a mist of bright purple dust.

  While the tip of a scar reached up from under her neck armor, Varius was surprised to discover how young she appeared. Liberty brushed her short blonde bangs out of her eyes. “We have been watching you since you arrived on Eden Varius. You have made quite the mess of things, but that is sort of what inquisitor’s do. To be open with you, we have been pursuing the Shadow Man for several cycles now.”

  The Inquisitor looked over at Knowledge who stood cross armed in the darkness, the small orange lights on his armor shining in the shadows. He turned back to Liberty with a stern and resilient look. “How is it that I have been an inquisitor for so long, traveled to two dozen worlds and not once ever saw any proof about the Keepers?”

  Liberty interlaced her fingers as she thought about her response. “The Keepers of the Republic order was set up a very long time ago. Our purpose is to make sure that our nation doesn’t fall into chaos and destruction. Right now, the Shadow Man has been involved in numerous armed uprisings. He also has links to several pirate kingdoms in the Siimon and Quarry prefectures. Knowledge thinks that he is working on something big.”

  “I don’t “think”, I know” Knowledge said swiftly.

  “Why attack us then?” the Inquisitor asked as he looked into Liberty’s bright green eyes.

  The Keeper stood back up. “You investigated an incident on Assembly and now you’re here on Eden.”

  “That is accurate, but I was looking into another inquisitor’s disappearance…”

  “Kopen” Knowledge said.

  Varius looked over at the dark blue keeper. “How would you know that?”

  “It is my job to know things boy.”

  The Inquisitor squinted slightly then looked back to Liberty. “As for why I am here, I can’t say. It is classified.”

  Knowledge sighed and then walked back into the light pointing his finger at his captive. “You need to stop holding back information Inquisitor. It looks like you are covering up for the Shadow Man. Everywhere you go witnesses die or proof is burned up.”

  Varius opened his mouth to argue back but Liberty cut in. “He’s right. You claim you are innocent yet here you are with a fugitive from the law, Carlo Rey is dead, you injured two other inquisitors, the warehouse was lost in the fire and we know that the Shadow Man was directly linked to the cannibal group on Assembly.”

  Eva couldn’t contain herself anymore. “Cannibals? Wha…I’m tired of this self-righteous nonsense! Varius and I are after the Shadow Man just like you. Why in the void would Varius lie? He’s so uptight about following the law that he could make diamonds in his...”

  Knowledge strolled over to face his other captive. “Ah, Eva Primus. Or really, Eva Archimedes. Ex inquisitor. Linked to not only Eden’s Forgotten Legion which was subsequently prosecuted in the involvement of conspiracy to attack Eden’s ruling governor, but you have your own dark history. Your presence here isn’t exactly helping his case.”

  The woman glared at the lanky looking keeper intensely, her reflection becoming distorted in the curvature of Knowledge’s wide faceplate.

  “We are getting nowhere Lib. They don’t know anything of value” Knowledge said as he glanced over at his compatriot.

  Liberty’s helmet reformed around her face. “Perhaps not. But they don’t seem to be linked to this, just wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “What does that mean for us?” Eva asked as she strained her neck to look to Liberty.

  “It means that you two need to lay low until we sort this out” the female keeper said as she began to step backwards into the shadows.

  “No way am I going to leave it to the two of you to clear my name and administer justice to the guilty. There is corruption here and I will discover how deep it goes” Varius said angrily.

  “You don’t even know what is really going on here. You don’t see the big picture. There is so much more at play here that you don’t even know the real truth” Knowledge said shaking his head.

  “Then enlighten me!” the Inquisitor barked back.

  “Stay away from our investigation. Forget about the Shadow Man. Go into hiding until this is resolved” the blue keeper said as he too stepped backwards into the darkness.

  “And what about releasing us?” Varius shouted into the emptiness.

  “I’m confident you can manage Inquisitor…” With that, Knowledge’s voice faded away into the distance. Leaving the two captives all alone.

  Chapter 22

  Cycle: 412 Month: 7 Rotation: 13

  Prefecture: Siimon

  Planet: Eden

  Location: Downtown Lucifer

  Once Varius and Eva escaped their bindings they made sure to put plenty of distance between where they met the keepers and themselves. They now walked down some insignificant sidewalk on the lower level of the downtown area. Sunset was near, and the overall weariness of his lack of slumber felt heavy on Varius’ shoulders. He opened his eyes wide and nearly bumped into a man not paying attention as he walked a few steps behind Eva.

  “Excuse me” the incognito Inquisitor said sleepily.

  The man didn’t even look up from his communicator as he played some mobile game.

  Varius rolled his eyes. Eva saw a pair of KoP agents up ahead randomly checking IDs and motioned with her head for the Inquisitor to follow her into an alley.

  “Get close to me, act like you are flirting with me” Eva said as she pulled Varius over to her. He wasn’t quite ready for the motion and had to catch himself before stumbling onto her. “Woah now.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  Eva looked up and saw the agents out of the corner of her eye. She grabbed the Inquisitor’s face and yanked it towards hers. Before he knew it, Varius’ lips were all over his prisoner’s. A jolt of energy shot through his body, but Eva kept one eye open towards the opening of the alley.

  One of the agents looked over towards them but continued on down the sidewalk.

  Eva released Varius who’s eyes were very large. “Oh, uh, I figured I had to do something.”

  “Ah, right. Good…um, good thinking” Varius said as he struggled for the right words.

  “Anyway, I think I have a plan.”

  The Inquisitor tried to pull his mind back to the moment. “Um, a plan? Plan for what?”

  “To track down the Shadow Man. I agree with you, I’m not about to leave it to the two of them to deal with this.”

  “Unfortunately, the only lead I really have is Titus” Varius said as he shook his head. Things were dire at the moment, and his mind had been racing to understand if the two keepers were genuine and what that might mean for how they fit into the grand scheme of the Republic. While he was a level three i
nquisitor he knew there was still much he wasn’t privy to.

  I wonder if Director Seneca knows about them?

  “Well, I was thinking. What if we were able to track down some footage of the day that the Keepers of Peace raided the warehouse? Maybe we could get some clues who is delivering the firearms in the first place and that could give us another lead.”

  Varius looked back to the alley opening to see if anyone was listening in. He lowered his voice to above a whisper. “Odds are that all of the footage of anything with a good enough angle on the raid would have been confiscated. It is likely to be a huge waste of time. Time that could be spent getting Titus to give me information.”

  Eva held up a hand to ease his mood. “Maybe you are right, but I think you know as well as I do that the KoP agents aren’t always very thorough. Something could have been missed. I think you need to have a little faith.”

  The Inquisitor’s eye blazed. “Faith in some supernatural being isn’t going to help me. I deal with facts.”

  “Well, I will have faith for the two of us then. Let’s go” Eva replied as she walked deeper into the alley.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I told you, I’m going to look for evidence. But first I’m going to get a sandwich! You can follow along if you’d like.”

  Varius shook his head as he watched Eva walk away. Everything in his body told him to go find Titus. If for nothing else, it might help to vent his growing frustration. Hesitatingly he decided to follow the ex-inquisitor.

  This is pointless…

  Chapter 23

  Cycle: 412 Month: 7 Rotation: 13

  Prefecture: Siimon

  Planet: Eden

  Location: Warehouse District

  It took quite some time for the pair to investigate outside several warehouses or other manufacturing facilities to locate a surveillance camera that may have been aimed in the direction of the burned down warehouse. With night set in and the warehouse district dormant for the night with all of the businesses shutting down for the day, it was the perfect time to snoop around without anyone asking questions.

  Since the surrounding area was so large and they needed to conduct their search as quietly as possible, the two had split up to search which structure may have the best vantage point to see the warehouse bust. Varius finished checking several businesses near the edges of the burned down warehouse and headed back to the meetup location.

  Eva sat up against a green hover semi that was parked in a nearby empty lot as she waited for the Inquisitor to finish his own search. She smiled at the sight of Varius in the glow of distant lights, but he didn’t return the gesture. “Did you find a good spot?” she asked as she wiped her hands off on her pants after standing up.

  “The blue building on the corner lot has one camera pointed towards the rear of the warehouse while the giant repair shop has two cameras angled appropriately. What about you?”

  The woman pointed behind her with her thumb. “That smaller warehouse was useless. But, the orange refinery over there looks like it has a perfect vantage point to the loading dock for the warehouse. Unless you have a better option, I think that is the one we should check out first.”

  While he was trying his best to hide the exhaustion that was fighting his body by standing as straight as he could manage, Eva could see it wearing on him in his eyes. Varius shrugged. “Let’s check out the refinery first.”

  Eva’s smile widened as she cheerfully said, “Great!” She walked off and the Inquisitor followed behind.

  The pair both got low as they got up to the edges of the metal fence with a jagged roll of sharp bladed wiring on top of it guarding the perimeter of the refinery. Two large poles stood above all the buildings within the property accept for the smoke stack at the top of the main structure, which was the refinery itself. Four bright lights aimed to illuminate the most space was aimed downwards. Most of the property was entirely lit up.

  Several wheeled semis were parked in a stonecrete lot to their left while there was only sparse cover up to the main facility itself.

  He visually scanned the area for any personnel or other potential threats but didn’t see anything unusual or of concern.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” Eva whispered to Varius.

  The man looked confused. “I thought you had a plan.”

  “Well, I do. I just wanted to see if yours was better” the woman said as she inspected the situation. “Odds are there are alarm systems throughout the complex.”

  “Agreed” Varius said as he studied the refinery for a way in. That’s when he saw it. “It looks like that window on the third floor is open.”

  “Great” Eva said as she also saw the opened entry point. “So that is our way in. Now for this fence. You don’t happen to have a compact plasma cutter with you by chance?”

  Varius’ face looked like stone. “No, I don’t have one with me…”

  Without missing a beat Eva shrugged and said, “Then I guess we do it the old-fashioned way.” She stood up and walked back to the parked hover semi.

  “Eva! Eva what are you doing?” the Inquisitor called after her, but she didn’t respond.

  When she reached the green truck, she threw open the door and hopped inside. A few moments passed before the headlights kicked on and the hover fans came to life lifting the truck off the ground. Varius watched her drive the truck slowly out of the lot it was parked in and then was shocked to see her speed up and driving straight for him.

  He rolled out of the way just as the truck swerved hard to the left, the fans kicking up loose dirt into the air as it stopped less than an arms-reach from the metal fence. With a slow gentleness the semi lowered itself delicately to the ground as the fans were cut and the truck switched off.

  The woman hopped out of the truck with a huge grin on her face. Varius however was not amused. “What in the void were you trying to do?”

  “I wasn’t going to hit it. Probably has alarms rigged to it anyhow. Just wanted to wake you up a bit Varius” she said as she held back a chuckle. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

  While the Inquisitor still fumed in anger, Eva grabbed onto a handle on the cab of the semi and hoisted herself up on top of it. With a sense of ease, she ran two steps forward and jumped over the fence and landed in a roll that demonstrated her previous training very well. She brushed aside her bangs from her face and waved the Inquisitor to follow.

  Varius climbed up the truck and did likewise without any trouble. Eva nodded approvingly. “Not bad.”

  “Let’s try to get this done quickly” Varius said as he stealthily made his way up to the refinery building with Eva close behind.

  The two reached the main structure without incident and the woman kept watch while Varius began to scale the building. He was able to successfully climb to the third floor by using a metal pipe that ran from the top of the building all the way down to the ground. It was secured to the wall with strong bolts with a ring that the Inquisitor was able to utilize to move up the pipe safely.

  When he reached the third floor he could better see a strip of the building that created a large enough ledge for him to shimmy his way across until he reached the window. He first checked through the opening before he stuck his head inside to see if it was clear. The room the window led to was some sort of clerical office. A wooden desk with multiple computer screens arrayed on top and data pads scattered about it sat close to the window while the right side of the room had stacks upon stacks of same size boxes organized against it.

  After pulling himself inside and again checking the area he stuck his arm out and waved Eva up.

  As the ex-inquisitor followed up the side of the building Varius took the time to inspect the room for a security camera.

  None. That’s good.

  He helped Eva inside when she reached the window.

  “Thanks” she whispered softly.

  Varius carefully walked over to the doorway and pressed the door panel button. The thin door
slid into the wall and he leaned out the doorway to check for threats.

  He motioned with his right hand for Eva to go into the hallway as he stepped out onto the walkway and activated the light built into his gauntlet.

  After ten minutes or so the pair had searched multiple rooms on the third floor and had moved up to the fourth floor until they came across the master office in the facility.

  “Security footage is likely to be in this guy’s office” Eva said as the two stopped in the walkway.

  Varius pressed himself against the wall as he thought. “Yeah, but it is also likely that there is a camera in there too.”

  “True. But I doubt there is an alarm system that will go off since we have been all over the third floor of this place and haven’t had any problems yet.”

  “Unless of course there was a silent alarm that we tripped, and the authorities are on their way” Varius said disdainfully.

  “Then let’s hope they will send some KoP agents too!” Eva said softly with a grin as she strolled right up to the door and pressed the panel.

  She is completely reckless! How could she have ever been an inquisitor?

  Varius watched in horror as she simply walked into the dark room. He shook his head then silently entered behind her. Using his gauntlet, he shined his light around the office and noticed the camera pod mounted to the corner of the room. Eva sat behind the facility manager’s desk and was already pulling up the security system on the computer.

  “Yeah, I already saw it. We need to be quick. Could you use your AI to hack into the system?”

  The Inquisitor walked up to the desk and shut the light off. He held up the gauntlet near his mouth. “Marth, I need access to this security system.”

  “One moment Inquisitor” Marth said as it began to connect to the computer system remotely and attacked it virtually from within.

  “Access granted.”

  The woman instantly began to use a holographic scroller displayed from the computer to dig through the files and searched through specific dates to replay camera footage. “Not good. Looks like the footage the day the raid happened is gone.”