by R. E. Graham
Varius' lip unconsciously curled at the sight of the very messy interior. Old dented boxes of electronics lined the dusty shelves.
Eva happened to notice the Inquisitor's face and elbowed him in the ribs. She smiled at Rony and happily walked in. "Rony! My favorite little shop keeper!"
"Hi Eva. Happy to see you. It's been a long time." The short man wiped his hands off on his pants trying to remove his food covered fingers. He aggressively brushed aside a curl of greasy hair from his eyes.
"Rony, this is the guy I told you about."
The shop keeper looked the Inquisitor up and down and scowled. "Do you have the cuso?"
It almost hurt Varius to respond. "Forty-five thousand, right?"
"That's right, and not a cent less. I heard from Mik what happened to his place. I am taking a huge risk bringing you here you piece of poosh."
The Inquisitor pursed his lips and looked away trying not to let out his building rage. He held up a single finger and Eva rolled her eyes. "Let me just say that what you have going on here is awful, and I feel that you are extorting us."
"Oh yeah?" Rony asked as sarcastically as he could. "So, what would you say is the going rate for setting up a comm link off world for a level five felon? Hmm, tough guy?"
Varius noticed Eva out of the shop keeper's line of view shaking her head. He could feel the muscles in his neck tense up, but he forced himself to relax.
Rony on the other hand thought he had won against the big bad lawman. "That's what I thought."
The short fellow ran a hand through his slimy hair to smooth it on the right side of his head. "Oh, and I need the cuso up front."
Before Varius could even protest the ex-inquisitor jumped into the fray. "Look Rony, we are under some real heat here. He needs to contact a friend on Foundation so that we can get things straightened out" she said as she leaned onto the glass showcase counter.
"Yeah, my ugly brother told me all about your little buddy in the Bureau" Rony said with a smug look.
Varius' body language turned impatient as Eva tried again to smooth things over, the shop keeper held up his hand to stop her.
"Listen, no money, no link."
The woman let out a, "Ugh" as she pushed herself off the counter top and walked around in thought.
With his temper reaching its limits Varius blurted out, "This is ridiculous! We came all this way because Eva said that you could help us."
"I can help you. What you don't seem to understand is that you are like a magnet for problems. I have seen both of your faces all over the stream and around the city. The KoPs want you real bad."
Varius waved away the conversation in frustration. When he did the shop keeper saw something beneath his left sleeve.
"What's that?" he asked as his robotic eyes zoomed in.
"What's what?" the Inquisitor asked annoyed.
"That thing under your sleeve? That isn't a standard issue inquisitors gauntlet...is it?" Rony was practically foaming at the mouth.
Eva pounced on the opportunity. "What if it is?"
Not liking where the conversation was going, the Inquisitor placed his right hand over his left sleeve and twisted his body the opposite direction. "It's not going to happen."
"What choice do we have?" the woman asked her companion.
"I can get you ten minutes of triple laced time to Foundation for that."
Varius shook his head.
Eva threw her hands in the air. "Varius, why not?"
"Because, this short grimy guy is going to use it for illegal activity."
"Short?" Rony shouted back. "And that's rich coming from a wanted felon!"
"Nope. That is off the table. Not going to happen."
"You're insane." Eva turned her back and huffed.
"What else do you have that is valuable?" the shop keeper asked as he crossed his arms.
The Inquisitor just awkwardly stared.
"You have the persuader" Eva said twisting back around.
"Absolutely not. No way am I giving him a bomb."
"Well I don't have the kind of money to pay for it so it's either the gauntlet or the persuader" the woman said sternly.
Varius shook his head and ran his hand through his short hair. He looked to his left as he thought and noticed a storage stick. The packaging was covered in a thick layer of dust but otherwise looked brand new. He yanked it off the shelf, flicked out his assassin blade and sliced the box open.
"Hey now, you can't just steal things!" Rony said as he puffed his chest out.
"I will give you my gauntlet, but not my AI" the Inquisitor said as he plugged the small storage device into a port on his arm piece.
"Marth, download to the storage stick."
A small green bar popped up on his gauntlet's screen and slid across quickly. The text, "Download Complete" appeared. He pulled the storage stick out and slid it into his pocket. Hesitatingly, he rolled his sleeve back and removed his gauntlet.
For some reason it felt much heavier in his hand as he slowly reached out and handed it over to the shop keeper. Rony's eyes lit up like a little child getting a delicious dessert.
"Follow me."
As he stepped out from behind his counter, the small man led the pair to a door at the back of his establishment. He pressed a series of keys that unlocked the room within.
When the door slid back into the wall, the Inquisitor looked disappointed. "What, no secret room?"
"Why would I need that?" Rony asked as if he addressed a stupid person.
"I don't know, but your brother had one. Kinda helped set the mood of doing something illegal."
"Well," the shop keeper said as he rolled his eyes, "my brother is a fool. It's better to hide things in the open rather than in some kind of basement lair."
Varius shrugged and then stepped inside. The door slid behind him and he was surrounded by complete darkness.
After a moment a burst of hologram pixels appeared out of the wall and formed a blazing “X”. The pixels formed into a massive "5" and started to countdown to "1". As if on cue, the face of Director Seneca took shape out of the pixel frantic reshaping.
"Varius?" he asked as he leaned back in his chair.
"Director, we have a very bad strange situation here on Eden and I don't know how much time we have here."
"Woah slow down, what's going on?"
Varius paused and stood up straight before continuing. "I was able to track down the Shadow Man."
That got the Director's attention. "You were? Did you apprehend him?"
"Negative sir. But things have taken an unprecedented turn."
The older man's face showed concern. "What does that mean Varius?"
Where do I start? So much of this doesn't even make sense to myself!
"Well, for starters..." he paused to organize his thoughts. "...I have located the base of operations I believe the Shadow Man is using to organize the delivery of firearms. It seems to be out of a transportation company called Nonin Lucem. It was run by two brothers, Torvan and Thyrus Lucem."
"Was?" the Director asked coldly.
"Turns out the two brothers were just the front for the smuggling operation. They were there when the two Keepers, Knowledge and Liberty, showed up. Thyrus died in the fighting."
Seneca held up his hand to stop Varius. "Hold on, the Keeper of Knowledge and Liberty are there, on Eden?"
"So you have heard of them sir?”
The Director nodded. “They are a level of secrecy that even I am not privy to, but I do know of their existence.”
“Well, if they hadn’t shown up, I don’t know if I would be here right now. Eva Primus and I had been captured by the brothers when the Shadow Man showed up. Sir, Torvan and Thyrus both had black eyes."
"Just like the man on Assembly?"
The Inquisitor nodded. "They were even stronger than the inn keeper had been. Even with the Keepers and their power armor, it seemed they still struggled to deal with the brothers."
"So where i
s the Shadow Man now?"
"I don't know sir. He told me some very strange things. Essentially though, I have apparently been targeted by them for quite some time. I don't know how much of it is the truth right now, but I would guess that this is much bigger than just smuggling some weapons."
The Director shook his head. He reached up with his right hand and massaged his face. "Sounds like you have been through the grinder on this one. I don't know how to tell you this though, Varius, so I am just going to say it straight."
Varius felt his stomach tighten.
"There have been numerous reports that were delivered to the top of the Bureau about your engagements with the Keepers of Peace. It says that several of their agents attempted to apprehend you and that during the altercation you killed several of them. Not to mention, Agent Rey is dead. Is that true?"
With extreme determination to not show any emotion, the Inquisitor maintained eye contact with the hologram face of Seneca.
"It is true sir. Regrettable, but accurate."
The Director deeply sighed. He lowered his head in thought. When he looked back up, Varius felt he was being truly genuine. "I'm sorry, but there are orders out for your arrest. You are to be brought to Foundation before a tribunal."
"What?!" Varius blurted out.
"Look, there is nothing I can do about it just yet. Orders came from the top."
The Inquisitor's head swirled as his world crashed around him. "But sir, do they know that I am on a secret mission?"
"They do, and it was decided that you are to cease your operation and return to Foundation to appear in court."
"That is ridiculous. I have finally found the Shadow Man. Sir, I have proof that the Lucem brothers have made visits to over a dozen worlds in the Republic. I strongly believe that each and every single one of them will be shown to have civil unrest and violence breaking out on those planets."
"That may be, but..." Seneca looked away again. After a moment he just shook his head in frustration.
"Sir, I know that I can solve this case. I need some backup though. If it turns out that Titus is linked to this, then things could be much worse than we initially believed."
An awkward silence hung in the air as the Director thought about what he was going to do.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door. "Varius, we have company!" Eva's shouted voice was muffled through the thick door.
How could we have been discovered again? Is someone setting me up every time I try to reach out to the Director?
Seneca turned back to the hologram before him. "What was that?"
"Seems like we may have been discovered again. Sir, something is going on with the Keepers of Peace. There are some major players involved in this case. I can't walk away from this, not when I'm so close now to bringing the Shadow Man in."
Seneca sighed again.
The Inquisitor just stared back and stood as straight as he could. He puffed out his chest in confidence. "I need a little more time. I will not let you down."
Reluctantly, Seneca nodded. "Alright, let's get this bastard! I will do what I can here to stall things and then I am going to gather up some guys I can count on and come to you."
Varius started to protest but stopped himself when the older man spoke over him. "Did the Shadow Man say what he wanted from you?"
"He said that I was going to have to make a choice."
"What choice?"
Varius shrugged. "I don't know. The Keepers showed up before he said."
"Alright, I want you to lay low. If this criminal has plans for you, it is going to have to wait until I make it over to Eden. We are going to capture this guy together."
Eva banged on the door this time. "We have to go!"
A shot of bravery shot through the Inquisitor's body. "How long will it take you to arrive?" he asked as he started to turn for the door panel.
"Three rotations."
"We will hold off investigating anything further until then."
The Director nodded approvingly then cut the transmission. What was once was the holographic image of the man fell into a mess of illuminated pixels, then disintegrated.
Varius slammed the door panel and the door opened to a very distraught Eva with her hands up. "What's the situation?" he asked as he stepped out of the room and found Rony held at gunpoint by Inquisitor Vega. Titus waved his left hand sarcastically as he too had his firearm drawn, but his was aimed square at the ex-inquisitor. Over Titus' shoulders he could see a team of KoP agents waiting outside.
"Titus!" Varius hissed.
"It's nice to see you again Damien" the other high-level inquisitor said smugly. "You've been giving us quite the slip the past couple of rotations. Why don't you come quietly with us."
The fugitive inquisitor happened to notice that Vega was standing without any brace on his leg. "Good to see you back on your feet Vega" Varius said bitterly.
The other inquisitor looked down to his leg while the leather of his uniform squeaked, then locked his eyes back on Rony. "Yeah, the docs here fixed me up quick. I am of course looking forward to return the favor."
"Relax Vega" Titus said without turning his head to look at his companion. "I am sure that Damien here will do the right thing and come with us peacefully. He wouldn't want anything to happen to his precious felon vixen."
"I'm no criminal Titus!" Eva spat her words out angrily.
Titus' eyes dramatically rolled over to the woman while he kept the gun aimed at her. "We have more than enough evidence to prove that you cooperated in the death of Agent Carso Rey." He smiled devilishly. "However, maybe I can be swayed to lose some of the files if you and I finish our fun that we started at the compound before Aquilas interrupted us."
Varius carefully glanced over to Eva to see fear show in her eyes. He recalled the bruises on her face when he first met her and started to put together what likely happened. The Inquisitor's hands clenched tightly.
"Look, I am not connected to either of these two?" Rony said enthusiastically as he butted into the conversation. His body quivered as he held both of his arms as high as they could go over his short body. "They came into my shop, I've never seen them before or nothing."
"Vega" Titus said aloud.
Without hesitation the other inquisitor discharged his pistol three times into the shop keeper. The small man's body bashed into the wall and he slid to the floor dead. A team of KoPs waiting outside saw that the inquisitors had things under control waited outside as ordered.
Fury filled Eva's eyes while Varius remained calm outwardly.
"Now, let's go" Titus said as he looked back over to Varius.
The Inquisitor took a couple of steps forward. As he passed in front of Eva, she reached behind her and pulled a pistol from her back, she used her left hand to force Varius to the ground.
Before Titus could react she fired twice hitting him in the chest and shoulder. As he reacted from his body armor being shot Vega spun and tried to get a clear shot. He fired his pistol but missed the woman as she ducked and moved to the left behind a shelf. The team of agents outside heard the exchange of gunfire and darted for the door.
Varius hit the floor and rolled to his right to clear the gunfight. Titus dove behind the nearby wall and crawled to safety before he regained himself.
Vega continued to shoot his pistol into the shelving along with the boxed electronics as Eva got low and leaned out from behind the obstruction and fired. The younger inquisitor was hit in the leg, between his armor plates, and instantly dropped to the floor. He let out a groan as his left hand shook from the pain.
Varius grabbed a sealed box from a shelf and threw it as hard as he could at Vega's head. The attack slammed into his face and his head kicked back and smacked the stonecrete floor hard. Blood dripped from the injured inquisitor's head as the fugitive inquisitor ran over and kicked him in the face. Instantly he was knocked unconscious.
"Varius, we got to go!" the woman shouted as she got to her feet and ran for the back door.
"This isn't over Damien!" Titus called out from behind cover. "Not by a long shot! I'll find you wherever you go."
The squad of armored KoPs were now inside the shop and had their guns up. Both of the agents in front began open firing their rifles.
Varius ducked and dashed for the counter. He flipped himself over it and landed on top of Rony’s bloody corpse.
“Sorry about that” Varius said as he got to one knee and grabbed his gauntlet from the shelf below the countertop. He followed down the hallway after Eva. Products all around him became bullet ridden as round after round flew in his direction. His ears rang intensely from the rapid-fire bang bang bang from the agents’ rifles.
Up ahead of the Inquisitor around the corner leading to the rear of the store, Eva had found an exit and was waving him over.
"Where did you get the gun?" he asked as he caught himself from falling as his foot slipped from something slimy on the floor.
"I um...stole it from Rony when he wasn't looking."
Varius couldn't help but smirk at his fellow fugitive. She flicked her head to the side to flip strands of her brown hair from her face.
Shots still rang out behind them as the agents walked their way forward. "Let's pray there isn't a WarMech outside" Eva chuckled as she hit the door panel and aimed her pistol forward. Varius looked behind them and saw one of the agents round the corner. He grabbed her by the shoulders and dove out of the doorway just as a stream of bullets blasted where they both had been standing. In the commotion, he lost his grip on the gauntlet and it flew somewhere outside.
The pair hit the damp ground and each hastily got up and away from the open door. Only to find a pair of agents on either side of them, guns up.
"Drop the weapon!" the armored KoP said to Eva. She tossed the pistol into a puddle off to her right.
One agent from either side of the fugitives moved up while the other kept his rifle up. The one nearest Varius grabbed his raised left arm and pulled it behind his back. In a blur the Inquisitor spun and had not only yanked his arm free but drew the agent's pistol with his right hand and fired it into the other KoP on his side.
Meanwhile, Eva first ducked then jabbed with her fingers right into the agent's neck who was attempting to detain her. She quickly got behind the choking man and used him as a shield from the other agent on her side from firing. Varius twisted around and fired several shots into the last armed agent hitting him multiple times in his chest armor. The man fell just as three more agents darted out of the back of the store front with their own guns up.