The Mullinix Book 1: Ascension

by Rodney Mountain

  Chapter 42 - The Suvorov Files

  Medoferro was sitting in the Mullinix common room reading some of the travel files that Insegniferro had passed off to him, much like he’d been doing the whole day. Now that Simon was gone and both Iggy and Massy were busy tidying up before the trip Medo had to do something with his time.

  Stacy and Marina walked into the room and earned a smile from Medo, who was looking for anything else to lay his eyes on other than another page of that dry and boring text he was reading.

  "I thought you were supposed to be in class today," Medo said to Stacy, "You and Miranda both?"

  "Miranda went," Stacy shrugged, "I decided to ditch and come talk to you before you had to take off. Word just came down about your trip and I’m still worried about Suvorov."

  "Shoot," Medo said, "We never did look in to that."

  "I tried to again," Stacy said, "They shot me down and said I faced disciplinary action if I tried again."

  "I figured you’d want to know," Marina said, "So I let her in."

  "Who?" Medo said, looking at her, "They aren’t supposed to be disciplining people just for asking questions."

  "The Sergeant who runs the records division," Stacy told him, "Got rather annoyed with me earlier."

  "Let’s go have a chat with him," Medo said, "He may be able to stop you, but he sure as hell can’t stop me."

  "Anything I can do?" Marina asked them.

  "Let Iggy know where I’ve gone if he asks," Medo told her, "Let’s take a walk, Stacy."

  "Will do," Marina nodded, "Good luck, guys."

  "You lead," Medo said, "I don’t know that building."

  They walked together to the records building, just about a quarter mile from the palace. It was the first time Medoferro had actually gone into the building, though he’d passed it a few times before. Like most government buildings it was an austere stone structure, built for the ages and not for aesthetics.

  "Who has the files?" Medo asked Stacy.

  "Should be in the southern reports section," Stacy told him, "There’s this prick running the window that has been putting me off for months."

  "Let’s talk to him," Medo said, "There is no reason you should have been denied a simple status report."

  "That’s what I thought," Stacy said, "But the goon wouldn’t let me in."

  Medoferro thought that Stacy was overreacting, but goon was an apt description for the man standing behind the window. Usually this type of clerking job went to a career level civil servant, like Medoferro half expected to become before he was chosen, but this guy looked like a veteran off the lines.

  "You again," he said to Stacy, "I told you that the file is classified. Your friend here…"

  "Watch your tone," Medo said, "There is no such thing as a classified file."

  "The files are classified," the goon said, "Now go piss off or get the Mullinix himself to open them."

  "I don’t think you know who you are talking to," Stacy warned him, "I’d like to introduce my friend here…"

  "I don’t care who he is," the goon said, "Now piss off or you are going on report, Cossy!"

  "I think I had better introduce myself," Medo said, now exceedingly pissed off, "My name is Medoferro. What is your name, Guard?"

  "I don’t care if you are…" the man said until the name registered, "Medoferro… The…."

  "Mullinix apprentice Medoferro," Stacy added, enjoying the satisfaction of it.

  "Since we have that cleared up," Medo told him, "I’d like to see that file. Now."

  "Ye… Yes sir," the goon stammered, "I’ll…"

  "Just let us in and show us the way," Medo said, showing more confidence than he felt, "We’ll take it from here."

  "Yes sir," the goon said, letting them in, "This way…"

  They walked through the stacks to get to the reports that had been turned in from the southern district, which is what Cirrus City and surrounding areas are officially referred to as. Each district commander is required to send in status reports weekly, all of which are kept in the archives for a period of ten years, at which point they are moved to outlying warehouses that are built for the purpose of posterity.

  "We’ll take it from here, thanks," Medoferro said, "Stacy, you take that shelf, I’ll take this one…"

  The goon went out of the room and found his boss standing at the gate, having walked by and noticed that the post was unmanned. He looked at the goon, an impatient look on his face. The goon looked at his boss and knew that he was in trouble.

  "Mr. Stack," the goon said, "I couldn’t…"

  "I told you not to let anyone in here," Anthony Stack told him, "Why did you disobey my orders?"

  "I can’t disobey an order from a Mullinix," the goon told him, "I mean…"

  "Mullinix?" Stack said, concerned, "Which Mullinix?"

  "The new one," the goon told him, "Medoferro. He came with the Cossy girl."

  "Great," Stack said and mumbled a little, "Get out of here…"

  The goon considered protesting, but decided he would be better off following orders. Stack went back to his office and fumed for a few minutes, realizing that if a Mullinix was nosing around everything could be going to pot shortly. He then decided that he had to do something about it.

  He walked over to another office, one in the oldest part of the building that was officially listed as unassigned. Three men were sitting in there, one of them a virtual twin for the man who had attacked Medoferro at the lake a couple months before. He looked surprised as Anthony Stack came into the room.

  "You still want a chance to avenge your brother?" Stack asked with an evil smile.

  "Of course," the man with the strangely colored skin said, "What do you need?"

  "The young Mullinix is proving to be a thorn," Stack told him, "He just got the Cossy girl in to the archives and they are reading files. I want you to make sure they don’t get the information to the other two Mullinix."

  "Another shot at Medoferro, eh?" the man smiled, "Any guards around?"

  "They’re in the archives now," Stack told them, "You can hit them when they leave. My people pretty well control this building right now so they won’t come too quickly. End it quickly, Srado. Don’t fail like Fredo did."

  "Let’s go," Srado said to his comrades, "We have some carnage to create."

  While the ambush was set up without their knowledge Stacy and Medoferro were figuring out something was sounding very fishy with the reports they were reading. Medo was still new to the trade, but he’d been listening to reports enough to know that some things being submitted by the lower ranks were not gelling with the reports he’d been hearing out of Colonel LaPorte from the high end.

  "There’s something rotten here," Medo said, "I mean these reports are often identical. Some of the lower ranking journals don’t mesh with the higher up reports."

  "That’s why they didn’t want to let me see them," Stacy said, "It doesn’t take much to realize that this is a bunch of horseshit."

  "Have you found Suvorov’s records yet?" Medo asked her.

  "Just did," Stacy said, "Take a look at this."

  She handed Medo a file, which he read quickly. Medoferro’s eyes perked up at the descriptions of the massacre, something the likes of which should have made the news. He knew full well that nothing had been reported of the like, so it was certain that a cover-up had been made.

  "Doesn’t anyone read these reports?" Medo wondered, "This should have raised eyebrows."

  "The local commanders send those independently," Stacy told him, "They are supposed to be read, but if they can get someone in here to block access…"

  "Then the person who is supposed to be reading them isn’t passing on information," Medo concluded, "Do you know who the one that does that is?"

  "It is a political appointment," Stacy said, "Anthony Stack is the official report clerk, one of the highest civil service positions in the guard."

  "This is too big for jus
t me," Medo said, "Let’s get over and talk to Iggy about it. Box up those papers. We’re taking them with us."

  "That’s not…" Stacy said and realized who she was with, "You are the law, aren’t you?"

  "Part of it," Medo said, "I haven’t exercised much power yet, but this is over the top."

  "Works for me," Stacy chuckled, "Let’s go."

  They packed the files, nearly two boxes worth, and started heading out. They wanted to get straight to the palace, so they bypassed the goon at the door. He started to say something, but Medoferro stared him down as they walked out the door carrying the two boxes of documents.

  Srado and his boys caught up with Medoferro and Stacy in a long deserted hallway, almost halfway out of the building. Srado, despite being the smallest of the three, was in front with his two hulking brutes in front of him. He carried a sword that was sharpened to a point and looked like it had been used before.

  "He looks a bit familiar," Stacy said, "The guy at the beach."

  "That was my brother," Srado said, a menacing smile on his face, "A death which you are going to pay dearly for."

  "Run Medo," Stacy hissed, "Get out of here."

  "Not without you," Medo said, "I’m sick of running."

  "Good," Srado exclaimed, "It’s time to start dying!"

  Medoferro pulled some power in from his surroundings and started off light. He also fed some of that power to Stacy, giving her highly developed self defense abilities a boost. The power that Medo used to augment his motions allowed him a nice vertical leap as he dropped the box of paperwork that he was carrying. Stacy watched in wonder as she let off a perfect front kick to one of the large brute’s groins.

  Srado was shocked at the jump, but tried to hit Medoferro with his sword. Medo was expecting this, so he redirected some of the power into a shield that made the sword spark when Srado hit it. It also sent a fair sized shock into his hand, causing him to drop the sword.

  Stacy let off a fury of kicks and punches at the two big guys that were trying to take her out. Neither one could keep up with her enhanced speed and ended up doing more damage to each other than they even considered doing to Stacy. She didn’t know what had happened to her, but took it and laid into both of her attackers.

  Medoferro squared off with Srado, getting into a controlled stance. Medo looked at the confused man let off a little smile. Srado wasn’t much more careful than his late brother Fredo, so he went in with fists flying, figuring that he’d have better luck that way than he did with the sword.

  Medoferro, anxious to try out some of what he learned, went along with the fight for a while. Srado was fast, but his technique was uncontrolled. Medoferro had little trouble knocking the uncontrolled blows aside and landing a few solid ones at Srado’s chest. Unlike the guards from before, Medo was more interested in getting Srado to talk instead of die.

  Srado couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t even land a simple punch on Medoferro. His body was shaking from the combination of exertion and the pounding that Medoferro was inflicting on it. He kept trying harder, but continued to fail. Medo smiled as he saw himself winning, but didn’t let up. He continued blocking blows and let the larger man tire himself out.

  Stacy let off a few killer blows on the two goons attacking her. She wasn’t working under the same assumption that Medoferro was, figuring that the only good attacker was a dead attacker. She managed a perfect face shot on one of them, driving his nose bone into his head, knocking him over dead. The other one wasn’t much better off, taking two blows to his testicles and falling over. Stacy jumped with all her weight on his neck, breaking it cleanly.

  Srado knew he’d lost the fight and decided to try to run. Stacy was up and about to try to help Medo stop him, but Medo put up a hand directing her to stop. He pulled a ball of power into his hand and, much to Stacy’s utter surprise, threw it at Srado’s legs, knocking him over.

  Medoferro walked over to where Srado was writhing in pain on the floor and pulled him up against the wall. Srado was shaking in fear now, not even trying to attack anymore. Medo leaned over and used power to reinforce the strength in his left arm to make him seem stronger than he was.

  "Who sent you?" Medoferro asked him, trying to look menacing, "How did you get in here?"

  "They’ll kill me!" Srado exclaimed.

  "I’d suggest you worry more about what I’ll do to you," Medoferro said, bringing another ball of power into his hand, "I am a much more immediate problem for you at this time."

  "You don’t understand…" Srado blubbered.

  "I intend to," Medoferro said, letting the power disperse into his hand and letting it glow, "You are going to tell me, you know. Easy or hard, it is your choice."

  Medoferro put his exceedingly warm hand down on Srado’s shoulder, letting him feel the heat and know that he wasn’t going to get out of it. This was the second time someone had tried to kill him. Medoferro was going to make sure that there wasn’t a third from the same source.

  "There’s one thing I wonder," Stacy said, covering her surprise and unease with a question, "How does an assassin from the Mavelans get into a secure part of the capital?"

  "Better yet," Medoferro said, "How does he speak letter perfect Mullinix as if he’s lived here all his life?"

  "I’m as Mullinix as you are," Srado seethed, "Born and raised."

  "The plot thickens," Medo said, smiling, "Now who sent you!"

  Medoferro pushed a little more power into his hand, heating it up to what was an almost unbearable level for Srado. Medoferro cringed inwardly from using his power this way, but he needed to know who wanted to kill him.

  "Anthony Stack," Srado said, gasping in pain when Medoferro released the heat, "He sent my brother and I after you."

  "Why?" Medo asked him.

  "You and this bitch found the records," Srado gasped, "You weren’t supposed to get anywhere near them."

  "Find the goon at the door," Medo said, "See if he’s one of Stack’s cronies."

  "I can’t believe this," Stacy muttered and ran down the hall.

  "Who is Stack covering for?" Medo asked him.

  "I wouldn’t know," Srado growled, "I’m hired help."

  Medoferro nodded, as that made sense to him. He kept Srado at bay until Stacy came back with the goon and six other guards. They were looking at the remains of the fight and at Medo holding down this larger person.

  "Are you all right sir?" one of the guards asked Medoferro, recognizing him.

  "I’m fine," Medo said, "Would one of you please take this piece of garbage out of here?"

  Stacy went over to Medoferro, who was beginning to shake because the realization of what he just did was coming to him. Stacy smiled and was glad to see that he was still human, despite what he managed to do. He still had enough left in him to keep himself going enough to give some orders.

  "Find Anthony Stack," Medoferro said, "He’s a traitor. Have him brought to the palace when you find him."

  "Yes sir!" the guard said.

  "Can you guys bring the boxes of information to the palace as well," Stacy asked them, "I think Medo needs to get back to the palace."

  "Certainly," the guard said, recognizing that she was a ranking officer with Medoferro.

  She and Medoferro walked out of the building and Medoferro took the opportunity to go over and quickly throw up. Stacy, having seen this reaction out of people before, went over and stood by him, covering him from public view.

  "You ok, Medo?" Stacy asked him.

  "Yeah," Medoferro nodded, "Part nerves, part reaction sickness."

  "What exactly did you do?" Stacy asked him, "I’ve never seen anyone do that before."

  "Manipulated natural power," Medo said, wiping his mouth, "Something the old man taught me to do. Evidently I’ve got a natural talent for it."

  "So that’s what I felt," Stacy said, "You fed power into me!"

  "Yeah," Medo nodded, "You’ve been doin
g self defense longer than I have. I figured with the power boost you’d do a better job."

  "You did ok yourself," Stacy said, "Let’s get over to the palace though, just in case Stack tries again."

  "No argument here," Medo said, then grinned sheepishly, "You won’t tell the others about what I just did out here, will you?"

  "Of course not," Stacy grinned and wiped his mouth with her sleeve, "So long as you don’t tell people that you juiced me up to take out those guys."

  "Deal," Medoferro chuckled as they walked on.