Chapter 30

Four men sat in the relative tranquillity of a pavilion in the open air grounds of a beautifully maintained garden of their leader’s compound on the shore of a vast lake in the Realm of the Theocracy of Shunik.

“The Kilios Cabal has been asked once again to assassinate the head of the Vreekoosian Empire,” the nominal head of the group announced.

“He expects us to sacrifice another of the Cabal in the vain hope that somehow we can circumvent Imperial security?” a man identified only by a small green pin on his white jacket asked. “We have tried twice and failed. We should cut our losses; they will be ready for us.”

“He offers double the price and to triple it if we succeed,” the leader replied.

“It is still not worth the loss of a single assassin.”

“ImpSec has begun enquiring about and dealing with many other organisations like ours,” the man with a red pin on his equally white jacket added. “Exposing ourselves so soon is not wise.”

“Shunik is safe from the Empire, they would not dare face the wrath of our allies if they attacked us openly,” the leader stated.

“Would we be safe?” the final man, denoted only by a yellow pin on his also white jacket, asked. “Only the last report I had showed that the Imperial fleet outnumbers our allies plus the Host of Shunik by a factor of five, as well as being technically more advanced. In short they’d wipe the floor with us if they could prove we were involved and the priesthood of Shun would likely offer us up to appease their wrath.”

“The Host is undefeatable!” the leader stated.

“You don’t believe that any more than we do,” red pin scoffed.

“I believe it to be true, if only because the priesthood refuses to put it to the test,” the leader chuckled, hiding his tension.

“It is true they’ve never ‘been’ defeated,” green pin nodded.

“Do we need the revenue?” yellow pin asked.

“Whilst you can never have too much,” red pin replied. “No, we don’t. We’d need something better than the amount being offered.

“Better?”

“If you can think of anything say it,” the leader demanded.

“I cannot. Other than precious metals and jewels, Vandaman has nothing to offer.”

“So you all advise against taking this contract?”

There were three nods.

“I will advise Vandaman of your decision,” the leader nodded, hiding his disappointment.

“There may be one I’d be willing to sacrifice,” green pin added thoughtfully.

“Say on?”

“The disgraced one.”

“You dare!”

“It is likely she’ll die. Offer her redemption instead of a fee.”

“She is under a sentence of death for attempting to kill her Senior Master.”

“He deserved death. His record of abuses against various female candidates is well known. Only his position in House Blue has kept him from death,” red pin stated. “The disgraced one did us all a favour in castrating him and bringing his shame into the light of day, even if she has to die for it.”

“House Blue was also behind the last attempt to remove you from power, hence their absence from this table,” yellow pin noted.

“It is unprecedented,” the leader replied, though looked thoughtful.

“So is refusing a contract, though that is what we were about to do,” green pin replied.

“Agreed. I have to admit you have surprised and shocked me. But your point has merit. We have nothing to lose either way as she will comply or die ... and may well die anyway,” the leader responded, thinking that House Blue would likely kill her if she succeeded and returned anyway, but was of little matter, business was business.

“Ensure Vandaman provides the disgraced one with access to the Empress’ schedule and a precise location for the strike,” red pin stated. “Also that the bounty is placed in the usual broker.”

“I will ensure it,” yellow pin assented.

“Then let the game begin,” the leader pronounced and closed the meeting.

“Hi, Hiqua,” I greeted the receptionist as I entered the medical centre.

“Welcome back, Dave,” she greeted me enthusiastically, coming out from behind the reception counter to give me a hug.

“It’s good to be back,” I chuckled. “I hear you have a waiting list.”

“Yes, we got your message and Healer Cassire has made arrangements for the most serious to be here today.”

“That’s good, I’ll let her know I’m here then get back to my proper job until I’m needed,” I replied and headed through to the treatment area to give a clearly busy Cass a wave and get one back as an acknowledgement.

The Healers had clearly dipped into the medical centre’s pockets to pay for a cleaner whilst I was away and the place was tidy at least. That said, there were areas I did that had been missed and I got my gear out and got to work, keeping myself busy until Cass needed me.

“Have a nice holiday?” Cass spoke from directly behind me as I was miles away in a sort of daydream whilst doing my job.

“Yes, we had fun,” I replied as I got up, turned and gave her an unexpected hug. “Good to be back though, Cass.”

“You were missed,” she replied with a slightly flustered smile. “But we have the first of a few patients waiting for you.”

“Lead on.”

“Her name’s Livarna, she has some sort of wasting disease that the facilities here can’t identify or put a name to,” Cass informed me as she led me through to an examination area.

“That’s unusual,” I frowned, as even if the Healers couldn’t heal someone, they could usually label it and tell them what was wrong with them.

“It is, but I suspect she caught it from an alien source when serving in Fleet. It’s definitely genetic in nature, but not in our records. I’ve taken samples and sent them to Medical Resource for identification but that could take up to a binary cycle (10 Imperial days or 21 Earth days) and she’d likely have seriously deteriorated by then, if not died.”

“Take it she’s a referral from the median levels?”

“Yes, through our Healer network.”

“Let’s get her fixed then,” I nodded as we entered the treatment room next to the examination area.

“Salutations, Livarna,” I greeted the thin, and clearly very ill, lady who had almost scale-like large growths all over her face and the parts of her body that I could see.

“Salutations... ?”

“Cure David.”

“An actual Cure?”

“Yes, though you won’t be permitted to remember me or what’s to happen,” I replied.

“Oh ... OK, but you will cure me?”

“Well, it’s always worked so far,” I chuckled.

“Good, I really am so tired of looking this way and dying slowly, though it’s now accelerating,” she sighed.

I then explained what I had to do, to her clear surprise, though she had no objections.

“Been a while since a man touched me that way anyway,” she giggled.

That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day as patient after patient was brought in for my help and sent away cured. Still all good things come to an end and I headed for home a bit tired but looking forward to ‘Daddy time’ with Kiria, no doubt followed up by ‘Mummy time’ with Kirim, if the hints she was giving me this morning were to be believed.

As it turned out, we had a visitor, or rather two of them in the shape of Amantil and Herrick.

“Hi, Manny, Herrick,” I greeted them.

“Hi, Dave,” they both greeted me.

“Just popped down to keep you updated on the current situation as one of my unofficial advisors,” Amantil added. “That and see Kiria,” she finished with a giggle.

“I take it we’ve learned something new?”

“Yes. Imperial Mining Conglomerates is the link between the insider trading and payments in precious metals to the Shunik Theocracy and via them to the Kilios Cabal.” Herrick spoke up, then went on to explain. “They’re up to their necks in corruption and various attempts to get around Imperial restrictions in trade and customs payments as well as what appear to be several illegal buyouts due to share manipulation. Unfortunately as yet we haven’t found out just who is the head of the company. There appear to be several cut outs, with the profits from the company being passed around the Corporate Banks until they vanish into the system and into anonymity. ImpSec is preparing a case against them, though I’ll be holding off on having it brought before the High Table until we know who is behind all this.”

“Interesting,” I commented thoughtfully. “Is there evidence of money or metal transfers off the books so to speak?”

“Yes,” he continued. “They run Armiston Freight, though the AIs had to go through a tortuous system of leasing and holding companies to track them down and link them to Imperial Mining via their investment arm. Armiston’s records do not tally with the shipping records of Imperial Mining in that they show they carry more than Imperial Mining’s records show. We’re still looking to find just where the excess is going as the recorded volumes do match when they get to the various storage areas that Imperial Mining use.”

“I take it these are rare and precious metals and alloys?” I asked as Amantil and Kirim played with Kiria, who was giving them beaming smiles and what might be giggles.

“Yes, we haven’t traced any gem shipments going astray, though it’s possible they use the precious metals to buy them. We also noted another massive investment going to Shunik and suspect there will be another attempt on Manny’s life soon.”

“Oh hell,” I sighed.

“Yes, particularly as we don’t know how they are getting information of my whereabouts and activities,” Amantil piped up.

“I guess you’ll be keeping an eye on visitors from there, or who have passed through there?” I asked thoughtfully.

“We will, though the previous assassin, for all he was from there, did not have any links in his travel itinerary. I suspect it was wiped, but still don’t know how they are doing it as it should be impossible,” Amantil replied.

“You mentioned the old palace AI was memory wiped after the first attempt on you and your family?” I asked.

“Destroyed, not wiped,” Herrick corrected me.

“Was it? Or did someone have the memory removed and left it still linked to the system as a spy, just leaving behind some junk in its place as evidence.”

“No ... at least I don’t believe it can be done,” Herrick began. “AI?”

“It is possible for such a system to work. There were no parts of the central core in the destroyed wreckage,” came an unexpected reply.

“Would your security protocols not stop such a tap?” Amantil asked, frowning.

“If it was part of our system, it would have automatically been upgraded, Serenissima.”

“Could you do an interrogation of your linked cores to look for unauthorised taps from official sources, including supposedly obsolete AIs?”

“At once, Serenissima. It will take some time though.”

“Run it as a background check. Do not interfere with primary tasks.”

“Complying.”

“Interesting the way your mind works, Dave,” Amantil addressed me with a smile.