Chapter 45

“Be careful approaching!” Liono warned Trassil as the aide began to move towards her, concern written all over her face. “I suggest you call a specialist team; this is a professional ... of sorts.”

“Er ... yes, I ... I’ll do that,” she replied, clearly a little shaken.

“Why would someone try to kill you?” one of the crowd asked, keeping a little distance as Liono was still scanning whilst removing various articles from the would-be assassin’s person.

“Does seem a little extreme for an art critic,” I chuckled.

In the meanwhile Torric had shown up, along with what I assumed was a healer/doctor from the medical centre and at a nod from Liono was scanning the assassin via his wand linked to the Gloriana’s AI, whilst the healer/doctor used a hand-held pad to examine the assassin’s thrown knife.

“Disabled an internal suicide device, quite powerful too” Torric informed Liono, “Also various neurotoxins on his nails.”

Hegemonial Guards had also turned up and were now politely forming a perimeter under orders from Trassil, though leaving any witnesses within it as they began to take statements. They did however leave the assassin to Liono, clearly waiting for a specialist team to arrive.

“No idea who or why?” an Investigator introduced as Eyes of Radiance Gultar asked me after getting my basic details from a scan.

“No, just warned by my bodyguard to beware,” I replied, noting the professionalism and assuming, correctly as it turned out, that they in turn were being observed by Aramissa’s Monitoria.

“May I speak to her, only it appears approaching her incautiously might be very unwise?”

“I’ll ask. She appears to have divested him of weapons now, also Torric, my Healer friend, has scanned him,” I replied and then got an OK over my open com channel from Liono along with a couple of instructions. “You can approach, but do not get within one pace of her and do not get between me and her ... same for all your people.”

“Thank you,” Gultar replied and carefully approached Liono who was still keeping the assassin pinned. He then handed over several other restraints which she examined before applying them to the legs and hands of the guy before moving off him to speak to Gultar.

“You appear to have set off an interstellar incident, Dayyev,” Torric chuckled.

“Whilst I’m sure the Hegemony is concerned, it might not be from them at all; simply a warning to Amanda about various incidents she’s been involved with ... me being generally an easier target,” I replied thoughtfully.

“Definitely a possibility,” Torric acknowledged. “May I introduce Senior Balm of Ease Klithi of the local medical centre.”

“A pleasure,” I replied to a cheerful looking lady.

“Mine too, though I was only hoping to get some sketches of myself and staff,” she smiled. “Not get involved with an assassination attempt.”

“Certainly wasn’t a choice of mine either, to be targeted,” I chuckled, beginning a sketch of her, catching the professionalism as well as the sheer joy that seemed to sparkle from her ... in a manner of speaking.

I noted other vehicles approaching and assumed this would be a specialist squad ... or more interfering officials, though the Guards were being extremely professional and the crowd showed deference to them, but no fear or hostility. I was correct in my first assumption. Several armoured figures alighted and approached Liono and Gultar, giving a salute to Gultar and a respectful nod to Liono who then, along with Gultar, moved back to me. The figures then placed the still unconscious assassin on a grav-plate which extruded a nanite covering over him preventing any movement at all. They then all left without a further word.

“Anti-corruption Monitoria,” Gultar explained. “Seriously bad news for anyone crossing them.”

“Voice of Truth Aramissa’s people?” Torric asked, getting a nod.

“Yes. Even our Nobility have reason to be very careful around them,” Gultar replied with a grim smile. “They simply cannot be bribed or diverted from their task.”

“I’ve no doubt I’ll be hearing from the Voice of Truth later,” I sighed.

“Undoubtedly.”

Torric and I, along with Trassil, returned under Amanda’s instructions to the Palace after assuring Klithi that I’d visit her medical centre later to sketch the staff.

“Thank you for looking after them, Silent Fang Trassil,” Amanda said formally to our guide once we were back in the Palace.

“A pleasure, Your Royal Highness. Other than this incident they were of no trouble to me or anyone they met.”

“Yes, I’m informed that it appears unlikely that this was anything to do with Court factions but rather an attempt from outside the Hegemony. But I have requested Dayyev and Torric to remain here until we get this confirmed from other sources.”

“I’ll take my leave, Your Royal Highness, and hope to resume my duty soon,” Trassil replied with a polite bow and then left.

“Are you alright, my love?” Amanda asked as she moved up and hugged me.

“Yes. Liono had it mostly dealt with,” I replied, returning the hug. “You were probably in more danger of dying from boredom,” I finished with a chuckle.

“Actually it was quite entertaining, with Haelee constantly interjecting to correct various Nobles on the proper forms for addressing me,” Amanda smiled.

“They constantly tried to subtly belittle her,” Haelee giggled. “However, they often had to repeat their questions in the correct manner.”

“Oh, the ‘Royal Highness’ versus the ‘Imperial Royal Highness’ bit?” I asked with a sly smile.

“Yes, they constantly used the wrong form in the question, depending on asking the Imperial position or the opinion of Amantil via Amanda.”

“Normally protocol doesn’t bother me, but this visit and these talks it will,” Amanda smiled. “They will address me correctly or be asked to repeat themselves.”

At this juncture Nild and Lisumi joined us, saying, “It was masterfully done. Sorry about the incident, Dayyev,” he added sincerely.

“Doubt it was anything to do with the Hegemony,” I replied. “More likely to do with the shadowy group we’ve been investigating.”

“The ones behind Rogoth?”

“Yes, Nild.”

“I doubt we’ll find out from the assassin, but we will find out something. We rarely get to capture one,” Nild nodded. “Well done, bodyguard Liono.”

“You are welcome, Hegemon Nild,” Liono replied somewhat formally.

“You have my Court in an uproar, Amanda,” Nild chuckled. “Well done to you too.”

“It’s just word play and a bit of ignorance on their part,” Amanda smiled as we all sat and refreshments were brought in.

“Yes, though no doubt they are updating their protocol data as we speak,” Nild agreed.

“They are the ones insisting on the full use of titles when addressing each other. I just pulled out and dusted off a couple of my own and applied them to situations where it’s personal or I’m speaking in the third party.”

“Yes, but they failed to study up on Imperial protocols and ended up being outmanoeuvred and achieving precisely nothing,” Lisumi laughed. “I’m told you also refused to extend the meeting?”

“I did. It was just an excuse for them to show their power and try to insult me or the Empire,” Amanda smiled. “It’s not like my time here is unlimited.”

“That’s what I told them as well, including an admonishment to get the titles right,” Nild chuckled.

“Still have another two days of meetings,” Amanda sighed. “Though I doubt they’ll make the same mistakes again.”

“True, though they’ll also be a lot more cautious too.”

Aramissa arrived at this time and greetings were given before she updated everyone with what had been learned so far. “Whoever hired him wasn’t from the Hegemony,” she confirmed.

“Whilst somewhat of a relief to me and avoiding an interstellar incident,” Nild replied. “I’m fairly sure that’s not a happy situation for our guests.”

“Interrogation isn’t easy,” she continued. “The AI tells us if he’s lying but so far he’s not telling us a lot either, plus he’s resistant to drugs as well.”

“Could I assist?” Torric offered. “There may be an Imperial drug that will work.”

“I accept. You very well may be right, he’s certainly a local ... in a sense.”

“I can go now, with your permission?” Torric asked both Aramissa and Amanda.

“The Palace AI will guide you; my people will be expecting you,” Aramissa replied at Amanda’s nod.

“Apart from the incident is there anything else you noted?” Nild asked me.

“Your people seem happy and content. You’re very popular amongst them,” I replied. “Of course, that’s just one area and I doubt Trassil here would be happy with me venturing into a poor area.”

“He has my permission to venture into one,” Nild spoke to Trassil. “You’ve seen how good his bodyguard is.”

“Yes, Sire,” she replied, looking doubtful.

“Don’t worry. Chances are he’ll be OK and if anything does happen it won’t reflect back on you or the Hegemony, I promise,” Amanda added.

“I suspect there won’t be another attempt until after whoever is behind this organisation does an investigation into what went wrong and by that time we’ll be gone ... oh, and you’ll probably need to dress down a little as well,” I finished with a chuckle, as, for all Trassil wasn’t wearing anything outlandish, it had stood a cut above what the people in the ordinary area were wearing and would likely make her a bigger target than I was.

“I ... I’m not sure what to wear ... or what they wear,” she finally replied nervously.

“Speak to Eyes of Radiance Gultar, he’ll have a few ideas, or know people who will know,” Liono suggested.

“I will, thank you,” she replied, now looking thoughtful.

“May I accompany you too?” Aramissa asked.

“Sister?” Nild queried, looking thoughtful.

“I rarely get the opportunity to examine the mood in the lower quarters and I stand out way too much according to my bodyguards,” she replied. “I suspect I can blend in somewhat better with Dayyev drawing all the attention.”

“I have no objection and the extra bodyguard will be helpful,” I replied.

“Very well,” Nild agreed. “Go see if you can improve your ... tradecraft, I believe they call it.”

“Thank you, Brother,” she replied.

The following morning, after a quiet evening with just our group, minus Torric who was still busy, I stood with Liono as she and Pirio, Aramissa’s bodyguard, examined both her and Trassil and made slight adjustments to their clothing as well as ordering Aramissa to remove her make up and just use a lip gloss. Once that was done, we took a taxi, as I now knew the vehicle was called, to the medical centre where the forewarned Senior Balm of Ease Klithi was expecting us, along with her staff, many of whom had turned up on days off or out of hours to be sketched.