"You should know, Sin, a part of me is remorseful, over all this. I wasn't thinking when I was approached fifteen years ago by the Erlking's men. The therapy had helped, but when you were put on the most wanted list for that period of time, it's like everything went down the drain. I couldn't stop thinking about you again. How messed up that our own government we worked for, wanted to make you out to be a terrorist. My old insecurities came back, thinking you'd be all alone, for the rest of eternity. So when I was approached and I was promised you. I took the deal without even second guessing it."
Suites takes a breath, as I stand there emotionless not even looking at him, but his shoulder with an air of annoyance. He continues on, now not bothering to try to look me in the eye, and lowers his gaze to the floor.
"It wasn't until after the I'd gone through all the cosmetic surgeries, then, the transformation into what we are, that I realized I had made a mistake. When the truth of everything was starting to come out. It was a chance really meeting Futere and becoming friends. Of course, the Erlking made use of the situation and had me join with Futere."
I stop him, "Yeah, about that... How did you sign the contract with out suffering the repercussions?"
He just smiles, "Not my blood."
"How?" I think back to that day he signed and don't remember anything off.
He just stays quiet, blinking at me.
'Fuck. We're going to have to get everyone to sign them again.'
"So how much did you sell us down the river? What have you divulged to the Erlking?"
"Enough to be put to death for my war crimes and treason, in every form of government globally."
I clench my fists as rage starts to swell up in me. I take and hold a deep breath before releasing it.
Pulling the picture from my coat pocket, I show it to him. "Look familiar?"
Shock, joy, and pain crosses his features. "You found it?!"
"This is a picture of your kids, from your marriage, am I right?"
He nods, tears collecting but not falling from his eyes. "Yes." He croaks out. "It's all I have left of them."
"What if we tried to locate them for you? Just to let you know how they are doing and what they have done with their lives, would you tell us what you've done to aid the Erlking?"
'Time to see if he will make a deal....'
"You know I can't. I'm bound by the contract to not be able give specific details to your side." He attempts to sit up straighter, bound to the chair in magical cuffs and chains.
Crossing my arms, I cock a brow up at him, "You've been able to give more information than what one would expect. Let's see how far we can push the envelope with out spilling the contents?"
I pace a few times thinking, "Are there more of you?"
He shrugs, "Probably. I have my suspicions that there was someone else, but I don't know who."
"What were your suspicions that make you think there are more?" I pull out a chair and take a seat.
Sighing, he tilts his head back thinking, "Things missing from the supplies, how certain areas troops were sent to that should have been easy in and out's, ended up being massacred. Arguments and disagreements between different levels of command and troops. Nothing worth noticing, but enough to cause animosity among them and lack of trust."
"Enough to make you think some ones is pulling strings? Alright, we might come back to that. Now, about your gun with those glowing red bullets..?"
"Red? My bullets are green." He looks at me in confusion.
"Oh that's right, green." I shrug and shake my head.
"SO there IS someone else." Suites mutters looking down.
"Tell me, how are those made?"
Suites shrugs, "They're made for me. I have no ability with magic."
"So you don't know how they're made?"
"Nope."
"Who and how did you contact the Erlking's men to give them information?"
Suites is quiet and sits there.
"Cat got your tongue?" I use my boot tip to nudge his shin.
"No. No more. I want to know about my children, Sin." He gives me a death glare that has me scowling.
I stand and put the picture on the floor in front of him. As I straighten upright I smirk at him.
*SLAP*
I turn and leave as Suites chuckles and spits. The back of my hand is tender from the force I used, but quickly fades.
Joining John and Bavarthos, I flop down into the chair, my hair bouncing, sighing, "So anything useful learned today?"
"We need to tell Thietian that everyone needs to sign a new contract. But we need to cut them in random places for the blood. Also do it in a way that no one can say something and possibly give that person the opportunity to be scarce. We need to find out who the mole is, quickly." John pauses after a thought.
"The only logical way I can think of, is to have everyone come back for a meeting. We can't handle all at once and even if we rotate everyone, the first group could say something to the others and whoever could still evade us."
Bavarthos chimes in, "He wouldn't tell you how they tricked you into thinking they signed the contracts?"
"All he said was 'not my blood' so he could have pressed his finger to another persons drop and used it?"
I quickly add, "No John, the drops wouldn't leave enough on the paper to be able to. There's got to be something else that we're missing..."
Bavarthos walks out of the room and heads back in to where Suites is, with us close on his heels.
"Miss me already?" Suites laughs as Bavarthos circles around him.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Suites yells as Bavarthos takes his handcuffed hands that are behind the chair scanning them.
"Shut up and hold still!" He squeezes his fingers until he stops and squeezes two simultaneously.
"I think I found out answer." Bavarthos looks grim, but grabs a scalpel from the table behind him.
"Hey! HEY! WHAT THE HELL!" Suites yells out as Bavarthos cuts into his finger and removes a bloody white gel bubble.
"He can fill it with blood and just poke hard enough to squeeze it's contents out." He places it on the tray and we head out locking Suites back up as he yells at us to let him out.
"Hey B? How did you figure that one out?" John asks as we gather in his workroom.
Bavarthos is pulling books down and without sparing a glance he informs us, "I know of a different world that those are used, but not for the same thing. They used them to hide poisons and medicinal liquids that could be used in high profile assassinations. It's not made of the same material but the concept is the same."
"Is this world one that others have visited then too?" I ask, still baffled at the thought of so many different worlds out there.
"It's a world that we do trade with. They even have Fae citizens there. Not many, but a number, none the less. So this technology is not exactly foreign to the Erlking."
"Is it the same world that she's from?"
"No, Rakara is from a different one. We do trade with them too, but only for a special metal they can produce. You two would faint at what they are able to build with it." Bavarthos shakes his head as his eyes roll up in awe.
"I don't get it.. There's countless worlds out there that the Erlking can do trade and profit with. Why try to enslave and destroy just us?" John takes a seat, rubbing his head.
"You think you are the first ones he has done this to?" Bavarthos looks up from the pages he's been reading, "The only thing that you have to offer is people, cattle to him, and that's it. You don't go strike up deals with farm animals now do you?
'Damn farm animals?!'
I shouldn't be surprised but I can't help it as I defensively give him attitude over the comparison.
"Damn, that's a screwed up way to think about a whole planet of people. How many others has he done this too?"
Bavarthos points at a bookcase, "Veldileer's History and Facts: Known Worlds and their Worth. Green with red stitching, you can read it while I check on some spells. John, have another glass from the bottle, it'll help the headaches." He looks up at John who's still rubbing his head and clenching his eyes shut.
"You're head still hurts that bad?" I go pour John a glass before I grab the book.
"Yeah. This is worse than the hangovers and withdrawals from the meds they were giving me to keep my memory gone." He takes the glass from me and drinks it down quickly.
"Why don't you sit back on the lounge for a few? Let that soak in before trying to help out?" Bavarthos suggests before turning to me, "How are you doing by the way?"
"Much better, still a little out of sorts, like brain fog, but nothing I can't handle." I respond grabbing the book and opening it up.
Flipping through some of the pages just to see how it's set up, my mouth drops. "There's hundreds of worlds in here! With Pictures! Oh my word!"
I'm grabbing a stool and flipping back to the front to start off right. Each world has a picture of the planet itself, or an illustrated map of it, pictures of different landscapes, flora, fauna, animal species and the intelligent life that inhabits the planet, both land and sea. The information is very structured, population, climates, levels of civilization, from primitive to advanced, their reaction and disposition towards the Fae, their governments, monetary values, resources, planetary cycles, measurement of time, and their overall worth and risks.
At first, I came across planets that the Fae where aware of but could not explore due to their non-inhabitable surfaces, lack of any atmosphere, or the planet is too dense, causing it's gravity to crush any who attempted. A few pages into the next section is where I noticed a few defining marks beginning to appear. I started seeing planets that had been enslaved. I almost dropped the book in shock when I came across a planet of Satyr's that had been enslaved about ten millennia ago.
Some planets had Bavarthos writing scrawled in the margins, some were marked with a X- disease and dying, or X- World War, 2038 population decimated, 2045 less than 5,000 surviving. Then there were some labeled with little comments, Food is exquisite!, or Must visit again!. One, though, really grabbed my attention, Jeckasha.
It was marked with an eternity symbol and three elements, Americium Am+ Oxygen O+ Rhenium Re.
Where a year here was only a month there.
Where trade for a specific alloy was all that was done.
"Jeckasha." I spoke the planets name out loud and Bavarthos stills and says without emotion.
"Yes, beautiful place. Society can be rough around the edges, but I enjoyed myself there immensely. Before you say anything though, " He turns to look at me, "yes, Sin. Now, read that another time. I need you to help me go over how your x-ray machines work at the compounds."