Merrion was seated upright in her bed, which had been actuated into a comfortable position to facilitate her current posture. The large screen hanging from the ceiling was currently set to a local news channel, which was broadcasting a program of sorts. Solemn and sorrowful music was playing softly over the speakers, and there was an official-looking procession occurring on the screen. A familiar-looking cryocasket, but one with a glass top, rested atop a mobile platform flanked on both sides by solemn-faced men and women dressed in stiffly-pressed Admiralty uniforms. The occupant of the cryocasket was covered by a sheet of cloth with the Ten-Winged Flame emblazoned across its surface, with only his face exposed to view. It was a face that Edmund had seen once before in the examination room aboard the Tainah, albeit in a less-dignified state than now.
A newscaster, dressed in a completely black suit, was giving a narration over the procession that was occurring before them.
Newscaster: "…and the procession is now passing by the Admiralty Headquarters aboard the…()…thousands have gathered today to pay last respects…()…the Lord Admiral, leader of the Fleet and a symbol of…"
Edmund already knew that this would happen eventually. There was an air of melancholy about the whole program, and it had spread into the ward as well. The complicated expression on Merrion's face told him that she, too, was conflicted about the whole issue, and the parts that they played in this investigation.
Edmund: "Hey."
Edmund moved towards the vacant armchair, still indented slightly from the weight of its previous occupant and placed the bags he brought with him on the ward floor next to it.
Merrion: "Oh. Hey, Edmund. Specialist Jeyga said you'd be visiting today. Thanks for coming."
Edmund: "Don't mention it."
Merrion: "By the way, Edmund, those arms –"
Edmund was caught slightly off guard by that remark. In unconscious response, he raised both his arms, the colour of gunmetal grey, slightly and brought them into even clearer view.
Merrion: "They…look good…on you. Your arms, yeah…"
Edmund watched as Merrion awkwardly stammered out that compliment if it even was one. He could only smile at how charming he found her awkward behavior to be, which only seemed to make her even more self-conscious.
Merrion: "Hey! Don't make fun of me! Were your arms always artificial?!"
Edmund: "Yeah, of course. How do you think I punched through my apartment floor?"
Merrion: "Wha – oh yeah, that's a good point…"
Edmund: "Anyway, here, take this."
Edmund raised a sandwich, wrapped neatly in foil with the words "Sandwich Special" written upon it, and passed it to Merrion, whose eyes lit up upon seeing the gift brought for her. With her inner feelings written all over her face, Merrion voraciously started to devour the sandwich. Only after fully devouring it did properly thanking the buyer cross her mind.
Merrion: "Thanks Edmund, this was really good. I've been craving actual food again."
Edmund: "You've only been here for two days, you know. Don't make the food here sound so bad."
Merrion: "But their food is so bland!"
Hospital food was bland and only given the bare minimum of seasoning to be made palatable. In contrast to that food made for recovering patients, the sandwich was a treasure trove of flavor and texture, which the flavor-starved Merrion could not resist.
Edmund: "It's bland only because the patients aren't supposed to be dining like kings."
Merrion: "Grmph."
Edmund: "Don't you sulk at me. You're a grown woman, you know."
Merrion: "Hrmph."
Merrion abruptly pouted and turned away from him, her arms folded together creasing the faded green fabric of the scrubs even further.
Edmund: "There you go again."
Edmund leant back in the armchair, a thin smile spreading over his lips. She was acting childish, but it wasn't like he disliked it. It was cute, and it was just the two of them here. He could afford her this petulant behavior, just this once. After all, she was around a fourth of his age, and she wasn't like this in front of others.
The last time they had talked like this was when she spent a night in his apartment just two days back. He was relaxed back then, and he was just as relaxed now. Seeing that she was safe and sound with his own two eyes was different than just knowing she was doing well from a video message from Jeyga. This wasn't because he distrusted Jeyga, but rather because he just needed the reassurance that only his own experience could provide –
Merrion: "So that's it, huh?"
Merrion's sudden statement, made as she was watching the screencast of the Lord Admiral's funeral, caught Edmund slightly off guard. Her happy expression earlier whilst eating the sandwich had turned back into a more melancholic one.
Edmund: "Guess so. Last night our client in the Admiralty called me. She told me that we might be needed again in the future."
Merrion: "I guess that means we did a good job?"
Edmund: "Definitely sounded like it. Zora also said you did good. It's rare to hear her praise anyone."
Merrion's expression morphed from her prior expression of melancholy while watching the funeral procession into a slight smile. Even she couldn't hide her feelings of joy, having been acknowledged at long last by a superior. But even still –
Merrion: "After everything that Anant said, turns out he wasn't much of anything, was he?"
She spat out those words with a tone of disgust. The worm-like way in which he had behaved after his mysterious chain ability which he had so madly raved about to her had vanished still lingered in her mind.
Edmund: "Surprisingly so. But I was never worried about him."
Merrion: "What do you mean? He was the killer, wasn't he? He said it himself; I heard him say it. And he had that chain ability too! Doesn't that –"
The maddened rantings and ravings spoken by Anant, back when Merrion was being held hostage as bait for her partner who now sat beside her, flooded back into her mind.
Merrion (thinking): Because that isn't their goal…They'd be loath to let this go to waste.
Edmund: "I heard it in the recording you took about the stuff he said. Omar also told me about some other things in his own cryptic way. But I think I've got the gist of the situation, and that's what worries me most."
Merrion: "That he's not working alone? That there are people supporting him?"
Edmund: "Not just that. There's something else that Anant said. What was it? "Just that man's corpse. They want it.", I think."
Merrion: "Yeah, yeah he did say that! But –"
The last fragmented portions of Merrion's memory, just before she had fainted after their battle with Seung and Anant, came back to her in full clarity. The heightened emotion, the sensations, and the sudden manifestation of the chain from her palm. All of these she could now see before her, as if it was occurring once again right before her eyes. But something wasn't right. Something didn't line up. If whoever Anant was working for wanted the Lord Admiral's body, but the Admiralty was still able to have this funeral, that meant that –
Merrion turned fully to look at Edmund, who met her gaze head on.
Merrion: "Edmund, why didn't they take the cryocasket?"
---
Edmund: "Looking forward to it then, Madam of the Admiralty."
Sutar sighed upon hearing those parting words, laced with exhaustion and resignation, from the detective on the other end of the call. She was reclined in a data interface somewhere within the 8th Sector, the numerous jacks of the interface securely connected with the corresponding ports all over her body. A second data interface sat unoccupied across her own data interface in the room she was currently within. She was dressed in her Admiralty interface uniform, a crisp pressed suit with numerous holes for her ports to poke through without distorting the fabric of the uniform. Numerous screens across the walls displayed scrolling walls of text and system logs, visual interpretations of the digital data pouring through the Network.
Things had been difficult after the Lord Admiral was suddenly murdered. While she was not an Admiral herself, her position as the late Lord Admiral's apprentice gave her access to her own number of agents and operatives serving as her eyes, ears, and mouths throughout the fleet. It had been through them, that Sutar had become aware that she was suspected of, if not directly being involved in, then of aiding and abetting the murder of her late master by other members of the Admiralty.
The thought that she would be suspected as such by others inflamed her with indignant rage. She had served her late master for three long decades. To think that some believed she would hold conspiratorial ambitions in her heart in spite of her diligent record was an insult to her pride and honour as the Lord Admiral's apprentice. That only a mere three days had to pass by after the Lord Admiral's untimely demise for such murmurs to be picked up on further angered her. These naysayers had no respect for the dead, not even one as honoured as him.
???: "You're angry, I understand."
Sutar shook slightly with surprise at the sudden sound, and her body jerked in the interface. The metal limbs of the interface creaked as it accommodated her movements as she turned to see the origin of the voice: the 8th Sector Admiral.
Sutar: "Sir. Forgive me, I did not hear you enter."
8th Admiral: "At ease. It has been a while since you were here in the 8th Sector. Do not feel the need to stand on ceremony with me."
Sutar: "But Sir, I –"
8th Admiral: "Do not forget who you are now, Apprentice Sutar. Some would argue that you are on par with a full Sector Admiral with that official designation."
She had been forced to seek shelter with her previous master, the 8th Sector Admiral, after the murder had been made known to the rest of the Admiralty. With the Lord Admiral gone, there was no telling if the culprits would come for her next, given her position as a direct successor to the pre-eminent seat of authority in the Fleet. Even so, seeing her previous master, with whom she spent her first two decades of service with, treat her as an equal and not a subordinate made Sutar feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Sutar: "Sir, perhaps you may feel so. But in my heart you will always be my treasured mentor. Please allow me to treat you with the respect that I feel – that I know you deserve. Nothing would make me happier."
8th Admiral: "Hrmph…I can't say no to that now, can I?"
The two of them smiled, a rare moment of simple joy amongst the stress of their current situation. Sutar watched as the 8th activated the other data interface in the room and was slowly lowered into a reclining position by the movement of the interface's limbs. They were gathered in this room for a singular purpose today. Their counterparts in the Admiralty would also be in similar rooms, readying themselves. With quick saccades, Sutar instructed the interface to access the network coordinate vector that she had been sent, and a small window popped up in her field of view.
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8th Admiral: "Sutar? Still there?"
Sutar: "Yes sir."
8th Admiral: "Just remember, if it gets too much, don't forget that I'm on your side. Never forget that I recommended you to him because of one simple reason. I believe in you, and your capabilities. Don't let those other old fogeys bully you."
Sutar: "Thank you, sir."
8th Admiral: "Ready to meet the other Sector Admirals?"
Sutar tightened her grip upon the hand rests of the data interface and swallowed down her hesitation and nervousness.
Sutar: "Yes sir. Let's go."
Sutar focused upon the YES in the window, and together with the 8th, dove into the Network.
---
The door to Zora's office clicked open, and Jeyga stepped inside. His white-and-grey suit was crumpled and wrinkled in place, and the locks of hair on his head were ever so slightly dishevelled. Zora regarded her subordinate with an expression that was half-jest and half-serious.
Zora: "Took you long enough. Edmund's with her now, right?"
Jeyga: "Of course. He'd kill me if I just left her alone after I promised him that I'd watch her in his stead."
Jeyga replied to Zora's query with his trademark smile, but that wide-toothed grin quickly morphed into a serious expression as he heard the privacy lock in the door engage.
Jeyga: "So, what's the deal boss? Which of my many deep and dirty secrets do you want to hear?"
Zora leant forward on her table and rested her chin atop her palms; fingers interlaced together.
Zora: "Save those sordid details for your wife, Jeyga. I need to hear everything about the hacking tool. Every last detail, nothing spared."
Jeyga: "As you wish, boss."
Jeyga retrieved his communicator from his suit pocket and swiped several times across it. The terminal on Zora's table beeped, and a projection of the hacking tool coalesced in mid-air between the two of them.
Jeyga: "So, you know of the Fabricator Clans, right? The ten families who each operate in each sector and manufacture and maintain all the equipment we use?"
Zora: "Who doesn't? If memory serves, the Argyros provide their services in the 8th Sector."
Jeyga: "Right, so, this hacking tool that was retrieved from the thugs who attacked Edmund and Merrion in Edmund's apartment – "
Jeyga gestured to the hologram.
Jeyga: " – and this tool's program is from the Chrysos clan."
Zora raised an eyebrow at this revelation.
Zora: "The…Chrysos? Mind refreshing me regarding where they operate again?"
Jeyga: "7th Sector?"
Zora: "Figures. Well, that makes sense. Those thugs were from the 7th Sector as well. At least that lines up – "
Zora paused her train of thought for a moment, which Jeyga instantly picked up upon as he knowingly tapped on his forehead, watching the gears spin in Zora's head.
Jeyga: "And who else is from the 7th Sector? Now, I'm not saying that its Merrion's fault that they got attacked. I'm just saying that there might be a link somewhere."
Zora: "And is that all, Specialist?"
Jeyga: "For now, yes."
Zora leant back in her chair and sighed. She took a sip of the steaming-hot beverage sitting in a cup upon her table and felt the momentary refreshment cleanse her mind and palate, before returning her attention to Jeyga.
Zora: "What about the other things that were recorded by Merrion's camera? The anomalous cargo present in the Children's building as well as within the undesignated underground space, what are your thoughts?"
Jeyga: "I've searched the systems, and there's nothing that indicates that the underground space was ever designated as a storage depot, Inspector. As for the Children, well, they're a religious organization with no reason to be dabbling in the trafficking of arms. Then again, the footage was obtained without permission or a warrant, so it's not like we can use it retroactively to justify going after then."
Zora sighed deeply. Jeyga was right. Still…
Zora: "Well, while we wait for those sluggish bureaucrats in the 7th Sector to approve our request for access, we might as well investigate the Children. We have the voice recording from Anant, and he's affiliated with them, so we'll use it as the proof we need to get a search warrant."
A sly smile broke out across Jeyga's face.
Jeyga: "And when do you want this warrant approved, Inspector?"
Zora: "Immediately, Specialist. Make it happen."
Jeyga: "Already on it."
---
The following day, during a regular worship session held by the Children of Manovash in their facilities aboard the Tainah, there had been an innocuous knock on the door. There was no reason to knock, because the doors were unlocked and open to any visitors, but a nearby worshipper went to answer the knock. There was no way they could have expected an entire search team to have been waiting for them to open up.
The search team personnel, dressed in riot gear and armed with non-lethal crowd-suppression weapons, corralled the worshippers, and searched the Children's facilities. There was much screaming and shouting, and several uppity worshippers had to be forcefully subdued and cuffed. Following the placation of those who fought back, the search team went through all the cargo stored in the Children's storeroom, in accordance with their orders to find anything unexpected and to investigate any unapproved passages.
They found the door at the back of the room along with the ladder heading down into the bowels of the ship, but there were no anomalous or unexpected items to be found in the storeroom. They went down the ladder and followed the direction instructions provided to them and eventually came to a large underground room.
The room was completely empty, save for several skid marks and dents in the floor plating. It was as if there had been some kind of fight in the room not long before the search team arrived. The dust on the floor was rather odd, however, and it was missing in several locations, as if there had been objects occupying those places and preventing dust from settling there.
Following this unannounced and sudden search of their facilities, the Children were publicly indicted for association with conspiratorial forces. They would publicly deny any and all allegations, even going to far as to deny ever having such individuals working with them. When members of the Children of Manovash were interrogated, there was nothing untoward in their behaviour that would suggest that they were intentionally keeping secrets or lying to interrogators. Even trained individuals would exhibit characteristic signs that they were deliberately obscuring facts or being dishonest, but when asked about Anant, these worshippers merely responded with confusion.
To say that the worshippers were confused about why there were being asked about Anant would be incorrect. Rather, it was more like they were confused about who this Anant was. No matter who was asked, it was as if there was never anyone named Anant in their organization. When asked about who led their worship services, they would simply say that it was someone who wasn't here or give an answer other than what the Investigators knew to be the truth. And so, the investigation ground to a halt, with all findings inconclusive.
The search team couldn't have known that there had been a certain worshipper, a woman with a gentle smile and a weak stomach, who hadn't been present during their search, and hadn't been present in the organization. Indeed, even if they had known, if they had asked the other worshippers about her, there wouldn't have been such a person in the organization, ever.
---
Edmund: "So, Merrion, about your cover name during the visit…"
Merrion froze up. She had been eating the bland porridge served as the dinner course in the hospital when Edmund, ever the master of good timing, had deigned to suddenly bring it up. It wasn't like she had expected him to never ask her about her use of that woman's name, but now? Now, during dinner?
Merrion: "…erm…well, the reason was…I couldn't think of another name on the spot, so I just used her name…I'm sorry, Edmund…"
Edmund: "That's your reason?!"
Merrion: "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"
Edmund: "And? Did he realize?"
Merrion: "Realize what?"
Edmund: "That you, you know, weren't her?"
Merrion blinked blankly at that question. Slowly, it began to dawn on her just how lucky she had been. Somehow, in spite of her not knowing who the real Camelia was, Anant hadn't suspected her of being an imposter at all.
Merrion: "Surprisingly, no…no he didn't. He didn't suspect me of not being her, not once."
Merrion had seen what Camelia looked like from Edmund's album of photos with her inside. They did share the same hair colour, and green eyes, but to Merrion, it wasn't like they were identical twins, not that she ever had one to begin with. As far as she was aware, she was an only child, after all.
Merrion: "In fact, he sounded like he knew who Camelia was."
Edmund: "What?"
Merrion: "Yeah. He kept going on about having met her five years ago, and that she was his herald of misfortune, or something like that. It was creeping me out, but it was a useful case of mistaken identity. Although, he did sound really angry that "Camelia" had joined the FID."
Edmund: "Is that so…"
Merrion: "Didn't…didn't I record all this down? You can refer to the audio recording, Edmund. I'm sure I sent it to your communicator."
Edmund: "I've only really listened to it once. I was very tired after that whole battle."
Merrion: "I risked my life to get that!"
Edmund: "And I'm grateful that you did record it. I'll give it a proper listen later, I promise."
Merrion: "It's a promise then."
Merrion leant back onto the pillow behind her. The bed had been fully actuated into a position where she could lean back into a sitting position, supported by the mattress. She wiggled slightly to get comfortable.
Merrion: "Hey, Edmund?"
Edmund: "Yeah? What is it?"
Merrion: "Was…was I useful? You know, in that infiltration mission, and in that fight, was I able to contribute as I should've, as a member of General Investigations?"
Edmund: "Zora said you did a good job, so –"
Merrion turned and glared at Edmund, cutting him off mid-sentence.
Merrion: "I'm not asking the Inspector, I'm asking you. Was. I. Useful?"
Edmund: "…"
Merrion: "So…that's a no, then."
Edmund: "No, that's not what – look, you were in a high stress environment, during that infiltration mission. You maintained your calm when you came face to face with that Anant, even though we didn't expect him to be there in the Children's premises. Faced with that, you did good. In that underground warehouse, faced with a life-or-death situation, you managed to survive and even get recorded evidence. You did great. And during that fight, when you threw me my Verdict and distracted those two, that was one hell of a good move. So, what – what I'm trying to say…is that if you weren't there during that fight, I don't think I'd be able to confidently say that I'd still make it out fine. You…saved my life, Merrion."
Merrion was completely taken aback. Edmund had never outright said anything like this to her before. He had always been gruff and harsh and prickly, but right now, he was genuinely thanking her, her!, for saving his life! He was also smiling in a way that she had never seen before.
There was a warm and fuzzy feeling inside her, a feeling that finally she was pulling her own weight in a way that she wanted to be, and was being, recognized for. This was, without a doubt, her first real step to becoming a true member of the Department of General Investigations, to becoming a person capable of working alongside and being useful to her seniors. Edmund, Specialist Jeyga and Inspector Zora…this was Merrion's first step on the long road ahead of her to becoming an equal to them.
Before she could even realize it, she too was smiling as well.
Merrion: "No problem, partner."