War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (25 page)

"Can I use the same type ammo as rifles and
pistols?"

"Yeah, you can," Ferris nodded. "Like I said,
you can put almost anything in it. You can put in plasma, sonic,
incendiary, and anything else that someone may have designed for
this."

"Why'd you grab those grenades?" Anlon asked,
pointing to them.

"To show you how to use them, of course," He
replied throwing one of them down the range.

It hit the ground one-hundred fifty yards
away, blowing up the dummy that had been standing there moments
ago. Grey smoke engulfed the area and when it subsided the dummy
was completely gone.

"How do you use them?" Anlon picked one up.
"There's nothing on them to activate them that I see."

"You have three safeties on them that you
have to push at the same time in order to activate them," He
explained, showing him where the safeties were located on the
grenades. "Once you push them down, you have eight seconds before
detonation. So you want to plan it out just right so your enemy
doesn't have time to get away from the blast."

Anlon pushed the three safeties down with his
pointer, middle, and ringer fingers, then chunked the grenade
towards a dummy. It hit the ground and blew the dummy to a few
small fragments.

"Not much to it. That's all we're going to
teach you today," He looked down at his watch. "Long enough if you
ask me."

"When do I come back?" Anlon asked.

"Same time tomorrow," Emer answered from
behind him. "We'll have everything ready for you when you get
here."

"I'll see you guys then. Thanks for helping
me out by the way, you don't know how much it means to me," He
smiled, walking towards the elevator.

When he got on the elevator he hit one and
felt it lurch up to the lobby. Moran was already waiting there for
him when the doors slid open and he got out.

"How did your training go?" Moran asked with
his hands on his hips.

"I'd say it went pretty good," Anlon
answered. "Emer kicked my butt, but I picked up the weapons part
pretty fast."

Moran laughed. "Emer has only just begun to
kick your butt. You wouldn't believe the things that she can
do."

"I can't wait to see what she has in store
for me," Anlon forced a smile. "When do I break into the
prison?"

"Tonight. Come back here right before sundown
and I'll set you up with what you need."

"Can't I see the stuff now?"

Moran pushed him towards the door. "Just come
here before sundown and I'll give you everything you need to get
in. Right now, you need to get rest. That training wore your body
out and you need to be alert for tonight."

Anlon rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm going."

"He's been in there for a long time,"
Giustino muttered.

"What do you expect? He has no one else left
to talk to," Kanti said. "His family was all he had on Gaea. He has
absolutely no relatives that we are aware of anywhere else in
Orion."

"So he decides to spend all day with some guy
he didn't even know existed until his family was murdered?"

"Cut him some slack," She rolled her eyes.
"You can't say you wouldn't do the same."

"I'll cut him slack went he starts telling
the truth about what's going on," Giustino glared at her.

"What makes you think that he isn't telling
you the truth?"

"The Queen asked to see him and then he
returns without going through the spaceport," Giustino said. "It's
like the Queen snuck him back here so I wouldn't know that he was
back."

"She didn't do a good job if you found out,"
Kanti looked out of the window, trying to block him out.

"
I happened
to pass by his house and
saw lights on."

"Don't you think that the Queen would tell
you if Anlon had revealed anything?"

"No. I think they're both hiding things from
me."

"Maybe she didn't tell you, if he did reveal
anything, because you don't need to know."

"This is
my
case!" His face reddened.
"I deserve to know everything about it! I don't care who the Queen
is, if she knows something, then I should know it to."

"Look, he's coming out," Kanti pointed to the
door.

Giustino looked over and saw him getting in
his truck. "He's all sweaty. He wasn't just in there talking. Like
I tried to tell you, he's up to something."

"Oh come on, Giustino," Kanti rolled her
eyes. "What could he possibly be doing in Moran's apartment that
has to do with him hiding things from you?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out.
Mark my words. I'm going to find out."

"Don't get mad when you don't find anything.
If there was something to find here, then we'd have found it by
now."

Giustino looked at her. "Are
you
hiding anything from me that you would like to share now that we're
talking about hiding things?"

"No. Are you accusing me of something?"
"I know you've been talking to Anlon," He raised his eyebrows. "And
you have yet to mention a word of it to me."

"So what? If I want to talk to him, I can.
It's not like it's against the law to talk to a friend."

"He's a suspect in this case Kanti. You can't
talk to him anymore. Those orders are coming directly from me."

"A suspect?" she exclaimed. "He was tied to a
chair and watched as his family was murdered!"

"But he obviously knows more than he told us.
Therefore, he has lied to us and when I find out for a fact he has,
he will be placed under arrest and charged to the full extent of
the law."

"That's crazy!" She threw up her hands. "He
talked to the Queen and she let him go! She apparently believed
him!"

"Well, I don't believe him," he replied.
"You're no longer assigned to this case."

"You can't take me off this case!"

"I just did," He started the car. "It's
apparent that you have feelings for Anlon. Your judgment is clouded
and I won't have an officer on a case like that. I thought you were
prepared for something like this, but it's obvious that you're
not."

"What are you going to do with me? There are
no other major cases for me to work on. This is my case as much as
it is yours."

"I'm going to find a reassignment that will
be a better fit for you. Something that doesn't have races involved
that you can get attached to."

Kanti didn't reply to him and just stared out
of the window. She didn't want to talk to Giustino anymore, he had
just taken her off Hassental's biggest case. Neither one of them
said a word the entire way back to the District prison, and when
they arrived, Kanti stormed out of the car to her office without a
single glance back.

"I'll email you your new assignment!" He
shouted at her before she entered the building.

He walked to the circular door and it hissed
open once his identity was confirmed. Upon arriving at his office,
he fired up his computer and started writing under the
Valens
Murder Case
.

Anlon came back from seeing the Queen
without going through the Hassental spaceport. It appears that the
Queen snuck him back on the planet herself, wanting his arrival to
be kept quiet. I followed him today and he went to Moran Borislav's
apartment for unknown reasons. He stayed inside for over five hours
and when he came out, he was covered in sweat. Anlon knows more
than he is letting on. Further surveillance will be put on him to
keep track of his activities.

Kanti Cordula was also taken off of this
case today because she has developed relations with Anlon Valens.
Having her on this case is no longer an option due to her clouded
judgment. She will be reassigned accordingly.

He saved the report to his computer and
logged off. He needed to find a reassignment for Kanti quick. He
wasn't sure what he was going to have her do, but he couldn't have
her pouting in her office all day being unproductive.

Camillus heard a ding go off and he strolled
to the computer that had just received a report from the
Valens
Murder Case
. He looked at it and saw that it had been written
by Giustino, quickly saving it to the port on the back of his
head.

Kirill opened his buzzing holographic
comlink. "I wasn't expecting from you."

"I wasn't expecting to give you a report,"
The figured responded.

"What do you have for me?"
"Anlon is back on Gaea. He was escorted back quietly and without
the knowledge of anybody."

"That doesn't surprise me. The Queen is
probably trying to protect him after what just happened."

"He was also at Moran's apartment for quite
some time today. That is what worries me more than anything. What
could he be planning with Moran?"

Kirill was silent a moment. "The boy is a
problem, but I don't need you to worry about him. I have already
sent someone to deal with him very soon."

The figure grinned. "Who did you send out to
kill him?"

"Nimesha," Kirill answered. "He will be dead
soon, that I can assure you. The boy won't get in the way of
anymore of our plans."

"I have no doubt about it. When will my work
on Gaea be finished? Once the Queen is dead, I have no reason to
stay hidden in here anymore."

"Very soon," Kirill told him. "Once the Queen
has been dealt with, you can leave and return to us."

He hung up his comlink and took in a deep
breath. Things hadn't gone according to plan so far, but he knew
things would come together soon. Nimesha wouldn't fail with her
assignment to kill Anlon. Once the boy was dead there would be
nothing meddling with his plans to kill the Queen. Obviously it
would be difficult now that Donnchadh had screwed up and had put
the Palace on high alert, but was nothing his men weren't prepared
for. They trained day in and day out for high alert missions like
this and he had no doubt that the Queen's days were limited.

Anlon left the house as soon as the sun
started to set on the horizon. His nerves were starting to become
unsettled, realizing that he was about to break into the District
prison. He hadn't really thought about it until now and was having
second thoughts about just how simple it would be. When he arrived
at the apartment, he was immediately met at the doors by Moran who
looked ready to get things rolling.

"Follow me," He led Anlon into the apartment.
"I have a few special things to help you out tonight."

Anlon followed him in the beat up building
and onto the elevator where he pressed the button to go to the one
hundredth floor. The elevator lurched up and rose for several nerve
racking minutes, leaving Anlon's mind to rush with thoughts about
things that could go wrong. When they reached the top, the doors
slid open, revealing a room filled with guns, swords, and gadgets
of all types.

Moran stepped out of the elevator. "There's a
reason I own the whole building. There's no way I could possibly
keep all my stuff in one apartment."