Fragment of Destiny
Chapter 24 - Playing with Fire

Samuel held his raincoat tight around him as he stepped from the skimmer into the down poor. His heavy enforcer boots splashed as they sank into the quick moving water at his feet. A roar of thunder and brilliant lightning flashed overhead while raindrops the size of his thumb battered him. At long last Elroy had information worth sharing.

He had not seen or heard from his new employer since their first meeting. Yet the influence of this mystery man was unmistakable. Samuel's personnel file had been given a complete makeover. He was no longer a recruit fresh out of the academy but a veteran interrogator who had a series of, conveniently, classified cases under his belt. It was like the events at Shallows Point had never happened.

Samuel found his day to day superior, Under Marshal Briggs, to be a reasonable man, preferring results over letting racial prejudice stifle an investigation. Technically Samuel was on loan from his employer to aid in an investigation involving the notorious crime boss Larry Rencofski. Whether it was a stroke of fate or just luck, the investigation followed many of the same leads as his own search for Tess.

Samuel ignored the freezing water that rose to his calf as he made the few sloshing steps to Lee Chi’s flooded landing. Waving his wrist band over the door sensor it slid open and heavy rain followed him making a slick puddle of the entryway.

Everyone stared at him as he entered. Samuel took some pleasure in their stupefied expressions. People didn’t just walk into a restaurant during a storm like this especially with a movement ban in place. Bolstering his barrier Samuel ignored the pings of emotion that churned around him. Ju beamed a brilliant smile at him and they locked eyes a moment before he entered the private room.

This time Samuel was here first. He stripped off his jacket and placed it on a chair to dry as he waited for Elroy to arrive. He had to admit he felt a little wary to be out in a storm this bad. Even as a senior novice he did not have the authority to override a movement ban. Elroy, on the other hand, could go where he pleased, and be effectively invisible doing it. It was a good thing, for the Imperium, that Elroy did not seek power. The responsibility was too much of a bother his friend had said when asked. Samuel smiled and shook his head. He doubted anyone else knew just how complete Elroy’s mastery over the entire Imperium network was. If anyone with real power ever found out, Elroy would likely spend the rest of his days trapped inside a lead box.

The door clicked open and Elroy entered. He was bundled up against the storm yet looked every bit as drenched as Samuel felt. Samuel waited patiently for Elroy to complete his debugging ritual. Satisfied they were not being spied upon Elroy took his seat across from Samuel and retrieved a datapad from his jacket. With a wave of his hand charts and lines of code spilled across the display.

“I have found something rather disturbing, but first about your mystery man. Everything he does is considered classified,” Elroy said. He pointed to the screen and it changed to reams of locked files.

“The problem I ran into is that most of the documents have also been blacklisted.”

“I have heard of people being blacklisted but files?” Samuel asked.

“It means they have been taken to hard copy only or destroyed.”

“Do we have anything on who this guy is?”

“His name is Alventus Dolan. I was able to get my hands on a lot of his older files. Things from his trial and when he was a novice. Up until he became an Under Marshal, it was all very ordinary stuff. He spent a great deal of time in various tracking and infiltration units. Mostly busting up rebel groups in outlying cities like Crescent or the rocks. His crystal allows him to pass through solid objects as if they had become water. Appear out of the floor or disappear through a wall that sort of thing. He has been knocking off anyone the Imperium considered a threat. That was until he got moved from active duty to the personal control of the overseer. That’s when everything went dark. As for his current rank.” Elroy paused as the display showed the enforcers crests surrounded by the ten stars.

“It doesn’t exist, at least not officially. I believe your employer is none other than the high inquisitor himself. Which is what makes this next part so disturbing.” Elroy said. The screen flickered, and a mass of code appeared once more.

“You know my ability lets me feel another person’s emotions not talk to computers,” Samuel said. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The screen went blank for a moment then an orange array of intersecting lines filled the display. Blue streaks raced down the lines like a virtual tram system as they all converged on a central point.

“This is a representation of the information. Basically, what I found is that there are hidden leach protocols all throughout the Imperium network. They are copying information from nearly every sector of the Imperium and depositing it on an array of private servers.”

“And you think Dolan is the one doing it?”

“At first I did. However, all evidence points to an entity called Corwin. And here is the crazy thing. These leach protocols are all incredibly old. I have found iterations of them back from before you or I were even born, and even before Dolan was born for that matter. Now here is where it gets even more mixed up. Someone and I think it is Dolan this time, has set up a counter web and their own set of servers.”

Samuel blinked trying not to give Elroy the blank expression he felt. Before meeting Elroy, Samuel had thought himself knowledgeable about computers.

“Which means?” Samuel asked.

The display changed and a second web mirrored the first below it. “Which means someone is stealing information from this Corwin network. I have not figured out how exactly. The Corwin network is covered with scrub nodes so hacking it is essentially impossible. You would need actual hardware in place to open a workaround.”

“Which means what? Why is this important to us?” Samuel asked.

“Because whoever set up the other network was not as careful and I found this,” Elroy said, again the screen changed back to another meaningless mass of code.

“And that is?” Samuel asked trying not to get annoyed.

“This is some of what I lifted from the counter web. The interesting part is that this information was never sourced from within the Imperium. Which means it was input directly to the private network or taken from another source outside the Imperium.”

“Can you find out where it came from?”

“Perhaps, but there is a problem. I can’t read any of it, and that is why I need your help.”

“If you don’t know what it is how come you think I would?”

Elroy smiled. “Not you, but a friend of yours. This is not computer code, it's genetic.”

A chill went through Samuel from head to toe. His mind flashed back to the recent malravian attack. The beasts had been altered, and they had been using tactics.

“Do you think it is malravian?” Samuel asked.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Elroy said giving Samuel a rare smile.

“And you are dying to know what it says aren’t you?” Samuel asked. He knew it was true as the strong lust like hunger emanated from Elroy.

“You know that I am,” Elroy said, “And I was hoping you could use your new rank to get Mr. Cross to translate it for us.”

“I am sure Demetrius will be just as excited to learn what this is as you are. He won’t take much convincing.”

“I was hoping that would be the case because he is going to be here soon.”

Immediately anger threatened to destabilize Samuel’s barrier. Not because Elroy had assumed his consent to involve Demetrius but because of the storm. There was a good reason everyone was forced to stay indoors. At once, Samuel stabilized his barrier. What was done was done, and at least he would have the opportunity to see Demetrius again. It had been too long already.

“I am going to go see if your girl has anything to help us dry off. I don’t know about you, but I am not a fan of these soggy socks,” Elroy said examining his shoes a moment. Samuel stared after Elroy as he exited. How had he known about Ju?

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