Deadman

Shifter’s eyes were bulging, as he looked up at my shotgun pressed against his forehead. “Take whatever you want. Just please don’t eat me.”

I leaned in close and gave him a good look at my teeth. “Answer my questions, and it won't come to that.” I didn’t like that rumor about Deadmen, even if it was true in my own case, but when someone gives up one of their fears so easily, it’s best to take what’s offered.

“O-Okay, whatever you want.”

I took a moment to glance around his house. It was a simple shack, sink in the corner, cot, walls covered with pictures of cars and women from old mags. I couldn’t see any indications that he’d been paid off. Patriot Points were invisible though, and there were a lot of places one could hide things in Fette.

“The oil pipes had their output turned up. Know anything about that?”

He was pale before, but now he went sheet white. “I-I”

I tapped him gently on the head with my shotgun. “Think hard on it.”

“I was just doing what I was told to.”

That was interesting. “By who?”

“I-I’m not sure. She had all the tattoos and gears so I just took the order and did it. I think she was one of the Khan’s guards.”

I sighed. The buck just kept getting passed up the line it seemed. I was hoping to be able to reveal a few conspirators, a bribe that had been exchanged, maybe a few spies, but this seemed like it may be more complicated than that. I took my gun off of Shifter’s forehead, and he relaxed for a moment.

“This guard, would you be able to point her out?” I asked.

He nodded.

I holstered my gun. I was trying to think of a way to handle this quietly, but so far quietly had only cost me time. I’d been making an effort to be a bit more subtle, but the truth is, I’m a hammer, and even if I’m encountering screws, if I hit them hard enough they’ll work just fine. I hauled Shifter up onto his feet. “You’re coming with me.”

His relief changed to fear again, but he complied. I opened the door, and walked all the way back up to the palace, only stopping him just before we entered to make sure that none of the Khan’s personal guards outside his palace were the one who’d given him the order. Those guards let me in with a nod, and I walked past several tributes to where the Khan was under a car, listening and responding to tributes while he worked. His wife Brun was handing him tools, while his wife Carmilla was handling the majority of the interactions with the tributes.

Brun saw me, and crawled under the car to talk to the Khan, while Carmilla dismissed the final tribute. It was nightfall, which was later than I’d seen the Khan accept a tribute or have an audience in the past. When the Khan rolled out from under the car, Shifter didn’t quite bow, but he did tilt his head forward and focus his eyes on the ground.

“Donovan, is this the one?” asked the Khan.

I shook my head. “Just a fool. He gave the order to increase the oil flow, but he received it from someone else.”

“Who?”

“One of your personal guards according to him. He said he could identify her, but he didn’t get a name.”

The Khan moved down off the dais and looked closely at Shifter. “You did not think to question such an order? Especially from such a source?”

Shifter kept his eyes turned town. “No, my Khan.”

The Khan’s hand moved like lightning, gripping the lowest gear on Shifter’s ear and tearing it out in one quick motion.

Shifter began to scream, but caught himself and bit down on his hand.

“I expect more from those who’ve earned as much honor as you. If you don’t wish to think beyond blind obedience to anyone above you, then I remove those responsibilities from you.”

Shifter nodded. “I understand. Thank you.”

The Khan nodded. “You will identify the guard for me, and afterward I shall have you attended by one of my own doctors.”

Shifter nodded again in acknowledgement, cupping his bleeding ear.

The Khan turned and yelled. “I want every member of the honor guard here, now!” Before he even finished yelling, I started to hear people approaching from across the palace, other people yelling and being stirred from their sleep at the same time, and soon there were roughly thirty men and women, all covered in tattoos, gears, and Ursan fur. The Khan took a moment to walk around the group, and examine them. Then he moved to Shifter and nodded to him.

Shifter looked over the group, his ear still cupped in his hand, and eventually pointed at a woman toward the front. She was older, with dark gray hair, but covered in muscles. Her tattoos were criss-crossed with scars, and she was missing a couple fingers as well as her left eye.

The Khan’s expression shifted for just a moment, to worry. It would’ve been imperceptible, except for the fact that I was used to him never betraying any emotion. He was one of the few humans who hadn’t even flinched at seeing my face for the first time, even though other Deadmen occasionally blanched at the sight of it.

“Elise, come forward.”

She complied and stepped in front of the group. I kept my eyes on the group as a whole, and subtly shifted my hand to my pistol. I didn’t want to discount the possibility that accusing someone of treason in a room full of heavily armed people, some of whom may be involved in a conspiracy of some kind, could go south fast.

“Did you order this man to increase the oil flow?”

She nodded. “I did.”

“What did you do with the excess oil?”

“I delivered it to a group of riders outside the city.”

The Khan’s expression darkened. “Why? You have been among my guards since before I took Fette. You were the personal guard to my third wife.”

“It’s what Sara ordered me to do.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath from Brun and Carmilla, and for a moment there was only silence as the Khan froze for a few moments. I expected an explosion of rage, of violence, but instead, his expression just became calm, almost relaxed.

“Take Elise to a cell. Two of you go to Sara’s room and remove her from it, confine her in a guest quarters. After that, search her room.” He walked over to the Dais and hopped back up onto it. “Someone retrieve a doctor for that man,” he pointed at Shifter. The guards all went into action, moving Elise out of the room and dispersing. After the room had mostly cleared, the Khan turned to me. “We will let them stew for some time. Let them ruminate, and worry. We shall look over anything the guards turn up in Sara’s room, and then we will speak to her and Elise.” He moved to lay back down and rolled himself back under the car, then requested a tool from Brun, who needed to be told twice before she snapped out of her shock and finally handed it to him.

Carmilla looked concerned and pensive, holding a clipboard that I could hear straining near the breaking point as she held it in her hands.

I took a deep breath and let it out. I had suspected someone higher up, but not necessarily a wife. A general, or even personal guard, but this was an entirely different hornets nest. My teeth itched so I began to pick at them. I pulled up a notification as I did so.

Congratulations Citizen! You have earned a rank in Investigation! Here in the US we have the right to question everything, except freedom!

That rank didn’t exactly help me much. Ideally earning that kind of rank would give me some kind of flash of insight that would help me realize every single facet of the case. The only thing I realized after reading it was what was bothering me about the investigation so far. It seemed…easy. Sure it had taken a few steps, but all I’d really had to do was work my way up a chain of people with each of them coughing up one person higher than themselves. A conspiracy that managed to transport that much gas and hide armored buses had to be more sophisticated than that. I was missing pieces of the puzzle. Even aside from that there was also the question of motive. Sara was squarely in the middle of the Khan’s wives I’d guess. Not as young as Brun or as old as Carmilla, and I had no indication that she was dissatisfied with her lot. Still, I wasn’t exactly great at reading people if I wasn’t holding a gun in front of their face. Depending on how the Khan wanted to handle these interrogations though, I may find myself more in my comfort zone.