NOVEL NEXT X21: Stray Futures
CHAPTER X22: STRAY UNCERTANTIES
Stepping forward, Eliza gently brushed past the guards, trying to reach Archius. She watched him, sitting still along one of the walls in the safehouse. Armed guards were around them. Eliza didn't really know where they were, but the place felt safe, despite the tensed and firmly shut lips across the room.
Eliza slowly sat down next to Archius, who was heaving for air with his head in his hands. "Archius?"
It wouldn't be too much of a surprise; even Eliza had seen… glancing up at the monitors, she noted the destruction. It must have reminded Archius of his time on Máwt… such a great place, reduced to ashes, Liz thought.
"I'm pretending," Archius whispered, silencing the thought. "Don't worry. I've seen worse."
Eliza sighed. "I know, Yousef," she muttered back. "They don't know you, do they?"
One of Archius' eyes gleamed up to look at her. "Most. Hamzarhi knew me. Not in his interest to… commit career suicide. Kaz takes most of the heat from me, it's clever – right?"
"Oh?" It stirred Eliza the wrong way, yet Eliza knew Kaz was a tool – he wanted his friends to use them, Eliza was the one he told face-to-face, after all. So, Eliza swallowed the hard pill. "I suppose it is. What happened today…"
Archius rolled his eyes before Synthia projected up onto Eliza's shoulder.
'Time will come for them…'
Glancing over at a television projecting the news, Eliza could see further details of the slaughter the Contractors had wrought on the innocent people of District 3.
"But time isn't enough, I'll do some work behind the scenes, try and speed things up, even if Kaz doesn't like it."
"You… you won't get in danger, right?" Eliza asked.
"Pfft, of course. To some, I'm Archius, the funny university dropout. Others know me as a voice on the other end who pays well for dead drops; others fear that voice because it knows who they're fucking and who they're not," Archius whispered. "It'll be fun having Kaz run around chasing my neck again. Want to come see?"
Eliza chuckled under her breath. "I don't like the Sub-Level temperatures; I feel like the constant changes will kill me. Do you think... Kaz will be fine?" Liz asked.
Archius smirked. "He's doing well," he said. "I'm more worried… about you, your training with Lilly?"
"Not going well..." Eliza sighed, stretching her arms and legs as Synthia turned on the radio to ease the Anagoran nightlife chatter. "I've been trying to avoid them as much as possible."
"You do have university, though," Archius stated, to Eliza's relief. "But, still, an hour here and there could have helped massively."
Then, Archius' eyes peered at Second Consul Lorenza, speaking with other head figures. Eliza could see some venom drooling from the words out of earshot.
"What happened with her back there?"
Eliza raised an eyebrow. What happened? "Hmm?"
"Lorenza. Kaz was going to kill her," Archius remarked. "Removing her would have made a good opportunity to put my own eyes on the smaller throne."
"Oh?" Eliza scratched her cheek. "Lorenza just bumped into me whilst we were retreating, that's all..." Eliza nervously smiled. "An accident, I'm sure of it."
Archius nodded. "Alright," he said. Did he not buy it? "Good that he didn't kill her, after all, it'd make the last month of blackmail harvesting so useless."
Huh? Eliza's nervous smile and chuckle faded.
"Please, she's as corrupt as they come," Archius said. "The Nasserites purged her family, but she did what she had to do to survive, even if she sold her soul to the devil."
"Oh…" Eliza found herself sympathising with Lorenza, even if she couldn't understand it all, she understood how it felt to lose family. "The devil?"
"Yes!" Archius instantly lowered his voice. "Senator Maximillian Ílize, he leads a…" Archius's eyes darted around before he confirmed their security, "We in the CRIS called it the Undersenate, investigated it before it controlled us. A network of informants, all controlled by one man. His influence reaches far, and the people are none the wiser to his… less savoury executive orders."
"All just a game," she said, almost defeatedly, for a war that didn't exist.
Archius sighed. "Yes, he masterminded the current order, for all its flaws, it's stabilised things, but what's the point of stabilising quicksand? It'll all fall in the end…"
Archius rolled his eyes.
"A shame, I know, selling your soul and all… but it's just the way it works," Archius remarked, as Eliza frowned.
Then, with a plain expression, he said, "Just because Lorenza has a sad story doesn't mean she deserves our sympathies. If we threw flowers at every tragedy we walk by, we'd eventually forget to put a bullet in their head afterwards."
Sato slowly walked up to them, grumbling and exhausted, before collapsing on the sofa next to them! "Sato, great, status report or what?"
Sato continued to grumble. "Fuck off... Yeah. I do, though. HQ's cleared up. Kazuki's securing the AO on the surface, we're still counting."
"What's... the estimate?" Eliza meekly asked. Sato flicked a small device over at Eliza. Juggling it before grasping it fully, Eliza peered at the report. "Five hundred confirmed..."
"Confirmed?" For a brief moment, even Archius seemed to let the façade die before he calmly painted it back on. "Could be worse."
"That's outdated," Sato continued. "Fuck... This doesn't make any sense."
"Just use Krystalink. I bet they're sloppy enough to leave a paper trail somewhere."
Sato sat up. "Get one of your eyes on that damn job, you must have some extra ones lying around, hmm?" she jeered back.
Eliza cleared her throat. "What's going to happen... down here?" Eliza asked.
"Nothing that'll help catch them," Archius noted. "Long gone, but... I probably have a few eyes that can try and track them down, so good on you, Sato."
Archius smirked, whilst Sato looked away in embarrassment.
"Fine. I'll see what information I can source."
Eliza glanced around the room. It was filled by those in black-clad armour, the letters CRIS imprinted on the chest plate, whilst others were the Maroon Guards.
Archius tapped on her shoulder. "They're Deathtroops," Archius said. "Republic Intelligence enforcers, Hamzarhi probably secured them for his protection."
"Wouldn't the Maroon Guard be enough?" Eliza asked.
Sato shook her head. "When was enough really ever enough for vanity?" Archius nodded as the two had an understanding at a strange impasse.
Maybe the politics of the navy and the Republic's intelligence do cross paths… Though knowing this galaxy, they're probably inter-connected far more than Eliza would like to know.
"Look at Bernside," Arcihus started, a finger slowly pointing towards the elderly Admiral, wearing his military tunic and cloak proudly. "Navy guard and military officials. And he's one of the more… a-political players."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"I don't understand."
Archius looked up at her, stretching his arms across his chair before taking a cup of tea from one of the serving drones. "He, like your daddy, fought on the frontlines decades ago. Hamzarhi's a security official; if he has to fight, then something majorly bad happened…"
Eliza took a peek at the intelligence director. He had his glasses up, but with a death stare beneath them. Eliza could tell without a shadow of a doubt that the stare was directed at Lorenza, on the other end of the safehouse.
"So funny, he gears himself with such good gear but is so pissed when combat seeks to challenge him," Archius commented. "He'll want the She-Wolf's head for himself…"
A stray thought hit Eliza. "You knew him, right? Or was it the other way around?"
Sato shifted in her seat. A drone hovered by, providing a cup of hot chocolate. Jumping up to her feet, Eliza snatched the cup from the drone as well.
"Thanks..." Eliza petted the drone, which seemed to amuse Sato to no end as she chuckled under her breath.
"So innocent..." Sato murmured.
"The CRIS is close-knit, especially to certain organisations…" Archius started. "Hamzarhi knows me well, and I know him better. Between the highs of the Republic and the lows—"
Archius gestured to Sato.
"I'd prefer something in between."
Sato groaned and shook her head. "I'm going back to see if there are any new updates." Then, she stood up and left the two.
"Don't overwork yourself!" Eliza interjected. Yet knowing Sato, she'd probably overwork herself anyway. "Have you ever not been mean to her? Or… nice in a way that benefits you?"
A slow shrug rose on Archius' shoulders as he spryly remarked, "Pushes her to do more for less, and it works on you as well."
"Hey!" Eliza grunted, standing up and walking out to the balcony. Archius followed, as the two stared at the burning lights and rising smoke in the distance. "Kaz will be safe… right??
"Tch… don't have time for little old me?" Archius jeered. "I don't get it. Why Kaz put so much on the line for you… Well, until now. You've got one trait that Kazuki didn't need to outright secure in others."
"What's that?" inquired Eliza, still, the gaze of her eyes was set upon the billowing smoke, so far yet so close.
"Except for that one time, you two are practically two sides of the same coin." A drilling level of confusion rose from Archius' reply as Eliza raised an eyebrow. "Stubborn, loyal, whatever… It's like you two were made for each other."
The red cheeks of Eliza's face burned brighter, as the brooch upon her uniformed suit was glowing the same hue as her cheeks. "Hey..." Eliza murmured. She looked around, seeing that no one was nearby, at least in earshot of them. "Shut up, alright?"
"Hey, I'm thankful for you!" Archius jeered at her before walking around the safehouse with her. It was a penthouse, so it was quite large, even if there were so many people here.
Exiting onto the terraced balconies, Eliza realised just how fancy it was! Eliza's small condo seemed extraordinarily pleb compared to this! Though the arising understanding of that thought quickly caught on for her.
"Well, thanks," she replied, as Eliza watched Archius seemingly 'snoop' around here and there, picking up things and placing them back down.
"And you 'fix up' Kazuki all the time," Archius added on, before snickering at his own comment. "Pah... Sorry. I couldn't."
However, instead of the feeling of embarrassment arising once more, it was instead a feeling of dread. The smokes in the distance and the attitudes of everyone around her made her feel… too small. At least Kazuki had the courtesy of explaining himself once a blue moon after the chemistry lab blew up in his face, thought Eliza.
"I'm not ready for this, am I?" Eliza asked, rather out of pocket indeed.
Archius leaned against the glass bannister. "Not at all, Eliza," An admittance it was, but one Eliza steadied herself.
Archius swung back and forth on some swings in a playground on the outside terrace. Eliza joined in too.
"But, that makes you an important tool, you're unprepared, Martinez and Sato have their dogmas, their way of doing things, so do Kazuki and I. But you? Sure, Kaz might be the most neuroplastic, but you use yours!" complimented Archius. "Which is why I've come here to ask you."
The two kept swinging at irregular speeds, never really lining up in the garden of an exterior terrace. The more Eliza looked around, the more she realised how splendid this safehouse was…
"You're going to ask me for something, aren't you, Archius? You know I can see that, right?" groaned Eliza.
"Oh, no, I came for your opinion on our secret enemy!"
"A secret enemy?"
"Might just be me. What do you think?" he asked. "I play Kazuki's devil all the time, you do it for me."
"Well..."
A pause came to Eliza, the thought of playing devil's advocate against someone who… truly did embody devilish intent at times was… strange. Then again, if a devil's devil is an angel, then Eliza found a logical reason for all the things that have happened...
"Maybe it's just a coincidence. I mean, the Loyalists nearly got us, Archius, at the start at least – and then the Gunrunners weren't pleased that they lost business… Their leader was a drug addict, and then… we… I caused the Ball Palace Incident."
"That's the problem. Too clean, little emotion. We're humans, we love fucking up. Obadiah fucked up, but Svenn and Leon? I don't think so; they were directed. These Blood Contractors attacked us probably because of that. But I don't know why just yet."
Thoughts of whether anything was going on, planned or not, gleamed past Eliza's mind. "If they wanted to destroy us, why not send in the Blood Contractors alongside the Loyalists and the Gunrunners?"
"Hmm. Good argument," Archius replied, as he swung higher than Eliza, before stopping and looking at a few birds that landed in the tall bushes hiding the little outdoor grove.
"This is hurting my head," replied Eliza. "I'd like to think I'm not that same naive girl six months ago, but just talking to you makes me feel that way."
Archius patted Eliza on the shoulder before looking around with Archius. Bernside and a few others walked past, and he gave a small salute to Eliza. Eliza snapped to salute back, which got the other officials with the Admiral to salute back as well.
"I'm me!" Archius answered back. "Were you deadweight? Abso-fucking-loutely! But times change, you even got admirals saluting you."
Deadweight, huh? Was that what Archius felt about her? A frown coalesced on Eliza's face from those words. A genius, she thought she was, but deadweight to those she cares about?
"A genius' mind," Archius added on, to Eliza's amazement and surprise. "Bar Sato, you know astrogeography better than Kazuki. Any more ideas?"
Archius was right, thought Eliza – even if Eliza was deadweight, she could still offer all that she could.
"Maybe there is emotion to this," Eliza suggested. "Freyja has... had a connection to Kazuki in the past."
Archius' eyes widened. "And there's the golden apple." Archius smiled. "Blood Contract Cults are crazy… after all."
"Wait… Cults, plural?" Eliza raised an eyebrow.
"They're like sects of faith for blood – they love their blood for blood motto," explained Archius. "They're more of a unified coalition instead of one force; the Eastern Claws ain't helping Freyja's sect of Central cults."
"Oh…" She seemed intrigued, but Archius had answered most of the things she probably had to say.
Nothing more to prove was a fact that Eliza had come to realise. Yet even so, Eliza felt invigorated that she'd improved.
A question then arose: "Freyja seemed impetuous. Why did you think she would work as a pawn for others?"
Archius looked in confusion, having a small smoke break in the very nice grove… Eliza did not enjoy the contrasting images of a man enjoying the swings whilst smoking. "Not versed in Republic politics, hmm? I thought Kaz would have given you the rundown…"
Grimacing, a thin scowl eroded at Eliza's nerves. "Well…"
"I understand." Slowing Eliza down with a hand on the shoulders, he made it clear that this was not to be a topic taken lightly with a stare. "There are those at the top who you don't see, they'll fuck, fuck, and fucking kill anything and everything to get what they want. We're in their way."
The stream of undiluted cynicism felt like a gut punch to Eliza's mind, even with the political vaccine Kazuki gave her in the Ball Palace.
Archius cut her off. "We're all in their way. And sooner or later, we'll be dead."
"Huh?" A glare rose from Eliza's eyes
Archius scoffed and chuckled, seemingly shifting his mind and facades around as Eliza watched. "Enemies are everywhere, to put it lightly."
Oh… Eliza tilted her head. "How does this link with what you said—"
"Shush. Do not remember that anymore." Archius placed a finger out to stop her, before directing the finger to a group of black suited individuals walking by. When they disappeared around the corner, Archius continued, "Well, if you're asking… the Marquis ain't that powerful, neither is Kazuki. Law is a stick, and Kazuki loves his sticks – but they can't use their sticks. What good is that? Hamzarhi is cheating on his wife… Information, that's the biggest stick you can use and get away with."
Eliza replied, "It could ruin them…"
"Exactly!" Archius gave a wide grin. "Secrets are everywhere, and people die for them; that's the type of galaxy we live in. Get it in your head, alright?"
"But… what if you're wrong?" Eliza asked. "About… everything. Secrets work, yes… but what if they arise? What then?"
It was always going to be a possibility, but Eliza couldn't tell if the question had ruined Archius's mood even further than before.
Archius smiled, as always. "We make do," Archius commented. "We always make do."
Meekly, Eliza nodded. "What about my father?" she asked. "Does…" Eliza regretted asking, but she wanted to know. Something irked Eliza to ask away, as she needed the information of whether her father was just another enemy to be vindicated from her mind – it just… had to be done.
"We'll see," Archius said, placing his hands in his pockets. "Whatever it takes to win is enough for me, and… He hates Kaz's guts, ideology… probably—"
For a brief moment, Eliza nearly doubted Archius' theory, as she swore she heard a hint of disingenuity in his tone.
"—Know why?"
"I don't know." It was an answer that blanketed much of what Eliza thought was true, all now questioned under the stress of this new reality.
Still, despite everything she and Archius had talked of, she felt that the two had gotten closer… on the surface… yet she couldn't help the feeling that his trust in her was… lingering.