Battle On The Horizon

Chapter Nine

We awkwardly sit down in front of Lady Valenzuela, who is currently organising her books and smoking her cigarette, she takes a few looks at her books and then turns her attention to us. "I hear you two have been looking for something important, very important." She begins, "Of course, we knew about all of this, Mr. Declain, because the man who hired you for your job was one of my agents, until he defected to the United States." She says as she flicks through a book.

"Wait a second, that guy who hired me to find the weapon was one of your soldiers?" I ask. Valenzuela simply nods and returns to read her book. "So then, how did you know he hired me?" I press. 

"We tracked him for a matter of weeks before we knew he was going to be stationed inside of their government, but I suppose he wanted to make sure that the weapon was destroyed, rather than him having to cough up information regarding it's location." She says.

"So, where is the weapon?" Toppler asks. The Lady turns on her chair and gives him a long look.

"Do you honestly think I'd spit out valuable information to two men like yourselves? Men like you make me sick, you think you are so strong and smart, but you two are just pigs like the rest of those traitors!" She yells. 

"Hey Lady, calm down, we're not exactly criminals here, we're just doing a job that one of your people hired me to do." I protest, she shifts her look over to me and grins slightly.

"I hate to break it to you, Mr. Declain, but your current objective is almost impossible." She begins as she stands up and paces around the desk.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"Who do you think designed and built that damned thing?" She grins. "I did." 

"You did?" I ask, she walks back around the desk and sits back down. Pressing a small button which, through the wall, activates a bell which ends after a second. Soon I hear shifting and metal noises through the wall.

"Yes." She points to a painting on the wall behind us. On the painting, a large cannon is shown, still in development stages, the cannon is shown pointing on about a 40 degree angle, and it almost looks like it can be fired already. I plant the image of the cannon into my mind and remember the overall look of the painting's environment.

"That, gentlemen, is true scientific achievement. That, is Eximius 1, the largest and most powerful ballistic launcher the world has ever seen. It can launch anything, from intercontinental to atomic weaponry, all from one location, to far across the surface of the Earth." She tells us while she stands to look at the painting closely.

"Eximius was the first weapon of it's kind, taking the advantages of the Horizon's altitude and placing the weapon on one of the islands, we were able to angle the weapon so that the altitude can be used effectively, to target any location on the planet."

"So, what happened to it?" I ask, she turns around for a second and sighs.

"Actually, RESA kicked some of the production crew out of the project, after one of my colleagues, Nero Hackett, took over as project leader. He told us that the project would receive further development if Eximius 1 was built with fewer scientists and engineers." 

"So that explains the Libertatem Populi then." Toppler says, Valenzuela nods and walk back around to her desk and sits down.

"The Libertatem was a group, forged by myself, to seek revenge for that idiot Hackett, who not only stripped us of our jobs, but also took over as head of the entire science team and eventually, the entire company. Even though Eximius 1 was my design and overall idea."

"And the weapon?" I say, just as the door opens and a small butler walks in with a tray of tea. He places the tray on the middle of the desk very calmly, and places three cups on the desk. Valenzuela takes her cup and takes a sip. She ponders for a while, then without warning, throws the cup and the remaining tea over the butler's head.

"Too cold, I'm afraid." She says slyly while grinning.

The butler shows no sign of anger, as he bows and collects the tray and cup off the floor, then retreats back and shuts the door behind him. Toppler and I have been easily startled.

"The weapon's location?" She asks. I take some time to snap back to reality and nod my head slightly.

"Ah, unfortunately... We have absolutely no idea where it could possibly be, see, Hackett decided that before the weapon was properly finished, he'd have it test fired. What went wrong was an explosion resulting in Eximius and the island becoming unstable. Hackett himself apparently took damage to his brain, which probably means he also has no idea where the damn thing is. The island that Eximius 1 was stationed on, completely disappeared after the explosion. No one has seen it since." She says.

"So, what about the key?" I ask. Valenzuela's eyes light up at my words, she looks at me directly and stares.

"The key... That was an interesting development indeed." She sighs. "The idea was to train someone fully how to operate the weapon, then brainwash them into completely forgetting everything. This way, the person in question has no idea of the training, but if you place the person inside the weapon, the memory should come back. Cunning, don't you think?" She grins.

"Brilliant." Toppler says behind me. "That way, if an enemy controls Eximius, they won't be able to do anything, unless the 'key' person is actually placed inside of it." Valenzuela nods at his words.

"Correct. However, Hackett was an idiot, and like the first incident, he lost the key to it as well." She chuckles.

"Wait, do you have a description of the person you used?" I ask, she looks at me with a stern face, but after a bit, she stands up and walks around the desk to a small metal box, sitting on top of a small table in the corner of the room. Opening the box, she pulls out a few documents, probably about Eximius 1, and then after digging through them for a while, she pulls out a small photograph, which she places on the desk in front of me.

Looking at the photograph, there is a small girl, standing with two scientists, one of them I can immediately tell is Lady Valenzuela, and the other scientist, a man, I assume is Hackett. The girl has long hair that flows just beneath her shoulders, and her expression and her eyes suggest that she isn't too happy about what she's being told to do. But after giving the girl a longer look, I notice that she looks very familiar. Too familiar.

"Oh my god..." I exclaim, Toppler looks over to the photo and eyes it a bit, then turns to me.

"What is it?" He asks, I look at the picture one last time and immediately know that I can't be wrong.

"The key, I know who it is... It's Redtaker's daughter, Annie."