Luce had lost his cane but he still had the limp. His right foot always landed heavier than the left one as he walked. That's why people in the Logistics department of the Vigilance Squad could hear him arrive before they saw him come.
Life in Logistics was about what he had expected. Wake up six in the morning, light exercise, breakfast, drive to work, sift through papers, recheck Agent records, stare at a computer screen all day, track the missions in progress, compare the successful missions with the failed ones, plot graphs, request for a resource review from the Accounts department, plot more graphs, make an end-of-the-day report. Send the report to Command. Sign off for the day. This was the work of a senior analyst in VS logistics. Four days a week for twelve thousand kervers a month.
But saying it was all that straight and easy for Luce would have been a lie. Almost every other day was marked with at least one phone call from the Clandestine Division. And if he'd really trampled a ladybug on his way, the Clandestines would send their officer to question him in person.
He might've trampled one that day. Because officer Gabriella Dale was standing in the doorway of the Logistics floor with a sickeningly cheerful smile. It was going to be one of those days.
Gabriella's chestnut brown hair were pulled back in a ponytail. Her power suit was snow white, the blouse under her jacket was a bloody red and she had a cornflower blue satin scarf around her neck. The whole outfit looked weird as hell. But then again no one considered Gabriella to be a normal person either. She had a habit of wearing tennis shoes with something as formal as power suits and paint her nails an obnoxious shade. It was also as weird as wearing a power suit to work everyday.
"This is what a Clandestine Officer looks like?" Luce had thought when Dale came to talk to him for the first time a week ago. "This is the person Command has to answer to?"
"Analyst Luce, I have a few more questions for you today, can you step outside for a bit?" she said in her oddly clipped accent where each word seemed to tumble off her lips like cubes of ice.
Luce rolled his eyes but got off his desk. He walked up to her with the limp in his gait making its light and heavy sound that the Logistics department had grown so familiar with.
"Let's go down to the campus lawns, it's a lovely day today." She said in that same cold yet almost fake cheerful voice.
They took the elevator and made their way out into the gardens. There was low chirping of birds, mingling with the sound of traffic beyond the perimeter walls. Dale settled down on a bench under the oak tree by the west wall. She patted the spot next to her for Luce to join her.
He held back a groan as he took the seat.
"So, your main mission had been to apprehend Lisa Neville?" She asked, smoothing out the creases on her trousers.
He held back another groan. She'd asked him this same question a dozen times on her previous visits.
"No, my mission was to apprehend Richard Neville before he could get away with the information for Silver Lining." He said. "Lisa Neville only became crucial to the mission when she showed up at the Sector 22 airport with the intent to board the escape flight."
"And your initial intent for taking Lisa Neville into custody was to use her to draw Richard Neville out of hiding?"
"Yes. That and we were also assuming that Richard may have already met with Lisa Neville, told her about Silver Lining and also gave her the card that was essential to board the escape flight."
"Hm, I checked Neville's postal activity while he was working at C3. He hadn't used any postal services to send packages to his wife. So it was a good call on your part to make that assumption, Mr. Luce."
"Thank you, officer Dale."
"Your methods for going about capturing the Nevilles showed sound judgment and quick thinking," she nodded in approval. "But the special grade truck robbery is where the story starts to get murky."
Luce wanted to swallow the lump in his throat but resisted the urge at her last statement. He didn't want to give off any hints to Dale. "The truck robbery was a last minute disaster that came out of nowhere and it hadn't even been my initial mission. I was handed the duty to acquire the truck while I was already busy trying–"
Dale held up her hand. "But it became your mission anyway. The operatives whom you'd assigned on acquiring the truck have stated loud and clear that Lisa Neville was in the special grade truck," she said. Luce noticed that her nails were painted teal. "I've been astounded in Command and your stubbornness to make this whole fiasco look like you were taking juggling two completely different missions at the same time. It was just that a new objective was added to your mission. It was still the same mission. And you failed it."
Luce clenched his jaw, trying very hard to not glare at her. It was getting harder and harder since the look on Dale's face remained neutral the entire time.
The woman in the power suit shrugged her shoulders after a moment. "Speaking of murky stories, the name Greg Marllowe keeps popping up repeatedly."
Now Luce struck with a slap of nervousness. He didn't say anything. Dale kept going.
"The airport operatives have stated that they found Marllowe's corpse in the airport bathroom," she said. "Marllowe was also put in charge of the security of the freight carrier that was carrying all the special grade trucks. In your report, you have stated that Marllowe must've been threatened by the one who robbed the truck."
"So? What about it? It is what I guess must've been the case." Luce said.
Dale shrugged again. "It's a very interesting guess in my opinion," she said. "Because when I questioned Marllowe's fellow operatives they described him as rather brash and headstrong. Sometimes also a bit suspicious. Some even teased an idea of him being associated with a rebel group."
Luce felt his palms turning cold. "He may be Or he may not. Mind you, officer Dale, I was in a hospital bed when I wrote my report. I was drugged to the high heavens to keep me from going unconscious from the constant pains. It was hard to keep a track of everything then."
Dale was smirking at him. "So it's possible that your guess may be wrong?"
Luce really just wanted to get away from that woman right then. He really didn't want to answer any of her questions.
Gabriella Dale leaned back on the bench and shrugged again. "I think we are done here," she said rather suddenly.
He was ready to collapse with relief. Instead he just nodded curtly and rose up to leave. He almost expected her to stop him from going back into the building, expected her to throw another heavy question at him. She didn't.
His heart was thundering in his chest when he arrived back at his desk. He was still reeling from his conversation with Dale when he noticed a file on his desk that hadn't been there before.
Inside the file were just a bunch of blank papers, but one of these had a small note scribbled in pencil: "Aegis theater @ 7:15 tonight. Don't be a second late."
The message was from Command. He could tell by the handwriting. He sighed.
A Logistics Analyst shouldn't be juggling these many responsibilities.
#
Aegis Theater was one of the few cinema houses in Kingsville that still used a noisy film projector and not a digital one. Luce wasn't sure how the place was even still running.
It wasn't even a case of turning up profits but more about flying under the government's radar in the time of the Safe Media Regulations Act. According to which none of the movies should be critical towards Ardvenian government or the army. No political satires. No social commentaries. Any movies depicting graphic violence or sex would be censored, most probably barred from playing in any theaters.
War documentaries that portrayed Ardvenia in a favorable light were still allowed though. Same went for historical dramas that instilled patriotism among the citizens.
And despite all that Aegis projectors were still running. They didn't play any of the new movies or war documentaries. So their schedule was set and put on display in the ticket lobby. Most of their shows consisted of re-runs of old time blockbusters and art house productions from before the war began. There was also a foreign film or two in the list.
Luce felt like he'd walked into a life-sized ancient relic more than a theater as he stepped into the lobby.
The floor was covered in moth-eaten shag carpet. Old leather couches were backed against the walls to the right. A big mahogany ticket counter ran the length of the left wall of the big lobby. And on the fading wall opposite to the entrance were hand painted posters in light-up display frames.
One of the posters had a giant gorilla growling down at a terrified blonde woman. Another one had a kid riding his bicycle over the moon. There was another one with a woman holding a knife against the background of a black and white motel.
Luce checked the time. It was 7:14 pm.
"So you finally made it on time." Command said, walking up from behind him. She was wearing a pencil skirt and a long sleeved blouse. Her hair were down and she wore no make up.
"Out with family again?" He asked.
"Yes. My husband wanted my son to see a movie."
"Which one if I may ask?"
"Some dumb flick about a pizza guy saving the world or something."
Luce just nodded.
Command sighed. "I have bad news."
"Funny, me too."
"I'll go first," She said after leading him out the front door of the theater.
"Sector 25 House of Operations went to check the High Security Prison because they didn't receive any weekly reports from the warden," She said.
Luce raised an eye brow. "And why was the prison so silent?"
"There was no prison left. Just a big pile of burnt rubble and bodies of all the operatives buried underneath."
Luce paused. "Wait...wasn't it the Sector 25 Prison that was holding all–"
"The arrested rioters from the Last Hand, yes."
"B-But, it was a high security prison with at least more that fifty operatives on duty and–"
"There's only one thing that could've caused such damage," Command said. "And just one person who can come up with a plan as reckless as that."
Luce rubbed his forehead and let out a tired sigh. "Son of a..."
"What's your bad news?" She asked without missing a beat.
He shook his head. "Dale is closing in on the angle about some rebel group being involved in robbing the special grade truck."
Command swore under her breath. "Right when the Last Hand decides to blow up the prison." She said. "As if keeping that information hidden wasn't already gonna be difficult on its own."
"It's probably gonna be worse because of Ardvenia's victory in Vardin," Luce said.
Command nodded. "The Seat of Authority is anxious about its recent success, for sure. They don't want to make any last minute slip-ups. If they find out about Last Hand's activity they'll axe the entire Vigilant Squad Division, no questions asked. And the control of all the operatives will be handed over to the Clandestine."
"In their eyes, we'll just be traitors, right?"
"We are traitors, Luce," Command said, "We are holding onto sensitive intel about a group that is very close to becoming a national threat."
Luce swallowed hard. They'd really stomped a ladybug, that was for sure.
Command glared up at the empty night sky. "What have you found out about him yet?"
Luce shook his head. "There's almost nothing. All the records are gone. I'm planning on using a different method for digging up on him."
"Then you better do it quick. The Last Hand is getting stronger, Clandestines are getting close to the truth and with Eli Hodges' rally merely days away we are all gonna be in a world of complications. Find him as quick as you can, Luce. Or this whole thing will blow up like dynamite inside a sewer."
(to be continued...)