Industry & Intrigue (66 page)

Victor
crossed his arms. He was a foot
taller than the man and could have easily thrown him out if wanted
to. He did not trust the Blackwatch in the slightest. They had a
reputation for targeting political groups and persecuting them. But
he did not want to give them an excuse to charge him or take anyone
else into custody.

“
Fair enough
” he said. “But, I’d like to
have a couple of my members come along with me. To be on the safe
side.”

The inspector raised an
eyebrow. “You
’re worried about something?”

“
Imperial Branch is known
for forcing confessions and planting evidence on political
targets.”

John shook his head. “Those
days are long over M
r. Shepard. My only interest in your political games is
when they become violent as they did last night. Bring whoever you
like.”

Later at the
Imp
erial
Branch Station, Victor sat in a darkened interrogation room. It was
coated in jet black paint and a bright light bulb shone above. He
sat opposite to John.

“
Look
, I warned Robert that going extreme
wasn’t the answer,” said Victor. “He wouldn’t listen to
me.”

John leaned forward. “And why
is that? The two of you were friends for
a long time. Hells, you practically
built the LRC together.”

“
Until someone tore it
apart
,” said
Victor, his voice full of bitterness. “One of your bosses who we’d
pissed off too much decided to take matters into their own hands.
And it didn’t help that the watch wasn’t in a rush to solve the
crime.”

“
One of my bosses?” asked John
in mock confusion
. “I hope you’re not suggesting the watch had something to
do with those murders.”

Victor laughed. ‘You
don’t get it do
you? Of course I don’t mean the watch directly. In the end though,
your bosses answer to the government and who do they answer
to?”

“
The emperor and
t
he chief
minister,” replied John, in a matter of fact manner.

“
Please
,” said Victor. “They answer to the
money, inspector. The ones who give them millions of crowns every
year to look the other way, to move people and businesses around,
to pass laws that exploit people. When you go high enough, they’re
your true bosses.”

“
So that justifies blowing
up
factories
and killing innocent people?” asked John.

“
Of course
not
,”
replied Victor. “I had nothing to do with that and neither does
anyone else I associate with. I advocate a non-violent approach to
solving our problems. Robert and I are done with each other. I
don’t know where he is, what he’s planning or when he’s planning
it.”

The inspector nodded.
“Fine. You can go.
Be sure to get in touch with us if you do hear anything about him
or his people. It’s no good for anyone to have factories being
attacked right now.”

Upon returning back to
the
building, Victor assured all of his senior members that he
was fine. “The Blackwatch are nasty pieces of work, but if Robert
is behind this bombing, then I can understand why they’re going
after him,” he said.

“
That may be
,” said Cini Harrow, he had
been leader of the Socialist Action Group before bringing them into
Victors camp. “But now the Blackwatch has an excuse to harass us
whenever they want. What about when the election comes around?
How’s it going to play when people hear you’re tied to a terrorist?
And in the middle of a war too. Not the patriotic image a council
candidate needs to get into office.”

Victor had thought hard
about this while
walking back from the station. It was a tough decision, he was
between a rock and a hard place, but in the end he had made the
only choice he could live with.

“
Which is why, I want you and
all
of your
members to know that information regarding Robert Argyll and his
extremist faction is to be passed on to the watch.”

“
What!”

“
Turn in one of our
own?”

“
You can’t be
serious
?”

Victor
held up his hand to silence the
protests of outrage. “Enough!” he shouted. “I don’t like it any
more than the rest of you, but we don’t have a choice. Robert has
gone too far this time. Do you know how many were killed in this
bombing?” They shook their heads.

“
Forty eight. Most of them were
good
,
working folk like us. And for what? To shut down the plant for a
month?”

“
I did hear that he managed to
hit the
Mordain boy,” said Anna Craig, a young woman who had been
in the LRC for several years and had exceptional organization
skills.

“
Yes,
I heard that too,” said Cini. “But he
isn’t dead. They took him up to Flag Memorial Hospital.”

Victor tried to steer the
conversation back on topic. “In any event, make sure you spread it
around. Robert Argyll and his people are not to be aided or given
refuge
. We
have other issues to deal with. The new emperor is a weak old man
and Minister Blake and Minister Kao are taking advantage of the
opportunity to push more of their dictatorial agenda
through.”

“
Agreed,” said Appius Arturius.
“Kao’s trying to push through a war industry bill that will take
away half of the rights I’ve fought for my union.” Appius was an
old Estaran with a weathered face and a shock of pure white hair
that he let grow out in a messy bush. He represented the Factory
and Dock Workers Union, the biggest union in the empire.

“
Don’t get me wrong, if anything
the war has improved our work load and conditions. All of my
members are getting more hours than ever and the factories are
taking on more workers. Not to mention being offered higher wages.
But if that conservative old drakon has his way, he’ll make it so
we lose our right to strike or even complain. Fucking bastard would
make the unions illegal in the name of the war if thought he could
get away with it. Try to smear us with being unpatriotic or some
shit like that.”

Victor was torn on this issue,
much like the leadership of the collective. No one wanted to be
seen as against the war, not when the entire empire was baying for
Galrian blood in the name of th
e late emperor.

He even
believed that the corporations
would improve conditions for their workers, if only so they could
keep production on a war footing. But he didn’t want to see the
corporate business interests use the war as an excuse to undo all
of the hard work the socialists and unions had achieved over the
last few decades.

“
No way Marawn will try that.
The big businesses won’t let him. R
ight now, they need us too much,” he said.
He scratched his cheek, feeling the thick stubble there. He had
been so busy the last few days that he had not had time to shave.
“Besides, Patrick has been getting support from councilors that
aren’t too fond of Blake and Marawn. I expect they’ll listen to me
if I get elected.”

“
Speaking of that. You need to
head back upstairs. Eilee
n MacCuinn is still waiting,” said
Anna.

“
She is
? Dammit Anna, you should have said
something before we started talking. She’s waited long enough if
she’s been here since I was dragged away.” Victor pushed out his
chair and went upstairs. Inside his room, Eileen was calmly seated
in the same chair as when he’d left. She was sipping a hot cup of
coffee.

At the sound of him entering she
turned her head slightly. “Victor?”

“
Yes
,” he replied. “But you didn’t have
to wait for me. We could have finished this tomorrow.”

“
It wasn’t your
fault
,”
replied Eileen. “Besides it gave me an opportunity to get to know
your people. It was insightful, our two groups share a lot of
values.” She set her cup down on his desk and adopted a slightly
more formal tone. “Victor, I agree with what you said earlier. We
need to work together if we are going to bring about real reform.
You have the support of myself and my group for your
election.”

Victor smiled. “Thank you Eileen. I
appreciate it.”

“
However, I need something in
return,” she stipulated. “I want a promise from you that you will
support me when I attempt to make a run into a councilor
position.”

He had been expecting
this
. The
Women’s Alliance had been the leading front for women’s suffrage.
Women he been granted the right to vote twenty years ago, now the
Alliance was concentrating on getting a representative in the
government. It was an ambitious step but no more so than what he
wanted.

“
Of course
,” he replied. “I believe that
the more diversity we have in the Alkon government, the more fair
and equal it will be for everyone.” She would know what he meant.
Unless you were born into the right family it was hard to increase
your station.

Not to mention the preferential
treatment that the empire’s skylords always received
simply due to
perception. Nostalgia for the fallen Cartral Empire drove part of
that perception, while more came from the skylord
overrepresentation in financial business. The final part came from
the misguided connection to the famed Artropia. It did not matter
that not a single skylord in the Alkon Empire had anything to do
with Artropia.

Alkon skylords traced their
ancestry to scattered survivors of The Dark. They had formed small
communities in what would later become C
air Rathais; but they retained no
trace of their Cartralan culture unlike their racial brethren in
Artropia. The Artropians still considered themselves as Cartral and
if the rumors were true, had managed to preserve much of their
history and culture.

Victor didn’t deny that they were capable
people, but he wanted the working class members of other races to
have a chance to reach the positions that skylords were
given.

“
In that case
Vi
ctor, I
will say good night. I look forward to seeing you in a councilor’s
seat.” Eileen stood up and picked up her walking staff. She left
his room, the sound of her staff tapping the ground, echoing in the
staircase. In spite of her disability she was going to try
achieving something even more difficult than his goal. She was a
capable woman, he had no doubt she would succeed.

Chapter
66

Fiona studied
the telegram for a
long time. She saw what Director Talmach was actually trying to say
to her.
I
knew he wouldn’t pull us off this.

The telegram officially
informed
her
and Kendrick to wrap up their investigation and begin pursuing
counter-intelligence activities in Longhaven relating to the war.
Essentially they would be rooting out Galrian spies and
sympathizers.

She thanked the
tele
graph
clerk and threw him a two crown note as a tip. Tel had advised her
to do this with service based businesses in Longhaven. It would
ensure she would be seen as a preferred customer. Preferred,
meaning that the businesses wouldn’t try to swindle her or use
information against her.

That did not concern
her. As an agent of
Imperial Intelligence, there was little anyone in this rat-hole of
city could use against her. But she wanted to keep a low profile
and Tel had convinced her playing along with the city’s more
corrupt practices was the best way to do so.

Arriving back at the hotel room
they were currently
occupying, she handed the telegram to Kendrick and gave Tel
a look of annoyance. “We’re to move on from the case” she said.
“The director wants us on counter-intelligence. Tel, you’re to
return to your regular role as a financier. Kendrick and I will
need to draw on funds if we’re going to conduct
counter-intelligence here.

She glanced over at
Kendrick.
He
had finished reading the telegram and gave her a discrete nod. He
had worked out what the encoded telegram said faster than she
had.

“
Of course you
are
,”
replied Tel. “I’m not surprised the director is stopping this
either. Waste of fucking time. You’ll never reach the Arm, not like
this. What you did to that girl…” Tel shook his head in horror, as
if trying to rid himself of the memory.

Fiona had tortured
the captured
assassin for several hours. Kendrick had known what to expect, so
hadn’t been bothered. Even he knew what could be required in order
to protect Alkos.

But Tel was different. The elf
was only an external consultant for Imperial Intelligence and
had
not been
exposed to the nastier sides of the business. After seeing what
Fiona had done to the assassin, he had cursed and run from the
room. When Fiona came out of the room, he had still been emptying
his guts over the floor.