War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (10 page)

"He didn't tell his family about me or his
work, with his kids anyway. Marguerite knew, but he said it'd be
safer if the kids were kept in the dark," She readjusted in her
seat. "If Anlon is as similar to Armino as he claimed all these
years, Anlon will eventually come through and help me."

"Okay. It does make some sense to bring him
here, but what if he doesn't want your protection and refuses your
help?" Abdul asked. "Have you thought of that yet?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nonsense. Who wouldn't
want to live in the Queen's Palace?"

He shrugged. "I was just asking what ifs
Adira."

"Well, don't. Anlon will accept the offer. I
know that he will."

Abdul dipped his head. "Sorry, your majesty.
When do you want him brought here?"

"Immediately. We know where he is now,
correct?"

He nodded. "We do. He hasn't left Hassental
and seems to be living his life as normally as he possibly can
given his circumstances."

"Well, bring him here. I'll make sure he
knows I'm on his side and that I want to protect him from any
danger."

Abdul stood up and bowed. "I will get on it
immediately. He will be here within three days."

Adira held up her hand to stop him. "Make it
one day."

He dipped his head. "One day. You will see
him in one day."

Abdul turned around and left Adira alone in
her office. She waited until she heard him shut the chamber door
before she got up from her desk. She scrambled over to her dresser
and rummaged through a hidden drawer to find Armino's letters.

She quickly started tearing them open and
laid them down next to each other. There were dozens of letters
that Armino had written to her and every single one of them ended
exactly the same:

If I die on this mission, bury my body where
I first said I wanted to protect you as a child. It is where it all
started and where you will bury old life to find new life.

Adira grabbed all of the letters and ran over
to her fireplace and pressed the button to start it up. She threw
all of the letters in to be incinerated because she didn't need a
letter to remember where to go. She would have to make a trip to
Gaea and back to her home District of Hassental to uncover the
clue. Travel plans would have to be made and she would make sure
they were kept secret from everyone, including her Council. If this
is where she could find her only daughter, she wasn't going to let
anyone tip off the enemy where she was headed.

She also knew that this was only the first of
many clue because Armino would never make finding something so
special to her this easy to find. After all of the years spent with
him, she knew he took every precaution necessary to ensure the
success of every mission. This mission would start underneath the
giant oak tree outside of her old house where Armino had first
promised to protect her with his life. There was no better place
for Armino to hide the clue for something so close to her.

Kirill waited patiently in his chair for
Donnchadh to arrive after deciding it was a good time to inform his
assassin of his first failure. Anlon didn't pose any real threat to
the Deimos Brotherhood, and Kirill knew he didn't really need to
tell Donnchadh, but he wanted to humiliate him for his failure in
order to prevent something similar from happening in the future. He
had high expectations for his races, and if they didn't perform to
his standards, they were killed.

Letting something like this slide, including
from his best man, would only allow it happen again in the future.
Since Donnchadh was going to be the one to kill the Queen, he
wanted to make sure Donnchadh paid attention to every minute detail
from here on out. The only way to do that was to tell him he hadn't
fulfilled his last mission, and therefore, had ultimately failed.
He may have gotten his long awaited revenge, but failure was
failure and he wouldn't accept another one.

The steel door slid open and Kirill glared at
Donnchadh as he walked into the dim room. The door hissed shut,
enveloping the men in darkness and secrecy. Kirill stayed silent,
allowing Donnchadh to break the eerie silence.

"Why did you need to see me Kirill?"

Kirill raised his eyebrows and leaned
forward. "Why did I call you here? Do you really have no idea what
you have done? Were you so confident, that you didn't pay attention
to the outcome of your assignment?"

Donnchadh stared at Kirill blankly. "I don't
have any idea what you're talking about. We killed Armino and his
family. I watched them all die," he replied. "Since then, I have
been in my chambers preparing for the next mission."

Kirill crossed his fingers in a fist and
rested his chin on them. "Did you really watch them all die
Donnchadh? Because I find that hard to believe given what I've
heard."

"Kirill, they're all dead!"
"Armino's son is still alive you fool!" Kirill fumed, slamming his
fists on the table. "You didn't watch him die because he's still
alive right now!"

Donnchadh straightened in his chair. "No. I
killed him! I shot him as I was running out!"

"No Donnchadh, you let him live," He pulled
out a piece of paper from his drawer. "Anlon survived a gunshot
wound to the abdomen," He looked up at Donnchadh. "Really? You shot
him in the stomach and you thought you killed him?"
His eyes widened. "Kirill... I... All we had left was Armino and
his son when the police came into the house!" He threw his hands
up. "I shot Armino in the head and could've sworn I did the same to
his son as I ran out of the house!"

"Well, you didn't kill him. In fact, he is
still very much alive and has already been interviewed by the
authorities," Kirill shook his head. "How stupid are you Donnchadh?
I thought you

were the best man I had. How could you let a
target survive?"

"Kirill I promise you I didn't do this
intentionally. He should be dead."

"Yeah," Kirill rolled his eyes. "Lucky for
you, the boy isn't talking at the moment."

Donnchadh cocked his head. "What do you mean
he's not talking? We killed his whole family right in front of
him."

"All he told authorities were what races
killed his family. Nothing else. No names, where you came from,
nothing. He seems to be keeping everything you revealed to
himself."

Donnchadh started to get up. "Let me go kill
him now before he decides talk!"

"Sit down!" Kirill ordered. "You will do no
such thing. We will let the boy live. He poses no immediate threat
to us and need to take out the Queen soon. You can't do that if
you're out killing some kid you forgot to kill last time."

Donnchadh masked the anger from his face. "So
it is final? I will be the one to kill Queen
Adira
?"

"Yes and two men of your choice," he nodded.
"But let's talk this over first. This will be nothing like your
last mission. You must be very careful because if you're not,
you'll never get to the Queen, and will probably never leave the
Palace alive."
"Sounds like you know how. I bet you really want to kill her
yourself," Donnchadh teased, hoping to anger his boss.

"Doing that would be foolish. The Queen and
everyone close to her thinks that she killed me many years ago. I
can't let them know too soon that I'm still alive or my plans will
be ruined," Kirill slid some papers in front of Donnchadh.
"Ulisse's profile. I know you're fairly familiar with him and I
think poison will work best for this mission," He handed some more
papers to Donnchadh. "You will choose one more individual from this
list I have compiled to go with you on your mission."

Donnchadh skimmed through the papers.
"Sanguinarius will be good."

"You sure?" He raised his eyebrows. "This
will make it the same team that screwed up the last
assignment."

Donnchadh gritted his teeth. "We won't fail
this time. I promise you the Queen will die."

"I surely hope so," he glared. "I have
someone on the inside that is going to be helping you, so your job
shouldn't be
too
hard."

"You have someone actually inside of the
Palace?"

"Yes Donnchadh,
in
the Palace. You should be well aware that I
have contacts in every corner of Orion by now. The Brotherhood's
reach has gotten far since you've joined. The Galaxy fears us and
many are willing to help us without question."

"So how will this work? I mean, I know Ulisse
will make the poison, but it has to be quiet right?"

Kirill nodded his head. "You'll have to sneak
in, but I have layouts and know hidden passages from my personal
experience living there. You also have your own experience, so I'm
sure that it won't be a problem navigating through the building
itself," Kirill leaned forward. "There will be
no
deaths
but the Queen's. I don't want a blood bath whose trail leads
directly back to me."

"What's the point of me going on this mission
if I'm not doing anything? I'm not allowed to kill anyone, I'm
using a poison that Ulisse will concoct, and someone else is
delivering it to the Queen?" Donnchadh raised his hands. "I don't
understand why you're sending me on this mission when you have the
whole thing planned out already. There is nothing for me to do that
will change the outcome of this mission."

"Are you blind?" Kirill stood up, placing his
hands on the table and leaning forward. "You get to take part in
the biggest assignment the Deimos Brotherhood has ever carried out
and you want to sit out because you're not personally killing the
Queen?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Donnchadh said,
trying to calm Kirill down. "It's just that I don't get to plan
anything or do anything that's important to the success of the
mission. Everything has already been done."

"You're the courier! I trust no one else." He
sat back down. "You're my most trusted man Donnchadh, I don't want
anyone else to deliver the poison to my contact but you."

Donnchadh nodded. "I understand."

"The others are going with you in case there
happen to be complications, which is a very slim chance. I want you
to get in and out without being noticed, but if you are noticed,
let nobody catch you."

"What about no deaths?"

Kirill took in a breath. "Only if there must
be. If it's the only way you can get out alive and without being
captured, then so be it. Kill as many as you want," He looked
Donnchadh in the eyes. "I would prefer there to be no deaths of any
kind, anywhere, but the Queen's."

"Understood," Donnchadh acknowledged.
"Exactly how soon do you want me to go out?"

"How long will it take Ulisse to make one of
his poisons?"

Donnchadh thought for a moment. "A couple of
days, maybe more, depending on what he makes. The time it takes for
him to make things varies by the complexity he chooses to go
for."
Kirill wrote something on a piece of paper. "You leave in three
days. Tell Ulisse to start making his poison right now. I want
something that looks natural and that is undetectable by even the
best forensics teams."

"I'll go tell him to start right now."

"Go," Kirill ordered. "Don't fail me this
time or it will be your last time."

Donnchadh got up from his chair and walked
out of the door as soon as it hissed open. Kirill watched him as
the door shut then pulled out his holographic comlink to make a
call. The room was silent until a blue figure from the hologram was
projected in front of him.

"I'm assuming you are ready?" the figure
asked.

"My men will be leaving here in three days'
time, so they should be at the Palace within four days at the
latest," Kirill answered.

"I will make preparations. What do you need
me to do?"

"I've decided on an undetectable poison. My
men can get into the Palace, but we will need someone to secretly
deliver the poison to the Queen."

"Sounds easy enough. The Queen and her
Council trust everybody working in the Palace. There are more than
a handful of workers who would like to see her dead," The blue
figure nodded its head. "We will get it to the Queen, but your men
need to get to the kitchen. I will have a servant put it in her
drink before she has a meal."

Kirill grinned. "Perfect. I will contact you
again when my men have arrived and are ready to proceed."

"I will be waiting," The figure answered
before the blue hologram shut off.

Donnchadh quickly walked down the corridors
to Ulisse's room and entered without knocking. The steel door
hissed open and he stepped inside to see Ulisse laying in his bed
asleep. He shook his head and made his way to the bed, bent down,
and flipped Ulisse off of the mattress. Ulisse quickly sprung up,
ready to strike whoever had just woke him up and eased when he saw
that it was just Donnchadh.