War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (3 page)

Kanti opened the door and walked in, sitting
in one of the chairs in front of Giustino's desk.

"I've brought Anlon in. The nurse said
everything is fine and he's recovered very well so far."

"That's good considering he should be dead,"
He looked down at some papers on his desk, not bothering to look
Anlon's way. "Forensics has brought some stuff back, and the
weapons these people used are unbelievable. None of them have seen
any of the weapons actually used before in person, but they have
all heard of these weapons and are somewhat familiar with them," He
pointed out of the window. "That's why we look so busy right now. I
have some of our best races and bots trying to find anyone who may
have purchased the types of weapons used in murdering Anlon's
family. It's a stretch, but these weren't your everyday weapons, so
there may be some type of trail leading to the killers."

Anlon stepped forward. "I can help you out
with what weapons they used. I saw every single one of them. Any
questions you have about them, I'm sure I can answer."

"We'll go over all of that once we have you
in the interrogation room. I don't want to miss any details of what
you saw. Everything you witnessed will be crucial in solving this
case," Giustino looked at Kanti. "Why don't you take him down to
the interrogation room right now. I'll be right behind you, I have
to finish up a few things first."

She got up out of the chair. "Follow me
Anlon, I'll show you where the interrogation room is so we can get
this over with."

Anlon followed her out of Giustino's office.
"Do they usually have so many people working on a case at once? It
looks like the whole station is working on this thing."

"It's the first time I've seen this many
races on a single case. And seeing Giustino so stressed out kind of
worries me, to tell you the truth."

"Don't you guys handle stuff like this every
day? Why would he be so stressed?"

"No," Kanti came to a complete stop. "This is
not an everyday thing Anlon. There hasn't been a homicide case
since I've been here, and by looking at Giustino, I don't think
there's been one for a long time," She continued walking. "And
how
your family was murdered is definitely not a common
occurrence for us here."

Kanti stopped at a dull metal door big enough
for a small cruiser to pass through. Kanti typed in five numbers on
a key pad and the door's mechanisms started moving and the door
disappeared into the wall, leaving an opening for them to walk
through. As he entered the new area he saw that it was vastly
different from the last area he had been in.

This room was filled with different kinds of
cells, specialized for every kind of race in Orion. It was three
stories like the main part of the police station had been, but this
one was filled with rows of cells that were all designed
differently. Some had magenta force fields, others had bars, and
some were made with the same metal as the door they had just come
through. The area was eerily quiet and Anlon saw only a few of the
cells occupied by inmates. As they walked through the area, one of
the prisoners reached out and greeted Kanti.

"Hey Kanti, it's nice to see you again. How
is your day going, may I ask?" A fish looking race asked.

"I'm doing great Bimisi. Thank you," she
smiled.

"Any idea when you'll be letting me out of
here? This cell is quite unfitting for me."

Kanti held her hands up above her head and
kept walking. "No idea Bimisi, you'll have to ask the officer that
put you in there."

"At least I get to see you every day!" He
yelled down the hall.

When they were out of earshot Anlon looked to
Kanti. "How does he know your name?"

She laughed. "All of the inmates know my
name. If you didn't notice, there aren't that many of them here.
None of them are violent that I know of, they just made some bad
choices. You know, just little stuff, but we're still required by
law to take them in. Hassental is very peaceful and our job is to
keep it that way, which makes your case that much stranger.
Everyone is used to inmates who get drunk or steal, not killing a
whole family in cold blood."

She pushed open a heavy metal door. "This is
where we'll question you."

Anlon followed Kanti into the interrogation
to be enveloped in mirrors that captured every slight movement
either of them made. Small turrets were stationed in the corners on
the ceilings and holes surrounded the table where steel bars were
able to come up an trap a disorderly criminal. They continued
towards the table and Anlon stared at a metal crown on the
table.

"I need you to put this on your head." Kanti
handed him the crown.

Anlon slowly put it on his head, trying to
hide the fear that was starting to fester in his stomach. She began
pressing buttons to a machine on her side of the table and looked
apologetically at him.

"I just hooked a lie detector up to you. I
know it must make you feel uncomfortable, but it's just procedure.
The Queen and her council have very strict rules for these
procedures."

"I figured as much," Anlon forced a smile.
"I'll be fine."

"Giustino is going to ask you a lot of
questions, so get ready. He's going to try to find out as much from
you as he can so the investigators can focus their attention to
specific areas of the crime. He doesn't really care about feelings,
so I'm sorry if he asks any intrusive questions that may still be
painful for you."

"I'll tell you both everything I can," He
shifted in his chair. "Whatever can help catch these killers."

The door opened and Giustino walked in with a
stack of disorganized papers in his arms.

"Alright let's get this started," Giustino
sat down. "My guys have figured out a few things, but since you
watched it all, you can tell me if they're right so I can decide
what we do next."

Giustino pulled out some blank paper and two
pens from the heap in his arms. He handed some of the paper and one
of the pens to Kanti and then focused all of his attention on
Anlon.

"First things first Anlon, tell us what
happened from the beginning. The forensics team can only do so much
and it doesn't include finding out exactly what happened."

"It all started really quick," Anlon started.
"But I had just got home and not too long later three races had
broken into my home. They used a concussion grenade to knock us all
out, or that's what I'm assuming they used, because all I can
remember after that is being tied up in chair."

"What races were they?" Kanti asked, readying
to write them down on her sheet of paper.

"There was a black and red Darza. Long
slender body and pure black eyes," Anlon described. "Then there was
a race that was part human and part spider. From the waist down it
was a grey and blue spider, and the waist up was grey a human with
golden eyes."

"An Arachnid," Giustino told him. "Not an
extremely common race. Most of them are on the outer reaches of
Orion."

"There was still one more," Anlon continued.
"A black Malak. It had light grey markings covering it's body,
white horns on its head, and demonizing maroon eyes."

"Is there anything else you know about them?"
Giustino asked.

"That's all I know about the races," He
squirmed, trying to stay calm. "They didn't mention each other by
name, or anything. They were mostly silent the entire time, except
for the occasional order or laugh."

Giustino looked to the lie detector and Anlon
swore he saw a glimpse of disbelief cross the Chief's eyes, but he
didn't stop the interrogation.

"What about the weapons?" Giustino asked. "My
forensics team knows what caused the ashes, but the skeleton and
bubbled skin on your brother has them completely baffled."

Anlon breathed slowly, reliving the horror
from the night before. "The ashes were my mom. The Darza used a
laser weapon on her. It was strange," he started. "The round hit
her and it took a couple of seconds for anything to happen, but in
an instant she burst into a cloud of fire. Then she was just gone,"
Anlon held back tears.

Kanti placed her hand on his. "We're very
sorry Anlon. We know what's happened to you is horrible and neither
of us can ever understand what you've gone through."

"I wouldn't want anyone to understand this,"
Anlon replied. "I want to do everything I can to prevent this from
ever happening to anyone again."

"What about the skeleton and boy?" Giustino
asked, emotionless.

"Gemma," Anlon said. "The skeleton was my
sister Gemma. The Arachnid used some type of small robot thing. I
remember him saying razorbot. It was a small thing he placed on her
head and it multiplied to thousands of them rapidly, consuming her
from the outside in. They just devoured her skin and left only her
skeleton within seconds."

"Oh my God," Kanti covered her mouth. "That's
horrendous!"

Giustino's eyes didn't leave Anlon's. "What
about your brother?"

"It was the Arachnid again," Anlon told them.
"It was some type of poison that he created."

"You know for a fact that he concocted this
poison himself?" Giustino asked.

"I do," Anlon nodded his head. "It was one of
the few things any of them said. He bragged about being one of the
best poison makers in all of Orion. The Arachnid said this poison
was one of a kind, but still in development. My brother, Brendon,
was his experiment."
"How did it work?" Giustino looked down to his paper, pen ready to
write.

"He dropped a grey liquid on Brendon's skin.
Slowly, his skin started to bubble and he began screaming," Anlon
began to tear up. "Then he screams subsided and all of his movement
stopped. That's when the Arachnid began laughing and said it had
worked perfectly. It punctured my brother's voice box and first
made his muscles useless, then completely paralyzed him so all he
could do was stare motionless in agonizing pain."

Horror filled Kanti's eyes. "We don't need to
hear anymore of how your family was killed."

"Yes we do," Giustino shot her a glare.
"Please continue."

"Brendon just slumped over and died after a
couple of minutes," Anlon looked down to the table. "My father was
shot the same as me. You guys came in and rushed them. You're the
only reason that I'm alive right now."

Kanti looked at Anlon silent, pen on the
table and tears in her eyes. Giustino finished writing on his paper
and looked back up to Anlon.

"Do you know what your father did for a
living?" he asked.

"Of course," Anlon nodded. "He worked at
Weapcon to create new weapons. You don't think the weapons that
were used were created by him, do you?"

"They weren't," Giustino replied. "Your
father didn't work at Weapcon. It was a cover job."

"What are you talking about?" Anlon asked.
"He told me all the time about the different weapons he
created."

"Your father worked on the Queen's Galactic
Special Operations Unit, otherwise known as the GSOU. I'm sure he
was familiar with all of the newest weapons and that's how he was
able to tell you all of those things."

Anlon looked to both officers in complete
shock. "There's no way. I would know if he was a part of something
like that."

"The Queen makes sure to cover all of her
men's true identities. Your father was the leader of her unit. I
have reason to believe that he was specifically targeted because of
his position within the GSOU."

"I don't understand," Anlon said. "If his
identity was covered, how did they find him?"

"A database," Kanti said aloud. "They had to
have access to a database and tracked him down that way."

"I was thinking the same thing," Giustino
nodded. "With the level of sophistication used in the murder of
your family, I have strong reason to believe this was revenge. It
was your father's job to eliminate group's that wanted to
assassinate the Queen or other high ranking officials. This is
without a doubt a group of assassins who wanted to get back at your
father."

"Then we can find them!" Anlon replied. "We
have races, so if they're known assassins, we can locate them."

"There's a chance that we can," Giustino
nodded. "But you have to understand that these are assassins. It's
their job to stay hidden, otherwise the GSOU wouldn't be
needed."

"We still have to try," Kanti spoke up. "If
there's even the slightest chance that these assassins can be found
it must be done."

Giustino held in his anger. "We can try
later, not with Anlon."

"What do you mean without me?" Anlon asked.
"My family was just murdered because someone leaked information to
a group of assassins!"

Giustino let out a deep sigh. "Follow
me."

Giustino and Kanti led Anlon back down the
way they had come, sealing the metal door behind them, leaving the
cells and interrogation room behind them. Giustino called the
elevator and waited for it to open before leading them on. He
pulled out a special key and inserted into a slot on the elevator
pad, prompting a light blue holopad to come up. He entered 030194
and the elevator lurched downwards into the darkness below.

Anlon knew they had almost reached the bottom
when Giustino took a step forward, ready to get off as quickly as
he could. When the elevator came to a stop and Giustino led them
both into a dimly lit room filled with computers. Large cords went
in all directions on the floor and the computer screens flickered
with words moving faster than Anlon could read.

"How are you doing Officer Giustino?" A
silver humanoid approached from behind them.

Giustino half ignored it. "Good Camillus, now
get back to work."

The humanoid stood there for a second, then
turned to go back to what it had been doing before approaching
them. Before leaving, it looked at Anlon for a split second and he
swore he saw a smile flash across its human-like face.