Dusky tried to persuade me to stay at least overnight at the camp.. but it was hard for me to accept the possibility of such a huge reversal of everything I thought I knew.. it was a decision I lived to regret bitterly. Finally we parted ways, as he headed to his camp.. and I waited until night fall.. and very carefully returned to the cave entrance.. used the gateway and ended up in the HQ of the OC Front.
While I was waiting for nightfall at the top of the mountain, I had plenty of time to reflect on my situation. I had to think fast while confronting Pryade earlier, but now I realized if his father goes to meet him, he will be made aware of my obtrusive encounter with what will be perceived as the doctor from CCP. Now I have to create an air tight lie about the whole story, from start to finish, especially that Instine would be wondering where I disappeared as well. There was always a nagging regret in the back of my head that I didn’t accept Dusky’s recommendation to join him and never return back.. even if his claim that I belonged originally at Vinovia was not true, I might have been better off.. because if it is discovered that I had any part in the escape of the prisoners and the destruction of the CCP .. my punishment will be unimaginably harsh.
I arrived at OC Front HQ very late at night, and stepped inside to find Metz waiting for me,
“Everything under control Metz?”
“I am sorry Commander, but it seems that there are some horrible things happening all over the place.” He reported , “Councilor Wyee was here and she is looking for you everywhere.”
“What does she want? She told you?” I tried to appear indifferent.
“She said something about an explosion.. and I.. I don’t know what she meant and honestly, I didn’t care to ask.”
“So she___” I started to ask when the damned woman popped in herself,
“She is here.. big.. absent.. commander.” She yelled angrily.
I was extremely tired after a very long and horrible day.. so I just looked at her and then I spoke to Metz,
“all right Metz.. thank you.. you had a long day, you can go to have some rest.”
The Man was only pleased to comply.. and he hurried out.
“Care to explain where you have been?” She shouted.
I sat down on the couch.. raised my feet on the table and started to light my smoking pipe.. I deliberately ignored her, so she shouted again,
“The first time you set foot into the CCP.. the first meeting you attend.. what happens.. explosion and dead doctors and__”
“You notice.. it’s late at night.. I am very tired.. and you are here.. here in the OC Front.. far from BKC.. yet, you are barging in.. talking to soldiers about things unrelated to their duties.. and.. and.. How do you know all this?” I asked in a very cold tone.
It was like pouring cold water on the fire.. she sat down across from me, but she was still fuming,
“Your luck is running out at last.. this time you are done for sure.”
I leveled a cold pitiful look at her and took my time before I replied,
“OK.. Go home and rejoice.. what are you doing here in the middle of the night.. what is so urgent.. to make you come all the way here and bother me? I am finished..right? and you are happy for this? Well.. go then and.. celebrate away from me.”
She put on a sneaky smile on her enticing face and stood up.. paced the room for a while.. and finally she turned around saying,
“I am going to get to the bottom of this.. I offered to be your best ally.. you rejected my help.. now.. now I shall crush you.. and you shall regret ever insulting me.. you wor..” she didn’t finish her words.. just gave me a scornful look and slowly climbed the few steps to the outside.
I finally let out a long sigh of relief.. and decided to go to sleep..
I was awakened late in the following morning in my bunker, by the commander of the CCP..
“Get up.. get up you idiot.. there is no time to sleep.”
I opened my eyes wearily, and I pushed him away as he was trying to pull me out of bed,
“Leave me alone.. what is wrong with you? And don’t call me an idiot.. others may discover that.” I was almost talking in my sleep.
He had a kind of forced laugh,
“Yeah.. others already know that.. wake up and .. we have to think of some way to handle this disaster together.” He removed my covers and pulled me out of bed..
I fell into a chair and looked at him.. he looked so disheveled and haggard and seemed to remain awake all the previous night. I asked wearily,
“You didn’t even change your clothes.. been awake all night?”
“Yes.. no rest for the weary.. Deemeon heard the explosion.. you know that the CCP is under the greens of the BKC.. and he hounded me all night.. we had to go over the place to examine the damage.”
“Did you find anything?” I was still not fully awake.
“No.. we couldn’t get to the whole damaged area.. it is a full scale catastrophe.. the explosion caused many of the neighboring areas to cave in as well.. where were you.. I was afraid you might have been killed in the explosion?”
Now I was fully awake.. I jumped in my chair and asked him.
“does your father know I was there? In the damaged area?”
“He knows you were the last to leave the castle.. but he doesn’t know the details.. I instructed Cface that I am the one to tell the chief about all the details.”
I hesitated for a while before I said gingerly,
“Some details seem to be leaking out already.”
He appeared to be frightened, he asked in a shaky voice,
“What.. what do you mean? Who? Who knows about this?” what details?”
“Relax.” I reassured him, “it’s Wyee.. she was here late at night asking questions.. about ‘explosions and dead doctors’ and she seemed adamant to get to know everything.”
“That blood sucker.. I hate her more than anything or anyone.” He said almost to himself.
“Don’t worry.. she is not after you.. she is after me.. she thinks she can use this to destroy me somehow.. I cannot understand why she hated me so much.. I never had to do anything contradicting or contrary to her interests.”
He looked at me in a strange way.. as if he sees me for the first time.. then he said slowly,
“What Deemeon said about you seems to be true.. for all your intelligence, you are a very naïve person.”
I was surprised.. or rather annoyed.. or may be both.. I don’t know which exactly, but I found myself rushing to answer,
“I don’t know what it is with you and your father.. you call me idiot, then call me intelligent, and both of you call me naïve.. what is this .. I am none of these things.. I am just an ordinary soldier who___”
He laughed lightly and interrupted,
“Never mind.. never mind.. I was just pulling your leg to wake you up.. now I see you are fully awake.. get ready we have a long day ahead of us.”
I tried to pretend that I know nothing about the explosion.. I told Instine that when I lost my way following him, I stopped by the guard recreation room.. asked for directions.. then I heard some explosion starting close by, so I grabbed one of the doctors and found the first gateway to get out.. I left out the encounter with Pryade on top of the mountain since he didn’t ask about what happened next.. I think he assumed I went straight to OC Front and left the doctor safely on the surface.
“Did Cface get rid of the dead doctor? How do you plan to explain this one?” I asked.
“I cannot make up my mind yet.. I think we can convince Cface to agree that the doctor was killed in the explosion.. that is a plausible possibility.. we are yet to reach all the damaged areas.. I think Deemeon is more preoccupied by the damage to the equipment than anything else.. this explosion will throw us back more than a hundred years.. maybe two hundred.”
I was completely surprised for more reasons than he knew.. and I wondered where is that genius, Mark, the explosives expert might be now. I just shared my dismay with the CCP commander, and asked,
“A lot of corpses found?”
“Oh.. Yeah.. many.. too many.. guards, doctors, engineers and prisoners.. the ward where we kept the final stage prisoners, was completely destroyed.. these were in reprogramming for the past two years to be able to deliver the knowledge back to the Vinovians.”
“Well.. how did the explosion happen? What caused it?” Now I was at the height of my perfect innocence act.
“It may take us years to find out.. a malfunctioning equipment, an operator error.. or even the possibility of sabotage.?
“Sabotage? Are you serious?” I continued my act.
“keep in mind there were loose prisoners trying to get out.. you and I know they could get out and killed the doctor .. but what if one of them got lost inside and couldn’t get out with the others?”
“Wait.. you and I know.. Also Cface knows.. and may be some guards.. does Deemeon know? Already?”
“NO.. no.. no.. I told Cface.. no information should be announced until we had a complete investigation.. he cannot disobey a direct order.”
“What will stop him?” I wondered, “He seems to think too highly of himself and maybe he tries to assert his importance__”
“Not at all.. you see.. he is not authorized to get out of the CCP under any circumstances.. and since he grabbed your hand while you were going to the surface and got out__”
“Wait a minute.. he didn’t grab my hand.. he went up to the surface on his own.”
The commander of the CCP was shocked. He stayed silent for a while, then he spoke very slowly,
“What in the world is going on? He has stolen the authorization codes for himself.. this is beyond horrible..”
“Why? Why is it__”
“If he can do such thing.. what else is he doing without being authorized.. without the knowledge of the commander?”
“So you think this will keep him under control for the time being.. he is not going to go to Deemeon and tell him what happened?” I asked
“I don’t know.. right now.. I am as confused as you are.” He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.
“My dear commander.. I am not confused. I think the best thing we can do, is go tell Deemeon everything .. no.. wait.. hear me out.. you.. you must be the one to go tell your father .. albeit, you have to mix it up with a small lie.” I was very sincere.
“How? What do you mean? He is going to blow up in my face.. tell him,” He started to comically mimic the way of a distraught son, “Father, sorry.. your most important prisoner escaped.. or maybe blew up the CCP and killed your doctors and guards____”
I laughed at his performance and then stopped him,
“No .. no not like that.. the part of the escape can be omitted.. just use the explosion as a cover.. yes.. we have to investigate the explosion which has killed so may personnel, including the prisoners.. we might not be able to identify all those who were killed.. they might be torn to pieces already.. so instead of saying the prisoners escaped, we consider that they died in the explosion.. this will cover the area of Cface going outside the CCP thereby keeping him under control and avoid exposing the escape problem.”
He didn’t respond right away.. after some deep thought, he said,
“That may be reasonable.” He started and was about to continue, but I interjected,
“It is.. I know you want to have further investigation, but we can do that later.. on our own.”
Then we heard the knocking on the door..
“Who might this be?” He asked worriedly.
“Anybody may have a question about some work here.. keep calm.. we are having breakfast and discussing some issues.” I reassured him, and yelled to the visitor to come in.
Asfar entered and kept looking at Instine and then looking at me forgetting why he came in.. so I quietly asked,
“Did you forget why you came here?”
“Oh.. I.. I just wanted to catch you before you go anywhere and I cannot find you.. um, I caught a man from the riffraff roaming the grounds.. so I put him in a prison cell and .. will you add my name to the list going for entertainment this week? I believe councilor Wyee should be coming today to get the list.”
“Sure, Please ask Metz to make sure your name is on the list.. OK?”
“Very well.. OK.” He kept looking curiously at the commander of the CCP, itching to ask the burning question.. and it seemed that he couldn’t hold back, so as he was about to leave, he turned around and said,
“Commander, is it true that__” He started but I was quick to stop him.
“Asfar.. the commander is having breakfast with me and doesn’t like to be bothered by questions.. it is not appropriate.”
This was one person, who found it always difficult to say thank you or apologize.. he gave me a long frustrated look and as he got through the door, Shana walked in and pulled him back inside,
“Commander. Asfar brought in a riffraff and put him inside the prison__”
He interrupted her angrily,
“this was the common protocol when Commander Trapp was in charge.”
I took a moment to scrutinize both of them, the I answered,
“You have to get it through your thick brain Asfar, Trapp is no longer the commander of OC.. don’t say anything.. yes , I didn’t make any changes to the protocol.. so now Shana is in charge and she knows what to do.”
She triumphantly added,
“We are not supposed to provide food and housing to riffraff .. these cells are reserved for Vino captives.”
“But while there are no captives, we can use them to keep the riffraff from roaming our grounds.” He retorted
The door was still open and Metz showed up,
“Commander Hort, would you like to take a look at today’s schedule.. Oh, sorry.. I didn’t know you have a guest.. I’ll come later.”
“It’s Ok Metz, no problem, I trust your judgment.. please put Asfar on the list for Wyee and keep the north camp visit in today’s program.. And please take a look at that issue with Shana.. regarding this riffraff person.”
“Consider it done.” The good man withdrew with a big smile.
As they all left, we could hear them arguing between each other outside before they closed the door.
When we were alone again, Instine remarked,
“That first soldier.. is so different from the last one.”
“Yeah.. the first one is the spitting image of his master, Katcher.. never mind him.. and never trust him.”
He smiled and then his smile turned into a gentle laugh,
“Katcher, yes.. you remind me of the meeting.. you made him fall apart before everyone during the meeting.. and then you saved his hide.. why? You could have completely crushed him.” He kept laughing.
I had to smile and after a while I said,
“It’s good to see you regain your easy going nature.. now let us actually eat, and go about the real business.”
I was alone again after Instine left, so I went to see what happened at the prison.. I found Asfar still arguing with Shana who complained as soon as she saw me,
“He still interferes.. the beggar does not want to leave and Asfar insists__”
“Ok Shana.. calm down” I replied with a little smile, and walked towards the cell where the man was kept..
He wore ragged clothes and had some wounds on his face and arms, but his eyes were bright and his hair.. there was something about his hair that intrigued me.. I said,
“Listen, they might have told you in Yara or Foamville that you could come have free food and housing, but here you must work for you food.. understand? Get out.”
He obeyed and looked down.. as he came closer, suddenly I realized what bothered me about his hair.. it was singed .. this was the man.. the man who exploded the CCP.. this was Mark, dusky’s companion..
I told Shana that I shall take care of the matter and gave her instructions, to put any riffraff in a remote cell and notify me as soon as possible on how to deal with them. Then I took the raggedy man and walked away, presumably to point him in the direction of the nearest riffraff gathering area.. when we were out of ear shot, I said,
“Very dangerous to come here Mark.”
“You identified me right away? How come?” He was surprised.
“I had a long talk with Dusky. I don’t know what you expect.. why did you come here?”
“I have to get to the mountain.. we have a___”
“Yes, you have a camp there, but that means you need a horse.. one of your spotted__”
“No..no sir.. any horse will do.. the camp is located before the canyon, so any horse can reach it.. if you__”
“OK.” I cut him off, “I shall point you towards the riffraff area.. do not go in that direction.. just pretend to go there.. then fall back towards the prison.. the horses are at the back.. you can take one and go to the mountain. Did you eat?”
“Yeah.” He laughed lightly, “they were fighting over my food back there.”
I let him go and then I walked slowly towards the prison again and then leisurely headed towards the stalls to make sure that Jurree was sitting in his usual place smoking his pipe or falling asleep.. it turned up he was not there at all.. a short while later, Mark approached, took one of the horses and disappeared fast on his way to the mountain.
The week went by until the night before the meeting.. I had several quick meetings with Instine.. and we agreed on the strategy to handle the situation considering all the factors involved.. and keeping it flexible to be able to respond to whatever surprises Wyee might be cooking.. I never told him about the Dusky escape or the visit to the mountain top lair of Pryade. He remained convinced that all four of the prisoners escaped with the dead doctor.
Just when I thought we got everything in order, Wyee popped in the OC again to confront me.. she came several times for other reasons, but that night she chased me to the north camp, and while I was talking to Metz and a group of soldiers, she walked in saying sarcastically,
“Last night.. Commander.”
“Last night? What about last night?” I replied innocently.
“No.. I mean.. well.. maybe you don’t want everyone to hear this.”
I was truly surprised.. so I smiled and answered,
“Hear what? I never keep secrets from my team.. if you have something to say, say it.. otherwise.. leave and let us go about our work.”
She got serious, and walked among the group scrutinizing their faces,
“Tomorrow will be your last night as their commander.”
I took a deep breath. Then I laughed lightly saying,
“Very well.. that means until tomorrow, I am still the commander.. and that means I can capture you and send you to the OC prison until then.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” She suddenly looked frightened
“Oh, yes.. I would.. if .. as you say this is my last night.. then what do I care?”
She looked around and walked backward towards the door saying,
“You are so stupid.. instead of asking for my help.. one last time.. I warn you Flousty .. I warned you before.. and this was your last chance.. I know everything.. everything.. all the dirty details you are plotting with your dear Instine.. I shall see you tomorrow.. commander.”
She left in a hurry. Naturally a lot of inquisitive eyes were directed at me so I calmly said,
“Don’t worry.. she is a loser who is grabbing thin air.. this is the behavior of a desperate person knowing.. knowing it’s time to face the cumulative results of their horrible mistakes.”
However, some of those who were present during this episode, went out spreading the details with some embellishments.. and soldiers like Asfar and Amy were only too happy to add whatever sizzle of their own to it..