Somewhat oblivious to the party carrying
on behind him, King Atalon stood on the balcony of his Villa, gazing through
the veil of smoke towards the islands in the distance, pondering the launch of
the New Empire. Although confident he would finally annihilate Aquilla, Lemuria
remained untouchable so long as it was infested with Nummo Serpents. His eyes focused on the lofty peaks of Kergal,
looming through the fog in the distance. A deep urge stirred inside whenever he
gazed upon the wretched isle, as if mocking him. Behind the godly presentation
of destiny he boasted to the people, there were more personal reasons behind
his motivation to annihilate Aquilla. Lemuria was his home, his birth place
that had been stolen from him.
He
took a deep breath of Mel's delicious aroma as the breeze carried it his way,
returning his thoughts to present day. He would miss her, but there was no
other way, it was called evolution.
As he gazed toward Fina, he could hear a faint, strange noise... He cocked his
ear and shielded the other from the party noise... He heard it again...
He
wasn’t the only one to hear it. Moments later Medena hurried across the balcony
towards him, quick to voice concern.
"Is
that Serpent music?"
"What
is
that?" Mel too moved closer to the view point.
"It is!" Medena concluded. "Can
you hear it? It sounds dreadful!"
The
group craned their necks to see where it was coming from. There was a ship
approaching...
"Look!"
The
king cupped his hand around his eye, sheltering it from the sun, squinting to
see... It was Vikkar's gravel ship...
Was that where the music was coming
from? It certainly sounded that way
and it was getting louder as the ship sailed closer. He walked over to the
telescope and narrowed the focus onto the ship. He could see the colorful clothes and golden instruments of the Lunies on
board... What on earth were they doing?
Something on the ship caught his eye, a brilliant white... It was a Unicorn!
"LOOK!"
He passed the telescope to Medena, amused by the scene. "It's the Lunies!
They're having their own Farewell
Celebration!"
Feeling
set up somehow and intimidated by Torus's
authority, Adon searched the storage cabinets once more for the latest missing
inventory, confident that this was not his fault.
"Can't
you just launch an official investigation?"
"On
what grounds?" Torus waved one of his tablets in the air. "I don't
see any discrepancies here, all the numbers add up... No investigation will see
these numbers any other way... It's obviously not an accounting error,
it's a storage error!" He put the tablet down, choosing his words
carefully. "Listen Adon, I'm afraid you'll need to account for them
somehow, no one is going to authorize an investigation when it’s your department's responsibility for
facts to match the figures."
Adon
knew this would mean an Expiry Assessment, he had never been in trouble before,
it was a terrible time to break his record. Torus wouldn't let up.
"You
can't expect the Records Department to just accept missing inventory, and you
can't expect me to cover your mistakes, especially when they're repeated"
he lectured.
Adon
continued to search the storage shelves of which he had already searched. Deep
down in his gut he was feeling had, something was wrong. Torus was right, it
wasn't the first batch that had gone missing, and why was it only the pineal
glands that were missing? Was there a secret splinter unit working on the
Crystal Gen program of which he wasn't privy to? Was he simply being pinned as
their scapegoat? He suspected it and suspected Torus knew, too. Something fishy
was going on and it definitely had to do with the Crystal Gen program.
"Someone's
stealing them" he insisted, giving up on his search.
"What?" Torus scoffed. "Who and
why would anyone steal stinky dried body parts?"
"The
pineal organs are Crystal Gen R&D specimens" he offered his only clue,
he had no answer.
"You're
in charge of the Processing Lab, are you not? Which busy body is doing
extra-curricular Crystal Gen R&D?"
"I...
I don't know…" Adon felt the adrenaline levels alter his blood flow in
real time, he would never regain respect if he was blamed, this was a
completely unjustified fall from the heights he had worked so hard to attain, especially now. Once again he scoured
the storage unit for the stray box.
"Very
well" Torus replied. "I'll file an official investigation request, if
it get’s approved we'll find out who it is."
Adon
heaved a sigh of relief and gave up on his search.
"However"
Torus added as he turned to leave, "you will need to prove to the
investigators that they were stolen... You can't expect an investigation to
prove something that you yourself can't even prove. The New Empire has no room
for lies and incompetence, you know!"
Bell
began to wonder about his friend Josh as he marched through the Headquarters
lobby on his way back to the Hub. Where was he getting the Soloha from? Was his
friendship with Nolan allowing him certain privileges he wasn’t aware of? He
pondered Nolan's rise to godly status, too, his special education and
coincidental flaxen hair as he trotted down the stair to the Underworld. Was he
a hybrid like Torus? Born to be? Nolan did seem a little stressed when they had
lunch in the Gourmet Chamber that day yet regarding the war he didn't seem too
concerned at all, he certainly lacked professionalism in handling the bombs...
The renovation was a disaster... Why
was he getting promoted to king before he had even proven to succeed as a god?
He
was relieved to see his crew waiting for him at the train and scanned the hub
quickly before joining them. Down the hall he could see shadows...It was Torus...
Leaving the Moha Lab... Then suddenly, echoing through the hollow halls the sounds
of smashing glass... And Torus kept
walking...
Curious
now, he took a detour to go see. There was only one light on down the laboratory
hall where he found Adon in a slump with his head in his hands, amidst a sea of
scattered shards of what looked like was once a lab jar. Boxes and tablets were
scattered all over the table, storage units were ransacked, there must have
been a row.
"Hey
Adon, what's going on?"
Adon
ignored him.
"We're
moving a load of boxes up to the storage bunker, can I get my soldiers to move some
of those for you?"
Adon
still ignored him. Adon's behavior only confirmed
Bell's suspicions, something illegal was going on. The drugs Josh was selling were some sort of lab product, after all. Whatever it was, it looked like he was in
serious trouble.
"Adon?
Are you okay?"
Adon’s
continued silence was suggesting that he was indeed involved in something illegal... Perhaps he just got busted? Was
Josh about to get busted too?
As
Vikkar's boat sailed towards the harbor, a feeling of
dread began to compete with Atalon's enthusiasm for the day.
"HALIOS!"
Halios
had been watching the scene unfold from inside, he didn’t like it either,
Vikkar was now heading straight for the harbor. He hurried out
onto the balcony to take it in, it was worse than imagined, the boat was full
of Lunies, the singing at least, had stopped.
"Mighty
Medel…"
The
king wasn’t pleased with Vikkar at all and it wasn’t just the Lunies he didn’t
like.
"How DARE he bring that filthy mule over
here! This is NOT his air to share!!!"
"I'm
sure they won’t get off the boat" Halios hoped. "Nolan ordered the
gravel for the pyramid, look it, they have a banner…" He snatched the
telescope from Atalon and squinted to read it... "I think they just came
to say Farewell…" He handed the telescope back to Atalon. "Fitting, don't you think?" He
slapped the king on the back, working hard to relax his nerves, he had a plan
already. "Don't you worry, I'll go down and make sure they don't get off
the ship!" He turned to leave.
"NO!" the king bellowed. "You're staying here!" Atalon
snapped his fingers. "I will not give them the satisfaction of thinking I
need to defend myself from them! I'll send the sisters down, they can let me know what they're really up to."
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