12-04-2019, 02:51 PM
So Night Follows Day Pt. 14
"I'm very well-acquainted with the seven deadly sins.
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in..
I'm proud to be a glutton, and I don't have time for sloth..
I'm greedy, and I'm angry, and I don't care who I cross..
I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt..
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt..
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me..
I'll live to be one hundred and go down in infamy.".
-Warren Zevon, "Mr. Bad Example"
Detective Inspector Luc Tomas Allaine left his office and hopped on his bicycle. He pointed it toward Bertholdi Fountain and turned the headlamp on, despite the well-lit streets around Interpol HQ at this hour of the morning, and the reflective orange bicycle helmet that Sam insisted he wear when riding. It was that golden hour before the Sun began to make its appearance, when there were more "people" on the streets than there were "motorists," and not many at that. A time to clear one's head with a ride, stare at the fountain, and have a think.
His train of thought on his old friend's matter had been derailed when the second attack took place, the one at La Contessa's Seattle hotel. A call back to Generalissimo Hernando Ramirez confirmed that it had been a Triad attack, and that La Contessa and her guards were unharmed. The Seattle Consulate was still fighting with the local security officer over releasing the security camera footage to them; overtly because the attack had taken place on a property owned by La Familia Royale de San Finzione, which made the hotel's status as "San Finzione territory" open to debate. If it were the case, by San Finzione law, "a direct crime against La Contessa herself" fell under La Squadra de Ultimados' jurisdiction until representatives from La Policia could be flown to Seattle to take charge of the scene. The Consul seemed willing to fight to the death over this technicality.
Luc figured out the real reason on his own, after Ramirez had sent him the footage: Because the woman in the video who had no combat training, but also displayed the instincts of someone who was no stranger to violence, and was not Rita Delvecchio, of "È Solo Divertente Se Conosci L'italiano" fame in her Contessa Helena de San Finzione makeup; was someone whose face the Government of San Finzione did not wish displayed on the news. And with the sensational nature of the attack, handing the video over to the local security officer would be practically the same thing as handing it to the media. Ramirez pointedly failed to inform him that it was a direct order from La Contessa in such a way that Luc was able to determine that himself. Luc found nothing in the video that could help his end of the investigation, so he gave Ramirez his observations and assured his friend that his copy had been as "accidentally erased" as all others were likely about to be.
And there was still that matter of how the universe works to consider. Another thing which Luc's old friend deliberately did not tell him was that the myths about his boss were true: That the enchantingly beautiful woman who ruled San Finzione, Contessa Helena de San Finzione, truly was some kind of witch, or faerie, or genetically-engineered CIA sex-assassin; with a strange ability to beguile the mind. Although Luc suspected that if sex-assassins were a real thing, she would have to be a very bad one to have taken over two years to get the job done.
Luc parked his bicycle and walked over to a bench in front of a small bush. He sat and alternated between looking at the fountain and the people out walking at this hour. He thought about who they all might be. All of the drunks had either made it home from the bars, or had been picked up by the security officer and were sleeping it off in a cell. Everyone out at this hour had a purpose for doing so. He wondered how many were bakers. This seemed the time of morning that bakers started work, and he didn't imagine many wore their uniforms while walking to and from work. A few, certainly.
"Detective Inspector Allaine?" A woman's voice whispered from the shadows.
Luc jumped in his seat. His hand went for his service revolver.
"There's no need for the gun, M'sieur." She said. "But keep your hand on it, if it makes you feel safer. An old friend has sent me with a message."
Luc swallowed before answering.
"You got here too quickly to have come from the embassy in Paris, so I would imagine that you came from the local consulate. And you approached me undetected, which speaks of Ultimados training; so, I am thinking 'Cultural Attaché.' I have a good idea whom this friend might be, and I have a message for him, as well. Your chosen methods of delivering messages are the only reason I have a box on you, Hernando."
Luc could hear the woman behind him tapping on her phone from her concealed position.
"You were correct, Luc." She read off a note on the screen. "There were things that I could not tell you over the telephone, although La Contessa has cleared you to know them. I cannot take time away to come to Lyon, and you need this information sooner than whenever you and Sam visit, which this does not get you out of doing. Allow me to plainly state the facts, so that they are in front of you to work with, old friend."
Luc took his hand off his pistol.
"I am listening." He told the woman whose face he still hadn't seen.
"First, Si, Contessa Helena de San Finzione knows the secret of mind control. It is not believed to be supernatural in nature, but we do not understand how she does it. We know that it cannot be transmitted via video or telephone, and that it doesn't seem to work if the speaker cannot convey their thoughts correctly; if they do not share a common language, for example."
"I'm very well-acquainted with the seven deadly sins.
I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in..
I'm proud to be a glutton, and I don't have time for sloth..
I'm greedy, and I'm angry, and I don't care who I cross..
I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt..
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt..
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me..
I'll live to be one hundred and go down in infamy.".
-Warren Zevon, "Mr. Bad Example"
Detective Inspector Luc Tomas Allaine left his office and hopped on his bicycle. He pointed it toward Bertholdi Fountain and turned the headlamp on, despite the well-lit streets around Interpol HQ at this hour of the morning, and the reflective orange bicycle helmet that Sam insisted he wear when riding. It was that golden hour before the Sun began to make its appearance, when there were more "people" on the streets than there were "motorists," and not many at that. A time to clear one's head with a ride, stare at the fountain, and have a think.
His train of thought on his old friend's matter had been derailed when the second attack took place, the one at La Contessa's Seattle hotel. A call back to Generalissimo Hernando Ramirez confirmed that it had been a Triad attack, and that La Contessa and her guards were unharmed. The Seattle Consulate was still fighting with the local security officer over releasing the security camera footage to them; overtly because the attack had taken place on a property owned by La Familia Royale de San Finzione, which made the hotel's status as "San Finzione territory" open to debate. If it were the case, by San Finzione law, "a direct crime against La Contessa herself" fell under La Squadra de Ultimados' jurisdiction until representatives from La Policia could be flown to Seattle to take charge of the scene. The Consul seemed willing to fight to the death over this technicality.
Luc figured out the real reason on his own, after Ramirez had sent him the footage: Because the woman in the video who had no combat training, but also displayed the instincts of someone who was no stranger to violence, and was not Rita Delvecchio, of "È Solo Divertente Se Conosci L'italiano" fame in her Contessa Helena de San Finzione makeup; was someone whose face the Government of San Finzione did not wish displayed on the news. And with the sensational nature of the attack, handing the video over to the local security officer would be practically the same thing as handing it to the media. Ramirez pointedly failed to inform him that it was a direct order from La Contessa in such a way that Luc was able to determine that himself. Luc found nothing in the video that could help his end of the investigation, so he gave Ramirez his observations and assured his friend that his copy had been as "accidentally erased" as all others were likely about to be.
And there was still that matter of how the universe works to consider. Another thing which Luc's old friend deliberately did not tell him was that the myths about his boss were true: That the enchantingly beautiful woman who ruled San Finzione, Contessa Helena de San Finzione, truly was some kind of witch, or faerie, or genetically-engineered CIA sex-assassin; with a strange ability to beguile the mind. Although Luc suspected that if sex-assassins were a real thing, she would have to be a very bad one to have taken over two years to get the job done.
Luc parked his bicycle and walked over to a bench in front of a small bush. He sat and alternated between looking at the fountain and the people out walking at this hour. He thought about who they all might be. All of the drunks had either made it home from the bars, or had been picked up by the security officer and were sleeping it off in a cell. Everyone out at this hour had a purpose for doing so. He wondered how many were bakers. This seemed the time of morning that bakers started work, and he didn't imagine many wore their uniforms while walking to and from work. A few, certainly.
"Detective Inspector Allaine?" A woman's voice whispered from the shadows.
Luc jumped in his seat. His hand went for his service revolver.
"There's no need for the gun, M'sieur." She said. "But keep your hand on it, if it makes you feel safer. An old friend has sent me with a message."
Luc swallowed before answering.
"You got here too quickly to have come from the embassy in Paris, so I would imagine that you came from the local consulate. And you approached me undetected, which speaks of Ultimados training; so, I am thinking 'Cultural Attaché.' I have a good idea whom this friend might be, and I have a message for him, as well. Your chosen methods of delivering messages are the only reason I have a box on you, Hernando."
Luc could hear the woman behind him tapping on her phone from her concealed position.
"You were correct, Luc." She read off a note on the screen. "There were things that I could not tell you over the telephone, although La Contessa has cleared you to know them. I cannot take time away to come to Lyon, and you need this information sooner than whenever you and Sam visit, which this does not get you out of doing. Allow me to plainly state the facts, so that they are in front of you to work with, old friend."
Luc took his hand off his pistol.
"I am listening." He told the woman whose face he still hadn't seen.
"First, Si, Contessa Helena de San Finzione knows the secret of mind control. It is not believed to be supernatural in nature, but we do not understand how she does it. We know that it cannot be transmitted via video or telephone, and that it doesn't seem to work if the speaker cannot convey their thoughts correctly; if they do not share a common language, for example."
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