Chapter 60: No Clean Getaways
"What are we even expecting to happen?" Jadeite mumbled to himself, reclined back on a large lounge chair, head turned to the left to look over at Zoisite. "Kasios probably has a good forty years of life left, and he's as sharp as they come."
"What's your point?" Zoisite said, barely glancing over at his fellow Earth general before putting his eyes squarely back on the large translucent screen in front of him.
"My point is, staying inside the palace until the heat dies down isn't exactly a viable option," Jadeite answered. "And what the hell was the point of everything we did if we're just going to leave all the money in the Moon Palace dungeon and never touch it?"
"Obviously that's not the actual plan," Zoisite countered quickly.
"Then what is?" Jadeite asked. "Because—"
"Do you want to kill Kasios?" Nephrite snapped, sitting upright and forward at the edge of the couch right by Jadeite's chair. "That's what I'm getting from this."
"Of course not!" Jadeite insisted. "There's nothing I want less. But, it has to be said, I'm not seeing any other way to resolve this." He pointed over his shoulder towards Zoisite. "When even this guy can't so much as suggest any other idea, maybe it's time to at least...open our minds to the possibility."
"By all means, tell the High King that," Kunzite said dryly, leaning against the far wall. The four generals were gathered in their private lounge room, a place they had been spending even more time than usual in lately, as they were still strongly advised to not leave the boundaries of the palace for any reason. "I'm sure he'll see things your way."
"Well, if not that, then…" Jadeite's brow furrowed. "I...shouldn't we be trying to make a deal with Kasios, then? Because the way I see it, all we're doing right now is sitting around and hoping he drops dead of an out-of-the-blue heart attack."
Zoisite sighed, still keeping his eyes glued to the large screen before him. "His Royal Highness probably hates the idea of making a deal with his father slightly less than the idea of killing him. We need to wait for him to realize there's no other way."
"So, we will make a deal?" Jadeite asked.
"Of course we will," Zoisite said dismissively. "Easiest thing in the world, we have the most valuable bargaining chip in galactic history. The only hard part is getting Endymion on board with it."
"Not a word of any of this to him," Kunzite said sternly. "The moment has to be right for him to agree to it. He has to be genuinely concerned that his father might produce something concrete against him first. We need—"
"He's doing it again!" Zoisite announced, getting the immediate attention of all three of his fellow Earth generals. "Kasios's alias just tried accessing the palace mainframe!"
"What is he doing?" Nephrite asked. "How many times is he going to try? Does he think we're just going to randomly restore his access?" He, along with Kunzite and Jadeite, quickly jumped up and ran behind Zoisite, watching his screen from over his shoulders.
"He doesn't have anything else he can do," Kunzite said grimly, watching as a couple of blinking red alerts on the screen faded after a couple beats. "At least this way he can feel like he's doing something."
"Quiet, everybody," Zoisite ordered, reaching forward with his right hand and holding down a circular blue button in front of him on the desk. "Your Highness?"
The four generals waited in silence for nearly a secunda, all of them staring at the screen, before High King Endymion returned Zoisite's hail. "Y-yes?"
"It happened again," Zoisite said quickly. "Your father, his alias just attempted to access the mainframe."
"
Endymion put his left hand up to his forehead. "W-what's the count at now?"
"Nine," Zoisite answered. "There's still absolutely no reason to believe his attempts will ever be successful."
Endymion was huddled up by his bedside table, hunched over, mouth positioned a couple finger-lengths above his communicator. "I...I know. Thank you, Zoisite," Endymion said, sounding a little weary. "Please, keep informing me if his attempts continue." He watched the little blue light on the rim of his communicator go dark before turning to look over his shoulder. "Well, if he can't think of anything better than this, at least we can rest assured knowing we're never going to get caught."
"He's doing more than we are," Serenity said. "Everyone is doing more than we are, how much longer are we just going to sit here and wait?"
"We've been over this, doing nothing is the point!" Endymion reminded her. "Doing anything just gives Kasios exactly what he wants."
"Well, I don't want to spend the rest of my life hiding in the palace," Serenity retorted, pacing back and forth in the middle of the room. "How long do you think we can keep this up before the galaxy starts wondering why you're hardly ever showing your face?"
"I know, I know," Endymion said, sitting down heavily on the edge of the bed. "I'm just trying to be a little positive. I...I really don't think he's going to be able to find anything on me, that's something, right?"
A series of soft raps at the bedroom door interrupted whatever the little argument was going to turn into. Serenity, already standing up, made an immediate beeline for the door, Endymion moving to stand up before quickly settling back down, eyes glued to his wife.
She popped the door open, revealing Delia standing there with Chibiusa in her arms, a pleasant smile on both their faces.
"Y-yes?" Serenity asked, trying to not wear her concern on her face.
"Your Highness, I just wanted to let you know we were leaving, should be back tonight," Delia said, giving a tiny bow towards the Queen. "Sorry to disturb you."
"Wait wait wait!" Serenity exclaimed, instinctively reaching out to grab the right shoulder of Delia's blouse as the midwife started to turn away. "Leaving? W-what are you talking about?!"
The midwife turned back, smile immediately wiped off her face, looking a little alarmed. "Um, her grandparents, r-remember?"
Serenity blinked rapidly. "No?"
"Uhh…" Delia had the uneasy, twitchy look of someone who had just been caught. "Your...High King Kasios, he called me directly and asked me to bring Chibiusa over to him on Mercury. He said he missed her and wanted to play with her for awhile."
"Oh, Gods," Endymion hissed under his breath, putting his right hand up to his forehead. Serenity flashed a quick open palm over towards the High King down by her hip, trying to stay any budding outbursts.
"He told me he already talked to you about it and you were fine with it," Delia said, unconsciously reaching up to wipe some sweat away from the side of her face, quickly starting to feel all the more discomfort as Serenity just stared at her with an expressive, shocked look.
"He...he called you directly?" Serenity asked.
"Yes, uh...I thought it was a little strange, but he said you would be extremely busy today and he didn't want to bother you. I-in fact, he said that you were so busy, I shouldn't even bother you on my way out of the palace, b-but...uh, I just...I thought you'd want to know exactly w-when your daughter was—"
"You thought right," Serenity said quickly, reaching out towards Delia again and grabbing Chibiusa by the waist. The midwife immediately released her own grip on the child, letting Serenity take her. "Um, Delia, good work, you...you did good, you did perfect, uh, so...you're not taking Chibiusa to Kasios, there's been a misunderstanding."
"...I, I see," Delia said, looking only slightly eased on Serenity's assurance that she had done nothing wrong, still wondering why the Queen was acting so oddly. It almost looked as if she felt ill, her words were coming out so frantically.
"A-and, um, if Kasios attempts to contact you again, just ignore it!" Serenity said, bending over to place Chibiusa down on the carpeted floor just inside the bedroom, allowing her to run off. "D-don't respond, um, he's...well, acting erratically. Please, no questions, and don't talk about any of this with any one for any reason."
"Except the other midwives!" Endymion called out, having been waiting for a window to interject while listening in on the exchange. "T-tell them to ignore any attempts from Kasios to contact them!"
"R-right, that," Serenity said, reaching over to grab the edge of the door. "T-tell them, and tell them to keep it quiet." With that, Serenity whisked the door shut, turning around and leaning her back up against it as if she was trying to hold back intruders. "Unbelievable!"
"Son of a bitch," Endymion grunted, keeping his voice low so that Chibiusa couldn't hear. "I didn't think he'd go that low."
"Okay, can we please do something?!" Serenity asked, going over to the bed and squaring up towards Endymion. "There has to be some way we can just...talk with him. Get him to understand that he's wasting his time, that it's over!"
Endymion's nostrils flared, a scowl developing. "Tonight." He got to his feet. "Get an outfit together, we'll be in public."
"Are you going to call him?" Serenity asked, the edge taken off of her voice on seeing that her husband had been inspired to at least some degree of action. "How's that going to go?"
"I'll…" Endymion rubbed at his left eye. "I'll have a message sent to him." He shook his head again. "Unreal," he grumbled to himself.
"
It was hard to imagine ever feeling uncomfortable inside the walls of Eternity, the Earth restaurant that had been the gold standard by which all other high-class restaurants could compare themselves to for over a hundred and fifty years. Yet, with an uncomfortable amount of transparency to anyone who might glance over, Queen Serenity was clearly very uncomfortable. Her shifty eyes and huddled posture belonged to someone who had something to hide, and she didn't have so much as a glass of water in front of her at the square-shaped table.
"Are you sure you don't want to eat something?" Endymion said in a low voice, deftly maneuvering his sharp knife and fork pair over the slab of top quality steak in front of him, neatly stabbing and slicing at it to produce bite-sized chunks.
"Of course not," Serenity grumbled, giving an annoyed glare over at the large plate of food in front of her husband.
"It would look better if you ate something, we're supposed to be eating dinner with my father," Endymion said, looking shiftily all around at the surrounding restaurant, observing the mostly-populated tables all around, filled with wealthy and powerful individuals. The royal couple had been given seating in an area a relatively-large distance away from everyone else, comparatively isolated, something they had specifically requested to prevent eavesdropping. Normally, allowing the royal family some degree of privacy was simply about courtesy, but tonight, it was truly a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, they could still be seen by everyone, and Endymion had appearances to keep in mind.
"How are you eating anything?!" Serenity snapped, looking over at Endymion's large, full plate. "This is really just another dinner to you?"
"Well, it is dinner time," Endymion said, in an almost-eerie deadpan.
"That's not the point!" she insisted, again glancing around nervously. "How can you eat at a time like this?!" She placed her right hand on her stomach. "I don't think I could funnel a bowl of soup down my throat right now."
"I'm eating, because I'm not concerned about anything. And you shouldn't be either," Endymion said, voice even and without emotion. "Just think carefully about what you say before you say it, like we discussed, and we hold all the cards."
Serenity sighed, glancing over to the entrance, practically falling out of her chair at what she saw. This time, amid a collection of prospective customers packed together, she spotted a familiar former royal, pushing his way through the pack and going into the main dining area. Kasios, clearly not even giving the Maitre D the courtesy of pretending to listen to what he had to say, was here.
And right behind him, to Serenity's shock and horror, was her own mother.
"W-why is mother here?" Serenity asked, her panic rapidly building back up as she unconsciously leaned towards Endymion. "Why is she here?!"
Endymion glanced up briefly towards the approaching elders. "Doesn't matter, be calm."
"Stop telling me to be calm, I will not be calm!" she hissed through gritted teeth. "Of course it matters! Why did he bring my mother, he was supposed to come a—"
The elder Serenity made her approach to the dining table so quickly, the Queen had to quickly clap her mouth shut at that moment, for her mother was well within earshot, and then just beats later, right next to her shoulder, looming up over her daughter. Serenity immediately shrunk away a bit.
"Uh—" Serenity started.
"I didn't think Kasios could possibly have said anything more absurd and unbelievable than claiming that Endymion was an intergalactic imperium smuggler. Believe me, that took a while to swallow. But then, just as I was starting to consider the possibility, he laid this one on me." She leaned forward slightly, intentionally trying to project a bigger size over her daughter. "He said you knew everything." She pointed a finger over towards the High King. "And that you were protecting him! Please tell me at least that's not true!"
"Mother, p-please, sit down." Serenity beckoned over towards the empty seat behind the former Queen, determined to say nothing of meaning or value yet.
"Serenity!" she hissed through gritted teeth, reaching down to grab at her forearm, making to lift her up off the chair. The young Queen simply jerked her arm away, shying away from her slightly. "You should really come with us. Now."
"You're causing a scene," Serenity said quietly. "Please, go sit down."
The elder woman didn't look like she thought much of Serenity's accusation, but with a quick glance over her shoulder towards the fast-approaching Kasios, fell back and slid into the chair to her daughter's left.
"Thank you," Serenity mumbled.
As Kasios took his own seat in the one remaining open spot, Endymion slowly produced a small black rectangular device from the inside of his jacket, setting it down just above his plate on the table. Without a word, he went back to stabbing at his expensive beef dish.
The four royals sat in silence for a few moments, Kasios obviously growing annoyed with his son as he continued to pay more attention to his steak than anything else.
"Well?" Kasios snarled, staring his son down. The moment he spoke, the black device started emitted a low whining tone, with several bright red bars lighting up along the front of it. Both Kasios and the elder Serenity flinched back a bit, but gradually settled back down as nothing else happened, the device quickly falling dormant again.
"Turn them off," Endymion said gruffly, the device spiking in sound and visuals with each word that left his mouth.
Kasios didn't budge an inch, continuing to stare daggers over towards his son, which prompted him to return his focus back to his food, moving his knife and fork across the giant piece of meat that covered most of his plate.
Finally, begrudgingly, Kasios slowly withdrew a circular, disc-shaped object from up underneath his collar, brushing his thumb across the top of it to push a switch down. "Happy?"
His verbiage, however, continued to cause the device in front of the High King to spike and whine, so Endymion gave no reply to his father's simple question.
"K-Kasios, please," Serenity said, sensing that her husband and father-in-law were going to take minutas to get the simplest points across to one another if left to their own devices. "Can we just move this along?"
The elder Serenity, with a sigh, reached behind her back, fumbling around awkwardly with both hands for a moment, seemingly trying to reach something. "Fine," she muttered. "It's off."
"You must truly be desperate to even try that," Endymion said coolly, this time observing that the device in front of him was no longer oscillating or making noises alongside his words.
"Thank you," the younger Serenity said, sounding a touch exasperated. "And thank you for meeting with us."
"I don't plan on being here longer than a few secundas," Kasios hissed. "The only question is, am I leaving with Endymion's confession, or Serenity's witness testimony?" He looked back and forth between the two young adults. "So? Which one is it gonna be?"
"I have nothing to confess," Endymion said simply, voice agitated.
"So that's what we're doing, then?" Kasios asked. "Can't even just...acknowledge it privately?" He shrugged. "No one else is here, we're off the record, just...let it out! It might feel good!"
"We have a lot to talk about," Queen Serenity said, trying to keep her gaze from repeatedly flittering over towards her mother.
"Yes, we do," her mother exclaimed. "By we, I assume you mean you and Kasios, inside a secure room on board The Savery."
She sighed. "Mom, please, think about this! That's not in anyone's best interests."
The elder Queen looked over to Endymion. "What in the universe have you been filling my daughter's head with?" When Endymion offered no reaction, she turned back to the Queen, pointing at the High King. "Do you know what he's done? Like, really, what he's done? You do understand that, right?"
"Uh…" Serenity gave her head a couple violent shakes. "Okay, first, before we get into any of that, something needs to be firmly understood between all of us. Chibiusa is a very young child, and she should be left out of this."
"I agree," Kasios grunted. "She should be completely out of this, as in, living with me." He flicked a quick pointer finger at his son before withdrawing it. "Away from him, and the things he does."
Serenity reached up to rub at her right eye. "She's our daughter. She lives with us. End of story. And regardless of anything else going on between us right now, you two trying to sneak her out of the Palace is crossing the line."
Kasios slammed his palm down on the table. "There isn't a line, Serenity!" The young Queen jolted up a bit as the whole eating surface vibrated. "Your husband is a murderer, the greatest criminal in galactic history, Chibiusa has no place living with and being raised by someone like that!"
Endymion glanced around at the neighboring diners, noticing that Kasios's little act of violence on the surface of the table had drawn a little attention. "You're better than slamming tables when you don't get your way, Kasios," he said in a low rasp. The former High King just glowered at his son, not appreciating his advice. "You're an experienced diplomat, please use your words."
"You know she should be living with us, Serenity," the former Queen continued, leaning in closer towards her daughter. "That's why you did all that, isn't it? You had her live with us for a year because you wanted her out. Away from him."
Serenity swallowed the building lump in her throat. "O-okay. Um, w-well. That being the case, i-if that's the reason why...why I had her live with you. Then why do you think I'd bring her back like I did?"
The elder Serenity shrugged. "It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does!"
"Serenity, your daughter is in danger!" the former Queen hissed. "And, if you really want to...I don't even know what to call it, play Endymion's game, that's one thing, but Chibiusa deserves to be safe!"
"She is safe," Serenity said, bringing her voice back down an octave. "I wouldn't have brought her back if she wasn't." She glanced around the dimmed restaurant nervously. "That's the point I'm trying to make."
"Chibiusa is not safe as long as she's with him," Kasios hissed, unconcealed contempt in his tone as he leered over towards his son. "How can you not see that?! Do you have any idea, the sorts of people he works with in his little imperium empire?"
"There is no imperium empire," Endymion said stoically. "Stop for a secunda and really think about how crazy you sound right now."
Kasios's nostrils flared. "You can't just do me the courtesy of admitting it, huh? Not even?"
Queen Serenity thought for a moment, closing her eyes in concentration. "Kasios, uh...whatever may have or may have not happened in the past—"
"Gods, he's got you talking in riddles too!" Kasios snapped over towards Serenity, making her shrink away a bit. "'May or may not', can't you two just—"
"Nothing is happening now!" Serenity interrupted. "Okay? There's nothing illegal happening in the Earth Palace as of right now." She tapped her index finger on the table in front of her a couple times to try to emphasize this point. "W-whether or not something was happening before, nothing is now."
"And we're just supposed to believe you?" her mother asked. "You've been living this obscene lie for...for years, and now you expect us to take your word for it on something like that?"
"And who gives a damn even if it is true?" Kasios followed up, sounding positively lethal. "You think that makes any of this better? That it makes it okay?"
Serenity sighed. "Kasios, it's...it's better for all of us if we just leave the past in the past." She looked over towards her mother. "Think about what happens to us, if this gets dug up. There's nothing to accomplish here anymore."
"God damnit, Serenity, I know you know better than that bullshit!" Kasios spat venomously. "Endymion is responsible for...I don't even know how many deaths. Dozens? Hundreds? I don't give a shit if he is done, I'm not resting until I hold him accountable for his actions! And frankly, Serenity, if you try to protect him, you'll end up in the cell neighboring his when I'm done!"
"Neither of us will ever see the inside of a cell," Endymion whispered. "We've done nothing wrong. You have no evidence that I've done anything that you're accusing me of. And there is no evidence to find. You can either let this go now, and move on with your life, or you can waste your time searching for something that doesn't exist."
"I'm not walking away from this," Kasios said, not hesitating at all to rise to Endymion's challenge as the High King went back to his mostly-finished steak. "I promised Serenity when I met her earlier this cycle, and nothing's changed."
Endymion paused between bites, exhaling powerfully out his nostrils, glancing up towards a passing waiter who thankfully didn't attempt to collect anyone's order on the way, perhaps feeling the angry animosity all four diners felt towards each other right now and being driven away by it.
"W-what happens to Earth, then?" Serenity asked, sounding just a little meek, aware that she was intruding on a discussion between a father and son, which had grown a little beyond her ability to argue. "If that happens, what about the Kingdom? I-is that really what you want? The King and Queen spending life in prison, an heir too young to take the throne by sixteen years, you know what happens next."
"So be it," Kasios grumbled. "There isn't a damn thing either of you can say or do to negotiate your way out of this, get that through your heads. And I'm happy to spend the next fifty years chasing you down if that's what it takes. So, if you want this to end, one of two things needs to happen." He pointed at Endymion. "Either you confess." He turned his finger over towards the younger Serenity. "Or you offer up your testimony. Which one is it?"
"And then what?" Endymion asked, reaching towards his wine glass and taking a swig out of it.
Kasios snorted. "What do you think? You rot in a cell on The Savery."
"I wonder," Endymion mused, turning to face his father. "How do you think that would look to the agency? If you managed to convince them that I had done these things, what do you think they'd assume?"
With a grunt, Kasios narrowed his gaze towards Endymion. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Oh, think it through, father!" Endymion said, suddenly taking on a nastier, more malicious tone. "Your son? You, someone who's been on the agency high council for decades, who knows more about the imperium black market than just about anyone else in the galaxy, it's his son that ends up being Tuxedo Mask? How easy do you think it'd be for me to convince everyone that the whole thing was your idea?"
Kasios's gaze narrowed even further, by a couple fractions.
"If I've done what you're accusing me of, then where do you think the money to pay off all your debts came from?" Endymion continued. "How would that look, if that little detail came out?"
Kasios said nothing, and gave no obvious reaction, but it was clear that he had been rattled by what his son had just said.
At once, Endymion's face transformed into one of wide-eyed earnestness, a glum frown on his face. "F-father came to me right before I got married, a-and...he'd been keeping it a secret because he was so embarrassed, but that deep space program had him in debt. He said we'd lose half the Kingdom in a couple of years unless we found extra revenue, and...w-well, of course I couldn't say no when he asked me to help! Y-you have to understand, he means the world to me, and I couldn't bear the idea of him being remembered as the Earth King who drove us to ruin. He...he knew the imperium business inside and out, and he had s-so many connections from his decades on the high council, it was easy for him to set up a smuggling ring."
"Stop it," Kasios hissed.
"He...he needed my help making the stuff. A-at first, I just...I thought it was harmless, but...Gods, the people we ran into in the black market!" He convincingly ducked his head down, covering his eyes with his right hand, sounding like he might start crying. "The horrors, the awful things we had to do just to keep moving, just to stay alive! B-but...father, it was never enough for him, I...I can't believe how far things got out of control—"
"Knock it off!" Kasios demanded, fingers clenching down on the tablecloth in front of him.
At once, Endymion picked his head back up, again looking serious and maybe even a little dangerous. "If I go down, you go down harder. This doesn't end well for you either way. Even if you somehow managed to convince the agency of any of this, I promise you, it'll be you in the cell when it's over." He got to his feet, moving to fasten his suit jacket over his stomach. "Think about it. Be logical. And realize you have only one move that doesn't destroy you." He leaned close a little bit towards his father. "Walk away."
With that, Endymion spun on his heel and began marching off towards the restaurant entrance. His wife, not at all eager to be left alone with her mother and father-in-law after that particular diatribe, scrambled up as well and took off behind him. The elder Serenity and Kasios were left there to seethe. Which they did for nearly a full secunda.
"You have to get him," Serenity finally said, turning to look at her brother-in-law. "Kasios, you hear me? Whatever it takes. You get him."
Kasios exhaled. "Yeah. Let's...let's go." Slowly, the elderly man got to his feet.
"
"I don't know what he's done to my daughter, but I am positive she should know better than this," the former Queen said, as much to herself as to Kasios. The two were on board Kasios's personal shuttle, zipping through space at close to top-speed, turning the trip from Earth back to Mercury into little more than a minor and uneventful jaunt. "She can't honestly think that anything Endymion did is okay now because he's...not doing it now...if that's even true."
"It is true," Kasios grumbled, not able to match Serenity's energy with his own relatively muted tone. "I've had my suspicions, tonight just confirmed it."
"What makes you think that?" Serenity asked, leaning over from her passenger-side seat at the front of the cockpit.
"I've...I've kept an eye on dealer arrest reports and imperium stash findings, it's been dwindling over the last cycle or so. The pure stuff, we're finding less and less of it by the day, it makes all the sense in the world that the supply got cut off. And if Endymion was planning on coming back to it, he certainly won't now." He sighed, contemplating taking the ship off auto-pilot and taking manual control, just to give him something to do to take his mind off of things. "So, either way, Tuxedo Mask is retired, so it seems."
"Oh," Serenity said, sounding a little put-out. "Well, he operated for years, on the largest scale possible, so there's definitely something out there that can prove it!" She pounded her right fist into her left palm. "Okay, first thing tomorrow, you go to The Savery and tell them everything! Then, it's just a matter of time!"
Kasios laughed bitterly. "Serenity, I'm not going to the agency with this right now."
"You have to!" Serenity argued. "You tell them all this, they'll put every man, woman, and child they have on bringing Endymion to justice! Thousands of employees, a massive standing army, all the resources in the galaxy, it'll be a matter of time before they find something!"
"They're not going to believe me for a second. I have nothing to give them, I...I have a Tuxedo Mask outfit." He shrugged sheepishly. "A Tuxedo Mask outfit that I can't even prove ever belonged to him at this point."
"You're one of the most respected members of the High Council, they have to take you seriously! They didn't believe you on the Cronus thing, and look how bad they looked after that!" Serenity pointed out.
"This is beyond that," Kasios lamented. "The High King of Earth and my only son is the most notorious criminal in the history of the galaxy? They won't just not believe me, they'll think I went crazy. If I go in there, accusing my son of being Tuxedo Mask, I'll be off the council by the end of the day. And then it'll really be over."
"But what else can you do?" Serenity asked, sounded frustrated, crossing her arms over her chest. "And...I mean, what if you're wrong? What if they do believe you? What if they at least decide it's worth investigating? Isn't it worth the risk? The agency owes you the benefit of the doubt here!"
Kasios sighed, bobbing his head back and forth, giving her words a courtesy mulling over before replying. "Same difference."
"Huh?" Serenity exclaimed.
"If I go in there, and give them my theory, and they buy it...I'll be off the council by the end of the day. At best, actually." He shook his head. "Honestly, say whatever you want to about him, but that son of a bitch had a point back there. This doesn't end well for me, no matter what."
"D-don't be ridiculous. It's not your fault!" Serenity insisted.
"Yeah, it kinda is," Kasios admitted begrudgingly. "Honestly, I'll be lucky if they don't assume the whole thing was my idea and I put Endymion up to it. Especially when it becomes evident that it was his imperium money that paid off my debts. But even then...he's my son." He bit on his cheek for a moment. "He started his whole operation while we were both living in the Earth Palace together. Probably used the resources of the Kingdom. Hell, I'll bet some of the things I told him off-hand about agency work helped him make it as long as he did. He was doing it right under my nose for years, and I didn't even think about suspecting him for a second. If they buy my story, I'm off the council immediately."
Serenity grimaced, wanting to continue to protest but knowing that Kasios knew far more about agency politics than she ever could.
"And then...who knows?" Kasios leaned back wearily in his pilot seat. "Outside chance they investigate and find something to pin it on him...they might sweep the whole thing under the rug instead of trying to take on a High King...they could use it to blackmail him...or they don't find a damn thing and it all goes away. No, I have to find proof, on my own, before I go to the agency. At least that way, I can make sure he goes down. Not a bad final act as a high council member. If I can take Endymion down on my way out, I'll live with it."
Serenity slowly nodded, having to concede that Kasios's thought processes were logical and fair. "W-well. How are you going to do it? What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," Kasios admitted. "Something really stupid, I'm sure. But I'm going to do it. Whatever it is."
"
Rows and rows of tiny, square shaped desks stretching across the plain, bland room, about half of them currently populated by a meek, drab-looking man or woman. Observing it from the south end of the room, Kunzite had to suppress a shudder of disgust. He couldn't imagine living such a dreary and dull life, spending so many of your waking hours in such a generic location doing such boring things. And, for the moment, the Earth General had disguised himself as just one of those office drones.
It was remarkable how a person as distinctively regal as Kunzite could transform himself into someone who was presenting himself as his exact opposite. The right outfit, mild face prosthetics, a slumped posture, and it was almost believable that he was one of these white-collar workers. Believable enough to pass as one for at least a minuta or two.
Casually, Kunzite made his way over to an enclosed stall along the eastern wall of the room, a small console with a series of buttons and knobs on it, and a microphone and earpiece set connected via cable to the console.
The white-haired General in disguise stood there for a few beats, allowing himself to process the fact that he was about to hit the point of no return, that as of this moment, he could still turn back and go to business as usual. He permitted himself some time to consider this option, as he knew it was about to be cut off to him forever. In the next secunda, he would commit to doing something that very much went against his oath as an Earth General and servant of High King Endymion. That extreme discomfort pushed him to just turn around and leave. And then, it was gone, and he was back to taking the actions that he knew had to be taken.
With practiced fingers, Kunzite quickly manipulated the assorted knobs around to indicate a desired frequency, then punched it in before lifting the microphone bulb to his mouth and earpiece to his right ear.
He waited, hearing the faint trill coming through the earpiece, glancing around the cubicle grid behind him, satisfied that nobody found his behavior to be odd, or even worth noticing. After nearly a full secunda, the repetitive sounds coming through the earpiece ended, no click of a connection being established.
Not to be deterred, Kunzite simply hit the center console button again, attempting the same call. This time, after a couple beats, he heard the click of his hails being responded to.
"...w-who is this? You shouldn't be calling this frequency," Kasios's familiar voice immediately said, an accusatory tone evident even through the moderately-garbled audio call.
"It's Kunzite," he answered quietly, still mindful of making sure he was not being observed or overheard, wanting to be able to disappear after this conversation had ended without any concern.
A long pause.
"You're funny, whoever you are," Kasios eventually retorted.
"How else do you think I have your frequency?" Kunzite asked rhetorically. "It's me." He blinked a couple times. "When I was hired, you gave me Order One."
Another long pause.
"Well, fine, I still don't care to hear anything you might have to say, so, either way—"
"You're going to want to hear this," Kunzite interrupted. "There's a reason why I'm not calling you from my personal communicator. The Lambia, a high-class cigar lounge on Mercury, do you know it?"
"...maybe," Kasios answered gruffly.
"Tomorrow evening, after dinner, Room B," Kunzite said. "I'll be there. You're going to want to be as well."
"I'll be the judge of where I want to be—"
Kunzite hung up, satisfied that he had done all he could, and any convincing he could have done over an audio call would not have been able to persuade him any further than he already was. Ducking out of the enclosed glass booth, the Earth General started planning how he'd make his way out of the building in the least suspicious way possible.