--- Part 9: Eyes Wide Open ---
"WHAT?!" Shouted Sue incredulously.
"Sorry, sorry. I joke." Grinned Pagani. "I saw that line in a holocast once and always wanted to try it on someone."
"I don't have time for these games." Sue fumed and turned as if to leave.
"You are searching for who is behind Kireek."
Sue stopped and turned back slowly. "Go on."
"You know me as a collector of Photon 'eccentricities' and occasionally data. Indeed when my sources told me of the secret research facility on Gal De Val island I knew that I must get my hands on that information immediately. However the stringent qualification conditions required meant that agents loyal to me are unable to even set foot on the island. I was able to get around this by appealing to passing Hunters' sense of curiosity or greed."
"The tower data?"
"Yes, Doctor Osto had labs there but of more use to me was data from Doctor Graves, the photon engineer. It seems that the parasite cell 'D' was not the only strange material recovered from the Ruins. My spies in Doctor Montague's lab have only confirmed what I suspected, namely the discovery of a new photon type!"
"A new photon type?"
"Much of our civilisation's technology is built upon the fourteen photon types. But scientists have always theorised that there maybe more photon types. Indeed the people of Pioneer 1 discovered this new photon. Five years ago, they sent a encrypted transmission back to Coral about their findings. They knew they had discovered something but they did not have an understanding of it yet."
"So you knew about the Ruins for five years and you didn't tell anyone?"
"Please, you must understand that to admit to cracking military transmissions would make things uncomfortable for me. Besides, think about it for a half a Beat... I was not the only one that knew about it..."
"The military..." Said Sue breathlessly.
"You may have heard of W.O.R.K.S., the special ops division of the military. They had big plans for all of this, but lacked muscle, especially compared to our all-conquering Hunter. The death of Falz put a crimp on their plans, as if they could do a better job of stopping or containing Falz than Pioneer 1's army."
"How does Kireek fit into all this?"