Chapter 40: Pull The Thread
Kunzite quickly moved down the narrow, carpeted hallway, a massive, levitating luggage container following right behind him. Identical green doors lined the walls on both sides of him, stretching all the way down to the other side, each one marked by a gold-plated number, counting up as he moved down the path.
The cautious part of him hated how fragile this relationship felt. There were so many opportunities for something to go wrong. He knew that they didn't have a choice in the matter, but having so much outside of his control couldn't help but rub him the wrong way. And it wasn't as if he knew very much about Princess Venus personally, so her competence and trustworthiness were things he could only cross his fingers on. He couldn't even audit her processes. Just had to pray she knew what she was doing.
Before long, he was standing in front of door 1022. With a settling breath, he reaching forward and rapped his knuckles on the wood. He waited for several beats, constantly paying attention to the hall on either side of him, before losing patience. He repeated the knocks, then pressed his ear to the door. Nothing. Finally, he reached down and gave the doorknob a test, finding it easily giving and twisting open. He hissed under his breath, unhappy to find yet another weakness in the security around this recurring transaction.
He stepped inside, finding a typical luxury apartment within. Elaborate, clean kitchen to his left, hallway leading to the smaller, specialized rooms to his right, and a general recreation room spread out in front of him. He didn't particularly care about any of the details of the apartment, and dismissed it all as soon as he didn't see Princess Venus anywhere. The luggage container followed the large Earth general into the room, and he swiftly closed the door behind him.
"Hello?" he called out, masking his annoyance at how laissez faire the Princess seemed to be about this.
"Back here!" a feminine voice immediately called back. Kunzite wasn't expecting such an immediate response and instinctively dropped into a defensive stance for a brief moment. He couldn't help but briefly contemplate this being a trap of some sort, but quickly dismissed the thought and went down the hall to his right.
In short order, he got to a white door to his left, finding it slightly ajar and light peeking through the crack. He pushed it open, finding a white-tiled bathing chamber inside. Most of the room was taken up by a large basin sunk into the floor, currently filled with water with a top layer of white soap suds. Princess Venus's head and shoulders were visible above the soap, her arms spread out behind her. Her left hand was resting right next to a half-empty glass bottle of a red liquid and a round, fat glass, and her right hand held a thick, brown cigar, a thin wisp of smoke rising to the ceiling from the tip.
Kunzite could only give a wry, unamused look.
"Afternoon," Venus called out, raising her right hand over towards the Earth general. "No problems?"
"Ah...nothing significant," Kunzite answered, figuratively biting his tongue. "The front door was unlocked."
"Well, I didn't want you to have to kick the door down," Venus said innocently, putting the long cigar into her mouth and gently puffing into it, sending plumes of smoke up towards the whirring fan above her head.
"That's a filthy habit," Kunzite couldn't help but note, watching the tip of the cigar flare up with an orange glow each time the Princess blew into the other end. "Where'd you pick that up?"
"Father," she answered dismissively. "Him and his inner circle love them." She twirled the cigar around in her fingers. "They do help take the edge off after a long day of listening to my mother, I have to admit." She looked at the smouldering tip of the cigar. "So, here's to feeling good all the time."
"I have the imperium," Kunzite said, gesturing over towards the luggage container in the hallway, which had settled down into the carpet. "You'll want to check it, I presume."
She shrugged. "At this point, I trust you. It's not in anyone's best interest for you to stiff me, and I think you know that." Her face suddenly blanked. "Oh!" With a sloshing splash, she jumped into a standing position and vaulted out of the tub. "Your money!"
Kunzite couldn't help but flinch as Venus exposed her nude body above the water line, perfectly-curved figure dripping wet. Entirely unshy, Minako rose to her full height and casually approached Kunzite. The Earth general quickly swung out of the way, reaching over to grab a fluffy white towel off a rack on the wall and whisking it in front of the Princess. She grabbed it, quickly wrapping it around her head to cover up her golden blonde hair, which was soaked as well. She ran back out into the main room of the apartment, quickly falling to her knees in front of one of the reclining chairs.
Kunzite slowly came out of the hallway, watching as she pulled a satchel out from under the cushion, the cigar tightly clenched between her teeth.
"Do you have somewhere you need to be?" Venus asked, speech slightly impeded by the object in her mouth.
"Does it matter if I do?" Kunzite asked flatly.
"Oh, was wondering if you might be open to hanging around for a bit," Venus asked casually, strapping the satchel closed and hoisting it up over her shoulder, getting back to her feet and pulling the cigar from her mouth.
"For what purpose?" Kunzite continued to question.
"I-I have questions," Venus said. "I don't know if you know this or not, but you're something of a significant historical figure on my planet."
"I'm not even from your planet," Kunzite countered. "I spent two years there to train, that's all. If you know that much, then you know it all."
"Train, and irreparably alter the gene pool of the entire Siddons Patera territory in your free time," she snarked. "Come on, your Prince isn't here, it's just us two, you can be honest." She went up to the couch, putting her knees up on the cushions and pushing her body into the backrest, eyes trained on the white-haired Earth general.
Kunzite bit his cheek, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You've probably got...seventy bastard children running around Venus—"
"That's absurd," Kunzite protested. "I was always very careful."
"So you admit it?" Venus asked tauntingly.
"I actually do have some place I need to be," Kunzite said abruptly. "So, Your Highness, if I may." He reached his right arm out towards her, beckoning with his fingers.
Venus sighed, but after a moment tossed the satchel over towards him, the sack landing at his feet. He bent down to pick it up.
"Next time, then," Venus said.
"I'm a very busy person, Your Majesty," Kunzite said, turning away from her and marching towards the door. "And so are you."
In short order, Kunzite left the room, promptly closing the door firmly behind him. Princess Venus immediately scowled, looking down at the lit cigar in her hand with a look of disgust, sticking her tongue out. Slowly, she reached up to grab the towel covering her hair, whipping it off and discarding it to the floor.
"
Kunzite slid through the marble white doors, slapping them shut behind him. All six people already in the modestly-sized, high-ceiling dining chamber looked up from the shining-white table they were gathered around.
"Sorry I'm late," Kunzite said quickly.
"You're not, we're just about to start," High King Kasios assured him, seated at the head of the long, slim table. Kunzite quickly surmised the situation in the room. To Kasios's right, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity sat. And on the High King's left, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Jadeite were lined up. The elder general judged his presence would be best served on his right, to balance the table out, and quickly walked up on that side.
Jadeite reached forward, grabbing a green bottle from the table and tearing the foil off the top of it. "Alright then, shall we?"
"Right, so, I have an announcement to make, like I said," Kasios said. "I figured the best way to handle it would be to round up all involved parties and tell everyone at once, in a controlled environment. Obviously, everything said here is highly confidential."
A loud pop interrupted the High King, as Jadeite coaxed a cork out of the bottle's top, getting it to shoot out towards the ceiling. Before it could hit anything and cause any damage or chaos, Jadeite froze it mid-air with a quick point up towards it, then allowed it to harmlessly fall to the table surface, bouncing around a few times before resting on its side. A quick burst of foam poured from the mouth of the bottle, and Jadeite began pouring it into a series of tall, thin glasses.
"But first—"
Endymion cleared his throat. "U-uh, dad, before anything else, actually, I wanted to say something."
Kasios shrugged. "Sure."
"Well...look, dad, obviously things have been frustrating recently. We've all been under some stress, and...okay, just speaking for myself here. I've definitely said some things that were disrespectful and unnecessary. Whatever...whatever decisions you've made, and however much I might disagree with some of them, um...there was no need for any of that. And I'm sorry."
Jadeite silently sent a collecting of filled wine glasses gliding across the table, each one gently coming to rest in front of someone, until all seven had one.
"I love you, and we're both on the same side at the end of the day. And we should work together. So, uh...some of the things I've said lately, I shouldn't have said them. You're a great King, and I'm sure that you did what you believed to be the best thing possible at the time."
"I mean, that doesn't make it right," Kasios said with an animated little shrug. "Um, son, while we're sharing, I want to say, I'm sorry. I messed up. I was in a difficult situation, but I'm sure there was a better solution than what I did. And my mistakes, I'm not the only one who pays for them. You're affected, your generals are affected, the whole planet, even the entire galaxy, everyone gets affected. So, me saying that I'm willing to live with the consequences of my actions, that's not...that's not right. It's not that localized." He put his hands up onto his chest. "I'm sorry. This mess that we're in, I'm sure it was avoidable. And it's all on me."
"Well, we'll find a way through. Together," Endymion said.
"Yes, about that, I want to say. Your little scheme to fix this, I've looked it over a few times. It's certainly optimistic, I wouldn't bet my life on it, but...well, we should give it a shot. You've got a chance, and that's enough. If there's a chance, we should try. So, you've got my blessing." He looked up, bending over a bit to look at Zoisite. "If you can actually pull off everything in that plan, then you're even more brilliant than I expected when I brought you into the palace."
"I won't disappoint, Your Highness," Zoisite said quietly, reaching forward towards the glass that Jadeite had placed in front of him. "Now, am I going to regret drinking this?"
"It's quite gentle," Endymion assured him, watching his wife tentatively pull her own glass towards her. "You'll like it too."
"Anyway," Kasios said. "So, your bold little business plan, we're going to try it. And that's not all." He put his hands out to either side of him. "Now, here's the part everyone really needs to keep a lid on." He cleared his throat. "We're going to try it, and...okay, let me be clear about something."
Everyone else at the table leaned in a bit, drinks temporarily forgotten as they hung on his words.
"I don't want you, or anyone else, to have to inherit the fallout of my mistakes," Kasios said slowly. "That's not fair on you. So, if worst comes to worst over the next few cycles, and I have to split the planet, then I'm going to fix it. Me, not you. You'll help if possible, but it's on me. So, if I end up having to give up territory, then I'm going to stay on, and I'm going to devote every moment of my life to finding a way to get it back. I'm not going to drop this in your lap and run off to my retirement manor on Mercury. That's not how I do things. When you take the throne, you'll be ruling over the entire planet. Whatever it takes."
Endymion suppressed a small grimace. "Well, with any luck, it'll never come to that. So for now, let's focus on making sure that it doesn't."
"Right, well, that's the other half of this." Kasios reached forward to take his glass, taking a quick drink out of it before continuing. "If things go well, if your little plan works out, and we can actually get ourselves out of the imminent danger zone and get on a good, stable path...then the way I see it, you've earned it. I'll step down and pass the crown on to you."
Endymion flinched, needing a couple moments to digest that, mouth clenching as he glanced away. A noticeable hush went over the table. "That's...wow. Alright, uh, that's something."
"I've been thinking a lot recently," Kasios continued. "And I think recent events have proven that I just can't always have the best interests of the Earth in mind. And while I stand by that on moral grounds, it's not fair to Earth. A Kingdom needs a King that will prioritize it above everything else. And, all that aside, I've messed things up badly enough to where stepping down is probably the right thing to do."
Endymion blinked rapidly a few times. "I suppose that...it was just a matter of time. But I can't deny that I'm surprised to hear it."
"Again, this isn't me causing a bunch of damage and running away to let someone else fix it, this happens only if the planet remains whole. And if things do go poorly over the next few cycles, then I'm going to devote myself to putting the Kingdom back together. It'll be my number one priority, with no caveats." Kasios thought for a moment. "But I have to say, I'm actually feeling rather optimistic about things after going over those projections you gave me."
"Um…" Princess Serenity leaned forward, looking up towards the High King. "How are you going to do that? You've got all your responsibilities with the agency."
Kasios shrugged. "At that point, if I have to, I'll resign from my position on the high council."
"Oh," Zoisite gulped out, unable to stop himself from verbalizing a small reaction to that statement.
"B-but...the agency is so important to you!" Serenity protested. "You can't just...resign!"
"I don't want to," Kasios admitted. "But maybe that's what it'll take to force myself to realize what I need to be doing. I don't want to be remembered as the King who ruined everything, this Kingdom has belonged to our family for a thousand years now. So, whatever it takes." He turned back to Endymion. "I just wanted to let you know now. My understanding is that you should be done with the apprenticeship at Galen Labs in the next few cycles, so after that's wrapped up, we'll evaluate things. If I think we're stable, the crown is yours."
Endymion inhaled slowly, heavily weighing his words. "Well, dad. I'm not going to pretend that this is anything less than a massive deal, and I'm certainly not going to act like it's going to be easy. But, I've been working hard my whole life to prepare for this, and I'm going to step up. If it happens, I won't let you down."
"You'll do great," Kasios assured him, then turning over to look towards Nephrite. "Of course, the moment he takes the throne, the responsibilities for you four go up significantly. Be ready for it." He clapped. "Alright, that's really all I have to say, so let's drink up!"
"
Zoisite laid the small, thin tablet down flat on the table surface, then tapped it. A holographic projection of a detailed timeline sprung up and spanned halfway across Endymion's bedroom, Nephrite and Jadeite quickly looking it over.
"The good news is that we no longer need our acquisitions to make sense for us personally, since the High King understands that we're doing this specifically to make money as fast as possible. So we won't have to worry about telling a good story." Zoisite pointed a small metal rod at a point near the beginning of the hologram. "As soon as Jadeite gets his paperwork cleared with the commissioner, he'll become the majority owner of the Asuba Handball Club. A professional handball team is ideal for laundering, it's a bottom-feeder squad, and the current owner is some regional governor's son who doesn't even like the sport, so it couldn't be more perfect. Nephrite, I've found a struggling technology company that—"
Zoisite trailed off, looking over to his left, observing Princess Serenity closely observing the timeline, hand on her chin.
"...that...um, Your Highness? Princess?" Zoisite said. "I doubt you'll find any of this very interesting."
"Maybe," Serenity muttered. "But I don't have a choice."
"Um…" Zoisite spun around, looking over his shoulder, at the Prince, who was finally noticing Serenity taking an interest in the finer details of the plan. Endymion quickly stepped around his generals, approaching his wife.
"Hey, uh, Serenity, where's Chibiusa?" he asked. "Why don't you go get her? Is she with Delia?"
"Yes," Serenity said dismissively, not taking her eyes off the hologram.
"Serenity, sweetie, you don't...there's no reason for you to know about any of this," Endymion said. "In fact, it's actually better that you don't."
Serenity sighed, finally breaking eye contact with the timeline projection and looking up at her husband. "Endymion, this has to work. Has to. And the more people we have working on it, the better chance it has to work, right? We can't hold anything back, we get one shot at this. So, I have to be part of it."
Endymion grunted. "Oh, Gods...Serenity, come here," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and tugging her over towards the bed. Reluctantly, she came along with him. "Um, carry on!" Endymion said loudly over towards his four generals.
"Endy, I'm serious," Serenity said under her breath. "Zoisite said it, remember? Every single person who you trust needs to be involved in this. Last I checked, you're running low on people like that right now."
"Serenity," Endymion said firmly. "You were never supposed to be a part of any of this. You weren't even supposed to ever know about it."
"Well, I do know about it, which makes me a part of it," Serenity replied tersely.
"...right, well, there's a reason why I didn't want you to know about this," Endymion said. "If things went bad, and I got caught, I didn't want you to get dragged down with me. Now, it's bad enough that you know about this, but if you actually start helping me with covering my tracks?" He swallowed down hard. "No, we...that's not an option. You need to stay as far away as you possibly can. This whole situation has become delicate, I'm not going to pretend this is without risk. And I don't want you to get caught up in it if it goes bad. Whatever happens to me, you need to not get in trouble over this."
Serenity scoffed. "Endy, how do you think that conversation would play out? Oh, gee, I did move out of the Earth Palace for almost a cycle not that long ago for mysterious reasons, and my husband has been spending half his days away from the palace for an 'apprenticeship' even though he has a very young daughter, but, no, it never occurred to me that he might be up to something!" She frowned up at him. "It's too late for that. If you get caught, I would rather the agency think I'm an accomplice than a complete airhead, anyway."
Endymion bowed his head a bit. "Serenity—"
"And either way, Endy, if you get caught, I lose everything. Which we both know. I seem to recall you using that against me," she said, a hint a bitterness in her tone. "You go to prison on The Savery, the merger gets called off, the Moon Kingdom falls to pieces in ten years, remember? So if you're looking for someone you can trust, you're looking right at her!" She spread her arms out to her sides. "I couldn't turn you in even if I wanted to."
The Earth Prince rubbed his upper lip, getting a little exasperated. "Serenity, this really isn't something that...I don't think you'd be able to help very much. Let my generals handle this." He glanced over at his four generals out of the corner of his eye, observing that they were paying attention to Zoisite's lecture and not his dispute with Serenity. "This is what they're here for, and they're well-equipped for it. It's all...numbers, and math, and counting, and filling out paperwork, you'd hate it. I can think of a million things that you'd rather be doing."
"Well, you're not thinking very hard, then," Serenity countered. "Because I can think of a billion things. But, I don't have a choice. I need this to work just as much as you do. You lose, I lose." She thought for a brief moment. "And your father, I don't want him to have to resign from the council. That position means so much to him, if he had to let it go it'd...it'd be crushing."
Endymion's forehead knitted together. "That's...that's not your concern, I...Serenity, please. I feel like I know you pretty well, and...business, economics, accounting, I just don't think that's you. You want to help me—"
"Endymion!" she said sharply, getting the four generals across the room to perk up a bit and turn towards her. "You're spending every other day in the lab with Kunzite, so you two are occupied. That leaves three people. The time for thinking about trying to 'protect' me is gone. You want to protect me? Let me help make sure this works."
Endymion clenched his jaw, tossing a glance over towards Zoisite before looking back at Serenity.
"It's either me or your daughter," Serenity added. "And she can only count to five."
"Uh...well…" Gently, he put his hands on Serenity's shoulders and steered her over towards his four generals, still gathered around the hologram. All four of them were giving Serenity some uncomfortable looks. "Zoisite, if there's anything about your plan that can be...improved or expedited with Serenity's help, then she's available."
"Errmmm…" Zoisite stammered. "W-well...Your Highness, um…"
"J-just, try to figure something out," Endymion said. "I'm sure she'll...do a...a good job."
"O-okay then," Zoisite managed, grimacing as he turned to look across the length of the hologram. "I can...I can do that."
"
"Do I even have you tell you that this is an awful idea, Your Highness?" Kunzite asked.
Endymion's personal ship, The Bastion, was gently settling into a docking slot just inside the garage right next to Galen Laboratories, fitting in right between two other Class A starships. Endymion was leaning over, looking out the forward windows as the ship automatically parked itself.
"Because I feel like you know already, and you're doing it anyway. But, if you have any doubts, involving your wife in any of this is a terrible idea. For multiple reasons." Kunzite sat in the frontmost passenger seat of the state-of-the-art starship, watching his charge turn the ship off and remove the starter crystal from the center console.
"Yes, well, I happen to be desperate. And at the very least, we know for a fact she's highly invested in making this work," Endymion countered patiently. "Besides, she has a point. The faster we can generate capital, the more likely we can pay off our debts. Four people is better than three."
"You'd be surprised how often that thinking doesn't pan out," Kunzite mumbled. "Zoisite will do all that he can to put her in a position where she can't make costly mistakes, I'm sure, but having her anywhere close to this is very bad. I—"
Endymion sighed, enough of a prompt to get Kunzite to stop his diatribe.
"One day, Cronus is going to decide he wants us dead more than he wants the money we're making him," the Prince finally said after drawing out the silence. "And we're not going to know the difference, and we're just going to walk right into that laboratory, and be staring down the barrel of a plasma rifle. And there's not going to be anything we can do about it. We both know it's going to happen, one of these days. Maybe today. And there's nothing we can do to prevent it." He turned to look up at Kunzite. "You'll have to forgive me if that impending crisis is more important to me than my wife wanting to feel useful."
Kunzite pressed his lips tightly shut. "Well...that's fair."
"So, what are we doing about that?" Endymion asked. "Do we have some sort of exit strategy?"
Kunzite nodded slowly. "I'm working on a possible solution."
"I don't suppose this solution might pan out some time today," Endymion asked tersely. "Say, in the next few secundas?"
"Um...maybe in a few days," Kunzite answered.
"Well. Then I guess we just hope today isn't the day," Endymion said. With a deep, settling breath, he steadied himself, and then went to the other side of the ship to open the side hatch.
"
Kasios plucked the round brown little sphere out of the plastic rack resting on the balcony ledge, holding it up in front of his face and examining it. "No, really, I'm excited to see what you do with the crown. I hope that things work out so I can pass it on to you soon, I mean it. The older I get, the more I want to focus on agency work, nothing would make me happier than to downsize my responsibilities a bit. And I really think you're going to be great."
Endymion scanned the wide stretch of city landscape that could be seen from the back balcony of his bedroom, easily able to see across the entirety of the capital city and beyond. It being night, the city was artificially lit, virtually every building and street brightly illuminated. "I know I'm not everything that a King would ideally be, but—"
"No, no, I don't think like that at all," Kasios said quickly. "You've got what it takes, don't let anybody tell you differently. Honestly, the fact that you've come up with a feasible plan to get us out of debt proves your brilliance, nobody can doubt you if you actually manage to make this work."
"Well, Z-Zoisite came up with...most of that," the Prince muttered, looking behind him back into his bedroom through the glass doors. Serenity was seated at the foot of his bed, Chibiusa in her lap. The Princess was holding flash cards in front of the young toddler.
"Well, he's working for you, so all the same," Kasios said. "But yeah, don't sweat it. Take it seriously if it happens, of course, becoming a King is a huge deal, but don't doubt yourself." He popped the orb of chocolate into his mouth.
"I'll worry about the throne when I'm on it," Endymion said thoughtfully. "Right now, I'm worried about our debts."
"Hey, you should eat some of these," Kasios said, pointing down at the tray of round chocolate treats. "I feel like I'm the only one eating, come on."
Endymion quickly grabbed one of the sweets and put it into his mouth.
"And I want to say again, I'm sorry you have to do any of this," Kasios continued. "It's really not okay for me to let things get to this point, and putting it on you to fix, it...it doesn't sit well with me."
"Dad, it's fine, I understand that things happen," Endymion said quietly, inspired to remain peaceful and non-confrontational by the tranquil nighttime surroundings he found himself in.
"Well, some things shouldn't. And this shouldn't have." Kasios looked a little sheepish. "The fact that I allowed it to is enough to throw my whole legacy in question."
"Oh...I wouldn't go that far," Endymion said, leaning out a bit over the balcony ledge at the streets of the capital city. Kasios stepped over to the glass table behind him, grabbing a dark brown bottle and pouring the contents into a pair of small glasses.
"I would," Kasios said darkly, taking both glasses in either hand and taking them over to the ledge, extending the left one out to his son. "And if things go poorly, then so will historians."
Endymion took the glass in his right hand without looking over, still just casually staring down at the view.
"So, we're alone, right?" Kasios asked, looking around the balcony.
Endymion raised his eyebrows, turning to look at his father as he craned his head up to look up the palace wall towards the roof. "I'm sorry?"
"Nobody else listening? Private conversation we're having?" Kasios continued.
"U-uh...as far as I know, why?" Endymion asked, giving the most confused of stares as Kasios leaned over the ledge and peered downward, as if he was looking for something underneath the lip of the balcony.
"Alright, I didn't come up here tonight just to stroke your ego," Kasios said, rising back up to his full height after satisfying himself with his cursory examination of his surroundings. "I was actually going to ask for your help on something." He put his right hand out towards his son. "Now, believe me, I get it, you're already helping me an awful lot right now, I shouldn't be asking you for shit, but I don't know who else to turn to."
Endymion took a sip from the drink his father had just poured, finding a thick, rich, cold liquid. "Well, dad, I seriously doubt I'll be able to bring myself to say no."
Kasios smiled. "It's not going to be anything too big, but...very, very private. Everything I'm about to tell you, stays between you and me. Serenity, Kunzite, no reason for them to know about this. Got it?"
Endymion scritched his left hand's nails along the back of his head. "Uh, fine, what's up?"
Kasios cleared his throat. "Alright. Stay with me here. You're going to think I'm joking at first, so let me explain how I got here before you dismiss it." He turned to square up with his son, who was resting his forearms on the stone ledge of the balcony again. "I think that Cronus, of Soranus Pharmaceuticals and Galen Labs, is a black market imperium dealer."
Chunk!
The bulb-shaped glass in Endymion's right hand didn't have a chance, as his fingers were quite suddenly highly insistent on making a fist. Both of his hands balled up reflexively, reducing the expensive glassware to a mismatched collection of shards and a loose splash of liquid. Most of it went over the edge and plummeted down to the lawn below, some of it resting on the ledge. Endymion lurched forward, whole body tightening up.
"Whoa!" Kasios said, reaching over and grabbing his son's shoulders. "S-son, you okay?!"
As quickly as he had clenched up, the Prince forced himself to relax, turning to avert his gaze from his father to better disguise his emotions. "U-uh…" He straightened his posture up. "S-sorry, dad, I must have misheard you." He held his right hand open and looked down at it, checking for any cuts from the glass.
"G-guess I should have told you to sit down first," Kasios said, trying to crane his head up to look over Endymion's shoulder. "You alright?"
"Y-yeah, yes," Endymion said, blinking furiously. "N-nothing, nothing wrong, just...I think I didn't hear you right."
"You heard right. I believe that Cronus is illegally distributing imperium. In fact, I suspect he might be the imperium distributor. The one distributing the ultra-pure product that's been attributed to 'Tuxedo Mask' over the last year. Quite possibly, he's also the distributor whose been operating for the last decade across the galaxy."
The Crown Prince took a settling breath, then spun around to face his father. "Dad, I...I, where's this coming from? I...you like Cronus, a lot! You introduced me to him, I...what could make you think something like that?!"
"Calm down, calm down," Kasios said gently. "I know it sounds crazy, and as recently as half a cycle ago, the thought would never have crossed my mind." He wryly glanced over at the little pieces of glass resting on the ledge. "Didn't really expect you to react like that."
"U-uh, it's just a...shocking thing to say," Endymion mumbled. "I mean, that...h-how do you figure?"
Kasios rubbed his hands together, grimacing. "Recently, there was a strange incident out in space, just past Neptune's orbit. Cronus's lead scientist, woman named Viluy, was found dead. Murdered, it seemed. You probably saw it in the news."
Endymion could feel the bottom fall out of his stomach, and he quickly leaned back up over the balcony ledge to conceal his facial expressions from his father.
"So, Viluy's body was found with a bunch of these sealed barrels. We opened them up, found these fake crystals. Worthless, but they seemed to be made to resemble pure imperium. Now, on top of that, Viluy was carrying an imperium reader with her. Fancy one. Add it all up, and I'm thinking that this was some sort of hit carried out by a smaller distributor, trying to disrupt the supply chain of a bigger fish, and get their hands on the best possible product. Or, maybe, there's been some sort of falling out between 'Tuxedo Mask' and his distributor, and Viluy ended up dead over it." Kasios looked over at Serenity, still occupied with her daughter. "Either way, it's not as if Viluy would have been doing it all on her own. If she was involved, Cronus was too."
"Oh...gee, dad, seems like a bit of a reach," Endymion said nervously, feeling sweat start to bead inside of his shirt. "Cronus...his business interests are so massive, there could be a thousand explanations for him doing anything. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."
"Oh, yes, there is," Kasios said. "We had Cronus called on board The Savery to give his side of the story."
Endymion fingers were digging hard into the stone ledge now. "O-oh...uh...w-what happened?"
"Oh, he spun a nice little narrative. Had an answer ready for everything, everything he said checked out, all of it made sense." Kasios nodded. "Put everyone's mind at ease. When he left, Grandmaster Galen couldn't have been more convinced."
Endymion's long, slender fingers found their way up to the collar of his shirt, and he roughly clutched it, keeling over a bit over the rail. "I...well, then what?"
Kasios raised an eyebrow. "Son, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah!" Endymion muttered. "I'm just surprised, I've...I've met Cronus quite a few times now, he doesn't seem t-the type at all." Endymion pushed back off the rail, trying desperately to project comfort.
"Oh, I agree," Kasios admitted. "Doesn't seem like the type at all. Obscenely rich businessman, genius scientist, faithful ally of the agency, impeccably polite and professional. Last guy you'd ever expect to involve himself in one of the most illegal things in the galaxy."
"T-that's what I mean," Endymion said, putting a thin smile on his lips that was the furthest thing from genuine. "He's got all that money from Soranus, it wouldn't make any sense to get into something like this."
"You'd think that."
"A-and you said it yourself, he...he explained himself, right?" Endymion shrugged. "I don't know, dad, I'm not telling you how to do your job. You're the one who's been on the council hunting imperium smugglers all these years. But you said it yourself, he explained himself in a way that made sense."
"It made sense," Kasios acknowledged. "Doesn't make it true."
"So...you're saying it's not?" Endymion asked.
"I'm saying that I'm not satisfied yet. Admittedly, I'm on an island on that one, everyone else in the agency considers this a closed matter. But think about it, huh? Soranus is the perfect cover for a galaxy-wide distribution network. You have transportation, storage, a perfect excuse to acquire as many chemicals and materials as you need, it couldn't be better."
"You could...easily say the same for Discus Wholesale, or Mercius Jewelers, or dozens of other large corporations that span the galaxy," Endymion reasoned.
"And who is Cronus, really?" Kasios continued. "What do we know about him? Did you know that there's no record of him existing until about eleven years ago? No birth certificate, no youth academy attendance, it's as if he had just appeared out of thin air one day as a middle-aged genius. A guy that smart and savvy, where'd he come from?"
"W-well, he's from Saturn, isn't he? Most of their records have been destroyed in the war, a...a lot of people from Saturn don't have a traceable history." Endymion shrugged as casually as he could manage. "Look, I'm not trying to go over the top defending the guy, I don't know him that well, but it just strikes me as a real reach."
"If it makes you feel any better, the agency agrees with you," Kasios said grimly. "I tried to float the possibility of an investigation, but it got shot down quickly. They're all completely satisfied with what he said, and they don't want to step on someone who's been such a big ally for them for years. So, nothing's going to happen. On their end, at least."
Endymion gave a sharp, tight nod. "Y-yeah, so...w-wait, you said you wanted my help?"
Cronus gestured his left hand over towards his son. "Right. Well, I can't get the agency to assist with this. Can't use any of their assets, resources, money, all off the table. But, I figure, as long as I've got a son working on an apprenticeship in his laboratory, maybe that'll get me a closer look at him on my own time."
Endymion's entire body clenched up again, and he felt as if his temples were pulsing.
"So, here's what I need, son," the King continued, reaching into his pocket and sidling up next to him. "You're doing work in his lab, what is it, every other day, basically? I know you see him sometimes. How often does he come around, you think?"
The Earth Prince observed his father remove a tiny glass cube with a small marble inside of it from his pocket.
"Endymion?"
Endymion shook his head back and forth rapidly. "S-sorry, I...oh, not that often. Maybe once a cycle, at most. There's no need for him to ever be there, sometimes he just...swings by to say hello."
"Well, here's what I'm thinking." He held up the glass cube. "This marble is coated with a substance called taiorium, entirely unremarkable outside of being radioactive. Harmless, benign, doesn't do anything except emit a specific signature that can be picked up on satellite scans."
Endymion almost audibly gulped, as he started to realize where his father was going.
"So, next time you see Cronus at the labs, just shake his hand. Shouldn't be hard to come up with an excuse for it. But, before you do it, open the case and rub your palm on the marble. The taiorium will transfer to you, and then when you shake Cronus's hand, to him." Kasios put the cube out towards Endymion, right in front of his chest. "He won't have any idea what you did. It's not visible, no odor, nothing like that. And then, I'll be able to track his movements by following the signature via satellite, maybe he'll go somewhere that he shouldn't be. Give me something to work with in convincing the agency to investigate."
The Prince just stared down at the clear container, eyes wide and heart pumping hard.
"W-what's the matter? Take it, it's...it's not gonna bite. I promise it's not dangerous, I've been carrying it around in my pocket for the last minuta, I wouldn't do that if—"
"D-dad, Cronus is a scientist, he...he spends a ton of time in his labs, he's...it's not going to work, he'll find out that he's emitting a radioactive signature and get rid of it within a day!" Endymion protested, relieved that his panicked brain had been able to come up with a reasonable excuse. "It won't work!"
"Maybe a day is all I need," Kasios pointed out. "I don't need much, just one location that he shouldn't be at, one shady person he meets, and I'll be able to go from there. I've got limited resources, this is the best shot I've got."
"Okay, but...dad, I'm really not comfortable with this, it's putting me in a really awkward situation," Endymion said, still staring down at the marble without taking it. "Cronus is a smart person, he could easily realize it was me, and I wouldn't be able to—"
"Endymion, come on!" Kasios interrupted. "Don't make me beg. You said it yourself, he spends a lot of time in laboratories, he'll just assume his hand got exposed to something and shrug it off." He leaned forward, bracing his other hand on Endymion's back. "Now, please, you're all I've got. I can't do it, he'll see me coming a mile away now. I need your help."
Endymion slowly exhaled, glancing at his father's judgemental face, then back at the marble.
"Nothing bad's going to happen," he insisted. "Worst-case scenario, he gets decontaminated before I can learn something useful. After you're done, all you have to do is expose your hand to some concentrated Cobalt rays, and it'll be like the taiorium never existed, no way to trace it back to you. You'll be the last thing he suspects."
Endymion grimaced.
"Hey, you might be a High King in a few cycles. Don't tell me you're scared of a businessman," Kasios goaded.
Endymion slowly reached up, clutching the glass cube between his fingers and removing it from Kasios's grip. He looked down at the marble, stomach positively bubbling as he tilted the cube about to let it roll around.
"Thanks, son, this means a lot to me. I just...I have a feeling, you know? I really, really feel in my gut that this is my guy. Honestly, I think this is the guy the agency has been chasing for the last ten years, but...I need to be able to bring something real to the other council members. And I can't just forget about it and ignore my gut, so you're really helping me out here. Don't know what I would do otherwise."
"Uh, no...no problem, dad," Endymion said tersely. "I'm happy to help, but...really, I really think you're off on this one. Cronus...I just don't see it."
"My mother used to say, when you're looking for something, check the last place you'd think it would be," Kasios mused, clapping his hand on Endymion's left shoulder. "In all my years of life, not once has that worked for me. Maybe this is the time."
He departed towards the door back into Endymion's bedroom, leaving the Prince standing there with the sealed-up marble in his hand, looking rather dazed and distressed.
"Actually, you know, it feels so much better just being able to talk about this with somebody!" Kasios added, turning back around to face his son. "Thanks for that, too, I...it's been killing me. I can't say any of this to anyone with the agency, I'll just get in trouble. And obviously, it's a security breach to divulge this to anyone else, so...I've just been keeping all this to myself. Getting this off my chest feels great!"
"N-no problem," Endymion managed, getting out a weak wave as Kasios left, pulling open the balcony doors. The moment the High King was out of the immediate area, Endymion's face fell, and he resumed staring down at the marble, feeling his pulse throbbing in his neck.