AN: Wish FF would permit other fonts. *sighs*
Chapter Five
Once Councilor Magan concluded his conversation with Princess Allura, the Voltron Force trio slowly made their way to the town's central fountain. A block away and maintaining a discreet distant from the trio, was Deputy Marsh Nevs.
"How could the princess and her commander be allowed to keep their love?" He grumbled, glaring at the golden couple ahead of him. He ducked behind a tree when he saw the Voltron commander making an unobtrusive visual sweep of the surroundings. "Ever vigilant," he muttered,observing the commander turn his attention back to the princess.
Allura knew the park was undergoing a renovation, and she wanted to see its progress. There were beautiful topiaries in one corner and an already busy sandbox area several yards away from the topiaries under a big tree where giggling children were building forts or mountains, depending on one's imagination. She smiled that these children had the opportunity to play unlike her own growing years. She breathed in deeply as the scent of lavender wafted through the park. It was perfect.
She had learned about the town's upcoming celebration a few days ago to mark Voltron's return to Arus. She was happy the preparation for the festivities was shaping up and her people were engaged in installing festive banners along the sidewalks and respective trade shops.
There were also mobile food kiosks standing in their assigned spots around the park, awaiting owners to prepare their wares. The town festival was scheduled for this weekend, and she was looking forward to spending the day with Keith, now that he was home. She sent him a blissful mental picture through the bond and tried to cover her giggle when he responded equally elated at the prospect of having a day off.
The trio resumed their easy stroll and was met by parents and other young people to shake their hands, telling them how grateful they were on this long road of rebuilding their lives since they put the wars behind them. The princess acknowledged their good wishes. Allura was always thankful for the five men who answered Arus's call many years ago.
"I hope I'm not boring you two," she said. She had noticed Keith's relaxed bearing since they left the constabulary, and she grinned when the last batch of children finally gave them some breathing space as they neared the construction of a statue at the middle of the plaza. The statue was covered up as a protection against the weather elements and from prying eyes. No one knew the identities and it seemed the construction people were given strict orders by Councilor Magan not to divulge either.
As far as she can recall, not even Coran's missives told her who will be honored at this weekend festivities. She surmised from the length of the covering over the statue or statues that there were at least three figures, ruling out the Voltron team -although it would be great to have them honored that way. It was going to be one of her future projects.
"Not at all," she heard Keith reply as he watched the construction near the bigger statue.
"It looks like we never stopped rebuilding." She bit her lip, realizing too late she had blurted out a frustrated thought that had been at the back of her mind. She did remain strong for her people and wore a brave face whenever needed but during these unguarded moments, she would make a slip. It has astounded her at times how Keith and the others could remain so battle-ready for all these years.
We were trained for this, Allura. A thought seeped into her mind as her heart quickened.
Keith? Her mind whispered back as she slowly turned and saw Keith chatting with the construction supervisor but didn't appear to have heard her.
She was in the middle of mulling over the occurrence when she felt the bond pulse as Keith's assurance wrapped her worried heart and mind with genuine comfort. She let a small grin grace her countenance, aware his elbow had touched hers. The foreman had already gone back to overseeing the statues' construction.
"I never meant to sound unappreciative for all your efforts over the years, Keith." She bathed his name with tenderness, permitting him to drive out her feelings of remembered hopeless tension through the connection they shared. It was an emotion he was surprised she still carried even if it was only remnants from her childhood life. It still haunted her to this day.
Keith also perceived something else through the bond that he hasn't felt before from Allura—stark emptiness weaving in and out through the link. He was unsettled by it and later took a mental note filed under future conversations when they were alone. He also came to recognize the bond was in constant flow whenever he afforded his attention to things he cared for so much. It was energetic and playful, never ebbing. He had been sure his adjustment to its spirited dance would once again become second nature to him after his arrival, but he had been caught unprepared by the weight of Allura's emotions, which she didn't bother to keep in restraint.
He hadn't known his own relentless determination had become an unintentionally shield when he had left to retrieve Black. So when he was finally home, he sought refuge behind that shield and slowly began shelving old thoughts, old emotions in the recesses of his mind then letting the barrier fall away until there was nothing separating him from her. He heard himself say that it was over. He was able to overcome those first tumultuous two years and the subsequent time he had spent away was no longer an issue to him and hopefully, for Allura too. What was important to him was his heart has found the one person keeping him from going over the brink.
"It's all right, Allura." Keith fixed a look solely for her, shining his love through his eyes while the link thrummed with the same affection. "As long as Voltron is able, hope remains." He pointed at one of the GA marked storage units. "And since you've acquired Galaxy Alliance drones for the town as a defense against Doom's foot soldiers, then maybe the destruction won't be too widespread, and no more of your people will be captured to become slaves."
Allura brightened at the praise. "The constabulary does need several more landspeeders in the future if Chief Andros expects applicants next year." She nodded absently as a plan formed in her mind. "I'll discuss this with Coran. We could work out possible trade business with allied planets in the future."
Larmina took another furtive glance at her aunt and the commander. She had consciously put some distance between her and them when she felt she was intruding. She couldn't help speculating what passed between their gazes. She sighed dreamily at them and shook herself. She has been thankful her aunt came out strong from her battle experiences. Sensing now that she was no longer interrupting what was likely a personal moment for the two, she said, "We should be the one investigating those cases; then we'll be able to get things done in no time."
"We would have spread our team too thin," the princess reasoned. "Being a good leader, you will have to make decisions to appoint people who you think will get order done. I was present when Coran and Councilor Magan appointed Chief Andros. He is a dedicated man."
"I guess you're right," she conceded in a halfhearted manner. Larmina found it hard to let others to do a job she knew they could handle more effectively, but she'll just have to wait and see how these town cases will be wrapped up.
"Let's head back to the castle," Keith suggested, and Allura agreed. She had done what she had set out to do this morning and until Chief Andros and his deputies find anything more, she will leave the investigation to their capable hands.
Once they had settled inside the landspeeder, Keith gunned the engine. He maneuvered the vehicle out from the parking lot, and the trio was on their way back to the Castle of Lions.
Marsh punched the side of the tree, not minding the cut and the pinching sensation in his knuckles he felt afterwards. He flexed his bruised hand as his gaze followed the Voltron Force vehicle, zooming away.
He abhorred this feeling of betrayal. He hated the pain that was leisurely engulfing him alive. He needed to do something that will keep it quiet, and he concluded the princess had indeed failed him. He hated why he had to lose the love of his life.
As Marsh was leaving the plaza, he spotted Eli and Wyx from across the street. The two men were heading toward Zanir's shop,Arus Eyes. He thought about Zanir.
It had annoyed Marsh having to leave Zanir's body at Kellan's property, but it was better than the canyons where the two spies had originally left it. Nobody was going to find the body since it was less traveled these days. His fingers gingerly traced the scratches on his cheek. It was going to be a matter of hours before Jaryl informed their chief about his findings.
He began removing his insignia off his uniform, signifying his constabulary designation, symbols of his office, and position. He examined those symbols in his hand. He had held these symbols with great respect over the years and now, their meaning fell pale against the bleakness of pain. He wasn't even entertaining the idea of finding his wife's hybrid child. He had no idea if he would ever change his mind. His friend had asked him about it but he had no answer.
Soon, he let the objects of his office fall to the ground. The items dropped noiselessly on the grass, discarded, all glinting against the late morning sun.
He trudged up the soft incline that soon connected to the paved road. He then took out his data pad and tabbed a command to activate a timer that will automatically send his updates on Winter and Gran's cases and perhaps his confession to Eli Parr's electronic account. No doubt the young man will be puzzled with the volume of e-mails in his inbox. When he had completed the task, he left the tablet on the bench. He couldn't function anymore unlike before when he still had hope. He didn't have the willpower to pursue the other names on the missing persons list. Someone from the constabulary will have to do that now. All he wanted was to cleanse his home from anyone connected with the Drules. He was tired of keeping up a strong face, and he was more interested with only one list now.
He stared at the sky and took a deep breath, keenly aware of the crushing burden in his mind. Perhaps by this hour, the de-coding program will be able to give him the last three names of the spies in town. He decided to take the long stroll toward his home since the physical activity always calmed him. Nevertheless, he couldn't keep the dam up any longer. "Something will have to give at some point. Naria, my love, wait for me," he whispered.
"Zanir's body is now in the constabulary," Geldrin spoke to his communicator while he removed all the essential computer hard drives and handed them over to Fellin. The other man began placing the drives into portable shockproof cases. Geldrin strode to the consoles and initiated the command to wipe out of the all of the computer's supplemental drives and the contents of the memory core. "The evidence of the Cleaner is on him."
"And us," Fellin added from the back of the room.
Geldrin pushed out an angry thought to the periphery and focused on the progress bar on the monitor. The memory wipe was still 20% and rising.
"Even if I try to change their findings, they'll find out it was tampered with," Havran pointed out. "At least getting into their video feed, we'll know where they're headed in the investigation."
"I understand. Once we've dealt with the Cleaner," Geldrin thought aloud, "we'll re-group but maintain radio silence with the others. Our next status update won't be for another three months, which by that time, we'll have returned to our usual operations." The progress bar rose to 45%.
"So, we'll meet the Cleaner head on?"
"He may be an ex-GA soldier; it should be nothing for us." Geldrin was assured that they'd be able to neutralize the spy hunter with three of them. "What else do have we take care of before we sign off?" His impatience started to show when he caught himself tapping his foot. The progress line has passed the 85% mark.
"With the festival scheduled for this weekend, the package will be handled together with one of Moonstone's best product lines. The whole thing is low key but we should expect the delivery right on time and should not miss it."
Geldrin agreed just as he heard the last latch snap in place. Fellin had stowed the final shockproof case on his small anti-grav cart and was waiting for Geldrin to finish the communication. Geldrin glanced back at the monitor and was rewarded when the word COMPLETED flashed before his eyes.
"Good. Keep track on the constabulary's investigations. Fellin and I will be dropping off the drives to our auxiliary site."
Back in the constabulary, the laboratory area was at the far end of the station. Deputy Jaryl Marthos and Rowan, his assistant, took up residence here. Once in a while, Jaryl would accompany any of the deputies on field too whenever they would get short-handed. Today, though, he was in his usual element and his subject waited for him at the middle of the room. The hum of the recyclers greeted him with a monotonous 'hello' as he strode toward the exam table.
The lab room wasn't the stark, windowless drab environment everyone thought it was. There were five windows affording them a view of street and the people's comings and goings, but no one could look in. There was a protective screen layered in between the glass panes, preventing the afternoon sunlight to pass through thus offsetting the cool temperature of the room. His gaze drifted to the corner table; Rowan's sister must have visited their laboratory when he was out—there was a new potted plant sitting there now. The last plant had wilted because he and Rowan had forgotten to water it regularly. He and his assistant will have to work out a simple housekeeping schedule so as not to incur the wrath of Rowan's sister again.
"Now, Zanir," Jaryl stopped beside the table, donning his lab suit, "you don't have to wait anymore. I'm hoping you'll be able to give me something for the Chief today." He took a pair of sterile gloves and gave a nod to Rowan to begin the recording.
Jaryl activated the overhead scanner where the arm extended from its dock to slowly sweep the body starting from the head for trace evidence.
The process would usually take a couple of hours, but it had been Jaryl's routine now to be on hand should an incident similar to the "Altered" happened again. He wasn't going to take chances. He started cataloguing the preliminary finds.
"Three kinds of soil deposit found," Rowan had noted on his screen. The lanky lab technician started cross-checking for samples stored in their databases. Three beeps came from the computer.
"That was fast." Jaryl looked from his tablet to the scanner's round head inching down to Zanir's neck. He had seen the bruise marks, and with the scanner's help, confirmed that Zanir's windpipe had been crushed.
"Three different samples identified: Kellan's property, the Canyon of Sorrows, and a sample from a subterranean location."
The last entry enumerated by his assistant intrigued Jaryl. "What's interesting underground?" He thought out loud. "Did you add the mines?" He shot the question to his studious-looking assistant.
Rowan nodded even though his back was toward his boss. "Active and disused ones, still searching. Does Arus have a gem reserve we don't know about?"
"If he found it," Jaryl adjusted the scanner's resolution when he had found an old healed wound on Zanir's left arm. "Rival traders would want to have it for themselves, but we're getting ahead of ourselves."
The scanner traveled down to Zanir's left hand and beeped again for trace findings. His brow furrowed when the words "MATCH FOUND" and a name flashed across his tablet.
Rowan gasped from his seat when he read the same message prompted on his screen. He then saw Jaryl keying a repeat command to analyze the trace evidence left on the fingernails. "We're not imagining this, right?" Rowan didn't believe what the instrument was telling them but after the tenth time, the truth was crushing them.
Jaryl was working on believing it, but he too was having a hard time wrapping the idea around his head. "Secure the findings to a protected site and continue with the scan. I—I have to make a report." He went to his corner office to prepare his preliminary report.