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Games without Frontiers

Chapter 37: A Brother of Sorts in Torquemada

Rating: T

Soundtrack: Detonation Blvd – Sisters of Mercy

They brought his phone back the next day. Roy tried not to laugh as it took two armed guards to re-install it. His mouth gave a wicked twist as they explained that since his staff was cleared of all suspicions, there was no real reason to cut off his contact with the outside world any further.

He knew the real reason they returned his phone. He could picture her challenging the good General about the necessity.

He'd done what she'd suggested, chuckling to himself as he went over their conversation. Common sense of a goat. Only Riza would have said such a thing, and meant every word with every breath in her. She probably was right, under most circumstances.

He truly wasn't worthy of a woman like her. Though he would be careful never to say so in front her. She might agree with him again, and he wasn't in the mood to have his faults listed in such a relentless manner again.

He put on clean clothes, grimacing when he ran his hand over the few days' worth of stubble on his chin. They had actually taken his razor on the day they'd taken his phone. As if he'd do something dangerous with it to himself or others. He shuddered at the thought. He would never use something as barbaric as a razor to commit suicide. There really was no guarantee that a blow would be fatal, and it would have been entirely too messy by far. And painful. If he really wanted to do himself in, it would be with a gun. Short, simple and to the point, no pain. Just done and done.

Then again, and he chuckled at the irony of it, the option of suicide was completely cut off to him now. However, they–those who put him here and were so afraid he'd off himself before divulging all of his nefarious secrets–had no way of knowing that. He had responsibilities, to home and country. Leaving her alone with such a burden... it was unthinkable. To leave this country in the hands of obvious incompetents? Not a chance. Definitely not a chance.

He subsided in one of the chairs he hadn't broken and flipped open the notebook she'd brought him. One of his oldest alchemy notebooks, he kept it with him always as a kind of lucky charm. He looked his own scrawl and frowned. If someone put a gun to head, it would still take him forever to decipher most of it. In the early days, he wrote his notes like a freight train, not thinking of the fact that he would have to read it all later. He did recognize the coding, could make out a few of the names there, and the numbers that corresponded. Anyone trying to take a peek would have rolled their eyes and tossed it back where they'd gotten it.

It looked, to the outside world, like a book of his conquests. Their names and phone numbers, and attributes that he wanted to remember. Olivia Gennan- 8159999. Measurements - 36, 18, 29. Lifted me up and turned me into liquid. Definitely worth keeping.

He laughed at himself, at his former belief that he was so clever to use such a code. He flipped a few more pages and stopped, his face sobering slightly. Hughes had picked on him about this entry. Because, if anyone knew anything about anything, they would know that there was no gas, noble or not, that corresponded by the letter L. In fact, anyone with eyes to see would have figured it out, given a good opportunity.

If Riza ever, ever looked in this book, she probably would kill him for what he'd written there. Yet, this was before, before everything had passed between them.

Lisa Falcon - 3694021. Measurements - 34, 18, 34. Highly reactive; flammable. When used with caution its stabilizing features very effective.

She would demand to know how he knew that way back then. He would shrug and pray she didn't compel him to answer.

We are matching spark and flame. She can leave when I'm cold and dead and in the ground.

He flipped some more, read some more entries, laughed at himself. Examined the arrays he'd created back then. Gazed forever at the array he discovered when he was only seventeen and was the one that he still used to this very day.

They had taken away every ignition glove they could find in his house. Now, that was beyond insulting and what had caused his black mood to last for three whole days. The two soldiers outside who had suffered the wrath of Captain Hawkeye told him what happened when she found out about that. He laughed for a good twenty minutes, and expected the arrival of his purloined possessions within the next few days.

It was only after he'd read the same sentence four times that he realized that reading his notes was not going to work as a way to distract him for very long. Boredom had him by the short hairs and he didn't see it letting him go any time soon.

Just before he thought he would die of inertia, his door opened. He looked up at the person in the doorway. Light shone from behind him, so he couldn't see the face, but he knew without a doubt who it was.

And to think, there was one time that he thought General Hakuro to be a fine stand-up kind of officer.

"Finally gathered up all the evidence you need, General?" he said with a sour smirk.

General Hakuro entered and shut the door behind him. He squinted into the half-light of the room. Roy didn't bother rising to salute, nor did he care about turning up the lamp. It wasn't his job to make the General comfortable. He had to answer questions, and that was all he had to do.

After waiting for both for a moment, the General moved further into the room and sat at the table. "I was not gathering evidence, Mustang," he said emotionlessly. "I was busy questioning two men we captured in connection to the explosions." He traced a pattern on the table with his finger. "Interesting, the things they had to say."

Nice start. Meant to intimidate a lesser man. "I'm sure you're about to amaze me with all the details," Roy said.

"Well, I'm sure you'd find them interesting as well." He tried to pin Roy with a piercing glare. It bounced right off of Roy without the slightest bit of effect.

He leaned back and folded his hands across his midsection. "Please, continue. I'm all ears."

Hakuro held his pose. "These two men, they were not from Amestris. They came from the east."

Roy blinked. "Ishbal?" he asked. Ishbalians, looking for revenge. That would make sense. Nevertheless, how would he have anything to do with that?

Hakuro shook his head. "Further east. Across the desert."

Interesting shot. Roy would be damned if he'd let Hakuro see how that affected him. "I'm sorry. I'm not following you," he lied.

"Oh, I think you are. I think you followed me all the way across that map in your head. You know exactly where I'm talking about."

"General," Roy sighed, pretending a boredom that he suddenly didn't feel. "Just get to the point. Where were these men from and what did they want?"

Hakuro hesitated further. "Remember that I told you to make sure you had your improprieties in order?"

"Ah, yes, my improprieties. What could those be?" Roy leaned forward as well. "I hear it on good authority that I'm lazy. Is that what you mean? Or the fact that my procrastination skills are second only to my alchemy skill. That good? Oh, yes, then there is the fact that I have the–how was it put–the common sense of a goat." He gave the man a look of false eagerness. "Is that what you're talking about?"

"There is more than that, Mustang, and you know it." Hakuro's eyes narrowed. "You are involved in things that could cause you a great deal of trouble, young man."

"I am?" Now Roy was all innocence. "Well, that is something I didn't know. Pray tell please enlighten me. What is it that I'm involved in that could cause me so much trouble? Blowing up trains is a serious offense I am sure. However, I don't think that's what we're talking about here. Really I don't."

He could tell that Hakuro was itching to get into this. However, for some reason, the man sidestepped it. "We'll get into that another time."

"Ah. I see. You mean when you've gathered enough of that evidence to prove your case." Roy tilted his head. "Who's gathering that information for you, I wonder? Is it the new Major you placed in the Lieutenant Colonel's office? Rather... inquisitive man is Archer." He leaned back and crossed his legs. "I hope the man is as thorough as he claims to be."

Hakuro cleared his throat and loosed his next verbal projectile. "The two men were from Xing." He gave Roy a look that dared him to react. "That place holds some kind of importance in your life, doesn't it?"

Roy's eyebrow twitched. He would have thought the word would generate some kind of anger, something. It just fell flat on his ears and left him with a dull ache in his stomach, and a bit of surprise that Hakuro had done some good research into his life. "Really? And why should that be so significant to me?"

"You know why, Colonel Mustang!" General Hakuro pounded the table. "Stop playing innocent with me! You forget I have seen your file. I know everything that's in it. And I know a few things that are not."

Not by half, you don't, Roy thought. He was really going to enjoy the conversation he planned to have with Hakuro's ass-boy Archer when he got the chance. "So, just the fact that these men were from Xing implicates my involvement in some manner? How are you coming to that conclusion?"

"They confessed, Mustang. That they were in collusion with a State Alchemist in an attempt to overthrow the government by undermining it."

Roy crossed his arms over his chest, held back his laugh, and waited for a further explanation. This would be rich. Very rich, indeed.

"They confessed that this State Alchemist had a specialty in incendiary devices. Said he made them up from apparently thin air."

Roy cocked an eyebrow and waited some more.

"Everything they said to me adds up, Mustang." Hakuro leaned forward in an intimidating manner. "What did they offer you, boy?"

"Adds up, you say?" Roy said by way of answer. "You must have been horrible with mathematics in Academy, General. I think you're taking two and two and coming up with something like seven." Roy leaned forward himself, so that he could look Hakuro directly in his eye. "I don't know anything about any men from Xing."

"I say you do."

"And I say you're reaching. I wonder why it's so important to implicate me." Roy shrugged. "I'm very curious. Because it would have to be very important for you to ignore the important fact that my specialty is not incendiaries. It's manipulation of gases, both noble and not. I transmute them into their flammable state with the use of alchemy and ignition." He smiled a toothy grin. "I see. It must be that thin air statement that had your mind ticking. But, I'm not the one who specialized in creating incendiary devices." He snapped his bare fingers. "I create flames. Flames burn. The do not explode." He said the next thing on purpose, to see if he could get his own rise from Hakuro. "They raze, they don't ruin. A fine distinction, but one nonetheless."

"I don't see that distinction."

This man had to get more training in interrogation, Roy thought. Or maybe he just had to want Roy's downfall more. Because this was easy. "Were the trains burned? Was there any of the charring indicative of a fire burning prior to explosion? No, there wasn't, was there? They were ruined." He shook his head. "That's not really my style. There's no flair in explosion. A spectacular effect is true. However, there is nothing...creative about it. Too dirty. There are too many reminders left, doing that." He flicked his gaze up, offering up a minute bit of emotion, just enough to distract. "You should have remembered that."

"I do remember that. I also know the particular former State Alchemist you refer to is in prison for the rest of his natural life."

"Yes, that is what we were all told."

Hakuro paused a moment at the tone of Roy's voice. But, he shook his head, continuing on his line of questioning. "You're seeking to distract me, Mustang. These men implicate a State Alchemist who has the ability to explode objects, utilizing flammable objects. These men are from Xing–,"

Roy decided to end the torture himself. That word, that name was really beginning to grate on his nerves. Especially since someone was trying to use it against him. "Ah, now I understand." Roy's lip curled. "You really have looked deep for your information. I wonder where you got your facts. I suppose that's what you mean by... impropriety." His hand clenched on the tabletop. "However, I don't see that as an impropriety, per se. More like an accident of birth."

"It could make you vulnerable to these kind of conspiracies."

"Why? Oh, that's right." Roy's voice took on a bitter, bitter tang that he hoped would slash the General across his smug, ugly face. "Because my mother happened to be one of that country's myriad of princesses – number five, I believe she told my father. That wasn't in my file, was it?" He continued, relishing the look on Hakuro's face. "No, it wasn't. Well allow me to clarify the story for you." This would be as good a time as any to distract Hakuro from his line of questioning.

"My mother – a princess of Xing – decided that she didn't want to remain invisible on the playing field of power. If they wouldn't let her play, she decided to take her toys and go elsewhere. She came across the desert, out of boredom or disgruntlement or whatever reason led her over here, to see what we pitifully backward people in Amestris did for amusement."

He bared his teeth in a feral grin. "She told my father all about her reasons for coming. He was the first beautifully exotic man she'd come across. Apparently, they didn't have redheads where she came from." He took a breath and barreled ahead, ignoring the hardening of the General's jawline that indicated an anger building. "Did you know that it was his hair that made her decide to seduce him? That and his minor wealth and stability. My mother was under a misguided notion that she could use what wealth he had to start a campaign to get to the throne of Xing." His hand hurt, he was clenching it so hard, forcing these words out with a nonchalance he certainly didn't feel. How dare this bastard force him to show one of his carefully held cards against him!

After his aunt told him all of this, Roy felt dirty, unclean because of the reason he was born. His mother sought to chain his father to her, and force his hand to help her with his campaign. It was common practice in Xing; unfortunately, it hadn't worked on his father. His mother left defeated; his father withered away because of betrayal and heartbreak.

After letting him rage it out for a while, his aunt reminded Roy that, despite it all, his father raised him with love. She reminded him that his creation was not a reflection of what he could become.

He summoned up a memory of that whiplash anger he'd felt back then and served it up in a gaze that would have charred Hakuro's skin from his face had he been an expert with incendiary devices. "So, because I was the result of that piece of particular bit of court intrigue, I am vulnerable to these kind of conspiracies?" He glared at Hakuro. "Try again, General."

"There is no other explanation, Colonel." Either the man was extremely stupid, or he thought that Roy was on the edge of breaking. Hakuro had pulled some connection out his ass, built on an elimination of some crucial facts, and he couldn't leave his hypothesis alone. "Who better for them to place in power than one of their own, displaced. One who has a direct line to the ruling family? It makes sense."

It did nothing of the kind. However, Roy wasn't about to tell him that. Roy was about to play one of his own pieces. "There is another explanation. As I said, I'm not the Alchemist who specializes in creating incendiary devices."

"And I said–,"

"Yes, yes, he's in prison." He tilted his head. "But...is he?"

Hakuro frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What if I told you that your prisons aren't as secure as you think they are?"

Hakuro stood as if Roy had ignited a flame underneath his ass. "I don't know what you're trying here, boy, but I'm not going to fall for it." He moved toward the door. "I'm not finished with this. You think good and hard about this discussion. I suggest you come clean now, Colonel. Make it easy on yourself." He stopped at the door. "And those you care about."

It took everything he had not to react to that. Instead, he said, as the man took a step outside of his door. "Zolof Kimblee isn't in prison anymore, Hakuro," and took great satisfaction in seeing the man flinch. When the man whirled back to him, he gave one of his patented smiles.

"He's dead. That, General, is an irrefutable fact. Ask me how I know."