| Episode 015 | |
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“Its so
easy to forget what a sin is in the middle of a battlefield.” Solid
Snake, Metal Gear Solid
Assif stared out the window of his office, the shades creating dark
lines of shadow across his vision. With his hands behind his back, he stood with his back to his
computer. On the screen,
Sarah and Alex both sat in the hotel room, listening.
“So let me get this straight,” he said, turning back to the two
of them. “You have two
snipers on the same hit, but from different groups.
One appears to be an amateur and the other a professional.”
“That does seem to be the long and short of it,” Alex agreed,
getting a nod from Sarah, his voice fuzzy from the electronic systems.
“The only thing is, we’re not sure who is responsible for the
snipings.”
“The two likeliest suspects at the vampire group at the hostel
and children’s group,” Sarah added.
Assif turned back to the window.
“Have any arrests been made?” he asked.
“No,” Sarah said. “They
don’t have any leads, really. Nothing
concrete anyway. We’ve got
all the info.”
Assif took a deep breath, letting it out as he stared at the dusk
sky. “Alright,” he
declared, turning back to the two of them.
“I want you to go and arrest the three leaders of the
children’s group.”
Alex sat up, surprised. “Them? Why?”
He looked to Alex. “Because
we can arrest them and interrogate them without any repercussions.
But if we try a stunt like that with vampires, well…”
Alex sat back, visibly fuming.
Assif took a moment before looking to Sarah.
“Would you see to it?” She
nodded and rose, sparing a sympathetic glance to Alex.
He fumed for a moment longer, then stood, turning off the camera.
The heavy wooden door smashed in.
Through the warm nighttime air came swarming in police officers.
Throughout the orphanage, children woke up as police rushed through
the building, flashlights and guns trained and ready.
They rushed through the rooms, tearing through every cubbyhole,
ignoring the wailing children as they went.
A
group of police kicked in one door to find the three leaders of the group
sitting together around a television.
They all rose, confused, but were tackled to the ground.
The dark-haired man stared straight ahead, facing the mirror in the
interrogation room. Behind
him, Isaiah paced. Sitting
across from him, Til sat quietly. With
a folder under his thick, muscular hands, the brawny German stared at the
young man.
The
charity leader glanced at Til, his fear obvious.
But he faced ahead at the mirror, intent on not staring again. Til smiled and wiped his mouth slowly. “<You’re in a great deal of trouble, >” he said
in Italian. “<A lot of
bad things might happen if you decided not to cooperate. >”
“<I
didn’t do anything, >” the man said.
“<We didn’t do anything. >”
“<A
lot of bad things, >” Til went on.
“<Of course, jail is amongst them. >”
The man looked away, shaking his head in disgust and disbelief. “<But then, you don’t really care about jail. >”
The man looked to Til, almost surprised.
“<I’ve known guys like you, >” he confided.
“<Good guys. Guys
who do what’s right. And
tough, too. >” Til
shrugged. “<You can take jail, can’t you? >”
The man stared at Til, confused.
“<Go ahead. You can tell me. I
already know. You could go to
jail and survive. You’d be
able to make it through it. >”
He
leaned forward towards the guy, looking at his eyes.
“<But will the children make it without you to run the
orphanage? >”
The woman looked up from the question, shocked.
She stared across at Til, as if processing that contingency for the
first time. Tension and fear
rushed over her young face as her mind raced.
“<That’s the problem with doing things like that, >”
Til said, sitting back in his chair, glancing up at Isaiah.
Pacing slowly behind the girl, Isaiah watched.
“<Its hard to tell who will get really hurt.
Would it be worth it to go to jail, to protect one person, when it
means that dozens will suffer? >”
“<How
many kids are in that orphanage?” Isaiah asked, still pacing.
“Sixty-three,” said the blonde-haired man in English, his eyes
huge and shaking as he stared at the surface of the table.
“Sixty-three kids.”
“You
run it off of donations, right?” Til asked, holding his cup of coffee
while the suspect’s sat next to his hands, untouched.
“You run the whole thing off of charity.”
“Yeah,”
the young man said.
Til
watched him for a moment, then sat forward.
“Tell us who did it,” he offered.
“Just give us the name and you walk out the door.”
“Wh-what
about the others?” he asked, glancing fearfully up at Til, then back to
the surface of the table. “They
might have…” His voice
trailed as he realized his omission.
He looked up at Til, horror covering his eyes. But
Til just nodded understandingly. “Slap
on the wrist,” he said, his English thick with his German accent.
“Nothing more.” The
young man looked down to the tabletop again.
“I did it,” he said. “I,
I shot him, using that bullet for vampires because, because he was a,
a…”
Through the window, Assif stood with Sarah and Alex, watching as
Isaiah paced behind the blonde suspect while Til spoke with him.
“I see he confessed,” Alex said grimly.
“With
little persuasion,” Assif said, holding his own coffee cup.
“Til didn’t even have to get physical.”
“Thank
goodness for that,” Sarah said, almost jokingly.
“There are international laws against the kind of stuff he’s
been known to do.”
Alex
turned to Assif. “We have
these guys as the amateur snipers, but what about the vampires?”
Assif looked at him, but said nothing.
“We still need to go after them.”
“No
we don’t,” Assif said. “Going
after vampires is a can of worms we want nothing to do with.
Even a group of them as small and seemingly insignificant as that
one at the hostel is more trouble than we will ever willingly want.”
“So
they’re just going to get off free while these three go to jail for the
rest of their natural lives?” Alex protested.
Assif
listened to Alex for a moment then turned to look into the room as Isaiah
and Til left, leaving the young man alone.
“They won’t be there that long,” Assif said with a sense of
finality. “They slew a monster.
Perhaps not a supernatural one, but a monster none the less.” He
sighed deeply. “There’s a
lot of evil in this world and those who take steps to vanquish even a
small portion of it are rarely overlooked or forgotten by those who know
what evil is and where it resides.” He turned away and walked off, leaving Alex and Sarah alone. “I wouldn’t be surprised if these three were released in a matter of months.” |
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