Thursday, April 5, 2012

Koreshi Chronicles - Chapter V : Disclosure


Ennick had looked better, Ti thought to himself, as he took the heavy leather studded wing back chair in front of him. Ti hadn’t been in this bar before, it had character.. Somehow a lot of the old charm of the place hadn’t been lost in the War. And unlike some of the posher dives near the center of town, it wasn’t full of the SNS reporters, start-up entrepreneurs nor the hip crowd who usually ruined these places.

“Nice place” Ti started “how come it ain’t been over-run?”

“Its an Alliance bar, they tend to hurt yuppies. How you been Ti?”

“Good, you?” Ti said looking at Ennick who was already a quarter of a way through a bottle. Ennick grunted a quick derisive laugh and pushed a shot glass across the small round table separating the two large chairs. This could be bad, Ti thought to himself.

“I heard about your sister, how is she?” Ti said. Ennick nodded and threw his drink back.

“Ya did, did ya? Lukas told ya I guess.”

“No, he didn’t. When I called you and you told me you were in town I asked around. Didn’t take too long for me to find out about the brawl at the Pony and Camella.” Ti watched, and sure enough Ennick gave him a suspicious look and seemed on the verge of asking a question but decided after a second to let it go.

“I think I can help Ennick, but I’ll be upfront with you. I need your help too. Not that I’m bartering, I’ll help you either way, but I want to be honest with you is all.” Ennick collected the bottle in his big hands. There was grease under his nails. He poured them both another shot and gave a nod.

“I need Oscar’s help, and, well, you’re the gatekeeper. Also, somewhere down the line I figure I’ll need your help too. Lukas told me some of what went on with you guys before we met up. I think you can help me.” Ti said, his finger lightly touching the rim of his glass but not drinking. Ennick did not hesitate.

“Well,” Ennik no longer tasted the whiskey. It just slid down his throat. He glared at Ti, “as for Oscar, I’ll put a word in, then its up to him. I figure if ya flirt with him he’ll do just about anything for ya. As for me, well that’s another matter altogether. I ain’t got the luxury of helping you Ti, no matter how noble I think your goals are. I need to tend to my sis, I still have a debt to repay to some other folk...”

“I think I can help there, actually, on both accounts. I’ve been keeping my eye on the Kolsons for some time now, I know a lot of their operators. If you can synch the information you and Oscar got off that Kolson accountant with what I know, I bet we can find out real quick who you’re looking for.” Ti put a datapad on the table and slid it over next to Ennick’s bottle. The big man was only a little older than Ti but looked tired beyond his cycles. He picked up the datapad and saw a secure data-transfer protocol. Typing in his access code he transferred the compressed Kolson’s financial records to Ti. He set the pad down, shoved it back to Ti.

Ennick drank another shot and smoked two cigarettes in silence while Ti cross-references the new financial data against his own surveillance records. It helped that he knew what he was looking for. According to the financial records from Campbell, codename Bobcat had met another contact on 28 Autumn 1924. Ti pulled imaging from that date and had 30 pictures of various known Kolsons under observation that day, he handed the datapad back to Ennick.

“That one,” Ennick said after a few seconds of filtering through the images, “that’s the sonovabitch.” Ti stood to look, it was a picture taken in KAD along with the local boss, a man named Wallcraft. “We call him Jared, he’s been with the Wolves for about 4 cycles now, damn!” Ennick shoved the pad back into Ti hands and poured himself another drink. Ti typed in another search but found no other information on the man named Jared; the mole inside the Desert Wolves codename Bobcat. He noticed that someone else had recently been searching through the Wallcraft file, he wondered...

Ennik smiled and raised his glass to toast Ti. “Now I can go home,” he drank. “Now I can give Grey Cub what he wants and have a place to take care of Camella. I’m out of this crap Ti. I’ll put you in touch with Oscar, you’ve got my information, I got some stuff from Marshall Sullivan which you’ll probably want. That’s it for me. I’m out.” He repeated, mostly to himself as he lit a cigarette distractedly.

Ti waited a moment before continuing, unsure if he should. “Ennick, I’ve got to tell you something else, I know what they did to your sister. She’s hooked on pain medication isn’t she?” Ennick turned to look at Ti with a glare of grief and anger which Ti took to be a confirmation of his intel. “I’m no expert, I know one though and I’ll ask for his help, to help Camella, but here’s what I know. When the War started going badly for the Keff they scrapped Tantalus and the energy research and the lead scientist on the project started doing tests on the prisoners at Camp 9A. Painful tests. The only way to carry them on, as far as I can figure, was to dope the subject with painkillers and they got hooked. Camella was a test subject Ennick.”

There was a frightening fury in Ennick’s eyes. He collected the now half empty bottle of bourbon and held it over his shot glass. His hand shook but he did not pour; like there was an internal struggle opposing two equally matched forces. Finally, one side won and Ennick flung the bottle into the wall with a furious cry. Half a dozen weapons were in various states of being un-holstered and all the eyes of the bar were on them. Ennick panted heavily for a few moments, his head down while Ti kept very still. When the bartender came over with a sawn-off tucked behind him Ennick waved him off.

“Ennick, I’m sorry but..”

“You ain’t got nothing to be sorry for. I owe you Ti. At least we know more now and I know why, well why she’s the way she is. I found her at a strip club Ti. She’s a whore. She barely knew me anymore she was so far gone. I ain’t slept a wink since I found her and I didn’t have no way of helping her. I owe you and I’ll pay my debt rest assured. But first I got to get her back to the Den. They can take care of her there. I figure we’ll use Jared, feed him whatever misinformation we can that’ll help ya. Whatever I can do. But if you can find some way to help with her hurting and her using, well, as I said, I already owe ya.” Ennick raised a trembling hand to his chest pocket and took out a cigarette which he lit and inhaled deeply, calming himself. “What d’ya know about the Abacus list?” Ennick asked after exhaling. Ti shook his head.

“Its what Sullivan was working on, its connected to The Bear, you know who I’m talking about?” Ennick asked.

“Yeah, he’s an information broker of some kind. In fact, come to think of it, he’s a known contact of Wallcraft, the Kolson in the picture with Bobcat -- Jared.” Ti replied.

“Well he’s involved in all this some how, he used to work with this lady here in Prince Gable called Nanda Devi,” Ti suppressed his surprise as Ennick continued. “He’s also connected with Lukas, Lyta and Torgath. They got history. This time Ti couldn’t ceonceil his surprise.

“There’s more, much more. I need to tell you something, tell you about who we worked for in Port Arthur”

“That can wait, I need to tell you something else Ennick, before you leave.” Ti interrupted, having previously been stopped from fully disclosing the facts to Ennick. “I’m sorry, but I looked up your name in the 9A records. I found records of your family’s death, of your escape and Camella’s experiments. Ennick, she wasn’t the only one.”

“They, they hurt others...those fuckin’ bastards...” Ennick was trembling again, barely holding on to his cigarette.

“Yes, but that wasn’t what I meant. I mean she wasn’t the only one who survived.”

The cigarette fell to the ground.



Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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