Bishop: Aftermath
(09/16/06 1400 Falmouth, Tropic League)
“Sit down, Belinda.” The young woman settled stiffly into the chair. “Relax. Meredith, I think some coffee is in order.”
Lieutenant Cardenas fought not to look around the office. Only two days ago this house had belonged to the administrator of Falmouth, Bernard Hamilton. Now he was missing, and she had a horrible suspicion as to where he might be. She roused from her reverie when the brass put a cup in her hands. “Thank you, sir.”
Commander Jabez Jordan leaned back in Hamilton’s chair and surveyed the room with the distaste he felt whenever he looked at it. It was filled with highly polished antiques obviously salvaged from the city itself, and the commander mentally winced as his mind supplied a rough estimate of how many wasted man hours Hamilton had forced from the colonists to clean all of it up. Hours that should have been used fishing or scrounging for supplies instead of with this. “The remains were pretty badly burned by the fire, but we managed to identify Hamilton’s remains from a broken collarbone. It’s official, he’s dead.”
Cardenas winced as if someone had stabbed her in the back as her career turned to ashes. “I assume full responsibility for my failure to protect the administrator. I’ll resign immediately.”
Jordan raised an eyebrow. “Belinda?”
‘Yes sir?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Cardenas and Meredith both stared at him. Jordan never cursed.
He smiled slightly. “Now that I have your attention, can I continue before you throw yourself on your sword?” When she nodded mutely his smile faded. “Leah has proven surprisingly loyal to Hamilton and so it was necessary to compel her to reveal what she knew. Fortunately, Monica is an excellent interrogator, and her dragonqueen, La Verdad, is even more skilled than she is.” He turned his teacup idly. “I did order a follow up with a pokegirl with telepathy, and the results were about the same. It’s a pity that Leah was so stubborn. She’s not fit for further service and will be given to the ranch for breeding via parthenogenesis.” He tapped the pokedex that sat next to the teapot. “We’ve learned so much with this, and yet we still have so much to learn.” His eyes came up to pin Cardenas in her seat. “But I digress.”
“Leah confirmed that Hamilton had been sent to destroy my friend Caradoc. Apparently, however, his vices came first and he went out there with Leah to catch himself another pokekit. According to Leah, his pia was getting too old.” The disgust Jordan felt had seeped into his voice and he paused to recover his aplomb before speaking directly to Cardenas. “Your unit was selected to be able to defeat Bishop’s forces. I’m surprised Hamilton didn’t move as soon as he could trump up a charge. Considering Bishop’s arrogance, that should have taken all of five minutes.”
“Sir, the presence of all the elves and the minotaura was an unforeseen complication or I believe the administrator would have done just that. He asked me for my military opinion and I told him the truth, which was I could not assure him victory with the troops at hand.” She shrugged. “It was a clever way to sugarcoat the fact that Bishop’s pokegirls would have handed us our heads in a fight. He had us outnumbered and outgunned.”
“Did you have to do that often? Sugarcoat things for Hamilton, I mean.”
“Yes sir. He liked to hear what he wanted to hear.”
“I don’t find that the least bit surprising, lieutenant. Anyways, apparently, Hamilton did succeed in his mission, considering the condition of Bishop’s farm. The destruction was extremely thorough, and yet great care was taken to both prevent the spread of the fire as well as to protect the radio.” He chuckled softly. “Did you know it was the one thing on the farm that he didn’t own?”
Cardenas blinked in surprise. “Sir?”
“The radio is Tropic League property, and the fact that it wasn’t destroyed tells me that my friend’s sense of humor is alive and well, very likely along with the rest of him.” He smiled. “You probably think that age is softening my brains. Don’t worry; it’ll happen to you someday, if you survive.”
“Yes sir.”
“Humor me, lieutenant. I am telling you all of this for a very good reason. Perhaps you should try to figure it out while I continue.” He picked up his tea and sipped at it to avoid laughing openly at Cardenas’ bewildered expression. “There were two other bodies recovered from the fire, and their presence confirms what we got from the cheetaura. Hamilton caught and raped one of the milktit kits and then she managed to get free and tried to escape.” His voice hardened. “Bernard ordered Leah to retrieve the kit or kill her if the situation was untenable. While intercepting the kit, Leah was attacked by a flying pokegirl. The third corpse was that of a winged elf, and I know that Bishop had two of them. Leah was almost certain that she’d killed her attacker. Apparently she was correct.”
Cardenas winced again.
“At that point, Leah decided that the kit was too much of a liability in a successful attempt to break contact with Bishop’s pokegirls, who were moving to cut her off. So she killed the milktit with one of her knives and escaped.”
“Sir, how did the administrator die?”
“Unfortunately, Leah wasn’t present for the rest of the day’s events. The coroner in Montego managed to survive the plagues, and I had him look at the body. His report states that Hamilton’s chest was torn open, probably by a pokegirl. He should have died almost instantly. Unfortunately, the fire destroyed most of the forensic evidence. I’m not even certain where he was killed.” He shrugged. “Considering that Bishop destroyed and burned his own farm, the only conclusion is that his pokegirls killed Hamilton. I’d put my money on Cindy. The minotaura would have been enraged at the killing of the kit. Then he fled.”
“Where is Bishop?” Cardenas flushed as the question slipped out.
“That is the thousand credit question, isn’t it? Caradoc isn’t stupid, and he knows he’ll never have a farm or a pokegirl in the Tropic League again. He might even be executed as a message about killing our officials. That is a bad thing, by the way.”
“Of course, sir.”
Jordan glanced at Meredith, who gave a slight nod. “Tell me, Belinda, what do you think of the colony’s chances?”
“It would be very difficult, sir. We don’t have much food, although I’ve had people clearing the ruins of the school and we should be able to recover most of the dried meat. It really only suffered smoke damage. The people won’t like it, but they’ll like starving less. I’ve had colonists looting the stores and stuff for supplies and we’ve started fishing and hunting rabbits and stuff and last night we caught most of the doggirls that had been raiding our food supplies.”
“Let me guess, without Hamilton around, you managed to get more things done?”
Cardenas met his gaze for several moments before she sighed reluctantly. “Yes sir.”
“I’ve asked around about you, Belinda, and I have found that you are a loyal woman, once you give your oath. Was your oath to Hamilton, or was it to Montgomery?”
Cardenas blinked in shock. According to the rules of the game, that name should have never been spoken. Everything should have been blamed on Hamilton. “Sir, I gave my oath to the administrator. I’ve never met the councilor.”
“That’s good to hear. You see, Bishop seemed impressed with you, and frankly, so am I. If I don’t appoint an administrator to Falmouth, I’ll have one appointed for me. That’s why I took the time to explain what we knew to you. I want you to give me your oath and then become the administrator of Falmouth. I can’t have an administrator here that isn’t loyal to me.” He smiled slightly. “That’s one more thing I owe Caradoc, since he made it possible for me to secure my flank. If he returns, you are to treat him civilly and send word to me and no one else, immediately. Is that clear, administrator?”
Cardenas bent at the waist. “As you command, sir. I would be honored to give my loyalty to you.”
“Good, Belinda. Take Desiree and inform your second in command that he’s the new lieutenant. Your title will be Administrator Belinda Cardenas, and you’ll hold the rank of major. As of tomorrow morning, this will be your office and your home.”
“Yes sir.” She shot to her feet and quickly left to find her sabretooth tigress.
Meredith efficiently cleared away the teacups while Jordan stared into space. He blinked when she shut the door behind her as she left. The commander sighed and picked up the pokedex, a constant reminder of the friend he’d let down. “I’m sorry Caradoc,” he said quietly as he stared into the black depths of the inactive display. “I wish there was some way to tell you that.”
He almost dropped the pokedex when it beeped and a quiet voice spoke. “Caradoc Bishop is not within live communication range. Would you like to send an email or video message?”