Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Five, Part One

 Notes: Okay, I had to backtrack a little bit, but we're back on schedule now. I hope you enjoy this one! I'm feeling overall much better--still super dizzy going from flat to upright, but sitting is fine. OMG. Bodies.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Five, Part One

***

Chapter Twenty-Five, Part One

 

The setup was beautiful. Elanus wasn’t directly a part of it; that would have been too obvious, a ploy that even someone like Moreno could see through. Instead, Fritz took the lead in drawing Moreno out of his cone of silence and into a state where he was willing to say and do things that would be useful.

And he did it by being a whiny bitch.

He carried out a series of “interviews” with Moreno over the course of three days, each one less successful than the last. Moreno refused to speak, stonewalling Fritz at every turn despite how he cajoled, begged, and eventually threatened. It was when the threats broke down that Moreno began to get interested, because that was when Fritz went from clear enemy into potential ally.

“Look,” he snapped at Moreno, “you’re making my life hell, do you understand me? That bitch Caria is going to have my fucking head if I don’t make some sort of progress with this fucking interview, and she’s more than ready to take my show away if you don’t help me out. What do you want, a nicer cell? That expensive brandy you always drink? The last remnants of my dignity? You can have it all, but you need to give me something, you—”

“How would your new president feel if she could hear what you’re saying?” Moreno broke in, taking control of the conversation with effortless ease. He had always been a good talker, Elanus thought to himself.

“She can’t,” Fritz replied blithely. “It’s one of my conditions for talking to you. My implant is deactivated right now, but this—” he gestured to the ugly black pin on the front of his copper-toned bodysuit “—prevents electronic surveillance devices from detecting anything we have to say.”

Well, except for Elanus’s.

“I did notice that new decoration of yours,” Moreno said. “Who gave such a powerful piece of technology to you?”

“Who else?” Fritz rolled his eyes. “Elanus Desfontaines, of course. Caria’s ace in the hole. He’s the reason she managed to go so far in the first place, although I think he would have bowed out of it if she hadn’t really been pushing him to help her. And if that shit with his boyfriend hadn’t gone down so badly.” Fritz shook his head. “That was dumb, okay? Just dumb. They say the heart opens doors, but when you went after that guy you locked them all down.”

“I did no such thing,” Moreno protested mildly.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. Now. Are we going to talk today, or what?”

Moreno eyed him narrowly. “What does it mean for you if I continue to refuse?”

Fritz sighed. “Didn’t I already make this clear? It means losing everything I’ve worked so hard to gain for the past two decades in the public eye. Twenty years of selling myself to the entire planet, gaining their interest and their trust, and it’s all going to come crashing down because Caria decided to be bold all of a sudden. I wish to hell you’d just kept your damn head down and pacified those damn Elfshotters, you were a way better president than that crazy piece of—”

“You don’t care about their welfare?”

Fritz put a hand on his forehead—rather dramatic, Elanus thought, but Moreno was watching him with baited breath. “Are you kidding me? Why would I care about them? Do I think it’s stupid, and a policy that was destined to backfire? Yeah, sure, because Desfontaines or someone like him was inevitable. These things never stay in the shadows forever; believe me, I know.” He gestured to himself. “I considered going into investigative journalism before I realized that high society was a much better place for me than low. Every conspiracy has an end date. Yours ended when you let your vice president conspire with Desfontaines behind your back.”

That was the hook—the bit of private information meant to make Moreno start thinking about breaking his silence. Having Fritz bitch to him was one thing, but making him curious in turn was vital to making this work.

“What are you talking about?” Moreno asked, still not confirming any details. He was too clever for that, but Elanus could see that the hook had been set. He had his attention now.

“Oh please,” Fritz said disgustedly. “Like the entire planet doesn’t know that Sanclare had Elfshot disease? Or that xe was one of only two civilians on the Cabinet when it mysteriously exploded? Or that the other civilian turned out to be none other than Elanus Desfontaines’s freaking boyfriend? It’s not like Desfontaines has hidden why he’s been shut up in his house ever since then instead of appearing with Caria at speeches and shit like that.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm indeed,” Fritz said a bit mockingly. “Admit it, Restaria was cleverer than you thought. Xe used the boyfriend as a go-between, and you didn’t even think about him until it was too late because he’s an outsider. That moron doesn’t know how things work on Gania, but he’s dumb enough to care about what happens to his sociopathic lover. Restaria left a thread, and Desfontaines pulled it. And now you’re upset you’re in here? You’re upset?”

Fritz banged his hand on the table between them. “What about me? I was on the verge of elevation to the highest levels of society! The old guard was stepping aside—Caria is two generations past her prime! Her protégé was a desperate fool—and Desfontaines actually hates her, you know. She still believes Moritz was innocent, that Desfontaines pushed him into acting how he did. The only reason he allied with her is because she was the only one willing to acknowledge the Elfshot shit was happening and promise to do something about it!

“Meanwhile, people like you, Moreno, you represented the future—” never mind that he was closer to Caria’s generation than Deysan Moritz’s “—for people like me, the ones to strive for, to get close to! And I was getting there, and then all of this came crashing down, and now? I get the silent treatment from you one more time, and Caria’s going to kick me out of my timeslot, and that’s it for me. I’ll be done. Spent. I’ll have to host a fucking late night quiz show, it’s going to ruin me, and it’s all your fault!”

Elanus held his breath. If Moreno stonewalled them now, they wouldn’t get another chance at this. If he decided to hold his tongue, instead of trying to go deeper…

“Fritz.” Moreno folded his hands on the table. “Calm down, son, it’s all right. Listen…do you think you could get me a meeting with Desfontaines?”

Fritz blinked. “You want me to get Elanus Desfontaines, whom Caria Jayde distrusts, into this secure facility, to get the interview that’s supposed to save my career, instead of giving it to me?”

“No. I want you to get Elanus Desfontaines, whom Caria Jayde still needs, in here to meet with me privately for a quarter of an hour. After that’s done, I promise you, I’ll give you the interview of the century.”

Fritz bit his lip. “I want that in writing.”

“Of course.”

“At least an hour long. And you answer every question I ask.”

“Right down to the time I spend on the shitter each morning,” Moreno promised with a twisted smile.

Fritz made a face. “I don’t think I need to know that, but…fine. I’ll see if I can get him in here before your trial’s due to start.”

“You do that.” He nodded. “You do that.

And Fritz plays his part beautifully.

Now it’s up to me to get the rest of it done.