Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 Notes: Sorry there's nothing quirky or funny today, I have huge vertigo and need to be lying down, lol. 

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

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Chapter Twenty-Four, Part Two

 

The problem, Elanus reflected two days later on his way to see ex-President Moreno, was that he really shouldn’t be given time to think about things. The more time he took to think about things, the more emphatically he tended to respond. The old Kieron would have said he was “dramatic,” but the new Kieron didn’t because he didn’t remember enough to know that.

That was the memory that pushed Elanus over the edge when it came to the meeting. Kieron is fucked up because of this man. Because Moreno took it upon himself to assassinate his Vice President, who took it upon xirself to find the most foolproof protection out there. And it worked, for xir.

And it almost ruined things forever.

Elanus had taken his revenge on Restaria for that. It was over and done with—too late for regrets, and who would listen anyhow if he wanted to bitch about it? Saying more to Kieron would only burden him, and the girls were too sensitive about it to handle a discussion without getting distracted. Maybe he should design a new ship that had more adult sensibilities, who he could talk these things through with…

Or maybe that would lead to the dissolution of all law and order in this part of the galaxy. It was fifty-fifty as far as Elanus was concerned.

No, he should make do with what he had. But that meant he needed to keep himself in check. He had to rely on his own better instincts to keep from torturing Moreno just because he could, because it was what he deserved after everything that happened with Kieron. So, fine. No torture, but that didn’t mean Elanus wasn’t going to make things hard on him.

He was just going to do that by giving Moreno everything he wanted.

The protests concerning the fallen idol were approaching a fever pitch, with counter-protestors making their presence known at the rallies that were still going on around the capitol building. Caria was calling for peace, promising that while Moreno was in a cell, he was being treated humanely and was attended to by his lawyers. His lawyers, meanwhile, did their best to fan the flames by decrying the lengths that Caria and the rest of the government had gone to to isolate Moreno, calling his treatment “inhumane” while defending his continuation of the centuries-old Elfshot program as “a regrettable oversight.”

As if he hadn’t benefitted directly from seeing the best and brightest taken down in their prime. As if he hadn’t had lengthy discussions with politicians, business leaders, Deysan, about how he could “guarantee” the status quo remained intact as long as he was president. How he would protect them from the innovator, the creative, from anyone who might topple them from their pedestals.

Catie had even found record of a conversation that Elanus himself had been the subject of—“an outlier, the sort of person we need to look at as an opportunity instead of a threat. After all, how could they ever say we weren’t doing everything we could for them when he’s right there, reaching the pinnacle of society despite his…disadvantages?” Restaria was looked at the same way; useful as long as xe was being obedient, a perfect shill for the message that Moreno cared, he really cared.

He didn’t care, not about anyone but himself. He’d had two of his ex-wives assassinated—successfully, not even just threats of death, he’d flat-out tried to kill them until it worked because he was afraid of what they’d say. Two of his three children were also dead, and the third one had left Gania several decades ago. His third wife was fifty years younger than he was, uninterested in children, politics, or any work beyond what it took to keep up appearances, and currently on a luxury cruise around the Central System—paid for by Ganians—that was ostensibly for diplomatic reasons but was mostly a chance for her to have fun with her lovers without flaunting them. She’d been on Moreno’s list as well, once she returned.

The point was, the protests were getting violent, misinformation was everywhere, and without a statement directly from Moreno, nothing was going to get better. Moreno himself refused to give any such thing, content to fan the flames.

Well, fuck that.

“You understand what you’ve got to do?” Elanus asked as he checked in with Fritz an hour before they were due to begin.

“Of course I do,” Fritz said, rolling his brilliant eyes—he’d redone them in gold, they were shockingly visible even across a crowded room now. “You’re talking to someone who got his first degree in theater; I know how to do this. I’m just surprised you got Caria to agree; she’s far more straightlaced than I ever thought before I really got to know her.”

“She’s doing what she needs to do,” Elanus said. “She’s got to present a contrast to Moreno, and the best way to do that is to be a little bit serious.”

“It’s not inspiring, though.”

“No, it isn’t,” Elanus agreed. “Which is why we’re going to perform our little play.”

Fritz arched an eyebrow. “And what does your man think of that?”

“He’s fine with it.”

Kieron, in fact, was not fine with it. He was pretty upset about it, actually, and more upset at the fact that Elanus was keeping him completely away from the entire operation rather than letting him take a role. It wasn’t, Elanus had told him, that he didn’t want Kieron there. It was that “I need you to be safe for this.”

“How would I not be safe?” Kieron demanded. “The only person putting himself in an unsafe position is you, I’d be perfectly safe.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I don’t need to! I—”

“I need you to be safe!” Elanus had shouted. “That means you here, with the girls, in a place where no one can reach you!”

Kieron had stared at him for a long moment before saying, “I’ll stay. This time. But you can’t keep me locked up forever.”

And Elanus wouldn’t, he wouldn’t. But that was an issue for another day.

Today, the issue was getting Moreno to incriminate himself in a way even a fucking idiot could understand. And that, Elanus could see to himself…with a little bit of help from his friends.