Chapter 24

As night approached and Audrey got ready to retire for the day, Ven told Nikita to take the first shift at keeping watch while he picked up some sleeping bags, he had asked William to arrange. As Vikram guided him along the hallways, he sent a message to Eric as well, telling him he would need them to move to Sector 1 as soon as possible.

Upon reaching Rendall’s office, he knocked twice and entered. Inside he found William working away at his desk while Rendall was pacing behind his desk with an irritated look on his face.

“Is this a bad time?” asked Ven as he entered.

“No, not really. Sit down, I have some news for you. Quentin has been found guilty of drugging Officer Natalie, not only that, but it also wasn’t the first time he’s done something like this. The other female officers who work in his squad have had similar experiences with him. He was using blackmail to keep them in the squad and not file a complaint. He’s been taken into custody, he’s also been officially stripped of his rank and uniform,” said Rendall.

“What kind of sentence will be carried out?” asked Ven.

“If it were up to me, he would be executed on the spot! But as things stand, he is the son of a very influential family, a family who has close ties with Ravendra. They are willing to pay off all the victims in exchange for Quentin to get a lighter sentence,” said Rendall.

“You know the King, use your connection and make sure Quentin gets put away forever!” said Ven.

“Ravendra, as you know, is quite distracted at the moment, he is pushing quite a lot of his responsibilities on to others so he can have more time for his future wife,” said Rendall with a sigh.

“What about Natalie? What are you planning on doing with her?” asked Ven with gritted teeth.

“Her release has been sanctioned, she has been reinstated to her former rank in the UTF and she will be working under you starting tomorrow,” said Rendall, “Keep her from doing anything rash, I know things haven’t been fair for her, but I will do everything I can to make sure Quentin doesn’t walk away free.”

“We like to call ourselves the best in the world, with all the technology and skyscrapers we have everywhere, but does any of that matter when we do things like these? We haven’t improved as people,” said Ven.

“We aren’t perfect son, no one here claims we are,” said Rendall consolingly.

“That much is obvious, otherwise you wouldn’t ask people to volunteer to be executed in order to keep the population under control,” said Ven as he looked squarely at Rendall.

“Where is all this coming from? Did something happen today?” asked Rendall confused.

“No, nothing happened, it’s just stuff I have been thinking about for a while now, our society isn’t as wonderful as we paint it out to be,” said Ven.

“No, it isn’t. But it’s a better place than what it used to be, trust me, I was there,” said Rendall as he pushed his hair back.

“You tend to say that quite often,” remarked Ven.

“I suppose I do,” said Rendall as he shrugged his shoulders.

“You ever wonder if you say it because you want others to believe it or you’re saying it to make yourself believe it?” asked Ven.

“Easy there kid, you don’t know as much as you think you do,” said Rendall, “I heard you were around when Lilliana met Vassillissa today, what did you think about her?”

“As a person? She seemed nice enough, she said all the right things, claims to be doing what she is doing because she cares for His Majesty and believes he deserves happiness. I am not sure how much of it is true though,” said Ven honestly.

“That’s what I don’t like about her, nobody is that selfless, and what’s with all this Lady Vassillissa business, it isn’t even her real name,” said Rendall as he shifted his gaze to the ceiling.

“Have you been invited to the wedding rehearsal?” asked Ven.

“Wedding rehearsal?” said Rendall as he snapped his neck back to look at Ven.

“I guess not, yeah, Lady Lilliana got invited to it today,” said Ven as he felt a little sorry for Rendall, “Maybe His Majesty is planning on asking you personally, instead of sending Lady Vassillissa.”

“I don’t care about being invited or not!” snapped Rendall, “If they are having the rehearsal next month, the wedding is going to follow closely behind, and we still know next to nothing about this woman!”

“Have you thought about voicing your concerns to His Majesty?” asked Ven.

“Wouldn’t work, the man is smitten, he cannot see anything clearly right now,” retorted Rendall, “Thank you for telling me about this, we will need to move faster, the amount of time we have has been cut shorter by quite a bit.”

“I don’t really understand the problem though, if she does marry King Ravendra and we find out she isn’t whom she claims to be, we can just arrest her and throw her behind bars at that point in time,” said Ven.

“That will be useless if she’s already assassinated Ravendra by that time. Right now, they are never alone, I won’t allow it, but if they get married, I can’t stop them from being alone,” said Rendall.

“He can defend himself, he knows how to fight and is gifted,” said Ven.

“In an upfront fight, there are few who can defeat Ravendra, but there are subtler ways to kill,” said Rendall, “You take those sleeping bags and get back to your position, I have some work to do.”

The ripples from the news about their wedding rehearsal have started to appear, what will these ripples lead to, I wonder?

As always, stay safe out there.

Anderoth