Spy Classroom - Volume 7 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Scarlet Leviathan 3

There was a crowd gathered in front of the Conmerid Times main office.

The office was an impressive eight-story building right in the heart of Hurough. It was noticeably taller than the buildings around it, and its walls were a beautiful age-worn gray. Due to its frosted windows, it was impossible to see inside. Out in front, it had a set of imposing stone pillars that seemed to inherently reject any who might approach.

According to Amelie, the newspaper had remained in print for over a hundred years. Politically speaking, they had a centrist lean and had yet to throw in with either the Neo-Imperialists or the Anti-Imperialists.

Now there was a large group of citizens hurling angry shouts at the building. There were so many of them they were spilling into the street and obstructing the flow of traffic. The cars unfortunate enough to pass by laid on their horns, but they were no match for the mob’s zeal. The people gathered all wanted to know the same things. “Was that article true?” they bellowed, and “Where did those photos come from?”

From their positions hidden among the crowd, Klaus and Erna shared their thoughts.

“They’re practically rioting.”

“Y-yeah. It’s a little scary.”

Their goal went without saying—to get some details from the reporter who’d taken those photos of Monika.

“………It doesn’t make sense.”

Upon seeing the pictures, a deep furrow spread across Amelie’s brow. The paper had devoted its entire front page to reporting that they’d found the culprit behind Prince Darryn’s and Director Mia’s assassinations. The image quality on the photos wasn’t great, but the person in them was unmistakably Monika.

She shot a skeptical look over at Klaus. “Bonfire, please do be honest with me. Where was Monika the night Prince Darryn was assassinated?”

“I had her watch over the Kashard Doll Workshop. Those were the only orders I gave her.”

“But you have no way of proving that.” The suspicion in her eyes deepened. “Actually, strictly speaking, you don’t even know yourself. You were at Heron Manor at the time, so you weren’t observing her actions.”

She’d had him there, in fact. Klaus and Sybilla had spent the time leading up to Darryn’s death under Belias’s watchful eye. With Thea taken prisoner, the two of them had been doing exactly what Belias told them to. He had no way of knowing what Monika had really been up to during that period.

Amelie went on. “Would it have been possible for ‘Glint’ Monika to assassinate the crown prince?”

“No. She couldn’t have gotten past his guards.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it,” Amelie replied sharply. “I’ve seen her work with my own eyes. She stands head and shoulders above the rest of Lamplight’s members. With proper backup, she could very well have overcome them.”

“If you already made up your mind, then don’t ask the question.”

Amelie’s analytical abilities were frustratingly on point. She was right; Monika had the skills of an elite spy. If she had help from someone on the inside, someone who could leak intel on the security detail, then she would have been entirely capable of carrying out the killing. And kidnapping a single scientist would have been child’s play.

“Please don’t tell me that you actually believe this nonsense about Monika killing the crown prince,” Klaus said with a hint of censure in his voice.

“I’m considering it as a possibility, nothing more,” Amelie replied with a wave of her hand. “Naturally, I find the report dubious in the extreme. I have no intention of just accepting it at its word.”

“I would hope not.”

“But I can’t very well ignore it, now, can I? That is Monika in those photographs, of that there can be no doubt. The question is, how will CIM leadership react to the situation?”

It called to mind the way Avian had gotten killed. CIM personnel had a habit of blindly following their superiors’ instructions. If Hide ended up giving the order for them to eliminate Monika…

“In any case, the sooner we interrogate that reporter, the better.” Klaus rose to his feet. “Wherever this intel is coming from, that’s where we’ll find Monika.”

As they continued standing in front of the Conmerid Times headquarters, they spotted Sybilla and rendezvoused with her in a back alley behind the building. She had information she wanted to pass along about what had happened in the underworld following the article’s release.

“Thea’s been workin’ her ass off,” Sybilla whispered as they hid behind a nearby building so nobody would spot them. “She’s gotten in touch with every mafia group in the region, and she’s been pumping them for all the intel they’ve got. Meanwhile, she’s been givin’ me and Lily instructions, too. I dunno if anyone else coulda pulled off the kind of multitasking she’s been up to.”

“I certainly doubt it,” Klaus agreed.

Pharma had been the Avian member in charge of undercover ops, and after getting some pointers from her, Thea’s and Grete’s ability to infiltrate hostile organizations had improved dramatically. Grete still hesitated to join groups with lots of men in them, so the fact that Thea was willing to worm her way into just about anywhere was a huge asset. On top of that, she also had the ability to sense people’s desires by looking them in the eyes. Taking advantage of that talent allowed her to form ties with all sorts of different organizations, and she was the one who’d gathered most of the intel in Sybilla’s report.

“First off, here’s what’s been goin’ on these last couple days. Apparently, all the mafia groups are colluding for the moment and puttin’ together a new armed group. Their goal is to slaughter any spies who threaten their nation.”

“So we have organized crime pretending to be a militia?”

“Yeah, basically. Everyone loves the royals, even the gangsters.”

“I guess that’s true. Besides, it’s not uncommon for power to gather in the hands of unsavory groups when trust in the government falls.”

Tension was mounting, and it was mounting quickly.

Sybilla frowned. “From what we’ve seen, the report from this morning is makin’ ’em join ranks even faster.”

“Noted. Someone could well be pulling the strings. Keep up the investigation. We’re going to go to the paper and find out the what’s really going on with that article.”

“…You make it sound so damn easy. But hey, maybe it is for you,” Sybilla remarked. Then, with a quiet “Anyhow, leave the other stuff to me,” she left.

With that, Klaus and Erna headed back to the front of the building.

Observing the gathered crowd made it clear just how many walks of life were represented in the shouting voices—average joes, reporters from other papers, and people who looked like they operated on the shady side of the law. There was even a television crew just off to the side with a male reporter talking in front of a big camera. Every person in the nation wanted to know the truth behind that article.

“How’s Conmerid responding to all this?” Klaus asked a man who appeared to be a journalist from another publication and was staring up at the headquarters. “I have some questions I’d like to ask the reporter.”

The journalist shrugged. “I’d take a look over there before you start getting your hopes up, friend.” He pointed at the building’s entrance, which was sealed up tight. “They’re refusing to announce who their source is. The police came by, and they wouldn’t even let them in. All the employees are holed up inside.”

“Sounds like they’re keeping a tight lid on things.”

“The police don’t have any evidence the article is fake, so they can’t even make any arrests. The only people who could hope to make any headway are—” Then, upon seeing the cars driving up by the side of the crowd, the journalist cut himself off midsentence. “Ah, speak of the devil.”

There were two cars, both of them shiny and black, and eight brawny men and women got out of them. All of them were dressed in unsettling black coats.

“There’s the CIM, right on schedule,” said the journalist with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“…And their authority supersedes all human rights.”

“Yeah, that reporter’s done for. That team there is called Vanajin, and word on the street is they don’t pull their punches. They’re probably here to accuse the reporter of being a spy and drag ’em off to an interrogation room.”

Klaus thanked the reporter for the information and stepped away. Theirs was an age of spies, and intelligence agencies had far more power in investigative matters than the police did. They could force their way onto other people’s property, and they were no stranger to inhumane acts like abducting people without evidence or a warrant. Given the way Klaus dealt with traitors to his own nation, he was in no real position to judge them.

Belias wasn’t the only counterintelligence team working the case anymore.

The Vanajin operatives pinned the security guard’s arms behind his back and began trying to force their way into the building. It wouldn’t be long before they got inside and abducted whatever reporter knew the full story.

“Yeep…” Erna frowned worriedly and bit down on her lip.

Klaus gently patted her back. “You want to do everything you can to save Monika?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Erna gave him a determined nod. “There was something off about Big Sis Monika right before she betrayed us. I noticed it, but…I wasn’t able to do anything to help her!”

“Got it. In that case, let’s do this. We can’t afford to trust the CIM, and I’ll be damned if I let them snatch a key source of intel out from under us.” Klaus stooped down to meet Erna’s eyeline. “This tactic is going to be risky. That’s why I chose you as my accomplice this time around.”

There was a crowd gathered behind the Conmerid Times building, too. Their plan was that if anyone tried to go in or come out the back exit, they would catch them and press them for information about the article’s source. When the back entrance went unused, though, they were left with nothing to do but stare up aimlessly at the building.

All the entrances and exits were barred shut, the windows were sealed up tight, and with the CIM out front, going in through there wasn’t an option, either.

Klaus and Erna wasted no time and headed for the next building over, a five-story structure owned by an insurance company. There was a guard out front, but Klaus flashed him the special token he’d stolen from Belias and fed him a quick lie: “We’re with the CIM.” The guard stared at them in shock, and the two of them slipped on past him, went up to the second floor, and tracked down the window at the end of the hallway. Klaus opened it up. He’d spotted it from down on the street, and sure enough, it was directly across from one of the Conmerid Times windows.

Klaus stepped back and tapped Erna on the shoulder. “We’re jumping.”

“Yeep?!”

Ignoring her alarm, Klaus took a running start and hurled himself out the window.

There were fifteen feet between the two buildings, and Klaus smashed his way into the Conmerid Times building through its glass window. Shards scattered around him as he stuck the landing.

The second floor was apparently home to the paper’s editorial department. The room had twelve desks packed end to end, each of them piled high with documents, as well as seven employees, all of whom stared at Klaus in a slack-jawed daze. The man standing right next to where he’d landed dropped the entire stack of papers he was holding.

“My apologies. I misremembered where the entrance was.” Klaus gave them a small, apologetic bow. “While I have you, though, would you mind telling me who wrote that headline article? Where are they?”

“W-we don’t know!” the man beside him yelped. “It just showed up in the paper out of the blue. Peons like us don’t get consulted about these things. And besides, who even are you—?”

Klaus took out the list he’d prepared and shoved it in the man’s face. “All you have to do is point at someone who might be able to give me answers. Do that, and no more harm will come to you.”

The man’s gaze darted around. “I—I can’t, I mean, I just…”

“Raymond, the editor in chief? Much appreciated.”

“Huh?”

“The direction your eyes moved told me everything I needed to know. Don’t worry; I won’t tell him how I figured it out.”

After bulldozing his way through the conversation, Klaus raced out of the editorial department. As he did, a shout of “Yeep!” sounded out from behind him as Erna successfully made the jump as well.

With her in tow, he headed into the hallway and found the elevator. He pushed the button, then used the nearby stairs to go down to the first floor while he waited for the elevator to arrive.

When he ran a quick spot check on the entrance, he found that the eight CIM members had already made it past the guards. Standing at their vanguard was the blond man with dark skin and a saber hanging from his waist. He grabbed one of the employees and stared her down as he pressed her for information. “We’re from the CIM. Where’s Raymond?”

The employee averted her gaze. “Oh, no, I’m afraid I really can’t—”

On hearing that, the man grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her up with one hand. “If you think you have the right to remain silent, think again. You’re about to earn yourself a one-way trip to the gallows.”

“_______”

“We are always just, and we do not err. You really want to defy me, ‘Armorer’ Meredith, when my orders come straight from the Crown? You may be one of the Crown’s subjects, but that won’t save you if you choose to oppose us. I’ll weep with contrition as I tear off your fingers.”

He grabbed one of the woman’s fingers, and she let out a feeble croak. “H-he’s on the seventh floor…”

Meredith cast the woman to the floor, and the CIM squad headed deeper into the building.

There was no time to waste. Klaus knew that if he ran into them, things could get messy in a hurry. After returning to the second floor, he boarded the elevator as it arrived and headed for the seventh floor alongside Erna. When they got off, he made sure to stick a knife between its doors to render it inoperable.

The seventh floor was home to a room labeled OFFICE OF THE EDITOR IN CHIEF, and after ordering Erna to wait in the wings, Klaus headed in without so much as knocking.

Inside, there was a man by the window holding a cup in one hand. He took a sip from it, clearly relishing its taste, and cast his gaze out the window at the crowd gathered below.

“Ah, that was fast,” the man murmured as he calmly turned around. He was in his midforties, sporting a stubbly five-o’clock shadow, a worn-out jacket, and an unconcerned grin.

That was Raymond Appleton, the paper’s editor in chief. He was apparently the mastermind behind the article featuring the photos of Monika, and judging by the reactions from the second-floor editors, he’d done so by leveraging his authority.

“Hmm? Wait, are you not with the CIM?” After looking at Klaus, Raymond stroked his stubble in delight. “Well, that’s interesting. Who are you, then? Some foreign spy, maybe?”

“I see no reason to answer your questions.”

“Nor I yours,” Raymond replied with a shrug. “I assume you’re here about the article, but I’m afraid there’s nothing I’m willing to tell you. Not even if it costs me my life.”

“You seem quite set in your conviction.”

“How astute. But honestly, I’ve got my pride as a journalist to consider. It’s our job to keep this nation on the right path. If you’re going to kill me, then get on with it. If nothing else, it’ll lend credence to the article.”

“And you’re fine taking your family down with you?”

“Don’t have one. Don’t even have any friends.”

Raymond didn’t so much as flinch at Klaus’s threat; he had real nerve. He took another sip from his cup as though to demonstrate how confident he was.

In Klaus’s experience, people who were operating out of conviction were a royal pain in the ass. Standard-issue blackmail and bribery didn’t tend to work on them. Klaus could hold the man at gunpoint, and he doubted Raymond would shed so much as a drop of sweat.

“I’d give up if I were you. Won’t be long before the CIM gets here.” Raymond let out an amused laugh. “I can’t imagine that’d be good news for you. Don’t worry, though. I’m not going to give them my source, either. They can torture me all they like; it won’t do them any good.”

From the sound of things, the CIM had figured out that the elevator wasn’t running and had started ascending the stairs. The sound of footsteps from outside the room was gradually getting louder.

They had less than two minutes.

“Oh, so it’s a matter of pride.” Klaus shook his head. “In that case, there’s no point trying to talk you out of it.”

“That’s right. I don’t know what country you’re spying for, but this’ll make a great topic for my next article—”

“I did get you a parting gift. Cute, isn’t she?”

Klaus snapped his fingers, and Erna came in looking as adorable and blond as ever. She gave Raymond an expressionless bow, then went and stood beside him as Klaus took out a glove and put it on.

Then he drew his revolver and shot her.

Blood splattered across the editor in chief’s room.

Erna let out a hoarse “How unlucky…” and coughed up blood as she collapsed to the floor. There was no vitality to the fall. She was already dead, it seemed.

“Wha—?”

Raymond’s jaw hung open in disbelief.

The smell of gunpowder smoke still lingered on the revolver, and Klaus tossed it at Raymond’s chest. After making sure that Raymond had instinctively caught it, he nodded in satisfaction. “Good-bye, now. It is a shame I won’t be able to stick around to see how you explain this one to the CIM. I imagine they’ll arrest you as a suspect in the girl’s murder,” he said tauntingly. “I wonder how many people will believe your article after that little tidbit comes to light?”

Raymond hurriedly let go of the gun and approached Erna with a look of horror on his face. He reached out with trembling fingertips, but before he could touch her, his foot reached the blood spreading across the floor. “Eek!” he shrieked as he reeled backward. Journalists like him didn’t come across dead bodies that often.

“D-did you seriously just…?”

“Now that they’ve heard the gunshot, the CIM’s going to come running. Thirty seconds. That’s how long you have before nobody even wants to think about that article you poured your heart and soul into. They’ll write it off as the deranged ravings of a homicidal lunatic.”

“……!!”

“You’ll lose everything. Your reputation as a journalist, the respect of your peers, and your status.”

After coldly laying out the facts, Klaus turned and left Raymond in the room with the prone girl. Getting out would be simple. All he had to do was jump from the roof to the next building over.

The CIM’s footsteps were thundering up the stairs.

Raymond began sweating profusely, and Klaus noticed. Right as the spy was about to leave, Raymond grabbed his arm. His expression was one of pure anguish. “Please, take me with you,” he begged.

Klaus ran up to the roof and brought Raymond over to the apartment he’d rented in advance.

Raymond was sweating from every pore in his body—maybe it was the time he’d just spent clinging to Klaus as he jumped from roof to roof. He collapsed limply into the dining chair and didn’t move for a good long while. Klaus offered him some water, and after chugging it down, Raymond let out a big sigh and cradled his head in his hands. “…You know, now that I think about it, I probably didn’t actually need to run for it. It’s not like my fingerprints were on the trigger… But even so, that woulda been a hard situation to talk myself out of…”

He’d had enough time that he was starting to think rationally again. Any civilian would have panicked after seeing a dead body like that, so it was hard to blame him for his hasty decision.

“Regardless, fleeing was the right call. CIM interrogations are far more brutal than you could possibly imagine. No amount of conviction would be enough to get you through one of those.”

Klaus thought back to the torture devices he’d seen lined up in the Belias headquarters. He doubted there was a person alive who could withstand implements such as those.

“You sure about that?” Raymond said skeptically.

“I’m telling you that for your own good. Your actions were rooted in a desire to serve your nation. Our positions and ideals might differ, but I can’t hate you for that. I have no intention of causing you any more harm than I already have.”

Raymond scratched his head awkwardly. “That’s a cold comfort, coming from a murderer.”

“You haven’t realized yet?”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t actually kill her. She was faking it.”

Right as Klaus explained the situation, there was a knock on the door. Klaus opened it up and revealed Erna, who’d just changed into a clean outfit.

“I’m back, Teach.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” Raymond let out a shout that wasn’t far from being a genuine scream as he crumpled to his knees. Seeing her must have come as a real blow. “Seriously? How did I not notice…?” he groaned.

Again, though, it wasn’t really his fault. Erna had an uncanny knack for pretending to run into mishaps and disasters. It would have been all but impossible for an untrained eye to see through her acting. Her put-up jobs made for a powerful liecraft, one that took full advantage of her adorable looks.

“You did well,” Klaus told Erna. He handed her the slice of cake he’d been keeping in the fridge, then stood before Raymond. “Don’t worry. The CIM will assume you’ve been kidnapped, so your article’s credibility will be unaffected. If anything, this’ll make it that much more believable.”

“W-well, that’s good news.”

“The problem is, that doesn’t exactly serve my interests,” Klaus went on threateningly. “Depending on how things play out, I may need you to retract it.”

“Wh-who even are you people…?”

“Talk. Where did you get those photos from? Did you take them yourself?”

“………”

Raymond averted his gaze. Desperate to change the topic, he glanced around the apartment and sighed. “You mind if I smoke?”

Klaus glanced over at Erna. A look of displeasure flitted across her face, but she clenched her fists and nodded. She was willing to put up with it.

Klaus handed a lighter over to Raymond, who pulled a metal case out of his pocket and popped a cigarette in his mouth. He lit it, took a long drag, and exhaled a big cloud of smoke. “I keep telling you, I can’t give up my source.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“But you—you intrigue me. With the right conditions, I could be convinced to let a few details slip. And if you don’t want to play ball, then go ahead and give me an honorable death right here and now.” Still holding the cigarette in his mouth, Raymond raised his hands in a show of surrender.

“Name your price,” Klaus replied. “You have things you want other than just your safety?”

“Of course I do.” A sarcastic grin spread across Raymond’s face. “Give me your information. What’s going on here in Fend?”

That was Raymond’s sense of duty as a journalist talking. The look in his eyes had changed to that of a consummate professional.

Klaus had no issues with that. Getting in good with a local news source was the oldest move in the espionage playbook. “Have you heard of a group called Serpent?”

“…Hmm?”

“They’re a spy team from the Galgad Empire. You heard about that mass murder over in the United States, right? The official story is that some nutjob called Lillian Hepburn did it, but the truth is, that was Serpent’s handiwork.” Klaus paused for a beat, then went on. “They were involved in Prince Darryn’s assassination.”

“Do you have any proof?”

“The intel is solid. I got it from a friend in the CIM. Have you heard of her? Her name’s ‘Puppeteer’ Amelie, head of the Belias team. The two of us are good buddies. We’ve even been living under the same roof lately.” As he laid out a story that was mostly true with a few lies mixed in, Klaus handed Raymond a few CIM-signed files he’d looted from the burned-down Kashard Doll Workshop. “That’s all I can tell you. Now it’s your turn to talk.”

Raymond gave Klaus an intense stare to try to figure out if he could trust him. He shot a couple of glances over at Erna, too, and spent a long time mulling things over. The smell of the smoke he was exhaling permeated the room, and Erna pinched her nose in disgust.

Eventually, he lowered his voice. “Not a word of this to anyone, okay?

“My source for the article…was a girl. She was beautiful like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Can you describe her?”

“I didn’t get a good look at her, just a brief glimpse of her face. She’s the one who gave me the photos.”

A look spread across Erna’s face as though something had just dawned on her. “Teach, could that be—?”

Klaus said nothing.

Aside from members of their own team, there was only one spy hiding in the Fend Commonwealth who could be reasonably be described as a “girl.” With his final breaths, Vindo had left them a message about the people who’d led Avian to ruin, and one of them was a girl with exposed scars from a wound running down her shoulders—Green Butterfly. Nothing was certain yet, but that could very well have been who Raymond was talking about.

As Erna pensively murmured, “We finally got a lead on Serpent,” Raymond went on with audible delight. “That girl’s going to be the leader of a new institution.” He’d burned through his first cigarette in record time, and he snatched away Erna’s empty cake plate in place of an ashtray to stamp out his butt. “She’s building an anti-government coalition here in Fend and has named herself the leader. We can trust the current administration about as far as we can throw them. Even we can tell how deep traitors and turncoats have wormed their way into the system. If we want to protect Her Majesty’s great nation, we need a new group to do it.”

Hearing that reminded Klaus of something. “…I’ve heard that the mafia and other armed groups have been joining forces recently. Is that what that’s about?”

“What, you already knew? If you want to get pedantic, it isn’t just mafia groups. A bunch of journalists like me have signed on as well.” A crooked smile played at Raymond’s lips. “The group is called the Fires of War.”

Klaus had never heard the name before.

Raymond took out his cigarette case again and plucked out a fresh cig. “That’s as much as I can tell you. If you want more information than that, then it’s your turn to—”

“Hold on.”

“Hmm?”

Klaus gave Raymond a harsh stare. “Tell me—did the girl give you that cigarette case?”

“Huh? How’d you know?” Raymond asked with a confused tilt of the head, to which Klaus gave a very simple answer.

“Because there’s a homing device stuck to the bottom of it.”

The other side had read them like a book.

Raymond stared blankly at the silver cigarette case, and Klaus grabbed it out of his hand. It was longer than it needed to be. Klaus crushed the end with his finger and retrieved the device from within.

Erna rose to her feet, her nose twitching like mad. “Teach!”

“I know.”

The window shattered as something came flying inside.

It was a hand grenade.

Klaus’s body moved on pure instinct. He grabbed Raymond by the collar and dashed to the back of the room. Then he flipped up the dining table to use as a makeshift shield. Raymond wasn’t quite on the same page yet, and he let out a confused “Huh?” as Klaus crammed him behind the table, squeezed Erna’s shoulder tight, and braced himself.

An explosion rang out.

When dealing with grenades, it wasn’t the explosion itself that would kill you, but rather the ensuing shrapnel. As long as you avoided getting hit by the shards, you could emerge completely unscathed. On the other hand, one wrong move could easily prove fatal.

The explosion blasted out the entire window frame, giving them a clear view of the building across the way and of the person standing imposingly atop its roof.

“What…?” Raymond gasped.

It was no wonder he recognized the figure. There were a pair of photos of her seared into his memory.

Klaus wiped the dust off his jacket and walked over to the window. “So you finally show your face.”

The girl standing on the opposite building had cerulean hair and cold, ruthless eyes. She was the one who’d attacked them, that much was clear.

Erna looked like she was about to cry, and she slumped against the wall as though her legs had just gone limp. Through trembling lips, she choked out a few words—the name of the enemy who’d just tried to kill them.

“Big Sis Monika…?”

Monika practically radiated hostility as she stood there. She looked down at them motionlessly, probing them with her gaze. In her hand, she was clutching her pistol.