RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 207

“Do you know of other members of the military who had worked along with Jane?” asked Balthazar.

“No. I knew about a few, but they all died in the blast,” said Khalid.

“Then, I have no use of you, and I don’t want to help a person who had been responsible for something that caused me to almost die, even if you did it under duress,” said Balthazar. “I would just be marked as someone who had shielded a traitor and a deserter.”

“No, I am not a deserter. Would a deserter willing get among so many people to visit you? That is just suicidal. I am not a deserter. I never wanted to quit the force. I had no options but to do this for the safety of my wife and child,” said Khalid almost tearing up.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Balthazar. He pitied Khalid for his situation, but he couldn’t believe him completely. At the back of his mind, he even wondered if Khalid had been fabricating the entire story and had just been trying to infiltrate their ranks. He couldn’t do anything without proof. He needed to at least get a hold of Khalid’s family, but till he is vetted the only place he could put Khalid was the prison. Before that all he could do was to ask him more questions and tense him enough to see if he accidentally let out any information. “I can hardly do anything for you other than postponing your death sentence for some time.”

“You could tell the force that I was your man and helped to investigate the culprits behind the explosion. You clearly didn’t want to reveal the truth for some reason and that is the reason Jane, me and others are not being considered traitors. This would also give you a plausible reason,” said Khalid.

“Hahaha,” laughed Balthazar. “You want me to just take your word that you are a good man. For all I know you could be a spy and I don’t know how you managed to reach Asklepian while hiding. And why would I do it for you? Your actions irrespective of the reason almost caused me to die and you are of no help to me at all.”

“Moreover, we just behaved in a manner that indicated we didn’t know about him in front of D.i.c.k. It wouldn’t be an easy task to convince him that this half n.a.k.e.d idiot worked for us,” said Glen.

“I can give you the names of the people who conspired. I came to know of them when I was working with Jane. She wanted be to join her cause and let out some information to try and convince me,” said Khalid.

“But you just said all the military personnel that participated in her scheme at the base were all killed in the explosion. You being the obvious exception.”

“They aren’t military personnel. It wasn’t just military personnel who were involved in this plan. They had support to be able co-ordinate with them,” said Khalid.

“I hope you have a name other than Rowleys.”

“Yes, I have another name. Dave. He was the man in charge.”

“Dave. He knows about Dave?” thought Balthazar. Though Balthazar remembered the name and outline of the man, he didn’t have much else to track him other than the fact that he was a member of the Nirbaadh pirates.

“A known name, but he wasn’t found even after the dire circ.u.mstances of the Nirbaadh pirates,” said Balthazar. “You have any other useful things?”

“Yes, but I know details about him. He is the younger brother of the captain of the Nirbaadh pirates,” said Khalid.

“What? You sure?” asked Glen as Balthazar also leaned in.

“Yes. I overheard him refer to the captain as his elder brother. If not a true brother, they are at least brothers in arms.”

“Either way, we know that the captain had a younger brother called Asuragana Dharma Pratap. We would find more information if we catch up to him,” said Glen.

“True, but I am not willing to promise anything. I will protect your family.”

“Thank you. Thanks a lot,” started Khalid as Balthazar held up his hand stopping him.

“You can consider them prisoners. They will have freedom but will always be under surveillance. I will inform Evelyn that you were my man, but I am not sure of your loyalties anymore. So, you will be a prisoner till we verify your information,” said Balthazar.

“I am fine with that. They are being pressured by my debtors. I hope you can provide them sanctuary,” said Khalid.

“You hinted that there was someone else you knew to be responsible.”

“Yes. Harry Drudgers, the industrialist.”

“Any proof?” asked Glen.

“None. I can’t give you any such information.”

“In that case, I will let Evelyn Price decide your fate. You will be in contact with her,” said Balthazar.

“No. No. You just told you would help me.”

“I will tell her that you were my man and helped me with the situation, but it looks like you are not much useful. So, I will let her take care of you. I will inform her that you are being hunted. So, she will take appropriate precautions, but I am sure she will also interrogate you. It is best you stick to your story,” said Balthazar. “Your family will be put under the care by me personally. I will make sure they come to know harm and they will be monitored all day long.”

“I can be useful to you. I have managed to cover the eyes of some many personnel and managed to modify an entire defense system which could have crippled an entire moon base,” said Khalid still trying to convince Balthazar of his usefulness. If he was sent to other people, he was not sure of his situation. Balthazar would still keep him safe as he was sure that the colonel was not in cahoots with the knights, but he couldn’t be sure of the others.

“Why do you want to be under him?” asked Glen who found Khalid’s request suspicious.

“Because I am sure he is not one of the enemies.”

“But staying alongside him is very dangerous. There is a much higher chance that you would get into enemy eyes if you are alongside us.”

“You don’t know about the number of people who tried to kill us the past few days. There are always someone who are in their pockets,” said Khalid. It was clear to both Balthazar and Glen that Khalid had been extremely frightened for his life and those of his family.

“He could be useful,” said Balthazar looking at Glen. He couldn’t deny from his achievement that Khalid was quite technically capable and might be of use during their trip.

“Would you be confident in letting him guard your six?” asked Glen. He knew that Balthazar was considering recruiting Khalid, but the circ.u.mstances of his visit and his story were very suspicious.

Balthazar couldn’t refute Glen’s concerns. Khalid was extremely suspicious and there wasn’t the slightest chance that he could trust Khalid’s words. It would unwise for him to have someone along with him without a minimum amount of trust and confidence. He would have to split his concentration and focus on Khalid to make sure that Khalid isn’t doing anything detrimental to him.

“So, it is best if we leave him at the family. We can have someone monitoring him,” continued Glen taking Balthazar’s silence as concurrence with his own views. “Him being a major is reason who was involved with the sabotage is reason enough for the family to keep him in observation. His family would also be put under observation so that he wouldn’t get any stupid ideas.”

“How long?” asked Khalid. Though he helped Jane, he never wanted that kind of life. He wanted to continue in his post at the military and it gave him a lot of benefits. He didn’t want to lose them if there was a chance.

“Until your words are proven true or you can prove yourself to be a loyal and useful person,” said Glen.

“But my career at the military. What about that? I don’t want to be marked a traitor or deserter.”

“Leave that to me. I will talk with Ichigo and Evelyn, but you will be in the family for some duration. I will try my best to help you. You must understand your situation well. There is little I can help you with if you do not have any useful information. So, first start with Harry drudgers,” said Balthazar as he heard a knocking on the door.

“D.i.c.k has arrived with the other two,” said Balthazar. “I will inform them that I didn’t recognize Khalid as he wasn’t supposed to meet me here much less in a disguise. That is the same reason I will use to have him under suspicion of changing allegiances,” he suggested to the other two in the room and went to open the door.

D.i.c.k followed by Evelyn and Ichigo got into the room. They were quite surprised when they heard that a supposedly dead man had been following Balthazar. They had a lot of doubts regarding his escape. It wasn’t an easy task to travel to Asklepian under a false identity. If Khalid had used his original identity, he would have been immediately flagged for using a dead military official’s identity. So, they were wondering about the secrets that Khalid held. This was the same reason for Balthazar and Glen to hold Khalid under suspicion to be a spy. The only reason they didn’t execute him was that they couldn’t clearly understand him, and it didn’t make sense for the enemy to send a person of his capabilities to spy at them.

“I would suggest you start with explaining how you managed to get here without using your identity as a major,” said Glen. He knew that it was not possible for Khalid to come here without someone forging an identity for him and intended to know if the corresponding party was a friend or foe or a new player.

“I expected that there would be problems and they would realize that I am a double agent. So, I have already had a few doc.u.ments forged and kept ready. I knew a man called Rock in the underworld,” said Khalid. “He helped me with them.”

“Why didn’t you come to the military after the explosion?” asked Ichigo.

“My cover was already blown. There were people after me and I didn’t know whom I could trust in that situation. The only one I trusted was him and I had to pull my family out of danger,” said Khalid pointing to Balthazar.

“So, I ran away from the planet. After I learned that you were recuperating in Asklepian, I came here,” continued Khalid making up a story so that D.i.c.k and the others would think he was not a traitor but actually was helping Balthazar.

“That is well, but I still don’t understand how they came to know that you were my man,” said Balthazar. “I even let you successfully sabotage the defense systems and let them test it with merchant vessels before rectifying it. They shouldn’t have had any doubts unless someone whom I didn’t account for was working for them.”

“He could be the one who is actually a triple agent. Have you thought of that?” came a message from Evelyn on his wrist band.

“That is my primary concern. I knew that they wanted to kill me for some reason and there was a high chance that even Jane was an expendable asset to them. So, I want to put him under lock and observation. He would be bait,” replied Balthazar through his device.

“I will leave it to you then,” said Evelyn aloud. “What about his posting?” she asked Ichigo who had been watching the messages.

“He could be considered a special asset in need of protection for now. Let me put him as an asset who is under the Colonel for special use. There would be no other details. This is the best I can do,” offered Ichigo. “But we need to be kept informed about any information you get.”

“Then, let us listen to him. He insists that Harry Drudgers was involved,” said Balthazar looking towards Khalid. “Even if you don’t have any proof, I suppose you have an idea about his intentions and involvement, don’t you?”

“Yes. I heard them talk about it. PK-170-B was not the only thing that they had planned for. It was just the starting point. The citadel provides a way to land onto the planet PK-170 and obviously all contracts involved would have to be approved by the Colonel in charge,” said Khalid.

“I thought that the Rowleys involvement was for the same and we are sure that they were involved in the event,” said D.i.c.k disagreeing with Khalid. “Moreover, it is not possible for them to take advantage over it if the apes occupied the moon.”

“No, the border forces would let them be on the moon for long. Even if I failed, they would retaliate with greater forces and take back the citadel. The only issue would be that the citadels infrastructure would have to be rebuilt and I would be demoted for my failure while Jane would probably be put in my place if she had the proper contacts,” said Balthazar.

“That is right. Harry was just one of the few people who were going to recommend Jane. He had contracts with the military, but Jane looked down upon him. Something about a rivalry between the drudgers and someone in the military,” said Khalid.

“There is no way that idiot is going to get any chance around the border force. Brixton already in odds with them. The attack was probably to meant to also reduce his political influence, but the newly found information about the apes from the wreckage actually increased his influence,” said Ichigo.

“Anyway, thanks for informing us about him,” said Evelyn Price looking sternly at Khalid. She was suspicious about Khalid even though Balthazar supported him. She had a feeling that even Balthazar is hiding something from her, but she didn’t decide to delve into it as the Blyth’s supported her family and weren’t going to change the political association anytime soon. “Let us get back to the party. I will let him be with you for now, but I hope you get some more results soon.”

“Yeah, let it be so. Winston has already arrived with a number of guests. It is best if you come with us. I believe D.i.c.k and your bodyguard can handle the Major for now,” said Ichigo.

“OK. D.i.c.k, please stay for some time. We need to talk,” said Balthazar as he opened the door and went out of the room.

“He has quite a number of secrets,” thought D.i.c.k looking at Khalid.

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