the section of the CCP where the meeting was usually held, was unaffected by the explosion, however the security system had to be changed, so the trap door was kept closed and there were many guards stationed around that cottage.. everyone approaching it, had to be identified and then allowed to enter into the underground area, then each one would be escorted by guards to the Library hall. Instine had explained to me the new system, because it was based on information reaching the chief about ‘someone breaching the security’ .. which might have contributed to the explosion. It was clear that Wyee was building her case against me as the culprit who broke the rules and caused the disaster. The question remained about her source, and both of us agreed, the only possibility would be .. Cface.. since he was the one present during the whole scenario, and the fact that he authorized himself to go to the surface.
Everyone was present on time for the meeting.. including Wyee. Deemeon went through the usual list of reports with the various castle leaders, and Trapp was so proud of his efforts to rebuild MEMOC and even offered to help in the rebuilding of the damaged CCP. Finally Deemeon looked at Instine and said,
“You all noticed councilor Wyee is with us tonight and she is going to give us an important report.”
But before the sneaky woman had a chance to speak, I calmly butted in,
“I’m afraid the councilor is about to provide us with a highly misleading report of the events which tragically happened in this hallowed castle.”
Everyone in the room was shocked.. and Deemeon turned to look at me with eyes glowing like fire.. She tried to speak, but he waved his hand to stop her.. and then quietly said,
“How do you know commander what she is about to say?”
“She visited me several times in OC Front and tried to persuade me by various means.. by coaxing and by threatening .. to agree with her report .. or else..”
She rushed to object,
“That filthy reptile.. he destroyed our castle and__”
“Stop.” Deemeon shouted, “Is it true? You visited the OC Front and talked to him about the report.”
She got confused for a moment and then regained her balance fast,
“I went to OC Front for many reasons as you know and he is trying to use that as evidence that I talked to him about the report.”
Then he looked at me with his hand waved up to stop her from continuing,
“If she talked to you about the report, then you must know what is in it__”
She tried desperately to interfere,
“He knows what happened.. he caused it all.. so of course he will tell you what is in the report.. give me a chance to explain.”
There was silence for a long while.. then the supreme chief stood up .. walked around the room away from the conferees.. and then came back.. sat down.. and after a while he said,
“Very well.. this is the worst disaster to ever happen in all Vycee .. now the two of you seem to know what happened.. I know the report which my councilor had already given me.. but, before I hear the other side of the story.. there was a third person involved in all these events.. and he is more reliable than both.”
He stopped.. then looked at Instine and said,
“Do you have any input on this matter commander?”
The son of Deemeon was superb.. he just looked at his father sadly and started to speak,
“I’m afraid.. that there was a breach in the security.” He spoke flatly without looking right or left when a big stir of exclamation rose in the room. His father motioned him to continue,
“It started when some of the personnel tried to evict commander Hort from the Library by force, since Cface didn’t bother to tell them that you gave him permission to stay at the library.. I had already asked Cface to tell everyone. Then, when finally the hybrid showed up and apologized, there was a big commotion in ward R1A, and the guards rushed to notify the hybrid and the doctors.. they ignored the presence of Commander Hort and rushed to see what happened, Commander Hort, wanted to find out the way to leave and also wanted, it seemed, to help in case help was needed.. so he followed the procession going to R1A.. at that same time I arrived in the castle.. I was told what happened and rushed myself to the same place.. I saw commander Hort, and we began to hear the explosions, so I directed commander Hort to the nearest gateway and he left. By the time we reached Recreation station, there was chaos and flames, it was not safe to proceed, so I got everyone I could save out. That.. is basically what happened.. you and I went through the chasm created by the explosion together several times.. all the evidence we saw points out to this as the actual sequence of events.”
There was silence in the room for a while.. Deemeon looked at Wyee and then said,
“You seem to have a different story councilor?”
She was smiling ear to ear, and then rushed her words,
“Fabrication to save his ally..” She said triumphantly, “There was sabotage.. definitely there was sabotage.. there was a doctor killed outside.. outside .. on the surface.. long before the explosion.. and both Instine and Hort were there examining him.. he had a knife in his heart.. killed by the escaping prisoners____”
“Ooooooh, wait a minute.” I interrupted, “You are talking as if you were there yourself.. provided that all you say is true.. though there is a big question mark.. how did you know all this precise information? And how can you validate it?”
She got confused for a moment and then she put on a fake smile saying hesitantly,
“Yes. I was not there.. but my source is infallible.” She was almost out of breath but she continued, “you have cooked these lies with Instine all this past week.. you met together___”
Deemeon was not fooled. He raised his voice to interrupt,
“Answer the question.. I pressed you to give me the source and you kept evading.. now, tell us all.. who gave you such exact information if they are really true?”
She kept looking around the room as if to find any sympathetic person.. but even Trapp looked away in fear.. at last she rolled her eyes and shot a fiery look at me saying emphatically,
“Fatal.. the most reliable source there is.”
Deemeon seemed to be troubled.. he thought for a moment and then slowly asked,
“How did Fatal come by this information? He was talking to commander Hort in the Library and___”
“No.. this happened before the explosion and after the argument in the library.. that happened when the doctor notified Fatal about the prisoners’ escape____”
“Prisoners’ escape?” Deemeon repeated incredulously, “this is also information from Fatal? Right? Then how did he.. or you.. know what happened outside? On the surface?”
“He saw it all___” She blurted reluctantly.
“He saw what? He was on the surface?” Deemeon thundered. And everyone was shaken and shrank into their seats.
She couldn’t answer, as she was shaking like everyone else.. then she tried to come up with a plausible excuse.. so she mumbled,
“It .. was.. an emergency..so..”
Deemeon reached behind the curtains and pulled the rope.. the door was opened and the guard entered,
“Summon here The hybrid doctor.. also the meeting has ended and everyone will leave except commander Instine, commander Hort and councilor Wyee.”
The guard left and the others were only very happy to get out of the firing range.. a short while later Cface showed up and stood at the end of the long table.. facing the chief.
“You summoned me chief?”
“Yes.. you told councilor Wyee what happened the night of the explosion.” Deemeon started and stopped, watching the reaction on his most valuable doctor.. I myself was stunned at what I saw.. that starched face immediately reflected the exact emotions a human being could have when faced by such situation.. he leveled his contorted horrid look towards Wyee, then he shifted to look straight at Deemeon.. and after a short silence he spoke steadily,
“Yes Chief. I had to.”
“You had to? And how did you know all these details? Did you go outside the CCP and to the surface? Did you see all these things by yourself?”
Another long hesitation and then the fearless hybrid answered,
“Yes Chief?”
“Did commander Instine give you the authorized code to do that?”
“No chief.”
“Then how could you use the gateway to go to the surface?”
“I am the one who generates all these codes.. so I generated one for myself.”
“What other authorizations did you give for yourself without commander Instine knowing about it?” Deemeon was becoming furious, yet he was holding back remarkably
“I had to meet councilor Wyee several times.”
“Why was that so important?”
“Because commander Instine was .. commander Instine didn’t listen to my warnings.”
“Warning about what?”
“Commander Hort.”
“What did you warn Instine about.. what was wrong with commander Hort?”
“Chief.. commander Hort is.. he is .. an apostate.”
“You.. you decided that on your own?”
“Councilor Wyee agrees with me.”
“Of course.. after you told her? Right?”
He shook his head agreeing.. just like a human would respond. Then Deemeon said sarcastically,
“Did you know.. my most advanced hybrid of great intelligence.. commander Hort had killed more Vino soldiers in the battle of Primore than any other commander? Did you know that commander Hort was instrumental in capturing the most important prisoner we wanted and chased for almost two years? Do you remember how you.. yourself, together with the calculating machine agreed with Bryane that commander Hort would be the most crucial person in all the future of our country? Have you lost all the programming we worked on for the past three years?
He was screaming madly.. There was silence for awhile, then Fatal said unwaveringly,
“My diagnosis is accurate.”
Now Deemeon roared,
“So when the commander doesn’t agree with you, you go ahead and give yourself the authority to do whatever you want. Is that it? You will overrule the commander.. or anyone else who does not agree with you. Is that so?”
There was no answer.. then Deemeon thundered,
“Shut down.”
The Cface hybrid spoke very slowly,
“Would .. be .. a mistake .. to___”
“Shut down.” The chief roared again.
The hybrid creature tilted his head to the front, then to the back, and to the front again.. his arms went to the side of his torso and appeared to shut down. Deemeon motioned Instine, so the latter got up.. walked to the back of the hybrid.. seemed to work on some mechanism.. and the chief pulled the rope and ordered the guard to get the hybrid out and into the detention area under strict guard.
The place remained very quiet for some time.. everyone thinking.. what would be next? Soon enough, the unrelenting Wyee was the first to speak,
“so you destroyed your most important invention.. for what? Just because he told you the truth.. just because.. um.. a small violation.. just___”
Deemeon waved his hand to shut her up saying,
“You don’t know what I am doing.. so stop blabbering. First, I didn’t destroy Cface, I actually discovered a very important unexpected tool, in my future war against Vinovia.. very important ..and very powerful.. as for the second part.. the violation was huge.. very big.. if left untreated properly, he would overrule me .. me myself would not be able to control him.”
He looked at Instine and then continued with a strange glow in his eyes,
“There must be a flaw in the programming E2 has put in.. a flaw in the human control module.. we have to find it out for the fourth generation hybrid.. and if we can correct it in Cface then we can reactivate him.”
“Yes Chief, but.. unfortunately E2 died in the explosion. We have to recall Bryane back here.. May be Schwaine can take over in DC.”
“Yeah.. we have to look into that.”
“So what is the great discovery you found? And .. and who is E2?” I ventured to butt in.
He looked at me as if he just realized I was still in the room, then he smiled and answered slowly,
“I forgot.. you have an unrelenting desire to learn.. a problem.. but maybe not a bad problem.. all things considered.. well.” He looked at Wyee and then back at me and continued, “E2 is the team of engineers of stage 2.. you see.. I never planned to give the knowledge of the hybrid to the Vinovians.. but now this discovery, of the flaw in the programming.. well, it inspired me.. what if we introduce this knowledge, with the flaw embedded into it.. knowing the insatiable human desire to know more .. they shall certainly reach the point of developing the third generation hybrid.. exactly like Cface.”
“and their fate is sealed.” I completed the sentence for him.
He cracked up laughing uncontrollably .. and when he stopped he said,
“Ever since I introduced the first piece of knowledge to humans, they never stopped asking for more.. just like a hungry man who keeps eating but never gets satisfied.”
“He gorges himself to death.” I completed the sentence for him again.
He looked at Wyee and said pointing at me,
“”That is why I like this human.. he understands me.. it is like I was his teacher all his life.”
She took the advantage right away,
“Except he betrayed you.. you heard what Cface had said.. he saw it all by himself.” She yelled pointing at me as well.
He reluctantly turned to look at me inquisitively.. So, I looked at Instine and realized we have to jump to the next expected phase.. so I started to speak steadily,
“There are certain information that we didn’t want to be public. It would greatly undermine the credibility and security of this castle.”
He became attentive and passed his look among all of us, then prodded me to continue, but Instine took over,
“You know that commander Hort was in the library arguing with the Cface.. then the doctor rushed in to tell the hybrid that there was chaos in the R1A.. that part is very accurate.”
He hesitated for a moment to watch the anxious look on Wyee’s face..then continued,
“At that point, we suspect.. that the prisoners had overpowered the guards and got out of their confinement.. they forced one of the doctors to take them out and then killed him.. that is why, when I saw commander Hort, I thought it would be good to have him help in the investigation as long as he should go out anyway.. we went to the surface.. I thought Hort had grabbed Cface in the way out and that is why I didn’t pay attention to his presence outside.”
The CCP commander was very calm and convincing.. then he added,
“First we didn’t want to make the existence of a gateway public.. it would undermine all our security system.. anyone with a code, would be able to bypass the trap door original system, second, we thought keeping the fact about the prisoners overpowering the guards under wraps for a while until we find out how this happened in the first place.. now thanks to the councilor’s intervention and blabbering all over the place.. our efforts for security are going to be much harder.. much.. harder.”
Now Deemeon leveled his look at his councilor and demanded an answer,
“why .. why did you make that elaborate effort.. your effort has actually lead to the destruction of Cface and the exposure of the security.. why?”
She didn’t answer immediately, so I ventured to respond,
“I can answer that.”
He turned an astonished face to me, so I continued,
“From the beginning.. even before I recover from my memory loss.. she instructed Geetieh to give me no information which might “help me advance in the ranks” her exact words.. attributing this to the chief who considered me ‘A most dangerous person’”
“How do you know that?” Deemeon asked
“I asked Geetieh.”
She exploded saying,
“That lying dog.. he is lying .. you are lying.. why would I do that.. I had not interest in any of this.. I was helping you every step___”
“Yeah.. you were helping me in the OC prison food court .. when you suggested that I could have a strong ally if I teamed with you to be stronger than Deemeon himself.”
The chief was shocked.. Instine almost laughed.. and she knew I was exaggerating what she said and became furious,
“You lying reptile.. I never said anything like that.. are you crazy?”
Now both Deemeon and Instine were laughing out loud, as Deemeon finally said,
“Councilor.. you didn’t deny that you talked to him in the OC prison.. but you just admitted that probably you said it .. in a.. a.. an indirect way.”
But I was not finished,
“Then you came after the explosion to threaten me at the OC headquarters.. you wanted me to betray Instine confidence and blame him on the explosion.. you didn’t wait till the morning.. you came in the middle of the night..talking to Metz and the other soldiers__”
She kept talking over my voice to shut me up..
“Fabrications.. lies.. fabrications.. stop”
When finally I stopped and she continued to shout at me.. Deemeon spoke firmly,
“There seems to be enough witnesses to prove what he said.. if these were lies.. then I must be proud of you Hort.”
We all looked at him in surprise.. then he smiled and said,
“You only read a few pages of my book ‘The Art of Lying’ and look what you accomplished.. I’m afraid if you read the whole book, we shall all be in trouble.”
He roared up laughing.. then he was joined by Instine.. and slowly I joined in.
That night ended in a very strange way.. for I became the councilor to the chief instead of Wyee, and she was put on hold until he would decide what to do with her. But none of us were fooled by these changes, since we all knew what kind of strong sway she had over him.
The days went by and I had my plans to revisit the enchanting forest. However, I was required to report daily to the BKC, besides my duties at OC Front.. not to mention the constant nagging of Instine to supervise with him the investigation in the chasm created by the explosion.. descending into that huge void was a scary process, even though the workers had managed to create some form of mechanism to help us go down there and move around relatively safely. What I saw there was fascinating.. the damaged equipment and the unbelievable inventions which were destroyed.. one time I was going over some of the wreckage with Instine and he said,
“This is part of the calculating machine.”