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‘Where is she?’ the monsigneur demanded as he hurried out of his shuttle. He was escorted by his aid and eight Vanguard soldiers.

‘She is currently in one of our interrogation rooms,’ the chief replied. ‘If you will follow me, I’ll take you to her.’

‘Good,’ the monsigneur replied. ‘We were happy to learn that sister Margaret was still alive. Our prayers have been answered. I assume you have already made the proper arrangements to release her to our custody?’

The chief looked surprised – which he veined, because he had anticipated the request – and shook his head. ‘No, I’m afraid not. I wasn’t aware there was any necessaty for it.’

‘That’s alright. As long as you get them ready now, so we can take her with us, I won’t lodge a formal complaint with your superiors,’ the monsigneur spoke, veining a kind and considerate smile.

The chief glared over his shoulder at the eight soldiers, who followed them towards the hangar exit. ‘First of all, your men will have to stay here.’

‘What?’ the monsigneur hollered. ‘I demand…’

The chief interrupted him. ‘You can demand all you want your emminance, but if they set one foot outside of this hangar, my men will consider them to be armed intruders, and will respond accordingly. You have no need for them, so they aren’t going anywhere.’

‘But… but…’ the chubby face of the priest turned bright red.

‘Secondly, I can’t release the girl into your custody, because she isn’t in ours.’

‘But you just said she is here!’

‘She is, she’s just not in our custody. She hasn’t commited any crime, so she was never arrested. She is however a witness for the state in two major cases… Which reminds me of the fact that she is not who you said she is.’

‘This is outragous. I demand that you hand her over to me immediately. You can be sure I will contact your superiors, and by the time I am done with you, you will be lucky if they will let you scrub the lavitory’s at ILEA headquarters!’ the monsigneur bursted out.

The chief grinned. ‘I suggest we continue this conversation in my office, shall we? If you still feel like contacting my superiors, I’ll even let you use my comm.’

It didn’t take them long to reach the office, and the tension between the two men could be cut with a knife. The chief closed the door to his office as soon as the monsigneur had entered, but only after instructing his secretary that they were not be disturbed.

‘You’d better have a good explanation for all of this,’ the monsigneur barked.

Without a word, the chief threw a datasheet with the supplied picture of sister Margaret on his desk, in plain sight of the monsigneur. ‘I’d like for you to explain to me,’ he said, and slapped another datasheet next to the first, this one a picture of Emma taken a few hours earlier, ‘… how your nuns seems to get younger over time?’

The monsigneur looked at both pictures, and glared along his eyebrows to the chief. ‘Is this some sort of joke?’

‘You tell me,’ the chief responded dryly. ‘We have also been able to date that picture by experts, and it is at least fifty years old. Still you claim that the girl on the other picture is the same person, this sister Margaret.’

‘This is propesperous!’ the monsigneur hollored. ‘You have no proof…’

‘It’s right there in front of you. Although I must admit both women could have been identical twins, you could never have confused them. Your sister Margaret should be about eighty these days, but Emma, the woman you claim is sister Margaret, is still in her early twenties. Do you care to explain to me how you came to make that mistake?’

‘This conversation is over,’ the priest snarled, having no answer he really wanted to share with the chief. ‘I demand…’

The chief was fed up with the monsigneur’s broken record act. ‘Destruction of private property, reckless endangerment, attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, terrorist activity, intimidation of witnesses, bribery of witnesses, withholding information from investagating officers of the law, obstruction of justice, and not to mention giving false testimony,’ the chief rattled off. ‘That’s quite a list of charges you could be looking at.’

‘You wouldn’t dare! You have no proof!’ he hollored indignant.

‘I have two witnesses who are willing to testify that your soldiers attacked them in an attempt to kidnap her – he pointed at Emma’s picture – and kill the trader you had us arrested. You attacked a space station when doing this, took it over, locked it down – thus keeping over a thousand people hostage, damaged it internally and externally, intimidated and / or bribed several witnesses to your crime into silence, you send us after Mr. Octar on fake accusations to get your hands on your so called sister Margaret, who turnes out to be someone else, and you expected us to hand her over to you. Believe me, monsigneur, I can make this stick on you, and your millitant Vanguard like flies on honey. By the time I get through with you, you’ll spend the rest of your life in a maximum security prison getting butt fucked a two meter tall Horallian named Bromm!’ Now, the chief’s face had turned a nice bright red.

The monsigneur gasped for breathe, plummeted down in the nearest seat and stared at the two pictures. ‘But… but…’ he murmured. He looked at the chief, who was looking at him with a penetrating stare. He descided to surrender. ‘What do you want?’

‘That Vanguard of you has been a thorn in my side for a very long time. You people think you can do anything you like, and get away with it, just because you pretend to work in name of some deity. I’m giving you a choice; dismantle the Vanguard, and reduce it to a small security force in charge of guarding your temples, churches and convints, or I take these charges, and all of the evidence and slam it onto the desk of the minister of Justice. Believe me; it will be a stack of datasheets he’ll not be able to ignore or put a lid on even if he wanted to. Besides that, it is also quite possible some of it gets leaked to the press.’

‘That’s blackmail!’

‘I consider it a leaneant deal,’ the chief responded. ‘I know you like neither options, but I never told you to abuse your power. Looks like you got careless, thought no one would touch you. Sloppy and stupid. You have yourself to thank for this. May I also suggest an early retirement for yourself?’

‘And the girl?’ he wanted to know. ‘We need her. No deal without the girl.’

The chief laughed mockingly. ‘You’re not in a position to make demands. You should be grateful she even wanted to talk to you after you tried to kidnap her! She’s where I said she i. Give me your definitive answer, and I will take you to her. If she is willing to go with you voluntairily, she is free to do so, but I wouldn’t count on it.’

The monsigneur sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t see a way out of it, and couldn’t believe he had been so careless. This entire affair had been one big nightmare. Not only had he lost the Lady, but he had destroyed the House’s private army – the Vanguard – in the process. Early retirement needn’t be a demand by the chief, the leaders of the church would demand it of him after this disaster. ‘Agreed,’ he sighed. ‘Now take me to see the girl.’ He hoped he could convince her to come with him. That would at least save his career.