Darius spent the next two days on a rather fruitless investigation. He went through the entire post-mortem report on Caima Rocha once more, this time in the presence of the surgeon Oxern. A detailed comparison of the version that had reached Atlantis and the one presented by the shehed revealed no discrepancies, apart from the dates. A review of the evidence gathered also yielded nothing new; apart from personal belongings, the identity documents of all three friends, and a handful of metal fragments of unknown origin, nothing else had been found.
Consulting the city archives proved more helpful. Among other things, he managed to begin translating the prayer book found in the inn. Instead of a title or a prayer to a specific deity, the first page contained the quote Fides in Deum ducit ad veritatem, Faith in God leads to truth. The next few lines resembled an introduction to monastic doctrine more than the beginning of a prayer.
More importantly, however, he managed to find out a little more about the plague that had struck the unfortunate village a quarter of a century earlier. The description in the archive pointed to smallpox, though the clerk who made the entry had deigned to add a small note in the margin, in which he expressed his doubts, pointing to the very low mortality rate and the disease's negligible contagiousness. Given the small scale of the outbreak and the lack of cases outside that one village, no one had bothered to investigate the matter further. Everyone had agreed on the smallpox version and closed the case file, attaching a list of victims.
Meanwhile, Darius felt like swearing up a storm. He had learnt something important, and once again he had to place a big question mark over the information. Moreover, it didn't help at all that he had no one to talk to about such a distant past. All the officials who might have remembered anything fell into two groups: those who had passed away and those who had left shortly after Murphey took up the post of governor. Whatever the reason, they were now beyond Bleist's reach.
The only certain piece of information seemed to be that Caim Rocha, the only person of that name from the village north of the town of Bushtabhar, had died as a result of the plague that raged in 1677. Of course, this did absolutely nothing to clarify the identity of the more recent victim. Ultimately, Darius could only put off investigating the matter until he had consulted the City Watch archives.
The other Guardsmen were no luckier either. Through more and less official channels, they gathered information around the city. Not only about the murder, but also about the enclave itself, the governor, the lieutenant, and all manner of rumours. Darius hoped that by casting their net so wide, they might find something useful regarding the other matters they had to attend to. They found out a lot, but nothing they hadn't known before. Of course, it came as no surprise that the current governor did not enjoy a particularly good reputation and many people spoke of him almost contemptuously. The lieutenant, on the other hand, was spoken of rather neutrally, or not at all. One could get the impression that the military man remained outside the sphere of interest of the town's inhabitants, or that Murphy was the one attracting all their attention.
Two days of surveillance of the designated contact points for the agents also yielded no results, and they had failed to make contact with the local network. It was a futile hope, given the Azure Guard's report of no news, but it was always worth a try. Now all that remained was to check the hideouts described in the documents, though finding them was not as easy as Darius would have liked. For security reasons, there was no map with the locations precisely marked, and information on the places used by the agents had been gathered specifically for Darius's sake. Unfortunately for Bleist, only four were official and, as described, easy to find; the problem began with those that had already been set up by local field agents. With their own safety in mind, they skilfully avoided going into the details of the hideouts. The command didn't mind, so no one probed further into their locations.
Interestingly, the rumours gathered in Bushtabhar contained nothing to suggest that the Quel-naza were active in the region. There had indeed been attacks on caravans, but the locals did not regard this as anything new, let alone welcome. In short, the local mood could be summed up as being concerned solely with trade and the benefits it brought.
Darius sighed heavily and reached for some strongly brewed tea. He wanted to give himself at least a little respite, although on the other hand he himself had been pushing for the matter to be resolved as quickly as possible. The lack of clear progress did not inspire optimism, and even if they had managed to uncover something, it turned out to only complicate everything they had known so far.
Earl flinched as Rex entered the room. He, too, looked tired, in some ways even more so than Bleist. Unfortunately for the corporal, he not only had to deal with his duties as deputy commander, but it had also fallen to him to fend off the governor's persistent messengers. One might think that Murphy was incapable of accepting a refusal of an invitation, and what's more, he was becoming increasingly blunt in his communication. Darius sensed, however, that sooner or later he would have to confront the ensign. Everything pointed to the fact that he wouldn't be able to avoid it.
'Colonel, a group of detainees apprehended at the northern entrance to the enclave has arrived at the citadel,' he reported, scanning the room for something to drink. 'Lieutenant Al-Satar is already questioning Sergeant Badu about what happened at the outpost.'
'He won't have much to be pleased about.' Darius closed his dictionary and stretched.
'Indeed, he wasn't happy,' Rex finally got hold of the water jug and poured himself a cup. 'In my opinion, he'll want to sort this out today.'
'We both know that's impossible. Besides, the lieutenant must realise that nothing will happen without the investigators and staff officers. We can talk, exchange views, hell, even question the suspects, but all decisions will be in the hands of the regional chief of staff.' Not wanting to wait for someone to come and interrupt their conversation, Bleist began to get ready to leave.
'Do you think the lieutenant won't cause any trouble?' Rex looked at his superior with curiosity.
'Certainly less than the governor.' There was no doubt about that. Al-Satar didn't seem like a confrontational person, and above all, he gave the impression of a competent and conscientious officer. 'Let's get this over with, Rex. We'll have to go through it all again with the investigators from Alexandria, but we have no choice. Until they're here, we'll have to sort it out ourselves.'
*****************************************************************************************************
It wasn't difficult to find the prisoners who had been brought in and the local officers. In fact, there was no need to look for them at all, as they were standing in the citadel's main square, whilst Badu and Al-Satar were engaged in a heated discussion. As soon as Darius approached them, the lieutenant came over to him with a grim expression. He didn't get a chance to ask the reason for the whole incident before Darius beat him to it.
'During the search of the northern outpost at the entrance to the enclave, amongst the belongings of those stationed there...' He pointed to the ragged men standing in two rows. The pair who had been somewhat dazed during the commotion at the checkpoint were leaning against a rickety cart. 'We found pure Aphalis on them.'
Al-Satar's expression darkened instantly. He must have known exactly what that meant, especially for everyone present at the outpost. Whereas a second ago the officer had seemed ready for a fierce argument, now he was genuinely frightened.
'We need to notify headquarters…' He began to speak to himself, casting uncertain glances at the entire group of twelve detainees.
'I've already sent the report. I expect a designated investigator to arrive here with backup within three days at the latest.' Darius interrupted him. 'Until then, everyone will remain under arrest, held in the dungeon and guarded by the soldiers. Consequently, Governor Murphy must also be informed of the arrest of his subordinates. Furthermore, I shall request detailed information regarding the forces present throughout Bushtabhar, their locations and designated outposts. I also hope for assistance with the interrogations.'
'Yes, yes, of course.' The lieutenant merely nodded, completely taken aback. For a brief moment he seemed lost and absent-minded, but he quickly pulled himself together. 'I'll send for Oxern to check on them...' A long moment passed before Al-Satar moved and went to issue orders to his soldiers.
'It went better than I expected,' muttered Darius, making sure only Rex could hear him. 'No shouting or trying to bend reality.'
'He wouldn't have got anywhere anyway.' The corporal refrained from snorting. 'He knows full well we could have locked them all up without even looking for an excuse. Although the state of that god-awful outpost would have been enough on its own.'
'Eh. I just hope it's not us who have to talk to Murphy about arresting his men.' Bleist could only hope he hadn't jinxed it.
**************************************************************************************************
The surgeon efficiently examined all the detainees before they were taken to their cells. As it turned out, the citadel's underground passages contained quite spacious dungeons capable of holding nearly a hundred prisoners. Apart from the mercenaries who were just being locked up, there was no one else there at that moment.
'Most of them are not ill, if we don't count all the symptoms of acute alcohol poisoning.' Oxern approached Darius and Al-Satar, who were standing in the narrow corridor leading outside. 'The problem is those two.' He pointed at the unconscious soldiers, their eyes staring blankly into space. 'I don't know how much of that damn stuff they took, but I don't think there's anyone capable of helping them.' For the first time, the shehed's emotions were visible on his face. A mixture of revulsion and helplessness was etched upon his features.
'Less than a vial,' Blesit stated, thinking of the nasty liquid. 'I'd say a third remains.'
'In that case, I'd go so far as to say that the very fact they're alive is something of a miracle.' Oxern seemed quite well acquainted with many aspects of how various addictive substances work. When he heard what the two strangely behaving soldiers might have taken and looked with distaste at the sealed vial, he knew immediately what he would have to deal with. Given the surgeon's general demeanour and his abilities, which far exceeded those of an ordinary medic, Darius suspected that the shehed's story was not at all as simple as it seemed. Once again in Bushtabhar, it turned out that everything had a hidden side, a secret, or God knows what else. 'Perhaps it's down to the purity of the drug.' The surgeon pondered. 'It completely destroyed their minds, but it didn't kill them.' He shook his head as if trying to deny reality.
'I'm more concerned about where they got it from,' the pale-faced lieutenant interjected. Ever since he'd found out what they were dealing with, he'd carried out every order related to the investigation without a murmur.
'We won't be able to ask them anymore,' Oxern said sarcastically, but his fiery gaze made it clear that wasn't his intention.
'We'll have to question the rest of Murphy's men,' Darius felt his head begin to throb at the very thought of endless interviews and extracting bits of information.
'I doubt they know anything.' The surgeon sighed heavily. 'The ones from the outpost, perhaps… If they were sober for even a moment.'
'If we put the pressure on them, they'll have to start talking.' Bleist gritted his teeth.
'They probably would, but they won't know anything.' Oxern gestured behind him. 'They're our own, after all.'
Both Darius and Al-Satar looked at the shehed in surprise.
'They've been to see me a few times with... various problems,' the surgeon continued. 'Unfortunately, often enough that I've remembered them. It's a shame about them.'
Earl hadn't asked earlier which unit the two belonged to and had assumed they were among the governor's mercenaries. There were therefore three soldiers at the gate. Darius fell into thought. They must have been guarding the passage together, taking turns.
'There were three vials,' the colonel said, suppressing the urge to punch the wall. 'The open one has a third of the dose left.' He looked over Oxern's shoulder into the opposite corridor leading to the cells. 'Someone will answer our questions, though.'