The Andre Miller Saga

Andre Miller 70 The Survivor

Matthews told the woman in the bed that he had brought Andre as requested.

Andre entered the room and she sat herself up in the electric bed and turned her head to view him. Even though her face was heavily bandaged he could tell that one of her eyes had swollen shut.

She cleared her throat and took a drink of water, after which she spoke, "Hello, Andre."

Andre recognized the voice instantly even though it was slightly slurred by the damage she had taken. Years of trauma and anger boiled up all at once, he looked at her with an icy glare.

"Fontaine."

"Beg pardon?" said Detective Matthews.

"Her name. It's Lydia Fontaine. She's a lawyer for Houseton, Reba, and Kline. I haven't seen her in over 3 years and it's far too soon."

"Former attorney. Houseton, Reba, and Kline liquidated my position and, how to put it nicely? Transferred me into the hands of the people you rescued me from. That was 3 years and some months ago. Since then, I've been their go-to punching bag and plaything. I assume you caught some of them when I was rescued. But I doubt you caught them."

"I'm confused," said Detective Matthews, "the same Lydia Fontaine who is currently wanted for terrorism, and a host of other charges?"

"That would be her, yes." Said Andre.

"I'll be happy to confess to everything and give you intimate details about how Houseton, Reba, and Kline, and the Infernal House Retaltan, orchestrated and executed the terror attacks that you know about and the backup plan that was prevented from going into action. I'll tell you everything I know about my captors for the past 3 years. I'll give you enough evidence to bury them to whatever depth you prefer. I only have a few small conditions. The main one being I only speak with Andre Miller. You can have a recorder running and give him a list of questions, but if you want to know about any of it, I only speak with him." She coughed weakly and took another drink of her water.

Andre turned around and walked out of the room, Kris was right behind him, as was Detective Matthews.

"I need to call this in." said Matthews, "We've been after her for 3 years. My cousin is one of the mana burned. We're going to put her in a cell under the prison and she's not going to see light again until judgment day."

Andre sat down in one of the hall seats as Matthews used his phone to call in and reported. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed heavily.

Kris sat next to him, "That Fontaine?" she asked.

"Yeah, the one and only. She's been a menace to the family for a decade and now if we want to take down HRK, House Retaletan, and whoever was holding her I must work with her. I don't know if I can do it. There's too much." He pinched the bridge of his nose and the strain of the situation was obvious on his face.

"I'm going to call the others; they should know that she's here and all but holding you hostage."

"Just, just wait. We'll tell the others but I need to get my head around this first. She was one of HRKs big guns, she oversaw trying to capture Frankie for a long time. She knows their ins and outs better than just about anyone. She's a thrall so deep in contracts that silver would probably discolor if I set it next to her." He leaned back in the chair and stretched, "When she failed with the mana bombs, I had them spare her life. I wanted her to suffer the humiliation of defeat, but I never anticipated they would do something like this. I should have, but I didn't."

"Heaven's damn the gentle man who tries to spare his foes. He twists his beard and gnashes teeth and multiplies his woes. Something my father said a few times while he was under from his powers. Seems fitting now." Said Kris, "You did the right thing. We don't kill out of anger or revenge, that's not us. You couldn't have known that this was going to happen. There was no way to know short of consulting a seer for every decision you make, and that's a trap in and of itself."