Spes Novis

The Abyssal City - 4

Half an hour later, Veda Fable folded her hands and addressed the woman calmly, "To be perfectly clear. You're positive you saw these three individuals stealing information from the databases?"

The woman looked down at the picture and nodded. "Positive."

"And they also associated themselves with the Agents of the District of Columbia?"

"No..." The woman responded, "Just the databases being eerie. I don't remember, like, that much- I, I'm sorry."

"Thank you for your cooperation," Veda responded. "You are free to go, the Necromancers outside will ensure you arrive home safely. They will see to your protection until we have apprehended these three individuals."

"Th-ank you, thank you." The woman stood up and shuffled out of the room, shaking.

Lavender watched her leave and then looked over to Veda Fable, who was exiting behind her.

"Do we have any of these individuals in custody?" Veda asked the officer by the door. She held up the paper she had shown the woman, and Lavender could only assume the page had pictures of the moles along with names and information.

"Just Mr. Douglas Axel Rockwell. He was arrested earlier this week for breaking into a Divination shop and stealing storm dust," the officer explained. "We believe he was going to try to use it to create artificial storm magic so he might... hide his humanity, so to speak."

Corey Gesly shifted uncomfortably in his seat, drawing Lavender's gaze to him. She pursed her lips, wanting to assure him there was nothing wrong with being human.

"Please bring him here for questioning. I will speak with him briefly, but then my unit and I must head to the databases to continue our investigation," Veda waved the officer off to fetch Mr. Rockwell.

"What do we know about Mr. Rockwell?" Lavender whispered to Corey. The name was familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"When I worked for the Agents, Rockwell was a very powerful name, the one I knew was in charge of torture and interrogation... He might be related," Corey responded.

"Well damn," Lavender murmured, "so that's what we're dealing with."

"Yeah... he might be a tough one to crack." Corey shook his head and absentmindedly crossed his arms together in anticipation for their next meeting.

"Does he know you?" Lavender asked. "Will he recognize you when he..." she let her sentence bubble out as the chamber door opened. That was fast. Why didn't they get speedy service like this in Bellum? Lavender pursed her lips together, watching as Mr. Rockwell entered the room looking quite placid.

Rockwell's escorts guided him into the interrogation chamber and handcuffed him to the chair.

"Mister Rockwell," Veda began, but she got no further.

"I want to make a deal, Miss Fable," Rockwell interrupted.

"We don't make deals in the National Protection Unit," Veda informed him.

Douglas Rockwell offered Veda a small smile. "You do if there are lives at stake."

"Whose lives?" Veda's mask was flawless.

"A deal," Rockwell repeated.

Veda picked up her case files and began flipping through them. "Mister Rockwell, do you work in the general courts for the United Mage Republic?"

Lavender knew the answer was yes, they had Rockwell's case file. They knew everything about his career as a member of the United Mage Republic, and yet so little about his life as an Agent of D.C.