Heritage

Heritage (Chapter 61)

Chapter 61: Dante

"Yes sir. I understand. It'll be done immediately,"

I watch as Elena's face becomes grimmer as her conversation comes to a close with an unknown sir on the other end of her TAPs device. She hangs up and breathes a heavy sigh before turning to me.

"I can't stay, Dante," She says to me.

"What do you mean? Elena, we're practically on the council steps. How can you not stay?"

"Command has called me back to the front. Apparently, there's a huge operation that suddenly came up that's going to require all hands-on deck. If I want to keep up appearances I need to obey. Otherwise I'll be the next one to end up in prison,"

"Have you heard anything on that, by the way?"

"What, Ethan? No. There were no public executions announced so I assume it went well. I'm not going to have time to find out though. I have to leave immediately for the fleet. Dante, I need you to be the one to present to the Federation,"

I shake my head and wave my hands in the air for side to side.

"No. No way Elena. We had an agreement. You promised to keep me out of this," "And I would have Dante if this didn't come up. I know what it is I'm asking of you Dante,"

"Do you really?"

"Yes. I'm not just asking you to say a few words. I'm asking you to put yourself out there at the mercy of the UEDF. I'm asking you to potentially put a target on your back,"

Elena walks closer and places a hand on my shoulder "I don't want to have to ask that of you. But I am. Call it the last big favor I'll ever ask of you. I'll take the responsibility of everything that happens for better or worse. Please Dante," Elena pleads with me.

Her eyes grow big and well with tears. I can see how much this means to her. It leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth to learn that everything you thought you could trust turned out to be the same as everything else.

I close my eyes and sigh heavily.

"Okay. I'll do it. Give me the info you planned on showing,"

Elena gives me a wide smile and hands me the storage device with her chosen evidence.

"I suppose I should be leaving then. There's only about an hour before your scheduled time," I say, wrapping my arms around Elena and giving her a big hug.

The hug ends and we give each other a smile.

"Do me a favor and try not to die out there, yeah? I'd hate for you not to be able to see the fruits of our labor,"

Elena chuckles "You have my word, sir. If anything happens to you, I'll buy you a steak dinner to pay you back," She says giving a mock salute.

I laugh with her a moment before giving her another quick hug and leaving of the hotel, getting in to my car. I tap a few familiar buttons on my display, making a similar call as before.

"I swear you do this just to annoy me, Dante,"

"Maybe one day I'll have it encrypted before I call. But you have to admit, it's not as tempting to do when you know the person on the other line is just going to do it anyway," I say giving a smile.

"You're lucky that I consider you such a good friend, otherwise I may have to sign you up for every adult dating website in existence," Katsumi says, giving a laugh.

"Anyway," I say through a giggle of my own "I just wanted to let you know there's been a change of plans. I'm going to be presenting the information now,"