Echoes of the Past

Chapter Twenty Six - Part One

Chapter Twenty Six: The Best Laid Plans - Part One 

"Here is what we know," Liana said.

James stood between Sam and Evan, overlooking the large table in the centre of the raised platform. They had returned to the room where they'd first met Jorak and Liana, called the Command Room. The table now contained a holo-projection of Riondon. The town was constructed in a rough diamond shape, the tallest buildings in the centre rising up to around a foot off the table. Papers and folders were collected around the edges of the table, some showing photos of people.

Liana typed into a tablet she held and a tall structure on the eastern edge of the town highlighted orange.

"Higero Jaxx bought the Riondon Iron Forge two seasons back," she began, "calling it a new expansion for his company, Dyna Core, who specialise in forging and distributing metals. Standard business."

A profile appeared on the large display screen overlooking the table. It showed a reptilian alien in a smart suit. A strong jawline gave his face a squared look, while his bald, scaled head was rounded.

"This is Jaxx," Liana said. "A Vivanni Shaa. While his businesses are usually law-abiding and well received, he's also known by some as an arms dealer with a not-so-good reputation. Some call him a gangster, although he's done well to keep on the better side of the news and law for most of his affairs. But make no mistake, he is very dangerous, and is very well connected."

"This is Jaxx?" Sam asked, pointing at the screen.

Liana looked at him. "Is there a problem?"

Sam seemed to pause, so subtly that James wondered if many others noticed it, then he turned back to Liana and said, "Carry on."

She gestured to several folders on the table. "Most of this never made it through the main news channels, but we have information of Jaxx once beating a man with his bare hands, after a business dispute. Several of his previous business associates have gone missing, or shown up dead. It's said that you never cross a Vivanni Shaa, and that is double true for Jaxx. "

Jaxx's image shrunk to the corner of the screen and two more profiles popped up. One was a large, thick-necked alien with a heavy beard, who held a fierce, growling expression. The other was a small-framed alien with a long mane of flowing hair, who had cat-like eyes and large pointed ears. James recognised the second one as a Firion, who were a local species in Tyken Town.

"These are his two bodyguards, with him at all times," Liana went on. "The big one is Rygol Yaan, a dJuggen with a nasty tempter and a worse reputation. The smaller one is Vogri Ratasakii, a Firion. Quiet and unassuming, but very deadly. Both are highly trained assassins with a long record of criminal activity, and on many more suspicious activity reports. We have files on all three of them, but their records have many gaps and details that cannot be found."

"A lot of muscle for one person," Sam noted.

"More than a businessman needs," Jorak said, his arms crossed over his beefy chest. He was beside Liana on the far side of the table, next to Castan who stood quietly and watched them all. The long-haired soldier who had met them outside the outpost, Aris, stayed further back.

"That's right," Liana said, pacing slowly as she spoke now. "Satellite imagery detected a hundred and fifty people in the Iron Forge. But it's hard to say how many of those are armed guards or just workers."

An image of armed men patrolling the iron forge came on the screen. They looked to have been taken from a far, possibly from a roof top.

"Now, Sam," Liana went on. "You said you recognised one of the soldiers when you looked around the forge a while back. Someone you served with once, but who had no recognition of you. After you called me earlier, I contacted some of our soldiers we had in town to inspect the forge." She paused, now looking troubled. "We requested they bring back one of Jaxx's guard. We've had him in for a couple hours now. After some interrogation we've only just managed to break through whatever cloud was over his mind, to gather his true identity. The man was classified as dead over four years ago."