Team SRDS (Stardust)

Chapter 25: Intel

Same day,
Vale Police Department, 13:08:43 hours

A cardboard box plunked down on the desk that Diamond and Steele had been assigned. Loud enough to make the former flinch as his attention was brought back to reality, and the latter wince as he realised just how much paperwork there must be for that kind of weight. The boys were sitting in a sparse, spacious room of the Vale Police Department Archive Wing. The walls were lined with desks and utilities, and towards the centre lay 10 modest rows of shelves. Each shelf was stacked with cardboard boxes end-to-end and about one-and-a-half times either of their height.

Steele could tell this was a moderately-used room from the way it was maintained. The light fixtures were working well, their glow bouncing off the tidy, well-polished desks. Likely the only thing not squeaky clean was the thing least tampered with; the files themselves. As if on cue, as the box hit the table, it shook off a wafer-thin layer of dust particles.

"As requested, the details of Cornell Cloud, former member of the Atlesian sub-council of commerce, ambassador of trade relations to Vale, now deceased," said officer Matt.

"I was really hoping that you might have digital records," Steele sighed, staring at the rather packed box in front of him and then at Diamond's screen. It displayed the list of suspects they had assembled based on appearance, aliases related to 'Jade' and possible Semblances to identify the assassin.

"Recent case. Hasn't been uploaded yet," officer Rusty said, leaning against the entry door frame.

"Right, of course," Steele said, cocking his head sideways and pulling out the contents of the box. Matt walked over to where Rusty was standing. They had to keep an eye on them as this was the archive. But Huntsmen, even those in training, were higher in rank than policemen. She and Rusty both kept away from them, giving them the privacy they needed to discuss important details.

As Steele skimmed through Cornell's diary retrieved from the diplomat's safe, the contents suggested nothing more suspicious than a high-stress job and some slightly questionable business decisions given his position. But Steele noticed oddities in the vocabulary and sentence structure of the entries. He instinctively flipped to the last page. After searching the paper for depressions, Steele fished out his pocket watch and activated the built-in torch, shining it over the paper.

Bingo.

There were signs of practising writing in a Playfair cypher with an inkless instrument. There were mistakes, scratched over lightly that aided Steele's process of figuring out the key matrix.

Once he did, he rescanned the entries. One in particular caught his eye:

March 21st:

Over the past few months, the shipment of the required materials has gone well. Neither party suspects a thing: after all, they're common import and export items. We've covered our tracks far too well. At this rate, Mako will be ready for action in less than 5 months. I had my suspicions at first, but our new leader knows what he's doing.

Steele narrowed his eyes.

He was involved in trade between Atlas and Vale as a whole. So the 'parties' are likely to be both kingdoms.

Who or what was 'Mako'? Was the 'new leader' Silver?

He needed more information.

Steele continued examining the files on the diplomat for about an hour before he heard Diamond beckon, "Hey, what do you think of this?"

Steele glanced at his screen. Ivy, Jade, the header read. It was followed by a description, but what caught Steele's eye first was the image. If it had not been taken a few years ago it would've been a perfect match. Except... as far as he recalled, Jade's eyes were purple.