Certificate of Death
Metropolis region — Barvigrard constellation
Hek system — Planet IV
Krusual Tribe Bureau
4 September YC 127
I may sound like a broken record but I am fresh out of polite words which can describe my circumstances. So please bear with me while I am repeating myself: I hoped to finally get information on the whereabouts of Dagan today; instead, I’ve got another mission. If you think that was a joke, wait until you hear what mission Keita Eslin prepared for me.
“No more missions until I get the promised info on Dagan!” I said angrily when the agent explained why she had summoned me to her office.
“Oh, it’s a very simple mission, and a lucrative one, for that matter,” Keta said with a glint in her eye. “All you need to do is travel to Ammatar Consulate Bureau in Tanoo and tell my counterpart Dovirch Anselm that Mizara will work for him no more.”
My jaw dropped.
“You call a delivery of this self-indulgent, gleeful and vindictive message a mission?” I asked incredulously.
“200,000 ISK,” the agent replied coolly, “plus the same amount if you finish the mission in 6 hours.”
I had a surreal feeling as if I was dreaming.
Trying to find some method in that madness, I asked, “You mean, your management has approved spending 400,000 ISK on a job which could be done for a fraction of that sum by a courier on a shuttle? Wait a moment, is it because you expect Ammatars to kill me in revenge? So that my clone is restored from an older backup and I forget that you promised me intel on Dagan?” Furiously, I shook a finger in Keita’s direction, “Don’t even count on that! I’ll make a fresh backup at a different station before I fly to that goddamn Ammatar agent…”
“Oh, so you accept the mission?” Keita interrupted me with a pleasant smile.
I stared at her for a few moments and then deflated like a punctured balloon, my anger replaced with frustration.
“Just tell me what this is all about,” I said resignedly.
Keita smile turned to a grin and then to a laugh which she tried to suppress, unsuccessfully.
“Sorry, Captain,” she said gasping for air, “I should have explained the context but when you started fuming about the mission I couldn’t help playing along.”
“You mean there is no mission?” I asked suspiciously.
“Oh yes, there is. Everything I told you is absolutely true.”
“Including the fact that you have nothing to tell me about Dagan?”
Keita signed, “To be honest, what I said pretty much sums up what we know about Dagan. According to my agent, he wasn’t really a member of the smuggler cartel. Smugglers had some dealings with him but his main contacts were Mizara and Izia Tabar. Others, including the rest of the lieutenants, were not privy to Dagan’s business. What the agent also found out was that Mizara was not a smuggler either — she was an Ammatar agent who infiltrated the cartel under cover and was actively undermining their operations.”
“Why would Ammatars try to disrupt the criminal operation which hurt Minmatar financial interests? Ammatars should be cheering them on.”
“Don’t forget that the illegal trade flowed in both directions, and their interests were as damaged as ours,” Keita explained. “This is probably the only area where Amarr’s, Ammatar’s and Minmatar’s interests coincide. Unfortunately, we learned about Mizara’s true identity only after you completed your last mission.”
“So what’s the point in sending me to tell Ammatars that their agent was killed? And why me, of all people? Even if they don’t kill me as soon as I tell them the news, they’ll probably kick me out of the station.”
“I wouldn’t be worried about that. As much as I despise those Amarr’s lackeys, I have to admit that their security agents have a certain code of honour, especially when they deal with capsuleers. From their perspective, being a contractor, you are not personally responsible for Mizara’s death. Neither will they blame us — since they didn’t deign to inform us about her true role in the criminal cartel, she was a valid target for our law enforcement.”
“And by sending me, do you hope to start some kind of collaboration with Ammatar, so that you can avoid stepping on each other’s toes?”
“Nah, there can be no collaboration with those traitors. In fact, even sending them such a message is unprecedented. You were right — there is an element of self-indulgence. This letter,” Keita pushed a memory stick to me, “contains no apology. We are just expressing a regret that Mizara Nefra did not have an opportunity to complete her undercover assignment. This way we let Ammatars know that we know who she was. But the main purpose of this mission is to give you a pretext to get in touch with Mizara’s handler, Ammatar Security Agent Dovirch Anselm.”
“Ha!” I snorted, “That will be a great introduction — ‘Hello, my name is Vlad, I was sent to tell you that I have killed your agent’. And why would I want to talk to him anyway?”
Keita smiled, “We don’t mention your name in the letter, and you don’t have to tell them about your role in Mizara’s demise, but they will know. As to why you might want to talk to Anselm, it’s because, with Mizara and Izia gone, he is the only remaining lead to Dagan.”
“And what makes you think that Anselm will be willing to share his knowledge of Dagan with me?”
“Nothing,” the agent shrugged noncommittally, “Now it’s up to you to extract that knowledge. I have held up my end of the bargain but I realise it’s not what you expected. This last mission is my way of saying thanks to you for all your help with eliminating the smugglers’ leadership. The reward, as you noticed, is generous and, who knows, maybe you can use it to bribe Anselm.”
Here Keita gave me a sly wink.
I laughed, “It looks like you don’t have a high opinion of Ammatar agents’ code of honour.”
“No, I don’t. And if I were you, I would make that infomorph backup before crossing the border.”