<<Yes, wait!>> Mato encourages AM. <<Don't go alone! En route.>>

Mato wonders if Sir Pike is in any danger. Certainly there are many opportunities where Katya could have killed him previously, although she seems to be orchestrating a more subtle campaign - well, if multiple murders can be described as 'subtle' - to fence off the Duchess from outside influences.

He decides to update Cunningham.

<<Sir, we've captured a flying drone, picture attached. We believe it enabled the hacking of Lt. Fines' weapon to ignore the friend-or-foe tag in your armor. We're bringing it in for analysis.>>

He gets back on his off-road cycle and heads back toward Pike Hall.

<<AM, the agent is Russian. Is there any chance that Katya is not the owner and operator but is, ah, under the influence of the agent? Multiple parties have questioned her sanity. Could her wetware be hacked, or could she be under the influence of CFD?>>

While riding the cycle, he somewhat dispassionately considers his options. He's certainly the logical person to be on point for this task. And, the reality is that there's relatively little for AM and Jawsey to do other than watch his back. Perhaps Jawsey can cook up a spirit that might assist, but it would be a skirmisher at best.

"So damnably awkward," he mutters under his breath, envisioning the dramatic scene that will likely play out with Sir Pike, the Duchess, and the rest of the staff.

Be quick. she says, no promising to wait but not eager to go in as the smallest person in the room. I don't know if its possible, I'll think about it.

The views from the roof had been nice, but it had turned out to be a less than useful place to station himself. Still, hopefully AM would hold off for a moment, and he hurried back down from the roof to the main floor.

While he did so he messaged the others <<I have a spirit following the duchess, looking for magical influence on her. It was far enough away from me that I can't re-assign it now, but anyway knowing where the duchess isn't the worst thing.>>

<<Ana, was the tag on one of them, or on the door so seeing them? Or did it look more like it was on someone else, seeing them? I'm reminded of the cameras that the maids wear, but this is probably not related, just more of everyone watching everyone else>>


After that there was nothing but to try to hurry down the stairs without jolting his back too badly, and to consider what resources he had that could help. Persuasion was still his best option, but potentially levitation if they had to keep someone in place -- if he was lucky. Clairaudience if listening in would help. Or calling Doc Wagon if someone got badly wounded, or was close to dying -- the money around here made anything short of gross trauma more of a painful inconvenience than a permanent end.

That led to a chilling thought. <<Just a thought, before I forget. Could Cunningham have deliberately shot himself with a drone he controlled, to move suspicion off of himself?>>

AM comments to Jawsey >>We are not paid to morally judge him, as long as he is satisfied with our work - and pays us in full we'll be cool... but it seems a bit strange to hire us to investigate in that case. Like overly complex, unless we are the monkeys but I don't feel like one.

She wants to be with the good guys, but honestly even if Cunnigham is corrupted he should get his money worth for what he paid them to do. Making an enemy of him would totally ruin them, and missing out on debt payments would cause a lot of problems.

Cunningham replied to Mato, clearly already under the effect of a sedative: <<Do that... but get Katya secured... she is crazy...>>


The team timed their arrival to be simultaneous. That meant, Pike, the Duchess and Katya had already taken off their boots and changed into more comfortable footwear when Mato entered from outside and AM and Jawsey from the corridor into the mud room.

Pike looked up, clearly shaken up by what had happened. The Duchess was white and actually shaking, leaning on Katya's arm for support. For AM it looked like this was an old habbit, so natural did Katya bear it.

"Is Cunningham alright?" Pike asked concerned. "What is that? Some kind of weapon?"

While piloting the offroad cycle back to Pike Hall, Mato consider's Jawsey's question.

<<Cunningham was grievously wounded; I had to use a trauma patch to stabilize him. Nobody is above suspicion, but I have to think that if he was shooting himself he would have aimed for a less-lethal location, like the love handles.>>

<<Ultimately I agree with AM though. Cunningham is the credstick, the Johnson. If this is his caper, then we follow his lead.>>

Mato considers the gun on the drone, notes that it is silenced and that the shot in the greenhouse was silenced too.

<<That said, this Savalette does smell like it has been fired recently. The question is, 'Fired at what?' The Savalette could have been the shot that took out Cunningham because the alternative - yanking an Ares Alpha out of someone's hands to sharp-shoot Cunningham before stabbing Lt. Fines in the brain - is a risky, low percentage shot.>>

He thinks about the shot he heard in the woods. Hamington's instructions were to disable gas vent and put a silencer on the Ares Alphas to avoid spooking the horses.

<<Corporal Varison, can you please confirm the status of Lt. Fines' rifle in terms of the barrel mount? Has the gas vent been disabled in favor of a silencer?>>

Because if the silencer was enabled, and the Savalette pistol was silenced... then what was the gunshot that Mato heard?

Varison replied: <<Can't tell, the gun has reset itself for some reason. It looks like it turned to factory settings.>>

Arriving at Pike Hall, Mato syncs up with AM and Jawsey in the mud room. There isn't much of a plan other than to lay out the evidence and deal with the consequences. Mato is feeling detached, fatalistic. If he dies, he dies.

"Cunninghan has been stabilized, sir," Mato reports. "While not much of a paramedic, I had the good fortune to have a trauma patch available. He received magical healing at the scene and was taken by DocWagon for further care and observation. He was talking and mobile and I believe his prognosis is good, sir."

Then he turns his attention to the drone that he's carrying.

"Yes, sir, this is a weapon. This is a Savalette Guardian with several customizations: a double-barrel modification, both barrels silenced, with an additional magazine, and designed to be mounted on a drone such as this. The only known weaponsmith to produce is Roman Czerniek in Prague.

"The Savalette is loaded with both Blight rounds and armor-piercing rounds. We have reason to believe that the Blight rounds were used to disrupt Invictus last night.

"The weapon has been fired recently, by which I mean within the last hour; I believe the armor-piercing round was responsible for shooting Cunningham."

He pauses to let AM fill in the revelations about stealth tags. He reasons that the case will seem more convincing the more voices that are behind it, especially if they are more charming and persuasive voices like AM's and Jawsey's.

Before they'd stepped into the Hall, Jawsey had told Mato and Ana "I don't care if this is all a plot by Cunningham to take down Katya; but understanding if it is would let us handle things better. But I agree that we don't have enough evidence or time to pursue the possibility right now." But as Mato described teh drone, Jawsey's mind was still churning on possibilities. Possibilities that Katya had really done this, that Cunningham had set Katya up to look guilty, that somebody else had tried to take down two obstacles with one stone. Frag it, there has to be something that would let us eliminate at least one of the possibilities, what am I missing?

Then deciding that that the time for that sort of thinking was past, he instead thanked his current spirit for its service and then let it depart. Letting Ana take the floor next, he attempted to summon the spirit he called Dashing Girl, an innocent spirit that simply loved to run.

AM greets Pike and the Duchess and nods at Katya. She takes a step forward and describes her findings, careful not to make any claims or allegations. Radical honesty like the Duchess asked "Matrix perspective involves investigating Lt. Fines gun which was hacked to remove the safety targeting system. I followed the signal to find the device responsible for the hack, which was top-of-the-line agent software of Russian design. I've seen the traces of its work already in the library as I informed her Grace earlier. The agent was mounted on a nearly invisible, and armed flying drone. Following the signal from the drone to the controlling device led us here --- and that device is a stealth tag that is currently on Katya. Honestly, I came here to inspect the stealth tag, and see what we can learn from it."

She looks at Katya and asks politely "Can I have the stealth tag please?"

Complicated emotions played over Katya's face. Instinctively she stepped between the Duchess and the others in the room. Her posture was hunched as if ready for a fight.
"I don't know what you are talking about. I have never seen this drone before."

Mato passes the drone to Jawsey; he wants to have his hands empty if the next part doesn't go well. He steps forward, largely to insert himself between AM and Katya.

"Duke, Your Grace, please," he says, requesting their intervention in the matter. "I wish to appeal to calmer sensibilities.

"Perhaps there are reasonable explanations for Lt. Fines' death, Invictus' disruption, and Cunningham's nearly mortal wound. But in the interests of everyone's safety, we would request that Ms. Komarova temporarily surrender herself while we continue our investigation."

He avoids mentioning that this is Cunningham's request. While it might register with Sir Pike, it would almost certainly generate a negative response from Katya. Perhaps the 'temporary' will make it more palatable. Probably not, but it's nice to imagine.

Jawsey accepts the drone without quite knowing what to do with it. Katya looks close to snapping, and he doesn't really want the drone in hand when that happens, but he supposes that just dropping it isn't really a problem in that case.

<<I'd say that was a lie, but I don't know in service of.>>

Since Katya hasn't attacked yet, and there has been some magical 'nudging' happening, he takes a moment to shift his attention to the astral and scans for magic, and then while he's at it he inspects Katya looking for any hints that might help them deal with the situation.

After Mato speaks he sends a congratulatory message <<Nicely done, as it will likely take the Duchess to get Katya to surrender. Let's see how it goes before I say anything>>

AM makes an attempt to defuse the situation, Katya may be on the verge but she cares about her Grace and is even now shielding her instinctively. AM seeks to remain Katya of that connection, and ensure her that it is a strong connection that would endure whatever it is she may be involved in. To give her hope. As far as AM understands, it is a possible outcome considering her previous talk with the Duchess. She hesitates for a brief moment, but then looks up to Katya and speaks quietly, careful not to be too loud to disturb the others but well within the likely augmented senses of Katya.
"Please Katya, I know that things do not look very good for you but you are committed to her Grace to the core. Whatever is going on, she will understand as she trusts you with her life as more than a bodyguard, you are family. Now, I asked you to give me the stealth tag, and I can see that you have it. If you owe someone an explanation it is to her Grace, not to us."

The use of us, at the end rather than me, is done to indicate that Mato is also in the room. More to reassure AM and give her an excuse for a quick glance than to intimidate. Logic aside, Katya is intimidating at such a close range and volatile situation.

Jawsey spotted no magic influencing Katya, but her emotions were in absolute turmoil. At the last words of AM they suddenly galvanized into one smooth, serene expression.
"You are right. Maria, I'll explain it all to you later."
In one smooth motion, she suddenly had Maria in her arms and lifted er of the ground.
"We are going. Don't try to stop us. I mean it."

She moved towards the door, carrying the stunned Duchess past the equally stunned Sir Pike.

Mato blinks. Whatever he had been expecting, it hadn't been that.

Tactically, did my situation just get better or worse? he wonders. He presumes there's some sort of playbook for hostage (?) situations where the hostage isn't actively resisting, but if there is then he hasn't read it.

Is this all an infatuation? An elaborate plot to prevent anyone coming between Katya and Maria?

"I'm sorry, no," he says stepping forward to bar the way or to indicate pursuit. "You may not leave with the Duchess without her consent."

Mato is trying to figure out how to subdue Katya without traumatizing the Duchess, who has seen enough trauma in her lifetime already. Although it might be too late for that already, given the developments of the last few seconds.

Can I taze her without hurting the Duchess? he wonders. I think so. Electricity follows the path of least resistance on its way to the ground, so it should bypass the Duchess if she's being held...

"If you do not wish to surrender yourself then you must explain it now and when the Duchess is at liberty."

Katya was obviously done speaking, she had grabbed the Duchess tight as she bulled past Mato and out of the door.

AM noticed that Katya had activated her noise generator again, drastically reducing the matrix rating around. As long as she carried the duchess she couldn't turn invisible, but she moved very fast, though it didn't look like she had skimmers.
AM also noticed that for just a moment she had seen her persona come online - with all her cybergear, before she switched it to silent mode.

AM could make out that she had both reaction enhancers and wired reflexes, a datajack, her handgun, her rifle and her R7 commlink online now.

Instinctively, AM runs after Katya to preserve her line of sight for as long as possible. She reaches for her pocket to burn a bunch of reagents and asks for Trouble's help to cast a levitation spell on Katya. It would take some luck to manage to connect with someone as powerful as Katya - but perhaps the Trickster is amused by the situation and will give his blessing.
The spell involves pointing a finger at Katya and a small gesture to lift her off the ground - not high - but high enough so Katya's legs don't touch the ground and she cannot escape.

What is this thing they call... love? Mato thinks to himself like a man with hideous cybernetic transformations. Which he is.

Has Mato ever been in love? In his weak and febrile youth, it was such a distant prospect as to not be a realistic possibility. Then he went in and had his arms and legs chopped off - voluntary replacement in the parlance - and his emotions became even more remote than they already were. But perhaps Katya's detachment from humanity leads her to extremes in the opposite direction, obsessing over an infatuation the way that Mato is devoted to his cyberlimbs.

Given his speed, he's not concerned with Katya getting away. What he wants to do is create a tactical situation that her mind may recognize as so disadvantageous that she has to respond to it with an opportunity that's advantageous for Mato. So he begins firing off messages while giving chase.

<<Chaussers, Ms. Komarova is currently carrying the Duchess away without her consent. I'll take point. Please establish a perimeter. Gel and stick'n'shock only, please. Perhaps Neuro-Stun if it is available.>>
<<Master of the Hunt, I defer to you if you wish the guests to go into lockdown. Please attend to Sir Pike's safety. He is in the mudroom.>>
<<AM, can you, van der Bloom, and the wire maids/boys coordinate hacking attempts? I need Katya distracted, either through defending her electronics or disabling them.>>
<<Jawsey, can you coordinate with the couriers on magical support, particularly spirits or other magical influence?>>

Mato grits his teeth, wondering if Katya had any outside help. But, if so, he imagines that it was for stealing the Blue Admiral and not, say, abducting the Duchess. Can he trust these people? He decides to do so, reasoning that Katya would have eliminated them as a loose end already, as she did to Invictus.

Can he back Katya into a corner without turning this into a proper hostage situation?

Of course Katya was fast, and of course she was out the door before his body could even react -- but regret moves at a speed all of its own, so Jawsey was regretting not having applied movement before Katya took off with the duchess before she even took off with the duchess. As rational thought caught up he considered trying for the levitate cast on Katya, but in the likely situation where he couldn't lift the combined weight of Katya and the duchess, Katya might be able to break line of sight. Movement was definitely the better choice.

He ordered Dashing Girl to materialize and to apply movement to Mato.

<<Mato: speeding up>> Fortunately the team had worked on short hand for some of the magical boosts, and Mato would hopefully remember that this meant that Jawsey had ordered a spirit to use movement on him and that it would arrive 'soon.'

Jawsey stepped toward the door as he messaged McElroy <<Are you in body? Katya just flipped out and literally ran off with the Duchess through the mud room door. Can you intercept with a spirit?>> Unfortunately the odds were good that McElroy was currently astral, which would require Jawsey going astral himself and finding the man.

Katya was fast, but she had barely covered half the distance towards the garages before AM hit her with a super charged levitation spell. She lost her grip on the ground and started floating upwards, cursing in Russian, but never letting go of the Duchess.

In the distance, the remaining two Chasseurs came running.



Katya scrambled for her pistol holster, trying to get her gun out while also slowly spinning above the ground.

Mato sees Sgt. Burns and Cpl. Varis close in and is privately impressed by their response time.

He also sees Katya fumbling for her weapon, so he launches at her at a full sprint, hoping to use AM's epic interference to tackle Katya out of the sky.

But as he gets closer, he sees that the angle is wrong. He's not confident that he can subdue Katya or loosen her grip without hurting the Duchess. Instead he addresses the clear-and-present danger, namely Katya's pistol coming out of its holster. He tries to swat the weapon out of the way with an open-handed strike.

Just as Katya was drawing her gun, Mato jumped in and smashed it out of her hand. Screaming furiously, she tried to back hand the ork, but his momentum had already carried him past. That left the rifle at her back, but to get that out, Katya would have to drop the Duchess - which was unlikely considering how hard the Russian cyborg pressed her employer to herself.

AM would like to hack the link but she is realistic about her abilities without hot simulations and while maintaining two spells. She is unarmed, and aside from the influence spell which she is uncertain would work during combat - she is out of ideas.

She drops the improved intuition spell and tries to Hack Katya's link to see if she can get some more information as to who her co-conspirators are. The link is well defended, but what does she have to lose right now. If the team captures her she'll have all the access to her equipment, and if she does make out somehow then a lucky strike at the link would give another hint.

To her own surprise, AM managed to place a MARK on Katya's link

To be on the safe side, Jawsey put his own levitation spell on the Duchess. Not fighting Katya for control of the poor woman, just making sure that she is not in danger of plunging to the ground. And he suggests "Perhaps it is time to talk, Katya."

Katya had stopped struggling, but kept her grip on the Duchess. She didn't reply but kept concentrating on something.

Mato swoops around to Katya's backside. It's an unusual situation, boxing a bobbing, floating target. In a way it's not that different from striking a reflex ball or reaction ball or some other target that bounces and moves wildly as soon as you hit it. Mato plants his toes and winds up, twisting his torso to maximize torque into a wicked right hook. He's aim for Katya's liver but he'll take her kidneys, her ribs, whatever's in the way. It's the type of blow that would send a normal person to the emergency room, but Mato doesn't hold back. If Katya can take it then he'll cook up something else.

Trouble decides to toy with Katya and bestow her with bad luck with his accident power, he Meows and expects fate to deliver her some painful blow.


AM feels her cheeks blushing as she continues her search at Katya's link looking for the recent calls and is especially interested as to who she would call right there midair. She just hacked a professional's link in AR while keeping the woman on air - she feels resourceful. Where was all that in her past? She is not the same woman (or should she think girl) that she once was. Perhaps several months of Redmond has made her tough - but more likely desperation for survival.

Mato's hit landed - resulting in metal hitting metal and making Katya spin as she tried to intercept the ork's attack with a strike of her own. Mato's hit had landed in full but it seemed to have had no effect - Katya didn't even breath out particularly hard.

By now the Duchess had regained some composure and feebly tried to get out of her bodyguard's grip - a task as impossible as blowing over a mountain.



AM meanwhile saw what Katya had been doing: She had called and activated the autopilot of a car inside the garage and was currently giving very particular orders for the car and the garage door to open up and get her respectively. Now that she had lost her gun she had changed the last command to activate the self defense and extraction mode as well.

At the same time an earshattering crash could be heard over the rumbling roaring sound of a severely over motorized vehicle pushing it's way through a not yet open garage door.
A large SUV shot out from the wreckage and across the carefully maintained gravelway toward the house.

AM uses her mark on Katya's link to spoof command for the vehicle to reboot. Figuring that while it would not stop Katya's escape rebooting would take some precious seconds and the car would be unresponsive during that time. Trouble Meow's again, disappointed that his accident power failed. He uses the animal control power to summon whatever animals are in the area to bite Katya and make mayhem.

AM mentally fires a quick
>> Katya is sending her car to escape, the car is armed. Trying to slow it down.

A screeching sound and sudden silence was the result as AM managed to override Katya's latest command. The car had made an emergency stop and had gone completely from the matrix through a reboot.

Katya called out in frustration. The Russian phrases were hard to follow, but Jawsey was pretty certain that barn animals and someone's mother were involved.

She was clearly becoming desperate. By now the MET2K mercenaries had also begun to appear in the distance.

Finally, the large spirit of man manifested as well and spoke calmly to Katya.

Suddenly, the bodyguard let go of the Duchess, the spirt catching her and spiriting her back towards the house.

For a moment, Katya hung there, looking utterly defeated. Then she grabbed the rifle, still slung across her back, trying to get the barrel aimed at her own head...

Jawsey snaps at Katya in Russian "Taking the coward's path would dishonor the Duchess. Surrender and accept your fate."

Mato delivers his shot to the ribs but Katya shrugs it off like a summer breeze. Mato skips aside nimbly to dodge her counterattack. He scowls; he knows he got lucky. Not only was it clear that her training far exceeded her own - the smoothness of her swipe was counteracted more by luck than skill - but he had drilled her with a shot that would bring down a troll and she didn't even notice.

He springs backward to reassess. His mind races with options about how to free the Duchess and stop Katya. Stopping Katya was easy, in a sense: AM had already done it. Now they just needed to wait her out without geeking the Duchess.

Is that a car? he thinks to himself. Is she about to plow a car through Pike Hall to escape? The noose around Katya seemed tight but a car could scatter the chasseurs and mercs like bowling pins...

Then, in short order, AM takes care of the car, a spirit takes care of the Duchess, and Katya moves to shoot herself.

Can she do that? Mato briefly wonders. Or will she just spit out the bullets?

Not eager to find out, he decides to blast the weapon out of her hand. He could quickdraw the Walther, but he's unsure of whether its IFF would flag Katya as a "friend" and refuse to fire. To negate the risk, he raises his left arm, sees the smartlink reticle appear on this contacts, and then mentally triggers a short burst to disarm Katya. FFFFT-VFFT-VVVVT! The sound suppressor swallows the worst of the gunshot noise. There are a dozen pithy things to say but Mato refrains in the name of a stiff upper lip, which seems like it would be appreciated by the landlord.

If she wants to kill herself, she'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: with a cyberspur.

_{Edit: shooting instead of melee}

The rifle went flying as sparks from the striking bullets streaked from the metal barrel.
Katya screamed in frustration, finally giving up, as the mercenaries surrounded them. AM noticed that finally her boss also seemed to have woken up and used his superior equipment to hack and shutdown Katya's gear.

Finally, Pike came out and turned to the three investigators: "So it was Katya? Can you tell me why?"

Mato collects Katya's weapons and hands them Sgt. Burns for safe-keeping.

He assumes a more formal posture next to Sir Pike. He stands in the at-ease stance with his hands behind his back.

"No, sir, I am unsure," Mato admits. "On some points we are more confident; on other points we can only speculate.

"We are confident that the drone under her control was used to disrupt Invictus. I presume that Invictus was an accomplice, the goal being to steal your gladius for Invictus and the Blue Admiral for Ms. Komarova. Invictus was then eliminated as a loose end.

"I presume Ms. Komarova's motivations were to discredit Cunningham and to disrupt your relationship with the Duchess. Perhaps by demonstrating the holes in your security - presumably a sensitive point for the Duchess, given her personal history - and thus reinforcing Ms. Komarova's role in keeping the Duchess safe.

"But we have not recovered the Blue Admiral, sir. I do not know if Ms. Komarova has it on her person, if she's already transferred it to a buyer, or even if she has destroyed it. From a classified document in the library - that had its password protection broken by a sophisticated Russian agent - we know that the stone was a power focus but could also act as a vessel for a spirit or soul. More importantly, there was a list of people who had shown interest in purchasing the gem at one time or another. Among the more prominent names was a free spirit from Yakut called Winter Storm, a supporter of spirit apartheid. A Russian national would resent and oppose the Yakut separatists, like Winter Storm. It is conceivable to me that the goal was not to sell the Blue Admiral as much as it was to destroy it, or keep it such an artifact out of the hands of a spirit-separatist such as Winter Storm."

He looks to AM and Jawsey to see if they have any additional insights or commentary to add.

"I fear we may not know more without questioning the suspect, sir. In any event, she should be held for the murder of Lt. Fines and the attempted murder of Mr. Cunningham." He looks up at Katya, unsure of how to secure her. Perhaps magical bonds were possible.

AM remains silent while Mato is speaking, but she is working the matrix.
She tests if there is any possibility that the stealth tag is still active, and Katya can be addressed privately. Some things do not click - the edited file in the library --- why not just eliminate it for example? It feels like a setup, perhaps pressuring Katya into making a mistake?

Just to be sure she tries to locate Katya and the Duchess at the time she fixed the AR glitch or more precisely tries to time the glitch itself. Was Katya anywhere near the library when it happened? If not who was?

Pike nodded at Mato's words. "You asked her about the ring before, didn't you? If she stole it and has hidden it, where do you think she put it?"

Meanwhile the MET2K mercenaries were bringing gear, that Mato recognized as cyberware blockers used by prisons to deactivate cyber gear in inmates. It took four beafy mercenaries to keep her in place and apply the restraints, before one of them called to AM: "You can let her down now, we have her secured."

"If it were me, sir, it would be in a biofiber pocket somewhere on my person, perhaps in a smuggling compartment in a cyberlimb or in a skin pocket.

"But it is also possible that it was already removed from the premises, perhaps by her drone, or even destroyed by the same thermite reaction that slagged your gladius."

Mato turns to Jawsey to indicate that the drone should be brought forth for inspection. Mato then turns to Katya.

"What do you say, Ms. Komarova? Shall I fetch the latex gloves?"

AM nods as she has no more insights to add. "We may know more once we question Katya and inspect her equipment." She cannot follow Pike. She has to maintain the line of sight to Katya, a bit embarrassed by the situation and hoping to disappear, overwhelmed that she holds a person like Katya helpless midair.

She texts Kurt >> Fine hacking boss.

At first it looked like Katya would keep her mouth clamped shut, but then the Duchess stepped forward:
"Katya. Is it true? Did you steal the ring? Don't lie to me, please. I couldn't bear it."
Finally, tears started to stream from the Russian's eyes.
"Yes. It's still in the house. Invictus hid it inside the walls with the mana bacteria. He wanted to sell it to Winterstorm in Yakut. And he was about to betray me. I caught the sword for him when you were made to drop it out of the window. I'm sorry. I just wanted everything to go back to how it was before. That stupid ring... I thought you'd finally grow tired of Pike if I showed you what a joke all his defenses are.
Invictus just wanted the sword and the money. He approached me when he found me crying. Smarmy bastard. I'm glad that I got rid of him."
"And what about the chasseur you killed?"
The Duchess spoke those words with such cutting coldness, that Katya flinched as if she had been slapped.
"Everything was going wrong. Cunningham and his lackeys were getting closer. I had to do something. I saw the Chasseur in a good positon and though... well I didn't really think. I just wanted Cunningham gone so much. So I had my drone hack the rifle and take control of the shooting. But the Chasseur didn't point it in the right direction, so I had to take hold of his arm and aim myself. He was struggling and... I reacted to make him stop."

AM retains a stoic expression, without any apparent relief. The Blue Admiral being a spirit vessel makes her feel uneasy. "What about the file about the Blue Admiral at the library,I know it was the agent to edit it... Do you know anything about the spells on the ring? were they part of the plan?"


>> I may be paranoid, but I have a bad feeling about the Blue Admiral being a spirit vessel. I am afraid that it might no longer be where Katya think it is - or that Invictus may somehow possess it - while pinning all the blame on Katya.

"Invictus put those on it. He assured me they were only to be able to talk to Maria in her sleep and to hide that there was a spell on the ring. The file contained information on the potential buyers. I got suspicious about the buyer that Invictus knew and wanted to sell the ring to. So I had the file hacked - and then I needed to delete the log in the file to hide that I accessed it.

I put the allergy meds on van der Blooms food when I checked the kitchen. No-one was supposed to notice anything during the night. Van der Bloom is a pervert and a drunkard. In the morning it would have just looked like a dereliction of duty. The looped camera and the disrupted watcher would have made it look like someone broke in and stole the ring. Cunningham would have been proven to be unfit to protect Maria.

But Invictus had to betray me - first to Yakut then to this support courier. I had to act. After that it all went wrong."

Katya's head hung low, shame clearly on her face, all fight had left her.

Mato scowls, half in derision, half in pity.

What is this thing called 'love' that makes people act so illogically? he wonders. How could Katya be so sloppy? Did her emotions betray her training? With some derision - perhaps unfair - he thinks it a blessing to be free of such constraints. Gunning down Cunningham and stabbing Fines on the fly, with no prior plan or preparation? How could she have expected that to go work?

<<Why didn't Cunningham find the ring when he searched the walls?>> Mato wonders to AM and Jawsey. <<Late at night? Tired? Too small an object in too confined a space?>> Mato resolves to go check for himself.

"I'll go check, Sir Pike," he tells Thomas and Maria. He gives a short bow to excuse himself, the moves toward the royal quarter to inspect the area in between the walls. He makes sure his sensors are active.

On the way, he updates Cunningham: <<Katya apprehended>>

Jawsey's head was swimming. Everything had happened so fast, in only moments Katya's escape had been foiled about three times, and her story had come out. Did they have all the facts yet? He skimmed through the timeline they'd built up, and came up with a couple more questions.

He messaged the team <<I have a few more holes I'd like to see filled. How did she get this drone, uniquely equipped for eliminating Invictus? And the thermite for destroying the Gladius? Sounds to me like she might have had outside help? And who is that courier she mentioned?>>

He takes a step toward the Duke and Duchess, hands clasped behind his back -- incidentally keeping the drone behind him too. "I think she must have had outside help with the gear. The drone was equipped both with a powerful hacking agent and a gel-ball shooter loaded with 'Blight', a hard to access toxin against all things awakened. Neither are things she could easily pick up on a casual trip into the city, and the stealth drone itself would be difficult to procure. And there is this 'security courier' that Invictus used. We have not yet had a chance to look into those potentially lingering security holes -- although ultimately it will be up to you how worried you are about loose ends being tied up."

He then steps back, hands and drone, behind him. If nobody asks for the drone, it seems like it could be put to good use by their agency. He'll hand it over when requested, but perhaps nobody will remember to make such a request.

She mentally texts Jawsey >>> I am pretty sure that Invictus is the one pulling the strings here. He has mind-bending abilities and has lived countless generations. He is an immortal spirit from the fourth age - we are all infants to him, perhaps he sees us as mere tools - rather than as his equals.

He should be experienced enough in the subtle manipulation of people to not accidentally push an unstable mercenary over the edge with suspicion. It just does not feel right to me, Katya was so smart in the beginning, and then she basically turns herself in and confesses about everything after making one mistake after the other allowing us to catch her. Honestly, if she hasn't done that we had only a suspicion which she could have denied. She did not need to try and murder Cunnigham without planning it carefully. Jawsey, please investigate her about this -- I really cannot send Mato alone there.
She apologizes "I am sorry, but I must accompany him, it is a magic thing. I'll be back with you shortly.

>> It might be dangerous Mato, I'll go with you for magic protection. she says and is ready with the counterspelling to identify and protect against any manipulation.

Katya looked confused at Jawsey: "What are you talking about? I clearly overheard you talking with Invictus. YOU offered him a spirit pact for information. He was ready to visit you in your room."

The Duchess interjected: "I recognize that drone now. Katya had it special made in Prague about two years ago after I nearly got kidnapped in Paris. I asked her to not bring it here, as there are no drones allowed."
If at all possible, this rather insignificant admonishment made Katya flinch even harder than the revelation of the other crimes before.

Mato and AM moved fast towards the private quarters. They noticed that the access panel stood open.

AM uses all her senses to see if she can locate the ring or find a clue as to who opened the access panel. She channels some of Iktomi's guile to help her. In addition, she checks if the cameras has picked up anything.

"Ah, a matter of semantics; I may be regarded as McElroy's Courier, or that of the Duke and Duchess, but I assure you that I was never Invictus's Courier. Which is why I had to resort to the offer of a spirit pact. Invictus was powerful, arrogant, ancient and full of guile -- but it is the rare being that can't be coerced somehow."

He took a moment to walk a partial arc around Katya. In part to drag things out to give Mato and Ana more time, but also to let the obvious question percolate in everyone's mind. Then he asked it "So, tell us, how did Invictus convince you to work with him? Subtle magics? Playing on your insecurities? How did he win the cooperation of the ferocious and devoted Katya?"

He doubts that it really matters, or that he cares about the answer that much, but he can't deny that it if fun to question her where there is little danger of her mutilating him.

The cameras had indeed picked something up - Igor entering and leaving the inner wall, quite hastily.
According to the systems, he was at the moment using one of the Segway, heading to the parking lot where the guest's cars were parked.

Katya replied to Jawsey: "I guess he can be pretty convincing. He somehow got me to confide in him. From there, the plan developed. Though I was suspicious of him and his motives. So I prepared just in case I had to take him out."