Got a little bit of time today, so here’s chapter 15! This is much shorter than my recent chapters, but I hope you’ll enjoy nonetheless!
Chapter 15
Back in his dimly lit office, Kopaka set down the bag of evidence he had collected from the rubble and started to unpack the contents one by one. He was careful not to unintentionally damage the items he collected, as a single mistake could lead to a botched investigation with serious implications. The fate of the city rested in his hands, so to speak, and he had to correctly bring justice to the right person.
Who it is that I bring justice to, I don’t know yet, the Toa of Ice thought. Only time will tell.
Kopaka turned on his computer and pulled out the license plate. He held it up to the light and read the text printed on it in big black letters.
SDR-98 1AGH4
He typed in the web URL of New Atero’s Automotive Vehicle Database, and entered the digits on the license plate in the AVD’s search bar.
SDR-98 1AGH4
1 result
3099 registered Cendox V1, Bara Magna Motor Company
Tahu Sector
Defilak and Sarda (Le-Matoran, Ta-Matoran)
“So Defilak and Sarda lived together, in the same house,” Kopaka mused out loud. “That’s why the bike was registered on both their names.”
“But that doesn’t explain the bomb I found,” he said aloud, pulling out the burnt and charred remains of the bomb detonated in the blast. “This doesn’t make sense. Exploding Kanoka are only within reach for the upper echelons of the government and New Atero’s laboratory technicians and scientists. How did two Matoran living in a hut in the poorest of slums manage to get their hands on such expensive materials? No, this can’t be …” he trailed off.
Kopaka put his head down on his desk and cradled it with his hands. “There’s no way they managed to get ahold of top-secret, confidential material,” Kopaka muttered. He got up and started pacing across the room.
Suddenly, a thought came to his head. It filled him with anger.
They didn’t acquire the exploding Kanoka on their own, someone gave it to them.
He mentally connected the dots.
Sarda was a courier, and he delivered the package to Vakama. And I know that Sarda does his courier tasks on routes leading into and out of the Council Building. So someone inside the Council Building must have supplied him with the bomb. There’s a traitor in our midst.
“Sarda was used for delivering the bomb, but by who?” Kopaka pondered. He sat back down at his computer and searched for the deceased civilians database in the government’s secure intranet. He accessed the intranet with a special password only known to government officials, and thus was able to gain access to the city’s records.
He quickly typed in Sarda’s name, the type of Matoran he was, and the death date.
1 result
Sarda, Ta-Matoran
Died 09:42 Today
Updated Live, 10:00 MT - NAC
Bomb Blast
“So his death was recorded in the database, but what happened to Defilak?” A quick search for Defilak did not turn up any results.
“Good thing Defilak didn’t die,” Kopaka muttered. “But that does not mean he’s safe, either. Whoever killed Sarda is most likely seeking to target Defilak as well. There are a lot of couriers living in one-man households, but Sarda wasn’t one of them.”
Just at that moment, he received a text message from Onua on his mobile device. He opened the attachment sent, which was a forensic lab report of a fingerprint sample. His eyes quickly scanned the report, and noticed Defilak’s name at the bottom, as well as where the fingerprints were collected from.
No, this report is wrong. Either it is wrong or someone created fake evidence. A Matoran does not go around killing Turaga, especially a Turaga that was once at the seat of power. Defilak and Sarda were staunch supporters of Dume and the rest. This is falsified, one hundred percent, Kopaka reasoned.
“Defilak is being framed for this. My initial suspicions were confirmed. But who? That remains the biggest question, and the last piece of the puzzle,” the Toa of Ice noted, already beginning to get apprehensive of what he was about to find.
He bent over and reached for the leather bound book he found amidst the rubble.
I’m about to look through Vakama’s personal diary, Kopaka said silently to himself. Turaga Vakama, wherever you are, I humbly ask forgiveness for what I’m about to do.
He steeled himself for what he was about to witness, dusted off the grime on the book, and opened to the first page.
i did not make an among us reference