Chapter 77 - A Traitor’s Repentance
Anthony Stack walked out of the bar and looked up at the dark sky. He was still a little bit inebriated from the strong drinks he’d been taking in over the preceding few days, but he was sober enough to make it over to a communal water fountain and wash off his face.
He looked at himself in the mirror and tried to justify what he’d done over the past months and years and was having a hard time doing it. He’d been so sure about his cause when he joined forces with Ellis LaPorte back in school. It had been an abstract idea before, and all he’d seen was the profit motive. The power change was something he’d not seen until recently.
"What do we do now, Tony?" he asked himself quietly, "Where do we go from here?"
Stack walked around the base a little and then went over to the jail area. He had managed to hold on to his pass papers, a set directly from LaPorte that pretty well gave him access to the entire base. He showed his papers to the guard at the front, who let him in immediately.
Being in the dead of the night the jail was almost deserted. Rights were something almost unheard of in Ellis LaPorte’s palace of prisoners, so there was very little problem from the inmates. Stack walked over to the guard who was running the front desk.
"Major Stack," the younger man said, "Welcome back. What brings you here this time of night?"
"There’s certainly enough work to go around," Stack told him, "I need to talk to Colonel LaPorte’s special prisoner."
"No one is supposed to go down there sir," the guard said, "But your paperwork is in order sir…"
"Then let me go talk to him," Stack said, "I’m running short on time for this and need to see him immediately."
"He’s in the basement sir," the guard said, "This key will get you down there."
"Thank you," Stack said, taking the key, "If anyone comes looking for me I wasn’t here. Got it?"
"Yes sir!" the guard said.
Anthony Stack nodded and walked to the door. He unlocked door and went down the stairs. He remembered this area fairly well from when he was in the area and running some of the missions for LaPorte. He found what he was looking for fairly quickly.
"Coming to gloat some more, LaPorte?" Paulus Tally said as he sat on the bench, "Could you at least send some food in so I have a reason to listen to you?"
"I don’t have any with me," Stack said as he pulled up a chair, "Sorry to disappoint you, Paulus."
"Tony Stack," Paulus said, sitting up and looking at the man across the bars, "I should have known that you were involved in this."
"Why’s that?" Stack said, wondering.
"No way could anyone that self centered could have done this alone," Paulus shrugged, "You had to be altering records and shirking your duty to the Mullinix for his grandiose plans to have gotten this far."
"We all make mistakes," Stack said, "Looks like you made yours."
"I’m still alive," Paulus said, "Massimaferro has got to be looking for me by now."
"I imagine so," Stack said, "I’d imagine so."
Paulus looked at the traitor through the bars and sensed that something was bothering him. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he wondered whether Tony Stack was having second thoughts about what his boss was doing. It wouldn’t be the first time that the betrayer had found himself among the betrayed.
"You’re having second thoughts, aren’t you?" Paulus said, "About this insane plan that LaPorte has hatched?"
"You’re good," Stack nodded, "I wasn’t expecting a lot of things to go the way they did. I figured we’d be going for more profit than anything else."
"LaPorte wants power," Paulus told him, "I don’t know how he thinks he’s going to do it like this…"
"The Mavelans," Stack told him, "He’s in bed with King Facie."
"That rotten son of a bitch," Paulus chuckled, "I should have guessed."
"Have you met him?" Stack asked Paulus.
"Many years ago," Paulus nodded, "Back when Massimaferro was a new apprentice, just before Cirrus defected. He was a duplicitous bastard even then."
"I just met him," Stack said, "It was a new experience. He was dressed as a page to avoid assassination."
"He has to do that," Paulus said, "His people hate him that much. I think he was a waiter when I met him."
"He and LaPorte are already planning the reeducation camps," Stack said, "It isn’t going to be pretty when they take over."
"You can stop this you know," Paulus told him, "It isn’t too late. If Massimaferro is told…"
"It’s too late," Stack said, "Massimaferro is up north. Evidently the Siraqis have something cooking to keep attentions divided. The transfer is taking place in less than a week."
"Facie will turn on you, you know this right?" Paulus asked him, "Come on Tony, it isn’t too late."
"It is for me," Stack said, "I’m a wanted man in the Empire now. I betrayed everything I was, everyone who trusted me. The reason I’m here is because my idiots failed in their attempts to assassinate Medoferro."
"That was you, huh?" Paulus asked him, "It doesn’t matter now. Just let me out of here, Tony. We’ll go back. You might not have the power you had before, but we can stop this madness in its tracks."
"There’s no redemption for me now," Tony Stack said, "Even if this is stopped, there’s nothing left for me."
"You have to at least try," Paulus said, "Come on, let me out and we’ll go to the capital together. That will count for more than you know."
"You’re delusional, Tally," Stack told him, "One of us might be able to get away with a distraction. He’ll be looking for both of us within an hour."
"We have to at least try," Paulus told him, "Come on, let me out."
Tony Stack looked at Paulus for a minute and thought about his future. He didn’t like any of what he saw coming for him. He knew he didn’t want to live in a Mavelan controlled area and he knew he couldn’t go home again. What was left of his conscience was eating at him as well. It was a long thought before Stack tossed the keys to Tally.
"Let yourself out when you hear the commotion outside," Stack told him, "They left you in civilian clothes so you’ll fit in well enough. Get out of here and tell the Mullinix what is going on. Maybe you’ll be able to stop it. Who knows. Either way I won’t be a part of it."
"You can come with me, Tony," Paulus told him, "You don’t have to stay here."
"Stay here?" Stack chuckled, "I have no intention of staying here. But I’m not going to go subject myself to a Mullinix Trial either. Get yourself ready. You won’t have much time to get out."
"Tony!" Paulus exclaimed, but all he could do was watch as Anthony Stack walked away from him.
Paulus got himself cleaned up a little and unlatched the cell door using Stack’s keys. He walked out of the cell and quietly snuck up the stairs to the front area. This was going to be the tricky part, getting out past the guards despite the late hour. He wondered exactly what type of commotion Tony Stack was going to make.
Anthony Stack walked past the guard at the front, ignoring the pleas to stop and give the keys back again. The guard left his station and went over to Anthony Stack, grabbing on to his shoulder. Stack turned around and produced a knife from a sheath, ramming it deep into the front door guard’s chest, slicing the man’s heart clean in half.
Paulus shuddered as he watched that display and then looked as Tony Stack went towards the upper stairs instead of going outside. Paulus waited for the guard to die before venturing up any further, this time slipping behind the desk and locking all the inner guard doors to make sure that any guards that were still awake wouldn’t be able to get out to chase him.
"Whatever you’re going to do, Tony," Paulus said to himself, "Do it soon."
Anthony Stack went up to the top of the building and got up to the lighted area at the top. The jail was the tallest building on the base and faced the courtyard where all the parades were held.
He looked out at the lighted parade grounds and then closed his eyes. He thought for a few minutes about what he had done and decided that this was as good a way as any to end it.
"Fuck you, Ellis LaPorte!" Anthony Stack shouted at the top of his lungs, "I hope you rot in hell for eternity! I’ll be waiting at the gates when you get there!"
There was some activity on the base and this type of shout didn’t go unnoticed. Stack waited until there were plenty of sets of eyes on him before doing a perfect swan dive off the top of the stone jail building. There were a few screams as the people on the ground watched the traitor gracefully fly through the air and thump loudly on the ground, dying instantly as his neck broke on contact.
Paulus saw this display and heard the rushing people, knowing that this was the commotion that Anthony Stack had promised. Knowing full well that this was his best chance he walked out of the jail, using one of the doors that was away from where Tony Stack had fallen to his death.
While everyone on the base was going to look at the body, Paulus made his way to the gates. He found one where the guard’s curiosity overcame his desire to stay at his post and slipped outside, jogging to the wooded area to the north of the base. He continued jogging until he was too winded to jog anymore.
"You got another one, Ellis," Paulus said to himself as he rested, "But you’re not going to get me too."
With that determination Paulus Tally started walking north, figuring that if he could get to Taliaferro Village before LaPorte’s people did he could make his call and let Massimaferro know what had happened down there. He just hoped that he could make it in time, as it would not be a good thing for the people of Cirrus if King Facie took it over. Not a good thing at all.