Stetzon was on his way back toward a better part of town and contemplating getting somewhere else to stay. He had a few things he'd have to do first. As he was coming down 21st street he came to meet Noelle. He should have figured that she would have been semi close. She kept on walking and walking next to him and he almost felt like yelling, but he managed to stay quiet long enough for her to say something.
Surprisingly she hadn't turned him in yet and Stetzon grit his teeth. This was one of those situations where he wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything, but he knew he should. It was only fair if she knew what was going to happen. He might have to run like hell after he told her, but at least she could choose to distance herself if that was what she needed to to do. "You want to know what happened? I'll tell you, but we'll have to do it the same as last time. I know it isn't normal to do this, but I knew this call was different when it came in." Even if he knew it was going to be different he never expected to find what he did. "Noelle, this is your chance to get to clear, or do something, but it's up to you and I thought it would only be fair for you to know."
"I don't know how many times I have to tell you that I'm in this until the end. Regardless of the circumstances." Noelle was tired of the constant repeating herself. "So just get on with whatever you need to say.'
Stetzon smirked. "Not sure you will be. At least not in the way you think. I know who our man is and it might change a few things." Handing her a note he had a location and time and specified again that there wouldn't be anyone to follow and nothing to trace. "It's important that you do it this way."
Rolling her eyes she took the note and walked off muttering to herself.
Keeping it all to himself was hard. He had to carry the pad around and it had to move so many hours each day, or he'd be sent a warning the required some sort of explanation. They had only so many hours for sleep and then a monitor that constantly tracked activity levels. He hadn't moved nearly enough today and he had a warning on his pad. Stetzon was going to have to try and explain that, but he couldn't think of anything at the moment. His movements hadn't been enough to be considered to be making progress. There were a lot of things he didn't feel like doing after getting the news. It was late, but he knew now and there wasn't any point in going home.
While he was in the hotel room he started to write up a final report. Stetzon was more than ready to defect, but he wasn't even sure how he could make that happen. It wasn't like he'd ever tried this before. Defecting without getting killed, or hunted also meant that he would need help. Relying on Artemis alone meant that he would end up being hunted and they would just keep sending agents till they got him and Artemis. Otherwise, he could maybe get some help and his best shot at that was to get Noelle.
An involuntary sort of grimace came to Stetzon's face. He couldn't quite imagine Noelle volunteering to help him with his history. It was only fair to give her another chance and maybe two if he was going to move forward with his plan. She'd have to know a few things up front if she planned on sticking with him on this. They were the sort of things that broke trust if they weren't revealed before starting on something dangerous. Getting into this and then having it revealed would be far worse than possibly getting turned in at this moment. At least he'd have a chance to do something crazy. Even if she seemed to be ok with it there was still a lot of trust he'd have to give her. Somehow he'd just have to trust that she meant what she said, whatever it would be.
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This time Stetzon arrived early by almost half an hour. He felt nervous and for good reason. There wasn't any room for a mistake and he was sure that he was about to make one, but he couldn't keep going the direction he was. Not after he knew. When Noelle showed up he cringed. It would have been easier if she hadn't, but he still had the note and the contents of it with him. She'd see it if she chose to hear more. "I'm defecting. Not staying with the force. Something changed my mind. I've tried to get past the fact that we lost the war and I did my best to serve the new government, but I can't do it. There's a new group that's still building. They're not imperialists. It's complicated. I have a few answers for you of how this works, but that all depends on how you think you're going to react to this."
Noelle wasn't as concerned about being on time this meet. In fact she may have been a minute late. She just stood there and let him say what he wanted. Sounded like he was going rogue. Noelle closed her eyes, half from irritation and half in thought. There was protocol for all this.. After a few moments her eyes opened again. "I suggest you get on with what you're going to tell me."
"Artemis isn't quite what you thought. Yes, we were both imperialists, but..anyway. We tried to live under the new government and it hasn't worked out and we just want peace. Civil war was bad enough no need to take it further. There are still some that Artemis learned about. They're picking up others in scattered territories and they're actually making a move for vulnerable planets. A few made their way here, like Artemis to escape the war when it was still going. The weapons are to help protect Earth from an invasion. Something like that would make it impossible for those of us with families left to ever see them again. I've known Artemis for over 100 years and he doesn't lie." Stetzon looked at her for a long moment. "I have to go rogue to keep the weapons here and to keep them in your office where they're protected, but accessible if an invasion starts. I'll need some sort of recruitment from your office and I'll work under supervision, but I won't go back to Quoti."
"It won't be an issue to keep the weapons locked away in the office. However, there won't be any recruitment possibilities." Noelle said simply and shrugged slightly. "The only ones I would trust close enough to this I took off the case for their own safety. If we ask my superiors... Well they would give us Chris and report back to your office." She looked directly at him, "And I'm assuming you don't want them to know you're defecting just yet."
He'd been told defecting was tough and he was sure it would be. "Well, I guess you do what you have to. Won't matter if they know that I defected, or not. Not anymore." Handing her the envelope he took a deep breath. "There's a hologram recording of when they killed my family. They forgave anyone with a skill. They promised that in time I'd get to go home again after I'd proved my loyalty. Got out of prison and trial and worked for them for 5 years and all of it was for nothing. Do what you want, but I already know what I'm doing."
Stetzon didn't seem to understand the gravity of what a report like that would mean. His government was part of the Council; they would quite literally be against the universe. Noelle held the package in her hand as he explained what was in it. When he finished she handed it back to him. "I don't need to see your family being killed." Both of her hands went into her jacket's pockets. "And again, I told you I was with you on this. Future reference, I don't like repeating myself." She said with a sigh and frown, "Now what?"
Taking the envelope back from Noelle he stuffed it into his jacket pocket. "You're with me and you don't even know me." Rolling his eyes he almost wanted to laugh. It was ironic. He just finished telling her that he was reformed imperialist, a convict and now a defector. "I guess we keep on going. I'll get rid of contact with Quoti and disappear."
"You know even less about me." Noelle pointed out and gave a small grin. Though his next steps were rather abrupt. "Are you sure?" Noelle said with a frown. "Hear me out." She stopped him before he could go back to repeating himself. "They are going to ask questions. And believe it or not, it's not actually that easy to just 'disappear' on Earth." Noelle sighed, "Plus there is this whole investigation thing..." She crinkled her nose slightly for a moment. "We need to plan a raid on Artemis and whoever else is working with him. We'll kill you and then have reason to confiscate the weapons to keep them in the office." Obviously there would be a lot more to it than how simple that sounded. "I can make up paperwork and protocols so your government can't access the weapons or your 'body'."
Stetzon's eyebrows went up slightly when she mentioned making the raid and he started to shift on his feet. That sounded a bit uncomfortable. "Make a raid and then kill me." He knew she meant it as a sort of cover, but he figured she would need to know a little more about Chippequoti. "Not so many ways to kill us. Maybe an explosion, but I think that would be a bit much considering there would have to be a report of one, and maybe some armor piercing rounds, but those make a mess hard to duplicate, or a fall that's high enough up to break a lot of bones."
Noelle looked him over before resting her gaze on his face again. "We don't know much about how the Chippequoti body works. I'm sure you noticed as much when you visited the med station." She studied him a moment, "I'm not sure if your pulse or other vital signs work the same as a human's... But since there is little known information we have a lot of room to work with. Plus technology." Noelle nodded slightly, "And the raid itself will be easy to explain. We usually take out what we need, plant some drug paraphernalia, and have an 'expert' go in to explain the debris. Or whatever the case may be."
Considering the fact that she was likely going to have to show some kind of evidence Stetzon almost felt sick. Doing this wasn't going to be easy. "Well, dere es one thing that would convince them that I'm dead. Break one of my arms. You'd need more than just a finger, or my hand. Then inject a poison and harvest some infected bone tissue. Let it grow in a petri dish for a few days and tell them that I broke a few bones, got bone infections and died. You didn't know what to do. They'd believe that without a body. Only problem is that I'll need medicine and I might die if you don't get the infection in the bone under control."
Noelle blinked a few times. "Uhmm.. Well... Those are nitty gritty details we can iron out further along. I'm sure you have other people to fill in. This way we can get as much equipment confiscated as you are wanting."
"Necessary details. I don't like breaking bones. There is nothing worse than that. I'd kinda like to know your staff might not accidentally give me bone rot they can't stop.." Stetzon was a little concerned about that. Bone rot was a nasty way to go and he could think of other deaths that were far better. "Artemis is just waiting for my word. I'll send a response and it'll all start tomorrow. I'll keep my pad only as long as I'm 'alive'."
"We can't put a raid together by tomorrow." Noelle said simply.
Stetzon blinked a few times. "Not a raid, the process. Why would you think I would think that could happen so suddenly? I'll just start the process of finding information that leads us to our man. I will keep the pad and make reports to Quoti as usual. I'll have to explain my absence today. Could say I ate corn. Haven't reported that yet."
Since they were done for the time he walked with her toward her home again, until he was dismissed and then he took himself back to the hotel. If it were possible to feel more lonely than he'd felt even in prison then he'd found a new low. This wasn't a great time be mourning his family, so it would have to be short lived. When he got to the hotel Stetzon grabbed the wash bucket and he took himself into the wash room to get cleaned up. Then he'd have to write his report and claim that he'd eaten a meal with corn in it. He could legitimately say that he'd recently discovered there were several products that appeared to safe and contained corn.
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The next morning Stetzon woke up tired, wore out, and lacking creativity, but he knew that the first order of business was to let Artemis know that he was in. Typing in the number on his pad he sent a single rune. It stood for the snake. The snake in Quoti legend stood for new beginnings and this was certainly a shot at that. Pulling his clothes on Stetzon took himself down the stairs and waited for Noelle to arrive at the hotel. They were going to continue this investigation the same as usual and if this was going to work it had to look convincing. In the meantime he could make a report to her that he'd found a contact in the bad part of town that was willing to get them to the leader.
Her superiors needed something too and they would want a reason for her to call off the extra agents. Once he was in the car he sighed. "Thanks for calling off your other agents. My contact prefers to be a little more private. Looks like we'll be getting a few more leads if he doesn't decide to chicken out." Noelle would know that this was the cover story they had to run when they had their electronics with them. "What kind of incentives do you offer here if he keeps on talking?"
