TOTALLY NOT DRUG TRAFFICKING

 6th February

17:14 GMT

"Yes Father, I'm fine."

Guy floats back in through the wrecked window, five locals in… High grade stealth armour, being dragged along after him on construct hooks. He deposits them on the apartment floor and generates construct bonds around them.

"Paul, you wanna..?"

I nod and start scanning, removing concealed weapons, integrated weapons and… Two suicide devices each, one of which would have caused serious physical damage to the user's brain. That's… Interesting. There are ways to extract information from a dead brain, but-. No, no, that's probably just a side effect.

"Two Lanterns were here to speak to m-. No-. Not about that. Just in general."

"Your guys say anythin' yet?"

I look over to where 'my guys' are sitting on the floor, patiently awaiting a drive to do anything. They don't wear armour, just the sort of reinforced cycle shorts that Xor does.

"I haven't asked them anything. I strongly suspect that what Ms Ton says will determine what we ask them."

He glances up. "Fixed the roof?"

"It occurs to me that it might be advantageous not to hand this over to the local authorities. These people look like 'suicide' risks to me."

"Well yeah, if they're suicide risks it'd be irresponsible t' hand 'em over."

I nod and use my ring to repair the balcony area.

"I know. I love you too, Father." Onigar puts the holocom down. Then she sighs. "Did any of them die?"

"Nah."

"That's… Unfortunate."

Guy frowns. "How come?"

"Because it's easier to disappear a body than a living person, particularly as Green Lanterns aren't supposed to kill their suspects."

Onigar nods. "It may be easiest to simply let them go."

"After.. questioning them."

"They won't say anything we could believe."

Guy shakes his head. "Paul's got ways of making people talk."

"Even if you tortured them, you have no way to confirm what they tell you."

"Not torture. I can alter a person's motives. Make them want to tell us things. And then change them back afterwards." Hm. She did strongly imply that she thought this apartment was bugged. I walk over to the oldest of Guy's apprehendees and kneel down in front of her. "You see… Sometimes, without doing anything particularly wrong in terms of your role in your society, it is possible to end up in a completely untenable position. For example, I suspect that the reason these people came after you was because a man we spoke to earlier reported the contact and a decision was made that they needed to silence you before we got here. Which means -as you originally concluded- this is now a failure on their part. Heck, I imagine that whoever was monitoring this called their superiors in just as soon as it became clear how badly it was going."

"And now? They know we're going to find out everything that they wanted to prevent you telling us. And that their soldiers just took a shot at an Honour Guard Lantern. And while the Guardians might have ruled that mutilating children wasn't something they were prepared to intervene over, a direct and knowing attack on a member of the Corps will probably result in them giving Lantern Gardner a little more leeway to investigate however he likes. And Lantern Gardner does not like the concept of child soldiers very much."

"A person… In a controlling position… Might like to contemplate the odds of someone above them in the chain of command… Deciding that sacrificing them to placate the Green Lantern Corps would be the sensible plan. And that the faster 'rogue elements' could be disavowed, the more likely such a scheme would be to work." I smile. "Just a thought."

I stand back up, Guy looking at me askance.

"What was that?"

"Oh, just smoothing our path a little. Ring, contact… Orange One Five Eight Two."

"Compliance."

Xor's head appears over my ring.

"Just intercepted an assassination attempt. Be on your guard in case some idiot decides to go for you as well."

He nods, then his head vanishes.

"You have one of my species as a Lantern?"

"Yes. How do you think I even heard about your civilisation?"

"Alright, let's not get distracted here. I've got two big problems with the Alignment right now. Number one, doin' that to orphan kids. Number two, killin' them if they don't die." He walks a few steps towards his captives and prods the closest with his right boot. "Not sayin' there ain't other stuff I don't like on top a' that, but I gotta start somewhere. So. What's goin' on?"

"Corruption breeds corruption. Laws… Originally meant to allow decent rulers to deal flexibly with complex problems now let dishonourable ones do whatever they like to preserve the system that gives them power."

"'kay?"

She shakes her head. "The War Hounds were originally a veteran unit, soldiers whose loyalty was proven over years of good service. But over time, the prestige drew well-connected officers looking only to boost their careers. Quality soldiers no longer wanted to serve there."

"Okay, but how do you get from there to cuttin' kids' brains out?"

"It was intended to augment volunteers in our military. And… At first, that was what it was used for. They found out that young recruits managed the transformation better. Then… I don't know quite when they began using orphans."

"Guess it beat having them euthanized."

She shakes her head. "That was gradual as well. A law which was supposed to allow terminally ill people with no next of kin to end their lives-. But… Yes, I suppose that it did. They were already being used in combat before knowledge of what they were became widespread. I think-. I charitably think that people assumed that they were… Older children without other prospects."

"But they ain't."

"No. Adolescents, children… They will take infants, if they can get them."

"Why are they so fixated on 'honour'?"

"It's a sick joke. The original War Hounds were renowned for their honour, for their courage and moral decency." She shakes her head. "At first, they tried to program the children to simply be loyal and obedient, but that resulted in them being used by their direct supervisors in too many assassinations. They would not question their orders, so tended to follow the most recent one. So they changed the program to create soldiers who were loyal to the original code, but without any ability to discern that those giving them orders did not hold to it."

"What happens when they work it out?"

"I know roughly what proportion of those former War Hounds who left the military were murdered. I have no idea how many are murdered while they still serve."

"Why does your government care about people finding out?"

"We are used to being beaten down. To being compelled to be loyal. But there are still limits to what people will accept. I doubt that the nature of the War Hounds being more widely known would cause outright civil unrest, but there would be… Acts of disobedience. Of uncooperation."

"Why do you care so much?"

"My mother used to work in their laboratories."