Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of a Goddess ❯ Barrel of a Gun ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter Fifteen

Barrel of a Gun

 

Dallet brought Hitomi into a room that overlooked the arena. It was an office with a magnificent cherry wood desk; several arm chairs and a sprawling sofa at the end of the room. Dallet carried her to the couch and laid her down on it like he was very nervous about handling her.

“Do you want something to drink?” he asked her uneasily. “There's Sprite, mineral water, Diet Coke …”

It sounded like he was seriously going to list every beverage known to man when Hitomi interrupted him to say that she would have water.

Dallet got a bottle for her quickly. Then he asked her if there was anything else she needed. Her lip was split and he asked her if she wanted some ice or a pain killer. Hitomi felt extremely bruised through her torso, so much so that she had tears running down her face as well as an extremely plump lip. Hitomi hadn't been in many fights, and she thought that the pain would soon go away like when she had fought with Marlene as a child, so she told Dallet that she didn't need anything.

With her permission, he quickly left the room - at the exact moment that Folken chose to enter it.

He didn't speak to Dallet, but closed the door behind the boy and locked it.

At first, he didn't speak to Hitomi either, but drew up a chair. Then he took the unopened water bottle from Hitomi's hand and opened it for her. “Can you sit up to drink it, or do you need my help?” was all he said at first.

Hitomi tried to sit up, but the pain in her chest and stomach was too much for her, so Folken held her head while she tipped the bottle up. The water tasted refreshing to Hitomi. She hadn't realized that she was parched.

When she'd drunk enough, Folken took the bottle from her and screwed the cap back on. He set the bottle on the floor and looked at her seriously. “Would you mind telling me what you're doing here?” he asked mildly.

Was this really the same person she'd fought in the arena not fifteen minutes before? He seemed very different to her, almost gentle.

“You and Van shouldn't fight,” she said, still a little befuddled. That blow to her head had sort of messed her up.

Folken looked at her like he couldn't believe she was so naive. “It's hard to believe that you're serious. There's no reason for you to try to stand up for me. I can't think of a good reason why you'd try to arbitrate peace between the two of us.”

“Akira loved you,” Hitomi said quickly.

“No,” Folken said darkly and deliberately. “I loved her. She did not love me back.”

“Have you read her logbook? I know she loved you!” Hitomi cried.

Folken shook his head. “No, if that's what you saw in her words than you didn't read it properly. She chose Dominic. You know, it doesn't matter that she cared for me a little bit. That doesn't comfort me at all. I loved her without reservation and she chose to waste herself on a dead man. It was very selfish of me to try to get her to love me at all since she was his to begin with, but I loved her and I wanted her to be `the one woman' in my life. I should have left her alone like Dornkirk told me to.”

“The Devil told you to stay away from her?” Hitomi asked gravely.

“Don't call him that!” Folken flared hatefully. “You don't know anything about him!”

Hitomi clutched her hands together. When Folken looked like that he was really scary, much scarier than Van even in his worst moment.

But when Folken saw Hitomi's expression, he softened. “But I guess you weren't taught any better, so you can't help it. So, tell me Hitomi,” Folken said, taking a deep breath. “Your only reason for coming here tonight was because Akira loved me?”

“Van is out to kill you,” Hitomi admitted quietly. At least she could warn him of Van's plans. That might be enough to save him.

“I know,” Folken said seriously. “Van has sworn to kill me hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It's okay. It's not something you have to worry about.”

“No, I can't let him kill you! When I first moved in with Van last spring, he told me that he had never killed anyone and now he seriously seems like he means to go through with it. My reasons for doing this are not just for you, because Akira loved you, but also because of him. If he becomes a murderer, all that is good about him will disappear, I know it. Please, you have to make up with Van somehow. You have to tell him about what really happened with your parents so that he's no longer angry with you.”

Folken hadn't been looking at her during this speech. Instead he had been cupping his mouth in his hand and looking towards the arena windows. “Is that what you think, Hitomi?” he asked, not turning his head and speaking through his fingers. “Is that what you think? That Van doesn't know the whole story about what happened that day?”

Hitomi stared at him, looking for some clue as to where he was going with his speech.
Folken didn't move his head, but moved his eyes only and examined Hitomi's expression. “I see,” he said, moving his hand. “Van has not told you what happened that day. I'm surprised. I thought he would have confided in you.”

A series of sick lumps were forming all over Hitomi's body when Folken said these words. There was one in her stomach, another in her throat, in her head, and a giant one in her heart. What was Folken going to say to her?

“Well, it seems that Van cannot even tell his new bride of the events of that day. His hate runs as deep as bone marrow, but I thought that he would have told you the truth about me, which explained perfectly why you wouldn't choose me when I asked you to be my girlfriend. I thought that was the reason you rejected me. So, there was another reason?”

“Van and I were already married,” she admitted hoarsely.

Folken nodded his head. “I see. That makes perfect sense. He didn't waste any time, did he? Oh well, it's none of my business ... anymore. You weren't right for me anyway,” here Folken paused carefully and when he continued, his whole countenance changed from that of a person who was in complete control of himself to a person who was wrecked from head to foot. He changed into a person that could not be healed. “Hitomi,” he said sadly. “You have to give up trying to repair things between Van and me. It won't work. There is no way to mend us.”

“There has to be a way,” Hitomi persisted.

“You don't understand,” Folken said patiently. “Van's anger is righteous. You said before that once he learned the truth about our parents' death, he wouldn't be angry with me. You clearly don't understand. Van knows everything about what happened. It couldn't be concealed. It was in every paper and on every news station across the country. It was such big news that the simplest facts about the situation could not even be kept from a five year-old boy. He knows what happened and he's right to want to kill me for what I did. You see, Hitomi, I deserve to die for what I did. I could have evaded Van tonight (even though it was you pretending to be him) if I wanted to, but I don't wish to avoid death for my sins anymore. I've hidden for so long - I've tried to squelch the truth about myself. I mean, I am a man who murdered my own parents in cold blood. Hitomi, do you understand what that means? I'm not a person who deserves Van's forgiveness and I don't wish to hide from the punishment I deserve anymore.”

Hitomi's bottom lip was trembling. The lumps in her body were only growing. “I don't believe you!” she cried passionately. So passionately in fact that it stretched her sore ribs and made her cough. Even though Folken was saying all this, there was still something in his eyes, something in his countenance that made it impossible for her to believe what he said. He had to be using it as an excuse to get her to stay out of the way.

Folken sat beside her on the couch and patted her back softly until she stopped coughing. Then he moved back to the chair and said to her. “Since Van will not tell you what happened, I will. If you hear what really happened, you'll understand why I don't want to hide from Van, even though I don't really want to die.”
Hitomi tried to quiet her thundering heart, but she couldn't. She had never heard a person who had done something like what Folken said he had speaking about it candidly. She was afraid to hear the details, and afraid that he would fool her with a lie.

“When I was a child,” Folken began. “My father and mother were very strict. Van was born when I was ten and my parents were both nutty about him. I wasn't jealous or anything like that. I loved him as much as they did, but they sort of stopped paying such close attention to me, because a new baby takes a lot of work. I quit the clubs they forced me to join without their permission as soon as their backs were turned and started hanging around after school instead of going to my lessons or going home. I made new friends, not good friends and it wasn't long before all my friends were bad boys. I couldn't help wanting to be friends with them - they liked me so much more than the kids I used to compete with in clubs. With them, I could be myself. You might think that I succumbed to peer pressure or something like that, but it was nothing of the sort. With these new friends, I could be myself and believe it or not, but I was not a nice kid. At home, I was forced to do what my parents wanted, but when I was at school or with my friends I really got a kick out of being the biggest dog in the pack. I knew about my uncle's special power - that he was a Tarot user, and I wanted to be like him instead of like my father so I gloried in getting my friends to do whatever I wanted them to do. It wasn't until I was thirteen that I first met a few of the Zaibach group's lower class drug dealers. They wanted me and all my friends to buy our drugs from them, but when I watched them, I saw that they were idiots. Not only that, but I soon found out that they were trying to sell to us for way more than the stuff was worth. They had been using too much of it themselves. I was pretty entrepreneurial even at the tender age of thirteen, so I followed them one day as they were going to see their lord.”

“You did?” Hitomi couldn't believe that Folken was that daring and only thirteen years old. Talk about guts!

Folken smiled wearily before he went on. “Yeah, I did. I didn't like that they were jacking up the price because of their own weaknesses and I decided that I would try to convince their boss to let me deal for him instead of those two punks. So, I followed them and met their boss. He was a really interesting guy in his thirties. I think you've probably heard of him. His name was Leon Schezar.”

Hitomi gasped.

“Yeah, he's Allen and Celena's father. Wow! You didn't know that he was in the Zaibach group. Van and Allen really don't tell you anything.”

Hitomi frowned. She was totally speechless. She couldn't believe that they hadn't told her that. Why did Van and Allen not tell her these things? It was totally insulting and horrible to be left in the dark like this. Why didn't Van tell her if he was going to trust her?

“They didn't tell you, did they?” Folken persisted.

“No,” Hitomi admitted miserably.

Folken nodded. “Sorry, I shouldn't get such a thrill out of Van and Allen's impurity, but it always makes me feel better when I hear something that reminds me that they aren't perfect.”

“Keep going,” Hitomi prompted. She didn't want to talk about Van's faults with Folken. It was too embarrassing for her. Her face was already hot from her injury. Folken didn't need to make it worse.

“Anyway, those two loser drug dealers I mentioned before went to go meet Leon in an abandoned warehouse and I watched their conversation. Leon was not pleased with their performance and wouldn't give them anything else until they brought him a certain amount of cash that they owed him. He didn't beat them up, but he warned them that they were getting in over their heads and if they didn't make good soon, there would be problems. I hid behind a crate until they were finished and when they had left and Leon was alone, I approached him. As I said, Leon was a really interesting guy, and when I told him that I wanted to work for him and that I'd be sure to bring in more money than those losers because I wasn't a drug addict. I was interested in power and money. I guess I convinced him that I was a good investment because he gave me some `stuff' to try to sell.”

Hitomi noticed that Folken didn't specify what kind of drugs he was given, but he looked embarrassed, so she didn't press him for the details. She guessed it was probably pot or meth. Junior high school kids probably didn't have the money for crack.

“I turned out to be really good at it and I made a lot of money really fast. Leon was really impressed with me. This went on for awhile before things got heated, but to make a long story short, I'll be brief. A lot of things happened. First, I got really good at dealing drugs, then I got a lot of money, then I got used to doing everything and getting everything that I wanted, and then I got fed up with my father. I was fifteen, and I was kicking cans around that same abandoned warehouse complaining to Leon at the top of my lungs about how hard my father was on me. My father had no idea I was into dealing, but he had caught me lying a couple times and was enforcing tighter rules at home. I couldn't stand his rules. Leon just stood and laughed at me. He told me he had a son named Allen was who six, but he hadn't had any trouble with him yet. He hoped that his son would turn out like me. It was around that moment that I started to think of Leon as my father instead of Goau. I called my father Goau after that.” Folken paused here and got up. He began pacing and Hitomi couldn't help but notice how much his movements were like Van's. It made her want to sympathize with him. “Sorry to do this to you, Hitomi. It's just that I feel like if I don't tell you everything about me, then I'll never find any peace. You're The Goddess of the Moon, right? You understand, don't you?”

Hitomi nodded her head, but wasn't totally clear why her being The Goddess of the Moon should have anything to do with their conversation. Wasn't her being his sister-in-law enough?

“So you don't mind if I keep going?” he asked, pausing in his circuit.

“It's okay,” Hitomi told him.

“When I brought my product into my parents' house I was always really careful where I kept it. I never carried much because I liked to make kids wait and I liked to go visit Leon often, so I kept my small supply in a large hollowed out diary that my father had given me for Christmas when I was younger. It had a lock on it, so I always thought that it was a secure item. I thought it was the only safe place for me to keep anything in the house. Goau told me it was a place to keep my secrets, dreams and ambitions. I never wrote a word in it, but I had glued the pages together and cut the inside out when I was thirteen. I thought that my father would respect my privacy there, at the very least. I was wrong. You know, I didn't know that that kind of diary came with two keys, because my father only gave me one when he gave me the book.”

Hitomi cringed. Even though Folken was doing something bad like drug dealing, she couldn't help but see his perspective a little bit during his speech and she couldn't help but feel the sting of betrayal that he probably felt when he realized that his father was spying on him. “He read your diary?” she asked, wincing.

“Yeah, he did, while I was in the shower. I never kept anything in the book when I wasn't home, so it wouldn't have mattered how many times he checked up on me before - he wouldn't have found anything. When he opened the book the old man was so enraged that he couldn't even wait for me to get out of the bathroom, but instead burst in and pulled me out of the shower stall without even waiting for me to put a towel around myself.”

As Folken spoke, Hitomi could tell how deeply this action of his father's hurt him. He didn't need to say that it was humiliating and horrible for him. It was written all over his face.

Folken continued, “The old man dragged me into the living room stark naked and was insistent on having it out with me right then and there. My mother went and got me a towel. I was soaking wet on my back on the living room rug while my father yelled at me. Can you imagine how that must have felt? First, Goau wanted to know if I did drugs, but my mother swore up and down that I couldn't be doing drugs. This had to be the first time because I always had plenty of money. I never came to them asking for money. It probably would have been better for me if I'd been able to convince Goau that I was merely interested in smoking a little weed on the side. I could have said that I was taking it to a party and I probably would have got in less trouble. As it was, because of my mother's instant and incredible reasoning, it clicked in Goau's head that there was no way I was doing drugs. I had to be dealing them, which was a whole different animal in his mind and his rage would not be subsided. Within twenty minutes, I was on the front porch wearing nothing but the towel my mother had grabbed for me and picking up the clothes from my drawers my father had emptied on the lawn. My mother handed me a bag through the basement window as I picked up my clothes. She told me to call home during work hours in a couple days. My father would be gone from home then and she'd be the only one home to answer the phone. She'd work things out between the two of us if I'd be patient. You see Hitomi, this is the most painful part of the story for me,” Folken said, throwing himself back into the chair he had originally sat in. “You see, my mother didn't care if I was a drug dealer or the devil or anything. She loved me no matter what I was, but she was helpless to run out and help me at that very moment. She was going to act rationally and get my father to calm down. She was a wise woman and there's no way she deserved to die …” Folken paused. It was a moment before he could go on. Finally, he picked up where he left off, “Anyway, she knew that Goau needed a chance to cool off. So I left.”

“And you went directly to Leon, didn't you?” Hitomi asked softly, thinking of how much Folken's family life resembled her own. She had to leave home as well.

“Yeah,” Folken said, looking still more depressed. This was not an easy story for him to tell. “So, I went to Leon. Oddly enough, he was overjoyed that things had bubbled over with my parents. He saw it as an opportunity for me to learn more about the syndicate and possibly a chance for me to upgrade my status. You see, Leon only did the drug lord thing on the side. He did a lot of other things too. In short, he was the money man for the Zaibach group. We weren't very big back then and it wasn't so hard for just one man to do all the work. He had his fingers in all sorts of pots, and he thought that I had a lot of potential so he took me to stay at the main house. This was Dornkirk's mansion. I was very surprised when I met Dornkirk. He didn't look anything like the mobsters I had seen in movies. He was a thin pale man with white hair. He was also Russian. I was expecting someone Italian or Japanese. But, when I spoke with him I could tell that it didn't matter. He had all the important points of a good mob boss. He knew what he was doing, he wasn't a coward, he had goals, and - most importantly - he was also a Tarot user. He said that he'd done some research on me and discovered that I was an heir. He really wanted me in a position of power in his syndicate, and I really wanted to do it.”

Hitomi felt sicker still as she listened to the excitement in Folken's voice as he relived his feelings from that day. He was being accepted by someone he admired, and it made him feel valuable. She felt sick that there had been no one purer around to save him - like Balgus.

“So, I quit going to school and started learning things his way. They taught me how to fight and how to work the books. I really liked learning too. It was more interesting than school had ever been and it was full of practical application, unlike school.”

“Did you ever phone your mother?” Hitomi asked quietly.

“Yes, I phoned her. It turned out to be a mistake,” Folken said coldly. “Sorry, Hitomi, I was getting off course telling you about how much I liked being invited into the Zaibach group. I meant to keep this story about my parents. Because of the phone call I made to my mother, they learned where I was staying. My parents decided to come to the mansion to get me back. They wouldn't forsake their son, even after all I had done.” Folken took a deep breath. “Before they came Leon gave me a gun and a clip. He told me that the gun wasn't loaded and that he would show me how to load it later if he had time.” Folken shook his head wearily. “So, when my parents came the maid showed them into the sitting room. Then she told me they were there and I told her that I wouldn't see my parents. I told her to tell them that they were done raising me and that I was on my own now. I asked her to tell them to leave. A few minutes later, my father broke into my bedroom and told me that my answer was unacceptable. I had to go home with them. You should have seen the look on his face, Hitomi. Nothing could have been colder. He didn't care about me, and he wasn't sorry that he had pulled me out of the shower. He just looked angry and fed up. My mother looked milder, but she always had a weaker will than him. She couldn't stand up to him. She could only soothe him, but she couldn't do it this time … not this time. He was grabbing my arm and forcing me out of the room. I couldn't stand it. I really couldn't stand it. I was so pissed off with him. I hated him and I couldn't stand what he was doing to me. I felt like if I didn't stand up to him here, than there was no way I'd fulfill my ambitions in the Zaibach group and that life with Goau would be unbearable. I had the gun Leon had given me in the back of my pants.”

Hitomi clenched her teeth together and dug her nails into her palms.

“I ripped it out and put it to his forehead and told him to back the hell off. His face went white and he took his hands off me. I shouted at him. I yelled so hard at him there were tears running down my cheeks … how I hate myself, Hitomi,” Folken said wearily. His eyes were bloodshot as he spoke of that day. “I told him that I was never coming back and he might as well get used to it. I told him he was a shitty father and that I didn't love him. I told him I never wanted to see him again. I said a lot of things. I was young and vicious beyond his wildest dreams. He thought he's raised a strong and brave young man who would eventually turn out right if he was disciplined hard enough. I was crueler and meaner than he could have possibly imagined. This goes far beyond the neglect I got when Van was born. It also has to do with over parenting before Van was born, and the combination of those two things as well as my own rebellious, self-indulgent nature. I like to think that Goau never let me have my way when I was under his care, so that I got drunk on the power of personal decision once his back was turned. It didn't matter whether the choices were good or bad, at least they were mine. My will is strong. I have to have things my way, and never in my whole life was this demonstrated as perfectly as this moment when I voiced every complaint of my entire life and held a gun to my father's head.”

Hitomi was crying now. She couldn't help it, and Folken had stopped looking at her. He had walked away from her and was standing with his arm on the windowsill of the office. He was looking at the arena. It sounded like the motorcycle competition had begun, but Hitomi heard nothing but Folken's voice.

“So, he took my mother by the arm and led her out of the room. She was crying. I was still so angry that I couldn't sit still. I freaked out and tore through my room wrecking at least half of what was there before my parents even made it to the front door. Then, I left and went out to watch them leave from the second floor balcony. I wanted to make sure that they really left. I was standing there and I had the gun in my hand. I was pointing it at my father's back. `Why don't you pull the trigger?' Dornkirk asked from behind me. He came up and stood beside me. `If you really hate your father, you would be able to do it,” he said beguilingly. I knew the gun wasn't loaded, so I didn't think there was any harm in doing what the old man said. I told him I'd do more than pull the trigger for my father, but that I could easily kill my mother too. He smiled at me. Such a smile and for a smile like that, I did it! I pulled the trigger and shot a bullet into my father's back and then my mother's. I did it so fast that I didn't realize that the gun was loaded. I didn't even feel the kick on the shots. I stood there on the balcony and saw their bodies lying flat on the driveway. I can't even describe the horror of that moment. It is impossible. I dropped the gun in my hand and nearly threw myself off the balcony in order to get to them to see if they were still breathing. It had to be a joke …” Folken stopped talking. He was crying too hard.

Hitomi got to her feet, even though she was so sore, and rushed as quickly as she could. She pulled Folken into her arms and he grasped onto her like she was a life preserver. She had never seen a grown man weep before in her entire life and seeing it now was the most disturbing sight she had ever encountered. He put his high head on her shoulder and moaned miserably.

“I thought the gun was empty,” he cried.

“It's okay, Folken,” she whispered. Hitomi didn't know what else to say. The pain he was discussing was a pain that ran deeper than anything Hitomi had seen in her life. Van had not clung to her like this when he spoke of Folken's betrayal. He had not cried. He had not murdered anyone. Her determination to stop Van from going after Folken was cementing itself even harder into her soul. She couldn't let Van become a man who felt the inner torment of a person who had done such serious evil as this. She must do everything in her power to stop it from happening. “It's okay,” she said to Folken again. “I know you didn't mean for it to happen. It was an accident.”

Folken's head jolted up. “Was it, Hitomi? Was it?” His eyes were wild and red as berries as he posed the question to her. “It doesn't matter how much I think of it, I don't know what to think. I don't know who was to blame. Was it Leon? Did he know the gun was loaded and purposefully tell me that it wasn't? Did Dornkirk order him to do it? Was it merely an accident? Was it fate? Who can tell? Who can know?” he asked, moving away from her and heading towards the liquor cabinet. He opened the doors forcefully and pulling out a glass, he poured himself something to drink. He took a deep swallow. “You see, Dornkirk murdered his whole family … not his real family but the people who cared for him or tortured him - depending on your point of view. If I hadn't done it, I never would have been fit to be his successor. Doing something like this; it shows that you're totally cold, that you're totally willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive and to break the neck of anyone who crosses you.”

“Have you asked Dornkirk if he was the one behind it?” Hitomi asked, trying to think straight.

“What are you talking about, Hitomi?” Folken asked, looking like he couldn't believe what she was saying. “Dornkirk asked me to pull the trigger. Aren't you forgetting that? He asked me to … and he stopped me from jumping off the balcony. He wasn't in a wheelchair then and he kept me safe, because he wanted me to be the successor for the Zaibach group,” Folken sounded exasperated. “You are so young Hitomi. So innocent … it's painful to tell you these things. You don't understand them at all, do you?”

She frowned. It was true that Hitomi hadn't had much of a chance to grow up since all this happened and her appearance always made people underestimate her. The next thing she said had to prove to Folken that she was a right thinking adult. “You feel responsible for the death of your parents?”

“Yes,” Folken said biting his teeth together and slamming his empty glass on the top of a tiny glass table. “I didn't check the gun. I was immature and furious. I wanted to impress Dornkirk with the coldness of my heart and deep under all of what I've said the truth is that I was bratty kid who didn't know anything who actually did want to kill his father.” Folken sighed. “I didn't even think that I was making Van an orphan. I didn't even think of that as a consequence when I stood on the balcony, fantasizing about how great life would be if my father was dead.”

“Stop! Please stop!” Hitomi begged. She couldn't stand to hear anymore. It was too hard to bear. “Please stop!”

Folken seemed to regain his composure, and he poured himself another drink.

Hitomi sat back on the couch and drew her knees up to her stomach. She never would have imagined it this way. She had never thought about crime and punishment in this way before. When they talked about punishment for broken laws in school, it had always seemed so simple to her. If someone killed someone else in cold blood as Folken said he had killed his parents, then didn't they deserve to die? Hitomi didn't know. Folken was a real person and even though she didn't like him much as a guidance counselor, she adored him as a pop star, she felt sick when she thought of him tainting his hands in human misery as a mobster and a drug lord. And lastly, sometimes when he moved or when he spoke he seemed so much like Van that there was no way she could not feel a familiarity, a connection with him strong enough to make her feel like somehow he was worth saving.

Finally, Folken was sitting back down in the chair across from Hitomi. “Van knows everything I have told you. It was in every paper and on every news station. Balgus and Flo wouldn't have tried to keep it from him. They aren't soft people and it wouldn't have occurred to them to shelter him. Leon went to jail for it. I wasn't blamed.”

“How is that possible?” Hitomi gaped.

“Dornkirk is very charismatic, and he convinced everyone that it wasn't my fault at all and that instead Leon had every reason to want my parents dead. Of course, Flo and Balgus weren't convinced by that story. Everyone knew it was really me that pulled the trigger, but Dornkirk can convince anyone of anything - even if it is completely ridiculous - when he stands in front of them. So, I got off and Leon when to prison, but not before he managed to get his wife pregnant. Leon went to prison for thirteen years for the murder of my parents, and when he got out; he wouldn't go see his son or daughter. I think Allen didn't care what happened to his old man, because their mother had long since divorced him, but Celena … she was a young impressionable girl and she wanted to meet her father.”

“Is he still part of the Zaibach group?” Hitomi asked cautiously.

“No. I believe Dornkirk paid him a solid sum of ten million dollars to take prison instead of me. Leon has `other' ambitions and he wanted the money bad enough to do it when Dornkirk asked him. He got the money as soon as he got out and we haven't seen him since. I have no idea what's happened to him, but Celena came looking for him, and instead of finding him … she found Dilandau. Excellent luck, eh?”

“Pretty poor, if you ask me!” Hitomi said, finally understanding another situation.

“Indeed,” Folken said dryly. “In any case, now you know why trying to mediate between Van and me is a waste of time. Now that you've heard the whole story, I'll take you to your car.”