"No one is blaming you," Jenius said placatingly. "It was a foolish decision to send only one man here to change the inevitable. HQ took it too lightly."

"Do you know what mystifies me the most?" Tescadji said, coming out partially from his bout of despondency. "It's the fact that there aren't any medics or firemen here." He gestured across the breadth of the ruins. "Surely with this much-"

"There's a lot more than just the marketplace that's been damaged," Jenius said in a foreboding tone. "You think the people who started this would simply be satisfied with taking out a public square? No. The madness is spreading, and it's citywide. We also have reports of violence in several other cities and towns throughout the Republic: the worst being in Nibra, Sakar, Berengard, Loros, and Quella. A few people must've gotten the message in Lemsram and the Garushnit Kingdom as well, but that was quickly brought down by the police there; they were fortunate. Nebaru in Garushnit only suffered a few minor skirmishes; that's about all I know."

"And here I was thinking that I couldn't stop this from happening," Tescadji said in scathing sarcasm. "One moment, it was a few human kids throwing around insults at a bunch of elves after that damned broadcast, and then it went into full-blown pandemonium. Those who weren't fighting were trying to get away, and they got trampled in the crowds … poor blokes. Only those who were near the edge of the marketplace were lucky, I think."

"Then it seems our little errand boy wasn't so successful at finding out the imselfd's identity," Jenius concluded.

Tescadji shook his head. "No; the news reporters did the finding for us."

"What do you mean?"

"You mean you don't know?" Tescadji replied, almost indignant, but then on an afterthought, dismissed his previous remark. "No, of course, you wouldn't know. You aren't as familiar with Skori and Sedriil's family as I am. Well, you saw the last one Neska interviewed in that report? The one with curly black hair?"

"The android?" Jenius said. "Yes, I did. She behaved like a Setru model, but I haven't seen any who are that smart."

"That's because she is a Setru model," Tescadji explained. "Never met her myself, but Sedriil told me about her once: said that she was rescued by his sister, and given a CPU upgrade. But I think she's the one we're going after. She fits the profile, based on the people we questioned."

Advertisement..



Most Popular