A Kusari Story

[Cat]

Things are starting to make sense now. But I still can't figure something out: "How did you even get Cooper and Jacobs on your team? I thought they died on Leeds. And if you didn't want to kill me, why do... everything that you did?"

The man sighed. "One question at a time, Norman. Let's start with Jacobs and Cooper then. You met the captain of the Trailblazer, right? Linn Archer, the one who interviewed you when you applied to join Ajax? I once hired her to rescue the surviving LSF agents from Leeds. As far as I'm aware, only agent Sunderland made it to the extraction point and got out of Leeds aboard the Freedom before the Gauls brought in reinforcements. The other agents were left for dead, so I saw the opportunity and took it. Needless to say, they were quite grateful. And so was captain Archer, whom I helped to purchase her own transport, the Trailblazer. And our goals aligned, at least when it comes to the Gauls."

The man smiles at his own pun, taking a bottle of whiskey and two glasses out of the cupboard, that is also here, in the room. He opens the bottle and fills the glasses before sitting down and pushing one towards me.

"I was surprised to find out that you were working at Shinchoku. If anything, that gave us an opportunity: we contacted Hikaru Inukai, one of our sources at Shinchoku, and told him what he needed to do. He performed flawlessly, but attempted to blackmail us afterwards. You saw the rest: our operatives moved in, removed the liability, and secured the package. We even got to purchase Shinchoku afterwards The only thing we didn't take care of at that time was mister Kano, who could link the whole thing to the LSF. So Cooper took care of him too."

Joseph Dawson pauses, taking a sip from his glass, while looking at my glass, that remains untouched. I take that opportunity to ask my next question: "But now they blame me, and it won't be long until they find out that I used to be an LSF agent. Some of them do know it already." The man put his glass on the table, smiling: "Good point. Which is why mister Cooper went there to... 'talk' to the two witnesses you left alive. Arata didn't have any solid evidence, we made sure to take it beforehand. But mister Cooper has also planted some more evidence to implicate Arata Kano, Hikaru Inukai, and the Blood Dragons for the attack."

A smirk makes it ways on my face as I hear that: "So, it's putting the blame on the people who already have enough heat on them, and who happen to use the same tactics?" The director smirks in turn, taking another sip from the glass, before putting it back on the table: "Exactly. The Kusarians will still suspect something, but they only proof they have would be your past affiliation with the LSF. And they probably knew it since the beginning, but thought it'd be a better idea to keep your activities monitored."

"But why wait until I return to Kusari before silencing Arata? And what the apartment explosion on L.A.?" - I finally give up, taking a sip from the glass the Director put in front of me. "Well... We tried to track down Arata on our own, but couldn't do it. Luckily, you showed up. So I ordered mister Cooper to follow you, hoping that you'd lead us to him. I was proven right in the end. Also, in case you're wondering, the Kusarians will also have the evidence of Arata trying to kill you back at that basement. Then you'll be able to claim that you found out about Arata's connection to the Blood Dragons, which made him try to kill you. So, in the end, you can claim that it was self-defense. Mister Cooper will convince the witnesses to confirm it."

The Director takes the final sip from his glass, continuing: "As for your apartment... The explosion was never meant to kill you... or whoever else might come there with you. Otherwise Ryan wouldn't have recorded that 'You shouldn't have come here' line or wouldn't have added the fancy sound effects. Believe it or not, he monitored the place remotely to know when to hit the detonator. I have to say, you jumped out of the place quite fast." - I can almost swear that I've noticed a split-second smile on his face.

"You want to know why we did it, don't you? Well, first of all, the Kusarians and the Rheinlanders were after you, so we thought it was a good idea to take the heat off you. You knew that the only safe place for you would be Bretonia, and you went there. And secondly, we wanted to give you incentive to get here, to Sprague, rather than hiding somewhere for eternity. Just so that we'd be able to have this talk. And if you say anything abot getting beaten up... It was Cooper's idea. He still holds a grudge against those who left him behind. I didn't oppose, because, frankly, it's good to practise your melee every now and then."

"I see..." - after all what happened up until this point, I wasn't even surprised when all these revelations poured upon me like a shower. "So, what happens now?" The Director smirked: "That's entirely up to you."