MANICDAK

Chapter 18 : The End

Robin and Feliu stood at the window overlooking Ehren's room a week later.  Feliu had spent most of that week in protective custody being interrogated.  He was beginning to get used to his life as a series of questions.  It wasn't as bad as life with a bounty on his head.  He was going to do everything he could to ensure his father's capture.

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Chapter 16: Bounty


Tomorrow never came as far as meetings in the park went.  Feliu never showed up, and Robin was angry at first then he was concerned.  The bad news didn't stop once he'd reached his contacts at the I-GAS center on Utopia.  As it turned out, the safe-house wasn't as safe as it was purported to be.

    Feliu was missing.

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Chapter 14: Goodbyes


Ehren was back at his desk in the squad room, working diligently on the Yarzfeld database.  He was trying his best to ignore his gossiping peers.  He already assumed he knew what they were talking about and that the subject was him.  He didn't want to deal with it.  He'd never wanted to become the subject of office chatter, yet there he found himself.

    He grumbled over his paperwork until Axel broke off from a group and joined him.

    "Did you hear?"  he said.
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Chapter 12: Ciphers


Beatriu had left the squad room that evening with Robin holed up and grumbling over a mountain of paperwork in his office. Ehren had been in much the same state over the Yarzfeld database; a broken and archaic record of the history of the lost Yarzfeld galaxy. Restructuring the data was quite the herculean task for one man, and she could tell that Ehren was getting frustrated by the angry look on his face and the way he'd snapped at her when she'd said goodnight. She worried about leaving them alone for only a moment as they seemed both too deep in their work to be much trouble. .She headed down the corridors towards her room and found her interest piqued by a light shining out from one of the computer labs. She opened the door, curious to see who else was staying out late. There certainly was nobody schedule for a night shift in one of the more deserted areas of the building.

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Chapter 10: Crossing the Line
 

Ehren slowly made his way back to Galiana's flat, dreading what Robin would have to say about his failure at capturing the Biron and feeling slightly guilty for hiding the conspiracy theory that was gaining a foothold in his brain.  He had no other reasons besides a gut feeling for trusting two men, who, for all intents and purposes, should have been the bad guys.  Ehren had been through twenty-four years of life though, and he was by no means naïve enough to think that people either lived on one side of the fence or another.  Everyone lived in that shady gray area every once in a while.  He had to look no further than Robin himself for evidence of that.

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Chapter 08: Common Ground



He stood in the doorway in awe of Robin who was intent on destroying everything in his room.  He was screaming about how everything was his fault and aiming epithets at an absent Feliu as he tossed his old journals from a bookshelf out behind him.  It was the only area of the room that hadn't yet been trashed.  Tables were overturned, clothes were strewn about the floor, and a chair was lying upside down and broken practically in half.  In his fury, Robin didn't even notice Ehren was there until he felt a hand on his shoulder.  He whirled around with a startled shout holding the last of the journals aloft as if he were about to smash it down Ehren's head.

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Chapter 04: A Plan, A Routine, A Disaster

I think we can come to an agreement," Ganix Viernes said.  "This is a tenuous peace here in this galaxy Dysprosians are a proud people and the Utopians are arrogant bastards."

   "We should know!" Izar replied with a chuckle.

   Ganix narrowed his gaze and leaned forward across the table.  "You're going to have to put something on the table if I'm going to risk helping you out here."

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Prologue: This is Utopia?


The dismal planet of Tarain was a perfect headquarters for the Inter-Galactic Action Squad: the first line of defense in galaxies full of criminals.  Being stuck there had never been Robin's life plan.  Assignment to headquarters meant either paperwork, endless meetings about I-GAS policy that never really amounted to much more than a waste of time, or the worst assignment of all: Training Commander.  When he'd signed up Robin thought he would be spending his time in the organization out in the field, seeing the universe in all its varied colours and diversity.  His work in the field had been short lived once he'd passed the recruit stage though.  He had suffered a demotion of his own making and found himself back at HQ with the reduced rank of Training Commander Class C, and with the most recent incident regarding one thief, Feliu Viernes, he was sure that he was likely to remain there for the rest of his career if he managed not to get decommissioned completely.

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