Meeki's eyes adjusted to the dark room, and she wasn't sure if to approach the man sitting in the shadow. After a few seconds, his head turned.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” he growled with a great deal of impatience.
“Uh, excuse me?” Meeki mumbled.
“Huh?” He spun around in his chair. “Oh, sorry, you're not a robot.”
“Last I checked, no,” Meeki said.
“Hit the lights, will you? I've been here for more than a day and I'm sick of the dark.
Meeki saw a little rounded switch to her right. She flicked it up and the room filled with a soft light. The evidence locker only seemed to contain one actual locker on the left side. With all the computers, it seemed more like an office. The man wore an old business suit standard among Newhope office workers, but the meaty ovular face and the dark tone of his aged skin looked very much Asterian.
“Thanks, those robots out there keep turning the lights off when I tell them to leave,” he said.
“Are you Payne?” Meeki asked.
“Yeah. You going to arrest me or something?” he asked.
So this was him, the gambler who was losing it all while his daughter busied herself with shooting people.
“No. I'm here on business from your daughter.”
His face lit up with a homely kind of joy. He leaned back in the chair and became comfortable. “Aw, Killy. How's she doing?”
“She, uh, seems to have a lot of servants and stuff,” Meeki answered.
“Of course. My boys are treating her well?”
“Sure.”
He rubbed his little black beard and seemed lost in thought. Meeki looked around and wasn't sure what he was doing there. He wasn't acting like a prisoner of any sort.
“I came to deliver some stuff from Kiluana,” Meeki said.
“As I was expecting, but I thought she would be here in person. She's never sent someone else before, so who might you be?”
“I'm someone she picked up recently, it's kind of a long story. She's busy lately, I guess.”
“Sit down and let's talk.” He patted a nearby chair.
Meeki watched him carefully and took a seat farther than the one he suggested. “If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing here? Your daughter told me that you were trapped.”
“Trapped? Oh, that's rich!”
He had a good deep laugh about it for at least a minute. Without her own laughter to accompany him, Meeki felt somewhat out of place.
“No, I'm not trapped, I've just been researching. She's imagining things.”
Meeki noticed a small bag under the desk. It was filled with sandwiches bagged in plastic. He still had plenty left.
“Well, nobody really knows what you're doing, that's probably why.”
His good nature died off in an instant. Meeki feared that she said something hurtful and almost apologized, but he broke in. “It's necessary. I needed to sacrifice my reputation to keep people off my back. Certain Asterian spies and such. I certainly would go home if I could, but it's dangerous right now. Mostly for Kiluana.”
Meeki wondered if to tell him about Elian, but she figured he already knew.
“So what's my girl doing these days? Let's see what she's got for me,” he said.
Meeki dug through her purse and pulled out a little envelope filled with folded papers. She slid it over the desk to him and he thumbed through it quickly. Every one of the sheets seemed to encourage the growth of a smile over his face, and he almost giggled by the time he reached the end.
“These are all bills. I have to approve her ammunition costs and stuff since she's a minor. I guess she's really planning to work up a hell storm, isn't she?”
Meeki honestly wasn't sure what Kiluana planned to do about the assassinations, but that was hardly important. Payne seemed to know about his daughter's violent antics, and Meeki wondered if he thought it was a joke.
“So you just let her go and shoot people?” Meeki asked.
“Sure, I'm the one who trained her. She can shoot up all of the small fry she wants. The important thing is what I plan for her.”
“What sort of plan?”
He studied her face for a few seconds. “About fifty years ago, a little secretive group of high-ranking government types started meeting, discussing ways to change our worlds. It's mostly behind everyone's backs, but it won't be that way for much longer, things will change forever on both worlds. I have a little hand in it all, but I'm not sure what I'll do about it. Kiluana, sweet girl that she is, happens to be my secret weapon for or against these people.”
Meeki couldn't help but compare his words to the Cult of Braya's leader. Maybe it was just paranoia, but hearing two seemingly unrelated people talking about changing worlds was more than enough to arouse some suspicion.
“Oh, don't look so down,” he said.
He grabbed a pen from his pocket and began scribbling his signature on the bills. “Here, I'll tell you a little more just for fun. The people I mentioned are going about their goals in a whole bunch of ways. The worst guy wants to kill Aster's politicians and take their place. There's even another one who wants the same thing on this planet. The rest aren't so violent, and I guess I'm the undecided wildcard of the bunch.”
Payne scribbled through more bills while Meeki wondered about his situation. That first assassin he mentioned was the cult's leader, Meeki had no doubt about it. Hearing that the assassin had like-minded associates worried her, but the worst of her worries was Payne himself. She couldn't imagine how anyone in their right mind would consider supporting such a dangerous group. The grief from his loss really must have driven him over the edge.
Payne finished up the last bill with a dramatic swipe of his pen. He stuffed the papers back into the envelope and passed it to Meeki. “I can't really tell you any more. Kiluana'd get it out of you, and she's a little too eager to blow things up. No offense, I'm sure you could keep a secret from most people, but not her.”
“I've only known her for a few days and I already understand what you mean,” Meeki said.
He smiled. “If something happens and political power does shift in Aster, tell her to stay away from the situation until she receives my orders. I know she'll want to come out running with the guns, but these people will be too much for her once they have power. She won't win without my help.”
Meeki took the envelope and promised she would relay the message. With that business done, she left him to his research.