Chapter 9: After Action Suspicions
"-and while their lose will weigh heavily on us all, we should take heart in their bravery. Their willingness to sacrifice themselves should be models for what we strive to be, and their worthy cause one we should all work to see complete. They may be lost to us, but their lose was not in vain," Mayor Cortez finished as he gave a sad, but determined look out to the gathered crowd. No cheers or angry insults escaped the mass of mourners, just silent grieve and still determination.
"Present arms," Commander Terence said as the honor guard of Roman troops began the three volley salute for their fallen comrades. Samantha wished she could take courage in that speech and in those shots... but she knew the horrid truth. Being under William had many advantages... but just as many disadvantages...
She knew those men and women HAD died in vain, that nearly a thousand people were gone for no reason. And that it had been orchestrated by a traitor they were no closer to catching...
Looking back over what had happened, it was blatantly obvious the Society had known Flechett and his soldiers were coming. The ambush with the fairies, holding back most of their catmonsters till the bombards were down, they had even shifted forces TO that section to make sure it held. Had the fool only waited, the Roman and Shadow scouts would have reported the sudden shifting and maybe… maybe... But it didn't matter...because he hadn't, and hundreds of people had paid for it.
With the salute finished, the crowd began to disperse. Most of those who passed her tried to work up a smile or at least a nod, but a few just couldn't do it. Samantha supposed that was the other silver-lining. The hate and suspicions that had surrounded the "outsiders" had almost evaporated. There were still a few who clung to it, but they were few and far between.
Wounded soldiers returned home with stories of the "Hero of Rome" and his Phoenix allies charging into the teeth of the Society to save them. Of their massive catmonster butchering fairy after fairy, catmonster after catmonster. And of how the Phoenix leaders managed to organize them so they could fight off the last assault. Those stories had spread like wildfire, thanks in part to the Mayor's assistance, and they had worked wonders with dispelling the hate that had been festering. It was why she, and most of the others, could leave the compound and explore the city.
But all the goodwill couldn't make up for hundreds of dead husbands, wives, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters.... The silver lining might be there, but it was surrounded by darkness so thick it was almost suffocating. Samantha wished she could see Jacob, to have him help comfort her, but...
She shook that thought away as she turned to head back to the compound. She still had a lot of studying to do and paperwork as well. And all that had to get done before William returned and decided it was time for another lesson... Her sadness would have to wait, she had more important things to do.
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Three days... it was hard to accept it had only been that short a time since the last meeting like this. Yet the room couldn't have been more different. Before, tension, suspicion, and outright hostility had tainted the entire room. Now all of that was replaced with determination and the tiniest hint of peace. The hate and distrust wasn't gone completely, but none of the Captains wore it like a badge of honor anymore. The ones left anyway...
"Captain Dixie has given me the first of our official casualties. It's still not fully complete, there are a lot of... missing people, but it is probably in the ballpark for what we are looking at," Terence said with a heavy sigh. He passed copies out to everyone as William sighed himself. "Missing" people... He supposed there was a chance some were still in hiding, afraid of being punished for fleeing, but he didn't hold much hope for that. More than likely those missing would never be found thanks to the catmonsters...
William picked up the sheet and grimaced. 331 dead, 192 wounded, and 581 missing... In a more traditional war those numbers would be beyond bizarre. But this war was anything but traditional. When your opponents were all the size of buildings, getting merely wounded was a feat of luck. And when most wanted to devour you whole...
Malcolm let a curse slip out from his mouth while the Captains shook their heads in disbelief or ran their hand through their hair. Darius and Terence both keep their faces stoney, but for different reasons. Terence had already seen the numbers and Darius... well.
"Jesus... maybe it was a good thing we sent for aid," Captain Waring admitted, though he grimaced a bit doing it. William had to fight not to grimace himself as he remembered the news Malcolm had brought, and now had to share.
"Yeah about that..." Malcolm started as everyone turned to face him. He shook his head before plowing on.
"I gave my people specific orders to report in if they made it using some... special means. None of them have," Malcolm admitted as his shoulders slumped. The Romans all stared at him for a moment as the same despair that William had already weathered began to hit them.
"Perhaps they were merely delayed. It has-" Terence started, but stopped as Malcolm shook his head.
"Sorry, but that's not it. They would have sent SOMETHING by now, delayed or not, and instead we have silence. Worse, I had some of the people talk to the scouts watching the parts of the river we sent the teams out. Every one of them reported more Society activity the night they left… will the others report a drop," Malcolm said with a slight edge of anger to his voice. Terence's jaw clenched as the implications of that hit him.
"The traitors are in all of our commands..." Freeman said in disbelief. Malcolm sighed, but nodded in agreement. And just like the tension was replaced by something even worse, despair. Every move they had made had been checked and countered by the Society. Worse, they had struck a very real blow in killing Fletchett and his men. The war had barely started and, already, they were on the back foot.
"So what the hell do we do now?" Captain Waring asked as he tossed the page away in anger and helplessness.
"Nothing, at least on the attacking front. Any major moves we make will, obviously, be told to the Society and countered. For now, we need to hunker down and repair the damage done by Fletchett," Darius answered, speaking for the first time. Unlike last time, all of the Captains nodded in agreement and didn't immediately begin poking holes in his suggestion. At least SOMETHING good had come of this mess...
"A prudent call. Captain Freeman, get four of your reserve battalions called up, armed, and ready to march. I want them to reinforce the northern border," Terence ordered as he glanced at his Captain.
"Right away, sir," Freeman said before saluting and standing from the table. He wrote something on a blank sheet of paper before handing it to a runner waiting outside the door. With the message sent, he returned to the table.
"While you see to our defenses, we will look into rooting out the traitors,” Darius said before softening his features. Despite that, all of the Romans seemed to tense.
“This is not meant to be offensive, just a statement of facts, but we cannot trust your own people since we have no idea who the traitor is. Therefore, I think it best if we handle this, specifically Malcolm and his Shadows," Darius suggested, though with a slight edge to it. It was a suggestion...yet not. That caused a bit of stiffening in the Romans, but Terence simply sighed and nodded.
"True enough...If there is anything you or your people need, Malcolm, bring it to my attention and I will see to it," Terence said with a heavy heart. It was never easy for a commander to admit his own people, the people he thought he was supposed to protect, could be the enemy. But that was exactly what was happening and Terence had, somewhat, accepted that. The other Roman's still didn't look happy, but it seemed more directed at the situation rather than the outsiders.
The second of silence that followed the rather depressing topic, suddenly, ended as a knock came from the door. Terence gave a quick come and the door swung open to reveal a guard leading another man inside. And what a man he was... While he wasn't quite as huge as Derek was, the large black man was pretty damn close. But unlike Derek who was all muscle, this man was more pudgy than built. He walked into the room with a massive smile and his brown eyes sweep the room.
"Mr. Poole, glad you could join us," Terence said as he rose from his seat to greet the new arrival. The big man shook his head in disapproval, but took the offered hand anyway.
"Commander, when ARE you going to stop calling me that and just call me Kenny?" Kenny Poole said, before pulling the slightly smaller man in a shoulder bump.
"When you stop calling me Commander," Terence said as the two shared a light chuckle with each other. William had to smile a bit at the friendly banter and the way it had dispelled some of the doom and gloom that had infested the room a second before.
"I don't think any of you have meet. This is Kenny Poole, the owner of our biggest factory and one of our best designer," Terence said as he introduced the entrepreneur. The big man gave them all a big grin as they rose to greet him.
"Darius, leader of the Phoenixes. This is my second William, and the other is Malcolm, leader of the Shadows that joined us," Darius introduced before getting pulled into a handshake and shoulder bump. Darius was still recovering from the sudden human contact when Kenny moved to greet William the same and then Malcolm in turn. William had to chuckle a bit at the display while Malcolm even added a back slap to his bump. Kenny laughed heartily at Malcolm before returning the slap and stepping back.
"It's good to meet all of ya. Been hearing a lot about you bunch and I have been ITCHING to meet ya'll. Even more eager to start picking through your brains for information on what the Society has, weaknesses, strengths and such," Kenny said before chuckling again.
"You can do that later, Mr. Poole, for now we need to hear your report," Terence said as he lead the two back to the table. Terence took his old seat while Kenny pulled up a new chair and sat down. It creaked a bit worryingly, but Kenny seemed to ignore it.
"Right, right business first,” Kenny said as his smile faded slightly to look more serious.
“I have my workers going as hard as I can, reasonably, push them to get our new friends equipped with our weapons. We should have enough rifles requip ya’ll within the week, but replacing those launchers with typhoons is going to take a bit longer, three weeks at best," Kenny reported.William wasn’t surprised the typhoons were going to take time to deliver, doubly so with more than a few being lost in the battle. Still, getting the Roman rifles would be a huge boost to their combat effectiveness and the launchers still did their job well enough.
“What about the bombards that got damaged?” Freeman asked, probably wondering if he was going to need to move some of his to replace the damaged ones. Kenny thought for a second before taking out a notepad. He flipped through it before finding what he was looking for.
“Well, repairing the damaged bombards is pretty varied at the moment. There are a few we can get back out in the field in two, three days tops. But others… well we might as well just start over when it comes to them. Probably take a month to replace or repair them all. However…” Kenny paused as he turned to look at them with a slight smirk.
"Considering the...," Kenny's happy look faded away for a second, "battle… and its harsh revealing of the bombard’s problems, it might be worth looking into a new design. To that end, I would be very grateful if I could study some of your plans or talk to any engineers, mechanics, whatever, you have. That… debacle proved we still have a lot to learn on what does, and doesn't work, against the Society. Since you have been fighting them so much longer I figure you might be able to point us in the right direction."
William had to admit he was stunned by those words, hell even Darius was though he was better at hiding it. When they had heard Poole was coming they had assumed he would be a stuffy businessman, resistant to change, improvements, and ready to swear by his designs. Instead, they got a jolly man who was almost begging them to throw out his old assumptions. Then again, he was, also, a designer who saw his work made a fool of by the Society. That would lit a fire under anyone who took pride in their work.
"That would be more than welcome. In fact, perhaps you could look at the platform we use to ride Pyrrha. I would imagine your factory could make improvements our... less developed workshops could or can," Darius suggested as he recovered from his surprise. Kenny's eyes seem to twinkle at that invitation and he rubbed his hands together.
"Ohhhh, I’d like nothing better. I will, of course, need to see it before I can give any definite suggestions or possibilities, but even from second hand sources I’ve gotten a few ideas ya’ll are gonna love," Kenny said with barely contained glee. Darius nodded and William made a mental note to start making a time for him to do that. Be best to make sure Jimmy is free to as he could see these two getting along very VERY well.
“Well I’ll let you and Mr. Poole work that out. Dixie, is there anything else we needed to discuss?” Terence asked as Kenny gave him a slight glare. Dixie looking through her pages before nodding.
“The fairy, sir,” she said causing the room to lose a bit of its cheer. Some of the old distrust began to resurface as the Captains, and even Terence, turned sceptical eyes toward them. None of them had wanted to go with Darius’ plan and time had not changed that opinion.
“Before we get into this, I would like to point out something,” William said before anyone else could start the, inevitable, argument.
“Sanders HAS managed to tame a monster before. And we should consider just how critical to our survival Pyrrha has, and still is.”
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"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" Sanders asked as he motioned to where some dried food and water had been stored nearby. The large fairy didn't answer, just glared and huffed. Sanders sighed inwardly as the fairy continued to open up.
Sanders had hoped taking a fairy alive would provide some much needed information on the Society and, most of all, Flonne. The Romans had wanted to kill her before she recovered from her crash, but Sanders and Darius had managed to talk them out of it. With Pyrrha's help, they had hauled her back behind their lines and tied her up with some rusted, but still usable, chains. Now the large girl was sitting in an old restaurant, her hands, legs, and wings all bound and unable to move. She had awoken only last night, but had refused to say anything since. But Sanders was determined to change that.
"Look, I know this is...scary. Being captured by the people you have been told are monsters, tied up so you can't move an inch, having your wings..." Sanders paused as memories of him doing the same thing to Flonne causing fresh pain to flood into him. The fairy’s glare hardened as Sanders pushed on.
"But... but we are not your enemy. We don't want to hurt you, just to show you what the Society is really like. Show you that they don't care at ALL about you. So please, just... just eat or drink something," Sanders said as he recovered enough to make his plea. The fairy's glare seemed to soften a bit, but a sudden wince as her wings twitched caused her features to shift. By the time her grimace faded, her glare was back to its old position. Damn... He needed to get through to her, make her see the truth of the evil the Society truly was. Because if he could convince her then maybe... maybe...
Sanders felt a fresh wave of despair hit him as he remembered Flonne's look of pain as he shot her wings, the cry of agony as she slammed into the lockers and tumbled to the ground... And how a wince of pain from this fairy’s damaged wings had erased the little trust she had almost formed. How could Flonne trust him after... Sanders sighed as he turned away from the fairy and started toward the exit. Gabby was standing next to it and gave him a confused look as he approached.
"That's it? Going to give up that quick?" she asked half confused and half annoyed. Sanders shook his head as he headed out and she followed.
"I'm not giving up it's just... She hits close to home," Sanders said once he was outside and out of earshot of the fairy. Gabby raised an eyebrow at that before realization hit her.
"Flonne... Hey, don't let that get you down. You did what you had to to keep us, and the truth, safe. Once she knows what the Society is like, she'll understand why you had to hurt her. Hell, she’ll prolly be too busy hugging you to even listen," Gabby said as she clapped him on the shoulder to try and cheer him up. Sanders, though, wasn't so sure about that.
"That assumes she even believes me. I shot her wings, Gabby, and caused her to crash into a bunch of lockers. Why the hell would she believe me?" Sanders asked as he let out a long sigh.
"Because you are her friend, because you care about her, because it's the truth, bec-" Gabby started, but stopped as Sanders waved her off. Those things might be true, but Sanders didn't want to hear them.
"Don't just... I need a bit of alone time," Sanders said as he started to walk off. But Gabby followed right behind him. He turned to give her an annoyed glare, but she returned it with far greater force.
"Do I need to remind you about the traitors lurking around and how much they would LOVE to put you down? Sorry, but alone time is something you are NOT getting while we are outside the Phoenixes' compound," Gabby said, making it very clear it was not up for discussion. Sanders sighed, doubly so since he knew she was right, and nodded before deciding to head back inside. Probably just as well, the people of the city would not have left him in peace either. He was their “hero” after all...
"Look, I know this is hard and seeing Flonne and Aviel aga-" Gabby started, but stopped as a loud gasp came from inside the building. Sanders looked at Gabby who looked at him and then they turned to look at the fairy, who was too late in trying to hide her shock. She...she had gasped, but wh-
"You know Flonne... don't you?" Sanders asked as his despair was forgotten in favor of hope. The fairy put back on her glare, but her eyes darted around the room, looking anywhere but at him. Sanders moved closer and got a slight smile as his doubts and fears were forgotten.
"You do. Please, tell me how is she, is she OK, is Aviel treating her wrong, has she talked about someone named Sanders!" Sanders asked and demanded as he got within a few inches of the fairy. She looked back at him in confusion and blinked a few times.
"How do you-..." she stopped as if her mind had caught up with her mouth and she jerked away and clamped her mouth shut. She DID know! She knew Flonne! Which meant if he could get her to talk... Convincing her to join them was no longer the main goal, at least for now. Right now, he needed her to tell him everything she knew about Flonne. And after that, if he could get her to trust him maybe...just maybe...
"Gabby, get Darius on the line, I need to ask for some things," Sanders said as his determination came surging back.
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Jimmy whipped his grimy hands on the piece of cloth he had taken as he waited for their guest to arrive. If he was to be completely honest, he was less than thrilled with this distraction. Not only was he getting pulled away from the hundreds of things that needed his attention: platform maintenance, weapon fixes, tool repairs, a few side projects, Gabby, MORE maintenance... but he was getting pulled away to show a Roman some of their best stuff. It was no secret some of the Romans were traitors and Jimmy was less than happy to let a potential one see their stuff first-hand.
"You sure about this?" Jimmy asked Darius as the RC car that held their guest came into view. Darius gave him a quick side glance before nodding.
"How effective are the Roman weapons?" Darius asked, seemingly out of the blue. Jimmy, though, had been with Darius long enough to know there was a point behind the random question and he was pretty sure he could see it.
"Very, but that doesn't mean we can trust this guy," Jimmy said as he stuffed the cloth into one of his pockets.
"Are their any critical flaws or weaknesses in their weapons?" Darius asked, ignoring the second part of Jimmy's answer. Jimmy sighed and shook his head.
"No, nothing that would suggest it was done on purpose anyway," Jimmy admitted before sighing, "I'll take the hint and shut up about it. Guess you’re in charge for a reason." Darius nodded as the car pulled to a stop outside what had become the Phoenixes "compound" of sorts. The door opened and Jimmy raised an eyebrow as a massive man practically burst out of the car. He stretched a bit and let out a few choice words.
"I hate these damn things, way too small. Ahh, Darius, forgive the language I'm just not built for these things. And you must be the Phoenix's chief engineer, Jimmy," the mass of black said shaking Darius' hand then moving to offer it to Jimmy. Jimmy took it and got ready for a hand crushing grip, but was relieved to find it only mildly uncomfortable. It also helped that the title of chief engineer rather agreed with Jimmy.
"Yep that's me. And you are?"Jimmy said as the handshake ended.
"Oh right, sorry I'm so used to everyone knowing who I am. I'm Kenny Poole, owner of Poole's Foundries, the largest factory we have here in Rome," Kenny answered with a big grim. Jimmy nodded and had to suppress a sigh. Oh even better... a fucking manager...
"Follow me, Mr. Poole, the platform is this way," Darius said, getting this meeting back on track. Kenny's smile seemed to dim just slightly at being called Mr. Poole, but he didn't say anything. Jimmy suppressed yet another sigh as he followed along. Darius was the boss and if he wanted Poole to see the platform, he was GOING to see it. All Jimmy would do by complaining is get Darius angry at him, and that was unpleasant at the best of times.
As they moved through the track and toward the forest in the center of the old stadium, Kenny sweep his eyes all around. They moved to look at everything and lingered a bit whenever their weapons or equipment was in sight. Jimmy hoped that was because of fasciation and not for other reasons...
A minute later saw them clear the trees Darius had left standing to hide their base. The punishment detail had done a reasonable job in turning the forest into a base of operations. Two barracks, one male one female, were on opposite edges of the clearing. Past them were the medical ward and the communication hub, one being thankfully bare and the other buzzing with activity. Dead in the center was the HQ and armoury, both of which were guarded around the clock by troops armed with the Roman rifles. Near the left -most edge of the base, though, was their destination. Jimmy, his workers, and the "volunteers" had managed to make a rather sturdy holding rig for the platform so it didn't have to stay on Pyrrha. They had borrowed some spare scrap metal from the Romans to make sure it was strong enough to hold the huge thing and it was high up enough to let the catmonster slip in and pick it up. Pyrrha herself was lying nearby, sunning in the noon heat and looking mostly asleep.
Kenny gave a low whistle as he looked around the area. He didn't even bother to hide how impressed he was at the base, though his eyes keep drifting back to the platform.
"Very impressive, doubly so considering you got here just three days ago. But this... you built this without any machined tools or proper factories?" Kenny said as they approached the platform. Darius gave a simple nod while Jimmy hid a smirk. Damn right we did. Funny how having to fight for survival everyday can inspire great competence.
"Yep. Wasn't easy, but we managed," Jimmy said as they headed up the stairs to board the platform. Kenny fell silent as he, slowly, made his way up looking at everything and even making a few notes.
"Amazing... reinforced steel... springs for shock absorption, brilliant... padding to help with impacts... even hooks for safety... This really is amazing," Kenny said once they reached the top. He continued to take notes and Jimmy managed to sneak a quick peek. To his surprise, though, the notes didn't consist of what was here but of other things. Foam testing, movable clamps, typhoon defense, and other such things. Wait... was he noting UPGRADES?!
"Yes... yes I can see more than a few upgrades me and my workers could do. Add a few typhoon turrets to the outside edge, maybe extend the building's roofs to protect from fairy attacks, and some kind of system to move the hooks without having to unhook.. yes I think we could do a lot with this," Kenny said half to them and half to himself. Jimmy had to fight not to drop his jaw in amazement. Most of those ideas were things he had been wanting to do for AGES, but simply didn't have the supplies and tools to do it. But this guy had a factory...with proper tools...and.....
"You seriously think you could do all that stuff?" Jimmy asked, keeping his voice sceptical, despite being rather hopeful. Kenny glanced at him before giving a hardy laugh.
"Well of course! The Poole Foundries were able to make the Bombards, and the carriages for those full-sized rifles! I think we can make a few small upgrades to this marvel. Speaking of, do you have any other ideas? You're the one who has been keeping this thing going so I would assume you would know what it really needs," Kenny said, hooking his shoulder around Jimmy. Jimmy couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the big man's attitude. It had been a long long time since he meet someone so positive. It was rather nice if he was honest.
"You bet your ass I do. For starters, the springs are starting to wear out and need replacing, we could really use some way to keep our guns level when firing despite Pyrrha moving about, and we really, REALLY need some proper tools," Jimmy said as he showed off his set of jury rigged tools. Kenny grimaced a bit at them but nodded.
"I can see that... Well don't worry about any of that, I am sure we can get all of that fixed. By the time we're done, this platform will be the terror of any giantess stupid enough to be in its sights. Doubly so when we get done with that," Kenny said as he looked up at the huge air cannon. Jimmy couldn't help but smile as he forgot all about his suspicions.
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Malcolm shook his head as he went over the transcripts of their... discussions with Fletchett's command staff. Or what was left of it anyway. Sadly, most of them had proven to be rather useless. The vast majority had proven to be just as horrified and stunned by how badly the attack had gone as anyone. And the few who were not either had been too low on the totem pole to stop the madness or just hadn't been told about it till it was too late. But not all of them fit those four camps, namely three of the higher end people.
Those three had been dragged back here, to the Roman's prison, so he and his people could give them a proper screening. Malcolm wasn't sure what the building had been before the shrink, but it was certainly sturdy with all brick and concrete walls. The Romans had turned the building into a relatively large prison where troublemakers could be keep till they reconsidered their life choices. Considering there were so many of them, it wasn't surprising the occasional crime and such would crop up and need punishing. But those cases were someone else's problem, Malcolm had bigger fish to fry.
A muffled yell drew Malcolm's eyes up from his papers. He glanced at the furious expression on the ex-Colonel and had to hide a smile as Kenneth began to work his magic. Malcolm wasn't sure what the man had done before the shrink, and WAS positive he didn't want to know, but whatever it had been it made him an expert at getting people to talk. He hadn't laid a finger on the piece of shit, but had still managed to get some very useful information out of him. Information that all but confirmed he was either part of the traitors, or beyond stupid. And the jury was still out on that...
"Any progress?" Darius asked as he moved into the room. Malcolm glanced back and shifted to move out of sight of their captive, one-way glass was something the Romans had never bothered to salvage.
"Some. After doing some more... interviews, we are fairly confident Fletchett himself wasn't a traitor. From all accounts he, honestly, believed he could throw the Society back with the soldiers he had. The fact he lead right from the front backs that up, don't think a traitor would be willing to count on catmonsters being able to tell he is on their side," Malcolm said with a slight smirk. Darius nodded in agreement, but his face don't so much as twitch. Tough crowd...
"There is also the matter of thhhhhhhhhis," Malcolm said shuffling a few papers before finding what he was looking for. He handed it to Darius and he began to read through it.
"Here is the important part," Malcolm said pointing to a specific section, "According to this comm officer, Fletchett got into a private conversation with someone just before he started to call his troops together. More importantly, no one heard what was being discussed, or at least no one is willing to admit that did." Darius' eyes narrowed as he studied the page for a second more.
"Not just a private conversation, a private conversation on a private channel. Only high ranked people would have something like that," Darius said, handing the page back. Malcolm took it as he got a big smile. Oh ho, seems he knew something Darius didn’t, for once. That was rather exciting to be honest.
"Actually, only the Captains, Terence, and the Mayor have access to them. And since I was with Terence ironing out the scout routes and the Mayor was in a meeting with the House Representatives, I think we narrowed our culprits down to three," Malcolm said with a vicious smile. Darius' usual neutral look got a small smile as he nodded in agreement.
"Very good work, Malcolm. This does help, but knowing one of the Captains is the traitor only makes it more important we find out which one it is. Step up the work, we need that traitor dead ASAP," Darius said as his smile faded away. Malcolm nodded and moved back to the glass separating him and the prisoner. He tapped on it to get Kenneth's attention before giving him a simple hand signal. Kenneth nodded with a rather disturbing smile as he moved to get his more... advanced tools.
Report on Roman politics, author unknown:
The Romans have created a form of government very similar to the one that ran the town before the shrink. At the top is the Mayor who works to execute the laws and sees to the city’s defense. Working alongside him are the House Representatives. These are officials elected by each individual building to represent them in the government and carry along their issues.
Most of the representatives are older in age but vary wildly in other categories. Considering the different states of the various buildings that make up the city, this is not surprising. For the most part, they play a dual role as representative and mediator of issues in their own buildings. This might explain why so few have ever been removed from power.