The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

Chapter 852: [BLIND JUSTICE] MOVIE (II)

THE three of them were led to a meeting room. A long table sat in the center with chairs already arranged. The walls were bare, save for a few glowing interface panel. Four men in black suits stood inside, positioned around the room. None of them spoke as the three of them entered.

Noa was already at the head of the table. He didnʼt stand when they entered, just gestured toward the empty chairs for them to sit. The four men in suits clearly followed Noaʼs lead without even being ordered to. It was clear to anyone watching that Noa was the one in charge.

Remi immediately noticed it. He had spent the last few hours trying to match the boy he grew up with to the man he spoke to in the interrogation room. Now there was this version of Noa, overly calm and collected. He carried himself like he had always been in charge. It didnʼt fit with the image of the boy in his mind.

Once they were seated, Noa spoke. ”My name is Noel Ashford. Iʼm a senior officer in ICIʼs investigations division.”

A muscle in Remiʼs face twitched. The name he just heard didnʼt sit right with him. Noel Ashford. Not Noa. He wondered where that name had come from. It seemed as though Noa had managed to build a whole new identity around that name. As an expert in making fake identities, he knew that thereʼs no way the other built this new identity on his own.

Noa didnʼt give him time to dwell on that thought. ”Iʼll get straight to why youʼre here.”

”Please do,” Callie said, smiling. ”You went through the trouble of kidnapping us. The least you can do is explain yourself.”

”For the past twenty years, ICI has been tracking a pattern,” Noa said, ignoring the obvious jab in Callieʼs words. ”Wars that started without clear cause. Financial collapses that hit certain markets too precisely to be accidents. Witnesses who disappeared right before they were set to testify. Political killings staged to look like anything but what they were.”

”Thatʼs a wide range of incidents,” Hunter said.

”Theyʼre not as separate as they look,” Noa replied, lacing his fingers together on the table. ”It took years to find the structure connecting them. Once we did, it became clear all of it traced back to a single point of origin. We call this person the Architect.”

Hunterʼs expression turned serious. ”Weʼve never heard of this person.”

”You wouldnʼt have,” Noa said evenly. ”Thatʼs the point.”

”What do you actually have on them?” Callie asked. ”Name, face, anything?”

”Nothing,” Noa said. ”No name. No face. No confirmed location. Twenty years, and weʼve never gotten close enough to identify them. Every lead we follow ends up being a dead end. The people we track down are always several layers removed from the actual source. Theyʼre just middlemen carrying out orders, most of them unaware of who theyʼre really working for. By the time we get to them, thereʼs nothing left to follow.”

”What does this have to do with us?” Callie asked, her smile still in place. Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she added, ”Donʼt tell me youʼre asking for our help?” She let out a mock surprised laugh. ”ICI, with all its resources, needs three criminals to catch someone your entire agency hasnʼt been able to find in twenty years?”

Noa didnʼt react to the obvious provocation. ”We canʼt move against the Architect the way we normally would. Themis works outside our system, uses different methods, different channels. The Architect has no reason to watch for people like you. Thatʼs why we need your help.”

”Right.” Callie tilted her head, her smile still firmly in place. ”So all that back there, the threats, the list of charges, the seemingly fair offer? That was just leverage.”

Noa didnʼt answer right away.

”You wanted us to think we had no choice,” Callie continued. ”That this was our only way out. But hereʼs the thing.” She leaned forward slightly. ”If you actually had the power to make us disappear, you wouldnʼt be sitting here asking nicely. Youʼd have already done it. The fact that youʼre still negotiating with us tells me we have more room to push back than youʼre letting on.”

Noaʼs expression didnʼt change. ”What I have is a job that needs to be done as efficiently as possible. And youʼre the only ones who could help us do it.”

”So you threatened us to make sure weʼd take it seriously,” Callie said, ”And now youʼre hoping weʼll just fall in line.”

”Yes.”

Noa said it without hesitation, his voice flat and matter of fact. There was no guilt in it, not even a hint of embarrassment. Callie didnʼt know whether to find that amusing or annoying. But she could respect it.

She sat back, the smile still on her face. ”Good to know.”

Hunter had been watching the exchange in silence, arms crossed. He waited until the conversation paused before asking his own question. ”And if we actually agree to do the job and didnʼt pull it off?”

”Then the deal is void. Your records stay as they are now. There would be no punishment beyond that.” Noa met his eyes when he said it. ”The deal is what it is. On, or off. But if you walk away, the next time our paths cross, Iʼll arrest you and let the system handle the rest.”

Callieʼs expression settled somewhere between annoyance and amusement as he stared at Noa. Hunter, on the other hand, just gave a short nod, taking the threat at face value.

Remi watched Noa like he was looking at a stranger. He searched for the trace of the person he used to know, but there was nothing. And it hurt more than he had expected.

~~~

Noa and the suited men left the room, giving Themis space to talk on their own. The moment the door shut, Callieʼs smile dropped, and she got straight to the point, asking Hunter and Remi what they actually thought about the deal being put in front of them.

Hunter wasnʼt convinced. He pointed out the obvious problem. They would be working directly under ICI, the same organization that would have locked them up without a second thought a week ago. There was nothing stopping them from doing exactly that once the mission was over, no matter what Noa promised. Callie agreed with him in principle, but she also pointed out they didnʼt have much of a choice. Refuse, and their records stayed exactly as damning as they were an hour ago. Except now ICI also knew everything about how they operated.

Then she turned to Remi and asked him straight out what he wanted to do, because it was obvious to both of them that this wasnʼt so simple for him.

Remi didnʼt answer right away. When he did, he kept it short. He said he trusted Noa enough to believe they wouldnʼt renege on the offer, even if he didnʼt understand everything else about the person Noa had become. That made Callie pause for a moment. Hunterʼs stance softened a bit as well. As if he found the answer heʼs looking for from Remiʼs response.

After that, the conversation shifted to logistics. What the job would actually require. Whether they would have any real freedom under ICI or if they would just be following orders. What would happen to them if the Architect turned out to be more than they could handle. None of it was fully settled by the end, but they had reached the same decision.

They would accep ICIʼs offer.

~~~

After they accepted, Noa gave them a file on their first target. A broker named Dessin Vale. He had worked with the Architectʼs network before, handling information and money through channels that looked completely legal. ICI had never been able to prove anything against him, but he was the closest lead they had. Themisʼs job was to get close enough to find something they could actually use.

The plan came together quickly. Vale was scheduled to attend a private auction the next week, the kind of event where people bid on things that werenʼt exactly legal. It gave the team the perfect opportunity to get close. Remi took charge of the planning, while Callie worked on how she would get close to Vale, and Hunter started thinking through the logistics of their exit. For the first time since they were brought here, the three of them started to feel like themselves again.

The night of the auction, the plan went the way Themis jobs usually did. Callie went in as a buyer with money to burn, drawing Valeʼs interest right away and keeping him focused on her. Hunter worked the room as security, staying close enough to step in if something went wrong, but mostly just keeping watch. Remi handled the technical side from a spot away from the main floor, working through Valeʼs private systems while Callie kept him busy upstairs.

Remi got into Valeʼs files faster than he expected. What he found was solid evidence, records linking Vale to at least two transactions that ICI had been trying to connect to the Architect for years. He copied everything, backed it up twice, and signaled Callie to start wrapping things up.

After the job, they regrouped in the car. Noa met them soon after to collect the files Remi had pulled. He seemed satisfied with what they found, which was the closest thing to a compliment any of them had received from him since this whole thing started.

It wasnʼt until they were back at the compound, the place that now served as their base along with the ICI agents assigned to work with them, that Remi noticed how easy the whole thing had actually been.