Invisible, Part 1
Siam Veterans War Memorial, Constantinople – July 25, 1996, 5:10 PM
Megas Domestikos Mihailo Princip stood at a podium in front of the memorial, addressing a large crowd of flag-waving veterans and their families.
“That many of you here tonight came home not to a hero's welcome but to the hostility of the Roman people is a shameful fact of history,” Mihailo said, to many cheers, “One that I will never understand or forgive. But it also underscores our sacred duty, not just today but forever, to honor those who served with honor and to remember those who fell, men and women whose ultimate sacrifice must never be forgotten. There is probably no audience that understands better that our freedom is not free. We owe that freedom to the selfless sacrifice of those men and women who laid down their lives in battlefields from Gibraltar to Siam to the Balkans. It is our duty to remember them every day. This country survived the centuries on the backs of people willing to defend their freedoms with their lives, and for that, I think it would be an investment that they would be proud of today. There is a statue of a soldier, and the plaque on that statue reads ‘not for themselves but for their country’. That attitude has persevered as the spirit of Roman soldiers, and it is in this spirit that we honor our countrymen. This memorial is a place where we can come and thank those men and women who died not for themselves but for their country. I'm always struck by something as I walk this park. The Siam Memorial always has someone standing at it, always someone running their fingers across the names. There's a tremendous amount of emotion in that simple act.”
Erich sat on stage next to Mihailo and held up his walkie-talkie.
“Alright, you're my eyes out there,” he said, “Talk to me. Positions report. Agent Kazdan?”
“Sector three clear,” Louise said.
“No sign of him in four,” Angela said.
“Sector six, report,” Erich said, “Anders?”
“He's here,” Anders said, “I feel him.”
“Then where is he?” Erich said.
Angela saw a man in combat fatigues walking forwards through the crowd.
“Hold on, I think I have him in section four,” she said.
“Can you confirm that, Angie?” Erich said.
Angela looked at a photo of a soldier with long hair. The man she watched had short hair, but it was the same person.
“Positive ID,” she said, “He's heading toward you, three.”
“Positions hold,” Erich said, “Three and four, do you have eye contact?”
“I have him in three,” Louise said, “He's coming to you, Hansen.”
“Don't take your eyes off him, Angie,” Anders said.
Angela followed the man, but he stopped and looked at her. He then continued forward.
“Frak, he saw me,” she said, “He's heading towards the sound booth.”
“Copy that,” Louise said, “I'm cutting him off.”
“Talk to me, people,” Erich said, “Does anybody have him? What's happening, Angie?”
“I'm closing on him,” Angela said.
“Do you have him in three?” Erich said.
“Negative,” Louise said.
“Angie?” Erich said.
Angela looked around, but the man was gone.
“Damn it, I lost him,” she said, “You got him, Louise?”
“I don't see him, Hansen?”
“What's happening, Angie?” Erich said.
Angela and Louise met in the middle of the crowd.
“I can't see him anywhere,” Louise said.
“He must be headed your way,” Angela said, “You got him, Anders?”
Anders stood at the front, between Mihailo and the crowd.
“Not yet,” Anders said.
He noticed the man approaching, but he disappeared.
“I got him—no wait, I lost him!” Anders said.
Erich saw the man approaching the platform.
“Pick him up, Anders, he’s right in front of you,” he said.
Anders glimpsed the man drawing a gun and drew his own gun.
“He’s got a gun!” Anders shouted.
Erich tackled Mihailo, pushing him away from the podium, while people in the crowd ducked.
“General, get off the stage!” Erich shouted.
Anders aimed his gun at the man, but the man then disappeared right in front of his eyes. He waved his gun around the crowd, trying to see where he went.
“I can’t see him!” he shouted.
Fort Theodosius, on the outskirts of Constantinople – 6:00 AM, earlier that day
A military helicopter touched down in a parking lot, and General Yanatos stepped out. A waiting soldier saluted.
“Morning, sir!” he said.
The general walked across the parking lot and got into a limousine. The helicopter took off, and the limo drove away. Yanatos opened his briefcase and took out a folder. The divider between him and the driver went up, and the door locked. The general didn’t think much about it, assuming it was the driver. He noticed a card next to him, a king of hearts. Picking it up, he found on the other side a drawing of a skull with a pair of bloody sabers crossed beneath it. He looked up and saw a man sitting across the seat from him.
“Who the—” he began.
The driver, Private Burkholder, heard a gunshot. He quickly stopped the car and ran to the back.
“General, sir!” he shouted.
He opened the door and found Yanatos dead with a bullet hole in his forehead. The card lay on his chest. There was nobody else in the limousine.
Omar Mukhtar Building – 7:18 AM
Erich paced around the conference room, handing files to Mihailo Princip and the other agents.
“Lieutenant General Petros Yanatos was shot dead at extreme close range at 0600 this morning,” he said, “Athanatoi Forensics reports the wound was not self-inflicted. The murder weapon has not been recovered. The general's driver, Private First Class Gustaf Burkholder, is currently being held on suspicion of murder.”
Louise Kazdan flipped through her file. “Well, it says here tests confirm the private did not do the shooting.”
"There is suspicion of an accomplice, based on the one piece of evidence found at the crime scene, a so-called ‘death card’ used by soldiers in Siam to mark their kills," Erich said, holding up the card, “and by Private Burkholder's possible ties to a radical paramilitary group called The Left Hand, a splinter of the Red Army Faction claiming to be the successor to the Black Hand, an early 20th century anarchist group responsible for the deaths of several members of the imperial family at the turn of the century and starting World War I by murdering Franz Ferdinand. After speaking with Chief of Staff Princip, he believes we have a high probability of opportunity for a group like this, a unique situation that can result in the very public loss of lives. Dozens of high-ranking military officials are in Constantinople today for rededication of the Siam Veterans War Memorial this evening. Unless we can determine a clear motive, we will consider any one of them to be a target.”
“What if Private Burkholder's telling the truth, that he's innocent?” Anders said.
“Until we can find another suspect, the Athanatoi will pursue the Left Hand and their leader, an ex-marine named David Marsden, in a preemptive strategy to put a stop to any other plans that he might have made,” Erich said, “Now you all have Marsden’s file in front of you. For obvious reasons, our strategy includes keeping this from the media. You'll be working in teams of two. If you encounter any resistance, do not engage - surveil and call for backup. Agent Raum has your assignments and your field warrants. We have less than 12 hours to prevent any further execution or loss of life. Understood?”
The agents murmured approvals to each other. Mihailo shook Erich’s hand and left.
“Alright, Becker and Fontana, you're going to the Ostend,” Raum said, “Joachim and Mustakis, you're going to the Nordend.”
Angela and Anders approached Erich.
“Dad, was that for the benefit of the Megas Domestikos, or have you been able to develop a real strategy?” Angela said.
Erich sighed. “Right now, I'm flying by the seat of my pants.”
“You mean there's no procedure outlined for an invisible assassin?” Anders said.
Erich turned to Angela. “Did you talk to Private Burkholder?”
“I interviewed him and convinced him to take a polygraph test,” Angela said, “He passed. The nature of his claims would suggest a false positive. The tester admitted that the results are highly interpretive.”
“You heard his story, Anders?” Erich said.
“Yeah. I found his story compelling, personally, but then again I believe the commission into the death of Ragnar Beck,” Anders said.
“Well, if I have to devise a strategy around that story, then there is no strategy,” Erich said, “Somebody killed the general, which means somebody is not telling the truth.”
“The man who heads the Left Hand, Marsden,” Angela said, “Do you have a warrant for him?”
“Yes, why?” Erich said.
“We’ll serve it,” Angela said.
Anders nodded, but Erich sighed.
“Angie, you’ve got cancer,” Erich said.
“I’m going to die anyways,” Angela said, “I really don’t care when at this point.”
“That’s not the point, Angie,” Erich said, “You’re getting too reckless lately. One misstep, if Marsden smells a shakedown, he's going to disappear and find another way to push the button. And I've already seen more dead soldiers than I ever want to see. Just be careful.”
He handed Angela the warrant and left.
Syrallo, Eastern Thrace – 8:48 AM
Angela drove down a dirt road and stopped at a gate with a speaker box. Behind the gate were several trailers. She pushed the button and waited. There was no immediate response, so Angela pushed it again.
“Herr Marsden?” she said.
Marsden’s voice crackled on the speakers. “Who is it?”
“Agents Hansen and Humboldt with the Athanatoi,” Angela said.
“What do you want?” Marsden said.
Her eyes wandered around, looking across the woods on the far side of a road. She caught the fleeting glimpse of a man standing there. When she looked again, there was nobody there.
“It's extremely urgent that we talk to you right now, sir,” she said.
“Gate's unlocked,” Marsden said.
Angela and Anders got out of their car and walked through the gate. Three dogs jumped out the back of a station wagon and charged them, backing. Anders quickly bolted for the gate, but when he looked back, Angela hadn’t moved.
“Angie, come on!” he shouted.
The dogs ran around Angela, snarling and growling at her. Angela refused to budge. She watched the dogs running around her. They kept their distance from her, as if they could sense something wrong with her. She felt a little disappointed about the dogs, but she still found herself smiling.
“Angie!” Anders shouted.
Angela turned back to Anders and laughed. “They can’t hurt me!”
Marsden walked out of a trailer and whistled, calling the dogs away. He walked over to Angela.
“Morning, ma’am,” he said.
“Your dogs aren’t as aggressive as they seem,” Angela said.
“I was just as surprised as you are,” Marsden said.
“Oh, I wasn’t surprised,” Angela said, “A little disappointed, maybe.”
“Now, you wanted to see me about ...?” Marsden said.
“The murder of General Petros Yanatos,” Angela said.
“Am I under suspicion?” Marsden said.
“No, but your group is,” Angela said, “And Private First Class Gustaf Burkholder.”
“Is that a name I should know?” Marsden said.
“He's on the mailing list for the Left Hand,” Angela said.
“Two thousand names on that list,” Marsden said, “I can't keep track of every one of them.”
“Well, we'd like to go over that list with you, sir,” Angela said.
“No way in hell you'll be getting that from me,” Marsden said.
“We already have a copy, if you'll just come with us,” Angela said.
“I'm not going anywhere,” Marsden said.
“Sir, we have a warrant for your arrest if you don't cooperate,” Angela said, showing the warrant, “Under the Diet’s new anti-terrorism law, we can and will hold you until we get the information we want.”
The dogs barked and ran away. Marsden looked to the gate and saw several groups of soldiers standing outside. He looked at Angela and sighed.
“There goes the neighborhood,” Angela said, “You can make this as easy or as hard as you wish, sir.”
“The Left Hand believes in empowering the working class over a corrupt and inherently unequal imperial government,” Marsden said, “We're prepared for the time when armed resistance will be necessary. Lives will have to be sacrificed, but that day has not yet come. We broke off from the RAF because they believed that day already passed, which it hasn’t.”
“Would you take a polygraph, Herr Marsden?” Angela said.
“My word's good enough,” Marsden said.
"What's your ‘word’ on this?" Angela said.
He held up an evidence bag containing the "death card". “Where'd that come from?”
“I'd like to ask you that,” Angela said.
“More men are going to die,” Marsden said.
9:00 AM
The dogs were now in cages, and soldiers carried weapons out of the main trailer.
“This guy's a one-man threat to national security,” Angela sad, “I bet he's got more weapons and ammo than most North Eimerican dictatorships.”
“He told me to pull this photo from his file cabinet,” Anders said.
He showed her a photo of Marsden and another soldier with long hair.
“Who's this?” Angela said.
“He says that's who killed General Yanatos,” Anders said.
“Name's Nathan Musser, 26 confirmed solo enemy kills,” Marsden said, walking over, “A veritable killing machine. Left for dead by the same government that created him.”
“Left for dead?” Angela said.
"He belonged to Scholai Palatinae detachment B-11 - The squad known as the ‘Bloody Sabers’," Marsden said, “In 1971, the B-11 was being transported in country when their chopper was shot down. There were no survivors.”
“When was this photo taken?” Anders said.
“December 1995,” Marsden said, “Just a few hours after the Left Hand liberated him from a POW camp in Chiang Mai.”
“Herr Marsden, I'm sure that you're aware that in 1973 the Bureau of Defense determined that there were no more POW's in Siam,” Angela said, “And even if there were more POWs, Siam is a Roman ally, and they’d return them.”
“Maybe that's why they tried to kidnap Sergeant Musser when we brought him home,” Marsden said.
“The government kidnapped a prisoner of war?” Angela said.
“I said they tried ... had their commandoes board our plane in Baghdad,” Marsden said, “When they broke into the cargo hold where we hid him, he was already gone. I never figured out how.”
“I think I've heard enough,” Angela said.
She and Anders walked away.
“You don't believe him, do you?” she asked Anders.
“Well, what if he's telling the truth?” Anders said.
“A phantom POW left for dead comes back to avenge the injustices?” Angela said.
“Maybe the war ain't over, Angie,” Anders said.
“Or maybe not Marsden’s war,” Angela said.
“Well, given the facts of the case and Private Burkholder's polygraph test, this is the closest thing to an explanation that we've got,” Anders said.
“Or it's just a clever story being proffered as a cover-up for what is actually an elaborately orchestrated conspiracy,” Angela said, “I’m sure you think that’s the case.”
Anders smiled. “You know me too well, Angie.”
“Let Marsden take the polygraph,” Angela said.
“And if he passes?” Anders said.
“We’ll talk about it when that happens,” Angela said.
Siam Veterans War Memorial
Barbara Georgios stood in front of the memorial, holding flowers and looking at the name “Martin Georgios” on the wall. The name “Nathan Musser” was right below Martin’s. As she set down the flowers, Nathan approached from behind.
“Frau Georgios,” he said, “Barbara Georgios?”
“Yes,” Barbara said.
“Wife of Corporal Martin Georgios of the Imperial Marines and the Scholai Palatinae?” Nathan said.
“Yes,” Barbara said, “I'm sorry, do I know you?”
“No, ma'am,” Nathan said, “I've come to act in his behalf for the reason that Martin remains a prisoner of war.”
“Martin’s dead,” Barbara said.
“No, ma'am,” Nathan said, “May you forgive me as you forgive him, as a man and as a soldier, for restoring the honor and the memory of the B-11.”
Nathan handed her a set of dog tags with Martin’s name on them. Barbara stared at them with an excitement she hadn’t known in a long time.
“My God!” she said. “Where’d you get these? Who gave you these?”
She looked up, but Nathan had vanished.
11:48 AM
Angela and Anders arrived at the memorial, where workers were busy setting up scaffolds for Mihailo’s speech, and approached Erich.
“Is it true she made a positive ID from the photo?” Angela said.
“From a bad fax of it,” Erich said, “Do you have the actual photo with you?”
“Yeah, and more copies to distribute,” Anders said.
“We have event security checking out all vendors and workmen,” Erich said, “We've got it out to local law enforcement, but not to the exclusion of the other suspects.”
“I thought she ID'd Musser?” Angela said.
“She did, but I cannot authorize or promote a strategy here that's going to target a soldier who's officially dead,” Erich said.
Angela saw Barbara Georgios sitting quietly on a bench.
“Because his name’s on the wall?” Anders said. “Under the name of your friend?”
“I only knew Corporal Martin Georgios for one mission, Wat Hunsen,” Erich said, “After that, I lost track of him. But that’s not the reason. The reason is because I just got off the phone with the Army Forensics Lab, where Sergeant Nathan Musser’s remains have been stored since they were recovered from the crash site.”
“They have his remains?” Anders said.
“Marsden may have staged this whole thing, finding somebody vulnerable like her to pass off his lies,” Angela said.
“Why go to all that trouble?” Anders said.
“To create a decoy, to divert our attention,” Angela said, “And it seems to be working.”
“Well, this woman saw someone, decoy or not,” Erich said, “I want to know who.”
Angela walked over to the bench and sat next to Barbara. She showed her Marsden’s picture.
“Did you see this man?” she said.
“Yes, that's him,” Barbara said.
“Are you sure?” Angela said.
“Everything he said made it sound like Martin was still alive,” Barbara said, looking at Martin’s dog tags, “That can't be true. Can it?”
“You say he just disappeared?” Angela said.
“That's what's so strange,” Barbara said, sobbing, “One minute he's standing right in front of me, and then he's gone. What if he's telling the truth? What if Martin is alive? I've tried to get on with my life. What am I supposed to tell my kids now? What am I supposed to do?”
Angela noticed Erich bowing his head and wiping away tears as well. She turned back to Barbara and saw a small amount of blood near her eyes.
“Oh, your eye,” she said.
Barbara put a tissue to it and saw the blood. “Oh my God! What’s happening?”
“I think you just burst a capillary,” Angela said, handing her a tissue, “Hold a tissue there.”
She got up and walked over to Anders.
“Can we give Frau Georgios an eye exam?” Anders asked.
“For what?” Angela said.
“By all accounts, the man we're looking for – the man she saw – has a knack for vanishing in plain sight,” Anders said, “Maybe there's a connection.”
“Anders, what she has is a simple sub-conjunctival hemorrhage,” Angela said, “It's probably brought on by her emotional state.”
“And how did she reach that emotional state?” Anders said.
“What about you?” Angela said. “What are you going to do?”
“I'm going to see if we're really chasing a dead man,” Anders said.
Army Central Identification Lab – 1:22 PM
Anders met a doctor in the hallway.
“Agent Humboldt?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” Anders said.
“Dr. Benjamin Keyser,” the doctor said, shaking Anders’ hand, “I think I located what you're looking for. It's a small miracle I found it, actually. The record had been partially destroyed.”
They walked into a lab, where Keyser reached for a small tray, labeled “Musser, Nathan J.”, that contained three teeth. He handed it to Anders.
“Two bicuspids and a molar,” he said.
“This was all that was left of Musser at the crash site?” Anders said.
“Well, I've seen findings made with far less,” Keyser said, “And these are Sgt. Musser’s teeth. I cross-checked them with his dental records.”
“Is there any way to tell how the teeth were extracted?” Anders said.
“Well, I would assume that they were pulled,” Keyser said, putting one under a microscope, “On each of these teeth, there's a pronounced scoring in the enamel. See for yourself.”
Anders looked through the microscope. “Can you tell if that was pre- or post-mortem?”
“No, not really,” Keyser said.
“Well then this is presumptive, isn't it?” Anders said. “A finding of death based on inconclusive evidence?”
“Well, actually it was noted right here, even underlined,” Keyser said, handing him the report, "Inconclusive, it says right here."
“Whoever signed off on this death chose to ignore the facts, huh?” Anders said.
“I couldn't tell you who that was,” Keyser said, “As I said to you, these records were partially destroyed.”
“Is there any other way to tell?” Anders said.
“Well, based on the records and the reports filed at the same time, we can make a pretty good guess,” Keyser said.
Anders nodded.
Pentagon, Kodima (formerly Karacakoy), Constantinople
A phone rang, and the driver picked it up.
“Yes?” he said. “Yes, just a moment.”
He handed the phone to General Stephan, in the backseat. “It’s for you, sir.”
Stephan took the phone. “Hello.”
“General Stephan, this is Special Agent Anders Humboldt with the Athanatoi,” Anders said, “I'm calling because we have reason to believe that your life may be in danger.”
“What are you talking about?” Stephan said.
“That the person or persons responsible for the murder of General Yanatos this morning may have chosen to target you,” Anders said.
“Based on what information?” Stephan said.
“Based on a death certificate that you may have put your signature on,” Anders said, “A death certificate for Sgt. Nathan Musser.”
“I don't know anything about that, but I'm on my way to the Pentagon right now,” Stephan said.
“Listen, sir, I'm ten minutes away,” Anders said, “I have to ask you to trust my risk assessment on this and take every caution.”
“Right,” Stephan said.
“Do you know your driver, sir?” Anders said.
“Yes, he drives me all the time,” Stephan said.
“Good,” Anders said, “I'm going to put two Athanatoi agents there to escort you just as a precaution. They have my mobile phone number, okay?”
They pulled up to the Pentagon. Stephan walked out and met two Athanatoi agents, Louise Kazdan and Agent Caleca.
“Afternoon, General, we’ll be your escorts today,” Louise said.
“Just do your job, ma’am, and let me do mine,” Stephan said.
They entered the lobby and passed through the metal detector.
“General, sir,” the security officer said.
“Good afternoon,” Stephan said.
Behind them, Nathan walked through the metal detector. The CCTV monitors showed him walking through, and the alarm sounded, but when the security officer turned, he didn’t see anybody there.
Caleca entered Stephan’s office first and saw nobody there.
“All clear, general,” she said.
“Thank you, ladies,” Stephan said, “That will be all.”
Louise and Caleca stepped out and closed the door. Stephan put his hat down on his desk and prepared to sit when he found a death card on the chair.
Outside, Anders walked up to the Pentagon entrance. His phone rang.
“Humboldt,” he said.
“I’m at St. Eudokimos with Demetrios,” Angela said, “The ophthalmologist found something, a transient scotoma. It’s a floating blind spot.”
Anders reached the metal detectors and showed his badge to the security officer. He walked through the detectors.
“Well, what would cause that?” he said.
“Well, any number of diseases can scar the retina,” Angela said, “Diabetes, glaucoma, macular degeneration. In turn, they, they create a visual field deficit.”
“Well, does she have any of those diseases?” Anders said.
“It doesn't appear so,” Angela said.
“Well, don't you think it's odd, Angie, that she'd have a blind spot that she wouldn't, uh, that she wouldn't have noticed before?” Anders said.
“Well, not necessarily,” Angela said, “Uh, the processes of the brain fill in and the visual cortex compensates conceptually.”
“Well, that might account for Musser’s vanishing,” Anders said.
“Demetrios laughed at me when I suggested that,” Angela said.
Anders’ phone beeped with another call.
“Hold on, Angie,” Anders said, switching to the other call.
“Agent Humboldt, this is General Stephan,” Stephan said, “I’m in my office, and I found something on my desk ... something very troubling.”
“The agents that I assigned to you, are they with you?” Anders said.
“No, no, they're just outside,” Stephan said.
“I want you to call them into your office right now, General,” Anders said.
“Who put this here?” Stephan said.
Anders heard a gunshot.
“General Stephan?” he said.
He ran to Stephan’s office, where Louise and Caleca were already inside.
“Call an ambulance,” he said.
“I already did,” Louise said.
Anders walked over to Stephan, who lay on his back behind his desk, the death card on his chest. Nathan stood several feet to Anders’ left. Anders looked in that direction, but he saw nothing.
I suppose she could also follow the path of Jason Todd assuming he still exists if she does die because no ones really dead in comics as long as a significant part of the fandom doesn’t want to see them dead.
