Editing City Series:Volume6a Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

The used bookstore’s second floor acted as a cramped living room and a bedroom 

Two men sat in that room with stacks of books everywhere.

Berger kept the cat on his lap as he sat by the window on a long sofa with bedding lazily draped over it.

Schweitzer sat on a different sofa across a small table and with his back to the door.

The only sound was the faint footsteps of the MPs in the hallway past that flimsy door.

Berger shrugged and spoke up as if to drown out that noise.

“Why the sudden visit, Schweitzer? If it’s about Eryngium, I’ll remind you we agreed to never speak of that again. None of us have gone anywhere near the hidden Borderson village up north. Not me, not you, not Alfred, and not Marsch. Or am I wrong?”

“This is not about that.” Schweitzer, the man from the Geheimnis Agency, shook his head and looked straight at the young man in black. “She is our shared secret…and I assume you know my situation as well as I know yours, Berger. We continue to work toward the protection of Germany, just as you continue to work toward undermining Germany.”

He sighed.

“The Geheimnis Agency is well aware you used a Grösse Panzer to destroy a dam in Denmark the week before last in order to escape capture.”

“I didn’t destroy it. It just happened to break in close proximity to me. Besides, I sent a written apology. I swear I did.”

“Unfortunately for you, that apology is precisely what led the Danish police to place you at the top of their wanted list. You really don’t change, do you?”

Schweitzer sighed and Berger sighed as well.

“So what are you saying? That you’ll stop doing what you’re doing if I let myself be arrested?”

“I cannot do that. Because of our promise.”

Schweitzer reached his left hand to his left ear and touched the earring set with a red jewel.

He watched as Berger similarly toyed with the pendant hanging at his chest.

“Yeah, I guess there’s no talking you out of it. …So. What question do you have for me?”

“You should have received a certain job from ‘Verräter’ M. Schrier. One of your primary jobs.”

“And if I say I received no such thing?”

Berger gave him a curious look, but Schweitzer was having none of it.

“I do not have time for your nonsense, Dog Berger. The AIF led by M. Schrier helped a girl escape Berlin’s general hospital last night.”

“Is that what all those sirens are about? So does this mean you’re after Hazel Mirildorf?”

“Has she still not arrived?”

“To be honest, I wasn’t told what she looks like, so I wouldn’t know even if she had. If she’s a square-faced blonde with a prosthetic arm, then she’s right here talking to me.”

Schweitzer realized Berger was looking at his prosthetic arm.

Berger resumed speaking with a scornful smile on his lips.

“You’ve tried to make it look normal enough, but that thing’s an Eingeweide, isn’t it? Did Marsch make it?”

“His ability has brought German technology 20 years ahead of the rest of the world.”

“It takes a special kind of person to go along with that. I mean, an Eingeweide’s Erklärung power is cool and all, but the part about being made from one of the user’s body parts is gonna turn a lot of people off. …You shoved your right arm into the reactor for yours, right? What’s it called?”

“Der Held.”

“Yeah, that’s a Marsch name all right. So did he really name them all after Eryngium’s records? If so, there must be 11 in all between the ones I’ve heard rumor of and my own.”

“Stop making assumptions. …And stop changing the subject from that girl.” Schweitzer frowned because this young man had always been good at avoiding topics of conversation he did not like. “Our information is far from perfect since this happened so suddenly. Not to mention there was a fire at the hospital and all the records there were destroyed. What information we have was gotten by questioning an AIF member we managed to capture in a hurry. …Hm?”

He noticed something odd in Berger’s lap.

The kitten with the pretty fur got up and yawned. It hopped down from his lap and glanced over at the window behind him. It viewed the blue sky visible through there.

“…”

It walked over to the window, treading on the books stacked up on the floor.

“Looks like she wants out. Mind if I open the window?”

“Don’t you move, Berger. You pride yourself in being the second fastest person in the world, so I am not giving you any chance to escape.”

Schweitzer lifted his prosthetic arm and stood up. Looking irritated, he walked past Berger to approach the window.

“Have you heard anything from Marsch?” asked Berger from behind him. “He stopped contacting me two months ago for whatever reason.”

The kitten sat on the books stacked in front of the window, turned its back on the two men, and scratched at the glass.

It looked up at Schweitzer’s left hand when he touched the window and meowed in a hopeful way.

But he stopped moving and responded to Berger’s question.

“You really haven’t heard anything, have you?”

“From that, I take it you have heard something.”

Berger let out a bitter laugh, but Schweitzer silently worked at opening the window.

But Berger said more, as if to stop him again.

“Marsch entered the Geheimnis Agency straight out of university, but instead of telling me all about his research into Ober Geheimnis, Schreiben systems, and engines, he sends this horribly confused piece of text. And instead of addressing it to me, it’s addressed to her and to the director.”

“He always did like his old folklore. He especially loved talking about it while Eryngium Ilfheim and Joseph Ilfheim were with you.”

“The house we used to live in is gone now. Thanks to you and Alfred.”

Schweitzer once more stopped after touching the window’s latch.

The cat meowed when he lifted his hand away, but he ignored it.

“What did Marsch say?”

“He sent me part of the Unreif Germane’s 9th Section of the Ruling King. Y’know, the one that starts with ‘the one-armed youth’.”

“He sent ''you'' that?”

Schweitzer heard Berger stand up behind him.

He turned around, but Berger was already on his feet.

“What’s happened to Marsch, Schweitzer? He joined the Geheimnis Agency with you and started developing weapons, right? So why would he send a letter to the director and to her when they’re both gone?”

And…

“I heard from my old upperclassman that the top level of the Geheimnis Agency has been forcefully promoting something called the Panzerpolis Project of late, pushing aside all other civil and military policy. I also hear you’re declaring a Greater Germanic Reich next April, so what is all this about?”

“I am under no obligation to answer that.”

“Even if Marsch is involved in it? I don’t know if it has anything to do with your Geheimnis Agency’s actions, but the military has been rushing things lately. They attacked Spain and a week ago they built this autopiloted ramming ship – a self-destruct weapon basically – called the V-0 that I hear reduced the target ship and everything within a 5-mile radius to ashes.”

“The newspapers are exaggerating things. It is nothing more than a cruiser-style ramming ship that is loaded with divine spell bombs and rams an aerial object on autopilot. And the radius of destruction was less than a full mile.”

“Be that as it may, what is this Panzerpolis Project that has the military freaking out so much? And why did an inventor who is surely a part of it send such a weird letter to her and to the director!?”

“I am under no obligation to answer that.”

The instant, Schweitzer stuck his hand in his pocket, Berger shoved the books off the table behind him and grabbed a metal box small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. He immediately pushed the red button on its surface.

A moment later, the used bookstore exploded.