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Prince Diamond Drifter
c4e5c2
"There were the deliberate staff cuts. Plus, a lot of the staff cuts occurred during Maklata's stay, before Lamarra at least showed up."
>"This is a good observation. Normally I would call this evidence mushy at best, as that depends entirely on if all of that really was my son's doing, rather than Jules and Lamarra's words just a few minutes ago. Was that under duress of the alleged threats, I wonder, or did everyone here leap on the reputation of my son once Itcher opened that way? But this does show that Malkata did at least cut some staff, if not necessarily Jules' department, or those who did get cut after Lamarra's arrival."
"He also said he knows where the gold is, something he shouldn't know."
>"Oh, yes? And do you have a recording of this, as well?"
"... no, sir."
>"I will not say you are lying, I am aware that my son did call you all in before coming to me. But I am asking for hard evidence, and the closest I see so far is this tape and the staff cuts, though the latter is a bit messier than I would like. I will look into this."
The video of mine is retrieved, and Father Zozu spends a quarter hour looking it over, playing in normal time to get the audio. Thankfully it worked as intended, as painful as it got to watch sometimes. The audio sure as hell picked up what Red was saying.
"I'd like to say that you could interrogate Red without his jammer, and he'll almost certainly have known about the knowledge of the raid."
>"As much as I despise using that vile empathic link that turns neumono into what they are, I may do this. In fact, I will take Red out from Malkata's thumb for the time being and place him under my control. Itcher, you called emergency services on Red, did you not?"
"I did."
>"And there has been an investigation, the details that are known are passed to me. The security channels went 'haywire', staff was needed 'elsewhere', and that sort. They are not Zozu, but they are tasked with protecting Zozu, and this sort of thing is inexcusable. I am still looking into why this occurred, as there is much unknown. This tape is enlightening, at least. It is evidence like this that prevent me from simply hamstringing all of you. You all did have reason for abandoning work. Jules and Lamarra, you were investigating the possibility of a CAI intervention, but ended up locking yourselves in testing lockdowns, eventually confirming there was no CAI. At least by the time the gold had been stolen. And Itcher, it is not often that anyone orders another to stay at home. It should have been met with scrutiny. These are all better reasons than I would have expected, but not excuseable. Even you, Jessica. I do not take back what I said despite Red's overly spirited advances, but it does not matter. I am not complaining now that you did not allow Red inside, but the issue I speak of is that you left work in the first place. There were still people there at the time, and it would not have been ill advised to stick around for just a few hours more until normal shift hours close.
>It is Maklata's recommendation that instead of my usual disciplinary measures, you all have a chance to redeem yourself from this critical absence. He has told me that he is confident he can get the gold back. I believe him. Whether he took the gold matters little for this, as he will get the gold either way. All I ask of you is a token of your loyalty by assisting in the recovery of the gold. I am not asking any of you to be in harm's way, that will be the muscle's job. I repeat that this is merely a token mission of good faith. If you believe that Maklata stole the gold, then it will be an extraordinarily easy mission. I will place protection on Jules' family, Itcher's girl, and restrain Red for the time being, and give resistance to any demotions for Lamarra. Do any of you have reason for not joining? Red will also be recovering during this, but I will have a task for him when he is able, after I interrogate him myself."
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