Chapter 802: Varyn Account

Varyn gave two names from the order.

The records officer found the first man’s signed message and marked the forwarded order beside the second name.

Varyn watched him work.

"You were happy to file these when I gave you the office," he said.

The officer’s fingers stopped above the controls.

Alex put his palm on the table. A crack ran through the stone beneath it.

"He’s showing me your orders. Keep talking to me."

Varyn watched him.

"You think you can investigate every cousin and clerk who touched an account?"

"I started with you. Don’t make me chase every cousin before you answer for your own signature."

Rovan moved away from the door.

"One of those companies arranged my place here," he said.

Varyn turned toward him.

"Don’t start repeating things you don’t understand."

"I know who sent the papers."

"Do you know who paid for them?"

Rovan hesitated.

"No."

Alex looked at him.

"Then say that too."

Rovan nodded. He named the residence contact and selected the messages arranging his arrival. The officer matched the company’s reference to the contractor in the archive, then copied the messages Rovan showed him.

Varyn’s expression grew colder with each one.

"You enjoyed everything we arranged for you."

Rovan’s good hand rested against the sling supporting his other arm.

"Yes."

"And now you stand here as though you were outside it."

"I didn’t say I was."

Beatrice looked at him without smiling. Rovan lowered his gaze to the copied messages.

Varyn looked back at Alex.

"You came here with Kael. You planned to use the same election."

"I did."

Varyn stopped as though he had expected a denial.

Alex pushed the delayed applications closer.

"That doesn’t explain these orders."

Varyn went quiet.

Beatrice placed her father’s loan agreement beside the security records.

"And it doesn’t explain this either."

"I already told him your family’s case was separate."

"Then keep it separate," she said. "Don’t call returning our house a favor in exchange for silence about the other people."

Varyn glanced toward the door.

His gaze moved over the guards, the officer holding the archive open, and Rovan still standing beside the table.

Alex recognized that glance. The last time, Alex had given him three days to arrange a meeting. This time his own clerk had the orders open, and the bank held the other half of the payments.

"I can confirm the local orders," Varyn said. "The closures, the contractor and the applications we held. I won’t confess to causing the outbreak because you want someone to blame."

Alex leaned forward.

"Did I ask you to confess to it?"

"No."

"Then answer what I did ask. You don’t get to choose a worse accusation and congratulate yourself for denying it."

The officer read the orders back one by one. Varyn corrected two details about the units involved and identified a subordinate who had carried the instructions to the contractor.

The officer wrote the corrections beside the original orders, then called the subordinate to come to the annex.

On one transfer, the records officer stopped reading when he reached his own name.

"I entered that payment," he said.

Varyn looked at him with a thin smile.

Alex asked the officer to open the instruction he had received. It named a contractor, an amount and an approval reference. It contained no account of the registration closures.

"Preserve both," Alex said. "Entering a payment and knowing why it was sent are different things. If you knew more, tell us."

The officer swallowed, then described the question he had raised about the unusual account. Varyn had told him the family guarantee was enough. The written reply remained beside the payment.

Varyn turned to Rovan while the officer arranged the meeting.

"I will tell the company to stop covering your lodging," he said. "Your accounts too. If you’re so determined to stand apart from the family, you can pay for it yourself."

Rovan looked toward Alex.

Alex waited. He could buy the man another room without noticing the cost. He did not want to buy the answer Rovan was about to give.

Rovan’s gaze moved to the sling around his shoulder.

"I’ve been sleeping beside people who don’t have a room," he said.

"That can continue."

Rovan’s mouth tightened at the words. When he answered, his voice stayed firm.

"Send the message."

Varyn stared at him, then reached for his bracelet.

Beatrice shifted as if she meant to speak. Rovan shook his head once.

The officer returned to the held applications. He began opening the rejected appeals, and a list of temporary addresses filled the display.

"Some of these families would have been turned away before the outbreak," he said. "We told them to go back to the lower district while they waited."

"Give those addresses to the recovery teams," Alex said. "Mark which ones still have someone trying to contact this office."

Varyn lowered his bracelet.

"You’ll find plenty of people willing to blame me for where they were."

Alex looked at the unfinished appeals.

"You knew where you’d sent them. You could have given this to someone before we came."

Varyn opened his mouth, then closed it.

The officer sent the addresses. Outside, one of the waiting soldiers took the list to the people checking buildings beyond the treatment route.

Vesa spoke through the private connection.

"There is another account reference in the office copies. It isn’t a payment for the registrations."

Alex looked toward the records officer.

"Open the communication charges attached to that last entry."

The man did so.

Several charges belonged to ordinary administrative traffic. One paid to keep a separate route active after the main office channels stopped responding.

The receiving address was a local relay site outside the destroyed central district.

Its authorization did not come from Varyn’s ordinary security chain.

Alex pointed to the higher-level seal.

"Who gave you this?"

Varyn’s posture changed. For the first time, he looked more worried by the record than by the people standing around it.

"Royal correspondence."

"Whose?"

"I received the route through the General’s office."

"Kael’s?"

"Yes."

The records officer opened the forwarding receipt. Kael’s office reference appeared there, with the same relay address and an instruction to keep it apart from routine traffic.

It had been used again after the outbreak began.

Alex studied the time of the most recent charge.

Someone had paid to keep this route active while ordinary callers could not reach the office.

"Can you reach the General’s archive?" he asked the officer.

"The local records mirror should have what our office received. The originals would be in his preserved office files."

"Start with the copies here. Vesa, compare the relay reference. Don’t contact the site yet."

Varyn looked up quickly.

"You don’t understand what you’re stepping into."

Alex met his gaze.

"Then tell us what you know about the route."

"I was told to keep it open. I didn’t speak to the person using the royal end."

Alex asked the officer for copies of the forwarding receipts.

"Vesa, have someone meet us at Kael’s records room. We check his copy before warning the relay that we’re looking."

Beatrice gathered the papers belonging to her father’s claim.

Rovan remained behind when she moved toward the door.

Varyn watched him.

"You could still come with me."

Rovan looked at the copied messages on the table.

"I haven’t finished answering."

Alex left them within the officer’s hearing. On the table, the held appeals were still open.

He looked again at the royal route as he stepped outside. Its latest charge was fresh. Someone had kept that line working while the people on those applications could get no answer.