Dawn was breaking at the eastern horizon. The surface of Elysium was still wet from the remnants of the storm that had swept through the city the night before. Behind the iron door guarding a cold room beneath the Mondgarten Police Station, Cross sat with Glinda and Schneider.
"I have cleared you without waiting for a trial," Glinda said.
"The information was invaluable. This should put us in a much better position to keep watch on Enzel."
Glinda handed Cross a fresh small notebook. Inside was a list of names at the academy to be monitored. Their primary focus remained Enzel, with the Reichswacht as the second. Though it was not their headquarters, the number deployed to escort Enzel alone was enough to suggest something about their movements. Schneider checked the door periodically to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
Cross observed, in his own estimation, that the relationship between the Reichspolizei and the government was that of oil and water. The two would never truly combine, each driven by its own interests, yet each dependent on the other, producing two overlapping layers of protection for the Empire. If one layer was breached, the other would only grow more solid and resistant.
The evidence was right in front of him. Glinda, in his assessment, was consumed by the ideology of eradicating sorcery and all its practice. And yet she rejected open propaganda because of the war it could ignite. She preferred the method she was already using, setting factions against one another and watching the pieces fall.
"Is there something you want to say?" Glinda asked.
Cross wrote a paragraph into his new notebook, tore the page out, and handed it to Glinda. He then rose from his chair and was escorted out of the building by Schneider.
"The vampire goes by the name Gottfried Langemarck. He serves a Crimson Caste vampire currently raising an undead army from the corpses of those who fell in the war five years ago. Tread carefully, or you may find yourself among his targets."
"Then he is already very close."
Glinda took some comfort in knowing that the vampires would be occupied fighting the witches, thanks to the Bloody Triangle she had engineered. But one question refused to leave her.
"How is the Reich supposed to win if this is how things are done?"
She left the interrogation room and made her way to the parking area, intending to go home and rest after the length of this shift. She had barely opened the car door when a folded sheet of paper on the seat stopped her. A handwritten note, almost certainly from Cross.
"If you burn a city to save a nation, would you be considered as a saint or a villain?"