“There is no accounting for the horrible things humans do to one another. Laugh, or do whatever it takes so you can sleep at night.” He stroked Viktor’s lacey wings, quiet for a long moment as he watched the hornet, thinking still of the dead mechanic. A pretty little sacrifice that went along so willingly to slaughter. Betrayal of that magnitude was beyond the hornet charmer’s comprehension.

Hornets, those were fiercely loyal creatures, willing to fight to the death for their brethren. Not unlike Cobra soldiers, in that respect.

“They tell me plenty of things, some of which I would rather not know. Most of their secrets would have ninety five percent of the soldiers on this base put before a firing squad before sundown.” He laughed, picking Viktor up, allowing the insect to wander over his gloved fingers. “But my morals are not necessarily the morals of the state. Most things, I simply can’t be bothered to have an opinion about. I only intervene in special cases.”

Carefully, he handed Viktor off to Rakitin.

“There isn’t much more to tell that you don’t already know. Your murderer arranged Konstantin like a broken puppet, where he would be found. It was someone in common stripe, that is, he wore the same uniform as the guard units that patrol this base and surrounding area. That means nothing, even hornets have been known to change their stripe now and then, and any cunning killer would take on camouflage of the sentries assigned to the area.”

The Fear nodded affirmative in agreement, though his attention could not be swayed from gently replacing poisoned arrows into their quiver.

“It’s just good battle tactics.”