The events narrated in this chapter are not inspired by real events, objects, people, places or experiences. Any coincidences whatsoever are coincidental. The information about drugs is intended to solely create awareness about a serious social issue.

"I must say, that hairdo looks really good on you. And I don't say that to just any long-haired man.

Dr. Animish Deo, family doctor of the royal family of Mevinje, smiled warmly at Orion as he said those words. Orion didn't look remotely pleased, but next to him, Culver beamed proudly.

"I did it for him," he gloated, pointing at the half-up, half-down bun that, in combination with the lumberjack shirt and washed-out jeans, made him look like a renegade mountain man. "Isn't it awsome?"

"I didn't ask you to," Orion grumbled.

"Thank God for YouTube!" Culver exclaimed, ignoring Orion entirely.

"What's with this fellow?" Dr. Deo jabbed his chin in Culver's direction. "He's rarely this cheerful."

"Slapping me is cathartic for him." Orion pointed at the reddening hand print on his left cheek. "It's like being two steps from Nirvana."

"Hey! That was because you tried to throw my toothbrush into the toilet!"

"Oh? And didn't I do that because you tied pigtails in my hair?"

"You kicked me out of bed!"

"You were clinging to me like a limpet to a rock! I could've died!"

Dr. Deo turned to the fourth man at the table, a bald man of forty with shiny skin of the darkest possible brown, a squat nose, thick lips and intelligent brown eyes that seemed to constantly be searching his surroundings for something. "Two of the most powerful men in their respective fields," he remarked, a touch of irony in his voice.

"You learn something new everyday," remarked the stranger, speaking in a thick Ghanian accent.

"Alright, children, settle down," Dr. Deo called. "Your drinks are getting cold."

"He started it!" The two youngsters chorused indignantly.

"Then I'll finish it. This gentleman here is Zerihun Ezekiel, detective in the Narcotics department of the Emmer Police. Zerihun, His Highness Culver Ermine, and his friend Orion Blake."

"Since when are we friends?" Orion mumbled under his breath, missing Culver's flinch at those words.

Ezekiel bowed before Culver and shook hands with Orion. "Before we begin," said he, "I want to assure you that you are not going to get arrested for your substance abuse and that this entire investigation will be kept absolutely secret."

Orion nodded. "Thank you," said he.

"Mr. Blake, I need you to tell me whatever you know about your dealer. That you were the source of the information will be kept confidential."

"His name is Tony," Orion said, meeting Ezekiel's eyes but flushing with shame and discomfort. "I don't know if that's his real name. After my first experience with drugs, I developed a craving for them but didn't know where to obtain it from. So I went to the red-light district, hoping to find some clues there. Tony was the one who found me."

Orion paused, clearly disturbed by his old memories. Culver noticed, but Orion's cold attitude towards him had wounded him, so he remained silently hunched over in his chair, too afraid of retaliation to offer support. Dr. Deo noticed the way Culver's hands twitched, as he had stopped himself from reaching for Orion at the last second. Ezekiel, who had been busily scribbling in his notepad, looked up at the unprecedented silence. "I'd suggest you refrain from itching," he said, noticing the frantic movement of Orion's fingers against his own skin. "That's a withdrawal symptom. You should seek medical help for your detox as fast as possible."

Fear of the unpleasant experience of detoxing and the addiction-induced anger at being told to quit flashed across Orion's face in rapid succession. Ezekiel met Orion's glare with an even look, asking him to continue his talk.

"I've never told him my name," Orion complied, albeit a lot more reluctantly than before. "I remember he responded to my request for anonymity by saying that I had come to the perfect guy. You see, his clientele is exclusive. Each of them is assigned a number, and he uses that number for all purposes. No names."

"What is your number?" Ezekiel asked.

"Thirty-two."

"Have you ever come across any other numbers?"

"No."

"How many times have you met with Tony since you started using?"

"...It's been two years. I've lost count." Orion's jaw worked as he struggled to say such difficult words. "I use several times a day - a dozen, if you want a number. Tony responds no matter what time I call him, and he's always so sympathetic and charming, the bastard - excuse my language, Dr. Deo. I don't know if that helps you with any estimates, Mr. Ezekiel. My memory has become very spotty in the past six months."

"It's something. Can you give me this Tony's number?"

"Sure."

Everyone at the table was surprised at Orion's willingness to out his dealer. It made Ezekiel wonder if Orion had other dealers and Dr. Deo worry that he might just give a fake number if he was being so cavalier. Culver, however, surveyed Orion with a thoughtful eye, drawing no conclusions until he was done staring and had made his subject decidedly uncomfortable. He suspected that Orion had far nobler motivations for giving the number away. The man had probably reasoned that if Ezekiel nabbed the dealer, he himself would lose his source of cocaine and that would force him to quit.

"Has Tony ever screwed up your drug order before?" Ezekiel asked, breaking the shocked silence.

"I don't think so. I don't have any means of finding out, but if I am to judge by what I feel like when I get high, I'd say my recent overdose was the first time."

Ezekiel scribbled a few more things before putting down his notepad and staring at Orion over tented fingers. "What I'm about to tell you is highly confidential, he began."

"Then why are we talking about it in a crowded cafe?" Orion asked.

Dr. Deo shot Orion a warning glare at the latter's impudence, but Ezekiel chuckled. "Because every table within earshot is occupied by my men," he replied, "and the buzz of conversation is good cover. Now - have you heard about the Freemouth Port tragedy?"

Orion nodded. "A gang war broke out at the shipyard and a bunch of dock workers got caught in the middle. Some thirty people died and three ships got blown up."

"But what does a gang war have to do with Orion's overdose?" Culver asked.

"That was no gang war, Your Highness. There were no dock workers involved either. It was a shootout between the police and the Mafia. Eleven of the thirty-three people killed were police officers."

Culver scowled deeply, transforming from mere spectator to a statesman of formidable authority. For the first time, Orion saw in Culver the worldly, powerful man the rest of the kingdom saw and deeply respected. With his back ramrod straight, hands linked on the table and his half-closed eyes demanding an explanation through a cold stare down the length of his raised nose, he looked like the regal, redoubtable monarchs of the past.

"Why the cover-up?" he asked, voice soft but brooking no secrecy.

Ezekiel's equanimity wavered a little. "That shootout was the spectacular failure that came of a two-year investigation that cost millions in taxpayer money," he explained. "We had been investigating a producer of high-quality heroin based in South America. One of our agents reported that a shipment of a thousand pounds of pristine heroin would be arriving at Freemouth Port."

Orion and Dr. Deo both choked over their coffee. Culver's scowl deepened until he looked almost animalistic. "Go on," he purred, his inner lip curling inwards a little.

"We'd received information that it was the purest heroin available on the market. "So white it hurts the eyes," is what my man had reported. "We tried to intercept the shipment. Turns out our spy had been discovered and forced to feed us wrong information. The ship that came in was not a small container ship, but a behemoth of a freighter carrying a small army and twenty metric tonnes of cocaine."

"And?"

"The fight was violent. Bloody. They blew up three ships in an attempt to get us to stop firing, but they didn't know that we'd emptied the whole yard beforehand. We ran out of ammunition and were forced to take cover. When the firing stopped and the smoke cleared, the freighter was gone."

"And you think the heroin Orion overdosed on was from this Freemouth shipment?"

"I don't think, Your Highness. I know." Ezekiel wiped sweat from his brow. "During the fight, our mole managed to get a sample of the drugs off the ship. The heroin had a nasty smell, so we got it analyzed in a GC-MS. We found traces of mercaptans in it."

"Mercaptans?"

"It's a by-product of oil refinement. It made sense because we knew the drugs were manufactured near an oil refinery. The same guy runs both facilities. After the drug bust failed, my team and I had hoped the drug would eventually show up in the market, so we had asked forensic analysts, chemists, hospitals, even rehab centers to look out for white powder heroin. Two years we waited with no results, and finally Dr. Deo brought in a sample that contained mercaptans, and here we are today."

Ezekiel's listeners sat in stunned silence at the unexpected story. "Now I get why you wanted to meet me," Orion finally said. "But Tony doesn't deal heroin. When he first asked me what I was looking for, out of sheer curiosity I asked him what he had. I think he named LSD, cocaine and crystal meth, but he didn't say heroin."

"Then how did it end up in Orion's drugs?" Culver asked.

"There's multiple possibilities," Ezekiel answered. "One, Tony started dealing heroin and you just didn't know it. Two, the supplier he gets his stuff from screwed up royally. The latter is possible if he's never used."

"He doesn't use," Orion agreed.

"There's a third possibility." Culver leaned forward thoughtfully. "This could be deliberate."

"Why would Tony try to kill me?" Orion snapped. "I'm not proud of it, but I'm a good customer."

"No, no, His Highness has a point." Ezekiel leaned forward too, an admiring twinkle in his eyes at Culver's sharp reasoning. "Maybe his intention was not to kill you, but to get you hooked on heroin after experiencing a high like never before."

"But why try to sneak it? Wouldn't it be risky to give someone heroin without warning them of its potency? If a customer overdoses, it must get messy for Tony too."

"Not really. A cocaine-heroin combination is called a speedball, and it's becoming very popular. If Tony didn't start dealing heroin until later, he might not have known that he's dealing with such pure heroin."

"Well, what do I do now?" Orion asked, wringing his hands and fidgeting as his craving began to drown out other coherent thoughts.

"Stop using." Ezekiel turned to Culver. "Your Highness, I know I am in no position to even look you in the eye. I committed grave errors in the past, and many good people have paid the price for it. But when Mr. Blake's case came to me, I found in it a God-sent opportunity to atone for my mistakes."

"If you feel penitence, it isn't me you need to express it to," Culver said, severely. "State your point."

"Please keep an eye on Mr. Blake. Make sure he doesn't use again."

"And what do you plan on doing?"

"I'll be following this Tony lead. I can't nab him yet, I'm sorry - I'll need him if I want to find the rest of the drugs."

"If you encounter any red tape, come to me. And do not breathe a word about my involvement to anyone else, not even your partner. And Mr. Ezekiel?"

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"Make sure there are no massacres this time."

*

Orion and Culver were both silent as they walked out of the cafe. Orion was busy listing all the problems he had, while Culver was trying to work out how to integrate Orion into his rather large list of daily considerations. As they reached Culver's car, Orion moved away, heading down the street.

"Hey!" Culver quickly grabbed Orion's wrist. "Where are you going?"

"Home," Orion said shortly.

A flash of inexplicable panic passed through Culver's mind. "No!" he cried. "You need to be where I can see you! What if you use again?"

"Then it would be none of your business!" Orion snarled, ripping his arm out of Culver's hold. "Just like it never was, and just like it never will be!"

"Didn't you hear what Mr. Ezekiel said? You can't afford to -"

"That's my problem, not yours! You think you can keep treating me like a stray dog you took pity on?"

Hurt colored Culver's face and he shrank back. Orion couldn't help but feel a little guilty. "I don't treat you like a dog," Culver argued rather meekly.

"You said it yourself!" Orion slammed his fist on the roof of Culver's car. "Didn't you say you were helping me to make yourself feel good? Didn't you want me to quit so I can allay some weird, stupid suspicion of yours?"

With each word, Orion had been bearing down on Culver, getting angrier and angrier by the syllable. Too high-strung and guilty to act strong, Culver met Orion's furious gaze with wet eyes, clutching his car keys to his chest. "I'm sorry," he said, voice shaking. "It's different now."

"What makes you think I'll believe you?" Unmindful of the attention he was drawing, Orion punched the car again. "You act all high-and-mighty, thinking you're justified, but remember, you owe me too!"

"I do know, but - "

"Shut up! Enough from that self-obsessed, arrogant trap of yours! I want nothing to do with you, you hear me? Stay away from my life!"

"Whoa, whoa! Enough!" Dr. Deo wedged himself between the two men, pushing Orion away from the visibly upset and frightened Culver. "What do you think you're doing in public, boy?"

"Doctor, you don't understand -" Orion began.

"Right now, I don't want to." Dr. Deo turned to Culver, his had on Orion's chest to hold him back. "Go home. I'll handle this guy."

"But what if -"

"I said I'll handle it, Culver. He's not going to listen to you right now, and it'll cause unnecessary trouble if someone recognizes you. Go."

The young Prince shook as he climbed into his car and drove away. The car progressed quite slowly, and Dr. Deo couldn't help but fear it was because the man was crying. Shaking his head in weary resignation, he turned to Orion. "You," he said. "Do you have a roommate?"

"No."

"Anyone you can stay with? Friends? Family?"

"I haven't contacted them in months."

"Of course," Dr. Deo groaned. "Well, it's settled then - you're staying with me. We can look for a good rehab program together."

"No, that's not necessary," Orion said. "I'd only be trouble, and -"

"Damn right, you're trouble!" Dr. Deo snapped. "Listen here, boy. I genuinely care for you, I really do. But Culver is like a son to me, and it's for him that I am taking you in."

Orion frowned in confusion. Was Dr. Deo in the habit of pampering Culver? "Huh?"

"That boy has his faults," Dr. Deo admitted. "But he's attached to you now, and I don't want to see his heart broken again. And that is why I am involving myself in this."