LOCATION: LITTLE WATER CAY
COUNTRY: TURKS AND CAICOS
DATE: SEPTEMBER 4, 2049 | TIME: 3:00 PM
It took two hours to clear the beach of the other troops. During that time, Evan Mercer worked nonstop.
He first set up instruments to detect the trace signature of the breach. Next, once he had captured that data, he began working with his System skills to calculate an origin point.
A long line of boats came and went, each taking fifteen to twenty passengers at a time back to Providenciales, then returning for more.
Halfway through the process, Kaela had received approval for the mission. Mallory and Vanessa each sent separate messages to the sisters, telling them to be careful and come back if it grew too dangerous.
But the two women also knew their daughters. They were daredevils on the best day. And seeing their friends and colleagues being taken like that would light a fire under any warrior and get them burning for vengeance.
Shit, Vanessa wished she could join them. Too bad they would be gone before she’d be able to get to the site.
In the end, an excursion like this was about stealth, and that meant smaller teams were the rule of thumb.
Evan could get them in and out, and he had some skills that could obscure them from view if needed. He wasn’t an offensive powerhouse, but he wasn’t a slouch in a fight, either.
When Evan found the final coordinates, he sent them back up the channel so the Peacekeepers could come with greater force if needed.
Then, it was time to go.
They had everything they needed, including a stack of long-term rations, which were highly nutritious meals formulated to keep them fed for nearly a week. Other than that, they needed only their weapons and their wits.
“Let’s do this,” Kaela said.
Evan nodded and closed his eyes.
He rested his hands on the compact portal device, and felt his mana drain into it. He began to feel a headache coming on, when a new portal shimmered open.
“Ready,” he said, grunting through the pain.
Kaela stepped through first, and Elena followed.
Finally, Evan set the timer for five seconds and entered. Moments later, it snapped silently shut behind him.
The stealth portal used a lot more mana, but for their purposes, it was necessary.
“I need a few minutes to recover,” he said, falling to the ground and breathing heavily.
“We’ve got your back,” Elena said.
She and Kaela began scanning the environment.
Evan couldn’t have picked a better spot if he’d aimed for it.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
They were in the middle of a vast grassland. Low hills surrounded them, and if they squatted, they were low enough to stay out of sight.
Elena whispered sharply. “Shield!”
The three ducked down, and Evan cast a shield over them just in time.
A drone flew directly overhead. Minutes later, it flew back in the other direction, about a hundred feet to the east.
“It’s flying a pattern,” Evan huffed, still not recovered from the portal. “I don’t think it knows we’re here.”
“Still though,” Kaela said, “we need to move as soon as you’re ready.”
They hunkered down for another half hour until Evan was topped off.
“What I wouldn’t give for a map of this place,” Elena mused.
“Yeah, I agree.” Kaela turned north. “I think the drone came from the north.”
Elena smiled. “North it is, then.”
“So we’re going toward the drone? Are you guys crazy?”
Kaela rested her hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Yes, Evan. Didn’t you know?”
Elena chuckled.
Night was settling over the planet, and within an hour, they would be better concealed. Until then, they’d need to move carefully.
Four thousand miles away, Aureth Vallor was bored. As usual, he had been given yet another shit assignment.
Anything to prove his fucking loyalty to the Great and Glorious Fucking Empire.
“What a load of bullshit,” he muttered.
“What’s that, sir?” his secretary asked.
Vallor sighed, signing off on reports without really reading them.
He handed the tablet back to her.
“Nothing, Six. The reports are signed. Please hand me the next tablet.”
“Thank you, sir. Here it is. Can I get you any refreshments while you work?”
Captain Vallor looked at her. Tilted his head to the side for a moment. She was still attractive, even after all this time together.
“No, but you can sit here. By me. Keep me company while I work.” He pulled a chair around to his side of the desk and patted the seat.
She nodded and joined him.
Aureth, of course, assumed he was doing her a favor by allowing her to be close to him.
Her scent, though!
It distracted him…
It distracted him so much, in fact, that he skimmed over the latest intel report from Portal Tech on this planet, accidentally deleting it rather than approving and sending it on.
Bastion 123295 CFP was a shielded and reinforced Combat Force Projection planet, one of the countless militarized rocks the Obsidian Empire had turned into forward bastions of military might.
The report Vallor had skimmed and absentmindedly deleted was an urgent one from Portal Tech, informing command that they had captured 1,092 prisoners from the planet Earth.
The very planet that Vallor himself had located during his endlessly boring exploration mission.
It couldn’t be helped.
It was his father’s fault, anyway.
His father refused to advocate on Aureth’s behalf to help get him a higher post that befitted his true genius.
No, instead the Empire kept assigning him with mindless administrative jobs where he was merely a tiny cog in a massive wheel of the bureaucracy.
Read this.
Approve it.
Pass it along.
That’s it.
That was Vallor’s life now.
He looked over at Six.
She appeared just as bored as he was.
“It’s boring, right?” he asked.
She turned toward him, afraid to agree.
“How about if we head back to my place and have an early dinner with some drinks?” he asked. “You don’t mind cooking, do you? It has been some time since you’ve done so for me.”
Six did the only thing she could.
She bowed and said yes.
Then she sent a mental message to Three.
---
Heading to his place in an hour.
Leave the box under the second shelf in the kitchen.
I’ll surprise him with a “special dinner” tonight.
---
The servants were provided with monitored private comms, but their eyes glowed green while they were being used.
Captain Vallor didn’t even notice as she stood and stretched, her arms over her head, ensuring his eyes were firmly on her chest as she did so.
Three would drop the box off, and Six would use the ingredients in the meal she cooked for him.
It was a plan they had developed in their long years on Bastion 123295 CFP.
Each leaf, bulb and mushroom was innocuous on its own. Even mixed separately into three different dishes, nobody would know anything was amiss.
But when Vallor ate the dishes in a specific order, the effect would be deadly for him. Life in the bureaucracy could be hazardous, after all.
The core twelve women, the only part of Vallor’s harem that had been reassigned with him on his new post, had worked for two decades to accumulate the pieces.
It appeared tonight might finally present them with their long-awaited opportunity to be free.