Episode 7 - The Horned Hare

  Chapter 62 - Operation: Gilded Pearls

  Ashe raises his hand to give me a wave as I step into position next to him, shuffling the rifle across his chest into a more comfortable position. He is a lanky man in his mid-thirties, with prominent high cheekbones and dark hair he shaves close to his skull, split with the spidering fingers of a nasty white scar beginning at one ear and curling around his head. Blake stands on the other side of the doorway, nearly 20ft away, in a perfect planted stance of attention as he watches the passing crowd.

  I am dressed in Aquila black and body armor, just like they are, gold logo prominent on my shoulder. We are not covert today, flaunting our presence and watchful eyes outside the A-Wing apartments. Blake and Ashe are heavily armed, rifles across their chests at attention, front pockets of their armor packed with supplies. I am not. Even if I were allowed a weapon now, I don’t need one. My weapon flies above our heads. Instead, a spinning radar screen for sensing symbionts is clipped to the front of my armor at an angle I can glance down at as I need to. The wires and cables are threaded through the modular attachment points to the power supply on my back.

  A-Wing is not for any ordinary Apex employees. A-Wing is for a class of elite that not even Murasaki had. The roof of the lobby behind us comes to a pointed arch some maybe 50 or 60ft above my head, decorated with hanging glass that refracts the sunlight coming down the central channel of the building. Elegant mathematical arcs craft the outline of the walls and stairs to higher levels; a private security force hovers in the lobby watching us with distrustful glares. The floor is an obscene display of wealth, tiles of polished natural slate.

  Aster isn’t far behind me, with a gold badge hanging from the front of his armor today. “Squall is here for a shift change with you, Ashe.” Ashe nods at his command, relaxing from his position by the door. “Blake, I’m here to relieve you for a bio-break. You've got fifteen minutes.” Blake gives a crisp salute and turns to follow Ashe to our base of operations in a building several streets away.

  Aster watches me get into position where Ashe used to stand. I strike a far more casual stance, leaning against the wall, and adjust my screen to watch it better out of the corner of my eye.

  “You’re on duty, you know. Stand a little taller, please,” he comments.

  “I do what I want,” I reply, but the words don’t have the venom I wish I could put into them.

  “Mmm-hmm.” Aster withdraws his vape from a front pocket, leaning on the wall next to me to take a draw. He turns his head as he breathes out, blowing the cloud of white away from me and anyone passing by.

  “And you call me out for being unprofessional…” I mutter under my breath.

  Aster gently chuckles, one finger tipped with a manicured nail curling coyly on his chest as he points to himself. “I’m a director. I do get to do what I want.”

  The comment irks me more than I think the fun he meant in it, and this time the venom rises. “Gonna give me a speech again about the grace I should give you now?”

  He raises an eyebrow thoughtfully, turning one eye on me. “Feeling bitter, eh?”

  I snort at the understatement. “Wouldn’t you?”

  He hums, pursing his lips and looking away from me to scan the buildings and rooftops around us. “Probably.”

  “You too tired now as well?” I snipe.

  “You’re cute,” he comments shortly. “Is it just your new leash that's got you bitter or something else?”

  I turn to him, almost letting my jaw hang as I absorb the absolute gall with which he’s teasing me today. “What does that mean?”

  “Wolf-Prince on your mind, maybe?”

  What a stupid thing to bring up. He’s not even here. Bloody Rhett got assigned to duties inside the building. He’s already a familiar face with Apex’s elites, apparently, and that ‘it made strategic sense’ for him to be where they can see us ‘to minimize the impact of our presence on them’ in the commons where they socialize. Never mind I heard slip that this woman Regina was trying to set him up with is staying here with her aunt at the moment. I don’t even think he’s working. I can just imagine them like they were at the President’s club, suits and smoke and drinks behind closed doors high above the city below them.

  “It’s none of your fucking business.”

  Aster scratches his nose, refusing to let me escape. “I hear this new girl is pretty. Not all of them are. Good connections too. Regina has found an absolute catch.”

  “Good for her.”

  “Might need to marry him off sooner than later. Given you might actually kill her next time.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  I turn to look at Aster again, almost curling my lip in disdain at how ballsy he is feeling today. Aster gives me a wink in return and turns away again to blow out another breath. Suddenly, a pang of anxiety grips my gut, and I realize this conversation is deeper than Aster’s affect might make it seem. I pause, considering my next words carefully.

  “If… you were leading Aquila, what would you do?” I ask quietly.

  Aster turns back towards me, his face mild as he looks down his nose at me, and he tips his head to one side as if he were feeling thoughtful. “The business has grown. We have too many employees who need us now. The machine must continue to turn. When the Queen can no longer provide, it needs a King who can. And who does what is necessary to provide.”

  The way my stomach drops at those words shocks me.

  “And,” he suddenly continues, raising his voice slightly as if to cut off any rebuttal I might have. “Aquila needs firepower. With the right kind, we could dominate the market in our niche and never need to feel hungry again. If it were me, I would also do whatever I can to ensure that the firepower is happy, and not likely to be wooed by competing offers… especially when they risk becoming… spicy, when mistreated.”

  I turn from him, gazing out across the street at faces that pass but not really looking at any of them.

  “You know, concubines aren’t unheard of?”

  “What the actual fuck?” I retort before I can even process the words.

  Aster cackles with unbridled amusement, but his eyes are serious. Blake is already weaving his way back through the crowds towards us to return to his station, and Aster pushes forward from the wall, tucking his vape into a pocket on the chest of his armor.

  “Think about it.” He turns, patting Blake's shoulder as he passes us to resume his watch on the other side of the door. Over the hum of the Vespa’s wings in my ears, Aster speaks silently. “I’ll be on the roof across the street at about the two o’clock position. Blake, your lock in command will come when the sun sets. Will Squall be joining us?”

  Adrian replies. “Conrada will not.”

  “Very well. Be ready.”

  Aster returns to our headquarters, presumably to set up for his own vigil.

  “Alright, team. Let’s get going, I’m about to lock you all in.”

  The sun has barely set when the familiar lock in operational control callout begins in my ear. When the Vespa on Blake’s neck plunges its barbed abdomen into the side of his neck, he manages to admirably hide his grimace of pain with little more than a stiffening of his shoulders. As usual, I am exempt. Espah hums her wings in my ear with what almost feels like anticipation.

  “We are commencing the active phase of Operation Gilded Pearls. Vespa congregation is now separating for unit operations. I have tactical command. Aster, you have field command. Confirm?”

  “Aster, I am already locked in. I have field command.”

  “Confirmed. Team sound off and confirm lock in?”

  “Ashe, confirming lock in.”

  “Blake, confirming lock in.”

  “Everett, confirming lock in.”

  “Nessa, confirming lock in.”

  “Conrada, confirm audio?”

  “Confirming I can hear.”

  “Confirm. Nessa, status update?”

  “I’ve been trailing the red-haired operative. He met our opponents today at an apartment we believe is a Covertus safehouse after watching it for the past day. We’ve only identified the positions of three members of the suspected team of four. One member is currently unaccounted for. The team at the apartment just began to move out.”

  “For clarity, we are naming the team as follows: ‘Red’ is the red-headed male, early thirties. Previous operations suspect he hosts a cryptid. Do not engage, he is for Conrada only. ‘Blue’ is the bald, dark-skinned male. ‘Green’ is an adolescent male, likely just manifested. ‘Yellow’ is currently missing, but we know she’s female, with darker skin, shaved head,” adds Adrian.

  I’ve seen all four of them in the security footage I was studying from my call. Yellow was the biggest risk in my opinion. Her symbiont is a Caracal. Very similar powers to Nessa’s Felis but significantly more combat potential, if any of their agents is going to lead a break and enter, it’ll be Yellow.

  “Blue and Green are on their way by foot now. Red to my knowledge is still in the safehouse,” adds Nessa.

  “Aster, your command.”

  “Copy. Nessa, stay with Blue and Green. Blake, stay on the front entrance. Ashe, you are on the back. Squall, now operation is active, I want you to move within the building to the security desk. Keep all your eyes active, please - let us know if anything is on the sensors as well. We need you both ready to move no matter the direction they come from. I will monitor the streets from my overwatch position. Remember, our objective is to prevent them from completing whatever they are here for, but to do so without causing a disturbance. You are authorized to use whatever force necessary, but keep it quiet and discreet. Rhett, how is the mood indoors?”

  “Fine. They’re still on dinner in here.”

  “Keep them that way. Alright, you all know what you are doing. Get to work, people.”

  Caracal caracal. Very creative biologists! I'm so proud of you.

  Felis caracal and was later split off from Felis after it's description and placed within it's own genus where it was the only member for quite a long time. Modern evidence groups African Golden Cats within the genus Caracal now... so that probably seems a little odd for them (they used to be Profelis in fact this change occurred just last year, it took my a hot minute to track down a primary source for this as the internet still has them as Profelis in quite a few places).