Jack got another cup of hot chocolate as he considered everything they had learned

so far. He sat back down and looked out the windows of the conference room. Blue

and purple fought for dominance in the sky.

“Could you clear the conference table for a second, Enterprise?,” said Jack. “I need

to think out loud.”

The conference tabletop cleared into something that looked like wood.

“We know that Shemmaria saw a build up of forces at Fort Hern,” said Jack.

A small fort appeared at the center of the table.

“We know that there are two lesser forts on either side of Fort Hern,” said Jack. “We

don’t know if they got the order to rush the border when the people at Hern decided

to charge.”

“We know that adventurers were being hired to attack the three border forts on

Shemmaria’s side of things,” said Jack. “Most of them had the Montrose Makeover

from the looks of things when we got rid of that calvary charge.”

Those three forts went on the map north of Fort Hern.

“We know the Montrose are for profit and power,” said Jack. “They like to make a

buck, usually doing something illegal like the human trafficking.”

“What did they get out of supplying Shemmaria the women for the goblin trees?,”

asked Budd.

“According to the file, money,” said Haslet. “There may have been some secondary

considerations since some of the men in charge of putting the thing together were

murdered by Madam Fox’s city clearing. I have their names in the book she sent me.”

“Where was the destroyed goblin tree experiment lab, Enterprise?,” asked Jack.

A model of the complex appeared north of the three forts.

“General Haslet,” said Jack. “Were any of those names on the other monster taming

stuff?”

“I see what you are saying,” said Haslet. “I don’t know off hand. The book is in my

office in the central keep.”

“Let’s assume it is,” said Jack. “It means that the Montrose has been doing whatever

it can to pit Shemmaria against Grecious for a long time while also funneling money

away from Grecious, and moving women and girls across the continent.”

“This Rustam?,” asked Glunt. “The king’s nephew. Was he a part of this?”

“He had the Makeover, so he had some dealing with the Montrose,” said Jack. “He

was part of the plan to kidnap Princess Caroline to force Rick’s hand. And he and

Brant were together in trying to seize the Royal Family, perhaps to cement his place

next in the succession.”

“So we can say he either wanted to rule the kingdom, or he was involved in some

of this trading across borders,” said Worldy.

“Or he was doing both,” said Jack.

“Exhua was part of the scheme to seize Caroline,” said Case.

“And he was dealt with by Madam Fox,” said Rickard as he stepped into the room.

“He was the first one her birds attacked when she cleaned out the capitol city.”

“The prisoners in the throne room,” said Josie.

“I had just heard the demands from his own face when you arrived,” said Rickard.

“I think your letter is what triggered the attempt.”

“The letter about the Montrose?,” asked Josie.

“Aye,” said Rickard. “I had asked some of the people I trusted to look into things.

When I did that, Caroline’s guards turned her over to them.”

“From the injuries Caroline had, they were going to kill her anyway,” said Josie. “So

I am glad that I cleared out that rat’s nest.”

“If the Montrose were doing the same in Shemmaria City,” said Haslet. “You may

have already killed the major players there.”

“But no one knows it,” said Josie. “Communication is slow as dirt here.”

“Do we have any proof any of this affects Kyle?,” said Mister Warner. “If the cabal

reaches to his country, could they be trying to create a world war?”

“That’s a good question,” said Jack. “What do they get out of it?”

“They can steer the conflict, reestablish borders, loot and pillage,” said Rickard.

“They can form their own government if they can shatter what is already there.”

“And they have an army of adventurers to help them,” said Josie.

“Like Emily’s party,” said Budd.

“How many women adventurers were turned on and sold while being put down

as monster attacks?,” asked Josie.

“I am suddenly glad at what Jack did at that camp,” said Budd.

“Let’s put all of that in the speculation department,” said Jack. “What we need are the

commanding officers on both sides of the borders. If we take them, can we force the

rest of this to grind to a halt?”

“Even if we know who they are, we wouldn’t be able to prove they were doing

anything wrong if they are away from the border,” said Josie.

“The evidence will be there,” said Jack. “Something like this requires tons of paper

to carry. We just need another starting point. Let’s take Kyle for example.”

“What kind of an example?,” asked Kyle.

“We don’t know if your situation is part of this situation, or if it is a separate thing

that has come up since Mister Warner and I dealt with those rogues,” said Jack. “We

need to deal with that and find out what is going on.”

“So Kyle’s quest and the border war could be separate things,” said Josie.

“Or it could be the same thing, but with a different face,” said Jack. “Different

objectives.”

“It would be easier to find his killer,” said Josie. “How much proof would you

need that this person wanted to kill you, Kyle?”

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“It depends on who it is,” said Kyle. “A minion generally rates a small trial, a low

king would need a meeting of all the other low kings, and the evidence would have

to be overwhelming.”

“And it would have to be provable without magic,” said Rickard.

“I have an idea, Jo-jo,” said Jack.

“Go ahead,” said Josie. “We’re at an impasse since Ston doesn’t really know

anything.”

“I think we picked the hardest quest to solve first,” said Jack. “We did okay because

we stopped the initial stage in time, but now we are in a lull since both sides are going

to want to wait to see what happened on the border with the disguised battalion. I

think if you sent out a bird to locate Kyle’s assassin, we can pick him up and see who

else is connected.”

“We can actually see if he is part of this,” said Josie. “If he’s not, his quest is done

and we are back to waiting on Hax to get done with his paperwork search.”

“We are stuck,” said Worldy. “And this border attack will be harder to prove to

a government than someone wanting a king dead.”

“So we head south and see what is going on,” said Josie. “It seems doable.”

“We are going to have to make a detour first,” said Jack. “I need you to locate the

Bloodborn so we can deal with that on the way south.”

“All right,” said Josie. “We clear the easier quests, offload Kyle, and then deal with

this border thing.”

“That was exactly my thinking,” said Jack. He grinned at her. “And if we have to find

the source of the monsters later, we have put off any danger for however long it

takes for them to get another force ready to send over.”

“The distance involved means it would take months for them to sail from the other

side of the world,” said Josie.

“It puts their invasion on hold if we take care of it right now,” said Jack.

“Enterprise,” said Josie. “I am going to send out a bird. We’re going to need to follow

where it goes.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

“Administrator Worldy,” said Jack. “If you wanted to do something like invade

another country, would you need to go through this subterfuge?”

“No,” said Worldy. “I would normally have to wait for an emergency vote of the

council, and have a declaration in hand. To force a war would mean I would have to

essentially defy council orders at this time and send a force over the line to seize

territory.”

“The only way the administrator of the Army is allowed to send forces is if someone

attacked our borders first,” said Glunt. “No one has done that in years.”

“The thing with Pasco,” said Mister Warner.

“I think that is correct,” said Glunt. “How did you know?”

“I was there,” said Mister Warner.

“You don’t look that old,” said Glunt.

“Jack,” said Mister Warner as if that explained everything.

“Let’s get back on track before we start down memory lane,” said Josie. She

transformed and raised her hand. “I’m sending the bird, Enterprise.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

A fire bird leaped from Josie’s hand and headed through the window. The view

shifted as the giant ship turned to chase the spell across the sky.

“Give us navigational plotting on the conference table, Enterprise,” said Jack.

“Affirmative,” said the machine. The table cleared of Jack’s plotting, and showed a

picture of the ocean passing below at incredible speed. A small drawn bird

approximated the scrying spell headed for its target.

A small fleet of ten wooden ships sailed toward the Enterprise. They were drawn in

and marked on the table as the bird flew down and landed on one of the bows. It

exploded back to its mana source.

“Enterprise, scan the crews and compare them to the baseline human onboard,” said

Jack.

“Affirmative,” said the machine. “Done.”

“Conclusion?,” asked Jack.

“Not human,” said the machine.

“Are there a lot of differences?,” asked Jack.

“Subjects are humanoid with modified secondary cells,” said the machine. “These

modified cells are acting as nerves.”

“What does that mean?,” asked Worldy.

“It looks like we have a goblin tree situation,” said Jack. “Except these monsters have

learned how to sail to their next settlement area so they can spread around.”

“If they land, they start doing what the goblin trees would have done?,” asked Case.

He looked out the window. He couldn’t see the fleet from the angle.

“Are they infectious?,” asked Jack.

“Unknown,” said the machine.

“They boil if they fall in the ocean,” said Mister Warner. “It’s one of their

weaknesses. I expect that salt or something else in the water attacks them.”

“Then why are they sailing toward Grecious?,” asked Jack.

“I don’t know,” said Mister Warner. “I always tried to stop them far enough away that

they couldn’t swim to land before they burned up.”

“Enterprise,” said Jack. “Fire torpedoes and see if we can sink these people.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine. Torpedoes lit up the sky as they walked explosions

on the ships below. The wooden sailing boats burned on the surface of the water. The

crews went into the ocean.

The familiar ding told Jack that he had cleared the quest. He frowned. Maybe he

should have taken a better look at things. He could have arranged for a cure for the

virus farms.

On the other hand, if they had landed, they would have been able to infect people and

spread their parasites around. Then he would be dealing with the aftereffects for a

long time.

He didn’t want to leave that kind of work to the Ducklings after he had retired and he

and Elaine were doing their own things.

“Some monsters can’t be brought home,” said Josie. “We have to deal with Kyle.

Once we can put him on the ground without worry if he will be killed, then we can

go back up north and try to figure the rest of this out.”

“I suppose that will be okay,” said Jack. “Once we have everything dealt with, what

do we do next?”

“Markus and Madam Witch can try for a date without shennigans,” said Vin.

“I still have work to do at the hospital,” said Josie. “And so do you too.”

“I think taking you out will be better for Markus than getting beat up by an old lady

with a rolling pin,” said Vin.

“Was it an extremely strong old lady with a rolling pin?,” asked Case.

“I think this is not the time,” said Josie. “And I think I haven’t ripped people’s ears

off nearly so much since I am still getting harassed about this. Who wants to be my

example for the rest of the Hawk Ridge adventurers?”

“Not it,” said Budd. “I am still getting used to navigating Beatrice’s wants. I need

both of my ears for that.”

“Caroline said she would take Case even if he was missing one ear,” said Jack.

“Would you like to be an example, Case?,” said Josie.

“I think I like my ears where they are,” said Case. He placed his hands over them

as if that was going to protect them from the Ear Ripper.

“Enterprise, take us over Kyle’s country,” said Jack. “We want to see who wants

him dead.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

The conference table showed them their position as the Enterprise turned west and

headed back over land. It took up a position over the largest city in the southern

country.

“So somewhere in there, someone wants King Kyle dead?,” asked Worldy.

“The problem is this doesn’t have to be political at all,” said Jack. “This could be as

simple as Kyle touching the wrong maid at the wrong time.”

“I don’t do that,” said Kyle.

“I underestimated you then,” said Jack. “I apologize.”

“So how do we get started on this?,” asked Josie.

“Can you light up everyone who wants Kyle dead?,” asked Rickard. “I doubt there

will be that many.”

“I guess,” said Josie. She looked at the conference table. “I might be able to change

the table into a copy of the model back home.”

She exchanged her form for Zatanna and raised her hand over the table. Magic drifted

into the table. Small dots appeared on the city map.

“That is more than I thought,” said Rickard. “But less than what could be.”

“Three of them are in the central keep,” said Jack. “Are they the ones that want Kyle

dead the most?”

“There’s no way to tell,” said Josie. “I would have to throw out a bird and find the

one with divination.”

“I think we need to know if it’s someone important, or not,” said Jack. “If it’s

someone important, we’re disrupting a scheme. If it’s not, then we are saving Kyle’s

life for some unforseen reason.”

“Probably to keep the region stable,” said Josie. “If Kyle dies, it throws everything

else into a blender.”

“The Society seems big on that,” said Jack. “I guess I will go down and handle this.”

“I got it,” said Mister Warner. “Come on, Kyle. Let’s turn you into a human target

and see who tries to take a shot.”

“Are you sure about this, Mister Warner?,” asked Josie.

“I think as soon as Kyle shows his face, his murderer will expose himself,” said

Mister Warner. “I don’t think this some big thing. I think it is something small that

can be used to grow something big from the action.”

“If Kyle dies, it will be a free for all,” said Worldy.

“I think that’s why we got the quest,” said Mister Warner. “That kind of disruption

could plunge the south into a civil war and make them easy pickings for whomever

wins the war in the north.”

“That means the Montrose runs everything,” said Jack.

“If they can win it,” said Mister Warner. “And that’s why we’re going to deal with

this. We might have to put some kind of guard on Kyle just in case, but otherwise

once we deal with this, we can concentrate on the rest of the continent.”

“I will give him one of my birds,” said Josie.

“That’s fine,” said Mister Warner. “Let’s see what we can do, Kyle.”