The trio readied themselves for whatever, or whoever, was on the other side. Avida’s fingers curled around her pistol in a tight grip, her other hand still clutching onto Bambi. Bellicosa traced a familiar rune into her gauntlet before taking a heavy step forward, and with one last deep breath, pushed open the metal door.
However, they weren’t greeted by Church officials arriving for backup as they had expected. Instead, a slew of mysterious figures occupied the room. Each and every individual was donning the same black cloak with a dark purple lining, hoods shadowing their faces. They looked as though they were in the middle of inspecting the lab, searching for something. However, at the sound of the door opening, they quickly swung their attention to the mercenaries in the doorway, aiming various weapons in their direction.
Upon seeing the cloaked figures, Avida lowered her gun with a huff of annoyance, sliding it back into the holster. Bellicosa also relaxed, dropping her fists that had been raised and letting the faint glow of magic fizzle out from the gauntlets. Bambi, still unfamiliar with the situation, stayed planted firmly behind Avida even as the other two dropped their guard.
“Oh, it’s just you guys,” Avida said dryly.
As they made their way further into the room, Bambi still clutched tightly onto Avida’s hand, scrutinizing the other party nervously. It appeared that the mercenaries and the intruders knew each other. The cloaked individuals lowered their weapons almost in unison as a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief swept throughout the room. Any tension from before immediately dissipated.
The mysterious figure closest to them stepped forward before lowering their hood, revealing a tall young man with polished features. He had long dark hair that fell around his shoulders, the longer bits pulled into a small ponytail at the back of his head. The top half of his face was obscured by a simple black masquerade mask. The two mercenaries realized who he was at once, and were slightly surprised to see him.
The man appeared calm and composed and held an air of authority over the other cloaked figures. Following his lead, a few of them lowered their hoods as well, each wearing a different mask that fit into the masquerade theme. The man directed a smirk at Avida and Bellicosa, preparing to open his mouth in greeting before spotting the strange little girl accompanying them.
“Who’s the kid?” he asked curiously.
“Just some girl we found in the lab. Maybe the kid of one of the scientists left behind after they fled. She’s not important, but I didn’t wanna leave her,” Avida lied.
Bellicosa shot her a look out of the corner of her eye but said nothing. She felt that anyone with eyes could easily see through the flimsy lie her partner tossed out. Bambi looked extremely suspicious with her appearance and the weird contraption on her back. There was no way she was ordinary. Not only that, but lying to the very resistance order that had hired them? Maybe not the brightest idea. But if this was how Avida wanted to play it, Bellicosa wouldn't interfere.
“Is that so…?” the man hummed in thought.
“What’s going on here, Atlas? Why would the resistance come here themselves after hirin’ us? What’s so important that even you showed up? Aren’t you worried about your identity being discovered?” Avida questioned the man.
The whole situation was too unusual. Even though the resistance had been especially pushy about this job, who could’ve expected them to show up out of nowhere? And for the leader to make a personal appearance? He hardly went out into the field himself. There had to be more going on than they were told.
“Alright, alright. Calm down with the 20 questions. Phoebe did a sweep, there are no working cameras here, and all the Church officials have been taken care of. My identity is not in danger,” Atlas explained.
Sure enough, Avida glanced around and hardly saw a single camera. The one she did see in the corner of the room looked ancient. That was something she and Bellicosa hadn’t even bothered checking. They wore masks for a reason, after all.
“You still haven’t explained why you’re here. You’ve hired us to do a job and we’re doing it. Why interfere?” Bellicosa finally spoke up.
“Oh, yeah? How’s that going, by the way? You found the weapon?” Atlas shot back with a grin.
Bambi nervously stepped back so that she was hidden behind Avida completely, but Atlas didn’t seem to notice or care about the action. He had his gaze fixed on the two mercenaries. When he wanted to, the resistance leader could be quite intimidating, even while smiling. He seemed relaxed and amicable on the surface, but his tone and the way he carried himself demanded answers.
“It’s not here. Either they moved it, or you got bad intel and it never existed,” Bellicosa said after a beat of silence.
She decided to continue the lie her partner spun earlier. Whether it gets them into trouble or not is something they’ll have to deal with later. The bigger and more immediate fish to fry was the one in front of them. Atlas seemed to think for a moment.
“It’s very strange. This source has been very reliable. The intel we’ve received from them in the past has always been accurate,” he claimed. “No matter, we can’t stay here long. I’m sure backup is on the way. Let’s return to resistance headquarters and discuss this further.”
With that he turned to his soldiers and ordered them to do one brief, final sweep of the lab before leaving. The cloaked figures scattered like ants, turning over this and that to make sure nothing was missed. Atlas faced the trio once more and gestured for them to follow him. With that, they finally exited the church.
—-
Despite taking several jobs for the resistance in the past, Avida and Bellicosa had never actually been to their headquarters. They supposed it was because it was highly classified and probably existed in some remote, hidden lair or something. Part of Avida still thought that that would be the case when they were blindfolded in order to conceal the base’s location.
The last place she expected to see when the bag was lifted off of her head was a huge, opulent mansion in the outskirts of the city. Atlas had said as they entered that it was actually his personal residence. Why the man would operate his secret resistance army out of where he lived, Avida had no clue.
The two mercenaries had no room to doubt the claim, however, when he had servants that bowed to him as he walked through the entrance hall. The room was made of marble floors and high ceilings. A gold chandelier adorned with crystals dangled above a lavish, wide staircase. Various oil paintings in gilded frames hung along the walls. It was everything one would expect from a stereotypically wealthy abode.
As they strolled through, Avida couldn’t help but grumble to herself and curse the man in her head. The price of even one of those dumb paintings was more than several months of mercenary work combined, not even counting the stupidly lavish frames. She rubbed her bruised and sore abdomen in indignation, suddenly feeling very wronged.
Atlas quickly led the group to a door that descended into the dimly lit but still ornately decorated basement. Bellicosa knew the resistance leader had to be somewhat well-off to afford the resources he did, but she was still shocked at the sheer level of wealth on display. How had someone this rich gone undetected by the Church? When she asked him this exact question, he frowned deeply.
“The Church is very aware of who I am, but they are not familiar with who Atlas is,” he answered. “Besides, the wealth is not mine alone. Most of it belongs to my father, therefore the attention is mainly on him.”
“So you’re using your father’s money to run an army right under his nose?” she questioned.
Atlas nodded. He seemed nonchalant about the conversation, as if these were questions he often had to answer. An expert at answering questions without actually saying much, he responded to every inquiry easily. But every response he gave only served to increase the number of questions the mercenaries had.
“Who exactly is your father?” Bellicosa asked in awe.
“That’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. He is a powerful man that the Church would not dare to cross, therefore they would never think to search here,” Atlas explained. “Just know that he is unaware of my activities and it would be problematic if he were to find out.”
“How’d you hide all this from him when you’re operating out of his house!?” Avida was still in disbelief.
“He hardly ever comes here. You could say he doesn’t really even live here at all. He spends most of his time in a separate residence closer to the Grand Cathedral.”
“...The Grand Cathedral?” Avida asked.
The Grand Cathedral they spoke of could be considered the headquarters of the Church of Solomon. Although it was a legitimate cathedral, it was massive in size and also functioned as an office and living complex that the Church was primarily run out of. It was a mixture of buildings of various uses combined into one.
Many Church officials of the higher level conducted business and held frequent meetings there. Anyone from religious scholars to holy soldiers to the noble believers could be found there at any time, coming together to form a miniature city of the elite. Most importantly, the Prophet of the Church of Solomon himself lived there, sometimes delivering divine sermons from the balconies akin to a king delivering a royal decree to the sea of worshippers below.
If Atlas’s father spent most of his time at the Grand Cathedral and possessed this much wealth, he must be a member of the Church. A very, very high ranking member of the Church. So just who was he? Atlas didn’t elaborate.
“What about the servants? Aren’t you afraid they’ll report back to your father?” Bellicosa asked him.
“The servants in this manor were all replaced by members of the resistance long ago. They work for me.”
“What happened to the old ones?” Avida asked.
“Please don’t ask anymore questions,” Atlas requested with an exasperated sigh.
As they talked, the group reached their destination at the far end of the basement. Another set of doors opened to reveal a room with a large wooden conference table surrounded by chairs. It was where Atlas mainly operated out of. The two mercenaries finally let the subject drop.
“Take a seat,” he instructed.
Avida plopped down unceremoniously in a chair on the end while Bellicosa gracefully sat across from her. Atlas sat down at the head of the table and tapped his finger on the dark, polished wood in thought. Meanwhile, Bambi hesitated on where to sit, worriedly looking around back and forth between the two mercenaries before finally sitting down next to Avida, still trying to make herself appear as small as possible.
“Are you finally going to explain why you showed up at the church in person? It’s not like you,” Bellicosa initiated.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Yes, I suppose we’ve worked with each other enough times by now that I can be honest,” Atlas replied, removing his mask and leaning back comfortably in his chair.
“Soon after our phone call, one of my scouts reported that he heard sounds of fighting coming from inside the church. He had waited quite a while after the noises stopped, but neither saw nor heard any further movement. He began to grow anxious that you had been captured or killed, but didn’t want to investigate alone in case it was another trap. After he reported this to me, I decided to send in a unit as backup since I also had not heard from you yet.”
“Isn’t that too much of a risk, even for you? Why bother to hire us in the first place then?” Bellicosa asked.
“Obtaining the weapon without getting our hands dirty would have been ideal, you are correct. But this was probably the most important mission for the resistance to date, so I decided the risk was worth it. Given the gravity of the situation, I wanted to make sure with my own eyes that you didn’t fail.”
“...or run off with it,” Avida added bitterly.
Atlas just laughed. With the mask no longer shadowing the upper half of his face, his gray eyes sparkled with something unreadable. They seemed to pierce into Avida’s soul as he looked at her, analyzing her every movement.
“Very perceptive,” he noted.
“What happened to ‘we’ve worked with each other enough times that I can be honest’? You even sent a scout to spy on us,” Avida grumbled.
“It’s because we’ve worked with each other enough times that I know you would take the weapon back to the highest bidder. If someone else had found out about the weapon and offered you more money, there’s no guarantee you would honor our deal,” Atlas reasoned.
“Do you think that little of us!?” Avida exclaimed angrily.
“Am I mistaken?” he asked.
“Yes,” Avida gritted out between clenched teeth.
“So you didn’t bring us here to have a discussion. It’s an interrogation,” Bellicosa deduced.
“Apologies for deceiving you. It was the easiest way to get you back here without a fuss. Our informant tipped us off that there was a high possibility you might run off with the weapon. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt because of our history. But the fact that you claimed there was no weapon to be found despite the reliability of our source was very suspicious. You also never contacted me even after the fighting stopped,” he explained. “On top of that, you emerge with a supposedly random child despite it serving no clear benefit to you. It’s oddly out of character.”
Avida gulped. She knew the resistance leader could be ruthless when it mattered. Would he kill them if he found out they had lied? What else could she have done? The Church had planned to use the girl as a weapon, so what was to guarantee the resistance wouldn’t try and do the same? War brought out the worst in people, especially once they got desperate.
“Is it so strange of me to wanna do the right thing for once?” she argued defensively.
“For free? Absolutely,” Atlas stated.
“You-”
“Not to mention the child is clearly infected with Pneuma Morta. It’s only a matter of time until she’s possessed, except for the fact that she is hooked up to some strange contraption. Why bother with her at all? Unless you have an ulterior motive? Or you know something I don’t?”
Avida stood up, slamming her hands on the table in anger. Bambi jumped in surprise at the noise, shrinking back further in her chair as Avida opened her mouth to argue. Clearly, Atlas had thought this all out already, but that didn’t mean they would just go down without a fight. Just then, there was a knock on the door of the conference room. All parties froze at the sound.
“Come in,” Atlas called.
A woman entered with fiery, bright red hair pulled back into a high ponytail and dark, scrutinizing eyes. She glared at the duo before turning to Atlas with a passive expression. Avida slowly sat back down, returning the look with a scowl. She knew this woman to be the second-in-command and Atlas’s right hand.
“Sir, we’ve concluded the search of the lab. A few more Church personnel showed up, but they were low level grunts and we took care of them quickly. I’ve come to report the results,” the woman stated.
“Go ahead, Phoebe.”
“For starters, we found no weapon or any sign of weapon manufacturing,” Phoebe began.
Avida breathed a silent sigh of relief. Maybe they would be safe, for now. If they couldn’t prove anything, then there would be nothing to accuse them of. She tried to keep her expression neutral as the woman continued.
“There were also no signs of further hidden rooms or compartments. However, there was evidence of human experimentation in the lab. We also found a clipboard containing some interesting information.”
Forget it, Avida’s heart plummeted right back down into her stomach. How could she forget about the clipboard!? The clipboard that she herself had read, that clearly identified Bambi as the weapon they were looking for!? Avida and Bellicosa made instant eye contact which communicated a simple message: We’re screwed!
Phoebe handed over the clipboard for Atlas to look at and his eyes briefly scanned the top page. Avida swore she could feel her heart beating in her throat. Instinctively, she reached out to put a protective arm in front of Bambi, who looked confused at the sudden rise of tension in the room. A few seconds of heavy silence passed before Atlas’s eyes slowly rose to examine the trio at the other end of the table. The calmness with which he moved and spoke was unnerving.
“It seems my doubts weren't simply paranoia after all,” he said slowly. “You lied to me.”
For the first time, he did not smile. No more mirth lingered in his gaze. It was searing. And most of all, it was accusatory. Avida quickly sprung to her feet, drawing her pistol and pointing it at him in a flash. Act first, think later. Bellicosa stared at her in shock, but Atlas did not even flinch.
“If you kill me, not a single one of you will make it out of this mansion alive.”
He said it so simply, as if it were the irrefutable truth. And it might as well have been. Everyone in the building was resistance personnel. They had walked right into the lion’s den, playing the perfect part of the naive prey. Frustrated, Avida holstered her pistol again and angrily kicked the chair in front of her, sending it flying into the wall where it splintered into pieces.
“Detain and search them. See if there’s anything else they’re hiding,” Atlas ordered Phoebe.
As the woman began to search Bellicosa, Avida started to panic. What was going to happen? Would Bambi be taken away so soon? Was this child going to go from being used as a weapon of the Church to a weapon of the resistance just like that? Or would they just kill her? What was she going to do? She couldn’t let that happen. Not again…
As she was having an internal crisis, she didn’t even realize that Phoebe had already made her way over and was restraining her arms. She felt her breathing began to get faster and faster and-
“Avida!”
Her head instinctively whipped around to look at her partner. They held eye contact as Bellicosa stared at her, hands already tied behind her back. It felt like seconds passed, or maybe minutes. Avida couldn’t tell anymore.
“Take a deep breath,” Bellicosa instructed her calmly.
Avida closed her eyes and did as she said. She slowly felt herself begin to relax as she focused on the push and pull of air in and out of her lungs. It was unusual for her to so easily lose her cool. Was she getting too emotional because of her personal investment? It had been a while since she cared so much. Since she felt so much.
She came back to her senses as Phoebe patted down her outer jacket pocket. Feeling something, the woman reached inside, pulling out a keycard. Avida belatedly realized she must have put the scientist’s lanyard from earlier in there without thinking. Phoebe handed it over for Atlas to look at and the man immediately tensed.
“Where did you get this?” he asked stiffly.
“Huh?”
Avida was confused and still a little panicked. Why would Atlas give a damn about a keycard? She couldn’t understand what was going on, her brain still trying to process the situation and how to get out of it.
“Answer me!” he demanded, striding over and waving the keycard in front of her face aggressively.
“Some scientist gave it to us in the lab! She said she would give us the keycard and tell us about the weapon in exchange for her life, so we let her go,” Bellicosa hurriedly answered for her partner.
“Is this some kind of trick?” he asked angrily.
“What the hell are you talking about!? Of course not!” Bellicosa argued.
Atlas was silent, staring at the card with calculated intensity. It was like he was trying to determine whether it was real or not. Bellicosa and Avida were beyond confused at this point. What kind of trick would they even be pulling? Phoebe seemed to be just as lost as the mercenaries.
“You let her go…” Atlas repeated slowly before his face broke into a huge smile.
Suddenly, he began to laugh wildly. Everyone in the room was taken aback. Atlas’s emotions seemed to be on a rollercoaster. His demeanor brightened back up as he calmed down, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.
“Sir?” Phoebe questioned in concern.
“I understand,” he said to no one in particular.
He looked over the keycard one last time before he turned his attention back to the mercenaries. Seeming to have made up his mind, he motioned to Phoebe.
“Let them go,” he told her.
“Sir???”
“Just do it,” he ordered.
Phoebe hesitated for only a moment longer before moving into action. As she removed the restraints, Atlas continued.
“This has made the situation clear to me now,” he explained, holding up the card.
The mercenaries exchanged extremely puzzled glances. They couldn’t tell who had lost the plot anymore. Atlas was completely unpredictable in both his words and behavior.
“I have a new job for you,” the man suddenly said.
“What the heck are you talkin’ about!? A new job? You seemed like you were about ready to kill us a few seconds ago!” Avida exclaimed.
“Yes, well, I’m sorry for the hostile treatment. I had assumed you’d been bought off by someone else, but I see now that I was wrong,” Atlas calmly stated.
He pointed to the ID photo printed on the keycard.
“You said you met this woman in the lab, correct?”
“Yeah, she’s the one who gave us the card,” Bellicosa answered.
“And pointed us in the direction of Bambi,” Avida added, looking down at the girl still shrunk in her seat.
She previously had her knees pulled up to her chest, but at the mention of her name, sat up straight like a rod.
“I got that,” Atlas said with a sigh. But he did not seem upset in the least. Rather, he had an optimistic look on his face and appeared to be in a much more pleasant mood than he was a few moments ago. “Finding this woman is your new job.”
“Who is she?”
Surprisingly, the question came from Phoebe, who had stayed mostly silent after the resistance leader’s mood switch-up. She was staring at the keycard with a skeptical gaze, as if she was trying to analyze everything about the woman from just the tiny photo. Atlas chuckled.
“She is the key to all of our problems. Including yours, I would assume,” he said, looking at Alvida with a knowing glance.
She huffed and sat back down before she kicked her feet up onto the table, leaning back in her chair. All previous nervousness evaporated at the talk of business.
“If you’re saying it’s a job, that means you’re hirin’ us. And we don’t work for free, ya know?” she reminded the resistance leader.
“I am well aware. If you find this woman and bring her back to me alive, I will pay you triple what I promised you for the last job,” Atlas promised.
“Ah, boss, you know just what I wanna hear,” Avida said with a determined smile.
“Sir, why is this necessary? We have our own people who are capable of finding this woman, including me,” Phoebe interrupted.
She was looking at her boss with a frustrated but pleading expression. He, on the other hand, seemed not to notice. Or not to care. His aloofness was difficult to read.
“Phoebe, you know as well as I do that we currently have a severe lack of manpower. All our best soldiers are swamped with work, including you. We can’t send just anyone for this, and they’re professionals who are more suited for this kind of job,” Atlas explained, rubbing his temple in annoyance.
“Fine,” the redhead relented, before turning back to the direction of the mercenaries, “but what about the kid?”
Avida sat up straight with a frown. She was hoping they had conveniently forgotten about that little detail.
“My partner has decided to look after the girl, so I cannot allow you to harm her,” Bellicosa said with a pointed look.
“Forget about it. Since you already decided on it, I’ll leave her in your hands. Even if she was made to be used as a weapon by the Church, I have no such intentions. I don’t particularly like the idea of having children fight my battles for me, either,” the resistance leader firmly stated.
“Plus, if my father were to come home for any reason, it would be pretty difficult to explain a child, much less one of the Condemned,” he added.
“Watch your words,” Avida warned with a glare.
“Sorry, sorry,” Atlas apologized, holding up his hands in a display of innocence. “I’ve spent far too much time around Church officials recently, I’m afraid I picked up some of their language without meaning to. I promise you I do not look down on the infected, nor do I believe them to be punished sinners.”
“That’s better,” Avida huffed. “Then we’ll take Bambi with us and be on our way.”
“Although I don’t know where we’re even going to begin looking,” Bellicosa complained.
“Relax, we’re professionals! I already have a few ideas,” Avida said to her partner with a wink.
“Great! Then, I will leave you to it,” Atlas stated, standing up to signal that the meeting was over. “Oh, and keep that black burner phone on you. I’ll continue to use it as a means to contact you.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I need to put that thing on silent,” Avida grumbled as she took out the phone to do just that.
—
After they were escorted out of the mansion and dropped back off in the city, Avida decided that Bambi must be hungry, so their first priority should be food. Although Atlas had someone treat their injuries before they left, he didn’t provide anything to eat. They debated on where to go, since dragging around a suspicious-looking kid was likely to draw attention. Thus, Avida insisted that she knew a place, and that’s how the three of them ended up at a restaurant in a shady area known to house criminals, lowlifes, and the Condemned that the authorities tended to turn a blind eye to.
“Why did we bring a child to such a dangerous part of town?” Bellicosa asked as the group slid into a corner booth of the establishment.
The neon sign out front had simply read “MEAT” in bold letters. Other than that the exterior had completely blended in with the rest of the dingy alleyway and dozens of neon lights. The interior had also clearly seen better days. Peeling wallpaper, cracked floor tiles, and deteriorated furniture did not do much to encourage one’s appetite. Additionally, Bellicosa would need to count the number of suspicious individuals she’d seen since they entered on at least two hands.
“This is the easiest part of the city to go undetected by the Church until we come up with a plan. Plus, this restaurant has really good food,” Avida assured.
Her partner sincerely doubted it. However, once the food arrived (three large plates of an unidentified meat that Bellicosa hated to admit, smelled surprisingly good), Bambi started to devour the meal as though her life depended on it.
“See! I told ya she was hungry!” Avida happily pointed out before working on her own plate. With the fresh white bandages littering her arms and legs, she looked part mummy as she shoveled food into her mouth.
Seeing the enthusiasm with which her two companions ate, Bellicosa hesitatingly stabbed a bit of meat with her fork, raising it up to her face, taking a bite and…. Oh. It was actually pretty delicious after all. The three ate in relative silence until the meal was mostly finished. As she was clearing up her plate, Bellicosa turned to her partner seriously.
“You said you had an idea of where to start our search. How?” she asked.
Avida swallowed the food in her mouth nervously before answering. Bambi was still happily munching away at her side, oblivious to the uneasy atmosphere.
“Do you remember that conversation we had about secrets earlier?”
“…Yeah?” Bellicosa nodded, confused. “Why bring that up now?”
“I think it’s time I tell you about mine… because…” Avida took a deep breath, “I think this whole thing has to do with it… with me.”