Samantha Cromwell sat on one of the tall kitchen chairs, perched on it like an angry vulture, slowly sipping a glass of whiskey. She was not one to drink, and the first sip of alcohol in several months didn’t feel nearly as good as she had hoped it would.

Who was she kidding? She hated whiskey, and she was only drinking it because she had seen her father do it back in the day.

She wondered whether men even liked drinking spirits or if they did it just to get some alcohol in their systems. Perhaps the whole drinking culture simply evolved around the need to drown emotions and reason with chemicals.

She put the glass down. She didn’t need to drown anything.

Albert was late. Very late.

She knew the value she, and he, brought to Transit Global should the company decide to work with them. She knew that a teleporter working for them was an offer that couldn’t be refused, one with so much power on one side that they could basically impose any terms they wanted, and the company would most probably prostrate themselves just to satisfy their requests.

But she didn’t like being late for no reason. Not when she still had to make the first impression.

Albert appeared in the living room, carrying even less stuff than what he had left with. Samantha got up from her chair, strolling towards him with her hands on her hips.

“I can explain.” Albert said.

“I don’t want to hear it.” She said sharply, cutting him off. “Let’s go, we are late.”

***

The agreed location was a warehouse in the industrial district of Temalas City, surrounded by old factories and dismissed lots – vestiges of a more industrial past now abandoned by a city moving towards a tertiary economy. The broken windows and crumbling concrete, along with the grass poking out of the asphalt in many places showed that Transit had chosen a neutral location.

Probably one of the many abandoned buildings in what amounted to basically a ghost neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.

Samantha parked her car in the back lot, under the shade of a large oak tree that somehow managed to survive the many years of industry. Right in front of the main door. She noticed that there were cars already, and an unloaded truck. She strolled confidently towards the entrance, where one of the goons from Transit was waiting for her and opened the door.

She was used to petty corporate displays of power already, only nodding to the man in the suit, and taking stock of the many unseen surveillance men all around. She could count five, but knew that there were prime locations for three more she hadn’t spotted yet.

She could spin this, she realized, making her lateness feel more like a punishment than a mistake on her part.

In the corner of her vision she saw her son briefly look in the same directions she did, but she didn’t have time to wonder nor ask. She had told him already the one rule for meetings like this: no useless talking.

Albert was wearing some sort of enchanted cloak he made that concealed his face, making it appear dark under the hood of his jacket. He looked horrible in such clothes, but she had to admit that as a rogue mage he was looking exactly how she would expect one to look. She was sure Transit Global would agree.

Once she cleared the corridor leading from the administrative part of the warehouse into the main storage space proper, she spotted the two men waiting for her. They were standing close to a small pile of boxes, which she knew were filled with various kind of materials and trackers.

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

The many materials were to test what would happen to them during teleportation, and the trackers were to make sure the teleportation happened like she said it would. All this had been agreed upon beforehand, and was expected.

“You are late.” Said the man on the left, wearing a blue suit and tapping his foot twice on one of the crates before walking up to her.

They shook hands, and she maintained eye contact with him the whole time. She noticed how he struggled to hold up to her gaze, and her confidence grew alongside a small sense of pride and superiority.

“We had to make sure things were as you said. Which they weren’t, by the way. I noticed more security than I was comfortable with. I trust that it will not happen again.”

The man smirked. The other, who was sitting on one of the heavier metal boxes, got up. He was a towering giant, with bulging muscles so large they threatened to rip the light blue shirt he wore. Neither she nor Albert reacted to his presence.

“It won’t.” The man said. “Provided you deliver on your end of the bargain.”

With the negotiation done, and Samantha having saved face for the lateness, she nodded at Albert. He had been waiting for her signal in silence, not moving a muscle. She had to give him credit for that, she thought he would fidget or speak or do something, but he was as still as a statue.

As soon as he saw the signal, he walked up to the stack of boxes and… made them disappear?

She suppressed her natural reaction, instead meeting the surprised faces of the two Transit Global men with a smug grin. She might have not known what was happening, but she sure as hell was going to pretend that she did.

Then Albert went to sit on the ground where the boxes used to be, and closed his eyes.

“What’s he doing, meditating?” The large man said. The slim one said nothing, but looked at Samantha expectantly.

Samantha cocked her head, and no more words were spoken until Albert disappeared. A mere few moments later, the man confirmed on his phone that the trackers were sending a signal from the right location in Singapore, and the cameras showed that the cargo was all there.

“Impressive.” He said, but held up a finger. “However. It will need to be inspected and thoroughly checked. You understand our concerns, right? Last time someone talked about teleportation… there was a lot of radiation involved.”

“Of course.” Samantha said. “You have one day to decide, after which we will move on to your competitors. I trust that you will be smart with it.”

She glanced at the camera feed one last time. Albert was gone, teleported out somewhere in Singapore. In one hour he would return home, as soon as the cooldown on his long range teleport was finished.

***

One hour until showdown, Albert’s mind kept reminding him. One hour until his mother cooked him alive for being late.

“I can explain,” He immediately begun to speak after popping into reality on this side of the world. “Remember when I said I wanted to go sightseeing? Well, I did sightsee… inside a dungeon.”

“What?” Samantha asked, dumbfounded.

That was the cue for Albert to spill the beans.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you disobey direct orders? There is a reason why—”

“Because if I didn’t close the dungeon, an Event would have happened!”

She was, he noticed with a pang of disappointment, not even worried for his safety. She didn’t care that he risked his life in there, instead grilling him on why he disobeyed orders. Like he was just another military man under her command.

“It was all part of the plan!” Samantha roared. “I knew an Event was forming! We have satellites for that.”

“Then why did you send me there?”

“For nothing, now.” She said, going to fetch her old glass of whiskey. The ice had melted. “The plan’s thwarted.”

She threw the liquid in the sink and rinsed the steel with water. “You were unprofessional and disobeyed orders.” She said. “We can’t work like this, you understand?”

Albert felt heat rise within. “What are you talking about?” He was starting to yell now, pacing back and forth with his mind so riled up even [Mental Fortress] was activating. “Unprofessional? Orders? What the fuck is this, the military? You kept information from me!”

“And you from me, Albert.”

“I am not a soldier. I am not one of your brainwashed puppets. I am your son, a human being, and I demand to be treated like that by my mother.”

“Albert—”

“No.” He said, shaking his head. “That’s enough. I need to clear my head. I’ll be back for the actual uranium delivery. I won’t be late, don’t worry.”

And with that, he was gone. He first teleported to his room and grabbed the Quadrangle Core, then somewhere safe and quiet. Eventually, after the two minutes required for the long-range teleportation, he was off to Elvenhome, his personal safe space.

Fuck it. I’ll set up the Quadrangle Core on the other side of the valley, put five hours of trek through forest and hills terrain between the base and the village. I won’t give up Elvenhome as my safe retreat.