Chapter 26

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The weapon clattered softly in his hand, discharging a broad fan of needles into Taer's side, and at the same time, Alex pushed backward, falling with his back on the floor to maximize the distance between them. But, contrary to the justified fears, all these acrobatics were useless - Taer didn't even move. There wasn't a muscle in her face, despite several needles in her forearm and chest, which were now squeezing their white tails into her bloodstream with a barely audible hiss.

"You know." She sighed bitterly. "It was completely predictable."

Did she foresee and use some blocking antidote? Was her body so altered that her biochemistry was completely inappropriate? It doesn't matter anymore.

It didn't work. Alex realized with horror. The paralytic agent didn't work.

The whole plan was already going to hell, and now backup B had completely failed:

What do we do now? It would be pointless to fight her. He froze on the floor, still pointing the now useless needle at Taer. He could still shoot, but there was no point.

She carelessly pulled one of the needles stuck into her and examined it with a kind of squeamish interest.

"Disappointing," Taer admitted, setting the needle aside on the table and shifting her gaze back to Alex.

One couldn't help but notice that she didn't look angry or furious, but rather upset:

"I had hoped that with your return, I would have the opportunity to surprise again. Please allow me that hope."

He didn't know what to say to that, and in the few moments while Alex pondered what to say, Taer suddenly stiffened, her mouth hanging open, and she slumped to the floor.

It worked after all! He wanted to scream with joy after the panic he'd experienced, but he restrained himself and continued with Plan B.

He quickly looked at Taer, pulling out the remaining needles and hiding her face behind the golden mask. He put his veil back on. It was worth keeping incognito as much as possible.

Those landmines of hers rather helped. Alex hoisted Taer onto his shoulder, intending to follow to the exit. There'll be fewer questions.

Under the current conditions, with holograms of emergency evacuation lines pulsing around and repeated calls to leave the building immediately, it was much easier to explain where he was dragging an emotionless girl than, for example, to pretend that she'd had too much to drink, as originally planned in plan B:

All we have to do is get to the square, and from there, we'll take an aerocar...

Shit, an aerocar! Suddenly, he realized with horror. They're going to rush in here!

There would be no way to move quickly with an emotionless Taer, despite all his newfound strength, so after a few moments of hesitation, he threw her back onto the cushions around the table and rushed out to get the comm.

The guys from his cover group, seeing the explosions that were not supposed to happen according to the plan, would, of course, rush to save him. That was the problem:

She foresaw all this. Worse. She organized it. Alex ran as fast as he could, hoping for the slowness of the civilian aircars. He had to be on time, otherwise, they would land right on the minefield.

He ran in the opposite direction to the evacuation lines. He needed not an exit but the nearest room where the comms would work, and thanks to the whole day spent in vigil over the map of the temple. He knew where it was - at the opposite end of the hall, near the staff restrooms.

Even though he was moving in the opposite direction to the recommended evacuation, there were too few restaurant guests to create difficulties, and most of them were still in their seats, looking at each other confusedly, not understanding what was going on.

As he ran toward the corridor exit, where there should have been communication, he saw the red inscription on the lock panel: "Locked" - the door was locked. He didn't know the code, so without slowing down, he slammed his shoulder against the door.

The door creaked pitifully, even bent a little in the doorframe, and Alex, not caring that the noise might draw attention to him, repeated his attack.

The door could not withstand the second blow - obviously not designed for such an attitude, it flew off its hinges, and Alex inertially flew after it, almost hitting the figure in a dark robe who was on the other side of the door:

"Honored one, the exit is in the other..." A distorted voice came from under the monk's mask, but Alex was already shouting into his comm:

"Cancel the landing! That's an order! Do not approach the temple!" He shouted, not even knowing if they could hear him. "Abort landing! I forbid you to land near the temple! The landing pads are booby-trapped. Abort landing!"

"Copy that." Dudo's businesslike dry phrase echoed back from the comm speaker, bringing incredible relief.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Okay."

"Don't come near me without my command. When you can, I'll let you know." Alex quickly instructed, and without waiting for an answer, he moved on to his next problem, the witness.

"Esteemed..." Despite all the distortion in his voice, it was noticeable how the monk's tone changed, betraying tension and fear. "Everyone needs to leave the temple..." He added, starting to pivot towards the exit.

When the monk heard about the mines and explosions, he obviously thought that he was not just a random visitor.

Alex nodded silently back at him and made an inviting gesture with his hand, clearing the passage.

You could explain yourself, of course. Alex thought, watching the monk's hasty retreat. He could hardly restrain himself from picking up the hem of his cloak and running away. I didn't do anything wrong, in principle, but I was yelling about mines... They can report to the Police or, worse, the Security Service...

And explaining himself to any officials was absolutely not in his plans. Taer's paralyzing could well be interpreted as one nobleman attacking another and costing him a great deal of trouble, so as soon as the monk tired of pacing and turned his back, the clatter of the needle was heard again.

This time the shot did not have to be made in a fall, and the needles were much more concentrated. The white tails of the four needles, one after another, stood out against the dark cloak. The monk cried out a little and managed to make two quick steps, running out into the main hall, but almost immediately fell to the floor, unconscious.

Jumping out into the hall after the monk, Alex quickly looked around to make sure the shooting at the local staff was without witnesses, and soon pulled out the needles and ran to the table where Taer remained.

It would be funny if she wasn't here. There was a risk, for example, that she might be discovered and evacuated by the local staff. Fortunately, the staff was not visible, and there were not many visitors in the hall. While Alex was running, he saw five, maybe six. There could have been more. The columns were specially made to block the view, but certainly not many.

God, you're heavy. He knew from experience that Taer's slender physique was unbearable, but he was still unprepared for how uncomfortable it was. How is this even possible? She must be over a hundred pounds.

The situation was made worse by the fact Alex was trying to carry Taer, holding her with one arm just above her waist so it looked like he was supporting her and just helping her rather than dragging an emotionless body. The new muscles that cost him regular cramps made it possible, albeit with great difficulty, but how convincing the performance looked was anyone's guess.

Probably not good.

Except for the aching muscles in his right arm, he managed to leave the restaurant without any problems. No one tried to interfere, no one asked questions, and certainly no one tried to stop him. On the contrary, they even offered to help. When Alex finally carried Taer to the elevators, where at least a couple of dozen visitors and five monks had already gathered, he was approached by a heavy man, quite richly dressed and also wearing a mask. Clearly, a visitor asked sympathetically if he needed help.

"No, thank you." Alex automatically forced out a polite smile, forgetting that his face was now covered with a veil. "She just got sick when all this commotion started."

"No wonder it's so horrible." His casual interlocutor nodded in agreement, obviously trying to pick up the conversation, but Alex strategically moved away, interrupting the incipient conversation.

I don't want small talk. He already had a feeling he wasn't attracting attention only because of the light show with holograms all around and the mask on Taer's face that helped hide the fact that she was unconscious.

The elevator that arrived was spacious enough to take all those gathered on the "zero level" to the huge representative hall at the base of one of the "legs" of the temple pyramid.

The huge hall connected with the exit to the street, which had recently been majestically deserted, was now absolutely packed with people in a hurry to leave the building.

It's a rare case when the local architectural gigantomania played in favor. Alex thought, clutching Taer tighter to him, not because it was hard for him to carry her. On the contrary, the crowd pushing them from all sides made his task much easier.

He was just afraid that his burden might be swept away by the sea of people slowly rippling around him. Mostly a sea of humans. There were other races, too, but they were much rarer.

If the room had been smaller, there would have been a crush of thousands of dead. The crowd was already dangerously crowded, tens of thousands of people, illuminated by the rhythmic flashes of the evacuation lines, slowly moving forward in a viscous, unified mass, swaying and rippling as the back rows piled on top of the front rows that slowed at the three huge exits to the street.

The pandemonium cost him at least ten minutes before he managed to get to the street, where they were greeted by thick columns of smoke, impenetrably black in the sunset sunlight, stretching skyward to the howling of sirens.

The crowd was thinner, thickening only near the site of the explosions, forming a wall of curious people.

What was there at the site of the explosions was not visible. Only the rumble of fire could be heard, and scarlet reflections illuminated the gathered hedge of people, but even so, the scale of the destruction seemed very great.

I don't think it was without casualties. A nasty thought prickled, but there was no need to find out the extent of the collateral damage, much less worry about it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Alex picked up his pace, making his route so that he could get away from the arriving emergency vehicles. The cops, in blue uniforms, looked chubby because of their anti-blaster vests and some other guys in bright orange jumpsuits were trying to filter the crowd, but there were too few of them, and too many people were pouring out of the temple in waves.

The main building of the temple overhung the sea and was connected to the mainland by three bridges. Very long bridges. Alex gave up on any attempts at disguise and carried Taer in his arms.

The bridge led out to a wide square littered with a lot of small stores and stores, where there were quite a lot of idle people and other tourists, who were now staring with interest at the rising clouds of smoke from the temple, and Alex with Taer in his arms attracted quite a lot of attention.

He can arise all sorts of stupid questions and other unnecessary attention. Alex decided and only coming off the bridge immediately turned into a narrow passage between two trading stalls, and there, having found a secluded place among the piles of empty containers, he carefully unloaded his burden and took out a comm.

"Did you see me?" He asked without much hope. The crowd was large and which of the three bridges he would use the guys didn't know, and he didn't say.

"No, your lordship," Dudo answered instantly. The droids probably can't select your face because of the veil.

"I went out on the rightmost bridge if you look from the shore. Now, among the tents and..." He was silent for a moment, scrolling his way in his mind's eye, looking for possible landmarks. "There's a round three-story building not far away, probably a diner of some sort."

"We can see the building."

"Where can you pick me up? Just so I don't get any unwanted attention. I'll need a regular parking lot with an approved landing."

"650 comers away, there's a parking lot." The comm spoke after about a minute of uncomfortable silence. "If you go from the bridge, you'll go to the left of that round building."

"Got it." Alex nodded and was about to put the com away when he realized at the last moment:

"Just don't land until I get there." He added quickly, suddenly realizing that Taer was a seer and could have planted a bomb there, too.

At least there's hope she's not planning to blow herself up. That thought didn't give me much confidence, though. Can a seer foresee an explosion that would hurt everyone but him? I guess he could. It wasn't the most reassuring realization:

There's no point in being paranoid, either. Alex tried to convince himself, carrying Taer through the maze of tents to the indicated landmark. After all, what's to stop her from booby-trapping the tower where we're housed? If the Inquisitor is to be believed, strong seers can naturally pass through the walls. There's certainly no defense against such a thing.

The meeting place was found without much trouble, and as soon as he stepped out into the parking lot with Taer in his arms, their aircar pulled up almost immediately, engines purring loudly like a huge orange cat.

"Go." Instead of a greeting, Alex commanded as soon as the side door slammed shut behind him. "The sooner we're in the tower, the"

It was a lot of time wasted, at least half an hour, and the paralyzing compound guaranteed no more than forty minutes of blackout. It was scary to imagine what would happen if Taer woke up now, and the medic who had taken care of her should have ruled that out, but it was still worth hurrying.

As soon as the aerocar finished accelerating, Dudo squeezed into the passenger compartment:

"How did it go, your lordship?" He asked in a low voice, watching the medical staff's manipulations.

"Better than I expected," Alex admitted with a weak smile. "I had to go straight to the backup plan, but as you can see, it worked."

"What's the story with the explosions?" Dudo asked even more quietly, trying to keep a nonchalant look, but it was noticeable that he was actually nervous.

"Greetings for uninvited guests or something." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

"As we were turning around, I saw a plasma torch hit where we were planning to land. It melted waist-deep. There wouldn't have been any snot left of the aircar." Dudo was silent for a moment and then added: "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Alex grinned.

"I take it the needler was enough?" Dudo hastened to change the subject, "So that bribing of the monks was for nothing?"

"Sort of..." He stretched out. The amount spent on bribing the staff of this temple kitchen was crazy. It was enough to buy several yachts.

But without it, the plan to sneak gas into the food wouldn't have worked. Alex sighed mentally, wondering if it would have worked at all.

He was to order a dish in which microscopic bubbles of organic film were to be mixed into the soufflé. After heating for about five minutes, the bubbles would burst, releasing a soporific gas and knocking Taer out, while he would remain conscious thanks to the neutralizer he had taken beforehand.

At least that was the plan. But something inside told him that too many things could go wrong with that plan. For example, the monks could take the money and do nothing.

"But it's still no pity." He added aloud. "It's the result that counts."

Upon arrival at the tower, Taer was instantly transported to a lab set up just for this occasion. It was necessary to conduct a full brain scan and even take samples of neural tissue, even with local technology not the easiest and fastest procedure, but critical. Everyone Alex consulted about "induced reactions" said that these very "induced" cells were marked in a special way when they were planted, especially in case the deployment failed and they had to turn back.

We're really out of time. The safe time frame for rolling back "guider" was dozens of days at most, not years. But it's a necessary first step anyway. At least to assess the scale of the problem.

All the more so because there was hope for all sorts of experimental techniques that were not widely used due to their exorbitant price but which could help Taer.

The nasty beep of a call on his tablet snapped him out of his musings:

"What happened?" Alex asked the droid secretary who appeared on the screen. There was no doubt that something was wrong. He'd said he'd be busy and asked not to be disturbed. Not that he was really busy. He was just pacing back and forth in front of the lab doors, but his nervousness didn't allow him to think about anything else.

"Your Lordship..."

"To business." Alex habitually interrupted the colorful greetings. It is a peculiarity of the model. It cannot be reprogrammed.

"A certain Pavon Lirzu, who he claims to be the legal representative and attorney for Daim Diltar, is insistent on speaking to you. I have informed the honorable Dudo, and he has agreed that this requires your lordship's attention."

"Switch to him," Alex ordered reluctantly, sensing impending trouble. This call was not going to be good.

The screen of the tablet went dark for a moment, and instead of the droid, there appeared a man in his fifties, wearing the local equivalent of a dark purple franken coat with gold embroidery. Judging by the background, he was somewhere on the street:

"It is a great honor to welcome Your Lordship." His new interlocutor began.

Honorable Pavon was heavyset, sharp-nosed, round-cheeked, and smoothly coiffed, and his rather squinting gray eyes were favorably shaded by dark bags.

"Let's get down to business." Alex sighed tiredly. "Now's not a good time. I'm pretty busy."

"Of course, of course." Pavon nodded. "I am not worthy to take up the Lordship's time." Saying that the honorable Pavon smiled obsequiously, but the impression he got was a bit vile. As far as Alex knew about people, now he could say with a hundred percent certainty that in front of him, there was a real, patented filth with nowhere to put a sample.

You really know how to pick your attorneys, don't you? he mentally complained to Taer, waiting for Pavon to finish his manipulations. He must have been switching something on his tablet, at least that's what he could tell from his hand movements.

"In this case, I am acting on behalf of, and as a trustee for, Daim Taer Diltar." Finishing his manipulations at last, the honorable Pavon continued. "Is this personage familiar to Your Lordship, or is an introduction necessary?" He asked, folding his palms in a huddle.

"Yes." Nodded Alex. "This is the first blade of my domain, and the other Taer Diltar are not familiar to me."

"Very good. Very good," Pavon continued, smiling, showing a straight row of unnaturally white teeth. "The fact is, Your Lordship, that our firm, Amak, Lirzu & Associates, has been hired by the aforementioned Daim Diltar to represent her legitimate interests all the way up to the Court of Equals. If Your Lordship is interested, I can show you a copy of the power of attorney."

"I can only congratulate you, but what does that have to do with me?"

"The fact is, Your Lordship." Pavon smiled even wider. "That we have direct written instructions from our client to file a 'court of equals' and a complaint to His Imperial Majesty that our client is being kidnapped and forcibly held by Your Lordship. This will be done if our client does not come forward within half an hour. I am now at the foot of your tower." The last phrases of the "legal representative" oozed with undisguised gloating.

"These are pretty serious allegations..." Alex stretched out thoughtfully, looking expressively at his interlocutor. "If they turn out to be false, it will cause serious damage to your office's business reputation and must be a problem for your personal career...."

"I dare not suspect you of anything, Prince." The esteemed Pavon clearly understood the disguised threat but was completely untouched by it. "I dare not even claim that Daim Diltar is indeed in your possession. I am merely carrying out my employer's instructions. They're very clear: notify Your Lordship, then, if Daim Diltar doesn't come out to me in the next half hour, take the appropriate legal action."

"I hear you." Alex nodded calmly, inwardly boiling with anger: he wanted to crush the smirking face of the lawyer together with the tablet. "Daim Taer is indeed in my place, and of course, no one is keeping her here by force. I'll ask her what prompted her to take this step. Good day."

"Damn it!!!" He shouted, kicking the wall with all his might as soon as the connection went down. He wanted to throw the tablet at the wall, but there was too much value there, including Taer's interrogation tape, so he held back. "Did she even think of everything?! Anything at all?"

It was terribly frustrating, a sense of some fundamental injustice:

"How do you even deal with someone who knows everything in advance? Is it even theoretically possible?"

But the universe and the walls remained indifferent to his wailing. Alex took a couple of deep breaths to calm down:

It's not the end of the world after all. Developing a therapy for Taer will still take time.

Of course, he would have preferred it if she had been supervised and preferably asleep, which would have saved him from having to come up with some elaborate alibi: she was just "sick."

But we have to work with what we have. he sighed once more and called a senior from the medical service:

"How much longer will it take to scan Daim Diltar?"

"About half an hour, Your Lordship."

"We have to get it done in twenty minutes. Is that possible?"

"If it's absolutely necessary..." Stretched out the medic. "I suppose so." He answered without any certainty.

"It's absolutely necessary," Alex assured him. "Do whatever it takes to make it possible. As soon as the scanning is finished, all personnel except droids must leave the lab and go up to the floor where the guards are stationed. Do you understand?"

"Ah... Yes, Your Lordship. Will do."

He then contacted Dudo and ordered that no one be left between the lab and the exit, just in case. There was a risk that Not Taer would want to take it out on someone when she woke up.

And then all we had to do was wait.

"Everything is ready, Your Lordship." The droid's rattling voice came from the metal hulk hovering over Taer's capsule, its long arms hanging downward, making it look like a giant techno-spider was hovering over her.

"Bring her out of her sleep," Alex commanded, stepping back half a step for some reason.

Taer's transparent cocoon opened, and the monitor beside the bed began to beep more rhythmically: she was waking up. Her eyes fluttered open, but she remained perfectly still.

Alex scrutinized her eyes, trying to see who was waking up. He had a faint hope that the "normal" Taer would wake up, but no luck.

"What did the study show, Doctor?" Taer asked him sweetly, stretching as if from a long sleep, and it was obvious from her movements alone that this was a "guider."

"Why do I find her so... Pretty? Alex asked himself once again, watching Taer's transformation. She was just lying there with her eyes open, and suddenly, it was as if some source of charm lit up. The person was the same, but you couldn't take your eyes off.

"No results yet." Aloud, he answered, seeing no point in lying. "At first glance, no major problems have been identified."

"Great." She smiled, sat down on her seat, and looked around. There was no one else in the lab except Alex and the droid:

"What I'm not even entitled to a glass of orange juice in honor of my return to reality?" She pouted defiantly as she finished looking around.

It's strange, but I really thought about getting her something, and the first idea I had was orange juice. Alex thought anxiously. It bothered him that sometimes Not-Taer obviously knew more about him than he did.

"There's a certain difficulty with oranges around here," Alex muttered, averting his gaze. Taer was just starting to change, pulling off her hospital tunic. It wasn't that he didn't want to embarrass her. She clearly wasn't shy. Rather, he feared the effect of her grace. "But I've thought about it."

"That's nice..." She nodded and changed the subject. "My purse you left behind, of course?" The question was clearly rhetorical.

"Sorry, didn't have enough hands."

"Whatever."

She finished dressing, once again assuming the majestic look of a "golden goddess" as she had back then at the restaurant:

"Are you walking me out?" She asked, twirling her mask in her hands.

"Of course."

The two of them remained silent for the rest of the way out of the tower, Taer looking so satisfied that one would have thought she hadn't been stunned and scanned, but quite the opposite.

They were met outside by Taer's commissioner, accompanied by a very official-looking Mirlisti and a droid.

"The papers I asked you to take and the marker." Taer held out her hand demandingly instead of greeting me.

"Here, allow me." Pavon smiled obligingly, quickly extracting a white sheet of plastic from a folder.

"You got what you wanted. Now it's my turn." Taer smiled, holding out the received sheet and pen to Alex. "Sign it."

It was the one ordering Taer's indefinite leave of absence.

"This isn't what I wanted." Alex sighed as he signed the order. "I wish this order wasn't needed at all." He added, handing the paper back.

"No." With a sad smile, she shook her head. It seemed like she wanted to say something else but changed her mind:

"See you later." Her lips lightly touched his cheek, and she headed for the waiting car.

"I assume the restaurant was recording?" He asked at her back.

"Аh?" Taer turned around, looking at him with slight surprise, and shrugged confusedly. "Of course, isn't it obvious?"

"Just clarifying." Alex smiled at her, trying to look as relaxed as possible, though inside, he was quietly seething with rage. "See you later."

"Good day, Your Lordship." Mr. Pavon bowed respectfully. "Our acquaintance is a great honor to me."

Alex only nodded silently in response.

The doors slammed quietly, and the aerocar soared off the platform, instantly disappearing into the evening traffic:

The main thing is that it should be worth it. Alex thought idly, watching the aerocar rapidly moving away, shrinking to a small red light in the stream of a thousand of them. But she looked so happy...

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