"Vern, we have a problem."

Vernon was trying to stare out of the corner of his eye at the leftmost standing stone in front of the city. It helped a little to not be facing the city. Some little part of his brain was always telling him 'Look away...nothing to see here...wait, is that a squirrel!...look at the squirrel. SQUIRREL!'

"We always have problems, Billy. If ACME didn't have problems, you and I wouldn't have a job. And wouldn't that be a shame?"

Billy wished his only problem was getting past the damned...whatever...that kept them out of that city.

"Then we have great job security, Vern. Because unless I'm very much mistaken, I think Famco. is going to make a play for this area. "

"Shhhhsss!" Vern held up a hand. "I want to watch this."

Nearby, Liam and Jon were adjusting the aim of a large ballista. When Jorges was satisfied with the aim, the three of them backed off twenty feet and began a heated round of rock/paper/scissors. Jon eventually lost. The other two backed off a few yards and hid behind trees. Jon crawled up, took hold of a long cord, and carefully pulled the trigger.

With a loud mechanical 'twang' the ballista launched a four-foot-long, iron-tipped spear at the closest standing stone. There was a clunk and a puff of dust when it hit, and then a peal of thunder as lightning came down from the sky, hitting the ballista and turning it into scattered bits of burning wood, and melted metal.

"Yo, Jon, are you ok?" Liam couldn't see him in the smoke and dust the lightning had kicked up.

Jon emerged from some debris, mostly unhurt. He kept low to the ground until he was back behind a large oak. "Yeah, managed to live this time. I’ve learned not to stand up too fast. Whatever spells are working to protect those things stay vindictive and look for other targets. "

Cham came running back from where he had hidden near the stone. "It worked, sort of. One of the glowing letter-things took some chips and stopped working. But I looked at the chip we put in the other one yesterday, and it's half gone. They heal or rebuild or something."

Jorges walked over to Vern. "OK, that worked and confirmed two things: We can hurt them, but need to do a lot of damage and very fast. So, either a ton of machines acting at once, or some way to keep a few machines firing. To do that, we need to protect them. "

"I'm going to set up a counterweight trebuchet about 200 yards away, and put it down in a pit. I'm hoping the range and lack of line of sight will confuse the spells that target the lightning. Other than that, find me a damned storm wizard that can make a magic lightning rod to suck up the bolts as they come in."

Vern clapped him on the back. "Good job with making those contraptions. Where did you get the plans?"

Jorges smiled. "Oh, just made some toys the Romans and the Chinese used over a thousand years ago. They had good engineers back then." Jorges headed back to his crew to get to work on the next stage.

Vern turned to Billy. "See? We can beat this thing."

"I see that. Now tell me how we deal with Famco. Otherwise, we're just opening up this city and giving them another Christmas present." If Vern had a failing, Billy knew it was getting caught up in one project that looked good, but not keeping his eye on potential problems. Of course, that's why he had lower-level managers. They solved problems and gave Vern someone to blame.

Vern turned and shook thoughts of the city out of his head. "You really worried about them, aren't you? Look at the opportunity they're giving us. While they waste money and manpower trying to annoy you, we'll press on and accomplish our goals while exhausting them.

So far, their people have ended up dead and they're helping us make a fat profit at the tavern. Profit is worth a little trouble."

Billy was annoyed. He wished that Vern would at least read one of his reports now and then. "They've scouted the area. They know we have a dungeon; they know about the city. They know about the fat contract with the Legion for meat, and the deal with Bludgeon Brew for beer. And they know we have nothing but workers up here. Where's the muscle you said was going to back us up? I think they have at least a hundred people in the northern area and a quarter of that is sitting in the tavern drinking beer."

"Exactly, Billy. You prove my point. They're drinking our beer and then will pay a fee to go in the dungeon. I've turned Famco into an asset, and if things go like I think they will, they'll play right into my hands."

Billy was suddenly worried. Vern's grand plans had a way of heading south and giving him work cleaning them up. "What do you mean by that, Vern?"

"Tut, tut, my boy. Nothing to worry your head about. But let me put your mind at ease. The rules corporations play by prevent them from just walking into our town and attacking. The AI was concerned we'd all do exactly that, and has rules in place. I'm way ahead of you on this." Vernon was back to trying to look at the standing stones. He could just see the mark made by the ballista from here. A very small mark that was fading away as the stone healed, somehow.

"About those 'rules' Vern, I didn't like them, especially not with our strategy of not using part of our twenty-five people to guard the town."

"I like the plan we have better. A mobile force of fighters is better than scattering them around in little towns. I didn't tell you, but I convinced the board to spend some of our resources on a small mercenary force, and they've spent real money hiring gamers to add to that. You've got nothing to worry about on that end. I moved our main force of over two hundred fighters up to the North as soon as you mentioned the trouble with Famco. They should be almost to High Pass by now, only three days travel from here. No sense spending money on teleportation when they can travel by foot. If Famco. formally starts a fight to take Sedgewick from us, they have to give us a full week’s notice. Plenty of time to get them here and for us to bring more people in and fortify."

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Billy stared at Vern. "You want the damned fight! You know we have to agree to a war and you're baiting them with my profits! I don't like gambling that way, Vern."

"It's not gambling if we can't lose. They have to put up an equal amount of value. We can gain their best area and crush their will to compete. I've got forces in place that they can't match."

Billy wasn't satisfied. "When was the last time you checked in with them?"

"It's handled, Billy. I personally talked to Captain Jamison this morning when I was logged out. He confirmed they were heading for their destination and on time. If it makes you feel better, I'll check in again later tonight. Now if you want to worry about something else, tell me where to get a lightning rod to keep my machines from blowing up."

A thought struck Billy. "Yeah, actually, I know a guy whose family did a few experiments, I'll put him to work."

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"Captain Jamison! Smithers just logged in. We just got another message wanting to confirm our progress. "

Jamison turned to the waiting corporal. "Treat it the same as all the rest. Estimate how far north we should be, given how many days we’ve been traveling, and give them a message telling them roughly where we are. Keep it vague, as always. A few miles north of High Pass or whatever."

"Yes sir. Um... If you don't mind me asking..."

What the hell, Jordy had been with him a long time, he might as well fill him in on some of this damned plan. This was just video game mercing, not the real armed forces. He could let him know the score. Jordy was smart, it was hard to hide it from the guy. Jordy wouldn't be flapping his lips, and he knew they were a hell of a long way from High Pass.

"Ok, you know better than to whisper this to anyone else. The head honcho, Mr. Throckmorton, is worried about some moles in the organization. They've got a big operation starting up down here on the empire's southern border. We're about 4 days out from where we need to be. Some ancient temple or something. You get the drift?"

Jordy did indeed get the drift. "So, you have orders of where to go. The boss knows where we are going, but all our communication indicates our progress as if we were heading north. Got it, boss."

"That's the basics, Jordy. You just keep faking those messages as if we were heading to someplace in the armpit of the north called Sedgewick. Anyone who leaks the info will confirm we are heading to Sedgewick. Meanwhile, the boss knows we're heading for the temple. And even if it's Mr. Throckmorton on the horn, we keep up the ruse. Now go send that message and get some sleep. Another long day tomorrow."

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Suzette was used to dreams that felt real, but this was something entirely different. She crossed her arms, noticing she was wearing the long white robe with symbols of the Order on the front. Not what she had worn to bed. She glared at Hermes. "So now you can invade my dreams?"

"Ah, my favorite priestess arrives. Are you saying you don't dream about me every night? I'm hurt. But no, it's not me invading your dreams, you have to turn it around. You're the one invading my realm in your sleep. Part of the benefits now that you joined the team. But I'm going to scamper off. Someone else is interested in spending some time with you."

"Indeed I do! It's not often we get a new student." A small bald man, dressed as one of Hermes priests joined them in the courtyard." It was hard to tell his age. 40? 80? He had a face you could forget easily.

Suzette eyed him up. "Should I be excited?"

The man smiled "Oh, you can do or be whatever you want to be. I don't mind. But I have some questions for you about Phytolacca Belladonna. And in exchange, I can give you some insight into a few of my favorite toxins."

Now this was something she was interested in. "Oh my, you do know how to charm me. Yes, let’s spend some time together. I'm Suzette." She offered her hand. The easily forgettable man shook her hand. "And you may call me Nicolo. Now come this way, the first thing I want to teach you is the antidote for the contact poison I just passed off to you by shaking hands. Normally, I'd use the antidote on myself before poisoning someone, but it adds a bit of fun to the lesson with both of us in danger of dying soon.”

Suzette pondered that statement for a few seconds. “So if I’m smart enough, or you’re a good enough teacher, I manage to concoct the antidote and we both live. If either of us fails, we both die. That certainly makes me pay attention.”

Nicolo smiled. “I’m very fond of what Mr. Mark Twain said once: Nothing focuses your mind so much as the prospect of being hanged."