Milo and Kayla remained in Saint Vernon's Cathedral for another day. Brian was quite polite in agreeing to come over but somehow seemed reluctant as well. He came in on what looked like an old and scruffy carrier, obviously not wanting to draw attention to himself with one of the Network's more sophisticated rides. Milo and Brian followed Kayla to a study where they could talk alone. Milo explained the whole story about meeting Jenny and the bargain that he had made with her.
"That's a really big favor you're asking Milo" with Brian putting a subtle amount of emphasis on the name as if to show he knew that he was not Chris Cabral. "What exactly is going on here, anyways?"
"I have no idea" Kayla remarked. "But the entire thing is strange."
"The story Jenny has given about being with the Hominid Defense Directorate sure seems awfully suspicious. The Network knows as well as anyone the scope of that agencies activities was really downsized by Queen Adella."
"Brian" Milo said. "Of course I never told Jenny about the map. You don't have to show her the new planet. Just move the HQ to some other star system."
"Yeah" Brian said, "but I don't think Dover's gonna be okay with this. Was there really not any other way of getting around this?"
"I was in a race against the clock" Milo said in his defense. "Plus, Nadarska told me to go through with this even though he knew that Jenny is actually an elf in disguise because he didn't want me to end up back in the Humanology Lab" Brian and Kayla both looked at him in surprise.
"How does he know that?" Brian asked.
"When I shook hands with her, he apparently could detect that she had elven skin proteins and not human ones." Brian nodded his head in acknlowledgement.
"I don't like this at all" Brian said. "I guess I'll just have to talk to Dover and see-" Brian was interrupted by the sound of shouting in the hallway. It was Kopbok.
"Union forces!" Kopbok shouted as loud as he could with his raspy voice. "They're here to search the compound! We have to get out of here!"
"How?!" Milo asked loudly.
"There's an entrance to a secret tunnel at the bottom of the cathedral! We have to get in there without them seeing us! Hurry!" They all followed him out of the room and through the hallway and down stairs without asking any further questions. They got down to a shrine in the basement level, and Jenny was waiting for them, standing by one of two statues at the front of the room.
"Help me with this thing!" she exclaimed pulling on one of the arms of the statues.
"What's going on!" Kayla shouted at her.
"Just help me move this arm, there's no time" Jenny shouted back.
Without asking any more questions, they all ran forward and pulled on the arm. They got the arm to move and a sliding door on the back wall opened up, and they all went inside and the door shut behind them, making everything pitch black. A few seconds later more lights came on, but only enough to dimly illuminate about fifteen feet of the tunnel. It had a concrete lining, and was about 12 feet wide. There was a small motor cart with two seats and an empty flatbed cargo area behind it. Kopbok got in the driver's seat and Jenny jumped into the empty flatbed. It was just big enough for all of them. It moved forward with a surprisingly forceful acceleration. There wasn't much to hold onto, and Milo felt as if he might fall out.
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As they moved, a short segment of the way in front of them was automatically illuminated. It wasn't a very great distance and had Milo hoping they wouldn't come to a sudden turn that might make them crash. After they had seemed to be riding for ten minutes, the cart came to a stop.
"End the line" Kopbok said. They all got out of the cart and entered a door that was next to them. Inside was what looked like a beautifully-furnished room of a house.
"This" Kopbok said. "Is the church's secret underground bunker. I'm going to make sure that we weren't followed. I will be back hopefully shortly" and he left. For a brief moment no one said anything.
"Jenny" Milo said, "this is Brian. Brian, this is Jenny."
"And who are you really?" Brian asked with his arms crossed and making a stern face.
"Jenny Drether of the Hominid Defense Directorate" she said extending here hand
"No you're not" Brian back without any hint of unsureness and not acknowledging her hand. "If you want me or Dalton Dover to even consider taking you to HQ you've got to explain why it is you are here. And Milo knows you're an elfess disguised as a woman, so you might as well fess up now." Milo heaved a small sigh and tried to suppress it as well as he could, wishing that he wouldn't have told here that. For a moment Jenny just stood with no expression on her face. Then she reached into her breast pocket and took a small vial from it and poured it on her face. Milo figured maybe she was taking herself out to prevent herself from having to talk, but something stranger happened. The skin on her face began to loosen and wrinkle up. She reached up and grabbed the wrinkly cheeks and pulled the skin of her face and her scalp clean off her face, revealing underneath the face of a beautiful, familiar-looking elfess with golden-blonde hair. The three of them were all too stunned to say anything.
"I am Princess Zorthia" she said acting as if none of them would have been able to recognize her. "I organized a joint effort between the Church of Saint Vernon and the HDD because my half-sister Avistra is trying to overthrow me. Sorry for the duplicity but I can't do anything through elven intelligence without her admirals and sympathizers figuring it out." She turned toward Brian.
"I am willing to beg you to take me to Dalton Dover" she said not wasting any time getting down to the point. "You don't have to give me any secrets or information but I want a chance to plea my case to him." Brian just stood staring at her, apparently still in shock.
"I can take you " he said softly. "But I don't think Dover will be overly receptive to doing anything to help you."
"I get it" she said. "He doesn't like me or the royal family and especially doesn't like the Ministry of Science and Technology. But everything he doesn't like about them; it's going to get a lot worse if Avistra becomes princess. She is a lot like my grandmother, Tarissa, and maybe even worse. It also won't be good for the security of the entire outworld sector, which he also seems to value."
"Well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag" interrupted a reptilian voice.
"You knew about this, Kopbok?" Kayla asked, outraged.
"I did" he answered. "Don't take it personally. You are CIA with apparent ties to the Network as well."
"I suppose I'll take you, princess" Brian said. "But I haven't got a way back, now. I'm sure they're going to look all through the carrier I came in."
"Don't worry about that" Zorthia said taking her phone from her pocket. "I am a princess, it won't be hard for me to get us out of here" she said hitting buttons quickly.