Chapter 78

Six people and a monster emerged from the dungeon: the team at its full. Drullkrin was wearing a glamour, magic that was nothing more than a little trick of the Fae that made it so he could appear something he was not: a human. It was a trick he could not perform himself but one that a friendly Fae had taught to Johanne so that she could apply it to the goblin. Of the original party Michael had crafted while in the Valley, the Golem was the only missing member, too big to hide on a world that was not yet ready to see real monsters roaming around. Drullkrin’s role was to watch only, as even the faintest application of his strange Fae magic would disrupt the glamour. He could offer insights, using his alien mind to perhaps draw connections the others might miss.

The others quickly got into their roles, or at least they tried to before Travis’ phone suddenly began ringing.

“It’s the emergency ringtone,” he said gravely, picking up the phone, “hello? What? When? What’s the situation?”

The others watched him as his face grew darker and darker the more he spoke, until he finally closed the call and addressed the others.

“We have a problem.”

“You don’t say? What’s going on? Spill it,” said Michael. Energy was crackling around him, visible to everyone now that the weakest of them was at least a good way into the Copper realm and the strongest, Johanne, was almost at the threshold of Silver.

“I got an undercover agent in Carmela’s organization, right? More than one, but that’s beside the point. The highest of them is not too high in the ranks, she’s too paranoid for that, but high enough to get some information. My man says that there was big movement around five hours ago, although he only got to know about it now. Convoys leaving the compound, people milling about like an anthill that got kicked around a bunch, an all hands on deck sort of thing. She had Josh go and bully the Bulgarians into action.”

“Do we know their target?” asked Trevor, his analytical mind already whirring.

Travis nodded, “rumors say it’s a kidnapping operation. Our security branch is still in development, of course, but I have my men from PetroLink working for Unity until we get up to speed and can integrate them. Here, we tracked their movements.”

They were shown a satellite picture, filled with red dots and lines of extrapolated possible targets.

“Wait,” said Michael, barely a whisper that the others did not hear.

“They started moving five hours ago,” Travis continued, “two convoys. They have a considerable head start.”

“Wait a fucking minute,” Michael frowned.

“What?” asked Old Dave.

“There,” Michael pointed to somewhere on the map, “that’s where my family lives. They are going to kidnap my fucking family. That’s where my dad lives, and that’s where my mom and sister live.”

“We got men there, don’t we?” asked Jennifer.

Travis nodded, “we have Security men and Candle Light men stationed at both places, of course. I’ll alert them.”

“Even so,” said Johanne, “I have seen what sort of magic Carmela and her lackey can bring to bear. Your Candle Light operatives can barely handle the lowest end of what you call a Copper-level threat. Her magic might be Copper, but the threat she poses is at least well into Silver if we are to bully her with strength alone.”

“What’s a rank difference to them? They signed for this. They’ll buy us time,” said Travis.

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“You are ignoring your own protocol, Travis Tyrell. Even Copper threats require at least a Silver overseer, and she is not a Copper threat.”

“We can’t afford the luxury to wait now, can we? Besides, danger ratings and all that are just guidelines. Two Copper threats can be so different from each other as to require very different responses, and Carmela and her lackey are just humans.”

“Josh is a known quantity, I will give you that,” shot back Johanne, “but do not forget that he is also a speedster.”

“He’s poisoned.”

“Fine, CEO-man. Former, that is. He might be poisoned but Carmela is not. Her magic is strong, probably pilfered from a high-magic first floor survivor. The bureaucrat, I would assume. If she is with the convoy—”

“Withdraw the men.” Said Michael, finality in his tone. “Enough bickering. We are wasting time. We can’t follow protocol anyway.”

The other man stared at him dumbfounded. “What did you just say?”

“Withdraw.” He breathed, speaking quicker than his lungs could cope with, “Candle Light is in its infancy. Security even worse still. I barely gave you the order to make it into an actual division today, even though it seems like weeks ago to us. Hell, the whole company is what, a week old? The men will die if they engage, and they won’t be of any use to us dead. Give order to watch and not engage unless she’s about to go on rampage or threatens to kill my sister. Can you make sure they follow her discreetly?”

“Alright,” said Travis. His face was dark, as the realization of just how far behind they were with Candle Light truly sunk in. “Of course I can.” They had been lucky so far, witnessing no anomalies or rogue magical threats stronger than Copper, but he knew very well that things couldn’t continue like this. “We got the Naoshida trinkets, there’s no way we miss them or they see us. But then what?”

“I see you lack contingencies,” Drullkrin said, “I don’t mean it offensively, of course, it is but the first real emergency you face. But even like this, we could salvage the situation. We have the upper hand, after all, in terms of magic. Forget about your organization, it is far too early for you to truly be able to mobilize it. Instead, focus on what you have.”

Travis’ face lit up. “That’s right. Johanne, do you know what their power level is expected to be?”

“Carmela is the bigger threat. Josh is barely a Copper trash who relies on easy to handle magic. His real problem is speed, but you were right to point out that he’s poisoned. According to what Michael told me, he should have more than enough rot in his system that he won’t be able to move all that fast anymore. We ran some preliminary experiment on what Foul Water does to a human body, and it’s not pleasant. If she has others, I do not know.”

“Alright,” Jennifer said, “that’s good. Let’s move then. We can still intercept them on their way back.”

“Assuming they come back,” Old Dave shot back.

“That’s why we have men following them. ETA on when they make contact?”

“Less than an hour,” said Travis.

“Alert the authorities,” Jennifer said, taking control, “we want them to stand down as much as possible. This is much more than they can handle.”

“You know there will come questions,” Travis said. “This is not political capital we can replenish just yet.”

“Questions will come either way,” she said, “especially after we are done with them. Besides, you are wrong when you say that we can’t replenish the capital. Just wait until the world starts going to shit.”

***

Michael watched it all happen through the screen of a tablet, barely even noticing the occasional bumps of the road as the car he was in traveled much faster than the speed limit towards the interception point. He was feeling a strange sort of detachment from what he was seeing, or at least he was until he saw his sister being dragged out of the house, gagged and restrained. He felt his aura surge, and it was only through momentous effort that he managed to reign it in. It was a Silver-rank aura, even though it was an early stage one, and if he were to watch his Skill Sanctum right now, it would be filled with lightning-like discharges of magic and Intent, enough to kill a low Copper just by touching his aura.

Fortunately, his companions were firmly labeled as allies in his mind, and he couldn’t expand his aura much yet even if he wanted to.

“There’s no sign of her,” said Travis, “at least that’s good news.”

Michael kept watching. He saw the men enter a car, spied upon by Candle Light operatives. Josh was there as well, looking sick and pale as seen through the darkened glass window of the car he was in. On the other screen, featureless men were grabbing Michael’s father, but Michael barely looked at the scene before scoffing and concentrating back on the other feed.

Hours passed. Travis got confirmation that Carmela was seen at her compound, and was not with the convoy. They planned and considered options.

“The two convoys split up,” said Travis. They were in the back seat, with Trevor in the front seat and Bob driving the car. Behind them, the other car had Johanne, Jennifer, Old Dave and Drullkrin.

“We go after Josh’s and rescue my mother and my sister.” Said Michael, “the others go after my father.”