The safe house that the crew of Jason, Caroline, Thomas, Aimee and Garret Peyton were looking for was but a small wooden house that looked just like any other houses around in the area - though they were all quite far away and were all separated by the mountainous terrain.
The interior of the safe house was not like other enchanted houses or vehicles in which they had been before, for it had exactly the amount of space as it looked from the outside. But Jason and Caroline could both sense that the house was protected by some kind of array, and if not for the key that Garret Peyton brought with him they couldn't have entered so easily.
“Hello, Ms. Wong?” Garret Peyton dialed the number of Josephine Wong, but got someone with a different voice answering the call.
“Hello, this is Agent Carolina. Ms. Wong is resting and healing and I am in charge of relaying her calls. What can I help you with?”
“Oh, hi. Agent Carolina.” Garret Peyton was slightly surprised: “This is Garret Peyton, I was sent to the Grant Academy to pick up four students from there. We ran into hostile forces and our transportation vehicle was totaled. We are currently in a safe house in the mountains near Half Moon Bay, and we need immediate evacuation.”
“Understood. How long do you think you can hold there? Do you know who is pursuing you?”
“I think at best one day. ” Garret Peyton answered: “I am not entirely sure who is after us, but it’s pretty clear they are from some of the organizations that had their people in the academy and had people in the academy on their payroll. Please find Ms. Wong as soon as possible.”
“Ms. Wong is very weak at the moment and she was in no condition to help you herself.” Agent Carolina said: “I will inform her right away and arrange some agents to evacuate you, please keep all means of communications open for now.”
“Okay.” Garret Peyton sighed and hung up the phone.
“What’d she say?” Thomas asked, still holding his enchanted gun in hand and wearing the special tactical vest with some sort of protective array on it.
“She said Ms. Wong’s resting and healing, that she was in no condition to help us by herself.” Garrent Peyton let out a long sigh and said: “Geez, this couldn’t be a worse time, I suspect she was not well when she sent me, but … damn!”
“Something happened? ” Aimee looked at Caroline and Jason and asked: “First your master got injured and couldn’t even answer your phone, now that Ms. Wong needs so much rest and healing that she can’t come and help us?”
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“God, we’re terrible students.” Caroline immediately picked up her phone and dialed Jianmen’s number.
“Hel … hello?” a strange male voice came from the other side of the call: “Caroline? Caroline? Can you hear me?”
“Yes I can hear you.” Caroline frowned: “Who is this?”
“Oh, hi, I am Rashmumba D’Eclaire, but you can call me Rash.” the strange voice said: “Since Ms. Wong is still healing, I am helping her to take Mr. Yu’s calls, what can I do for you?”
“How is Boss?” Caroline asked.
“He’s - he’s doing okay, considering.” Rash answered: “But he’s not in the condition to help you himself either. Is this about you needing evacuation?”
“Yes - how’d you know?”
“Agent Carolina’s right here, and Ms. Wong is recovering in the inn.” Rash said: “And I hope you’ll excuse me, because I am in no condition to help either - I can do some other basic things for you, like sending you something.”
“Thanks, but that’s okay, Rash.” Caroline sighed: “Just let us know when Boss is getting better alright?”
“Yeah, hold on.” Caroline looked at everyone in the house and said: “You said you could send us things, what kind of things can you send? And how fast can it get to us?”
“With my current condition, if you are not in some obscure remote realm and you’re not asking for something really big, I’d say it can reach you in a few minutes. Oh, from experience, food can’t be sent.”
“Okay, can you hold for a second?” Caroline looked at Jason: “Jason, remember Rashmumba D’Eclaire?”
“Hmm, that magical jellyfish?”
“Yeah, he’s looking after the inn for now, and he asked if he could send us something to help us. As long as it is not too big and not food.”
“Okay then. ”Jason nodded: “How about some of those wooden cards Boss once gave us before? Or some powerful paper sigils?”
“You heard that Rash? Can you find anything like that in the reception’s desk?”
“I’ve just looked, I found some wooden cards with animals carved on them, do you want me to send you all of them?”
“No, no.” Caroline said: “Send us the ones with the comparatively weak animals on them, like wasps, hornets, toads and the sort. Don’t send the ones with overly powered animals.”
“Okay, I have here with me, a hummingbird, a crab, a lobster, a scorpion, a hamster, a snail...”
“All of these! These relatively weak animals, if you can, send us all of these!”
“Okay, wait where you are, they’ll be there in a minute.” Rash said then hung up the phone.
“Huh?” Caroline was confused.
“We have company!” Garret Peyton looked out the window and yelled: “Holy shit! How can they find us this fast!?”
Everyone looked out the window, and they could see a small group of people, in robes and suits of armor walking out of a flying vehicle that looked like some kind of disc shaped spaceship with silvery blue lights on its surface and landed around half a mile away from the safe house. All of them recognized the vehicle directly
“Is that Agent Carolina dirty? Did she sell us out?” Aimee asked.
“No.” Garret Peyton, Caroline and Jason said at the same time.
“What, why?” Thomas asked: “How could you know?”
“No harm could come to us from within the inn.” Jason nodded and said: “It’s - it’s one of the unofficial mottos and - and decrees of Boss.”
“But who else could have known about this place?” Aimee picked up her enchanted gun from the ground: “And who else could have known that we’re here?”
“Division Agents.” Garret Peyton spoke through his teeth: “There are several safe houses here, they must’ve traced us here and are looking at the safe houses one by one.”