Davian walked behind us, a pair of guards in front of us and a pair of guards between us and Davian. The rest of the men who’d captured us had presumably returned to guarding the entrance to the facility we were in.

  We stepped through more stone tunnels which was by now becoming a tiresome sight. I supposed it made a certain kind of sense though. Building underground was a fantastic way to create a concealed and fortified location, if you could deal with the lack of light, air and moisture leaking in. I wasn’t sure what solutions Davian had come up with for that, but it seemed to work for them.

  I constructed, discarded and iterated on different plans with Larsen, regretting again that Eric didn’t have an implant to communicate with us. While it would’ve certainly been the smart move to have already grabbed our target and booked it to the nearest exit, we had no idea where we were, or how to get back to Wolfport. For all I knew, we were on the other side of the world right now.

  Unfortunately, that meant playing counter-intelligence, just until we had what we needed. Then, we’d do what we came to do.

  “So, who exactly are you?” I asked, starting the questions off light.

  “You don’t know? You’re even more ignorant than I thought.”

  “I am The Chief Overseer for the Northern Graywatch region, or rather, I was. Now, I am but a humble mage trying to do what’s necessary. You fools have made that much more difficult, however.” He growled these last few words.

  “We haven’t been here more than a handful of days, I don’t know what we could’ve done.” Larsen remarked.

  “You’ve chased me away from my work. That is enough.”

  “Important, is it? What ‘work’ is that, exactly?” She asked.

  Davian neglected to answer and we took a left turn in silence.

  We rounded the corner and found ourselves walking down a dead end hallway. I reached the end and found a big box cut out of the stone wall.

  “Really?” I asked aloud.

  My answer was a swift prod into the cell, a six by six space, ten metres deep. The fact there wasn’t a door was interesting, but I supposed doors weren’t strictly necessary with magical force fields being an option.

  “In.” A guard said.

  I scowled, the tip of his spear scraping over the armour above my left shoulder blade.

  I turned back to him, staring.

  “Are you regretting this plan yet?” I asked, speaking to Larsen.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, we’re locked up again.”

  “We can break out again, right?”

  “Probably. I doubt they’ve accounted for our strength.”

  “What if we’re stuck in here, though?”

  “Then we wait until they let us out and we get the hell out of here.” I replied, as if it was simple.

  She thought for a moment, silent and contemplative. “When do we tell Eric? Do you think they have the cell wired?”

  “We would. We’ll tell him after Davian leaves, I doubt we’ll have any secrecy until we break out, or leave this place.” I snorted.

  The former Chief Overseer stared at us with an unreadable expression.

  A lithe and masked man stepped softly around the corner, coming to a stop beside Davian.

  “This is the one?” The new man asked, voice gravelly and rasping.

  “Three, actually.” Davian responded, never taking his eyes from us.

  “Fascinating.”

  His eyes raked over us, his voice seeming to ooze an arrogant and aged aura. He grated on my nerves, my soul, you might even say, but I kept silent for a few moments, observing.

  Davian’s nose wrinkled, and he stepped away from this new visitor a bit.

  The masked man just smirked, condescending. I’d just witnessed something significant, I was sure of it.

  I’d gathered a few different bits and pieces of code during my time in service and one of those was a pattern-recognition algorithm for tone, facial expression, body language and a whole host of other things. It was a little something I’d picked up from a Green Beret in passing. While it was of a lot more use to him than me, I’d figured it was a neat little party trick at the time and gladly accepted the trade. Units still traded patches, special commemorative coins and all manner of things, but they also traded bits and pieces of custom code from within their unit, at times.

  The custom piece of code booted up and ran through the past minute or so of conversation, scanning the two men in the meantime. I decided to redirect the conversation.

  “You two really aren’t very good at this, are you?” I said.

  “You’re the one inside a cell.” The newcomer sneered, stepping up to me and tapping his finger on the space in front of me.

  A shimmer, much like the ones we’d recently seen covered the space we’d stepped through.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “You two couldn’t defend this place from a drunken cat.” I laughed, taunting them outrageously, and I’m sure they both knew it.

  “For your information, this place is buried underneath a city. No one comes here, no one has for a long time. You underestimate your value, I think.”

  “Actually-“

  A scream from behind me shattered my train of thought, raw and tortured.

  Eric was on the ground in a ball, clutching his stomach.

  I didn’t bother getting all worked up about it, I just stared at the nasty grin on Davian’s face.

  “Talk.” I said curtly.

  “Who are you? And why are you following me?”

  “We’re nobody, just… contractors, I guess, mercenaries. We were paid to follow you and report your whereabouts.”

  A half-truth.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  Another scream.

  “Edward.” Larsen warned.

  I growled. “When I give the order, give this shield everything you’ve got.”

  “I’ll ask again. If I have to ask a third time… we might see about getting you out of that armour.”

  I gave him the truth this time, albeit slightly edited. I played up a defeated attitude. Our biggest strength right now wasn’t actually our physical strength, but that we were an unknown. I could spin basically anything, as long as it wasn’t too far from the truth.

  “We’re survivors of a shipwreck, stranded here. We were told that if we helped them, they’d help us get home.”

  Not technically an untruth, but definitely not the whole truth, either.

  “Much better. Now, my friend here has a few personal questions for you. Personal for him, or so I understand.”

  The masked man stepped forward, up to the barrier. I backed away in turn, not because I was threatened, but because I needed something to push against.

  “Was it you who killed my familiar?”

  Eric’s pained gasps in the background steeled my nerves.

  “I…” I began.

  “Yes, or no?”

  “Larsen, now.” I ordered.

  I had backed up to the cell’s wall and now I used it to launch myself at the cell’s barrier, cocking a strike of my fist in the instant I was airborne. A split-second after I hit the thing, I registered another impact to my left and the shield shattered, flaring a bright white colour.

  I planted my feet after a moment, flinging myself into the path of a hasty fireball. My suit already had solid locks on the two men, as well as guards in the corridors. I crossed my arms in front of me, trying to prevent too much of the heat from reaching my vital organs.

  Fortunately, pressure of grenades and other modern explosive weapons was at least on par with the attack, so it slammed into me, and I managed to keep myself from being ruined by the pressure wave. Behind me, I spied Larsen sheltering Eric in a similar manner, hunched over his prone form.

  When the light show cleared, I let things breathe for a moment and then watched as the remaining signature began running. I heard Davian screaming about reinforcements and escaped prisoners.

  “I hate prison cells." Larsen said.

  "Great, then you won't mind your next order. Protect Eric and get him out of sight. I’m going after the target.” I said, already sprinting through the halls.

  “Wilco.”

  I didn’t like being forced to grab a high-value target while severely understrength. It led to needless risks, and casualties. We didn’t even know the layout of this place. With that in mind, I didn’t want to let Davian slip away again through a gate or into some kind of panic room. The last thing I wanted was to do this song and dance all over again.

  “Proc, ping all equipment, maximum power.”

  A few seconds passed and the result returned to me was encouraging. My gear wasn’t too far. Only a few corridors away.

  I ran past guards. More than a few put themselves in my path. Roadkill was the most apt comparison, really. I was a very fast moving metal object, even if I didn't have the sheer mass of a car.

  I replayed recent events in my head. I felt like an idiot. Not for taking the gamble I had, but that I hadn’t figured out they could attack us while we were inside the cell.

  Twenty-three metres and closing. As the marker for my knife’s RFID beacon approached on my left I hit the brakes, walked over to the doorway and found another shimmering barrier in the way.

  I slammed a fist into it and it broke. It was actually kind of fun. I walked over to a large stone table, retrieving my knife, pistol and other bits and pieces. I checked on Davian’s location. He was headed straight for the portal room we’d entered.

  “Fuck.” I hissed.

  “Problem?” Larsen asked.

  “Target’s going for exfil. Stay with Eric, I’ll get him.”

  I took one look at the route Davian was going and made a beeline straight for him. Two right turns and about a hundred metres of hallway later and I encountered an obstacle between me and Davian, or more specifically, that masked man.

  “You again. If I’m going to kill someone, I should at least know their name.” I said, raising my knife and triggering it’s powered functions.

  It aligned into a crystalline edge and I opted for a straight forward thrust.

  A blur reached out and batted my arm away. It hurt, too.

  “The fuck was that? And who the fuck are you?” I asked, following up with a more complicated set of feints to his lower body before going for his throat.

  I got close, but he deflected my blows each time. He didn’t touch my knife though.

  “The strength and speed didn’t make it obvious?” He drawled.

  “I’m a vampire, the master of the familiar you so carelessly slaughtered.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say—“ I ducked under another blur of motion.

  I noted Davian was still inside, but I doubted he’d be there for long.

  I needed to finish this quick. I didn’t try to get fancy, I just reached over and gripped whatever I could find, and turned up the pressure.

  He screamed as I gripped his upper arm and crushed it, hammering away at my faceplate with his other hand balled into a fist. The impact rocked me back each time, it was like a massive piston was slamming into my face. My grip didn’t let up though.

  I grit my teeth as he went for my throat instead. It wasn’t the most armoured place, out of necessity, but each blow caused me to choke. I’m sure without my armour it would’ve utterly ruined my windpipe and probably my whole spine.

  “Enough of that.” I growled. I slipped my other hand around his throat and took him to the ground. It took me all of twelve seconds to apply the terrific force necessary to snap his neck. Unarmoured, it wasn’t as easy as the movies made it look. In armour? Well, with one of his arms hanging uselessly it was easy.

  I got up and burst into the room to see Davian turn in surprise, flinging fire, lightning and even blasts of wind at me. I stalked forwards, slipping around each of his attacks, wary of his lightning most of all.

  “Why won’t you die? Just die!” He screamed, launching fireball after fireball at me.

  “You really like fire, don’t you?” I said, now within a couple metres of him.

  He turned, probably hoping to run again.

  “Oh no you don’t, you slippery shit!” I took one step and tackled him into the ground, pinning him to the the stone floor on his belly. I put my armoured knee into his back for a few moments as I scanned the room.

  I dragged him upright, keeping control of him by manipulating his joints, specifically his arm.

  “Where are the guards?”

  “What guards?” He scowled.

  “Don’t play dumb, where are the guards that are meant to be protecting this gate?”

  “Dead. You killed them all, you fucking monster!” He growled, trying to push me off of him. I could’ve told him that was a stupid idea. I carefully pushed on his arm, putting more stress on his shoulder without grinding it into dust.

  “Fine fine! I sent them through the gate!”

  “Larsen, target is down. What’s your situation?”

  “Well, Eric can’t walk, but he’s not bleeding and his injuries aren’t life-threatening. Whatever happened to him was very clean.” She reported.

  That was not the news I wanted to hear. If Eric was too injured to move and he couldn't use his magic, I wasn’t even sure how we would get out of this place. Even if we made it to the surface, we could be on the other side of the planet, or some massive mountain range, I really didn’t know. Hell, we didn't even have any currency to pay for supplies or transport.

  “Regroup on me. Can Eric still get us out of here?”

  Larsen’s reluctant sigh was all the answer I needed, but she said the words anyway. “I don’t know.”