An Interview With Adeline Blanchett:

  “So, Adeline—about that kiss.”

  “What about it?”

  “The people might be wondering: how was it, really?”

  “Why, it was everything I’d imagined since feasting my eyes upon those luscious lips. Otherwise, I was quite nervous because I’d only ever practised on a pillow, which is why I’d agreed to go out with the Captain.”

  “For practise?”

  “Yes, I knew you and I would end up entangled romantically eventually, and I wanted to be ready for you. But when it came down to it, I thought to myself, ‘Adeline, you only get one first kiss, and who would you prefer to co-star in this chapter of your story? The drop dead gorgeous, perfect gentleman Captain, or Feargus Finlay?’”

  “I’d have gone with the Captain.”

  “Well, I still wanted to kiss him, I just didn’t want him to be my first.”

  “A woman of reason.”

  “Either way, it was one of the most wonderful moments of my life, and I owe it all to Zacharias for kidnapping me and placing me in your bed.”

  “You and me both. As always, the people thank you for your candor, Adeline.”

  Days Until Rhian Returns: IMMINENT

  Crew and Company Placement:

  Everywhere ? Everleigh

  The base ? Strauss, Evelyn, Alex, Teeth, Jakob, Adeline

  Oskari ? Michael, Marta

  At sea ? Rhian, Rhydian, Riz, Bells, Sebastian(?)

  Man-cave ? Zack, Quinn

  I stopped in the forest around the perimeter of Verena to take a tinkle, eat a few cookies, knock back a sip of Hocks, and do a quick inventory. Crossbow, check. Bolts, check. Knife, check. Acid vial, check. Tiny bombs, check. Lock picks, check. Forgery kit, check. Map, check. Fire-spray, check. Lighter, check. Lucky gun, check. Bullets and fire powder, check. Timepass, check.

  Red frilly knickers, check.

  I laughed to myself for a minute. Adeline must have sneaked them in when I wasn’t looking, and mates, I couldn’t wait to get back to her. We were going to have so much fun.

  But for now: Agent Jack Finnegan was reporting for duty, and timing was about to be everything. For the Dangerous Mission, I’d borrowed my satchel back from Strauss—the one Rhian had bought me for my birthday but I’d traded for Strauss’s back in the day. It was a lot more practical because I could sling it around my shoulder like a backpack. I’d also borrowed a holster from Adeline for the lucky gun, and she’d help me fashion everything securely along with my crossbow, bolts, the pouch of fire-powder, and bullets.

  Alex’s map was quite good, though given his father was an architect, he himself was a talented carpenter, it stood to reason he could manage a diagram. There were two main entrances into Verena, and according to Alexander, which also coincided with Sebastian’s story, they weren’t guarded in the same way that Leberecht was. There were guards, aye, but there weren’t any stopping people at the gates. Still, they’d caught on to Sebastian quickly once he was inside, and that wasn’t a risk I wanted to take.

  There was also an entrance to the city from deep in the mines. Alex confirmed there’d be guards, but the workers will have left for the night already. Alternatively, he’d marked a storm drain system, though he admitted his recollection of their locations throughout the city might be off. Finally, my favourite option: the walls around the city were built from stone and were easily scalable by a Strachan.

  Nearer to the city, I climbed the tallest tree to gain a lookout over the activity. It was all well and good to jump over walls, until you jump over a wall straight into a guard patrol. Speaking from experience, actually. Anyhow, I held my position for just over twenty-two minutes while I memorized the rotations and scouted out the best place to land.

  Alex didn’t know for sure where the Verenians kept their stash of injectable, or where they kept the formula, but there were two obvious places. One, the guard compound. We knew they were armed with the substance because Sebastian was captured by one of them. Surely they’d have a storage somewhere. Two, the research facility.

  On one hand, he’d been through the guard compound and was able to provide a map of that, too. But it’d be full of guards, obviously. On the other hand, he knew the location of the research facility, but hadn’t been inside. The research facility was the most likely place to get my hands on the formula, though.

  Before leaving, I’d asked Adeline if she’d be able to reverse engineer the substance, and while she said it was technically possible, we may not have access to everything we’d need to do so, and she couldn’t guarantee results. So, getting some samples and the formula would still be the best long-term win, and therefore, my target was the research facility.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The city wall was easy enough to climb. The stone was stacked roughly and in poor shape from centuries of exposure to the elements, so there was plenty of leverage for my hands and feet. I chose to enter the city at the back of the schoolhouse because it backed up against a botanical forest of sorts, and it was highly unlikely anyone would be lurking around either place in the middle of the night. No one was.

  There was one guard standing outside the research facility. In the twenty-two minutes, he’d hardly moved, and no one else seemed to be joining him. The building was perpendicular to the schoolhouse, so I stayed buried in the forest until I caught the guard distracted checking his pocket watch. I made a run for it, tucking myself behind the facility. From there, I climbed the roof. Quieting my footfalls, slowing my heart rate, and holding my breath, I approached from behind and above. With my crossbow preloaded, I shot a bolt through the top of the man’s head and waited for him to die. It didn’t take long.

  I knew from Alexander’s intel that the guards rotated shifts every four hours from midnight. It was just past one in the morning, so I had under three hours before the replacement would notice this one was dead. As far as I could tell, there weren’t any wandering patrols covering the area, but in the event there were, I needed to conceal the body. Not because I didn’t want them to know he was dead—the puddle of blood, bone, and brain bits outside the door told that story quite clearly—but because I wanted them to follow the blood trail to somewhere I wasn’t.

  I dragged the body around back, snaking through the city in the shadows, making sure to leave as much evidence as I could behind. I considered a few different options as to where to leave him. One, near the guard compound, making it look like a targeted attack. Two, the residential district, making it look like a personal attack. Three, the service entrance to the mines.

  So, which one? Option three, obviously.

  I left the body behind a warehouse nearby while I dealt with the guard at the door to the mines. I climbed the roof of the warehouse, and this time, shot a bolt through his throat. It took a bit longer for him to die, but at least he couldn’t scream. Once he was still, I searched guard number one. He had two syringes on him, and so I took one. I considered taking his keys, but I didn’t. Why, you might be wondering? Well, I wanted the guards to think the killer had escaped, not that they were still wandering around the city with a set of keys.

  After dragging guard number one nearer to the service door, I checked guard number two for any syringes. He only had one, so I didn’t take it. Again, because I didn’t want the guards to investigate and sort out my motive. With both dead guards by the service door, I got my tools ready, and my fingers wet with blood, and then I picked the lock. I didn’t go through the door.

  With all that handled, I returned to the research facility.

  My plan was to try picking the lock, and if it gave me too much trouble, to use the acid. I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to use the acid, mind you. Though it was dark, the mobile guards carried lanterns, and while I was all right with them spotting the blood, I didn’t want them to notice the lock had been tampered with. I made sure my hands weren't still wet, and it was a trickier pick than the service door, but it was still elementary, really.

  I re-loaded my crossbow, opened the door as quietly as I could, stepped inside, closed it, and locked it behind me. Most thieves wouldn't do that and functioned twofold: one, if a patrol guard spotted the blood, they'd find the door locked and seemingly untouched, redirecting their focus to the blood trail. Two, it'd buy me a warning sound and an extra few seconds if someone entered.

  When I wasn’t immediately accosted inside, I held my breath and slowed my heart rate while I waited for my eyes to adjust. This allowed me to focus my hearing better than I could otherwise. You don’t realize how distracting certain bodily functions are until you can shut them off. The reception area was completely silent.

  There were three corridors with signs above the archways, indicating what would be found down each of them. They were all written in Amali, but fortunately I could read in all seven of Auditoria’s modern languages, plus the one my sister and I had invented.

  Sign #1: Conference Rooms, Cafeteria, Bathroom.

  Sign #2: Library, Offices, Lecture Halls

  Sign #3: Laboratory A, Laboratory B, Testing Facility

  Naturally, I went to the cafeteria.

  Kidding, kidding. I went to the bathroom.

  Kidding again. I started down corridor #3.

  I’ll give it to you clean: getting into and searching Laboratory A was straightforward. Picked the lock, went inside, snatched all the research I could from the filing cabinets and the workstations—all which appeared related to the S6 sedative—and a box full of vials which had been labeled S6 as well.

  From Laboratory A, I made my way to Laboratory B, and whatever was being concocted there was referred to as P1 through P6. Again, I snatched what I could of the research notes, as well as a box of all six vials. But what was the P series, you ask? Great question, and the answer ran my blood cold, mates.

  According to the notes, the Verenians were researching a way to reproduce Partisan powers and inject them into Barrens. Why? I’d have to think about that later. Besides, I’d be going home to a scientist who could help make sense of all the technical jargon.

  I shoved everything away into my bag.

  Well, I had what I needed, and time was always of the essence, so I made my way out of Laboratory B and started back to the reception area, until it hit me: it wouldn’t be the first time the Verenians held Partisans captive, and if they were testing a substance related to Partisans, what if…? I turned around for the Testing Facility.

  If there were Partisans in there, I couldn’t just let them rot and be experimented on. Granted, I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d get them out yet, but wherever she was, I was, and wherever I was, she was, right? And what would my sister say? No plan is the best plan, sometimes. This was going to have to be one of those times.

  I picked the lock and made my way inside.

  Along with several filing cabinets and what appeared to be glass containment cells, the room was lined with reinforced steel doors, all of them with visors. They reminded me of Everleigh’s storm drain door in that way, the only difference was they weren’t designed for Strachan-sized folk. Even while standing on my toes, I was a bit too short to look through the visors.

  So, I turned around and left.

  Kidding—again.

  I pulled a chair over to the door labeled SUBJECT #1 and had a peek through the visor.

  The oil lamp made it easy to see there was, in fact, a person in there. And as I peered through the opening with my pale grey peepers, the lad being held captive rushed forward and looked right back at me. Only, his eyes weren’t grey. They were brown.