“Malketh. You’ve done well. In these last few years you’ve risen high in the Enforcer ranks, congratulations. I’d like you to extend your vacation. Come swing by our exclusive club tomorrow so we can fill you in on our plans.

  “-Peter Rose.”

  Sean eyed the note that had been slipped under his door sometime last night. He’d just finished touring the full museum with Michael or his sister Reese guiding him through. It seems that it was time that Sean would be looped in to Peter Rose’s plans for him.

  — — —

  “Malketh, excellent work,” Peter said warmly after Sean reported what he had been doing for the last few years, “You’ve risen in their ranks faster than I’d ever imagined that you would. High enough to accomplish what we need, I think.”

  “And what is it that we’ll be doing?” Sean asked neutrally.

  Peter glanced at Alex the Herald of the Shadow and to the woman who was his second in command. The same woman that had argued with Peter about shooting Sean into the sun after he was briefly captured by the Jade Congress.

  Alex nodded back at Peter encouragingly, “I think he’s ready,” Alex said, “He’s resourceful and I trust him. I’d think he’d understand the cause with his work at the GFC.”

  Peter looked to the woman and she snorted and seemed relatively unimpressed with Sean. But…

  “I don’t know him,” she said, “But if Alex says so then I won’t object.”

  Peter nodded and turned back to Sean.

  “Malketh. It’s time to bring you into our inner circle. You’ve heard bits and pieces of our goals from Alex I’m sure. But we have a plan, one that could propel our goals forward tremendously. Although the details of it won’t exactly be… pleasant.”

  Sean nodded and controlled his expression and waited for more.

  “Our goal is to interfere in the world, to help put humanity on a better path,” Peter said, some passion leaking into his voice, “Just like you’ve seen with the Jade Congress… Left to themselves the mortals cause massive amounts of suffering. The other mortal nations standing by and watching as all those terrible things happen outside of their borders. As Immortals, what is our purpose but to stop such senseless violence on a grand scale? Is it not our duty to interfere? But the Immortal Council stops us at every turn. We have to remain in the shadows and hidden from sight. Concealing ourselves. Because if the Immortal Council ever realized that we were an organized group rather than scattered individuals then they would crush us. Not through military might, money, or capture. They have a secret weapon that none of us could ever counter as we are.”

  “And what weapon is that?” Sean asked and met Peter’s eyes.

  “The Genemother, Emily Stenson,” Peter said, “She’s their secret weapon. Anything she says goes. The people of this planet worship her as practically a goddess. In the case of a conflict between Immortals, she will emerge and inevitably declare the Council to be in the right. She’s the one that helped form them after the first few Immortals started emerging from the mortal population. And if she said that I and our group was in the wrong… Then we would be in the wrong. No mortal would deal with us, all but the most dedicated would instantly defect or be shunned from larger society… A single word from her and we would lose. You are rather odd yourself, Malketh, for how irreverent you are towards her. You hide it well, but you don’t view her like a goddess like most on Gaia seem to do.”

  Sean eyed Peter carefully as he considered the words. While the man’s words were impassioned, he also detected something else buried beneath. Jealousy. Peter was jealous of Emily and how easily she could alter the world with a single word.

  “If anyone deserves to be a goddess then it’s her,” Sean said lightly, “Considering what she did. So, any conflict with her is doomed from the start then. Why even bother doing all of this if that’s true?”

  There was a short pause from Peter before he steeled himself, “We have a plan to change her mind. It will have to be delicate and done perfectly. Otherwise everything will go wrong… But if we pull it off then she’ll switch to our side. And with her on our side nothing in this world can stop us from improving this world to its best self. With the four of us at its head of course. You’ve seen it in your work with the GFC. How we can actively work to improve the world with our efforts. Why should we let mortal laws or governments stop us? We’re Immortals, and with our long lives and accumulated knowledge we know best how to guide the mortals into the future.”

  Peter sounded almost wistful at the end there. The man refocused and looked back at Sean.

  “We need to give her something to drive her. To force her to come out of her shell and start interfering with the mortals. She’ll pave the way for us, ‘leading’ us by example so we can finally announce ourselves to the world. Act out in the open and dare the Immortal Council to oppose us. All the groundwork is set, there is only this last step of pulling the trigger.”

  “And what is this thing? The thing that will drive her to do any of that?” Sean asked.

  “There can only be one thing,” Peter said firmly, “An attack on her museum. Nothing else but its complete destruction will motivate her enough to start interfering in the ways we need.”

  Sean felt his shock come through even as he worked hard to suppress it, “A-And if we’re caught? What then?”

  “Don’t you worry Malketh,” Peter said calmly as he reached out and put his hand on Sean’s shoulder, “We have a plan. A network of mortal terrorists that will take the blame for the attack and draw her attention. And a few independent Immortals that they work with are not aligned with us that will take the fall.”

  Sean considered this for a moment, and then nodded even as the hand on his shoulder pressed down on him like he was carrying a mountain. He had to stop this. This was just like what Peter had done with the virus. Causing untold harm and chaos and pinning it on a convenient patsy. Peter had ended the world last time because of his arrogance. And it seemed that he hadn’t learned his lesson.

  Sean had to stop it.

  — — —

  Sean hesitated as he held the thumb sized device over the port to the Palace’s internal network. Peter Rose had given him this for his mission. The computer was opened with Sean’s credentials, which were high enough to access the root systems, even if only with viewing privileges. But that was enough for the computer virus waiting inside the thumb drive held in his hand.

  It would worm itself into the computer systems through Sean’s access before deleting any traces of itself Peter Rose had assured him. Something to give Peter remote access and secret control of every device and alarm in the Palace.

  The Immortals that Peter would be using for the attack along with the other mortal terrorists would be attacking the Museum of Renewal in two days. Any sign of criminal Immortals usually sent a warning to the Palace and Enforcers to call for backup or containment. And for the Museum of Renewal specifically they were on a hair trigger and ready to move out if anything went wrong.

  With a deep breath Sean plugged in the thumb drive and let the virus infect the computer and begin its work. With this Peter would be able to shut down any alarms and prevent any help from arriving at the Museum of Renewal in time.

  He had to prove that he was loyal. Prove that he was going along with the plan. Otherwise Peter might call off the plan. And Sean wouldn’t know next time Peter chose to strike.

  Sean had almost completed his preparations. The restrictions of the Palace chafed more than they usually did for him. He had to get approval to leave, even as an Enforcer. He had already had his vacation, and he couldn’t leave on his own without breaking the rules.

  Sean couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Someone in the Palace had slipped Peter’s note under Sean’s door during the night. Sean had no idea how many agents Peter might have or how much access to information in here Peter might have.

  But Sean had still been able to make some preparations. He used his own isolated storage drive and computer, and recorded everything that he knew about Peter Rose and the group he had formed. Sean even included the details about Peter Rose’s role on Earth and how he was responsible for the release of the virus. He didn’t know if any of it would do any good. But he had to do his best.

  On the day of the attack, Sean put on his Enforcer uniform and tucked the innocuous little thumb drive into his pocket and walked to the walls earlier than his shift to guard. He walked over to the airstrip outside while ignoring the confused looks that the other Enforcers gave him as he moved through.

  Sean stopped in front of one of the fastest light planes that the Council owned. He typed a code into the pad to the side of the door and it opened up. Sierra had taught him all about how to hack panels like this back at the GFC. Sean had already changed the code to his own over a year ago just in case. No one ever used this plane to travel, it was reserved for Enforcer emergencies. Like the terrorist attack on Emily’s museum that was going to happen in forty five minutes. The plane could make it there in thirty give or take. Sean could only hope that he could make it in time.

  “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? Is that you in there Malketh?” A voice rang out over the console as Sean sat down in the cockpit and started firing up the engines for takeoff.

  He flipped the switch to talk back even as he started to taxi onto the runway and bring the plane engines to full throttle to bring him forward.

  “I’m stealing this plane for a bit,” Sean said casually, “Felt like going on a joyride. Take it out of my paycheck, will you? Never flown one of these before. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  There was a long sigh over the radio, “What in Gaia, Malketh? What’s gotten into you? Come back here.”

  “Sorry, Captain Entiru,” Sean said as the engines lurched into full thrust and the plane started rushing down the runway to take off, “Be back soon. I’ll explain later, but I really need to do this. You’ll understand soon.”

  “Malketh, I don’t know what’s gotten into you but…”

  Sean reached out and muted the captain as the plane lifted off the ground and started soaring through the sky on the way to his destination.

  — — —

  Sean carefully set the course of the plane and activated the autopilot. It had taken longer than expected to get here, the attack was supposed to happen in less than five minutes from now. He was cutting it close, but the more time Sean left the higher chance that one of Peter’s sources would tip him off that Sean had left the Palace.

  Sean couldn’t allow Peter to call off the attack at the last moment, otherwise Sean’s preparations to expose him would be for nothing. With no smoking gun and nothing to link Peter to anything criminal then Sean was sure that he wouldn’t get in trouble or be forced into hiding like Sean was hoping that he would be.

  Sean considered the parachute in the little compartment next to him for a moment before looking away again. A parachute would be far too obvious. Someone might see it from a distance and warn the terrorists that something was wrong.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Instead Sean carefully reached behind him and took out the carefully packaged bundle that he had prepared for this moment. Inside was an insulated package containing a pistol and several magazines of ammunition, as well as a full set of fresh clothes.

  Sean waited by the side door of the plane with one hand held to the handle and the other gripping the bundle tightly. Sitting behind him was a datapad with its screen lit up running a program that Sean had managed to cobble up for this. A dotted line marked the current trajectory of the plane while showing another arcing line that went out to hit the ground.

  Only three minutes before the attack was supposed to begin.

  Sean stayed there unmoving at the door and watched the datapad screen over his shoulder as the solid line of the trajectory they’d already traveled rapidly approached the point where the dotted line left the plane towards the ground.

  He tensed his hand and threw open the side door of the plane as the datapad lit up and started flashing and buzzing as the moment came.

  Sean jumped out of the plane and clutched his bundle to his chest as he began to fall. Behind him he saw the plane continue to fly onwards, the autopilot guiding it to land by itself at the closest airport even as its side door remained wide open as it did so.

  Sean spread out his arms and legs and inspected the ground far below as he fell through the layer of clouds below him. The air was thin up here at cruising altitude as Sean kept falling down to the ground. Everything went white as the cloud surrounded him for a few seconds before he punched through and could see the ground below again.

  The Museum of Renewal was below him, his arc out of the plane carrying him directly towards it. Sean prepared himself and angled slightly to adjust his course as well as he could with his body as the ground started to swell rapidly below him.

  He noted with relief that he was relatively on target as the museum campus grew larger and larger below him as the wind rushed past his ears around him. He was rapidly descending towards the decorative lake on the corner of the property.

  At the last moment Sean threw the bundle that he had been holding tightly to the side as hard as he could. It left his hand and a second later he hit the surface of the water like it was made of concrete and his body splattered as it punched through the five foot deep water and impacted the muddy soil below.

  Everything went dark around him. He came awake naked and surrounded by the cloying mud all around him. He thrashed a bit and clawed his way out of the pit his regenerated body had created around him. He surfaced above the water and looked around the area. There was no one around luckily. Or not so luckily. There was a loud siren coming from the buildings of the museum. Intruder alert. Sean’s heart sank slightly as he swam to the edge of the lake and climbed out. It took him less than a minute to finally find his bundle on the shore a hundred feet away.

  Sean quickly unpacked it and put on the clothes while ignoring his slightly muddy and completely wet bare skin as he put them on. He quickly opened the gun case and inspected the gun for a moment and nodded to himself as he noted that the silencer and pistol itself looked undamaged. He put on the small backpack holding his extra ammunition and slipped the pistol with the silencer into the holster at his hip that was being covered by the sweatshirt that he’d put over it. He wanted to look as unthreatening as possible to the terrorists as he went in and tried to figure out how to stop them.

  Peter hadn’t explained the details of what they were planning to do, only Sean’s part in it. So Sean would have to go in carefully and try to save as many as he could before resorting to a gunfight.

  And there were Immortals that would be there too, Sean didn’t want to be bogged down fighting one of them while one of the mortals went through with whatever attack they were trying to do.

  Sean started sprinting towards the entrance building as there was a sudden blast and the ground rumbled below his feet.

  Sean made it to the entrance and ran inside with his hand in his pocket with the pistol. He came to a stop as over a dozen people raised their machine guns to point at him. Sean’s eyes darted to the side and he saw fifteen fearful people, mostly tourists gathered together in the middle of the room surrounded by the armed men pointing their guns at them.

  Standing there at the base of the stairs to the next floor was Emily, face twitching as she clenched and unclenched her fist as she stared daggers at the armed and masked people carrying their weapons.

  “We’ve got another one!” one of the masked women called out, “Hey you, hands in the air!”

  He slowly took his hand out of the pocket with the pistol and raised his arms above his head and did his best to look intimidated. The woman gestured with the tip of her machine gun towards the larger group, “Go! Git, join them. Now!”

  Sean flinched at her sudden aggression, but allowed himself to be ushered into the larger group of frightened and whimpering tourists and museum staff.

  Sean saw Michael meet his eyes in the crowd where he stood in his museum uniform. The boys lit up with hope and he opened his mouth as if to say something to Sean. But he shook his head before he could and the boy understood and nodded back.

  Sean moved through the milling crowd towards where Emily stood.

  “What do you… want,” Emily spat as she looked at the woman who appeared to be the group’s leader.

  “We want you to do whatever we say, bitch,” the woman spat, “We’ve got hostages. And every time you don’t do something I like, one of them gets shot. We have plenty to go around.”

  The crowd gasped and muttered disapprovingly before the terrorist waved her gun over them and caused them all to flinch and go silent.

  “Don’t you dare,” Emily growled, “You let them go. Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with them.”

  “I’ve got the hostages, and I’ve got all the power,” the terrorist said, “So… You’re gonna do what I want. Or else.”

  Emily ground her teeth before softening her stance slightly as she looked over to the hostages and a fearful look came into her eye.

  “Fine,” she said, “What is it? What do you want?”

  “I want…” the terrorist said with a drawl, “To make a statement. Put these on.”

  The woman gestured towards the man next to her who was carrying a large hiking backpack. He slung it off of his back and to the floor and took something out of it. A series of metal bands with what looked like a pair of heavy metal shackles at their end.

  Emily’s eyes widened as she looked at the contraption, “Who are you? What do you want?” she asked as she seemed to struggle with herself while staring at the device.

  “That doesn’t matter,” the terrorist sneered as she brought her machine gun to point at the crowd again, leading to a few of them letting out gasps or suppressed screams.

  “I give the orders. Last chance. Let my man put it on or one of them dies.”

  Emily struggled with herself for a moment before with one more worried glance into the crowd and more specifically to Michael and the other staff, nodded jerkily at the terrorist. The man went forward and without Emily resisting locked her into the circular metal bands that locked her body in place and went from her ankles and all the way up to her neck. Her hands were together in her lap and enclosed in the large metal block and it looked like she could barely move.

  “Alright, you stay still,” the terrorist said as the man who had bound Emily reached down and picked her up in a princess carry despite all the metal keeping her body stiff and unmoving, “Let’s continue this conversation somewhere more… private.”

  The woman leader glanced meaningfully at the terrorists she was leaving behind.

  “You know your orders. Wait at least five minutes before starting and be quiet.”

  The woman and the man and four others split off from the dozen guarding the sixteen people in the crowd. Emily was carried off in silence despite the anger on her face as the remaining guards of them remained there in a rough circle staring them down.

  Michael came up to Sean’s side and the two of them quickly ducked into the center of the crowd after sharing a look.

  “Do you have a plan?” Michael whispered hopefully, “How can I help?”

  Sean thought about it and struggled with himself for a moment. If he made a mistake here then these people could easily be killed.

  He let out a breath after a moment, “Yeah, I have a plan,” he whispered back, “But it’s kinda shit. I thought I’d have more time to prepare… I’m going to cause a distraction. Here, take this.”

  Sean wrapped his arms around Michael as if to give him a hug and in doing so took the pistol from his pocket and quickly jammed it into his waistband and pulled his shirt over it with one hand. Michael’s eyes widened for a moment before Sean pulled back from the hug.

  “Point and pull the trigger,” Sean whispered to him, “Only use it if they try to fire on the crowd. As soon as I start fighting them run for it with the others. I’m an Immortal, I’ll be fine.”

  Michael looked frightened and his lip trembled slightly before he jerkily nodded at Sean.

  “Alright here I go,” Sean whispered, “Let’s tell the others to run at my signal.”

  Michael nodded. After a few minutes, everyone was ready. The guards seemed to have noticed that something had changed, but weren’t actively able to tell what they were saying to each other either.

  The moment finally came. Sean walked to the edge of the crowd across from the closest door and clutched at his chest.

  He stumbled forward away from the people gasping dramatically, “Help! I- heart- I-”

  The guard backpedaled and grimaced, but didn’t do much else as Sean rapidly stumbled towards him.

  “Hey, back off before you die early!” the man shouted as he raised his weapon towards Sean. Sean straightened and with a wound up kick leapt forward and slammed the man directly in the balls.

  The man’s face went white and he groaned as he fell to the ground limply even as Sean grabbed the man’s weapon.

  Sean turned the weapon and fired on the female terrorist behind him with heavy gunfire that sent her stumbling back and falling to the ground dead before she could even react. The man groaning on the ground had started collecting himself so Sean raised one booted foot and stomped down with all of his Immortal might on the man’s head, splattering his skull and killing him in a single blow.

  The remaining four terrorists shouted and one of the men fired on Sean with his weapon and his bullets tore a line from his hip across his body to the lower portion of his ribs. But Sean managed to turn his gun on the man and gun him down in retaliation. Sean stumbled slightly as his body went off balance as he was regenerating.

  Two of the remaining terrorists turned and fired on Sean as one in a barrage that sent him falling to the floor under the onslaught.

  There was screaming from the crowd as Sean lay there and played dead for a moment until the gunfire stopped.

  “They’re running! What do we do?” the last remaining female terrorist asked in a panic.

  “Our orders. We’ll just have to kill them all a little early,” the man said and Sean heard him turning away from Sean.

  Sean grabbed his machine gun from where it had fallen from the floor and sat up in a sudden motion and fired into his back in a quick burst. The man let out a yelp of surprise before falling to the side. The female terrorist whirled around and started firing back at Sean with wide eyes as he swiveled his gun towards her. She threw herself to the side to avoid his line of fire, but Sean tracked her and landed a single round straight through her skull before she could dodge properly.

  The last man ignored Sean and had his machine gun raised towards the back of the fleeing crowd ready to fire. Sean tried to pull his weapon in line with the man, but his heart sank as he realized that he wouldn’t be in time. The man’s finger was already pulling down on the trigger.

  Then there was a loud click and the terrorist stumbled back. Michael was standing there with the silenced pistol looking back. The boy yelped as his poor grip on the weapon caused it to jump back in his grip from the recoil and cut open his hand near his thumb.

  The terrorist grunted and raised his weapon again as Sean saw a bleeding line across his side where Michael’s bullet had just barely grazed him. Sean fired his own weapon as the terrorist did as well.

  The terrorist went down under the surprise barrage of his own, dead before he even hit the ground. But the terrorist had managed to fire his own weapon as well. Sean turned and saw in horror Michael falling to the ground clutching his gut and groaning in pain. Sean rushed forward and went to the boy and inspected the gut wound.

  He wasn’t actually sure what to look for. Sean remained hovering there impotently as he remained there over the boy laid out on the ground.

  “Owwww,” Michael wheezed, “Ow,”

  “It’s alright, I think you’re okay. You’ll be fine if we get you to a hospital,” Sean said despite not being able to know if he was being truthful. He reached up and bunched up Michael’s shirt and stuffed it in the bullet wound as tightly as he could to stop the bleeding. He guided one of Michael’s hand to the makeshift bandage and the boy instinctively pressed down on it as he understood what Sean was doing.

  Sean looked around but saw that all the other tourists had already fled for their lives into the side halls while Sean was inspecting Michael’s wounds.

  Sean looked down as Michael suddenly gripped Sean’s shirt with one fist while the other pressed his bloodstained shirt into the wound.

  “They took mom,” Michael wheezed, “I heard them before… They’ve captured the… rest of the family and staff. The living exhibit building. It has… shields all around it. Supposed to protect us during emergency and… keep critters in if something goes wrong. Got someone in and took over before the others captured us. They’ll be… taking mom there. You’ve got to go help them. I think there were more of them in… the other buildings. Gathering more people. Be careful.”

  “But Michael, what about you? What if some of thm come back?” Sean asked as he started dragging Michael to the side passage before leaning him up with his back against the wall, “We’ve got to get you to a hospital.”

  “No, the rest,” Michael wheezed, “I’ll be fine. Hurts… But go. Reese is in there with them…”

  “Alright,” Sean allowed before running back into the bloodied and damaged great hall and picking something up and running back to Michael. He carefully pressed the silenced pistol into the boy's hand and had him tuck it beneath the unbloodied half of his shirt to conceal it.

  “Don’t hesitate to protect yourself if any more of them come by,” Sean said to the boy as he stood and held his stolen machine gun at the ready, “I’m going after Emily now.”

  “Emily…” Michael muttered while seeming slightly delirious now, “Reese. You’ve got it… Malketh.”

  Sean ran outside and started sprinting towards the living exhibit building at top speed. He had to stop the terrorists before anyone else got hurt.