“I have it, but I don’t see my payment.” Lila looks around. “Where is what you promised me?”
When we were going through past communications, I discovered something truly disturbing. The payment for this Madovian retrieving the orb wasn’t in money or precious metals or gems—it was in male flesh.
Vivax waves a hand, and off to the side, a group of men in shackles are nudged forward by more soldier bots. There are ten of them of all species, and they don’t look like they are in the best condition. I wonder if some of them are the missing aliens from Earth. The Vilaxian showing his fangs might be Logan’s father.
Lila hisses. “I said they had to be in prime condition. My sisters can’t breed damaged stock.” She rears up on her tail, becoming larger and more intimidating. “Are you trying to go back on our deal?”
“Some of them put up a fight and needed to be subdued. A deal’s a deal, now where is my orb?” Vivax stands up.
“Very well, but if any of them don’t survive the implantation, I and all of my sisters will be coming after you. Our species is on the verge of extinction,” Lila threatens.
She reaches a hand into the slit in her stomach, and Vivax watches with greedy eyes. She is so focused on the movement, she doesn’t notice the mist pouring into the room, and neither does anyone else. It is very clever of her to pretend the orb is hidden there. Suddenly, everyone is frozen, including Vivax. I guess she thought she was safe deep inside her mountain fortress.
“Ew, you put the orb in your stomach slit?” Cronus appears in front of us, looking at Lila with horror. Her form shimmers, and she changes into her original form and doubles over in laughter as Xavier covers her in her armor.
“No, but it was a good bluff, right?”
“No!” He still looks traumatized as we all turn to study the Syndicate with detached interest.
“Well, Lila, I would think it’s safe to say everyone you ever pissed off has joined forces to see that you pay,” the warlock says to our wife flippantly, but she ignores him.
“Call the others and let’s get this done.” I can’t wait to see them all pay.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lila
Xavier isn’t wrong. I study the Syndicate and feel a pang of sorrow.
Lester, of course, is next to Smith, and it’s no surprise to see Destir and a scarred and bored looking Dylan. I would have put money on them being on thewe hate Lilatrain. Hanging off Dylan’s arm is none other than the dragon loving bitch Zilla. The purple streaks that signify her bond with a larnuk are gone, and instead, those parts are gray and brittle. In fact, all of her looks slightly brittle. She’s lost weight and looks way older than before.
I turn my attention to the other side and feel a pang of sorrow for Link. We suspected his mother was involved, but seeing it confirmed is a real kick in the ass. I’m not sure if the fleitine will handicap a cyborg, since they don’t contain magic. We need to figure out another way to render her benign. With the ability to manipulate nanobots, she could conceivably escape quite easily, and if she is able to override the soldier guards, then we would lose all of our prisoners. Maybe keeping them all together in the same prison isn’t a great idea.
Next to her is another blast from the past in the form of Natalia. I don’t think Maxsim had been informed of her escape, or if he had, he hadn’t thought to share it with me. We will be having words if that’s the case. She looks a little worse for wear too, which makes me irrationally happy. She looks like she has some sort of mange. Her fur is patchy, and her skin is red in places where there is no fur.
I slide my eyes further along and recognize one of the warlocks, but not the other. One is that upstart asshole Aryan, Cronus’s aide. I’m assuming the other one is his father.
“Ah, so that’s where that asshole Atrax got to.” Cronus points at the man on the end. “Why am I not surprised? I knew it was too much temptation for Aryan to stay loyal to me instead of his father. I bet he’s wishing he had now.” The warlock king chuckles and rubs his hands together in glee. I don’t envy either of them one little bit.
“You know, I’m kind of disappointed. This is the feared Syndicate?” I say. “How were we scared of this?” I ask, shaking my head.
“I think maybe we managed to take a few of them out during our travels. The basilisk showed heavy involvement with them when we went through their files,” Silac tells me.
“So was Mazlan. I guess Natalia is her replacement,” Xavier points out. “Not to mention the cyborg we took care of and both Estrella and Radella. All had been actively recruited. Josa was recruited previous to the circus going on hiatus, but Estrella and Radella were after it. That’s why they insisted on the clan dissolution trial, but it backfired on them. We got that information from them when we were transporting them to the outpost.”
“My father is going to be devastated by this.” Tirrian waves at his uncle. “The man has never been particularly pleasant, butto conspire against the throne and the galactic council, well, it’s going to break his heart.”
I heave out a sigh. “Call the others down. It’s time to finish this,” I tell Xavier, and he sends the agreed upon signal. Within seconds, the gods, my father, and the Vilaxians appear. Saxon races around, placing transport beacons on all the Syndicate members except for Vivax and the captive men. The others disappear to take care of the guards outside and anyone else who may be in the complex.
“Make sure Brannock is given access to Smith. I promised him,” I tell my father who approaches me.
“Yes, he and I have had an in-depth discussion on exactly what will happen to Agent Smith. I’m just sad I’m not going to be there to see it,” he tells me, and I frown.
“What do you mean?” I ask him but before he can answer the Vilaxians return.
“All life-forms are accounted for, but everyone outside of this room wasn’t sentient. There is no Syndicate army, just one full of bots,” Sabine sneers.
“Okay, all beacons have been placed. Prepare to beam,” Saxon says into his watch, contacting the control deck of the Vilaxian battleship.
