| |
––––––––
2179 ACE, in ORD/City One
“Where have you been?” SEOH barked at Rustaad who came striding into SEOH’s office.
“Things are not going as simply as you’d thought.”
“I never expect simple.”
“No, but you expected the MystiKs to behave as they always do and that has not happened.”
SEOH slapped his hand down and the holographic monitors on the side of his desk disappeared. “What’s wrong?”
“We never found the last four G’ortians. I think three were smuggled into the city as part of the staff supporting those two Hy’bridts.”
“We were led to believe G’ortians were the equivalent of all but deity level in the Houses. Why would they pretend to be staff?”
“My guess would be that those two young Hy’bridt’s and the G’ortians got together and came up with a plan on their own that didn’t include the leaders of the Houses.”
SEOH paused, shocked that a bunch of teens had defied fifty years of MystiK customs and habits. “What are they doing?”
“I’m not sure, but the laser curtains are corrupting for no traceable reason. It has to be due to those MystiKs.”
“What? Why would they do that and risk letting C’raydonians in?”
Rustaad’s gaze narrowed at that comment, but SEOH was not going to open a discussion on C’raydonians right now. SEOH said, “Power up the laser grid now. Weaken the Hy’bridts.”
“It’s too soon,” Rustaad argued.
“We’re just under an hour from the opening ceremony for the BIRG Con. They’ll all be too busy to notice anything, and the leaders obviously know nothing if the Hy’bridts and G’ortians are making a rogue attack on our laser curtains. In fact, we’ll expose those brats to the House leaders as soon as we meet. The MystiK leaders may hate me, but they will not tolerate anyone daring to undermine their authority and put their lives at risk.”
Rustaad rubbed his chin.
That action was the equivalent of someone else having a panic attack. “Is there something you want to tell me about the C’raydonians, SEOH?”
“No.” Just as there was nothing SEOH intended to tell Rustaad about the sentient beasts he still possessed. “What are you waiting for?”
“You need to reconsider this laser grid entirely. If we power up and it doesn’t perform as expected, the MystiKs will turn on us. All of us. I have real concerns about these G’ortians and Hy’bridts joining up.”
“That bunch of weirdo kids has you running scared? Where’s the Rustaad I hired?”
“I’m standing here trying to keep you from losing everything you’ve worked to build. I’ve seen what the MystiKs can do, but not this level of power from them. The combined strength of the G’ortians and Hy’bridts has to be the reason for our sporadic breakdown in the laser curtains. What bothers me is the uniform corruption, as if the MystiKs can actually target that much damage and be specific. Thylan’s laser grid test proved we still have more to find out about this grid system. Powering it up for the first real test when the most powerful MystiKs are together in one city will be suicide if we fail.”
“Then don’t fail. Go activate the grids now or I’ll send someone else.”
