For the first time since we made our fake deal with David, we were allowed to go inside Trevor Gale’s compound. I kept my eyes sharp as two guards escorted me and Audrey through a series of doors in the first ring of buildings. Just as we had guessed, and seen when we tried to break in, no one actually lived there. The rooms were either empty or contained guards who watched the public road outside.
Sun beat down on us as the guy at the front of our small procession led us out into the street between the first and the second row of buildings. When we met with Levi early yesterday morning, the temperature had been pleasant. But today, our meeting with David was closer to midday, and it felt as though the temperature was increasing with every minute as the sun climbed higher over the horizon.
We must have entered a heat wave because, while summers were always warm on this side of the continent, the last couple of days had been stifling. Or maybe I was just used to spending my time in the open grasslands around Eldar rather than inside a crowded city.
I ran a hand over the back of my neck, wiping away a beat of sweat that rolled down my skin. My leather armor wasn’t exactly the best choice of clothing on a day like this, but I had to wear it since we would finally be killing Gale today. If I didn’t die of heatstroke first, that is.
Audrey was in her tight riding outfit too, rather than one of her usual dresses. Since David thought we would be joining him to kidnap Levi’s wife, he wouldn’t consider our change in attire strange. I glanced down at my brilliant poison mage. She was looking straight ahead as we crossed the empty road and made our way towards the second ring of buildings, but based on the calculating glint in her eyes, she was running through the plan in her head yet again. This had to go perfectly. We had already wasted enough time on this mission. Hell knew what was happening in Eldar while we were here trying to get Levi’s help. So we couldn’t afford to fail now. Everything had to run smoothly.
Hinges creaked as the guard at the front pulled open a door, but he didn’t go inside. Instead, he motioned for us to enter. I exchanged a brief glance with Audrey before we strode across the threshold and into the room beyond.
“I hear that you have news for me,” David said as the guards closed the door behind us. “Please tell me it’s the news I want it to be.”
The arrogant advisor was standing with his hands behind his back, watching us with eyebrows raised expectantly. Bookshelves lined the walls of the room, but there was nothing on them. And apart from the lonely-looking broom leaning against the red stone wall by a doorway that led farther into the building, the room was empty.
“We have the location,” I replied as I shifted my gaze back to David.
He clapped his hands. Actually clapped his hands together. “Excellent!”
“We’ve secured the building across the street from the safe house, so we’re ready to hit it at any time.”
His moustache twitched as he grinned. “I knew approaching you was the right move.”
“Yeah, speaking of the deal…” I let a sly smile spread across my mouth.
“We want some better terms,” Audrey finished, an equally sharp smile on her lips.
David narrowed his eyes at us. “Trying to renegotiate the deal now that you have what I want, huh?” He tutted and shook his head. “Bad manners.”
Of course it was, but we were dark mages. It would have looked incredibly suspicious if we had just handed over information that was this valuable without wringing a few last concessions out of him.
With matching arrogant expressions on our faces, Audrey and I lifted our shoulders in a synchronized shrug.
“Do you want the information or not?” I challenged.
David brushed his hands together. Red flames licked his palm as he raised it to study the fire for a few seconds. It cast an ominous glow over his face as he looked up to meet our gazes again. Neither Audrey nor I had made any move to summon magic, showing him that we weren’t threatened by this demonstration at all.
“You’re inside Mr. Gale’s stronghold now,” David said with a pointed look towards the door we had come from. “Surrounded by hundreds of his guards. If you don’t want to give me the information, I could always take it from you.”
Audrey scoffed, “Good luck with that.”
“And while you’re wasting time trying to get what you need from us by force, Levi might decide to move his wife to another safe house, as he has no doubt been doing for months, and the information will become worthless anyway.” I shrugged. “And all you’ve accomplished is to make two more enemies.”
This was a classic dark mage negotiation. Lots of posturing. Lots of threats. And the first person to show a sign of weakness or desperation lost. David would have expected nothing less from us. And we already knew that he was desperate enough for this information that he would agree to our new terms, so all this did was to make our act more believable.
Another couple of seconds passed where David tried to stare us down from the other side of his fire. We just continued watching him in silence.
At last, he blew out a huff and curled his fingers, extinguishing the red flames in his palm. “What do you want?”
Audrey and I flashed him satisfied grins.
“We want a free pass,” she said with a nonchalant flick of her wrist. “When you’ve gotten rid of Levi, and Trevor Gale is the new main player in Malgrave, we don’t just want to be allowed to stay here. We want a free pass.”
“Which entails what?” David asked.
“No interference,” I said. “Levi’s got a lot of rules about who can do what and how and when in this city, but I’m not a fan of rules. So, we want a free pass. We can decide to threaten or blackmail or kill anyone we want, for any reason, and you and Trevor Gale will look the other way.”
He sucked his teeth and then ran a hand over his moustache.
“Or we walk right now.” I let a lethal glint creep into my eyes. “And we kidnap Levi’s wife on our own and then use her to make him attack you and wipe out this entire compound. And then we’ll kill Levi too.”
“That sounds like a very dangerous and ambitious plan.”
“Yeah, which is why we’d prefer to stick with the deal we already have with you. Except with those added extras.”
David crossed his arms and watched us for a few seconds before countering, “The free pass applies to everyone except the guards around this stronghold.”
Audrey and I exchanged a glance. She nodded.
“That’s acceptable,” I said.
“Excellent.” He shot us a pointed look. “Now that you’ve finished extorting us, can we get back to the matter of the safe house?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. Now that we’re all in agreement, Audrey and I will go and get Levi’s wife and bring her back here. It shouldn’t take more than… let’s say two hours.”
“No.”
We frowned at him.
“What do you mean no?” Audrey challenged.
“You will not be getting her. You will show us to the safe house, but Mr. Gale, along with me and his other trusted guards, will accompany you and personally go in to secure the target.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She flashed him a mocking grin. “Trust issues, huh?”
He gave her a flat look. “I wonder why.”
A smug laugh escaped her lips. Then she flicked her wrist. “Fine. By all means, come with us. It should make the retrieval faster anyway.”
While nodding in confirmation, he raised his arm and motioned towards the open doorway that led deeper into the building. “I would like a detailed map of what the inside of the building looks like. Please, come with me.”
Once he had seen that we started forward, he took the lead and moved into the adjacent corridor. Our feet echoed into the silence as we walked down the length of it until we reached another room at the end.
That one also had bookshelves lining the walls, but as opposed to the room we had just left, these were actually full of books. There was also a large round table in the middle of the floor. The chairs, however, had been stacked into a pile in the corner.
A male guard stood at attention by one of the windows when we entered. He dipped his chin in a sign of deference as his gaze landed on David.
“Get everyone ready,” David said while he continued towards one of the bookshelves. “Immediately. Operation Sparrow is going down today.”
It took all of my self-control not to laugh at the ridiculous code name. From the corner of my eye, I could see Audrey fighting to keep her facial expression in check as well.
The guard only inclined his head again. “Yes, sir.”
His boots thudded against the stone floor as he strode away with purposeful steps.
From the other side of the room, paper rustled as David pulled out a large sheet along with what looked like a fountain pen. With a snap of his wrists, he unfurled the paper and spread it across the round table before placing the pen next to it.
“The layout, if you please,” he said.
I drew both hands over the paper, smoothening it out, before picking up the pen. Both Audrey and David watched me as I began drawing an accurate map of the two-story building. Well, a mostly accurate map, anyway. There were some key features that were slightly altered to make sure that our scheme played out the way we wanted it to.
“This is the entrance.” I pointed to the door I had drawn that led to the street outside it. “But we’re gonna need someone who’s good at picking locks. Unless you want to just blast through it, but that would make us lose the element of surprise.”
“We have someone who can handle that,” David replied.
“Good. There’s a back door here. It will look like it’s unlocked but it’s actually a trap. If we pull the handle, it triggers an explosion, so we’ll need to have everyone go in through the front door.”
“Noted.”
“The front door leads to this corridor. There are a bunch of rooms down on this floor, but we won’t need to bother with any of them because she won’t be on the ground floor.” I shifted my pen. “Here’s the staircase to the upper floor. My best guess is that she will either be in this room…” Using the tip of the pen, I tapped a spot on the map before moving it to a different location and doing the same. “Or this one.”
“Excellent.” He stroked his thumb and forefinger along the sides of his moustache a few times while considering in silence. Then he looked up to meet our eyes. “We’ll plan accordingly. Please wait here while I inform Mr. Gale. We should all be ready to move within the hour.”
We gave him a nod in acknowledgement.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside the door. A moment later, the guard that David had sent away with instructions returned and drew himself up in front of the advisor.
“The orders have gone out, sir,” he said.
“Excellent. Remain at your post until I return.”
I was starting to get annoyed by David’s obsession with the word excellent, but any irritation was overshadowed by amusement when I realized that he planned to have that guard stay here to babysit us while he talked to Gale. As if that would stop us if we truly wanted to leave.
From the way Audrey’s lips quirked slightly, she was thinking the same thing. However, neither one of us said anything as David gave us one final nod and then strode out the door. We were exactly where we needed to be anyway.
And everything was proceeding right on schedule.
