Kings Game

Chapter 70 - Blood of my Kin

(1)

Roran folded himself into a chair and rubbed his brow. The others in the room were giving him a respectful amount of distance. Most of them were members of the City Guard, brought in to help with the task at hand, the rest were Champions bearing the golden bangles of the King's Court.

Tapping him twice on the shoulder, Sarah said, "You're stressed."

Roran nodded. He was hesitant to speak to Sarah while other people were around, but they were all distracted.

Covering his mouth, Roran muttered, "I'm pissed off. It's late and I want to go to bed. I didn't even have time to finish eating."

Roran had been trying to have a quick dinner when one of Pelkha's goons had pulled him out of the apartment, citing some secret mission that, so far, nobody could explain to him. He hadn't even been able to finish cleaning up his dishes.

"Kell's going to be mad I left a mess," Roran said.

"I'm less worried about dirty dishes and more concerned with our immediate problem."

"Which is?"

Sarah gestured to the packed room. There were easily a dozen people around them.

"This is a little bigger than what we've dealt with before."

Roran shrugged. He'd gotten used to being sent on random missions for Pelkha. Just because there were more people this time didn't mean that it was any bigger than the last time he'd gone hunting for Pelkha. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any more explosions.

"They're coming," said Sarah.

A door opened and Pelkha and Rhout entered. They looked more serious than usual and Rhout was downright grim. Roran climbed to his feet while the rest of the room fell silent, everyone waiting for Pelkha to speak.

"We just came from the interrogation chambers," said Pelkha. There was a quiet murmuring at this and Rhout shuddered, looking away. Pelkha ignored him. "We've learned of multiple cells of infiltrators within the city. We will be launching a unified campaign to apprehend them all tonight. Information on this operation has been kept tight due to how effective their information system is."

Roran thought of the group of shadows back in Uhlara. They'd been organized, ruthless, and most of all, effective. They were ordinary people trained to stab unsuspecting victims in the back. They could go about their day, performing mundane jobs, living mundane lives, while being ready to attack innocent children at a moment's notice.

"Breathe," Sarah whispered in his ear. "Don't lose your temper now. Remember, the shadows are people too."

Roran took a moment to calm himself while Pelkha went on.

"You'll be operating in small cells. We've given out assignments based on target size and volatility. Our ultimate goal is to wipe out the spies. The secondary goal is to take them alive. As much as we'd love to have more infiltrators to interrogate, removing the threat is the key priority. We're attacking all at once to maximize the number of enemy infiltrators we can eliminate at once. We won't have a second chance at this. Any questions?"

"Is the intel good this time?" asked an agitated voice. Yosk stood in the center of the group. He was pale and his movements were stiff. The last battle hadn't been kind to him.

"I can assure you that the information our interrogators produced is the best that can be expected," said Pelkha.

"That's what you said last time! I nearly got my head chopped off-"

Rhout held up a hand to stop Yosk's rant. "It's good," he said, still looking squeamish. "The intel is good. I talked to her myself, she isn't keeping any secrets from anyone."