Alcingeria

Chapter Fifty Four: The Mission

Chapter Fifty Four The Mission:

Wednesday July 7th 1690

This was it. All we had to do now was get all the magic users out of the complex and blow the place sky high. This would destroy all of the machine guns and hopefully, as many mafia members as possible.

Stella, Robert, Macalister and I were together. We decided to check around the base to make sure there were no straggling guards. Sure enough, everyone was either passed out in the guards' quarters, or in the bar. We didn't see our friends, so there must have been doing their job well.

"You four," we heard a chillingly familiar voice call. "Stop right where you are."

Uh oh. Stella didn't know this voice like Robert and I did, but she placed it immediately.

"Ignacio," I said with false joviality. "Been a while."

I turned to face the familiar cloaked figure, but this time his hood was down to reveal his black hair and red eyes, complemented by his chalky complexion.

"My, it certainly has." He chuckled. "I never would have suspected you'd be the ones who infiltrated us, but it does have some sort of, I don't know, poetry to it. I believe among my last words to you were 'until we meet again'."

He paused, looking us all over now that we faced him. Confusion crossed his features as he gestured vaguely towards us.

"What is this?" He asked. "I can't believe you willingly turned into vampires after coming so close to such a fate at our first meeting."

"You're right," I laughed, pulling up my amulet. "We'd never subject ourselves to such degeneracy."

"So that's why none of my operatives managed to pick out a few humans in our ranks," he said in understanding. "If you are anything, Scorpions, you are cunning. I don't want to kill you, but I'm afraid I must make an exception to my code of ethics just this once."

"'Just this once'?" I demanded. "What about the magic users? What about the scores of corpses your little coup is going to bring?"

Ignacio looked taken aback, as though he'd been trying to keep that thought hidden even to himself.

"I admit, you're right." He yielded before recomposing himself. "It is a little too bloody for my tastes, and that's saying something. However, I'm afraid what I did to attain the magic users was necessary in the first place; I could have cut a deal with Queen Yuka, and I am doubtless that she'd have sold her servants out for the right price, but such a deal would not have been beneficial to us in the slightest. We need gold to fund ourselves and we happen to be in short supply of it at the moment. I miscalculated some of the expenses when laying the foundations for this organization and frankly, I didn't expect things to take this long."

"So, what?" I asked. "You were pushed into this attack by lack of funding, of all things?"

"In a sense, yes." He nodded. "But not entirely. In order to keep the spell blanketed across every prisoner, a great deal of magical energy is expended on part of poor Glynda. She took all the magical precautions she could to ensure failsafes, but even those are nearing their limits. In order to prevent an uprising, I must give them an outlet for their emotions. And what better way to do it? I've already given them a common enemy, I've promised them something they've never had; freedom. They view me as their savior. The only limiting factor is that of the time constraint, which should not be a problem, seeing as it won't take long at all to deal with you."

"So," Robert cut in, on guard and facing him. "You caught us. I don't suppose you'll surrender, like you did last time?"

"Well, the fourth man to your little band has yet to turn up. No matter, I will see to it after I've dealt with you. To be quite honest, I was wondering when we'd meet each other again," he said loftily. "Except, I thought that you would have come to track down that money rather than stop me from taking over Vulrock."