Book 3 | Agent 34 and the Storm of Darkness

Chapter 15 | A Rebellion in the Rebellion

Calvin stretched in his white bed. He glanced over at the three kids who sat quietly in theirs, all of them asleep. The soldier rubbed his eyes slowly, his vision adjusting to the dark room. 

The door creaked open slowly and their caretaker popped her head inside. "Calvin, glad you're awake. Lord Thad would like to speak with you," Helena said, pulling her hair off her shoulders.

Calvin nodded and pushed himself off his bed and walked over to the doctor. He exited the room and followed her as she led him back to a door that read Private on it in the back of the Zena's infirmary. Once they entered, the small yet old dwarf named Thad was waiting inside with a distressed look on his face.

"Here he is," Helena said in a groggy tone. "The soldier you asked to see,"

"Why, hello Calvin!" Thad greeted him, almost instantly reaching for his hand to shake it, which Calvin allowed him to do. "Hi, yes, er, you said you wanted to go after the Destigems and stop them from reaching Urania, right?"

Calvin's face lit up as he nodded quickly. 

"Well, we can't do that yet until we solve another...issue...within the Zena," Thad's distressed look returned as he clasped his arms behind his back and paced around the room.

"What is it, Thad?" Calvin asked quickly in a rude manner.

"I assigned Sercon to fix it before he left but he apparently didn't. Braunick has stationed some spies in the Zena before he died, and they've been planning a rebellion for quite some time now to avenge him. An assassination if we have to be specific, and you can only guess who it'll be for," Thad flicked a finger out from his fist and pointed it at himself. He sighed heavily, scratching his chin.

"We have to stop them!" Calvin threw his fist against a white countertop, Thad flinching slightly.

Thad swallowed hard. "You'd like to stop them?"

"I will," Calvin said. "I'll stop them before they assassinate you."

"Even if they get close, I can defend for myself. I might be old but I can sure fight good," Thad said. "No need to worry about me, you just need to get to them and destroy them. Do you need any help with the mission?" 

Calvin thought hard for a minute. His mind flashed to Benjamin, his friend's child that he had been put in charge of. "I can find some on my own,"

"Great!" Thad exclaimed. "Now let me explain how you'll do this, Calvin. Around a week ago I ordered three spies to go and investigate a little, just get their info and stuff, not kill them. We wanted to see what moves they'd make, plus those spies couldn't fight well. They were there for spying only. Anyways, you'll need to locate at least one of them and find out Braunick's follower's hideout and all of that good stuff. Once you get it, you and your backup go to it and destroy the traitors. Leave none of them alive."

Calvin gulped. "Yeah, I'll need a little bit of help on that. Just me and the guy I was thinking about helping me can't take out all of them at once and I don't want to try."

"I can organize you some soldiers to assist you. You'd be the leader of that squadrant, and if you'd like, a few of them could go with you when you chase after the Destigems?" The dwarf said.

"I'm doing that too?" He asked, forgetting about him telling Helena he wanted to do that.

"Helena didn't tell you I approved of your request?" Thad asked. "I know it's very important that we get to them, but these spies can't last any longer. If Braunick truly is alive like rumors say, then Braunick has direct contact with these spies, I'm sure. Once they assassinate me then he'll take over the throne of the Zena and Renya,"

Calvin nodded. "I'll find those three spies you placed in the group of rebel spies. I'll come to you when I need my squadrant,"

Thad nodded, and paced around the room again.

Helena led Calvin back to his room, acting like the last conversation of war and a rebellion didn't even happen. She opened the door for him and the oldest child in the room was sitting up with his legs crossed.

"'Ey, Calvin," Ben said. "Where were you?" Calvin ignored his question and grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the room and into the hallway. He leaned in close and whispered something in his ear. "Do you want to help the Zena with a private mission?"

The fourteen-year-old's eyes lit up. "Yes!" He exclaimed. 

Calvin shushed him quickly. "This is a private mission. You can't tell your siblings about this or anyone in general except me or Lord Thad. There may or may not be some bad and explicit images you may see or hear of. Do you want to go through that?"

"Yes," Benjamin said, straightening his back. "I want to help the Zena!"

"Good, because some of Braunick's spies are going to try to kill Lord Thad and it's our mission to stop them. Thad himself placed three spies within those group of spies to get some info and we need to go locate them," Calvin explained.

"Let's go!" Ben hurrily said, beginning to sprint down the hallway. Calvin grabbed his right arm and held him back.

"Hold on, speedy. We need to tell Helena so she can keep an eye on your siblings," Calvin said, looking down the hallway to spot the nurse.

He dragged Ben with him over to Helena and told her that the two of them were leaving and to keep an eye out for Rose and Carter, but Calvin was sure that they could handle themselves. They crossed the entire desert on foot and they were both minors. Pretty impressive.

After they told Helena, the two began to search the Zena and questioning the guards as they walked by.

~ ~ ~

The woman wiped the dry blood off her lip as she walked through the desert, dragging her silver sword behind her in the sand. Her knees shook and she fell face-first into the hot sand in front of her. She crawled on her knees to her location, following the footprints that were fading slowly.

"I...need...to make it to...my...children..." the woman whispered, her dry and scratchy throat screaming for water.

Even though she had left the storm, the evil inside her hadn't left her. That part was permanent unless the sources was destroyed, which was unlikely.

The woman crawled up one last sand dune, thinking it was her last one and that she'd take her last breath upon it. What she didn't think was that her destination was closer than she thought.

The mother emerged over the top of the sand dune to see the mountains not too far ahead of her, and a large building sightly hidden behind them. That was her destination. The footprints led there. That's where her kids were.

The insane woman gained strength from the thought of her finally reaching her goal. She straightened her legs and her body and pushed herself off the ground. She stood up, steadying herself as she continued walking to the Zena.

"I'm getting my kids back," she said as he finger ran along her silver blade that was stained with her husband's blood. "and we can finally be a big happy family again."