The Zombie Knight

Chapter Two Hundred Eighteen: 'The incendiaries of the dark stream...'

Raul Blackburn was enjoying himself, as were his two brothers. They'd never even left Sair before, but in these last few months, their whole lives had changed.

Not entirely for the better, of course, but such things were inevitable.

The Blackburn Triplets had learned years ago from Cousin Ibai that one's outlook on life could make even the worst situation much more bearable. And similarly, they'd learned from Cousin Melchor that honoring their ancestors and their kin didn't mean that they had to display their sorrow and determination to the entire world.

It was enough to keep those things in their hearts.

They knew their mission. They knew the importance of it. The last thing they wanted was to neglect their task and let everyone down.

But that didn't mean they had to be all uptight and stuffy about it, either. Ridgemark was a remarkable place, and Vantalay, a remarkable country. Seeing the sights and taking in the local culture were valuable experiences, too--and part of their intelligence-gathering mission.

Just because they were spending much of their time gambling, shopping, talking to fine ladies, and sampling extravagant cuisine didn't mean that they weren't still on task.

The seaside city of Ridgemark was a veritable metropolis of luxury. In many ways, it reminded Raul of Rheinhal, only much larger and with an oceanside view.

But then again, from what he'd heard, Rheinhal might well have been leveled by Sanko since his last visit, so perhaps that comparison wasn't even remotely accurate, anymore.

It was a bitter thought, that.

He knew that his family was partly to blame for the loss of Rheinhal. If they hadn't kidnapped the Elroy children and thereby divided the Rainlords' forces, that battle might have gone quite differently--especially if House Blackburn had joined the fight, as well.

It was a shame upon his family.

One that he and his brothers hoped to somehow rectify.

If they could discover more about the Vanguard's operations, if they could locate their captured brethren--the Houses Redwater, Garza, Merlo, Stroud, and Zabat--surely, then, their honor could be redeemed.

Surely, then, the Rainlords of Sair might truly be united as one again.

They just needed information.

And if anything, Ridgemark seemed like the place to find it. The city was absolutely awash with people from all over the world. Even the news of war seemed to have hardly put a dent in the city's feverish energy. If he hadn't been stationed here a couple weeks before the news arrived, he might not have even thought anything had changed.

But there were differences, to be sure. They were simply quieter, probably too subtle for the average tourist to notice. A few more guards here. Some back alley meetings there.

And the reapers. They were everywhere.

Without a doubt, there was a major force of servants operating somewhere in this city. Raul, Adan, and Esai had begun the arduous task of trying to identify as many servants as they possibly could--without being noticed, of course. Remaining hidden among the crowds was far more important than gaining intel on random enemies. In hindsight, it had certainly been the correct decision to leave their own reapers behind.

Surprisingly and frustratingly, it had thus far proven rather difficult to confirm which side all the servants in the city belonged to. Whoever they were, they were keeping a low profile while their reapers scoured the city.

That information alone, however, suggested that it probably wasn't Abolish, as they had a tendency to be rather loud and obnoxious wherever they went, but that was no guarantee. Raul had heard of certain Abolish sects with more self-control than the typical rabble.

But then again, given Ridgemark's reputation as a land of debauched excess, self-control seemed like a thing unlikely to be found here. Indeed, the triplets' strategy was to not employ that very much at all.

Mid-morning, Raul found his brother Adan sitting at yet another slot machine, chatting happily away with the rather buxom brunette in a sequined dress who was sitting at the adjacent machine.

The woman did a double take when she noticed Raul approaching, which made Adan turn to look at him.

"Hey! Mornin', bro. Sleep well?" Adan's bright smile had charmed many a woman over these last few weeks.

But of course, Raul had the same smile, himself. "Oh, yeah, man. Like a log." He slapped his hand down on his brother's shoulder and turned his attention to the woman next to him. "And who is this gorgeous creature you're talking to? Introduce me, bro!"

"Bro, no way. I found her first."

Raul ignored him and put his hand forward. "I'm Raul. Great to meet'cha."

She still seemed a little awestruck by the sight of them both there, but after a moment, she smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Carla."

"Ooh, are you Intarian?" said Raul.

"You could tell?" she said.

His smile widened. "An educated guess, based on your name and that beautiful complexion of yours."

That earned a dainty blush from her.

Adan stood up and wrapped his arm around Raul's shoulder, still all smiles as usual, though. "So what brings you here, bro? Anything I can help with?"

"Ah, yeah," said Raul, "the reason I was looking for you was because I thought we could get breakfast together--and maybe have some bro talk."

"Oh! Bro talk?"

"Bro talk."

"Hmm. Yeah. It has been a while since our last bro talk, hasn't it?"

"Yep."

Adan's easy smile didn't change, but Raul knew that look in his green eyes. He understood. Of course he did. They all knew what bro talk meant.

Raul had received new orders late last night from his reaper all the way back in Atreya. No doubt, Adan and Esai had received the same orders from their own reapers as well, but they had yet to discuss them among one another.

With so many reapers about--and potentially hostile servants--they had to be careful with what they said aloud. Thankfully, it was no difficult adaptation for the Blackburn Triplets to speak in code. They'd been doing it in various forms ever since they were little boys terrorizing Marshrock together.

Adan turned to Carla, his smile having become abruptly more apologetic. "I'm sorry, darling, but my less handsome brother here is right. Bro talk is a sacred tradition in our family. I'm afraid our lovely conversation will have to end here."

Carla looked bewildered, yet also somewhat amused. "I see..."

Raul wasn't about to let that jab slide, however. "Bro, we have the same face. No matter how you slice it, we're equally handsome."

Adan shook his head. "Bro, bro, bro... truly spoken like the youngest and most naive of us. Handsomeness is about more than just the structure of your face, my dude. It's also about how you carry yourself. It's about having a deeper, inner dignity and projecting that outwardly in everything that you do."

"And do you suppose that your 'deeper, inner dignity' is negatively affected by all the bollocks you talk?" said Raul.

"I sure hope not," said Adan.

Carla's machine interrupted their conversation, lighting up and playing triumphant music. She'd barely even been paying attention to the thing, but she'd just won big, it seemed. Not the jackpot, perhaps, but certainly still cause for celebration. The excitement on her face was obvious, and the brothers were eager to congratulate her--though Adan's expression was noticeably relieved, probably because he'd been momentarily worried that she actually had scored the jackpot just now.

Adan was probably the least proficient gambler of the Triplets, despite spending the most time in the casino. He preferred the slots over things like blackjack or video poker, since he didn't have to concern himself with odds or strategy, and that disposition of his lent itself well to the task of information gathering. He could just plop down next to someone and start chatting them up without having to focus on the game he was playing.

Raul did notice, however, that Adan had been favoring this particular group of machines, lately. When he'd asked why, Adan had told him that the jackpot had caught his eye.

And indeed, the Revenant cruiser sitting on a glass-encased platform in the middle of all the slot machines was hard to miss. It was a handsome motorcycle, the latest model according to the information sticker on the side, but Raul knew that wasn't why Adan was interested in it. They'd all heard that rumor a while back about the Lord Goffe's affection for motorcycles. No doubt, Adan was hoping to win it and gift it to him in order to earn the Lord of Warrenhold's favor.

Thus far, none of the Triplets had had much interaction with the guy, but if they performed well on this mission, then who knows? Perhaps that would change. Earning reputation among their Rainlord brethren was important, too, of course, but right now, the real prestige came from working with the man who'd saved everyone not once, but twice. The mysterious hero of both Dunehall and Capaporo.

Among the Rainlords, rumors about Lord Goffe only seemed to be growing, and honestly, Raul had a hard time believing a lot of them. Apparently, he'd slain a fifty foot worm single-handedly and won the loyalty of the Bull Leech.

They hadn't known the man's moniker before that disastrous fight in Capaporo went down, but they certainly knew it now. That was one of the first things that the Rainlords had done upon arriving at Warrenhold: find out who the hell Leo was. According to the intel Raul had heard on the subject, the nickname was a result of Leo's reputation for incredible stubbornness and parasitism.

Not the most comforting bit of information Raul had ever heard.

But if Lord Goffe had truly managed to acquire the aid of someone like that... well...

Raul wasn't the only one impressed, that was for sure.

Carla's sudden winnings must have reordered her priorities, because she soon excused herself to go cash out. Adan tried to get her number before she left, but she turned him down.

Adan's shoulders slumped a little as they picked their way through the crowded casino floor. "Damn, dude, I really thought she was into me."

"You came on too strong, bro. It's good to go after what you want, but sometimes, you've gotta just leave things to fate. Now, even if you're lucky enough to run into her again, you've probably ruined your chances."

"Hmph."

"If you'd played it cooler, like me, you could've at least maintained an air of maturity and mystery."

"Yeah, yeah..."

They didn't need to discuss their next destination. They both knew where they would find Esai. Being keenly aware of one another's whereabouts at all times was critical to the mission, and they would always text each other first if they were venturing somewhere else solo. Sticking together didn't really help them blend in so well, but caution was often warranted in this place.

When he was on his own, Esai was almost always at the pool. Supposedly, it was because he loved swimming so much, but they all knew the real reason.

Not that Raul could blame him. It was a beautiful day outside, and beautiful days attracted beautiful women.

Ridgemark was a far cry from the perpetually cloudy skies of Luzo, to be sure. In his twenty-four years of life, rarely had Raul Blackburn even seen bikini-clad women in person like this.

He liked the view so much that, somehow, his feelings almost looped back around to disliking it. Was this really part of the mission?

Eh, of course it was.

Blending in was a vital part of gathering information. En route to Esai, Raul recognized a few gorgeous faces and had to stop and say hello. Adan didn't seem to mind.

Eventually, however, he and Adan did make their way over to Esai and pulled him away from the pool. Together, the three went to have breakfast in one of the casino's several restaurants. They ate well, as usual. Their funds for this mission had been rather generous. Sentsia told them to spare no expense and do whatever it took to get the job done. She was the one who made it clear to Raul how important this mission and the future ones like it would be toward the goal of reclaiming House Blackburn's lost honor.

Something had changed about that reaper, Raul thought.

But she wasn't the only one.

After all they'd been through, the whole House was in a strange mindset, right now. A feeling of quiet danger permeated everything, a feeling like standing at the precipice of a cliff. They could fall. They could jump. They could flee. They could fly. What would it be?

"So," Esai was saying with a mouthful of blueberry pancakes, "either of you guys managed to bag any hot babes, lately?"

In this instance, a "hot babe" was part of their code. Esai was asking if they'd found any new leads on the artifact that they were searching for.

"Not me," said Adan, leaning back in his seat. "Been rejected more times than I can count, bro. I did meet a few uggos, though. More than a few, actually."

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"Bro, that's pretty rude," said Raul. "All women are beautiful."

"Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean, though."

In fact, he did. Adan was talking about servants now, not just women specifically. He must've clocked a few more of them since yesterday. Oftentimes, servants were difficult to identify, but there were a few telltale signs here and there. Most obviously, the reapers. They tended to spend the most time around their servants, so if you just kept an eye on them, the servant could eventually be deduced via process of elimination.

Some reapers were smarter about that than others, though, so it was no guarantee. The Triplets' own reapers had warned them about that tactic. If a reaper suspected they were being observed by their enemies, they could deliberately hang around a normal person in order to throw off any spies.

Which was what they were now, Raul knew. Spies.

"Hmm." He took a sip of his orange juice. "Maybe we should try searching for some small town honeys, instead."

"Oh, bro, I would be so down for that," said Adan. "A nice, wholesome girl might be just what my wounded heart needs, right now."

Esai chuckled. "Maybe you could take her back to meet Ma."

"That's the dream," said Adan.

"Sounds like a plan, then," said Raul.

That was confirmation, as expected. They'd all received orders to check out the town of Miro. Their objectives were merely to observe the place and report back on the status of the town, but Miro wasn't all that far from Ridgemark. It was possible that they might find clues about this mysterious artifact there.

Now that the decision was made, there was no point in wasting time. They wolfed down the rest of their breakfast and headed out immediately. Raul had plugged Miro's location into his phone last night, and they could go straight there in the cherry red sedan they were renting.

With any luck, they would be back in Ridgemark before nightfall. That was where the really good intel probably was. As much as he was enjoying his time in the lap of luxury, he was also beginning to feel a little impatient. They'd been in Vantalay for two weeks now, and yet they hadn't even been able to confirm if all those reapers haunting Ridgemark were with the Vanguard.

And that was more important to Raul than some magical artifact of dubious existence. He might've been more excited about that part of the mission if they knew what the damn thing was capable of--or even a physical description of it for that matter--but all they had to go on was a name.

The Sword of Unso.

Oh, and supposedly, it could be found in "a sunken cave near the two-toned rock."

That little detail had somehow proved even less helpful than it sounded. Prior to their arrival in Ridgemark, the Triplets hadn't even been sure what a two-toned rock was, but now they knew. Oh, boy, did they know.

Half the bloody rocks in this region were of two colors. Because they'd been painted. It was a cultural thing. The locals did it to honor the "eternal dichotomy of Order and Chaos." That was a big aspect of one of the religions around here, apparently.

Thankfully, the locals at least didn't bother to paint every tiny pebble in the country. It was only for sufficiently large boulders, at least the size of a grown man. And yes, they even painted those underwater. The diving industry here was booming, thanks to all the casinos and tourism.

Esai had gone diving in search of the "sunken cave" several times over the last two weeks, but he'd all but given up on it by now, because he'd simply found too many. There was an enormous network of underwater caverns up and down the coast. Esai seemed to think that many of them were manmade, though he wasn't sure what their intended purpose had been.

Theoretically, the Tuning Orb of Karugetti should have been immensely useful here, but that damn thing only ever seemed to work whenever it felt like working. That, and they still weren't even sure what the different colors meant. Sometimes the little orb between the two metal prongs would glow blue, sometimes red, sometimes green, sometimes nothing. If only it had come with an instruction manual.

One time, however, the Tuning Orb led the Triplets to an ardor-infused rifle that someone had stashed inside a storage locker in the Ruby 88 Hotel & Casino. They left the weapon where they'd found it, of course, as they didn't have much use for it, nor did they wish to alert whoever it belonged to; but that did at least confirm that the Tuning Orb really could work.

They'd also kept an eye on that rifle for a few days, even going so far as to set up a tiny camera to observe the locker. They'd discovered that it belonged to one of the casino's dealers, a bald man with black-rimmed glasses, and they'd since removed the camera and shifted some of their observational focus to him. They'd found out his name easily enough from the tag on his uniform, but the reapers back in Warrenhold hadn't been able to do anything with that information.

Raul wasn't terribly surprised. In all likelihood, the guy was an undercover servant using an alias. They'd found several other such suspicious people all over the city, but the Ruby 88 and the hotels immediately around it seemed to be something of a hot spot.

En route to Miro, the three brothers were uncharacteristically quiet.

Despite their typically jovial dispositions, Raul could tell that his brothers were a little on edge, today. The sudden change in their orders was abnormal enough on its own, but it had also been accompanied by a rather vague warning to be wary of traps.

They decided not to approach Miro in the same way that they had approached Ridgemark. If there was any chance at all that they were heading into an ambush, then trying to hide in plain sight was not the right strategy. An ambush implied that the enemy might possess intel on them, so they might just be recognized on sight and attacked immediately.

That didn't seem likely, of course, given House Blackburn's reclusion over the last thirty years, but they wanted to exercise extra caution, nonetheless.

But they couldn't just sneak into the town, either. If there were any reapers around, three unfamiliar souls skulking in the shadows would arouse immediate suspicion.

Raul pulled the car over in order to let Adan and Esai out. Miro was still a few miles away, but they weren't heading directly toward it. Their task was to find good vantage points from which to observe the town at a distance.

He bumped fists with each of them before they left. They both had a pair of binoculars in the survival kits they took with them, and their wilderness training from when they were younger would surely be helpful if things got bad, so Raul wasn't worried about them.

He took a breath as he watched them disappear into the thick forest that flanked both sides of the road.

He didn't start the car back up yet. His task now was to wait for them to get into position. They would text him when they were ready.

So Raul was left with considerable time to himself, waiting in the driver's seat of the rental car with nothing but his thoughts.

That old wilderness training kept popping into his head for some reason. Perhaps it was the sight of all these trees. Various elders of the Blackburn household had served as their instructors, but the trip with Uncle Ismael and Cousin Ibai was, without a doubt, the most memorable one.

That had been the first time in which Raul and his brothers had really gotten to know Ibai. Right away, they could tell how different he was. Raul knew now that Ibai must have already been in his twenties by that point, but it didn't feel like a memory with someone eleven years their elder at all. Ibai had always treated them like peers. Like equals.

But he wasn't. Without even realizing it, they'd learned so many new things from him by the end of that trip.

And Ismael.

Agh.

Thinking about him hurt. Raul had loved him as much as he'd loved his own father--maybe even more, terrible as that was to admit.

The Triplets had loved to play pranks, and that trip had certainly been no different. But Ismael had never gotten upset at them for it. In fact, he actually seemed to enjoy them.

One time, they filled his water bottle with coyote urine. The look on the man's face when he drank from it--Raul could hardly remember anything funnier than that.

They'd expected to get punished severely for that one. Time out. An ass whooping, maybe. But no. Ismael just laughed. And hard, too. And then he cried, for some reason.

Raul hadn't understood why at the time, but in retrospect, he wondered if that didn't have something to do with Ibai, also. As he understood it, Ibai had been even more of a little hellion in his day than the Triplets had. Perhaps to Uncle Ismael, that prank was tame by comparison.

But when they saw him crying like that, their attitudes toward the man shifted dramatically. They'd never seen a grown man break down in such a way. It was confusing and saddening. Esai tried to comfort him.

Then Ismael shoved the bottle in Esai's mouth and made him drink, too.

Even to this day, Raul had never laughed so hard in his life.

He'd been thinking about that little camping trip a lot, lately. The lessons learned during it hadn't been especially relevant so far in Vantalay, thanks to the many luxuries of Ridgemark, but this was still the first time that he and his brothers had gone anywhere for this long without constant supervision.

That, and he just missed Ismael and Ibai.

Ismael had been like a father to the entire House, in many ways. Despite House Blackburn's rather large head count, that man had always tried to make time for everyone--even to a fault, perhaps. Raul remembered trying to compete for his attention with children from the other branch families.

However, in an odd way, Raul also felt a little guilty about missing Ismael so much.

House Blackburn hadn't suffered nearly as many casualties during the Abolish attack on Dunehall as some of the other Rainlord families, but among those few had been the Triplets' own father, Lucio Blackburn.

The Triplets were something of a special case within the House. Their parents, Lucio and Aria, were non-servants. In terms of the overall family hierarchy, they were fairly low. "Uncle" Ismael hadn't actually been their uncle directly, but rather their "uncle's uncle."

Normally, that wasn't an issue. Those with higher "status" within the family like Melchor or Horatio never treated those with lower status differently, and in the everyday life, the disparity was all but nonexistent.

But when it came to choosing servants for reapers... well, that was another story.

With so many members of the family and so few loyal reapers to go around, Raul could appreciate that it would not be an easy decision to make, choosing which child among the many can become an immortal, superpowered warrior. Rather than trying to work out some vague, supposedly "meritocratic" system for deciding, it was simpler to just give that "privilege" to the branch families with higher status.

Of course, it was debatable whether servitude truly was a privilege. In many ways, the Rainlords regarded it more as a responsibility. A duty. It certainly had its perks, but did those outweigh the downsides?

There was a reason why there weren't very many truly old reapers left within the family. It was widely known that Rainlord reapers had a higher mortality rate than others who took servants. That was one of the great obstacles to recruiting new reapers to their side, in fact.

So perhaps it was understandable that those of lower status in the House's hierarchy weren't clamoring for that privilege. Loyalty to their kin was one thing, but it was quite another to allow their children to be "killed" and then subjected to the will of beings whom they couldn't even see or talk to directly.

And additionally, it was arguably better to further narrow down which parents would have to take on the difficult task of raising children who would eventually be granted superpowers. Their education, training, and moral conscientiousness were that much more important when so much strength might one day be at their fingertips.

So it was highly irregular for the Triplets to have been chosen. Normally, the reapers themselves would take their pick from the higher status children, of which there were many, but the identical nature of the Triplets had apparently sparked an immense curiosity among the reapers.

After all, the most famous Rainlords who had ever lived were the Redwater Twins. Identical brothers with identical abilities. Perhaps the reapers had been hoping for the three of them to manifest the divine Water Dragon ability as well.

Raul had actually been chosen first, as a kind of trial run. Sacrificing three reapers was an enormous commitment of the family's resources. Adan and Esal would only receive reapers of their own if Raul manifested a powerful enough ability.

And lo and behold, he did.

For this reason, Raul was about ten months older than his brothers as a servant. Considerable time had been needed for him to not only manifest his ability, but also to develop it to a perceptible and manipulable degree, because for quite a while, Raul's ability to alter friction had been extremely weak and difficult to use.

And living a life of relative isolation in Luzo, not venturing out into the world very often at all, Raul had thus far found no opportunities to achieve emergence. He couldn't even imagine what that might feel like.

But in the end, the elders of House Blackburn agreed that this could one day become a remarkable power. It was an alteration-type, after all.

Unfortunately, even now, Raul wasn't sure when that day would be. The rarity of this power meant that no one in the House could instruct them in its usage. Alteration-types were usually like that, apparently. Unless you had a teacher with the same or very similar ability, learning to hone it was quite a slow process. In fact, for those first few years, some debate persisted among the House's reapers about whether their ability truly was friction and not something else, like particle vibrations or pressure manipulation or even gravity control.

This was also why the Triplets had been able to go on that camping trip with Ismael. Raul hadn't realized until relatively recently just how much special treatment he and his brothers had been given over the years. Even this very mission, dangerous though it was, might qualify as an example.

It seemed clear to him now why there had been tension between Ismael and his father Lucio--as well as between Lucio and some of the House's other non-servant parents. The man had been sandwiched between abnormally high expectations from his elders and quiet resentment from his peers.

No doubt, that turmoil had influenced how Lucio had treated his sons.

Raul wished that he'd understood that about his father sooner. He might not have been so bitter towards the man all throughout his teenage years.

And now, it was too late. Lucio Blackburn was dead, killed by falling debris, apparently. Raul hadn't even seen it happen. The Triplets had only been informed of it by Horatio, who'd led one of the teams that sifted through the rubble for missing people.

He was sad, of course.

But not sad enough, he thought.

Perhaps that was a strange thing to chastise himself for. What was the appropriate level of sadness that he should feel at the death of his father? Trying to quantify emotions was a foolish endeavor, surely.

But... it wasn't that simple, was it? He couldn't ignore the fact that he was more broken up about Ismael's death. The proof was self-evident.

He was a bad son.

Maybe if he'd loved his father more, been more attentive, he would've been there when it happened. Maybe he would've even saved him.

He rubbed his forehead, then his eyes, trying to clear his mind. The mission. Focus on the mission. Just because there was downtime didn't mean he should allow himself to get distracted.

He waited, keeping eye on the narrow road. It remained empty the whole time. He hadn't seen a single vehicle this entire time, he realized.

Sure, this wasn't exactly a main road or anything, but it was still the primary means of reaching Miro from Ridgemark, one of the largest cities in Vantalay. Shouldn't there have been more traffic?

Hmm. Didn't bode well, did it?

The first text finally arrived. Esai was in position. Shortly thereafter, a text arrived from Adan as well. They were both ready.

Raul still had to wait, though, for them to observe the town and give him the go ahead. If there was anything obviously wrong with Miro, they would be able to give him a heads up.

His brothers were certainly taking their time. That meant, at least, that there was nothing as obvious as smoke or annihilated buildings. A part of Raul had been worried about that.

Before the next text could arrive, however, Raul spotted another vehicle on the road, approaching from the direction of Miro.

It was a large truck, an eighteen wheeler, but it bore no markings that Raul could see. No company logo, even.

He caught a glimpse of the driver as it passed.

Maybe Vantalay was just different, but that didn't look like a typical truck driver to Raul. Skinny, harsh facial features and piercing eyes. No sunglasses or hat, despite the sunny day today.

And what was that truck transporting?

Right now, Vantalay was at war with four different countries. Lyste, Czacoa, Naos, and Yena Maria. According to the news and various people Raul had talked to over course of their stay in Ridgemark, battles had broken out all across Vantalay's borders. The only reason that the region around Ridgemark had thus far been spared was because the terrain rendered the city quite easily defensible from an assault by sea. The high cliffs on which Ridgemark was perched allowed only two paths for incoming ships to approach, and even then, they would still have to deal with the massive amount of artillery that the city had defending it as well.

Taking Ridgemark wouldn't be impossible, Raul thought--Uncle Melchor would've told him that only a fool would consider any location to be truly impregnable. But at the very least, it would require either an enormous commitment of resources on the attacker's part or saboteurs on the inside. The Triplets had been lucky enough to get into the country before the borders were shut down, but Vantalay's enemies obviously wouldn't have it so easy.

It therefore made sense that Ridgemark would want to ship in as many resources from domestic locations as possible, rather than relying on its ports too heavily. Foreign agents were much more likely to arrive by sea or air.

But even despite all that, Raul still couldn't help being suspicious of that truck. Something about it bothered him.

If Miro was sending crops or some other product to Ridgemark, then shouldn't it be in trucks with some kind of company logo on them? It was important for branding--and free advertising, besides.

Who would use an unmarked truck and why?

Bah.

He was overthinking it. The truck probably just belonged to an independent contractor. Or to a company that valued discretion for some reason. It could've been empty, for all he knew.

He shifted in his seat and tried to relax. All this waiting was getting to him. He'd never been the most patient person. He and his brothers were all like that. Human interaction was their bread and butter, and whenever they had to go without it for very long, they got antsy.

But he wasn't a child, anymore. He couldn't keep using that as an excuse. Professionalism had to come before his whims and wishes.

His phone dinged.

Finally, another text. From Adan this time. Hmm? It was only one word.

slaves

Raul's eyes held on that word for a long moment, widening slowly at the dreaded realization. Slaves?

He awaited clarification, but he had a feeling that he already knew everything that he needed to.

It was a group text, so Esai had seen it, too. His response was not comforting. It, too, was only one word.

yes

A rare scowl formed on Raul's face as he began texting back.

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