Chapter 1.38

 

Catherine de Graaf sat in her cabinet discussing current affairs with Istas de Reine. There was a knock at the door and Colonel Theodor de Graaf and her second deputy, Carl Gustav, entered the cabinet.

"Has something happened?" she asked them.

"Something indeed happens," answered both of them together.

Catherine de Graaf stared at them in surprise, shifting her gaze from one to the other.

Carl Gustav, as the senior officer, began first.

"Captain Drake's body has been found," he said, and after a short pause added. "Headless."

'She was right, as always,' thought Catherine, and sighed.

Then she looked at Theodore. Seeing her look, he said.

"A request came in from the city guard. They claim to have found the location where Lieutenant Selvi Meyer is being held. They request our presence at the scene of the operation. I took the liberty of sending two groups of our men there."

The second piece of news was, in a way, good news. It meant that Selvi Meyer had not escaped and that she had indeed been kidnapped. The truth was that this did not clear her from suspicion.

"The day is getting busier and busier," sighed Catherine de Graaf. "Inform Michael's group of the discovery of Captain Drake's body. And have them move to the site of the Capital Guard operation as well."

Due to the lack of a team leader, they needed to give them orders from the top.

"All right," replied Colonel Theodor. "The Lone Star Bar. They've already surrounded the quarter. In two hours, they will begin the attack."

Catherine nodded in satisfaction. Theodor bowed and left. In her office, she remained with her deputies.

"Just a minute more gentlemen," she told them, taking a seat in her chair. "I need to contact Anastasia and remind her to bring Michael here."

She pulled out a small crystal medallion and concentrated on it. A minute and a message are sent. Catherine put the medallion away.

Both of her deputies sat in front of her, but on opposite sides.

"Now, where are we at?" She asked Istas de Reine.

"Who will take Colonel Tirel's place at the head of the Internal Affairs department."

"Yes, that's right," Catherine remembered. "I have one candidate..."

At that moment Catherine de Graaf felt a powerful surge of magical energy. The entire capital felt it.

"What the hell..."

 

Anastasia de Graaf was not far from the central hospital when she felt her medallion heating up. She and her companions were on their way to the hospital to pick up Mike. In a couple of minutes, she should arrive there. Anastasia pulled out her locket and read the message.

"Does Granny remind you of Mike?" Kai de Graaf, who was sitting next to her, asked her.

"Yes," Anastasia replied. "She thought I forgot her instructions and didn't go after little Mike."

Yesterday's events came as a shock to them. They could not imagine that Tirel de Graaf, whom they had known since childhood, was capable of such a thing.

Suddenly they felt a strong surge of magic. It was followed by a blinding flash. Even while inside the horse-drawn carriage, they had to close their eyes to avoid going blind.

"What was that?" Asked Antonio di Santo fearfully.

"That…," Kai de Graaf began to say when the ground shook and the carriage in which they were riding shook.

All four of them, instinctively, turned on their shields. In the next second, the carriage tilted badly and then flipped over. In another second, it was over. There was a brief silence.

"Is everyone all right?" Kai de Graaf was the first to ask.

Everyone was in one piece. Not even a scratch. They only got away with a minor scare.

Then they began to hear sounds from outside the carriage. A horse was neighing, probably from their horse-drawn carriage. There was the sound of rocks and debris falling. In the distance, they could hear people screaming.

Antonio di Santo turned pale. The others also realized what had happened.

"Let's get out of here," Anastasia said, and without waiting for an answer, she kicked the roof of the horse-drawn carriage out with a strong blow.

Clouds of dust and debris flew around. Small debris was still falling from the sky. Signs of destruction could be seen everywhere. The windows of almost all the buildings were blown out. Only a few were intact. Two buildings had their roofs blown off.

Their coachman is dead. His body lay a dozen feet away near the building in an unnatural pose and with a pool of blood underneath it. One of the horses was dead, too. Its ribs had been penetrated by a large rock with blood and bits of guts now oozing out of the huge hole. The second horse was alive, but with a broken leg.

Antonio immediately turned away so he wouldn't throw up. It didn't help, however. Until a minute ago the street had been crowded. Now there were dead or injured people and animals within sight.

On the opposite side of their travel, a huge gray mushroom of dust rose above the houses. The destruction would be far more severe that way.

 

Louie de Brian stood on the roof of one of the tall buildings. He opened his eyes as the flash faded. A gray cloud was rising rapidly in the distance. A dozen seconds later he heard the sound of an explosion, which sounded something like the sound of a collapsing building. After a while, a faint gust of air came. By this time the gray cloud had begun to settle and be blown aside by the wind.

The explosion did not impress Louie. He had expected more. Besides, the choice of magical elements to use in the city was bad. The Light element was great in an open space at night, not in a dense city. He didn't have a choice in the matter. It was important for him to use the army mines, not to construct a device of unknown origin. That is why the result was like that.

However, as a message to the proper people, this attack would suffice. Along the way, Louie tried to achieve two other goals. The first was to kill Michael de Graaf. He was a growing threat that was hard to ignore. Besides, Louie did not know whether or not Colonel Tirel had managed to tell Michael anything.

The second goal was to discredit the army of the Dark Empire before the National Assembly. Over the past year, they had been haunted by a series of failures and scandals. He would try to blame today's attack on local organized crime. For this, he had almost everything ready. All that remained was to set in motion the second, weaker, mine.

Beside him stood his faithful assistant, who still had his eyes closed.

"You can open your eyes. It's all over now," he told him.

He opened his eyes and looked around. Seeing a gray cloud almost settling in the distance, he said.

"Boss, is that all?" He expected to see more than that, too.

In some places near the epicenter of the explosion, black smoke from the fires began to rise.

"Well, what did you expect? You're looking at a clear example of using the wrong magical element. For maximum destruction, you should have chosen earth, air, or fire elements. True, each of them has its own nuances. For maximum casualties, on the other hand, the elements of lightning or death are needed."

His man greedily absorbed this knowledge, diligently memorizing and nodding his head in the process.

"Besides, we weren't tasked with destroying the capital or the top of the clans," Louie added.

"What's next, boss?"

Louie thought for a few seconds.

"The first thing is to make sure that Paul and his men don't do anything stupid. We don't need them anymore, and leaving them alive is dangerous."

"Going in there, boss?"

"Yeah."

 

The hall at the Lone Star Bar was full. All the tables and some of the seats at the bar were occupied. Paul had gathered all but three of his men here, who had gone on an important mission.

Stefan the healer was also supposed to be here today, but he still wasn't. Paul really wasn't too worried. It had happened a couple of times before when the doctor was after a boozy night. Then he would show up closer to the evening. So, there was still time.

Paul didn't like Stefan's behavior. It could bring problems in the future. So, he tried a couple of times to find a replacement. There were enough good healers in the capital, but not ones with the right connections… He could not find such people. So, he tolerated Stefan for the time being.

Paul gathered his men together quite often. It was so convenient for him to discuss current problems in their circle and to give people their salaries. Part of which they could spend immediately at the bar. To the most successful people, he gave additional bonuses. This time bonuses in the form of twenty gold coins were given to Thornton and Diana for a successful case.

Suddenly, everyone present felt a surge of magical energy. All conversation immediately fell silent. Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at Paul, waiting for instructions.

"What the hell," swore Paul. "Is it really…"

The surge of magical energy was too strong. Louie had promised him that the mines wouldn't draw much attention and there wasn't much to worry about. He looked around at those present. Then he pointed his hand at two of his men.

"You and you," he pointed at them. "Check out what's going on out there. One checks the streets around, the other looks around from the roof."

Both nodded affirmatively, agreeing with the boss.

"Will do, boss," they said, and quickly left the bar.

The rest of them went back to their current business, celebrating their salaries.

Everything went on as usual. When a couple of minutes later, one of those sent to see what was going on around the bar broke in. He was pale. A crossbow bolt was sticking out of his shoulder. Seeing him everyone jumped up from their seats.

"What happened?" Asked him a worried Paul.

"A raid," his man said with difficulty. "The whole block is surrounded by guards."

Everyone chattered loudly. Many grabbed their weapons.

"Quiet, everyone!" Paul shouted to quiet his men.

He began to think nervously in his mind about a plan of action. There was a tunnel dug from the bar that led to another house a decent distance away. Paul hoped that the house would be outside the perimeter of the blockade. He immediately sent some men there on a reconnaissance mission.

He intended to turn the bandit gathering into a simple casual bar with a dozen visitors. Some of the men he would hide in the hideout. Paul was beginning to give orders when his wounded man interrupted him.

"Boss, there are men dressed in foreign intelligence uniforms among the guards."

Paul's face turned pale. This changed matters fundamentally. With the capital's guards it was still possible to negotiate or deceive them somehow. It wouldn't work that way with foreign intelligence.

"Damn it," he cursed.