Chapter 196: Dick Move

Mason heaved a sigh of relief as they dragged him away.

Never had anyone try to cut my head off like that before. The thought sent a shiver of dread down his spine.

“Why didn’t he see you?” He whispered as quietly as possible to avoid detection in this fort full of people with superhuman hearing.

“I can make myself any color I want.” Bee replied into his ear. It still felt weird having people he couldn’t see all around him, whispering in his ear and peering through his eyes, but he’d get caught quick if he showed any reaction so he muscled down the goosebumps.

Mason took a deep breath and focused on his mission.

Priority #1: Find out where Caddock had stashed his cursemongers.

Priority #2: Find out what kind of ambush Caddock was planning on creating.

Priority#3: Cause as much damage as possible.

“Alright, this way.” The tired-looking Climber brought Mason up short in front of a doorway carved into the sandstone.

Mason was marched down a stone staircase, the Charge-draining chains clinking on the stone steps behind him.

A moment later they were in a surprisingly well-appointed office, with a thin man sitting beside an inkwell and a stack of papers.

A Contractor.

“Sit there, please.” The thin clerk said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

“Don’t try nothin’.” Mason’s guard said, putting a firm hand on his shoulder as he sat.

“Name?”

“Mason Lanover.”

The man’s eyes flickered blue, as some kind of Truth-telling Ability or Relic must’ve informed him that Mason was telling the truth.

“Alright Mason, before we start,” The man said with a bored expression, adjusting his glasses as he read off a list. “…do you have any concealed weapons or delay-triggered Abilities that might cause us harm, hidden drugs, consumeables, Allies waiting for a signal, retributive curses, or any general plans to violate a peaceful surrender?”

“…Yes.”

The hand gripped his shoulder tighter.

“And which of those would that be?” The bored contractor said.

A hand erupted from Mason’s skin and grabbed the one on his shoulder and dragged the guard into his torso.

Before he even had a chance to scream, a monstrously elongated limb speared out of Mason’s chest and shoved itself down the clerk’s throat, silencing his voice before dragging him over the desk and into Mason.

“Bit of everything, really,” Mason muttered, standing.

“I’ll clean up here,” Bee said, wearing the man’s clothes and face as she emerged from Mason’s chest. Out his back, Bee emerged, wearing the guard’s equipment.

“And I will ‘guide you’ to your cell.”

Bee interrupted herself by speaking in Mason’s inner ear, her voice a perfect match for Will’s.

“Still no cursemongers?”

Mason shook his head.

“How about their food stores?” Will asked.

***William Oh***

“What’s it look like?” Will asked.

“No sign of the cursemongers yet.” Anna said as they overlooked the map of Caddock’s main fortress. “They’re taking us to an underground prison…thing.”

“Are you really gonna go to a meeting with this guy?” Jason asked, his expression concerned.

“What?” Will glanced at Jason with a scoff. “No.”

“Then why set a meeting?”

“I needed an excuse to deliver…” Will glanced at Anna.

“Two thousand.” Anna replied.

“Two thousand Bees directly to his doorstep.”

“Two thousand Bees they could take out at the drop of a hat.” Jason replied.

“If they got their cursemongers on them, yeah. That’s why we’re looking for ‘em. The instant those two sniff out where Caddock stashed those cursemongers we’re going to smash him with everything we’ve got.”

“And I asked for a meeting I don’t intend to go to because he’s got to spend at least some of his resources to create an advantageous stage to meet with me. All I have to do to make sure that effort is wasted…is not show up.”

Will’s win condition was to stay alive another three days, not to win in a climactic final showdown between good and evil.

“…offering a meeting and then not showing up seems kind of like a dick move.” Jason said.

“Dude’s trying to kill me! Should I care about his feelings?” Will asked.

“We’ve replaced their Contractor.” Anna said. “And the guard overseeing the contract.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Okay, still no cursemongers?”

“No.”

“How about their food stores?” Will asked, turning his attention to the map, where Anna was switching out two ‘enemy’ pawns with two ‘bee’ bishops.

“I smelled salted meat and grains on the way in,” Mason’s voice came out of Anna’s mouth as she shapeshifted her voice to match his. “I could find it in minutes.”

“Do so, and then steal all of it.”

“The Phantom Thief will strike again!” Bee said.

Will watched as Mason and his ‘guard’ separated from the ‘Contractor’ and began meandering towards the food storage.

Meanwhile, the Bee who had assumed the Contractor’s identity finished cleaning up and began wandering around the fortress, quietly isolating individual Climbers and replacing them until she had expended all twenty three Charges.

They made their way to the food storage and came to a halt.

“Bad news,” Mason said through Anna. “It’s decentralized, so we’re not gonna be able to get all of it at once. Good news, this should more than last us however long we need.”

“Okay, Bee has replaced a considerable swath of the northwest side of the fort. Search there first, there’s less of Caddock’s men to spot you.”

“Roger.”

They were playing a dangerous game.

If Caddock was hiding his cursemongers at his main base, then the minute Bee got spotted, Mason would be on his own, which had a good chance of getting him killed.

Will was betting Mason’s life that they could either locate the cursemongers first or verify that Caddock had stashed them somewhere out of the way.

Will was willing to bet the latter was the case. The main base was an easy place to guess, and a big target for Will, why hide them somewhere so obvious?