The blank and exhausted look returning to his face, the Oterian turned and shuffled away, asking the next few collections of survivors if they had any food to spare. Keryn looked at the other two, her heart beating heavily in her chest. If Alcent was able to do all he had promised, then their plan was guaranteed to be a success. By the end of the week, they’d all be free of Othus.
That night, Adam and Keryn struck out from House 12, leaving Penchant behind. The bracelet that was firmly attached to his wrist was a tracking mechanism. They couldn’t risk exposing their operation before the plan could even begin, knowing that the Terrans could monitor all Lithid movements within the city from their Fleet destroyer orbiting the planet. The bracelet also housed a significant amount of explosives, explosives that could be remotely detonated from anywhere within the city. Begrudgingly, Penchant had agreed to stay in the house while the other two made the meeting.
For Keryn, the careful walk to the abandoned department store was a more confident affair this time around. Aside from having done this previously, she now had the comfort of having Adam’s protection as they bisected the residential area and moved into the commercial district of town. With an odd sense of deja vu, Keryn glanced around in the darkness before slipping through the broken glass, followed quickly by Adam’s hulking form.
The darkness was as oppressive as Keryn remembered within the store. She stood near the naked racks that once held clothing as her eyes adjusted to the dark. The wait was in vain, however, as she heard the familiar voice in the back of the store.
“Allow me,” Alcent’s voice came from the back, near the break room door. The back of the room was quickly bathed in a soft light as the Uligart, holding the lantern high, appeared from the gloom. Behind him, the two heavily armed bodyguards stood their stoic watch. Adam tensed as he saw the military assault rifles, but Keryn placed a calming hand over his.
“I was starting to think you wouldn’t call,” she said jokingly, diffusing the tension in the air. “You had me worried.”
Alcent chuckled to himself, lowering the light until it rested back on the floor. “I wanted to make sure you had time to fulfill your end of our arrangement before calling on you. You have had time to formulate a plan, I hope.” His eyebrows arched as he inquired.
“Don’t you worry about that,” Adam said defensively. “The question is, can you live up to your end. Do you have the men and weapons to pull this off?”
Alcent tilted his head to the side, looking condescendingly toward Adam. “Who is this man?” he asked, addressing Keryn. “He speaks to me so informally, having never met me.”
“His name is Decker,” she replied, already concerned that this conversation was getting off track by overdoses of testosterone. “Adam Decker, but we all just call him Adam. The Lithid with whom I’m sure you’ve been told is part of our group is named Penchant, though he, for obvious reasons, could not join us tonight.”
Alcent regained his composure, his face once again a mask of civility. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Adam, and I look forward to making the acquaintance of Penchant in the near future as well.” Alcent pulled a chair from behind the nearby table and sat, gesturing for Keryn to do the same. The Avalon bodyguard once again pulled a chair out for her before stepping back to his employer’s side. “Now let’s get down to business. I’ve given you a full three days to relay my request to your fellow patriots and to take the time to formulate a plan that will, beyond a reasonable doubt, succeed on getting rid of the Terran threat. How have you managed?”
Keryn smiled confidently. “We,” she emphasized the plural words, “have created a plan that you can be proud of.”
“Show me,” Alcent demanded.
Keryn pulled the tattered map of the city from beneath her jacket and smoothed its wrinkled edges on the display table between them. The highlights of the Terran occupancy were clearly marked on the hand-drawn map. Adam leaned heavily on the back of her chair as he watched her explain.
“The warehouses storing the small Terran ships that landed on the planet are located here,” she pointed at a set of boxes drawn on the map around the southern edge of the crater. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the tall warehouses with retractable rooftops that the Terrans installed after their arrival. I mean, they are hard to miss seeing as how their bombs leveled everything else in that part of town. Each building stores either a single soldier transport vessel or a pair of quick Terran fighters. The problem is that the Terran barracks,” she pointed at another set of square representations on the map just north of the crater, “are in dangerous proximity to the hangars. We would no sooner attack the hangars then we’d be overrun with Terran assault teams. And let’s not forget that the only person with the access codes to the hangars is the Terran Commander.”
“Lucience,” Alcent added. “The Commander’s name is Lucience. But you’re only telling me things that I already know. You’ll have to do a lot better if you expect my services.”
“I’m just laying the groundwork,” Keryn explained. “Until we are sure that we know all the facts, we can’t start making assumptions. Now I do happen to know one fact that you may not be aware of. I know where Lucience has been living during his time on Othus, and it isn’t in the command barracks near the crater.”
Alcent leaned forward, intrigued. “So where can we find Commander Lucience?”
Keryn pointed to the map. Her finger rested on a small box drawn near the edge of the ruined business district. “He’s been staying here, in a building that was made specifically to withstand great amounts of destruction both from within and without. Trust us, we know,” she said, her eyes sparkling.
“And what is this building?” Alcent asked his voice little more than a whisper.
“It used to be a bar,” Adam’s gruff voice added. “A bar called the Black Void.”
Alcent leaned back in his chair, impressed. “Please, do go on. I’d love to hear the rest of your plan.”
Over the next hour, Keryn and Adam took turns explaining in great detail their plan for escaping Miller’s Glen and defeating the Terran loyalists. Alcent listened intently, occasionally adding input when prompted, but mostly toying with the razor sharp bony protrusions across his jaw line. The map quickly became a jumble of arrows and circles, indicating unit movements and ambush locations. As the explanation came to a close, Alcent laughed heartily and clapped his hands.
“I love it,” he exclaimed. “I can see the look on their faces now. How I wish I could see Lucience’s face when his personal empire within Miller’s Glen comes crashing down around him!”
Keryn was glad to see her own excited smile reflected not only on Alcent’s face, but on both the bodyguards as well. She felt Adam place a reassuring hand on her back.
Her smile quickly dropped as the one hitch appeared in their plan. “There is still one problem, though,” she admitted.
“What did we miss?” Alcent asked.
“I can get us to the ships and I can get us off the planet. Being in a Terran ship may even fool everyone for a little while. But it doesn’t change the fact that there is a Terran Destroyer in orbit. The second it figures out our ruse, we’ll be obliterated.”
“That is where I come in,” Alcent answered, gesturing to the Terran bodyguard behind him. “You see, Siros has been working as a spy for us for the past couple weeks. The interesting thing about the Terran uniforms is that they are incredibly protective against the cold, but they do so by covering every inch of exposed skin. Put any Terran, Pilgrim or Empirical, in the suit, and there’s no way to tell the difference.”