Space Assassins: The Complete Series 1-5, page 64
But with his shimmer cloak, Hozark had a different option. It would take patience, and quite possibly hours of standing still, but he was as well practiced at that as he was at killing in an instant. In fact, a little bit of quiet meditation while he waited beside the lift disc would even provide a lovely refresher of sorts.
It was a Ghalian trick. To slip into a meditative state while remaining alert to what was around them. Akin to having two halves of the mind functioning on parallel, but utterly different, levels at the same time.
But Hozark did not have to wait long. In less than an hour, a pair of Council guards made their way to the lift disc, the cloaked killer watching their every move.
“Making the rounds?” the guards at the lift asked.
“Yep. Same shit, different hour.”
“Better watch how loud you say that. I hear the Council might be having one of their agents do a sweep any day now.”
“Really? An agent? But why?”
“Way beyond my pay grade. But you know how those guys can be.”
“Yeah, real sticklers for details,” the guard replied. “Thanks for the heads-up,” he said, stepping onto the lift disc to join his partner. “Let’s get this done. Take us up.”
The spell was activated, and the two men rose quickly to the upper levels of the estate tower. Little did they know, there was a third riding along with them, invisibly tucked at the very back edge of the disc.
Hozark had taken a little gamble at the men’s destination. The lift disc had been accessed several times while he had been waiting, but those had all appeared to be regular estate workers, and none who seemed to be members of the visla’s private staff.
The new security detail, however, were more likely to have full access to the more important areas of the building, and realistically, the middle floors were not of great concern to them. Only the entryway level and the private chambers would be of interest.
The disc ascended in a flash, arriving at the topmost level of the tower, just as Hozark had hoped. The two guards stepped out, but then paused a moment at the lift exit as they scanned the area around them.
It was imperative they move ahead, for if not, the disc could be recalled at any moment, leaving Hozark stuck inside and descending to the wrong floor. On a contract, the assassin would have just stunned the men and hidden their sleeping bodies until he completed his hit. But in this case, he was forced to be utterly stealthy, forced to leave no trace.
As quietly as he could, Hozark uttered a tiny, minimally powered spell. It wasn’t a Ghalian tool, nor was it used by any military forces. In fact, it was something employed by children more often than not.
A fart spell.
The guards both sniffed the air, the pungent aroma of someone’s bowels filling their nostrils. Each assumed it was the other, and neither wanted to stand in the other man’s stink, so they quickly stepped away to get started on their rounds.
Hozark moved off of the lift disc and headed the other direction, walking with complete silence as he made his way to Visla Jinnik’s office.
Inari was long finished with her tasks by this time, and no other staffers were anywhere in sight on the floor. It was just Hozark and the guards, so far as he could tell. But a Ghalian was always cautious, and he took a moment to quickly check the nearby rooms to ensure he was correct in his assessment.
Even in a shimmer cloak, one did not want to be disturbed unexpectedly. All it took was one person accidentally bumping into an invisible intruder to set off a chain of events he would rather not have to deal with.
The first set of rooms were empty, and he noted the signs of damage that he had seen on his previous visit had all been repaired. If you did not know a brutally violent battle had taken place here, there was no way you would be able to tell from looking.
He paused at young Happizano’s room. It was spotless. All of the scattered toys were neatly put away, and, more importantly, the blood of his tutor had been thoroughly cleansed from the floor. But it was too clean. It did not feel like a young boy lived there, but more like a staged scene attempting to give that impression.
It mattered not. The boy was safe, and that was what was important.
He left the youth’s room and continued his sweep. As he suspected, the floor was indeed empty, save those two guards, and they would soon be finishing their rounds.
It was funny, in a way. The Council had sent a group of uninformed men to guard the estate after the vicious attack. But what they didn’t know was they were guarding it from their own forces.
Voices caught Hozark’s attention. The security team, it seemed, was moving a bit faster than he had expected. The clock was ticking. Hozark focused his senses on the magic in the air and made his way to the visla’s warded door.
How long he would have inside the room was a big question mark. A variable he had no way to know the answer to. Inari had told him to be quick about it, but if she or another staffer had chores to do, say, cleaning or delivering materials, one would think at least a few minutes would be permitted.
But in the interest of safety, Hozark reduced his time to just one minute. He would get in, read the letter, get out, and get back to his ship. That was it. Sheer elegance in its simplicity.
But simple was never truly simple, in his experience.
Hozark pulled up the words Inari had spoken in his mind. He, and the others of his order, were almost freakish in their ability to retain spells like that. But it was not a quirk of neurology or chemistry, but simply a skill they had trained into them from their earliest years.
A Ghalian assassin was a killer, no doubt, but they were also some of the greatest intelligence gatherers in the galaxy. And that knowledge had to be collected, then retained, and all in a manner that would be undiscoverable should they be captured and searched.
Their minds, however, served as the perfect repository. A hidden vault of information that could never be stolen. And that storage space was now offering up the means of entrance into the visla’s office.
Hozark took a long moment to focus on the intent of the spell. The drive behind it that made it work. Once that was firmly fixed in place, he quietly spoke the words of the spell, releasing the spells warding the doorway from intruders. He reached out with his konus to ensure it was open. It was, and there were no additional spells guarding it.
He slipped into the room and made for the visla’s desk. The container he had delivered earlier was still there, untouched. And just where he’d seen it, the validity seal-bearing letter sat beside it. Hozark paused before moving anywhere near the page.
His recent experience with the seal itself had made him very wary of anything related to this quest. He pulled strong magic from his konus and focused on the page, the seal, and everything around it.
There were some magical protections in the room, and even a few catch-traps on the desk itself, but those all appeared to be unrelated to this letter. At least so far as he could tell. The caster of the trap spell had been masterful in his or her use of it, and there was always the possibility that this was simply another layer of incredibly powerful magic he was unable to detect despite his skills.
Hozark took a breath and reached out for the page. Nothing happened when his fingers touched the parchment.
Quickly, he unfolded the note and read the contents, committing every word to memory in an instant. Within were instructions. A demand. A location he was to go to and what he was to do. If it hadn’t been clear before, this made it abundantly so. The visla was being forced to do some Council member’s bidding against his will.
If he didn’t, his son would be killed.
It was an audacious plan, getting a man of his power to do another’s bidding, essentially serving as a strong arm for the organization he so detested.
But the anonymous validity seal was confounding. It gave Hozark no lead to go on, no clarification as to who exactly it was who had done this to the man.
But that didn’t matter. Not at the moment. What did was that they had to find Jinnik, wherever he was, and return his boy to him. Once that was accomplished, the man would be free to have his revenge, and Hozark and his team would be released to continue their work. To find those behind these machinations.
Forty seconds. He had twenty more to get out before his self-imposed deadline.
Hozark gently re-folded the page, then placed the letter back where it had been resting. He was about to leave when something on the visla’s desk made him pause. He only had a few seconds to decide, and that choice was quickly made. He snatched the item from the desk and concealed it within his shimmer cloak as he hurried from the room.
The two guards didn’t notice anything amiss when they summoned the lift disc, nor did they feel the slight breeze of the camouflaged man slip past them when they reached the ground floor.
The hidden assassin moved with speed and grace, his shimmer cloak remaining perfectly engaged as he made his way out of the visla’s estate and into the city’s bustling pathways and thoroughfares.
With the number of people milling about, passing through shimmered as he was would be difficult, as well as an excessive use of his limited magic, so Hozark tucked into an alleyway and quickly shed his shimmer cloak, stashing it in his clothing as he re-emerged onto the path as simply an average man just out for a walk.
It only took a short while to make his way back to his ship, which he promptly boarded and launched into the sky. His friends were waiting for him, and he had much to tell them.
Chapter Forty-Four
The shimmer-cloaked craft exited the planet’s atmosphere at a slow rate of speed to ensure it did not generate a heat glow that even the powerful spell could not obscure. It was somewhat tedious, especially when Hozark had much to inform his crewmates about, but it had to be done.
The fact that the Council of Twenty had a presence here, albeit a somewhat surreptitious one, gave his flight something of an urgency. But once he was safely in the embrace of the blackness of space, the master Ghalian was able to resume his course with haste.
A quick scan of the ships in orbit revealed that, as he had feared, a few were Council craft circling the globe under the guise of simple trade ships with their landing crews on the surface.
It was just further confirmation that there was no way they could bring the visla’s son back home. Not now, anyway. That meant no life of luxury. No classy food. No spa treatments and drinks. None of that was in the cards for the boy now. Instead, they had a hard road ahead of them. One that Hozark knew Bud and Laskar would not be thrilled about.
He flew out to the small moon where his comrades were in a low orbit waiting for his return. Hozark then docked atop the craft, only disengaging his shimmer once he was entirely sure there were no other ships to observe them.
He cast the spell forming his magical umbilical to the mothership and hurried inside.
A whiff of something aromatic greeted him as soon as he stepped into the ship. Someone had cooked. That meant they would likely all be in the galley.
As expected, Hozark found all of his friends sharing a meal. Prepared with fresh ingredients, he noted, wondering if Bud had finally decided to take up his cooking hobby once more.
“Did you save any for me?” he asked as he stepped into the room.
“Holy shit, man!” Laskar blurted. “How the hell do you do that? I didn’t even notice you docking to the ship.”
“Years of practice, dear Laskar.”
Hap was seated beside Henni, and, for a change, he actually seemed to be in decent spirits. It seemed that the promise of going home had pulled him out of his funk to a great degree. Hozark found himself feeling bad that he was to be the bearer of bad news.
He and Bud shared a look. One that said clearly that the boy would not be going home.
“Hey. I baked some dessert. You want some, Hap?” Bud asked, hoping to lessen the blow with sweets.
“Yeah, sure,” Hap replied, then turned his full attention to Hozark. “I can’t wait to get home. And when we’re there, I’ll show you guys the garden. My dad just had the first one installed. He said by the time I’m grown, there will be a dozen of them.”
Hozark took a breath. There was simply no pussyfooting around the harsh facts. Better to get it out there all at once and let the chips fall where they may.
“I am sorry, Happizano. I truly am. But I am afraid there is a problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“The men who took you. They have a presence in your home and around your world. I am sorry, but we cannot safely take you home. Not now, anyway.”
The boy’s eyes welled up with emotion as he bolted from the galley.
“But dessert,” Bud called after him.
“I’m sorry, Bud. But I appreciate your attempt to minimize the trauma,” Hozark said.
“Master Hozark, what happened down there? You said there was a Council presence?” Demelza asked.
“There is. Both in orbit, though disguised, and within the estate’s grounds themselves, also disguised, though the staff seems to know who they are. They believe the ruse is all for the protection of the property at the visla’s request.”
“Which we know is a steaming pile of crap,” Bud said.
“Hey, what’s this about the Council and a visla?” Henni asked.
She had not been present for the earliest stage of this endeavor. As such, there were some finer points she was still not entirely up to speed on. In all the commotion and racing from system to system, bringing the young woman who they’d thought would just be a temporary passenger up to speed had kind of fallen through the cracks.
But now that she was more and more acting as a part of the crew, it would likely be a good idea to fill her in.
“Essentially, the people who attacked Visla Jinnik’s home, kidnapped his son, and killed a great deal of people are now on site under the auspices of being invited by the visla to keep his home safe.”
“And it was the Council that did it. You’re sure?”
“Yes. And if there was any doubt before, there is none now,” Hozark replied.
“Oh?” Laskar asked.
“There was a letter on the visla’s desk. Not a trap, but merely something he left there as he hurried off to do as it directed him.”
“And?” Laskar asked. “You’re killing me, here. What did it say?”
“It demanded the visla fly at once to Nefario to assist the local emmik squash an uprising.”
“That doesn’t sound too––”
“And help them enslave those captured with control collars for use in the slave trade,” he finished.
“Oh. Shit.”
“Yes, Laskar. ‘Oh shit’ does sum that up fairly well.”
Uzabud didn’t like the sound of this one bit. Bad things were afoot, and far worse than he’d previously imagined.
“I assume there was a threat against the kid if he didn’t comply?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Son of a bitch,” Bud grumbled. “By now he’s almost certainly moved on from there, so that letter doesn’t help us much.”
“But it does tell us one thing,” Hozark said. “Validity seals are not used often, so we know it was very likely the same person who laid that trap for us. And that was tied to Visla Ravik and Emmik Urtzal. While those two are not directly involved in quelling that uprising, I would wager that if we dig, there will be other similar disruptions ongoing that do affect them. And it would be at one of those that we would have a higher likelihood of locating the visla.”
“So, we narrow the search to what, a few dozen worlds? It doesn’t sound like the most logical idea,” Laskar said.
“We do not. But the spy network most certainly will. A power like Jinnik’s will not go unnoticed, and word will soon leak out. And if we make it known we are specifically looking for that man, I feel we will have a hit relatively soon.”
“But why use him on peripheral problems? Why not break him out for the big ones?” Bud asked.
Demelza leaned in. “If I may, I have a theory on that. It would seem, from what we have learned so far, that there is a power struggle at play within the Council. One that they are working very hard to keep silent. If a player happened to acquire a visla of this power to their side, even if by coercion, it would be wise to save that asset for themselves.”
Bud nodded in agreement. “I hate to say it, but that makes a lot of sense. And those Council freaks are always backstabbing each other to get more power. I mean, when’s enough, enough, right?”
“I would argue, never,” Laskar said. “But what do we do now?”
“Now we return to Corann to inform her of what has transpired. She and the rest of the order need to be aware of these goings-on. And while we do that, the spy network will do what it does best.”
“And the kid?” Bud asked.
Hozark let out a long sigh. “I will see to him.”
* * *
“Go away!” Hap shouted through his door.
“Happizano, I only wish to speak with you.”
“I said, go away. I hate you!”
Hozark opened the door and stepped inside. “I understand your sentiment, and, given the circumstances, do not blame you one bit.”
Hap’s eyes were red from crying, and a slight buzz lingered in the air around him. Hozark found that most interesting. It was an unfocused power, but the boy most definitely had his father’s gift.
Soon, he would grow into his power and would be an emmik at the very least, though given the familial traits, he might very well even become a great visla, if his power proved strong enough.
For now, however, he was still just a young boy, lost, scared, and unfocused.
“We will find your father, young Jinnik. And we will get you to him. I know this setback is upsetting, but you have my word we are doing all in our power to reunite you.”
The boy wiped his nose on his sleeve, but at least his crying had ceased. It had been a rough time for him, no doubt, and this was just one more bump in an already rocky road.
