Chapter 62

Termination 7

-:-

1 Week Later

The hunt has not been easy for the Theo, Jabir, Nosferatu Trio.

As they theorized, the third party helper of the Cullets (the Valalya Kingdom) had the home court advantage.

Though the trio was able to find some leads as to the whereabouts of Bella Sway, Edward Cullet and Jacob Quile, the trail would immediately come to a dead end with skillful erasure of their footprints.

The last few days was literally grasping blindly in the dark.

While it looked bad for the Trio, it they did have one advantage.

Based on the general reaction of their opponents and the repeated requests by the HAA for Theo’s cooperation for the World Union Camp repair request, they were also grasping at straw on the Trio’s activities.

This theory was further solidified by the lack of direct confrontations between their forces.

Jabir’s Hassan-i Sabbah were masters of covert ops. While they were on unfamiliar grounds, their stealth abilities were just as fearsome as ever.

At the moment, the Hassan-i Sabbah and their opponents were playing the most frustrating hide-and-seek game in existence.

On Nosferatu’s side, he attempted to negotiate with the Valalya Kingdom. Like many times in the past, he told them the whole truth about the Mad Progenitor dilemma and why they needed to give Bella Sway to Nosferatu.

And like many times in the past, Nosferatu was met with a polite middle finger to the face, a painfully bad ‘we never heard of them’ act and a firm refusal for cooperation.

Nosferatu knew it would end up like that given his unsavory past with the Hero Alliance, but at least he’ll have the satisfaction of saying ‘I told you so’ if the worst case scenario does happen.

As for Theo, he had the most boring job of all.

He had to stay in Wadiya and finish all the job officially assigned to him by Nosferatu.

He had to leave a tangible trail that he has been a good boy for HAA to follow in order to avoid any suspicion.

The jobs were relatively easy for a Midas Alchemist.

Repair a tower here, fix a dam there and so on and so forth.

He took care of every job in 2 days. The rest of the time was spent making further improvements to Jabir’s arsenal and sexually harassing Pani.

Let’s just say Pani has been ‘very receptive’ of Theo’s advances.

However, those blissful times ended at the 7th day when an extremely slim lead has appeared.

At least 300 people of the Cullet + Quile group were in hiding in the Alkebulan Continent.

Thanks to Jabir’s clone imprisoned within the Valalya Kingdom, they were fairly sure that the 300+ people were not there.

Their lead came from a very simple source: Food.

In order to feed such a large number of people, large scale purchasing was expected.

However, the opponents were crafty in going about this.

They purchased in small bulks from a large number of suppliers before transporting it into multiple locations before transporting it again and again and again before it reaches the end of the line.

While tracking the complex transportation of goods was impossible for Theo, Jabir’s army of clones accomplished it with great speed and efficiency.

In a mere week, they were able to identify 3 large cities where the Cullet group was hiding.

This was where Jabir showed Theo what he was lacking as Midas Alchemist + Technomancer.

Their power was more than just the creation of powerful items.

It was through others where their true power could be displayed.

Midas Alchemist + Technomancer needed underlings to fully realize their full power.

It was through the armies powered by their creations would they be able to truly shine

This was a lesson Theo took into heart.

Anyways, back to the situation at hand.

Jabir has done phenomenal work in tracking down the Cullets, but it was still a rush job.

While he was sure that their enemies were within those 3 cities, he had no clue which of the 3 had their primary target, thus turning this hunt into a terrifying russian roulette with all cylinders loaded with live ammo except for one blank.

As such, Theo was sent to the city that was most likely to have Bella Sway…. Which also happen to be the city with the largest concentration of people.

Theo was literally being sent into the lion's den.

At the moment, Theo was hiding inside a freezer container with frozen meat as company.

Naturally, he was fully decked out with his power armor and weapons.

There were also his spy drones flying around.

All in all, he was expecting trouble sooner or later.

What he did not expect was how quickly trouble would find them

“Warning: Theodore Lorne has been discovered by the enemy.” said Pani through the communicators

“What the hell?! Already?!” said Theo as he accessed all of his spy drone feeds.

Much to his confusion, there was no movement of any kind that suggested he was in the enemy’s radar

“Report: Based on the clone network, Theodore Lorne was detected via Feng Shui based divination.” said Pani as she viewed the same video feeds as Theo.

“Feng Shui? … Shit… don't tell me the Jade Empire is sticking its meat stick into a hole it doesn't belong to again?”

“Response: Unknown. Theory: Help from acquaintance?”

“*sigh*.... It doesn't matter now. The problem is that I’m in their radar. Any suggestions to remedy that?”

“Sarcastic Remark: the story of Wuxia is the journey of a drug addict in his never ending quest to go even higher.”

“That didn't answer my question you know? It was funny though.”

“Response: #58912213 appreciates Theodore Lorne’s praise. Answer: No remedy” replied Pani in her typical monotone voice.

FYI: Pani was currently inside a heavily modified Antonov An-22 flying in a circuit about 25000 feet around the 3 cities.

The An-22 was outfitted with 2 Archon Batteries that were supposed to be used for Theo’s Terminator. These allows the An-22 to fly for a week without landing, power all of the cutting edge gizmos Theo installed in it and increased its weight bearing capacity by quite a bit.

It also has 2 very important tech on board

First: it has equipment that significantly boosts Theo’s drone control signal range. This allowed him to control the F22A Raptor that was currently following the An-22’s flight path.

This signal boost also affected Pani, thus allowing her to access Theo’s drones on the ground. Unfortunately, she needed to be right next to the booster in order to make use of its effects.

Second: The Terminator Armor.

Enough said.

Anyways, with no means to hide from the Feng Shui surveillance, Theo needed to scrap his stealthy approach.

“Pani. How many of our people are compromised?” asked Theo

“Response: Only Theodore Lorne. Explanation: With the help of a certain drug specifically designed for the clones, all Hassan-i Sabbah are capable of completely reducing their existence to nothing. Theodore Lorne is only capable of stealth that negates the vast majority of science based detection techniques.” replied Pani

“...Damn it...”

“Question: Proceed with the plan?”

Theo thought for a couple of seconds before answering.

“No. Let’s change the plan. I want all the Hassan-i Sabbah assets to stay hidden and keep me at shooting range. I’ll be the bait.”

“Response: Understood. Sending orders via network” replied Pani

“Nice. Let’s get this party started shall we?”

As Theo was about to exit the container via a trap door installed on the floor, Theo’s coms made a bit of static.

“Huh? What’s up Pani?” asked Theo

“H-humble wish: Stay safe h-husband!” said Pani in a panicked voice before signing off.

This surprised Theo quite a bit.

This was the first time ever that he has witnessed Pani outside her usual stoic persona.

“Aww~ how sweet. I’m going to enjoy defiling her in bed!”

Theo knocked on the wall behind the driver seat twice. A second later, the driver knocks twice in response.

This was their predetermined signal that Theo was going out now with the driver repeating his intent.

The container truck moved to the side of the road and began slowing down without stopping.

Theo opened the bottom and dangled from the edge.

As the container truck slowed down enough, he then jumped down on the ground and dodged rolled to the side in order to avoid the truck’s wheels.

Theo immediately rushed into the shadows of the many alleyways of the city.

Just because they knew Theo was coming, but that doesn't mean that they are any safer from his wrath.