Bob strode into the room. A man was sitting in a leather chair, back turned towards Bob.

“Ah, there he is! Bob, the minion who has made such waves lately.”

BAM!

Bob cried out as something slammed into his back and knocked him to the floor.

“You have my sincere apologies for the rude greeting.”

Mr. Dapper Tiger held Bob on the ground, a hand on Bob’s head and his sizable body on Bob’s back. The man in the chair turned to face the pair, a grin on his face.

“Really now, I’m a little disappointed. All that planning, all those schemes, that rise through our organization, all to be caught unprepared in the final moment. But I suppose that’s the limit of a group as young as yours.”

Bob let out a grunt as he tried to shift his body.

“You knew?”

The man shook his head, letting out a soft chuckle.

“Honestly, you did a fine job up until the end, we had no idea you were there. But that final job made too many waves, did you honestly think we would invite you here without reviewing your case in full? And once we took a look, your rise through our ranks was too quick, too convenient, too lucky. We knew then, who you truly worked for.”

“And you invited me here anyways?”

“Of course. ‘Those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.’ From The Art of War, the very basics of the basics, dear minion.”

The man pressed a button on his arm rest. The monitors on the wall behind him lit up, showing a recording of a certain bunker in Siberia. A mere hour after Bob left the bunker, a missile struck it dead on, destroying it entirely.

“You should have had a plan in place ahead of time. Contacting, much less visiting your boss in the final hour was just sloppy. And really now, a bunker in Siberia? After all your organization achieved in such a short time, we expected something a bit…less cliche? But I suppose that was your limit.”

Bob let out a sigh.

“So what now?”

The man smirked.

“Now? Now we’d like to offer you a job.”

Bob just stared at him.

“What?”

The man nodded.

“We are not so wasteful as to dispose of good talent unnecessarily. Your boss is dead, you are now a free agent. While your organization was somewhat amateurish, you did come up with a reasonable solution to the problem of the Non-standards. A bit haphazard, but we can clean it up and make it work in time. And you, you, my dear minion, managed to find and infiltrate us of all people. That counts for something, even if you stumbled at the end. I, for one, believe you have potential and, if properly nurtured, perhaps a real future in our organization.”

Bob shook his head.

“I refuse.”

The man raised his eyebrow.

“Truly? Your loyalty is admirable, but take a look at your situation, dear minion. Tell me, what reason do you have to refuse? For I can give you several very obvious ones not to.”

The edge of Bob’s mouth curled up.

“Check the news.”

The man frowned. He pondered for a moment, then hit a button on his armrest, turning his chair sidewise so he could glance at the screen.

“Breaking news folks! Vice Director Carter has been arrested by the Bureau of Special Investigations, assisted by Captain Hot Devil himself! The BSI released a statement, revealing they’ve received evidence the Vice Director was involved in Director Green’s assassination! The Vice Director has not given a comment at this time, and the entire ILS has been thrown into disarray at this shocking turn of events!”

The man turned back to Bob and narrowed his eyes.

“Not bad, I’ll give you that. But it changes nothing. We have more agents in the ILS, one will be in charge in no time. All you’ve cost us is time. You, on the other hand, no longer have any organization behind you, and will perish shortly should you continue to resist.”

Bob simply smiled.

“Keep watching.”

The man glanced back. His jaw dropped.

“W-What’s this? It…It can’t be! This is…”

“I’ll give you a statement. Londyn Green, Director of the ILS. I apologize for my absence, but I couldn’t take any chances after the attempt on my life. But thanks to the assistance of the brave men and women at the BSI, the perpetrator has been found, and will be brought to justice. And now, I am ready to return to my post.”

“That’s…impossible. We verified the body…”

Bob smirked.

“It was a lot of work, pulling that off on the fly.”

The man turned to Bob, glaring at him. But then, his mouth curled up and let out a snicker.

“I…I see now. You aren’t working for the upstart…you are the upstart. Well played, well played indeed. Even I never would never have guessed you’d be working as a minion of all things.”

His eyes narrowed.

“But you’ve miscalculated. Because now, even with the ILS out of our hands, you’ve handed us an easy path back to victory. Dapper, if you would.”

Mr. Dapper Tiger pulled back a hand and extended his claws.

“Sorry now, good sir. I wish I could give you a sporting chance, but that’s just how these things go.”

“Wish granted.”

Bob used one of his fingers to pull a small lever on one of his wrists. A cloud of pink smoke puffed out around him. Mr. Dapper Tiger immediately began coughing, stumbling back off of Bob.

And his fur and claws began to recede as his body began to shrink.

Bob rubbed his back as he stood to his feet.

“Heroes are so annoying. Sir Solomon Cunnyngham, I presume?”

Solomon’s eyes widened as he glanced at his hands.

Normal, human hands.

“Sir Edmund sends his regards. He talks a lot about you, you know? I think he regrets that it happened to you, rather than him, seeing as he always pulled you into danger. A bit jealous as well, if he’s honest. In any case, he spent a long time trying to determine exactly what happened on that tour in the jungle. He never figured it out. But he did find a curious plant, one that he thought might produce a cure.”

Bob smirked and as Solomon tried to hold up his pants, now several sizes too big.

“He was right. He just didn’t have the correct processing method. But I used to know a guy who did. Though, I believe the Professor wanted to achieve the opposite result.”

A slow clap rang through the room.

“Impressive. Most impressive. I’ll take back my earlier critique, you’ve certainly done your homework. Even I wasn’t aware Sir Cunnyngham’s old partner was still alive, much less that he found a cure of all things. I presume he is also how you found our organization then? And better still, even I can’t figure out everything you did. Would you mind indulging my curiosity?”

Bob nodded as he turned to face the man.

“I don’t mind.”

“Excellent. First of all, how exactly did you catch the former Vice-Director? We were very thorough in cleaning his trail.”

“That was your mistake, inviting me here. I deployed a small, custom drone to access your network, and relay the information to the BSI. Your internal cyber-security needs work, it seems you built your network on the premise that you would never be infiltrated from the inside.”

“Fair enough, though you are the first and only person to ever do so. BSI was a smart choice, we didn’t bother to infiltrate such a small organization. How did you get them to act so quickly, though?”

“They were already acting. I just gave them what they needed.”

“Ah, the other mole?”

Bob nodded.

“He gave me their contact information before he died. You could say he accomplished his mission in the end.”

“I suppose you could. Still, we have a great many files and the BSI has little clout. How did you find something actionable that quickly?”

“Iesnorium. You used it in the bomb to negate Director Green’s defenses. We already had the data for that, so we were able to narrow our starting search to links between Carter and the material. As for the actual arrest, Director Green assisted as well, lending her connections to the BSI from behind the scenes. Finally, Captain Hot Devil kept tabs on Carter’s location so they could move the moment they had the green light.”

“Ah, the Iesnorium would explain your connection to Sir Notfelde. Finally, how did you fake Director Green’s death? We verified the corpse multiple times.”

“That’s simple. I gave you a real corpse.”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“That does not seem simple.”

“I infiltrated the Necrosaurus’s organization, we managed to preserve his ritual for generating ‘fresh’ corpses from a genetic template and a base of organic compounds. All we had to do was gather a sufficient DNA sample.”

“Are you capable of necromancy?”

“No, but there are plenty of young upstarts willing to do a favor in exchange for forbidden knowledge. Especially if a paycheck is involved.”

“That there are. So we were able to verify the corpse because the corpse was technically real.”

“Yes.”

“...Magnificent. Honestly, this is the greatest setback to our organization in a long, long time. You are truly a worthy opponent.”

The man smirked.

“But you must realize even with all that, you have not won? We still have a great many assets, and our organization is still completely intact. You may have regained control of the ILS, but you cannot protect Director Green forever. The rest of your organization is scattered, and in no shape to resume operations anytime soon. Even if you have all the data from this facility, you will not be able to act on it before we reorganize and counterattack.”

Bob nodded.

“The war would be hard to fight. And very messy.”

The man nodded and stood to his feet.

“But war doesn’t need to continue. I’ll introduce myself properly. I am Famiano Impastato, Steward of the Concordat of Sorrow.”

He extended his hand.

“You, Bob, are worthy of joining the Concordat. Not as a minion or even a lieutenant, but as a full signatory. You’ve seen what we can do, and you’ve shown us what you can do. Imagine what we can achieve together. With you at our side and the ILS under our joint command, peace everlasting will become more than just a motto.”

Bob shook his head.

“I’ll pass.”

Famiano made a sad smile as he retracted his hand.

“So be it.”

The doors of the room burst open and armored soldiers flooded into the room, guns trained on Bob.

“I’m afraid I’ve been stalling, dear Bob. You have presented us with a most exciting challenge, but I’m afraid it is now at an end.”

Bob nodded.

“Seems that way.”

“Any last words, my great adversary?”

Bob nodded.

“You missed one.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You missed one.”

“One what?”

“One question. The most important one.”

Famiano tilted his head. Bob smirked.

“Let’s see: ‘Those skilled at making the enemy move do so by creating a situation to which he must conform; they entice him with something he is certain to take, and with lures of ostensible profit they await him in strength.’ Did I get that right? You see, if I, the mastermind, am here…then who was at that Siberian hideout you bombed?”

And then the roof exploded, sending dust and debris scattering throughout the room. Famiano cried out as he was knocked to the ground, dusting filling his throat.

Famiano let out a cough as he stood back on his feet. He heard a metallic crash, and a gust of wind blew through the room, scattering the dust and revealing the culprit.

His jaw dropped.

Before him stood a beautiful woman in a thin, silk shirt and pants, not a speck of dust or debris upon her.

She had brass knuckles on her fists and a frown on her face.

Famiano closed his jaw, and gave the woman a polite bow.

“Most esteemed Master Xiong Huang, what are you doing here? Don't tell me you intend to break the Immortal Heaven Blood Pact?”

Xiong Huang reached into a pocket and pulled out a scroll, letting it fall open. At the bottom, the name ‘Xiong Zhen’ was written in blood, along with the names of the Eternal Night Sect elders of the time.

But there were red blots covering the rest of the names.

“As you can see, I am not the one who broke the pact, Steward. Someone decided to blow up an armory of my toys with a bunch of my disciples still in it.”

Famiano opened his mouth to object when he thought of Bob’s last words. The blood drained from his face.

When they were investigating Bob, they had intercepted a call, a rare mistake by the mysterious upstart.

An opportunity they couldn’t afford to waste.

A chance to catch that slippery upstart off-guard.

So they struck before verifying who was at the site.

Xiong Huang stepped towards him and slammed her fists together once more. Eternal Night Disciples flew on their blades, flying through the hole in the roof and taking up positions behind her.

“The Eternal Night Sect has not been subjected to such disrespect and humiliation in all its existence. You know what happens now, right?”

Famiano gulped as sweat dripped from his brow. His life was over, that much was obvious. But perhaps there was something he could do, something to save the Concordat.

He furrowed his brow as the thoughts raced through his head.

There had to be a solution.

They always had a backup plan.

So they must have prepared a contingency…

Famiano froze.

The contingency plan…was an Iesnorium bomb. A bomb they weren’t sure would work against a high realm cultivator. A bomb they had therefore invested to confirm a kill and acquire a better solution.

And right now they had neither the bomb nor the solution.

And so an endless night fell upon peace everlasting.