Two weeks later (Thursday, April 14, 2022) Financial District, Manhattan, New York, United States

Donna was walking by a garage at night when an unknown number texted her to take a turn into the garage.

She looked around and then slowly made her way in, cautious. But when she saw the tall, cadaverous disguise of Kothin there, she relaxed.

“What do you want?”

“I need you to go to South America and get it.” Kothin’s voice was strange and a bit distant. She was about to ask why, but the sudden wail of a police car siren and reflection of its flashing lights distracted her.

Kothin said, “The Emperor asks it of you. Find it.”

Donna dropped to her knees. “I will do God’s will. May I kill the girl before I go? She consorts with traitors.”

“Do you question the Emperor’s commands?”

“God is all, and I do all for God.”

“Go… and I do not want to hear from you until you have it.”

Kothin walked away into the shadows. Donna stood up and waited and then walked away in a different direction.

After twenty minutes, Bahu and Ella came out from the utility closet. The light above having been strategically sabotaged several days in advance.

“It was really hard to sync the mouth. The police car was an inspired distraction.” Ella said. Her face was clammy from sweat. That illusion had taken a lot from her, the darkened garage had been required to hide the fraying edges of the illusion. But that was nothing compared to moving the mouth. They had used a hidden speaker to carry the disguised voice of an Aqrabuamelu whose voice sounded the closest to Kothin. It had almost failed.

Aqrabuamelu agents tailed Donna, as she went to her studio, packed bags and arranged for flight tickets. Ella sat in a room directly across from her apartment where the Aqrabuamelu agents used an apparatus that bounced a laser off of her window to listen in. It was terrifyingly easy.

Donna wasted no time and went directly to the airport. The agents who had been placed along the potential paths she might take called in that she was en route to JFK.

“She has bought tickets for tomorrow’s morning flight and is just waitin at the airport. We have placed an independent contractor on the plane. He is a private investigator who thinks this is a divorce case, so he is not to be trusted.” Bahu reported.

“So what now?”

“Now we go as well. We have two squads there and are trying to scramble another that is nearby in South America. We need to get the relic into your hands as soon as possible. The risk of losing it are too high once it is found.”

They tried to book a private plane, but nothing was available. So Arcsa booked her on the next commercial flight. Flights to Chile were only twice a day from JFK which meant Donna would have about twelve hours headstart. The day was tense. The flight was approximately ten hours long so Donna would be landing just as they went.

Packing for a commercial flight was difficult. No weapons, no tactical gear. Ella packed functional hiking gear in dark colors into her backpack, just another kid traveling through South America.

She was buzzing with nervousness on the ride to the airport, and she swore that she got pulled aside for a security patdown because she was so anxious.

Ella spent the first part of the flight reading about reproductive cellular mechanics. After about two hours, she was going to try and rest when an urgent email came through from Arcsa. It took her a while to remember the cipher to decrypt the email.

The two squads on the ground in South America, one in Atacama near thee mines and the other in Buenos Aires, had been eliminated. They must have been identified and compromised beforehand, and now that Donna was on her way, they were cleaning house. Additional evidence was that the contractor on the plane with Donna reported that she had been consistently using the airplane phone most of the flight, but using an unknown language.

Arcsa said it must be the drow language which would work as well as good as Navajo during World War II without magic being available to translate.

Arcsa’s instructions were clear: the mission was cancelled — it was far too high risk. Ella and team were to land and immediately catch a flight to Mexico City two gates over. An Aqrabuamelu team from Juarez were tasked to meet them at the airport and escort her back to New York.

Ella was fuming. This was their one major lead to a piece of the imperial regalia and it was going to be lost. After a moment’s thought, she fired back a message asking what intelligence was at risk if the Aqrabuamelu teams had been compromised.

Arcsa sent over a list:

Safehouses in Atacama, Buenos Aires, and Santiago Reliable weapons suppliers in both areas

But what wasn’t on the list was Ella’s arrival to Santiago. Ella made a decision. She wasn’t giving up the opportunity. Arcsa’s reply was furious but she dug in her heels and two emails later and Arcsa acquiesced.

Reinforcements were scrambled from Los Angeles and New York to fly down on the next flight which was roughly ten hours behind. Arcsa was still attempting to charter a private plane to send over arms.

If their arms dealers in South America were under observation if not outright compromised, they needed another option. Ella requested the list of dealers which the Aqrabuamelu had found unsuitable to deal with, as they were now the best option.

The plan was four parts: establish a new safehouse to hole up in, find armaments, track Donna, and try to find the dagger. Ella would have to take a back seat since Donna knew what she looked like.

Ella sat back, any thought of getting rest had evaporated into thin air. She looked around at the plane. She looked at families with young children speaking in a mix of English and Spanish. She had put them all at risk doing this and not thought about it for a second.

If Donna knew she was here, if Kothin did, could they attack the plane itself? Thus far they had no sense of Ekerri’s resources. He had not taken the field himself nor shown his hand which had only made everyone more nervous.

And then some turbulence hit and Ella almost threw up from fear. An old grandmotherly lady offered her a bag from the seat back but Ella held it together.

They landed and Ella waited to disembark while the rest of her squad disembarked and made sure it was clear. The flight had gotten in half an hour early and the international terminal was relatively empty.

Ella tied her hair back and tucked it into her shirt. On her way out, she bought a tacky cap from one of the tourist stores and went to the bathroom to beat it up and make it look worn. Remembering something from a book, she took two sticks of gum, chewed them, and then tucked them high into her cheeks to change the shape of her face. That was the best she could manage.

Davcina and Adra ran point, pretending to be a couple. Ella and Etana were another couple. Tauthe kept the rear guard.

They exited the terminal and Ella almost froze when she detected a wisp of magic coming from a Carabineros officer. Ella discretely motioned to Tauthe who started making a scene in loud English. Ella got in a taxi with Etana and told the driver a fancy hotel while Davcina and Adra split up.

Ella messaged, this was at least one lead. And so Davcina and Adra began tracking the disguised officer.

Ella and Etana got to the hotel and requested a large suite. The hotel was still relatively empty and eager to please them and they managed to get a room on a mostly empty floor. They then broke into the room across the hall and waited.

Ella finally called Arcsa. He spent about five minutes yelling at her for taking the risk. She finally got a chance to brief him. Midway through she remembered the gum tucked up in her cheeks and spit it out. Her cheeks felt stretched out and strange.

Bahu and Zaidu were both en route on the next flight along with some other soldiers. They had significant cash with them. The private investigator had been deemed too risky to continue and they had him on a flight back to New York. Another two teams were coming from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires.

They had two shipping containers loaded with gear being sent by sea, and the team from Juarez was literally driving down in a couple of vans, but was at least two weeks out.

Attached was a list of three arms dealers that the Aqrabuamelu had decided against dealing with when they had a presence down in South America. Only one was in Santiago so that made the choice relatively easy.

Arcsa told her to hold tight for Babu and the others.

And then Davcina called. Ella joined her into the video call.

“We followed the police officer for another hour. After most of the US flights had landed, he was relieved by another officer. Adra is staying with the second officer. I followed the first one to a small warehouse in Maipú and I am currently outside of it. I’ve seen several other people go in and out, but nobody matching the description you gave me of Donna.”

Ella thought for a moment, “So that officer is almost certainly another drow. You should come back, the risk of discovery is too high. I wonder if the replacement officer is also a drow? If I was there, I could sense magic but without that this is our only lead.”

“Drow traditionally work either solo or in pairs,” Arcsa said. “Let’s assume that there are two there plus Donna. So you have three potential leads.”

Ella felt like she was bouncing off the wall quickly enough. The enforced inactivity was too much and she went down to the hotel gym to exercise and think. She came back and Davcina was back. Adra had reported that he had caught the second officer talking to his wife on the phone and was considering that good enough for now. Ella couldn’t fault the judgment there.

“I will bet they will be there again in the evening when the next batch of US planes comes in. We should let Bahu and Zaidu know. And call Tauthe and have her get us a couple of SIM cards.”

Tauthe eventually showed up, she had deliberately taken a long route back to the hotel and gotten a room on a different floor under her name.

Ella put in the SIM card and then called Arcsa and while he was on, texted the arms dealer to set up a meet tonight.

She thought about how to word it and ended up settling on a pithy and non-specific language.

Quiero comprar.

The response came back soon enough

¿Quien es?

Ella looked at the sheet of notes she had made to cover for her terrible Spanish.

Una amiga de Raúl y Tito.

The codewords were years old. Ella waited nervously. After a pause another response.

Bien. ¿Que necesitas?

Ella looked at the list and prepared responses for a moment. This was it.

20 Glock, 20 cuernos, 20 chalecos antibales

The response was swifter this time.

¿Quieres empezar una guerra? Tengo glock y galil. No cuernos o chalecos.

It didn’t matter, they were going to take whatever they could get. They went on to pick a meeting point and a price. Ella didn’t trust any of it.

Arcsa came back, “He will change the meet point at the last minute to avoid setups. I am betting they will have a hidden gunman or two. This is a terrible idea.”

Ella looked at Arcsa on the screen. He looked tired. She felt tired too.

“It is a terrible idea. But it is what we need.”

Arcsa replied, “It is bad to need something. You end up compromising yourself,” and he cut the connection.

Ella, to her surprise, managed to get some sleep and woke up when Bahu was on the ground with her team.