I had been undercover as George Blackwell’s nurse for five months, bided my time, gathering Intel, finally got the go ahead to kill the bastard, and now the young woman who had inherited his fortune had passed out in front of me. At first I was worried she might be dying, but her pulse seemed okay when I checked it. At any rate I didn’t have time to waste. She was at least easy to drag downstairs, she was only about 5’2 and was probably under a hundred pounds, and load into the trunk of my car. As I closed it I nearly panicked as I noticed another car approaching the driveway. Thankfully they weren’t close enough to see. I decided to play it casual, I suppose my alias would have its use one last time.

The car parked and one of the relatives from the party the other day emerged from the front seat. I recognized him as one of the grandchildren, but I hadn’t bothered to commit his name to memory. “Hey, you’re my grampa’s nurse?” He said, acting like he had any kind of relationship with the man. “What are you doing here?”

“Mrs. Blackwell asked me to pick up a few of her things she forgot.” It was even true. Last night she called from her beach house, it was pure coincidence, but a lucky one, one I intended to use.

“Need any help?” He said.

“Uh no, I’ve pretty much got everything already. But thank you.” I said. “I was actually just about to leave.”

“Alright.” He said. “Call me sentimental, I just wanted to see the old man’s place… One last time.”

A likely story. At any rate it didn’t affect me, so I left him with whatever it was he was doing and drove off. It was about nine hours from here to Virginia Beach, once there I’d be directed to a remote site nearby considered “safe”, although I wasn’t sure such a thing existed with the enemy we were fighting. Even though I know I’d been absolutely discreet, I couldn’t help but worry that they were watching. Perhaps I’d been fighting this war so long that it was the only thing I ever knew. I’d spent my whole life in the shadows, fighting an enemy almost no one knew existed. An enemy that also had the ability to influence everything.

If my mission was successful, if we were able to turn the Blackwell heiress to our side, we’d finally have a way to find our enemy’s weakness. And maybe, just maybe, finally bring down the Seraphic hegemony.