Chapter 115

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth

"So, do we have a deal?"

The merchant nodded wordlessly.

"Good, good." The smuggler sighed as he leaned back into his chair. Using one of his old contacts to make a deal with that Tarkian quartermaster had been a huge risk -the baroness was many things, but merciful was NOT one of them-, but it looked like it was going to pay off in the end. Big time. "So, in that case, I will arrange for the dispersal of the assets as soon as you begin the payment. In mana crystals, if you please, not in kind. As profitable as these golems parts are I specialize in high value discreet cargo, not bulk."

"Of course, me and my comrades wouldn't dream of anything else my good sir." Said the merchant smoothly, with the honeyed voice of an accomplished orator. He grabbed the glass of wine on the table and took a sip. "Still, I have to wonder about the…particular place of our meeting. It seems a bit risky, to say the least."

The smuggler looked around at the warehouse, with its various crates and racks of newly acquired Tarkian equipment.

"It would seem like it to the unwary eye, but if this location is discovered our entire operation would be destroyed regardless. Thus I see it best to…minimize failure points, so to speak, by having a single area to focus my efforts to prevent eavesdropping and spying, rather than dispersing them and risking missing something."

"Ah. That is a very fair point. Well, in that case I suppose I will leave you to it, and return with the payment, say, tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow will be fine my good sir."

The merchant nodded, and left.

And neither the smuggler, nor his guards, ever saw the spider golem silently watching them. After all, they had been prepared for divination magic and cloaked spies…not remote controlled spy drones.

*****

"Alright, so we have a deadline for when they'll move out of there." Said Alexandra as she leaned back into her seat in the command center, looking at her assembled war council. It had occurred to her that the maids probably had a lot more experience doing sneaky spec ops stuff than she ever did, and while she was at it she might as well get CQ and Jared in on it as well. So currently every sapient being in her dungeon was assembled around the newly built map table at the center of the command center, although CQ was mainly just listening and Jared was, well, Jared. "Any suggestions?"

Sarah leaned forward and looked at the miniature town built on the table. Advantage of being a dungeon was that this kind of work was quick and relatively easy, so she'd produced an entire reduced scale version of the town.

"Well, first and foremost the problem is going to be getting rid of the guards. You said there were people guarding the warehouse around the clock, sneaking anything past them is going to be a challenge…provided that we even want to in the first place."

"Besides." Continued Ella. "Hauling anything out is going to be an issue, guards or no guards."

"I can make some clothes that would cover every square centimeter of a standard golem's body. I believe I can also strain to possess two golems simultaneously, if I let go of my avatar." And also requisition some of the mental capacity used by her other self. But they had agreed on it beforehand, albeit via terse, text messages. They could have talked but…neither of them was comfortable doing it. Besides, feeling the occasional stray thought or emotion was already weird enough as it was. "With one golem to lead the infiltration team, and another to lead a hauling unit, it could be done."

"We could also simply be deployed outside." Suggested Sarah.

Alexandra winced.

"I'd rather avoid that if at all possible. Plausible deniability and all that."

"You are sending golems." Retorted Ella. "You signature golems, might I add."

"Correct. But also golems that have been pillaged in industrial quantities. I mean hell, I can see some of them being used in their airfield to unload ships! Both the spider golems and standard golems have been looted in the thousands by adventurers at this point, anyone with some connections in town could retrofit them. So all in all, they're as good as its going to get." She sighed. "Besides, I need to test out these infiltration models."

And keep the maids out of said infiltration models' future activities.

Emilia nodded.

"Well, good news is we know you can get the infiltrator golems into the warehouse. That gives us an edge, right?"

"Indeed. Guards never expect an attack from the inside." Said Ella as she started pacing back and forth. "The problem is going to be taking care of them quickly and quietly. Furthermore, even if your hauling golems are disguised, what if they're stopped by a patrol? With all the Tarkian gear being unloaded the city guard are being very careful in checking haulers for contraband. Part of the reason those smuggler people have to be so careful with how they're moving the gear around."

"That's…an excellent point." Alexandra drummer her fingers on the arm rest of the command chair, before snapping her fingers. "What about the client?"

"The client?" Said the maid as she stopped.

"They got to have some way of moving it around. Secret compartments in crates, plus some kind of permit or pass -I saw them being flashed by some people to the guards-, that kind of thing."

The maids looked at each other.

"You…Are you suggesting we make our move when they're meeting up again, to steal their way of smuggling stuff around the city?" Slowly said Sarah.

"Well…yeah. I mean, it would save us a lot of trouble."

"That's going to massively increase the amount of people we have to kill." Simply said Sarah.

"Perhaps." Ella resumed pacing as she started talking once more. "But…when they're in for a meeting everyone is inside the warehouse. Furthermore the building is soundproof via enchantments, to avoid people eavesdropping and realizing there's a lot more going on there than there should be. So we'll have a sealed building, with lots of hostiles, and the need to kill everyone quickly, with minimum collateral damage, but without the need of it being quiet."

"Chemical weapons?" Said Sarah as she looked at the other maid.

"Yes." Ella looked at Alexandra. "We could gas them. Use the infiltrator golems to release a toxic compound, kill everyone in the building, then loot it. Since our personel aren't biological we don't care about potential contamination or friendly fire. Steal whatever accreditation the client and their crew has, and get the hell out. By the time someone comes to check we'll be long gone."

"Right. I do have the silicate dust I use for the light sconces."

The maid shook her head.

"No, that won't work. Saw it in action, its too slow. One of them could have the time to down a potion or run out the door and call for help, or at least gather attention."

"Do you have something in mind?"

The maid smiled, and Alexandra shivered. She'd seen bona fide mass murderers with less disturbing grins.

"Oh, my dear lady, do you even need to ask?"

*****

"I assume all is in order?" Asked the merchant, as the smuggler closed the small chest containing the mana crystals.

"Indeed it is." The smuggler smiled. "A pleasure doing business. Are you satisfied of the merchandise?"

The merchant looked at his men, who had finished loading the products into their crates, and the supervisor gave him a thumbs up.

"Indeed I am." The merchant got up. "As you said, pleasure doing business with you. If you come across anymore equipment like this, do not hesitate to give me a call. I will be more than happy to…take…it…off…" The merchant held his head. "Why…do…"

He collapsed to the ground, quickly followed by everyone in the warehouse as the gas took hold.

A few seconds later, spider golems came swarming out.

*****

Alexandra sighed in relief as the infiltrator golem grabbed the keys off of the fallen smuggler, and unlocked the back door to the warehouse, allowing her hauling golems to walk in. Thankfully giving the infiltrator the ability to do complex manipulation, to gather evidence or steal things, had been a high priority, so she hadn't had to make modifications.

But this was all problematical. She could really feel the mental strain of controlling two bodies outside of her influence at once, and she already knew she was going to have one hell of a headache once this was over.

Her golems quickly gathered up the crates, oh so thoughtfully laid out for them to be taken, while she used the one she was possessing to help search the bodies. It didn't take that long to find identification and what looked like a letter of safe conduct, from…a certain Elkaryos? Wait, wasn't he the merchant underwriting the barony?

Alexandra shook her head as she pocketed the letter. A problem for later. At least it would help her, if she remembered right most of the security forces were ex members of his corporation. After double checking that she hadn't missed anything, she gestured for her hauler golems to follow her, while the infiltrators began shadowing them.

This time they exited by the front door, and began making their way into the streets of the town.

Thankfully they were more or less deserted at this hour.

Unfortunately the parts close to the dungeon definitely weren't.

Alexandra gestured for her 'workers' to halt as the security patrol rounded the corner, and the sergeant made a beeline for her. She'd taken the time to program some routines for her golems to set down the crates if necessary, pant, and swear under their breath like good little workers. It wasn't very good -especially as their voice emitters were hardly of good quality-, but she hoped the clothes covering them would muffle some of it, and at least keep them believable.

"Greetings sergeant, how can I help you?"

"You can help me by telling me what you're doing out and about at this ungodly hour. There are people sleeping you know! Besides, ever heard of 'business hours'?"

Alexandra chuckled.

"Yes, I have. Unfortunately, profits wait for no one. Neither does my boss, unfortunately."

"Oh really? And who would that be? If I am not being too…inquisitive of course."

Alexandra ignored the soldiers fanning out around her and her golems. Thankfully, her golems ignored them to, as they'd simply not been programmed to. Which played in her favour, the guards obviously relaxing as they realized the workers couldn't give less of a crap about being surrounded.

"Master Elkaryos." Simply answered the Earth-born.

"Oh? That's interesting. Hauling goods for Rapier Industries?"

Alexandra shook her head.

"No, for him directly." She pulled out the letter of safe conduct. "Don't know why, and didn't ask. Here's my safe conduct, if you need it."

The sergeant grabbed the paper, and read it carefully. He then pulled out a crystal tablet, and pressed it against the signature at the bottom of the paper. The tablet chimed, and his eyebrow rose.

"The mana signature checks out. Well, far from me to obstruct Master Elkaryos' business then. Everything checks out, you're free to go."

"Thank you sergeant." She turned around, facing her golems. "Alright, you heard him! Break time's over, back to work!"

The golems audibly and almost theatrically groaned, but they picked up the crates and got back into line as the sergeant chuckled.

"Hard getting good help nowadays, isn't it?"

Alexandra sighed.

"You have no idea. Have a good evening…er, morning sergeant."

"You too, mister Edwards." Said the NCO, and Alexandra nodded. It was the name that had been on the document, although for some reason it didn't seem to have had a mana signature attached to it as well.

She began walking again, followed by her line of golems, and sighed in relief as she finally stepped into her influence, in a secluded corner of the mesa, almost half an hour later, her golems quickly hauling the loot into the newly opened tunnel leading into the dungeon.

Home at last, and mission accomplished!

She never saw the assassin stepping back into the shadows.

"Well, that's interesting." Said Trira to herself, before vanishing back into the town.