Dan sat inside Kodak’s transport shuttle during their trip back. He sat along the same row beside Li. While it brought him comfort to be shoulder to shoulder with his only true ally in this entire situation, having to look at his captors at the other side of the cabin wasn’t a fun experience. He would still tighten his jaw from time to time just looking at Kate. Adam was lying on his back against a stretcher that had been secured to the floor. Beside him, Judith has placed the dead corpses of the cult master and a few of the followered who borrowed power from their psychic commander.

  The lead Bloodknight sat along the same side as Kate and Natalia. The other Bloodknight has collected the last trinket carried by the dead cultist before placing it inside a metal crate.

  “All equipment and gear from them has been collected ma’am,” Natalia said. “We hit the jackpot this time.”

  Even twenty minutes into the ride, Dan turned his nose up at the stench of blood and death within the cabin. Judith glanced at him with a toothy grin.

  “Are you still making faces at the smell of death?” she aaked. “I thought you would have gotten used to the scent by now.”

  Dan shook his head. “Isn’t it unsanitary to just leave dead bodies out of the open like this? You didn’t even put them in body bags.”

  “Didn’t have any. Plus, I’m giving the janitors something to do. Plus, we could benefit doing a dissection of these fanatics. I’ll also get to show proof to Colleen Odyssey that you managed to slay this cult master. Then she’ll finally get off my ass about making you join our ranks.”

  Dan narrowed his eyes at the lead Bloodknight. He could tell from the slight tilt of Li’s helmet that the stealth specialist was also giving Judith his own disdainful looks behind the visor.

  So far during the ride, Dan had barely noticed that Ada chose to stand. She stood in the middle just before Adam’s unconscious body while her hand held one of the ceiling handles. During the smooth section of the ride, Ada finally stepped closer and stood over Li.

  “Do you mind if I sit here?” she whispered.

  Li’s helmet looked up at her then back at Dan. “It’s your call Dan. You want her with us?”

  “It’s fine,” Dan replied. After all they had been through together, Ada was the only Kodak agent who didn’t get on his nerves. Under any other circumstances, they should be friends by now. Possibly even more. But they were still on opposing sides fighting for competing goals. Dan wanted to bust out of this place and never look back while Ada wanted to prove herself as a full-fledged Bloodknight to Judith.

  When the time came, he knew a confrontation with Ada would be a shitty situation all around.

  Because of Ada’s Bloodluster sword not having a proper scabbard or sheath and its ridiculous cutting power, she had to detach it from the magnetic holsters along her hip and set the blade down onto the floor of the cabin.

  The young Bloodknight took her seat beside the stealth specialist. Li’s body language tensed up. He sat with his back even straighter than ever and was curling his fingers to keep his focus off of Ada. Dan knew that Li’s blood was heating up just being in close proximity of anyone from Kodak.

  “That sword you gifted me,” she began. “It has its drawbacks despite its insane power.”

  “Oh yeah. It’s literally out in the open and might accidentally cut someone if the blade hits them,” Dan said. “Not sure what the Church was think designing such a weapon but I guess they wanted maximum damage and nothing else.”

  “It’s alright. I can adapt to it,” Ada said.

  Their conversation fizzled out then and there. It wasn’t that Dan didn’t have anything else to talk about with her specifically. But in the presence of Judith, her direct boss and the one trying to tempt him to join the Bloodknights, it was difficult to be open. When it was just him and Ada navigating the city on their own, what they experienced was something as close to camaraderie between opposing agents as it could ever get. He had no clue how Judith would react. The back and forth glances and the smirk on the lead Bloodknight face already told him that Judith noticed what was between them.

  The rest of the flight was just uneventful sitting around and waiting for the destination. Dan couldn’t exactly have any candid conversations with Li because his enemies would be listening to their every word. Ada was most likely wondering about her promotion to being a full Bloodknight after this mission. Talking shit towards Kate would have been a waste of time since it was beating a dead horse. Adam was unconscious and Dan already knew that another conversation with Judith and listening to her distorted worldviews would make his sanity slip even more.

  The transport began its sudden descent before it hit the ground. Compared to the rides he had experienced on the Alpha dropships, this pilot was clearly much more forceful and heavy-handed even outside of combat situations.

  The door opened and slowly dropped down and hit the ground. Judith was the first to stand along with Natalia and Kate. Ada stood up as well and picked up her Bloodluster off the floor. She glanced down at both Dan and Li while holding her sword up and pointing toward the exit, gesturing them to get moving.

  The two stood up and walked down the ramp of the transport and onto the landing pad of the aircraft. Both were greeted by eight Kodak agents aall pointing their barrels at their faces.

  “Wow, thanks for the warm welcome guys,” Dan said. “You guys got cake for us to celebrate too?”

  To their credit, none of the Kodak agents present took the bait and engaged in some shit-talking banter with him. Most likely because Dan spotted the Odyssey twins waiting for their return. He looked around and saw they were within a spacious courtyard surrounding by a perimeter wall. Other Kodak aircraft sat along the other landing pads plus various other Kodak agents roaming around. He spotted the occasional mechanic and engineer, all wearing completely black uniforms along with strange pads on their shoulder and joints with similar spikes as the Kodak agent armor.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Li took a rough jab from a barrel pointed behind him. He jerked his helmet over his shoulder and said, “Nice. I’d like to see you do that when we’re face to face on the battlefield.”

  “Stop it,” Ada said. Her voice was firm and drew a few stares from the Kodak agents. “Do not needlessly provoke them. Escort them and you get return back to your normal duties.”

  Their lovely escort made the two walk towards the trio of Judith and the Odyssey twins who simply stood and stared at each other without exchanging any words. Another few agents escort Kate and carried Adam’s unconscious body out of the transport and into the Kodak base. Natalia dragged the metal crate filled with lkooted gear from the Church agents along with more Kodak personnel carrying the bodies of their enemies.

  When Dan and Li were ordered to stop just behind Judith, the lead Bloodknight glanced at the Kodak escort and just jerked her head toward the base. The Odyssey twins both turned on their heels and entered through the base first, followed by Judith, Dan, Li and their escort.

  No one had bothered to improve the interior looks of the Kodak facility while they were gone on mission. The same dark hallways with the same shitty lighting conditions. They all continued walking until they reached the same throne room where they had first brought Dan to meet with these high-ranking Kodak bitches.

  Before Dan and Li stepped inside, their escort around them abruptly ran their hands throughout their arm, stripping them of their weapons and other gear they had looted. Dan didn’t particularly like having his Conservative taken from him. He thought about just attacking his enemies now just out of spite. But then someone from behind attached a new collar around his neck, cutting his access to his corrosia abilities. The same was done for Li, though the stealth specialist smashed his elbow into the face of one Kodak agent just for the trouble.

  Now that they had been disarmed, their escort jammed their barrels against the back of their heads and forced them to walk into the throne room. Both Dan and Li were brought just before the steps leading up to the upper level. Judith and the Odyssey twins stood at the top already in the middle of a conversation.

  “We’ve got some gear from those fanatics that could prove useful to us. I’ll make sure it gets sent to the research teams,” Judith said. She glanced down at Dan then smirked. “Oh yeah, Dan brought home a treat for us. He managed to kill a cult master, with some help from one of my Bloodknights of course. So do you still doubt his potential?”

  Dan had never been around anyone who had given him this much whiplash within such a short span. He was now standing before his enemies and Judith was giving him praise before Colleen Odyssey.

  Colleen gave Dan a sideways glance before continuing the conversation. “I see. I’ve sent in additional forces to clean up the remaining remnants of Church activity within the city. Now that their highest-ranking member is dead, this will be a simple clean up job.”

  “Now then, back to our original conversation. I’m aware that Dan’s original purpose was to be used as a live subject for our scientists to study the Arctic serum after your failure to secure the container. But I think that would be a waste of his talents. I’d like to override that original idea and recruit Dan into my ranks now. He’ll make a wonderful Bloodknight.”

  The rest of Dan’s Kodak escort exchanged looks with each other. No one said a word, though he assumed that the agents spoke with one another through their own private channels, likely objecting to Judith’s ridiculous idea.

  He saw the other twin Lola throw her arms out and begin pacing back and forth. Colleen’s face twisted at Judith’s casual intentions of altering their original plan. While Dan was thankful that he wouldn’t be treated like a virus sample to be contained and studied in a lab, abandoning his friends and joining an enemy shard wasn’t his idea of ideal either.

  “No fucking chance,” Colleen said, jamming her finger into Judith’s chestplate. “You really think you can just recruit any rat into your ranks?”

  Judith merely smirked at her. “Maybe I should help you wash your ears, honey. Didn’t I say that Dan managed to kill a cult master? He would be more useful to us as a warrior. Oh and let’s not forget that you have no authority over what the Bloodknight sect does. Understand?”

  The high-ranking Kodak agent grumbled. “I should have never fucking trusted you with that infiltration operation. And where did Kate and Adam go?”

  Judith’s smirk turned into a full toothy grin. “They both got their asses handed to them by the same cult master my future young Bloodknight over here killed. They’re licking their wounds right now. Those two really are making you look bad honey.”

  Dan eyed both Judith and Colleen. The Bloodknights seemed to have a completely different command structure and Colleen had no such authority over them. Judith being their top Bloodknight seemed to have free reign to do whatever she pleased. Overlord and Judith also seemed to be close with each other. Even while spending this much time as Kodak’s prisoner, Dan still didn’t have a clear picture of how their command structure worked.

  The lead Bloodknight turned and brushed off Colleen. She descended down a few steps before stopping, looking down at both Dan and Li.

  “Well Dan, it looks like I’ll be getting a two for one deal,” she said. “Since you decided to give your friend the other half of the artefact, I have no choice but to consider recruiting him into the Bloodknights as well. Now, let me reiterate this. You both will either join me and serve as my warriors, or forever serve as test subjects in a lab until… well whenever your useful meets its end.” Judith looked back at the Odyssey twins. “See? A compromise. You can both stop bitching now.”

  Lola raised a fist at Judith while her hand hovered over a hilt that looked like Jane’s viper fang sword. Colleen crossed her arms and gave the Bloodknight a sneer. Dan was half expecting for these Kodak bitches to give in to their hatred of one another and start a fight.

  Li was the first to break the silence. “If you think I would stoop so low as to join a trash shard like yours, then you don’t know me at all. I would rather die proud as an Alpha agent than serve monsters like you.”

  “You better choose your words carefully in my presence, little boy,” Judith said while pointing her finger.

  The stealth specialist stepped forward before a bunch of rifles raised in his direction. “That’s tough talk while I’m restrained and having an armed escort. I can kill you in a single move if we had a proper fight.”

  Dan widened his eyes at Li’s bold claim. At this point, him and Li would be relatively equal in stats once the stealth specialist allocated his recently earned stat points. He didn’t know if Li had something else up his sleeve other than what he learned from Overlord’s dream sequence.

  But Li said all that needed to be said on both their behalfs. Dan still had no intention of joining Kodak.

  Judith stared down at both of them, still wearing her arrogant grin. For a moment, Dan though Judith would be bold enough to order the guards to leave so that she could accept Li’s challenge.

  “Well then, I think you both deserve a short break in your cells before you make up your minds,” she said. Judith waved them away before turning around and walking up the steps. “Think very carefully until the next time we meet. Agents, escort them back to their cells.”

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