Chapter 424
Chapter 424
«Zosimos, it’s pointless… It’s all useless. They will not let me go.» – Valeera said in a colorless tone with a blank look, as if she didn’t care about anything anymore.
Kyon ignored the girl’s words: «Well! Come out from under your grandfather’s skirt! Come on!»
Isaac gestured to grab Arpha and dryly said: «Get rid of this rubbish. I hope you can cope with this trifling task without unnecessary problems.»
«Show at least a little respect for your grandson!» – rubbing the bump on his head, the guy muttered resentfully, jumped forward sharply and grabbed the man by the neck, but for some reason it was not possible to break it. No matter how much effort he applied – to no avail.
Kyon imitated a lack of oxygen, and even in feigned convulsions, he grabbed the opponent’s hand, ostensibly trying to escape from the grip, when in fact he was pursuing a different goal.
«What…» – Edward’s face fell from shock. Is that possible? How can a practitioner of some superior phase be so solid? In order to finish what he started, the guy used the element of ether, hitting the man with electricity, but this did not help either!
Meanwhile, Valeera and Alexander, who was standing next to him, were surrounded by a group of bodyguards, including a thug nicknamed Palms of Death. By the way, he was not at all the strongest of those present, among them there were even royal phasers of the 6th and higher stages.
«Dishonest scum…» – said the most devoted to the girl murderer, took out a dagger and attacked Palms of Death. The lord phaser of the 4th stage versus the royal phaser of the 5th stage… This is suicide.
~smack~
The big man instantly crushed Alexander’s skull with his mighty hands.
At the same moment, the nephrite with a blinding effect was triggered, which the killer activated before dying. A bright flash lit up the mansion. Everybody closed their eyes.
Valeera took advantage of the only moment, entered invisibility, but, despite Bernard’s request to survive at any cost, rushed to Palms of Death, they will not allow her to escape anyway.
{Cursed dagger.} – the girl mentally remembered the name of the technique. Her weapon and hand were covered with an impenetrable black haze, through which scanning practically did not penetrate, and invisibility only multiplied the effect.
Palms of death only at the last moment felt the approach of an invisible enemy due to a distracting flash. He didn’t have time to defend himself properly, so the man did what he does best: grappling. He tried to grab Arpha by the wrist… When suddenly his palm passed through the hand covered with darkness, as if through a fog, and the real hand, as it turned out, had just struck…
~ding~
The dagger pierced the man’s chest. The energy of darkness immediately attacked the heart. With a twisted expression of pain on his face, the big man with large palms went limp and collapsed dead on the floor.
«Oh, fuck! Hold that bitch down!» … «Grab her!» … «Tie her up immediately!»
A crowd of royal phasers attacked Valeera, tied her up and put on a collar that blocks the ability to use the elements. Now she, with all her desire, will not resist in any way. However, the girl did not expect anything else. For her, the main thing was to avenge the death of her most trusted comrade, Alexander, with which she coped.
Isaac found himself next to the dead man and, bending down, scanned his body. The old man’s face is twisted with anger. He furiously pulled the killer towards him, grabbing her by the throat: «STUPID VIXEN! How dare you kill him?! How… Stupid bitch… Dare?!»
«She killed the royal phaser at the middle stage?!» … «How is this possible?!» … «Who is she?!»
Diego nervously pulled back his collar, as if he felt stifled: «What a dangerous girl… I’m damn glad we listened to Isaac and caught her! Ugh, it’s like I dodged a stray arrow…»
Edward, hearing Isaac’s scream and noticing that he clung to the girl as if he was going to strangle her to death, hit the opponent with all his strength on the head and rushed to rescue the person he liked: «Grandpa, stop it! You will kill her! Stop it!»
{It’s now or never!} – Kyon thought and gave the remote command “start the operation”.
As soon as the vital sparkle in Valeera’s eyes faded along with her consciousness, a rolling rumble sounded.
A sufficiently powerful protective barrier of the mansion was instantly destroyed.
«HELP, COPS!» – the guard yelled, after which he huddled in his dying convulsions.
The heads of the clans, their henchmen and guards were alarmed and frightened.
«Shit! Let’s retreat!» – Isaac ordered, releasing Arpha’s throat and grabbing her under her arm, and rushed to the mansion. Edward, Diego, and the other clan heads followed him, while their guards covered the retreat.
«HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD, FACE IN THE FLOOR!» – the chief security officer deafeningly commanded.
More than thirty powerful practitioners of the department, led by the royal phaser at the peaking stage, raided the mansion on the orders of their superiors. They killed everyone who resisted or ran away. The rest were ordered to disarm and be tied up for interrogation.
Meanwhile, Kyon was lying on the ground, pretending to be dead. He even slowed down his heartbeat to the minimum allowed, and at this time the outlines of his face and the shape of his body gradually took on the appearance of the investigator Dick. Now, with all his desire, he will not change anything. He is absolutely powerless. All he could do was watch as Valeera was kidnapped.
Meanwhile, Isaac, Diego and the rest of the clan leaders ran into the deep basement of the mansion and scattered along the numerous underground passages specially equipped for such occasions. The walls, as it should be, were made of impenetrable granite.
The battle in the mansion lasted more than two minutes. Explosions, lightning, screams of pain and horror were heard from both the members of the shadow clans and the security forces.
When the noise stopped, someone approached Kyon to check on his condition.
«Is he alive or what? Tie him up!» – the security officer ordered.
«My name is Dick Baker! I’m an undercover investigator of the third rank!» – Kyon said loudly and clearly, holding out his wrist.
Cautiously checking the formation, the security officer was surprised, but hastily pulled himself together and helped an ugly colleague to get up: «Sir, you will have to follow us to the department!»
«Roger that. Report the situation.» – Kyon demanded dispassionately, dusting himself off.
«The suspects escaped by underground tunnels. Among our people, ten were injured of varying severity and two were killed. According to current estimates, five were killed from the enemy side. No one surrendered alive…»
«I see. Continue working.» – Kyon nodded gloomily.
Very soon he was taken to the department and, after holding him behind bars for literally five minutes during which they confirmed his identity, they sent him immediately to the office of the department boss.
Milan banged his fist on the table so that his glasses fell off: «For fuck’s sake, we lost two security officers of the royal phase! Each of them is invaluable to the department, but now they are just corpses! And all for what?! For five petty bandits?! What the fuck am I supposed to tell the head?! What the fuck, Dick?! What was the point of this fucking secret operation?!»
Even Milan did not have all the information about the upcoming operation until the last moment. And all this was necessary so that the raid would certainly turn out to be a sudden surprise for the heads of the clans, because they have enough rats in the department. Kyon had to spend a lot of time and effort for the selection of security officers: thorough checks of the dossier and background of each of them.
«You couldn’t fucking say what we’re going to face, or what?! I have five law enforcement officers of the imperial phase under my command, one of whom is at the middle stage! He would have turned everything upside down there! He would have defeated everyone! Dick, what the fuck?!»
Kyon could, but did not call the security forces of the imperial phase, because if Valeera had been captured by the department’s employees, as in Boston, then, being an investigator of only the 3rd rank, he would very unlikely have been able to rescue her. The sewerage system in the department of Dantes is designed in such a way that even a mouse will not slip through unnoticed, besides, this time the girl does not have Leon, who is ready to get even to hell at the cost of his life.
«Will you say anything?!» – Milan was furious.
Despite the screams of the boss, Kyon sat with half-closed eyes, his whole dejected appearance seemed to radiate depression. Opening his eyes, he wiped the boss’s saliva from his cheek and said: «Boss, I didn’t know for sure who we were dealing with. Bothering such powerful practitioners without a good reason is the last thing I would dare. I am very sorry that I thought this was a meeting of an authoritative gang, but in fact it turned out to be a meeting of the heads of clans! I wanted to catch a school of fish, but there were fifty sharks!»
«And that’s all you can say in your defense?!» – Milan did not calm down. – «The head of the department will devour me with guts for the death of two royal phasers!»
If any other investigator, even of the 2nd rank, were in Dick’s place, the head of the department would at least demote him, or rather even put him behind bars for such a rash decision. Losing two trusted security officers of the royal phase without any result is not a joke! Such practitioners do not grow on trees like apples.
The fact that the fat man, judging by his sullen expression, is aware of his guilt; the fact that he is a young genius who has earned the respect of Milan; and the fact that he has a record exposing the sensational “S-1” rank case – all this played a role in the special attitude towards him.
Kyon got rid of the boss as quickly as he could. He received only a reprimand, as well as a requirement to write the most detailed (fictional) explanatory note.
Lovr quickly left the department and rushed to rescue Valeera. But he didn’t know where she was. She refused to take the nephrite with the tracking formation from his hands. As for her personal formation, the probability that the tracking function is built in there is approximately zero. And even if it is there, the cautious Isaac scattered it anyway, because he is not just anyone, but the head of the shadow clan, who knows how to ensure the safety of himself and his people.
So, he needs to look for Valera through Edward (or his confidant), but it’s very difficult to track him down. Even after the robbery of the Stalbers’ warehouse, the guy escaped from pursuit in about the same way as Valeera, that is, the feathered reconnaissance was useless. Something similar happened after the black market. These rats from the shadow clans are extremely careful: they do not appear in crowded places, they act quietly and carefully, and their return home always includes getting rid of a possible tail, that is, passing through a bottleneck with a variety of detectors – signaling barriers.
The question is, how to track Edward if aerial surveillance does not help? Kyon found only one effective method: come to the meeting and put a tracking formation on the guy. For this purpose, he waited for the perfect moment, put himself under the blow and for those 5 seconds, while he allegedly resisted and knocked on the hand that was squeezing his neck, he imposed the formation.
But how can he leave the meeting alive? Obviously, he will need help from outside. Security forces are needed, but not too strong, otherwise Valeera will be caught with a great chance…
As for the girl herself, Kyon was sure that Edward was too attached to her to allow someone to kill her. Also, judging by the caution of the shadow clans, there are definitely escape routes in the mansion, so everyone will flee.
As a result, Lovr managed to impose the tracking formation on Edward and survive (this was the essence of the raid), and Valeera was successfully kidnapped, no matter how stupid it may sound. If Lovr had not come to the meeting in person, nothing would have happened.
Kyon decided long ago that getting Valeera out of the department would be much more difficult than taking her out of Edward’s clutches. One thing is clear – it is not worth calling the security forces there, otherwise, the girl will be behind bars.
Now Lovr will have to go alone to the abode of evil – to the headquarters of the Black Star clan. He can only hope that Valeera has not yet been dishonored…