Rage (Chapter 7)

Joseph walked to the side of the group, trying to get enough of the surroundings without breaking the cover of a private school teacher. Anna walked in front of the group, talking about the exhibits in the main hall. The Paladins were doing quite well at posing as high school students. They were in the central district in the Katar city state. A rebel army was trying to take control of the city state for it’s value sources of metalin, the most used and most valuable metal source in several worlds. Rebel leaders had snuck into the city and were conducting hit and run raids on various targets. Joseph’s team was to gain intelligent to find the rebels headquaters and eliminate it. But they needed to keep their business as secret as possible. Katars were known for being very open and honest people. They were not good at keeping secrets. A “middle man” had been the one to hire the Paladins, so as to keep the operation secret. Katar citizens were totally unaware of their presence and Joseph wanted to keep it that way. Anna stopped the group in front of a large mural and the students looked at it and discussed among themselves. Anna walked over to Joseph and smiled as she spoke softly,

“We have news of a group of rebels possibly on their way here. The management are already starting to clear people out.”

Joseph pasted the same innocent smile on his face as he replied,

“Alright. Let’s get everyone into stealth positions. Remember, not even the citizens are supposed to know we’re here.”

“Yes sir.”

“Anna?”

“Yes sir?”

“Remind them. No prisoners, no wounded. We can’t afford it. The Katars, rebels or not speak too easy. We let even one of them get away, get arrested, or get medical attention and our presence will be known all over in an hour.”

“Yes sir.”

“Everyone!”

The group turned toward Anna, smiling, looking all the world like a usual high school group on a field trip.

“We have news that there’s a presentation for us on the 7th floor. Let’s all head up there now.”

The group all nodded, knowing the true nature of her speech. Joseph and Anna looked at each other and nodded as they moved toward the elevator.

-Damien