Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four - Caught

  I slept for fourteen hours and was pretty sure I could sleep for six to ten more. Still, I had to pee real bad, and I wasn't quite so lazy that I'd just make a mess of myself. So I crawled out of bed, did what I had to do, then slumped into the shower and let warm water wake me up fully.

  I looked at the surgery scars I'd gained in the mirror, trying my best to assess them. They weren't so bad. The big one was the line of tiny little stitches going from my collar all the way down to my wrist. There wasn't any reddening and the wounds seemed mostly closed.

  There had been a lot of good shit in that op, so I wasn't surprised to see it healing quickly. I was mostly worried that my late-night activities might have pushed things past what was acceptable.

  I applied some cream over the scar and discovered that there were already a few small places where nothing was visible already. Damn, Orchid Lux didn't mess around. Then again, their entire gimmick was privacy and discretion, so it kind of fit.

  With that done, I looked at the time, then cursed. It was just a little too early to get ready for work, but too late to sit back and do anything worthwhile.

  So, I just took my time getting dressed, made a proper breakfast out of the stuff I had left over in my fridge, and then made a small list of what I'd have to pick up the next time I headed over to the grocery.

  By the time I had to go, I was very much bored, but that was fine. I slipped my boots on, gave Mister Couchtop a scritch under the chin, then headed out.

  A bike ride later and I was pulling into the parking garage over at Luna Corp. The ride over actually helped, but I still made my way straight to the coffee machine in our break room upstairs and waited impatiently as coffee dripped out of it into a Luna Corp branded mug.

  "Long night?"

  I turned to take in Sol who'd just entered the room and slipped past to grab a mug from one of the cabinets.

  "Yeah, you could say that," I replied. "Did I miss anything yesterday?"

  "Not very much. We were put on standby late during the day and were almost called back in for overtime last night, though."

  "Oh?" I asked. That was weird.

  He nodded along, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a little packet of antacids and casually tossed one into his mouth. "There's a new portal that appeared not too far from here. I think that under normal circumstances it wouldn't be ours, but Seraph was busy catching their own big fish yesterday, and we're second-closest."

  "That's lucky," I said.

  "It is. If it's a recurring portal then it'll mean more work for all of us." He leaned in a little bit, the pose of someone about to spill a little tea. "LC has been doing well enough recently, but not as well as some might like. Our growth is middling at best. A couple more recurring portals would do the company a lot of good."

  "Yeah, I bet," I replied. "So, what's the dirt on Seraph? And this new portal?"

  "Seraph nailed a slime portal. They're still extracting from it today, I think. That'll net them a few million, I'm sure."

  I whistled. "That much?"

  "Lots of good materials there," he said. "I did hear that they think there are other recurring portals in the area, so it was a big day for them. Good, because it'll soften the loss of the portal we're going to hit today." He eyed me for a moment.

  "Cool. Sorry I couldn't be there yesterday. Had some last-minute upgrades put in, you know?"

  "Ah, yes," he said with a slight smile and a nod. "When the D-ranker paychecks hit, I was quick to upgrade a few things myself. Try to avoid the longer-term payment plans, though. They may seem nice, but they're crooked, even for D-rankers."

  "Got it," I said.

  The rest of the team arrived, and judging by the amount of energy in Eldur's step, we were in for a long day of hard work. "Gather up in meeting room three," he said. "We have to go over a few things before today's work. We'll be heading out soon."

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  I nodded, then luxuriated in the scent of the alright-quality coffee they stocked in our break room. About twenty minutes later, I was seated in meeting room three with the rest of Squad B, idly chatting with Terry about some show she'd binged-watched through the night. I was pretty sure she hadn't slept a wink, but it wasn't slowing her down.

  "Alright, squad," Eldur said to grab our attention. "Quick meeting this morning. We're going to be heading out to secure an E-ranked portal just three blocks over from here this morning. It's a new occurrence, so we don't have too much information, except that the inhabitants of this portal are some sort of large, mole-like creature."

  "Cute?" Terry asked.

  "No," Eldur replied. He had a screen turn on behind him and showed us pictures from some sort of bestiary of large, rather hideous moles. They were the size of my bike, hairless, and looked like ballsacks with teeth. I wasn't a fan. "We have two E-rank teams on the ground already, keeping it secured for us. The portal spawned last night and we have first dibs. This might be pay-dirt for us, so no fooling around."

  "Pay dirt?" Erde asked.

  "Mole portals have popped up before. They're often made up of tunnels filled with valuable mineral deposits," Eldur said. "At lower ranks we can expect mostly raw metal that we can mine in a hurry. Higher ranked portals with similar monsters have contained chunks of naked silver, gold, sometimes large deposits of gems or magical crystals. Luna Corp has some mining equipment in storage already, so this could be a huge windfall for the company."

  Right, that made sense.

  Eldur outlined a basic plan, but it was just our normal SOP. We'd go in, blow up the locals and kill the boss, then leave the extraction of valuables to the E-rankers. Easy job.

  He pulled me to the side as the others were heading to the changing rooms. "You good?" he asked.

  "Yeah," I said. "Might want to avoid any strain on my left arm though?" I lifted a sleeve and showed him the remains of the surgery scar. "It's healed up well, though."

  "Good. I'll tell Dharti to keep an eye on you and give you a check up after the mission."

  "Cool, thanks boss," I replied.

  He just nodded.

  Forty minutes later we were unloading out of the side of a van, doing final weapons checks before busting into the basement of an office complex only to find one of the E-ranker teams basically sleeping on the job within spitting distance of an active portal.

  The squad leader reported that nothing had gone down all night and that it was an otherwise boring shift. The only advantage for his group was the free magical energy and the overtime pay.

  We thanked him, then dipped into the portal.

  It was weird and kind of freeing, not being the one in charge. Compared to the stress of making sure everything went right like in a loop, I could just tag along and shoot things. Eldur ended up doing a lot of the work himself. Being an Earth mage in a cave fighting enemies that liked to burrow made his life easy.

  We were halfway done when I started to feel a little off. Warm, even. Not like a fever, but not too far from it.

  I ignored it, but by the time we were at the boss room, I was itching all over.

  The boss itself was nothing special, a bigger, uglier nutsack of a mole that went down to a bit of concentrated rifle fire.

  Then we had to walk all the way back out to make sure that the portal wasn't closed up. There were more people waiting outside when we stepped out. By then, the itch was combined with a slight sense of vertigo, and I had the impression that all was not well.

  Dharti pulled me aside soon after, bringing me into a woman's washroom just one floor above and pressing a cold palm to my forehead.

  She did something. I could feel the magic circulating. Then she looked me right in the eye and her look pinched. "How many portals have you been through in the last few days?" she asked.

  Ah... crap. I never expected to be caught out by her, of all people.

  ***