A small device in his pocket buzzed and he pulled it out. For a moment he looked around and then walked into another room, putting that noise behind him. He set the device down and it beamed an image on the wall. Three other people sat at a desk, their faces obscured by shadow.
“Report, Delta!” a craggy woman’s voice barked.
“We have captured five of the six avatars. The experimentation on Arx has provided incredible amounts of data. I am sure we will move to phase three of this plan on schedule.”
A man leaned forward, his face still obscured. “What about the sixth avatar? Why haven’t you captured it yet?”
“There has been a glitch in the plan. While Arx has proven useful, his attitude and ego have provided some issues. We lost a lot of soldiers during the capture of the last two Avatars.”
The woman said, “glitch! We know that they have already secured the last Avatar on the BADGE space station. Retrieving it will prove difficult.”
“Impossible!” the man yelled.
“Not impossible.” Delta coolly answered. “In fact, I already have a plan in motion. It will take a little longer to finish this task, but it will be done according to my plan, I am sure of that.”
“How can you be so certain?” The woman asked.
“Have any of my plans failed yet? You put me in charge of this mission because I am the most capable of tactical thinking. Trust in my skills.”
The man said, “your skills have proven infallible...so far. But, this glitch with Arx could prove too risky. If he messes up again, causes more mayhem where we aren’t prepared for it…”
“His ego is exactly what I’m counting on. He will play his part perfectly, just be ready when I signal.”
“Don’t let us down.” The woman stated, and the signal cut off.
***
Nova waited while the screen on the main monitor activated. Strange Quark and Dr. Stone greeted him from a grassy location in Africa. Between them was a cone-shaped device.
“What have you found?”
Quark kicked the device. “This is the third one of these things we came up with.”
“What is that?”
Stone pried off a panel and moved the camera closer to show the amazing circuitry. “This thing has been sending out false morphon surges. We picked up one in Antarctica and followed the trail to it. When we shut it off, another signal came from Montana. This one replaced that.”
“Decoys.” Nova said.
“Clever decoys. Each one is an amazing piece of work.” Stone leaned over, looking inside. “I haven’t seen tech like this anywhere.”
Quark said, “My guess is that they made these using knowledge our enemy gained from harvesting the Avatar of Tech’s abilities.”
Nova said, “That leaves us with a big problem. We can’t let them lead us around by our noses, and we can’t waste time following shadows.”
Stone slapped the panel closed. “We aren’t doing any good out here. My sensors are going to be fooled, there is just no way to differentiate between these things and the real deal.”
“I agree. Get back to the station.”
“Understood.” Quark said. Before Nova could warn Dr. Stone, both flashed and were suddenly standing next to him.
Dr. Stone wavered, held Nova’s shoulder, and controlled the urge to throw up. “Wow...ugh...that really messed with my head.”
Quark said, “it’s the change in gravity and air pressure. It’s hard on the human system, sorry.”
“Dr. Stone, head back to the labs. Work with our people on ways to perfect the morphon sensors.”
“Sure... after I get a ginger ale.”
Nova led him out of the operations center and toward the mess hall. Gatherings of BADGE soldiers, who were fully armed and covered in body armor, met them. Heroes mingled with them. Some groups were sitting around, chatting and eating. Other groups marched in units. They stationed a few in positions around the area.
“Wow, expecting a visit from the President?” Quark asked.
Nova said, “just precautions. The Avatar of Magic is here and I want to make sure we don’t lose him.”
“Dontcha think this is overkill?” Quark said.
“Every time we’ve encountered those mercenaries of our enemy, they out flank us, out maneuver us, and basically show us up. Not this time.”
“Where is the avatar?”
Nova walked him over to the window that looked out into the arboretum. The Avatar of Magic floated in the middle of a grassy patch with several heroes around it. They were deep in a conversation with the book. Krystal Fae had EB in her lab as they both listened to the vast magical wisdom of this strange book.
Quark said, “it looks safe. I can’t imagine many getting to it here.”
“It’s as secure as we can make it.” Nova said.
Quark almost said something, but frowned when he looked at the expression on Nova’s face. “Something wrong?”
“Yes. This was too easy.”
“What?”
“Gar and Krystal got that Avatar here without any fuss. Not one sign of our enemy.”
Quark laughed, “sounds like you should be happy, considering all the others were a disaster.”
“That’s just it. No one showed up when they went for it. Not one mercenary was even close when they searched. They got it here and still nothing. I expected something to happen. I had every BADGE sensor aimed at the planet, just waiting for any sign of enemy movement. Nothing happened. And that worries me.”
“Why?”
“Our enemy has shown us one thing, they are devoted to their plans. Nothing stops them. Their lack of movement, their inactivity now, everything about this must be part of their plan. We have been behind them by many steps along the way, and that is exactly where we are now. What are they planning? Why did they take the others? Who is behind this? When why they show up next? None of these questions can we answer. We can’t even theorize.”
Quark nodded. “I highly doubt that this is just about giving Arx more powers. Frankly, if I wanted to turn a human into a god, I would choose a better specimen.”
Nova put a fist on the glass, his breath fogging the window. “We have to find them. We have to stop
whatever they’re doing before it’s too late. Thousands have already died because of these people and, frankly, I feel helpless to stop them from doing it again... and that bothers me most.”
Quark said, “don’t worry, Director, we will stop them.”
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