Kane turned around to face his desk and bent over to the phone.

  He pressed a button on the phone, “I need a cleanup in my office.”

  “What kind of cleanup?” Spoke a voice on the other end.

  “B7.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Kane let go of the button. He emerged from the office and began walking back towards the containment area where the body was being kept.

  A random worker approached him, “Hey, um, sir. You’re tracking something through the office”

  Kane looked down, behind him, and there was a small trail of blood printed on the floor with the front of his shoe.

  “Ah, so I am… Clean this up.” Kane said as he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the front of his shoe.

  He continued towards the cell with the body and as he stepped into the room another worker approached him, “Sir, Subject D has had a run-in with one of the holders and is meeting with Vincent.”

  Kane sighed, “Subject D? Who’s that?”

  “Do you remember the first wormhole experiment?”

  Kane paused for a moment before speaking up, “Yes, what about it?”

  “His son.”

  “Okay… Why are we keeping tabs on him?”

  “To hide the information about the experiment getting publicized.” The worker said sheepishly.

  “What is he doing with Vincent?” Kane asked.

  * * *

  “Where are we going?” Tod asked Vincent.

  “We’re going to do a trade, simple as that.”

  “You should stop loading us in the car without telling us where we’re going.” Eiliesh said from the back seat, “I don’t want to do this.”

  “It’s important I take you, so you learn how these things are done!” Vincent said.

  “Why do we care how miscellaneous trades are done?” Tod asked.

  “So that you can do it for me when I’m not feeling it.”

  They zoomed through the desert, the sand hills making the car bouncing as they drove.

  “I’m gonna need your orders.” Vincent said.

  “For what?” Eiliesh asked.

  “Guns, that’s what we’re getting.”

  “Oh, I thought you were peddling drugs again.” Tod said.

  “Tod’s getting a revolver, alright, what about you Eiliesh?”

  Tod sighed.

  “I’ll just take an M40,” said Eiliesh

  The car fell silent.

  “Okay, fine, Tod what do you want.” Vincent said.

  “An M16.”

  Vincent looked over at his son, “Yep, getting money from a king, who cares where it goes.”

  Vincent pulled out his phone and handed it to Tod, unlocked, “Go to messages, find DP, message him the orders.”

  “You gettin anything?” Tod asked.

  “Uhm, just a pistol, any pistol, I don’t care.”

  Tod placed the phone in the cup holder. They drove for two more hours before ending up at a hotel.

  Tod asked, “Vincent, are you still not getting these legally? Why?”

  “Tod, how old are you?”

  “127.”

  “Hm, Eiliesh, what about you?”

  “21.”

  “She’s why, also being sneaky is fun.” Vincent paused, “Also I had my license revoked.”

  They all exited the car and approached the hotel reception desk.

  “What room?”

  Vincent placed his palms on the table. “462.”

  Upon hearing the room number, the receptionist tilted their head up and after some time, nodded it down, knowingly. That room he booked was “The trading room.”.

  “One night I assume?”

  Vincent curled his fingers inward as he said, “You betcha.”

  The gang walked up the stairs and began walking down the hall. Vincent took note of a cleaning service worker at the end of the hall. Vincent entered the room with Tod and Eiliesh following behind. Vincent got on all fours on the bed and crawled towards the headboard. He slid up a panel of wood and it revealed a small slit in the wall, roughly ten centimeters in height, half a meter in length.

  A voice came from the other end, “Vincent?”

  “Present.”

  Vincent stepped back as a pistol fell out of the slot, then an M40, then an M16. Vincent picked up all three, one slipped out of his hand and thudded against the mattress.

  The person in the other room heard the thud and asked, “Did you just-”

  “Ignore it, I have the money.” Vincent said.

  Vincent looked back towards Tod, who was holding a backpack. He waved him over hurriedly. Vincent slid his hand in the bag, pulled out a bundle of money, and slid it through the slit.

  “Pleasure doing business with you.” Said the person on the other end.

  “Hey wait.” Vincent said, hushed, “Before you go.”

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re compromised, I saw an agent in the hall, they don’t clean here at this time. Find another way out.”

  “Oh, shoot. Thanks… Hey by the way, I heard you were… collecting some… objects.”

  “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

  “I saw one.”

  “How do you know?” Vincent asked.

  “They cut a bullet I fired. Then I booked it.”

  “This was on your planet?”

  “Yeah, have you hit it yet? It was a couple days ago.”

  “No, I haven’t been there yet, I’ll be sure to give you a call when I’m in the area if you wanna hang with me ‘n my gang.”

  “Maybe… After you’ve done the job.”

  Vincent closed his eyes and nodded his head, “Yeah.”

  Vincent placed the board back over the slit and got off the bed.

  “How do we get out of here?” Tod asked.

  “Out the window, of course,” Vincent said.

  “We’re on the fourth floor,” Eiliesh said.

  “Looook.” Vincent said as he pointed to the window.

  A room was on the other side of the window, it was the cabin of a ship. Vincent slid open the window and hopped in, Tod and Eiliesh following behind yet again.

  “I called this ship before we got here.”

  “But why?” Tod asked.

  “Better safe than sorry, and aren’t you glad I was.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  * * *

  The Belvod King rose from his seat and exited the room through a door to his left. He walked down a hall to reach a back door. A ship was parked in the field behind the castle, he climbed in and ordered the driver to take him to The Diamond Council Branch 02a. The ship flew off into space with a fleet of armed ships protecting it from every side.

  * * *

  Kane entered a large hall, with a long rectangular table inside it. He took a seat in the head chair and began to wait for the others to arrive. Roughly five minutes later, The Void King entered the hall from a different door along the right side of the table.

  Kane spoke up from the other side of the room, “Apologies for the size of the table, it was the only meeting room I could get us within a reasonable time.”

  The Void King sat in the middle of the table, roughly two meters away from Kane.

  “What are you doing?” Kane asked.

  The Void King reluctantly pushed his chair out from the table and wheeled it over, closer to Kane. As The Void King approached the head of the table, using his feet to pull along the chair, he pushed the chairs away to make room for his own chair next to Kane. Kane rolled his eyes at how juvenile The Void King was being.

  “Heyyy, Kaaane. I’m getting low on the growth… serum… thingy.”

  “Okay, I’ll supply you with some more, whatever. If you want people to believe you’re a king you’re going to need to act like one. Stop acting like a child.”

  The Void King adjusted his posture and crossed his arms, “Yes sir.”

  The Void King spoke up again, “Oh, by the way, Vincent and his gang had a little run in with the law on their last outing, I had to pardon them”

  They sat in silence for five minutes; Kane was happy that The Void King wasn’t chatting with him. That happiness didn’t last long because he spoke again.

  “So, who is this Belvod… King… Guy, what his deal?”

  Kane sighed, “He’s just helping us with the deal, if all goes according to plan, he will be the one to kill Vincent.”

  “I’ve heard a lot about The Belvod King, should I be scared of him?”

  “The Belvod King wouldn’t hurt mature royalty that he’s making a deal with.”

  The Void King grinned, “Ah, alright!”

  A couple minutes later the door on the left side of the table opened. The Belvod King bent down through the door, due to his height. He assessed the room, all the disrupted chairs, the length of the table. He glanced at Kane and began making his way over.

  The Void King whispered to Kane “Ohhhh, he’s one of those.”

  Kane slowly turned his head towards him and whispered back, “Not all species are humanoid, shut your mouth for moment… please.”

  The Belvod King took a seat on the left of Kane.

  Kane nervously spoke, “Sorry about the table… size, it was the only venue I could get in a reasonable time.”

  The Belvod King turned towards The Void King, “Who is he?”

  The Void King sprung up and reached out his hand for a handshake, “I’m The Void King, but you can just call me Richard!”

  Kane intensely glared at Richard.

  Richard continued, “So what can I call you, The Belvod King doesn’t really roll off the tongue.”

  The Belvod King grimaced and pointed at Richard, moving his finger around and the chair moving along with it. He moved the chair two rows down and clenched his hand.

  “Why is… Richard here?”

  Kane looked back over at The Belvod King, “Oh, he’s the mule basically, he just knew Vincent beforehand, making him more trustworthy to Vincent.”

  “What is the purpose of this meeting?”

  “Who here knows a man who goes by the name ‘The Desert Prowler’?”

  Both Richard and The Belvod King rose their hands.

  Kane continued, “He may be working with Vincent. They did a weapon trade today and they may meet up in the future.”

  The Belvod King spoke, “I’ll take care of him.”

  Richard leaned in, turned to The Belvod King, and asked, “How do you know him?”

  “An associate of mine was killed by him. I’ve been hunting him for months now.”

  Richard spoke again, “Oh for me he just robbed like… every business I owned.”

  Kane began, “Vincent has collected six out of the twelve items. We also found one, a zombie.”

  “So, it’s true…” Richard said.

  Kane began talking about the reanimated holders, the people who possessed the targets. As he did Richard slid a small device under the table and stuck it to the bottom.

  After some time of silence Richard asked Kane a question, “Why do you want Vincent dead anyways?”

  Kane paused, “Well… I’m being paid to kill him.”

  “By who?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “As the leader of the largest corporation in the universe, what significance does money have to you? How much are you being paid?”

  “I’m being paid an amount that you will get ten percent of.” Kane said.

  “You’ve told me this before, but I never actually asked, how much am I even getting out of this?”

  “Jesus, what is with all these questions?”

  “I am deserve to know how much I’ll earn.”

  Kane thought for a moment, “Fine, uhm, yeah, five million.”

  “Who’s paying you fifty million dollars to kill one man?”

  “I don’t even know why I invited you, just keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing, which is basically nothing anyways.”

  “I need to know who-” Richard was cut off.

  “Leave.” Kane said.

  “No, no, I-”

  “Leave.” The Belvod King said as well.

  Richard began leaving but before he shut the door he said one last thing, “They only attack people who are alone.”

  Kane turned, “What?”

  “I have a holder in my city, they only kill people when they’re alone, unless they have to.”

  Richard left.

  Kane turned back to The Belvod King, “So you take care of our little Desert Prowler problem, scare Vincent a bit more, go on the attack in… let’s say, two weeks.”

  “I have one question.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Why do you need Richard? I mean I understood before, as a mule. But now Vincent knows, so what’s the point of his involvement in the plan?”

  Kane sat for a moment, thinking.

  The Belvod King interrupted the silence, “Just… remember what I asked. Why do you need Dylan killed anyways?”

  Kane looked up, “Dylan...?”

  “The Desert Prowler.”

  “Oh.”

  “How did you not know that Mr. Surveillance?”

  “We go by code names, but I need him dead because his father was involved in an accident. We had to cover it up and if he and Vincent dig too deep, he could figure out the truth.”

  The Belvod King asked, “Okay, so? Just say there was an accident, so what?”

  “This is about reputation, so far its near spotless, we can’t risk anything bad happening.”

  “Near spotless?”

  “…Yeah.” Kane said slightly annoyed.

  “The Iron Cou-”

  The Belvod King was interrupted by Kane’s phone ringing. Richard was calling him.

  “Ugh, Richard.” Kane said.

  “God, he just left, what does he want?”

  Kane picked up; Richard spoke shakily “It’s… It’s back.”

  “What’s back?”

  “The Hivemind.”

  “What?” Kane said shocked.

  “The Hivemind is back.”

  Kane hung up, shot up from his chair, and rushed out the door.

  “Hey! What’s going on?” The Belvod King shouted as he ran after Kane.

  When he opened the door Kane had already taken off in his ship. He walked back inside and called a ship to pick him up.

  Kane landed the ship in a Diamond Council Branch and ran to the portal room.

  “I need to go to The Void.” He shouted at a worker.

  “What? Uh, I’m sorry sir, give me a minute.”

  The portal powered up; the sparks swirled around into a circle. It suddenly filled with a black substance.

  “Sir it’s-”

  Kane stepped through immediately. A black world surrounded him, a pitch-black sky, pitch-black ground, everything. Kane dug in the backpack he grabbed on his way in, he fished out a pair of goggles that he slid on his head. The world suddenly lit up with graph lines, showing the giant mountains surrounding him that previously blended in with the sky. Looking up he saw what looked like a glowing root system of wormholes stretching throughout the sky.

  A loud growl echoed through the canyon Kane was in, followed by a rumbling. He slowly backed up into the portal. As he walked back through, he saw the sharp, dark gray, tail of a creature whip around the top of a mountain, followed by a roar. He spun around to everyone watching in the control center.

  Kane spoke up, “I need a ship.”

  “Do you want it armed?” A random worker asked

  “The most armed ship you have, and as many crew members needed to operate it.”

  A ship coated in guns of various sizes moved down a conveyer belt and lowered in front of the portal. Kane stepped into the driver seat and five other members climbed in the back to control the guns.

  The ship rose into the air and shot into the portal.

  * * *

  A Void Patrol Ship sent out by The Diamond Council several years ago slowly floated around through the void. It carried five workers.

  “Harry, we have an incoming transmission, can you answer it?”

  Harry walked over to the intercom and it glitched to life, “This is a code red, all deployed patrol ships are to return as soon as possible.”

  Harry turned back to one of the drivers, “We need to return to base, says the voice of the other end. Code red apparently.”

  The ship turned and began turning, at a certain point it launched into the void, towards an exit portal.

  “Harry… There’s uh… there’s another transmission, a distress signal, answer it.”

  Harry walked back over to the intercom and pressed the button yet again, a hushed female voice was on the other end, “A… A leviathan crashed our ship. We have ten people out here, two are unconscious, anyone who can hear this, please… We need help, I think it’s gone, we haven’t heard it in a few minutes.”

  Harry spun around, “There’s a crashed ship, ten people apparently, they say there isn’t any threat still present, we should go help them.”

  “It said code red, that means return immediately.”

  “We can’t just let ten people die. Especially in an emergency.”

  The captain sighed and she reluctantly turned the ship towards the origin of the signal. They approached the signal and found a crashed ship.

  The captain stopped the ship and faced him, “Harry, since you wanted to help so bad, go down first, assess the situation.”

  Harry opened the door and slowly fell down several meters to the ground. He approached the ship and looked in one of the windows. He only saw two people, nearly fully decomposed. He looked in for a moment more before bringing up his radio.

  “These people… they’ve been dead for a while, and there isn’t nearly as many as they said.”

  No Response.

  “This ship could only fit a maximum of five.”

  No Response.

  “Hello?”

  No Response.

  Harry spun around and saw the ship was gone.

  The radio chattered, “H-a-h-r-Harry-r-y-r-y”

  “Hello? Yes?”

  “I- It- I- W- It- It was s- s- as- a trap p- p- ap-, hide d-.”

  Harry immediately hid under an overhang near the crashed ship and crouched down. A loud crashing noise echoed from a nearby mountain. Something grabbed the ship and rammed in into the mountain. Harry pressed a button on his suit to send out a distress signal. Seconds later he heard a being woosh above him at the speeds of a jet.

  The ground under him rumbled and as he looked down, he saw a large worm chewing on his foot. He yelped and kicked it, it clamped down and chopped off his foot, causing him to scream. He jumped up and hobbled as fast as he could. He heard a loud shriek from behind him. He continued hobbling, screaming for help. Another loud screech echoed, this time closer. He unholstered his gun and spun around to face the beast behind him. As soon as he spun around his life signal shut off.