Chapter 199 - EVO

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Daman Salb***

I left the theatre while noisily slurping on a cocktail that had been given out in a waxed paper bottle during the performance. Smiling, I blended in with the rest of the crowd perfectly, still wondering how much of the play had been the truth and how much was pure propaganda. At least the increased speed, strength, and some form of electrical power were a given.

The Aerie had some peculiar customs regarding their folk heroes. Though it wasn’t like the local media was any better back on Earth, putting on these public performances felt like a step too far for me.

Nonetheless, it was nice to have at least an idea about what our targets could do.

The team had to be prepared for enhanced speed, strength, and reflexes. Though they wouldn’t be as strong as the members of our team, an agile opponent should never be underestimated.

I wasn’t keen on going through with this mission. The goal was to extract the subjects alive and unharmed, but with those kinds of abilities, that wouldn’t be easy.

Then there were those tentacles. They posed a serious threat in close combat. If an altercation occurred during the extraction, it would be best to double- or triple-team each opponent while the rest of the task force retreated with the subjects.

I shrugged internally and took one of the passageways to the living cavern’s next level. The exact details of handling the extraction wouldn’t be my problem. That was the team leader’s can of worms.

Large carts with goods of all kinds passed me, heading to one of the restricted levels. I wondered what that was about, but asking too many questions would lead to unnecessary attention.

Looking at the people passing me, one wouldn’t have gotten the impression, but this was a highly organised and militarised society. It had been hard enough to get this far without getting caught.

But as long as we kept up researching their society, blending in shouldn’t be a problem. At least as long as I stayed away from anyone who would ask uncomfortable questions. Despite their differences from Earth, they were still humans.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, I reached my goal.

Nodding at a colleague from work, I entered one of the offices which handled the distribution of tasks for the average citizen from the first strata. Becoming a part of the menial labour pool was the best solution to get within reach of the target at one point or the other. All it took was patience – and someone who could weigh in on the assigning process.

Labourers got access to every part of the settlement. They were generally unseen, unrecognised faces, and there were a lot of them.

The perfect cover.

I approached the clerk who had been managing my last eight assignments. “How are you doing, Claudia?”

“I am doing just fine, Daman,” she replied sweetly. “Are you already done with the plumbing job at the fourth strata’s smithing site?”

I nodded and winked at her. “It wasn’t that much of a deal, thankfully. Just a clogged wastewater pipe. If they had bothered to try, they could have fixed it easily on their own. I even had time to clock out early and watch one of the new plays on my way back.”

“Good for you. They were playing Magnus and Astra, right? It’s always a banger when a job takes less time than assumed,” she replied and brought out a sheet of paper. “Here is your list of tasks for tomorrow.”

I thanked her and took the list, noting some of the later maintenance duty was directly at the target.

After a few seconds of looking over the list, I put it away in my backpack with the tools I normally carried around. “What a coincidence! One of the jobs is at a 12th strata residence. Do I need anything for access? I haven’t been there before.”

Claudia frowned while she checked her records. “It’s not normal for a new employee to be assigned to such a task without proper introductions, but I suppose things are a little upside down with the war and all the refugees. As far as I know, it should be fine as long as you identify yourself as being dispatched from our office and if you can name the exact task you are there for. Just clarify it with one of the older employees first.”

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I nodded and excused myself.

***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

“Isaac, Constella, and Aurora, you are giving me a headache!” I chided the three rowdies. “Why do we always have to return home, just to find out that you didn’t listen to Aunty Thalia when she is so nice to look after you!”

Earlier, Thalia had approached me with a displeasing tale about the children ignoring her instructions to play hide and seek with the cats. Naturally, Thalia was nowhere fast enough to catch any of them and the hairdresser who had been especially ordered to the estate had to leave without doing their job.

“But we wanted to play with the cats!” Constella argued back. Her tone was defiant and totally unapologetic.

I stepped forward and slapped her once over the side of the head, rattling her braincase. “When an adult who is looking after you tells you to do something, you do it! No questions asked! You do not ignore them, you do not run away, and you certainly do not play tricks on them!”

“Ow!” Constella held her head and looked at the floor.

“I am very disappointed with you. Especially since Thalia is highly pregnant!” I hissed. “What would have happened if she had slipped while chasing after you?”

Well, she would have probably been fine thanks to her mutations, but the kids had to learn that there were limits to some things. If they couldn’t be left alone with anybody else but a speedster to look after them, we would be in serious trouble. By Gaia! Children with mutated super-powers were already hard enough to deal with when they were giving their best to cooperate with the adults.

I sighed. “I get that you are ahead of your age group by leaps and bounds, and that listening to adults is boring at times. But if Thalia says that you get a haircut, you get a haircut. The hairdresser isn’t visiting the compound when it is convenient for you three. The world doesn’t work by always giving you your way. And if you think that you can’t sit still for half an hour while the hairdresser does their work, then maybe that is something we have to work on?”

Isaak and Aurora shook their heads in unison.

I raised an eyebrow while glaring down at Constella.

“N-n-no!” she quickly affirmed. “I can sit still for an hour if I have to!”

“Good!” I threw up my hands. “Because the next time I hear about something like that, we are not discussing this between the four of us.”

The three held their collective breaths.

“Dad, you wouldn’t!” Aurora dared to speak up.

“I will tell your mother!” I threatened, knowing that Astra would have them hung from the ceiling for a day if she heard about this. By her filaments, of course.

The three good-for-nothings gasped as if I had threatened to cut their connection to the UI for a week.

“What are you going to tell me?” Astra asked from the hallway. Five seconds later, she entered the living room where I had the three little monsters lined up next to each other.

“That there was a misunderstanding with the hairdresser,” I lied unapologetically. “They missed their appointment. That’s why we are going out to get a haircut in the main living cavern.”

I grabbed Aurora and Constella by their filaments, which were starting to grow out at the backs of their necks, providing easy carrying grips for the miscreants.

Then I walked past my frowning wife with Isaac following on his own.

We made it safely out of our quarters, and I quickly found one of the compound’s attendants to have her call for a carriage.

I felt no particular urge to carry my offspring all the way through the tunnels to the living cave.

At least the three kids looked appropriately remorseful.

It took no time for the carriage to show up once we left the premises, and I climbed in without delay after giving the driver our destination.

I plopped Constella and Aurora down on the seat across from me. Isaac joined them a few moments later, and I sat down with my arms crossed while we began moving.

Still, I didn’t continue the conversation until we were well beyond the treemonae guardians, which were planted at all of the compound’s entrances.

Tilting my head, I listened for a moment and used Second Sight to take a look behind us. “We are in the clear. She is not coming after us.”

The miscreants looked relieved when I returned my attention to them.

“Sooo, care to explain why Thalia decided to have me take care of this instead of going directly to Astra?” I asked.

Constella shrugged. “We really just didn’t listen when she told us to come. It’s not like we played a trick on her.”

I scratched the back of my head and sighed. “Well, my warning still stands. I know you guys have your circumstances, but if we tell you to do something, it is usually for a reason. Sometimes, I just don’t know whether I should treat you as young adults. But then you pull something like this, and I just have to think of you as children who aren’t in control of their actions.”

“It’s just so boring without Mom and you,” Isaac admitted.

“Most other people are so slow,” Constella mumbled.

“And you are always away,” Aurora added.

I pressed my lips together at that last admission, feeling a little guilty. “But we are together in Gaia’s dreamscape.”

“It is not the same,” Constella retorted, sounding frustrated.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “I am sorry, but there are some tasks only your mother and I are suited to. I hope that we will have more time to be together in the future. But right now everything is unstable due to the war. Everyone has to pull their weight, or people will lose their lives unnecessarily.”

That admission made the three look downcast once more, so I clapped my hands together. “Why don’t we plan something together? Like family time every evening – when possible? I will talk to Astra about it. There must be some sort of activity we can all do together.”

The three lit up instantly.

“After you get your haircut,” I added in a strict tone.

And now they were moping again.