Chapter 188: Undercover Agent

Dak and Zed were speaking with their new recruits. Some of their numbered tier brought back canidates. After speaking with 47, 48 and 49, who brought in a group 2, 55 brought someone in and there was a flood of about 8 new recruits. This time it was to join the organization to work for Zed, not take them prisoner to give their power away. No one truly stood out to him, although there were some with potential.

"Sorry everyone, 69, please send them one by one to my office. Everyone else, socialize, eat ,there is more than plenty for everyone! We will be doing renovations soon, so think of yourselves as new recruits to our team!" Zed shouted before closing the door.

One by one someone would walk out after speaking with Zed. His goal was to make them feel appreciated and give them specific tasks. With the money Zinnia had left them, which was around 20,000 credits after exchanging them from the dollar, something clicked.

’Wait, this money had to come from another planet. Why were they able to exchange it or switch it to credits so quickly? None of this makes sense. Was the money an illusion and they were credits all along? Something feels wrong here..." Zed thought, unable to process how he had 20,000 credits instead of the dollars, which were bills and money he didn’t recognize, before.

********

Kass and the other ladies were waiting for Zinnia to respond to her question about how things with Tyler went. Tyler walked over to Kass and wrapped his arm around her.

"They went well, Tyler and I had a trust building exercise so if any of you want to do something similar, I’d be willing..." Zinnia said confidently.

The girls noticed Zinnia was back to the intimidating presence they met, just in a kind way toward them. She was a young woman and they were college students, aside from Nyx, who was in her second year but really a 21 year old princess. Sophie, Amanda and Kass were 19 and first years...Tyler still hadn’t had his first birthday on Vexarra and was 18.

"No need," Kass smirked. "If Tyler trusts you, we do. But you do need to be honest with us. Have you figured out the system yet?"

{You mean this? Hi ladies. I am Zinnia and I’m a cold-hearted, evil bitch who does care about the people who matter. I will earn your trust.}

"Excellent!" Amanda said cheerfully. "Well, you should probably get back shouldn’t you?"

"Yes...I really should. I need to see what Zed and Dak are up too. SHIT, I mean agent 67 and 69. Please don’t say anything," Zinnia said, purposefully dropping names to start building trust.

’Wait, my cousin Zed and his best friend Dak are in the organization?! So we have infiltrated it...they work for her, fuck. This is scary. I need to let Tyler know.’ Nyxara thought.

"Don’t give us too much information Zinnia," Sophie said sternly. "I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but you really need to protect yourself as well. Give us the important details that can help, not little things that don’t mean much."

"Be honest, do any of you know those two names? They are vampires, what about you Mrs. Princess?" Zinnia asked sternly.

"Nyxara, if you do, just come clean. I think Zinnia would protect someone if they are undercover is what she’s getting at." Tyler said while looking at Zinnia.

Nyxara sighed. "It’s my cousin and his best friend. They are definitely undercover agents for the vampires."

"FUCK," Zinnia shouted before covering her mouth. "I slipped up and made a mistake. They got me. I recruited them about 3 days ago and what can Zed do? One of the prisoners he brought was a light purple mask, which are the ones who run an area of the slums. The prisoner was going to betray me and kill me. We got a huge reward for the exchange, which he helped lead. He and I got Necram power."

"His charms are very strong. He can alter someone’s beliefs. I can’t believe he was willing to go that far to stay undercover." Nyx said with a grin.

"So he literally forced himself to be promoted? He kept flirting with me too. Is that like him?" Zinnia asked.

"Sometimes. He puts out feelers here and there so he must really think you’re something special. I’m also guessing he’s conflicted by it. They are ghosts without a papertrail or proper identity. They live and train in a different area." Nyx explained.

"Zed is my cousin from my aunt. His father is one of the very few to marry into royalty, kind of like Tyler did. Dak came from a non-noble family. Because of their relationship, Zed begged his mother to talk to the king and Dak’s family were made nobles due to their good deeds and character. Please protect them. They’re great people. If you need to get out, the 3 of you should get out." she added.

"We should do it separately. I’m sure they have their own ways. I need to tighten up with who I’m getting close with. I almost made a huge mistake," Zinnia sighed but quickly regained her confidence.

"Well make sure you don’t change. Keep the relationship exactly where it was and keep allowing him to flirt to gain trust. If you change now, they’ll definitely pick up that something is wrong. They’re trained to do these things for years," Nyx added.

"I agree, thank you Nyx. Tyler, come with me so you know where my hideout is. I’ll sneak back here tonight when I feel it’s safe," she added while grabbing her mask and putting it on.

The mask magically wrapped around her face, covering her hair, only revealing her eyes but her nose and mouth were visible through the mask. They could see her lips moving and her facial expressions, which was different from the lower level masks.

"Necram power in the masks or is it something different?" Sophie asked, noticing every detail.

"Something different I think. It’s not demon art or magic either," Kass interjected. "It almost looks like an elven spell..."

"But how? Most of the elves were wiped out..." Tyler asked.

"Beats me, but someone is working with the enemy. Maybe the elves struck a deal to keep their people alive?" Kass asked curiously.

"I’m not sure," Zinnia answered, fuming inside. "I only know 0 is a female and she knows everything about me somehow. When I know more, I’ll let you all know. I can always message you from the system if I’m in danger. If I blow my cover, I’m going to need your help anyway."

Tyler gave her a hug and to Zinnia’s surprise, the rest of the girls came in and hugged her too.

"Be safe, Zin," Amanda said kindly.

"The earrings are a good touch. Don’t go dying on me before you can tell me more about what really happened that night. My sister deserves to know the truth and it doesn’t matter what the demon people think of you anymore," Kass added.

"You’re a strong, powerful, independent woman. It’s going to be interesting adding you to your Tyler’s harem, but I’m glad my hunch was right," Sophie smiled.

"Do what you have to do. If you have to kill, do it. Don’t sacrifice your reputation or become soft," Nyx grinned.

"Why are you all being so damn nice to me?" Zinnia said, fighting back her emotions.

"Because we are one big family Zinny," Tyler smiled, kissing her forehead despite the mask, only to immediately regret it.

"FUCK!" Tyler screamed in pain.

[System overriding dark magic embedded into mask. Any touch of someone else’s mask will result in immediate poisoning. Using your passive regeneration and Eidolon phoenix cleansing abilities]

"Oh no, what is it babe?" Amanda said while using elven magic and Qi to heal him.

"Zinnia...those masks are infused with dark magic. Anyone who touches the mask while it’s on your face is going to be poisoned," Tyler said in a serious tone.