Birth of the Alliance by Alex Albrinck

back inside himself. He established his own Energy Shield to ensure he didn't set off Sebastian's maligned Tracking skill, and then removed the mask and gloves, breathing in the fresh air, inhaling the fragrant scent of the trees around him. He eased himself out of the upper boughs of the tree using the nanos until he set foot once again upon the forest floor.
    The scutarium worked. It was time to return to the submarine.
    “Where did you come from?” Sebastian's shocked voice sounded behind him.
    Will spun. Sebastian stared at him, slack-jawed, with Arthur right behind him.
    Arthur slapped Sebastian in the head. “Didn't you just tell him he was in the Colonies? Then how is he here now, may I ask, you incompetent fool?”
    “He wasn't there just a minute ago, I swear!”
    “Funny, how I'm looking right at him then, isn't it?”
    Will thought quickly. If he teleported, Sebastian would definitely find him. If he ran, they'd teleport ahead of him.
    Instead, he packed the nanos around him and flew straight up into the air, intentionally leaking a small bit of Energy to give the impression that his flight was Energy-based. He accelerated his pace, feeling the wind whistling by him. Sebastian could track Energy; he couldn't track nanos. Will flew inland first, letting small bits of Energy leak, in the hopes that they’d chase him here. If they did, they'd be heading away from Hope and the Nautilus .
    Will landed about twenty minutes later near a stream, and took a few moments to hydrate himself. He also wanted to give Sebastian a few minutes to start chasing him.
    In fact… he could help that process out.
    Will covered himself entirely with the scutarium clothing, then removed one glove, put his hand on the ground, and sent a large amount of Energy into the soil. He then replaced the glove so that he was fully shielded, and used the nanos to fly due west. Sebastian couldn’t help but notice that Energy burst; the Tracker would probably assume it was Energy from a long-range bit of teleportation. By the time Sebastian and other Aliomenti reached this spot, Will would have looped around, back to the shore near Waterloo.
    Will arrived back near Waterloo, nearly two miles west of the outpost, and continued out over the Mediterranean Sea. He made a wide loop and flew back toward the shore in line with the submarine. He took a deep breath, and then flew below the surface of the sea, stopping only when he reached the side of the submarine. Only then did he teleport inside the vessel.
    "You're late." Hope folded her arms across her chest, her look stern.
    Will, remarkably dry for one who had just spent a full minute under water, pulled off the gloves, the mask, the cloak, and finally the boots. He took deep breaths of the familiar air of the Nautilus . “I… uh… ran into some old friends.”
    Hope's look softened a bit. “What did they say?”
    “That they'd had no idea I was there until they stumbled over me.”
    “So… it works, then?”
    Will grinned. “Oh, yes, it works perfectly. It doesn’t prevent them from seeing us if we’re right in front of them. But they were truly stunned that I was there when they saw me. The positive thing about all of this is that they’ll think I’m still living somewhere in Europe. Sebastian was convinced I was living in the Colonies, and wanted Arthur to pick a spot there for expansion. Arthur didn’t seem convinced before. Now? He might wait even longer. So we should still have several decades of peace.”
    Hope smiled. With the scutarium now a proven commodity, they’d always have a safe haven somewhere nearby, a place where they could disappear from any type of detection by the Aliomenti. They’d be at risk only when they chose to step out of those shadows to make their change upon the world.
    It was the type of risk they'd choose to make on a regular basis. It was only possible to do so much without stepping into the light.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    VII
    Discovery
     
    1750