death right here and now!”
Joe put a hand on my shoulder and guided me away from the pair. The dude with the sword rubbed at his bearded cheek and grinned at me. It took all the restraint I had not to break his face. “Look, I get it. She turned you down and you're bitter about it. But that's no way to act towards our new team mates, Lucy,” said Joe.
I grabbed the collar of Joe's jacket and gave him a violent shake. “She didn't turn me down , you idiot. She tried to perform a goddamned exorcism on me. She tried to kill me. Get it? I'm not just pouting because I didn't get lucky, Joe, I'm angry because she's a conniving bitch, who--”
“Hey,” said Kanta, folding her arms. “I can hear you, you know.”
“Well, good! Because I've got a lot more to say about this, and--” Amundsen came up from behind me and cut me off before I could lay into her further.
“Lucian, we were worried about you,” he said, patting me on the arm. “I hope you didn't encounter any trouble on your way over tonight. We've already had our meeting, have laid out some plans, and thankfully you're just in time to take part. I see you've met Percival and Kanta here. They're experienced contractors who have done work for the Order in the past and I'm thrilled to have them onboard again. Percival here is an accomplished hunter, son of legendary werewolf hunter Malcolm Sterling. Kanta has trained for many years in India, learning the rites of exorcism, and--”
“Oh, I know all about her,” I said, shooting her a dirty look. “I'm stoked. Can't wait to start working with them. Boy, when we get out into the field, just the three of us, there's really no telling what might happen...”
Amundsen failed to pick up the hostility in my words and urged me to have a seat. “So, Lucian, this is how things are going to go.”
***
Amundsen became grave as he explained everything I'd missed. It was damned hard for me to listen to him with those two assholes in close proximity, but I crossed my legs and took in what he had to tell me. “Frankly,” he began, “this ranks among the most serious threats the Veiled Order has ever faced.”
The Veiled Order had been around since, well, forever . Hearing Amundsen describe the necromancer's plot in that way didn't exactly inspire confidence.
He sat down next to me and went on. “We've received more reports... many more reports of missing bodies. Every cemetery in the city is being emptied and the bodies are disappearing. Agamemnon's army is growing. Thankfully, the general population doesn't seem to know what's going on. Except for a few, they haven't caught on. We've pulled some strings, had the city's graveyards closed citing some problem with the groundwater beneath them. But that won't last. When enough of the townspeople witness the undead, or if the city becomes a literal war zone as we fear it might, then the cat will be out of the bag. The Veiled Order has always prized itself on secrecy, and has shielded mankind from the Beyond for ages. This time we may not be able to cover things up neatly. So, the plan is to stop this war before it really starts.”
“Sure, that makes sense. But how?” I gulped, recalling my most recent bout against the necromancer. Agamemnon was a force to be reckoned with. There wasn't anyone on the Order's roster who could handle him mano-a-mano. Sure as shit, those two asshole contractors wouldn't be able to take him on. It seemed to me that the only way to preemptively stop the war would have been to strike down Agamemnon before he somehow got ahold of that mythical weapon. Now that he had it in his possession, all bets were off.
“Agamemnon is building an army of the living dead. Being a skilled necromancer is bad enough, but he now possesses a relic that multiplies his power. With this in mind, the leaders of the Veiled Order have proposed that a strike team be assembled and that its members be assigned two distinct goals. First, the team must take the
Joe put a hand on my shoulder and guided me away from the pair. The dude with the sword rubbed at his bearded cheek and grinned at me. It took all the restraint I had not to break his face. “Look, I get it. She turned you down and you're bitter about it. But that's no way to act towards our new team mates, Lucy,” said Joe.
I grabbed the collar of Joe's jacket and gave him a violent shake. “She didn't turn me down , you idiot. She tried to perform a goddamned exorcism on me. She tried to kill me. Get it? I'm not just pouting because I didn't get lucky, Joe, I'm angry because she's a conniving bitch, who--”
“Hey,” said Kanta, folding her arms. “I can hear you, you know.”
“Well, good! Because I've got a lot more to say about this, and--” Amundsen came up from behind me and cut me off before I could lay into her further.
“Lucian, we were worried about you,” he said, patting me on the arm. “I hope you didn't encounter any trouble on your way over tonight. We've already had our meeting, have laid out some plans, and thankfully you're just in time to take part. I see you've met Percival and Kanta here. They're experienced contractors who have done work for the Order in the past and I'm thrilled to have them onboard again. Percival here is an accomplished hunter, son of legendary werewolf hunter Malcolm Sterling. Kanta has trained for many years in India, learning the rites of exorcism, and--”
“Oh, I know all about her,” I said, shooting her a dirty look. “I'm stoked. Can't wait to start working with them. Boy, when we get out into the field, just the three of us, there's really no telling what might happen...”
Amundsen failed to pick up the hostility in my words and urged me to have a seat. “So, Lucian, this is how things are going to go.”
***
Amundsen became grave as he explained everything I'd missed. It was damned hard for me to listen to him with those two assholes in close proximity, but I crossed my legs and took in what he had to tell me. “Frankly,” he began, “this ranks among the most serious threats the Veiled Order has ever faced.”
The Veiled Order had been around since, well, forever . Hearing Amundsen describe the necromancer's plot in that way didn't exactly inspire confidence.
He sat down next to me and went on. “We've received more reports... many more reports of missing bodies. Every cemetery in the city is being emptied and the bodies are disappearing. Agamemnon's army is growing. Thankfully, the general population doesn't seem to know what's going on. Except for a few, they haven't caught on. We've pulled some strings, had the city's graveyards closed citing some problem with the groundwater beneath them. But that won't last. When enough of the townspeople witness the undead, or if the city becomes a literal war zone as we fear it might, then the cat will be out of the bag. The Veiled Order has always prized itself on secrecy, and has shielded mankind from the Beyond for ages. This time we may not be able to cover things up neatly. So, the plan is to stop this war before it really starts.”
“Sure, that makes sense. But how?” I gulped, recalling my most recent bout against the necromancer. Agamemnon was a force to be reckoned with. There wasn't anyone on the Order's roster who could handle him mano-a-mano. Sure as shit, those two asshole contractors wouldn't be able to take him on. It seemed to me that the only way to preemptively stop the war would have been to strike down Agamemnon before he somehow got ahold of that mythical weapon. Now that he had it in his possession, all bets were off.
“Agamemnon is building an army of the living dead. Being a skilled necromancer is bad enough, but he now possesses a relic that multiplies his power. With this in mind, the leaders of the Veiled Order have proposed that a strike team be assembled and that its members be assigned two distinct goals. First, the team must take the
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