Board Thread:The Company/@comment-24930445-20140615054833/@comment-24866242-20140627042710

Lantis was afraid. This was not a pleasant experience for him.

Axin should not have survived. He had ordered his ten best shock troops to intercept the fiend. His men were well versed in the art of the ambush. There wasn't any conceivable way they could have lost, but here Axin was. With Jos. Alone. Whispering who knew what evil into her ear.

The monster was undoubtedly enjoying making him sweat. The fact that Lantis hadn't been arrested yet was little comfort, although it did afford him the time he would need to develop his strategy. Unfortunately his options were limited. For now his men obeyed his commands, true, but when the time came they would obey Joslynne. They knew whose signature graced their paychecks. No. Lantis knew what he would be forced to do. Flee. Tuck tail between his legs and run.

It wasn't that he feared death. He faced it daily from all directions. His time as Joslynne's security chief had earned him many enemies, both within the organization and without. Not so long ago Joslynne herself had been the most prominent among those threats, after the loss of Lenits. He had faced her then, ready to lay down his life if that had been her command. He knew she would continue on the path he had set her down all those years ago. In his black little heart, however, he had never believed she would give the command. She needed him.

Now more than ever.

Axin was a corrupting influence. Play as he might at purchasing slave girls and plotting vengeance on Ryax, in reality they were two sides of the same coin. He could see it as plainly as the fur on the man's face. Axin and Ryax might as well be the same man, and Lantis had already discovered that Ryax was not a man worthy of his loyalty. Everything he had struggled to accomplish in the past two decades had been for one singular purpose, and now it might all come crashing down because he hadn't been able to stop Axin from worming his way into Joslynne's bed early on.

So he would run. And live. And start again. And find a way to destroy Axin once and for all. Axin. Ryax. Katrylle. Funny how that list of names just kept getting longer. In his youth he had done a better job at keeping it pruned. Now it appeared to be growing out of control. He would have to take solace in the fact that the list of names he had removed was much longer.

In the mean time, he carried out his duties. There would be no escape as long as the Midnight Angel remained in hyperspace. Launching a shuttle under these conditions was suicide. Even if he were a competent enough pilot to survive the launch, Jos and the Angel would be on him long before he could calculate a new course and get away to safety.

His duties at the moment had him sitting in the tiny office he maintained in the SI section of the ship. Outside the door, his operations floor buzzed with activity, his agents monitoring every last detail of every activity that occurred on the ship, and indeed everywhere else that Jos held the reigns. The bridge of the Midnight Angel might be where they steered the ship, and it might have some glamorous appeal to crewmen who dreamed of epic space battles. In truth, however, it was merely a room where a mid-level functionary called "captain" executed policy on behalf of his employer. Joslynne's office was arguably the brains of the ship, but the goings on there and in the surrounding executive decks were far more concerned with the operation of Joslynne's business empire than with any one ship. No, this was the true command center of the ship. From here Lantis could monitor all aspects of Joslynne's operations. Every ship, every base, every branch office was connected to this central command.

He wasn't interested in any of it just now.

"Sir," the operative standing in his door was young, newly assigned. His right eye was blackened from one of the many training sessions Lantis made his men endure. He'd learn quickly to avoid injury during training or he wouldn't last.

Lantis didn't try to hide his annoyance. "What is it, Agent Mentieth?"

"The morning report is ready for you, sir. There is also a high priority item for your attention. Experiment control reports they are still having issues with one of the drones. They say the subject is speaking and requesting you by name."

Lantis glanced up sharply and the young man instinctively cringed away. This one would wash out soon, Lantis knew, but that wasn't what concerned him at the moment. "That should not be possible."

"No, sir."

Lantis stood and walked around his desk to take the tablet the young man held, flipping past the standard items until he found the blurb from the experimental division. "Darrak," Lantis muttered under his breath. He had told her the creature was too unstable for the procedure, but she had insisted.

"Yes, sir."

Lantis shot the young man a withering stare. "By the look of that eye, Agent, you could use some remedial training in defensive technique. Report to Agent Tomlinson after your shift. Until then, that will be all."

Mentieth, crestfallen, retreated.

Lantis watched him go while he considered the information at hand. Darrak was quivering jelly in Joslynne's arms. She had so tortured the creature that any sense of self the eunuch may have once maintained had been suppressed long before Joslynne’s scientists had implanted one of the devices. When she wasn't torturing her monster she treated it like a puppy. The creature was simultaneously devoted to her and terrified of her. Lantis recalled how she had laughed to see it perform tricks on command after the procedure. The cybernetic limbs had been implanted after the device had been proven, of course, but the eyes... Jos had those implanted first. Darrak had screamed when they were switched on the first time. Jos had made certain the first thing he saw would be her.

This report troubled him. Darrak should not have been capable of asking for Lantis by name, even without the thought suppressing implant, even if for no other reason than that it no longer possessed a tongue. Something was amiss. Could this be the trap Axin had set for him? Lantis didn't think so. Axin, like Ryax, would be more direct in his assault. Axin enjoyed watching Lantis squirm for the time being, but when the time came Axin would lead the squad of agents that came to arrest him. There would be no subterfuge.

He left the report on his desk and left the office.