CHAPTER 55: MISSION SUCCESS

"So what? Do we just abandon the mission then? We’ve already come this far."

"And if we leave now, there’s no guarantee that we’d be able to track the damn thing down again. And the royals of Valderra will probably store it in a place that would be next to impossible to infiltrate since they know it belongs to Velmorra."

They were silent for several seconds as they contemplated their possible next move.

"There is one way to track down the sword that I could try, but it might not work so well. I still haven’t learned how to control that ability." Alrik said.

"That’s right. Soul walking. You said your connection to the sword got stronger in the soul plane. But you’re right, it’s a risk. What if you don’t wake for several hours. You said time flowed differently in there." Ansa said.

"At this point, we may not have a choice. If we don’t get the sword now, we may never get the chance again. I just have to try, Plus, since we’re already at the Valderran border, and the distance between me and Zee is smaller now, it might make the soul walking a bit easier to handle.

"If you think it’s worth a try, then we’re behind you. We’ll guard your body till you return." Bruno said and Alrik nodded.

He lay down, and tried to focus. It took a few minutes, but finally, he entered the soul plane. He was right, now that he was closer, the bond between him and the sword was much stronger. He was able to accurately trace the sword’s location in seconds. Or he hoped it was just seconds in the real world.

Just like the information he received, the sword was being moved. It was placed in another safe, and put in a truck. And there were about ten identical trucks, to be used as decoys. They had no easy marks or plate numbers that could be used to differentiate them, so Alrik got closer to try and get a location from the drivers.

They were gathered around the truck, receiving orders for the locations. Of course they couldn’t see him. From what he could see, this truck was just the first of many, and they planned to use many confusing routes. They didn’t have a solid knowledge of Valderran territory, so he knew if they tried to follow the truck, they would miss it. Plus, his body and the others weren’t even close enough to this location yet.

"Zee. Is there any way you can assist me on this? I’m at the border, I’m sure you can feel our connection is stronger now that I’m not so far away. But they changed plans before we could carry out ours." Alrik said.

"What do you need me to do? You’re close enough for me to help, at least a little bit."

"I need you to redirect the truck you’re in. Let the driver move for a bit, but as soon as you reach the first turn, take a detour. Our connection is stronger now, so you should be able to lead the truck as close to my body’s location as possible. We’ll hopefully meet you halfway, and take it from there."

"Okay. You must return now. If you stay longer, you’ll enter a time loop and wake up three hours later in your body. It will be too late then." Zee said, and Alrik immediately zoomed back to his body.

He gasped as his eyes snapped open, and the other three held his hands.

"So glad you’re back."

"How long has it been?" Alrik asked.

"About thirty minutes." Bruno replied and Alrik nodded.

That wasn’t too bad of a time skip.

"We need to leave now. The information I received is correct. They’re moving the sword and they have decoys. I made a plan with Zee, and he’s leading the truck to us. But I’m not sure how long Zee can control that." Alrik said as he stood.

"We’re on foot though. That would hinder transportation."

"We’ll run till we can find a vehicle to hot wire, since we won’t be getting picked up anymore. Let’s move." Alrik ordered, and they all lined up and began to sprint.

They stuck to dark places, and had to pause severally to bypass border patrols, then soon, they found a parking lot, and stole a car.

"Any identification in the car? So we can find a way to compensate later."

"No. But I have the plate number memorised. We won’t be able to return it, but we can run a search later."

It took almost an hour before Alrik began to feel a tug.

"We’re close. I can feel Zee. It’s not as strong as the soul plane, but it’s an improvement." Alrik announced, and Bruno, who was driving, stepped on it.

When they found the truck, it was in an abandoned area. Zee must have killed the truck’s engines after not being able to control it further. But unfortunately, this gave the driver enough time to call for back up. There were four cars with at least three men each surrounding the truck.

They were there to guard the sword while they arranged for it to be moved to a functioning truck. As soon as they saw the headlights of Alrik’s vehicle, they began to fire.

"Shit. Hold on tight." Bruno yelled as he swerved, and turned to move the car away from heavy fire.

Alrik felt stronger now that Zee was within reach. He had no way to explain it, but with their connection so close, he could feel power coursing through his veins. He was a bit scared because he had no idea what the power was, or even how to use it, but he was determined not to lose any of his people. That determination took away his fear.

Ansa took position, and began to fire back, as did Kellan. Alrik opened his own door, and jumped out while the car was still moving, but he didn’t hit the floor immediately. In the blink of an eye, he was at the other side. With his speed, everyone else moved at snail speed, so it only took him two seconds to shoot down half of the men shooting.

The rest began to yell in confusion and took cover when they realised that the shots that took down their fellows came from their end, not from the people they were shooting at.

Trusting his team to handle the rest, Alrik turned to focus on the truck. He jumped, and landed on top of the tall truck. That was something new, but he didn’t have the time to think of how high he got in one leap. He was beginning to accept that he wasn’t a regular human being. He took a deep breath, and punched the metal beneath him. His fist made a dent in the metal, and his second punch ripped a hole in it.

Alrik leaned down and opened the hold wide enough for him to jump in. The safe was the next obstacle, but Alrik didn’t bother punching it this time. He laid his palm flat on the metal, and within seconds, it began to heat up. The front part of the safe melted off in less than a minute, and Alrik stepped back to let it cool.

"Status report."

For several seconds, there was no response to his call. Then he got a response.

"We’re almost done here. One got away, and Ansa is hot on his tail. Kellan and I are sweeping the area to make sure it’s clear. How’s it going on your end? I saw you jump on that truck. That was neat."

Alrik chuckled. "All good here. I’ll be out in a minute."

The metal wasn’t cool enough yet, but it was enough for Alrik. They didn’t have that much time to spend. Who knows if the others called for reinforcements while they were shooting. He grabbed the case inside the safe, and opened it to make sure the sword was inside.

Then he turned and kicked the door of the truck open since it was locked from the outside.

"I have it. Let’s go." Alrik said as he jumped down.

"Should we clean up the scene a little?"

"No need. We don’t have enough time. Back up might be headed here as we speak, not to mention how fucked we are if we’re discovered on Valderran soil. We’re all covered up properly, so no DNA evidence. And there are no cameras here as well. I doubt they’ll even report this incident to the authorities since it’s a black market smuggling gone wrong. We’re good for now. Let’s head back."

"The car we stole is useless now. They shot the tires, so we have to take one of theirs back." Bruno said as they walked to the closest one.

"That should be fine. I doubt they’d have GPS in trucks they use for smuggling operations, and they also must not be registered legally."

Mission success.