158 FROM ASSASSIN TO SMUGGLER TO SPIES
Damen lunged with cold precision.
Captain Zor was Strength Rank B, but his reflexes and speed couldn't match Damen's.
One compact punch smashed into Zor's face.
That was all it took. Blood sprayed all over Damen's body, but it wasn't his blood….it was Zor's. Zor's head snapped inward with a sick, kinetic crunch.
"Momentum Collapse."
Luckily the standard-issue force field kept Zor's skull from being crushed.
He collapsed to the ground badly wounded though.
"You…how dare you kill an officer of the court? A soldier?" Ambrone screamed.
"I warned him to stop," Damen said, his voice flat. "He kept attacking me. What I did was self-defense. Besides, he's not dead yet, BUT you've ruined my carpet… I demand compensation." He folded his arms angrily.
"This is not self-defense, we have a valid search warrant!" Ambrone shouted.
"No, you don't…show it," Damen replied.
"You burned it", Ambrone screamed.
An assistant returned from a trip to the court and hurried forward with a document.
Ambrone thrust it at Damen. "Here—this is the warrant. You resisted arrest and wounded an officer executing it. You are in deep trouble boy."
Damen waved the paper. "Fake. All of you, get the fuck lost."
"This is not fake!" Ambrone cried.
Damen brought up his holoscreen and scrolled the court record. The assistant's warrant was there — but the timestamp told the story.
"This warrant was issued after Captain Zor started attacking me," Damen said, amusement thin on his face.
"You came here with a fake warrant and then tried to patch it up with a fresh one. Do you think it legalizes your illegal actions. You still owe me for the carpet," he added.
"Wh—what is he saying?" Ambrone demanded.
The assistant stammered, "We couldn't find the original warrant at the court, so we issued a new warrant. Every warrant of the court is time stamped by meta inscriptions that cannot be faked… we cannot change the time of its issuance."
Ambrone went pale.
"You came with a fake warrant," Damen said. "Then you rushed a second one to cover the first. Is this your kind of justice, Sicko?"
"The first may be fake, but this one is real—you must still comply with it," the assistant insisted.
A whisper came through Damen's earpiece: "Everything's done. They can search now." It was Kail's voice.
Damen raised his hand. "Fine. Search all you want. But if you find nothing, every news outlet in the city will hear about what you tried today. And don't you dare plant bugs in my property again."
The search team tore through the facility.
When they finished, the assistant reported, shakily to the director, "We found nothing suspicious. The alleged expired elixirs must have been destroyed when we were fighting here."
"Watch your mouth. All our stocks are certified and clean. Do you want to be hit with a defamation suit? Or face my self-defense like that," Damen pointed at the assistant and then at Captain Zor.
The man's composure crumpled. He dropped to the floor, wetting himself.
"The dry cleaning, remember to bill them," Damen said lightly pointing to the cameras.
Ambrone sputtered, "I will never forget this."
He left the premise empty-handed.
-----
Damen went back down to the basement. Lander and Dorin emerged from the safe room, trailed by Kail and Liorea.
"What was that about upstairs with Ambrone?" Dorin asked.
"They came looking for expired elixirs," Lander said.
"Do we have expired elixirs in storage? If so, they must be destroyed immediately," Damen said.
"All our stock is fine. They made up an excuse to make a scene," Liorea answered.
"Why bother with all the fuss?" Dorin asked. "It makes no sense. What's gone into Ambrone's mind?"
Damen frowned. "Captain Zor was Strength Rank B — one of the city's toughest soldiers. There's a reason they sent him."
"They came to arrest you?" Dorin guessed.
Lander rubbed his chin. "That's Ambrone's MO. He fabricates charges to lock people up. Once you're in his prison, the accusations multiply. I know …. I was dealt the same once."
"This trick only works if they can actually arrest me," Damen said before moving to Kail and Liorea.
"What I want to know is why you two"—he pointed at them, "were so desperate to stall the search … even to the extent of asking me to burn the bloody warrant….just for expired elixirs?"
All eyes swung to them.
"Heh. There's more in our warehouse than expired elixirs," Kail said.
Liorea flicked her wrist and a large container shimmered into being.
"Space-and-dimension power? What are you?" Lander blurted.
"Space power? I've never seen such powers before," Dorin echoed.
"It's the ability to store things in another dimension and pull them back out," Damen explained.
"These are military parts and equipment," Lander said, inspecting the crates. "Are you running an illegal arms operation?"
"You could call it that," Liorea admitted.
"You quit running assassins to smuggle weapons?" Damen asked her.
"You asked me to," she replied.
Damen blinked, before remembering. "When did I—? What are the parts for?"
"They assemble into meta-artillery," Kail said. "Liorea bought them for Fortress Myrone."
"Those can be rebuilt into heavy meta-artillery. They are exactly what the fortress needs," Damen said, impressed. "Liorea, you're a genius."
"Now you know why we needed time," Liorea said. "I had to stash everything into my compressed space before they find them."
A thought struck Damen. "Wait. Ambrone's first warrant — I know Kail can wipe the court database, but how did the original hard copy go missing? Did you have a hand in that?"
Liorea smiled. "I have many runners on my message board waiting for my jobs. One works at the city court. I tasked her to destroy the warrant, and she did. The SIA had no choice but to issue a fresh warrant."
"Why didn't I think of that? Although eventually they asked for a new warrant, but without the original… it makes Captain Zor's arrest on you illegal at the time", Dorin said.
"You can do that? Fantastic," Damen praised Liorea.
"Liorea can do more than that," Kail said. "She also planted references during my background check when I was stopped in Veyran's secure facility. They visited those references and got me a checked out."
"You sneaked into Veyran's secret facility and got stopped? Why?" Damen demanded.
"I needed their contractor list and the artillery schematics. I even altered some codes while I was there, but I had to be inside the facility to do it — the psychic shielding in the facility blocks outside access," Kail explained.
Lander stared. "So, you two went undercover into Veyran, stole schematics for heavy artillery, and got contractors to build parts for you? Are you professional spies now?"
"It was fun," Kail said, laughing with Liorea.
"Enough," Damen said. "I'm not scolding you for getting things done, but next time tell us. We could back you up if things go south."
"Yes, boss," Liorea said, snapping a salute.
"Wait," Dorin said, his brow furrowed. "That Ambrone is vengeful. He'll come back with more search warrants and ways to interrupt our business. We don't have the time or energy to keep dealing with him."
Damen folded his arms, considering. "That may be a problem."