Chapter 23: Fever

An hour later, Horti walked into the bedroom. She was tired but satisfied after the egg laying and excited after the broadcast.

Craig was lying unconscious on the bed, his breath rasping. Horti could not rouse him. His brow was burning, and his face flushed. Horti walked out the door and spoke to the security guards.

Minutes later, gowned, fully covered medics collected Craig and asked Horti to accompany them.

They placed Craig and then Horti in a pod.

Horti vacated the pod several hours later.

As she finished dressing, one of the doctors approached her and took her to an adjacent waiting room to talk.

“Craig is gravely ill. He was the one who spent the most time with your mother before you and the troops were transported out. The Colza and we are tracking and examining everyone he was in contact with. You didn’t catch anything. Craig also did not infect the Colza,” said the AI doctor.

“How is he?” Horti asked.

“We are battling to stabilize Craig and working to find a way to remove this accursed manufactured sickness. It remains dormant in your mother, so we don’t know how Craig contracted the illness. We cannot establish his source of infection.”

“Our medical people in my group and the Colza from the other side have experience in this area,” said Horti.

“We will progress faster with all the available help, but it is time-consuming, complex, and challenging work, and Craig remains in a critical condition,” said the doctor.

Zyla finished watching the holo-broadcast and switched off the holo-projector.

“That upstart, she has no idea who she is; she dares to call me corrupt and demean my reputation,” shouted Zyla banging her hand on the small table as her voice terminated in a shriek.

Zyla shook her fist. “How dare she criticize my appearance and my taste. Who does she think she is? She is nothing. She must be brought to heel like her mother. The princess is an evil underhand miserable bitch. I will get even with her. I will show her. I will tear her liver out and eat it in front of her. I will squeeze her heart until blood oozes from her brain. I will go into her brain and burn it from the inside out. I will tear off her fingernails, and I will blind her. I will slowly twist her breasts from her chest and eat them with relish after I put out her eyes. I will not rest until she and her mother suffer equally.”

Zyla panted, swaying from side to side. Her face was suffused, and her fists clenched. She stamped her foot. “I will make her suffer.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?” Asked Zyla’s assistant.

Zyla turned and looked at her assistant. “Did the injector hit her husband?”

Her assistant nodded.

“Are you sure?”

Her assistant nodded again. “I watched the vids and saw it hit his neck.”

“The tinpot peasant emperor must be sick by now. I will warn those Enphaet poseurs that I will kill him if they do not guarantee my passage to the other universe. I will make sure he dies after I leave. I will also start the plague in the others,” Zyla laughed.

“My lady, why don’t you sit tight? This planet will be the first one through. There is no need to do anything. Let the princess say whatever she wishes. Let it pass!”

“Never, she called me corrupt, chubby, and I have poor taste in headwear. The daughter is like the mother. How dare she accuse me of anything? Today she called me an outcast and a criminal. I am not going to sit down and tolerate this criticism.”

Zyla shook her fist. “One more misstep, and I will destroy the gate. Then no one will escape. I will kill the mother. I will first make her sick, and then I will blow up her brain.”

Zyla stomped her foot and screamed. “How dare this try-hard princess blatantly brand me a criminal and put my face on the most wanted lists. Those pictures of me were ugly and made fun of me.”

Zyla gesticulated wildly before carrying on. “Did you see how they invaded and desecrated my beautiful homes? I will send in our assassins.”

“My lady, let it pass; let her criticism pass you by. You have your most loyal followers in this compound. With a little patience, you can recover your past life. Most of your wealth is intact.”

“That is all very well. She tarnishes my pristine reputation. I have killed thousands over the years for much more minor insults. Today that pretender has gone past all reasonable boundaries of decency.”

“My lady, tens of thousands of people depend on you to maintain a low profile. Please think carefully about what you do.”

“Nonsense, one must have one’s priorities in place, or nothing will happen. The child will hunt us down. We must strike before she does. If we do not, she will destroy my good reputation. I will not tolerate her appalling conduct without a devastating counterattack. I have a headache; I will lie down and relax. I will not let her wind me up; I will show them what I will do. Now I must sleep. I did not rest well after the broadcast.”

The assistant went to her room and paced for an hour. She took her boss’s slate to her room and copied it to her slate. She then fiddled on her boss’s slate for several hours before returning it to its place on the table. The frowning young woman walked quickly to one of the nearby homes on the estate. She knocked and entered the small home when invited.

“Zyla has lost the plot and will endanger us all. She intends to make the husband contagious. By the time he dies in a couple of weeks, he will have passed on the illness. There is no cure. She can start it, but she can’t stop it. It will put everyone in danger. Here is my spare slate. It has all the codes she can use to create havoc and the bank codes she intended to use once we move multiverse. She will escape with her wealth once she has converted it to a negotiable form and seriously damage our banking system.”

“What is she doing?”

“Zyla is asleep but plans to find a way to kill the princess herself. I’m sharing her last rant here. I took it off our security system. She can’t let anything rest. She will not wait until after the move; she insists she must act soon. She will kill the queen; by triggering her illness. There comes a time we must stand up. It has taken me a long time. Take this to Enphaet intelligence. Leave now. She will torture and kill me as soon as she finds out what I have done.”

Zyla’s assistant watched the pair stride to the portal and disappear. She sighed and thought about her impending death. She felt more relaxed than she had been for some time.

The assistant walked quickly back to the mansion where she and Zyla had taken up residence.

Zyla was awake and watching her.

“Where have you been?”

“I went to visit friends nearby.”

“Which friends?”

“The two guards, Sonnumoth and Bazrath.”

“I looked for you when I woke. I have been through the security footage.”

“What were you doing with my slate?”

“I couldn’t find the lists of our operatives. I needed to contact our assassins to kill the princess. It takes time to plan such an operation.”

“You were told never to touch my slate without my permission.”

“Milady, you asked me to act. You have often given your slate to me to provide information to me. You did it yesterday.”

“In those cases, I gave it to you. I did not give you permission to copy information whenever you wished.”

Zyla pulled out her Phulfyrfiol pistol and shot her assistant in the leg.

“I will watch it slowly eat your leg, then go up your pelvis and down your other leg. You are a traitor, and I like to watch traitors suffer. You might last a few hours, maybe three or four if you are lucky or unlucky. Scream all you like; I will enjoy it. It will be a salutary lesson for others who might try the same. I will send the guards to get your friends. They, too, deserve to die. Know this; you have caused their death. No one acts without my permission.”

“As the princess said, you are corrupt, bent, crooked, and a petty criminal. Your face is plump, and your body...”

Zyla screamed and shot her assistant in the face.

As the assistant intended, she died instantly.

“Find me another assistant,” Zyla said to the smoldering corpse. She picked up her slate and created a hologram. She pressed the next set of numbered codes to do as she threatened, then sent a message to Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla to tell her what she had done. Zyla hummed to herself as she worked.

When she finished, she went to the door to the basement. She carried her neuro-agonizer down the stairs. Chak was confined behind a shield.

The floor was a dusky yellow. The light flickered in the room and didn’t reach the dark corners. Chak’s face was bloody from previous beatings.

“My pretty, you are not looking so great today. As I made your miserable mother welcome, I will help you feel at home here. Today your friend annoyed me. You will pay the price.”

Zyla dialed the pain level to high and aimed at Chak’s shoulder. As she fired, Chak dived to miss it.

Zyla laughed and moved closer, and shot Chak twice. She loved listening to people in agony. She waited until Chak lost consciousness before she walked back up the stairs and locked the door. She hummed happily as she made herself a drink.

“Let the fun begin.”

Horti was tearfully telling her team about Craig when Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla’s adjutant approached her.

“Horti, please bring your team with you for a briefing. Zyla has made her next moves.

They met in the same luxurious briefing room they had used previously. Horti was preoccupied.

Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla was seated opposite Horti on the other side of a round table. “Horti, I am sorry to hear about Craig. I am sure we will be able to treat him effectively. He has an outstanding team looking after him.”

“I hope so; nevertheless, I worry about him,” said Horti.

“Zyla communicated with us. She wants you to know you are the cause of Craig’s problems. You are the one who must pay for your sins. You have tarnished her reputation and insulted her appearance and dress sense. Her hats are her design and are made for her by a top designer here in the capital. She does not appreciate your recent actions. You sent your lackeys to search her homes and ruin them. You have made them unusable.”

“That is tough,” said Horti. “I am delighted she could not resist reacting.”

“Her people were forced to shoot Craig in the neck to give him an illness when you invaded her underwater home. Because of your reckless conduct, she has made his illness contagious. It will spread to others, and it is all because of you.”