Chapter 25: Zyla the Elusive

“Zyla, the terrible, also known as cylinder head or the stout, had a terrible day today. We have her on the run. She has no hostages. We retrieved my good friend Chak Zuksat. Zyla is the worst form of scum. She tortured Chak and gave her the plague. We captured most of her followers only to find she gave them the plague. If you have ever worked for the abomination, I suggest you go to your nearest biological warfare unit and let them know,” said Horti. “Craig, my husband is sick. What kind of personality-disordered person gives people a terrible contagious illness? She must be a sick pervert who has lost her mind. She is hiding, but we will find her and her forked tail as she wallows in the muck.”

Horti pulled out a garish cylinder with a couple of holes. “This is her fashion statement”—Horti pulled it over her head and arranged it so the pipe was over her shoulders. She blew out her cheeks and squinted—”If you see someone wearing one of these, they are a criminal. Come out, you coward, and face the people you are trying to destroy. Cylinder head, why don’t you crawl out of your hole and face the justice coming your way? I am hot on your heels. You will soon be in my hands, and I promise you, you will suffer for an eternity. I will put you in a museum of weak-minded criminals who hurt innocent people and their loyal followers.

“If you know where she is, I promise I will take you back when we leave here to build the gates that will save as many as possible.”

The transmission ceased.

Two hours later, Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla sat at Horti’s table in the canteen. “Horti, we don’t know where she is. However, Zyla sent me a hysterical message. She says unless you take her across yourself, she will start the plague in your mother, and if you do not respond in six hours, she will blow the gate. There is a lot more, but it is an incoherent rant about how you misjudged and blackened her name. She said you would have looked better if you had a better hat. The hat was garish and was not fashionable. She told me you had libeled her, and she has grounds for legal action against you. You do not understand her and her lofty aims.

“She will promise not to blow up the gate if you take her yourself, but you can’t be armed and must be restrained. She wants a shuttle on the other side, filled with a negotiable precious metal. Zyla undertakes she will not harm you but insists she needs to take her weapons for personal protection. She will release you once you hand over the shuttle, and she checks the contents are as specified.”

“Tell her to stick her deal up her backside a minute before her deadline,” said Horti. “Tell her if she surrenders, I will treat her compassionately. I will treat her with the same care and kindness she offered to my mother. I will also give her the plague but may not switch it on. She deserves the best I can offer her. I will give her the plague in her big fat backside.”

The Admiral frowned.

Horti slept restlessly. She had several nightmares with images of Craig disfigured, with boils on his skin, dying. It was a plague horror movie. Pieces of his face and fingers fell off as she had seen on a show of patients with leprosy. She had nightmares of Zyla torturing her parents and grandparents and burning their farm. She woke more tired than when she had gone to sleep. Horti had butterflies in her stomach, and her arms were gooseflesh as if cold. She had a low-grade headache, and her body felt leaden.

She dragged herself to breakfast.

“You look like death warmed up,” said Heather grinning. “Many happy nightmares? You might be interested to know we all had nightmares.”

“That makes me feel a lot better,” said Horti. “I am delighted to know we all suffered overnight.”

Monty giggled. Once he got himself under control, he looked at Horti. “I haven’t had a nightmare for as long as I can remember. It was fascinating. I observed it evolve. I think we are picking up Zyla’s ill will and malicious intentions. Please think of the worst things you can imagine doing to her. Let her feel some discomfort.”

Horti nodded. “Why not?” She frowned as she concentrated. It made her headache worse, but she persisted. The others watched her. “Don’t look at me; think what you would like to do to Zyla, make it horrible. I have done my bit, and I have a headache!”

Horti’s headache eased as she ate a hearty breakfast and went to lay a few thousand eggs. She felt contented and fulfilled laying eggs. The helpers busily packed the eggs, the Queen examined them thoroughly before leaving the room, and the nursery workers cared for them. Horti was surprised to see how many eggs she had laid. She needed more sperm if she was going to produce eggs at the current rate.

Horti felt terrible about Craig and then tearful as she changed back into her human body. Horti used the refresher and went to the gym. She was surprised to find her team had the same idea. They worked out and then went for breakfast.

As she wondered what she would do next, the Admiral’s adjutant invited her and the team to join the Admiral and Colonel for a briefing.

They met once again in the luxurious briefing room. There were interesting-looking snacks on the side table and drinks.

“Please help yourselves,” said Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla.

“These are delicious,” said Heather; they are one mouthful, and each is more delicious than the previous one. “Horti, you should try this drink; it is like coffee. I never realized how much I miss your mother’s coffee.”

The Admiral smiled so briefly that Horti wasn’t sure she saw it. There was no activity on the AI network. Something was odd, but she couldn’t quite grasp what it was.

“Horti, thank you and your team for freeing up the gate. I know your technique, but I was surprised how well-coordinated you and your team were.”

“When we first grappled with learning to use magic to lift a pressure-sensitive bomb, it took a year to master the technique. Adding the containment field if we were not in the open and trying to transport took me another two years. I must accelerate at a fixed rate as the capsule reduces inertia and mass. I must close the bottom leaving many tiny holes to permit gravity to act and accelerate to compensate as I lift it,” said Aubrey before continuing.

“The bomb recognizes its environment, so I had to find a way for the bomb to see what it was looking for. I tried creating a spherical picture, but I couldn’t do it without distortion. Eventually, I discovered how to store and reproduce the light as the bomb saw it and then feed it back to the bomb. That is why I had to pause to analyze the light passing through the capsule and reproduce it. I had to repeat the task a thousand times to get it right. I used to practice over and over with Heather. We are the ones who specialize in disabling traps and bombs.”

Aubrey looked at Heather and nodded.

“Horti was the boss, the admiral, but Heather was our best team leader. Now we know why Heather took that role, as she was a general in the special forces here,” said Aubrey. “I am sorry for rambling on. Admiral, you were going to tell us you have found Zyla, and the Colonel will brief us?”

“How do you know?” Admiral Frichadarsya Lassastla asked.

“I didn’t know then, but I know now!” Aubrey replied, smiling.

Colonel Azer Movus Bascar strode into the room and nodded to the admiral, Horti, and her group. He turned back to the sideboard and smiled.

“Admiral, the chef has outdone herself today. These tiny pastries smell scrumptious.”

He assembled a plate of food, poured a drink, and sat down.

Azer sipped the drink. This is an unusual flavor. I have never tasted such a beverage. He ate a pastry and sat back with a broad smile.

“We finally located Zyla. She was not in any of the homes we knew about. We found her in two different ways. She is getting careless. She sent her message directly to the Admiral without ensuring it could not be traced. Several of her people presented to hospitals concerned they carried the plague. They were isolated and interrogated, as were all the people here. As a result of our inquiries, we discovered twenty more possible boltholes. One of the people close to her helped select the five most likely hiding places,” said Azer and ate a pastry with relish before explaining.

“Zyla likes places she has used for leisure and entertaining others. We located her in a mountain hideaway that overlooks the sea. It must have had a magnificent view of the Bralran Ocean in its day. She has a ten-level home high up on a cliff that faces the sea. Prominent community members of Darzezaath, the second-biggest city here on Aelorus, own thousands of homes built under and around an isolated pair of mountains. It is a spectacularly beautiful city,” said Azer.

Admiral Frichy continued. “Horti, you have a lovely home in the area. I visited on many occasions and have even taken a vacation there once.” “We had a wonderful time. We launched kite floaters from the deck and floated down to the beaches below. In those days, there were air currents, and if we were lucky, we stayed up for hours. Without the sun, it would be a miserable experience, and you would glide down much faster.”

“The Admiral is telling you about the floaters as it is a way for Zyla to escape and get to one of many portals at ground level or even use a submersible or a shuttle she might have hidden. Many houses have decks with shuttles readily available. If our objective were to kill her, it would be easy. Capturing her is the problem. There are exits into the mountain. The mountain has a warren of tunnels connecting to other homes and the city’s amenities. A big house like hers will connect to tunnels at every level. Security in these homes is also tight. According to our source, she has used this home extensively, and is well-fitted with security devices. It has many portals that connect parts of the house and connects outside. The home has permanent guards,” Azer added.

“Who owns the home?” Asked Heather.

“A Corporation based in Anneanica owns the house. The company’s major shareholder is a Bank owned by Zyla through a network of trusts and companies. We are investigating further. She must have her tentacles inserted deeply into our financial system. It is one of our biggest banks,” said Frichy.

“Can you show us the plan of the home?” Heather asked.

“Hang on a second, Heather. What damage can she do to our financial system?” Horti asked.

“We are investigating covertly and carefully,” said the Colonel.

“This is a potential nightmare,” said Horti. “Admiral, I want the complete resources of your intelligence people to be used to investigate what damage Zyla can cause us. This investigation can be overt. Get the police involved as well. They have big cybercrime and fraud divisions. I wouldn’t say I like the smell of this. This might be a big gun she can hold to our heads.”

“Carry on, Colonel,” said Heather, looking intently at his projected hologram. “I want to get Zyla so badly; I can’t wait much longer.”

“Sorry, one more thing before I forget. Admiral, do you have a portable psychic amplifier device like the ones on your ship?” Horti asked.

Azer looked at the Admiral.

“I think we may have; I will check. I know we experimented with such devices in the past but haven’t needed such devices for millions of years,” said the Admiral.

“We must find a way of preventing Zyla from escaping. She will have time to escape through the portal if her place is protected. We must find a way to get in fast and disable the internal defenses and the portals,” said Horti.

“This is what I suggest,” said the Colonel and presented his team’s plan.

“Have you still got Moz’gamen and Zoglonad battle droids?” Heather asked. “I want to avoid screwing this up!”

Azer shook his head. “We haven’t used them during my lifetime. That is pretty drastic. How many do you want to use?”

“I am sorry I didn’t think of them before; I would like twenty-six. Half Moz’gamen and half Zoglonad. They work best in pairs. I want them to carry Thagthumed Cannons, and they must commence the assault using a ram. Load them up with a Type 4 stunner in transdim,” said Heather, “no more being the nice gal.”

“I like your style,” said Azer, “now I know why I am the colonel, and you are the general!” He smiled broadly.

“Deploy a Bogmolliun disruptor and fire on each level in the second before we enter the home,” Heather added as an afterthought. “Mount them in tanks.”

“Heather, are you hitting the house hard enough?” Horti asked, grinning.

“I did not treat the last operation as seriously as I should have. Now I am doing what must be done. Before proceeding, ensure everything is in place, serviced, and tested. I want to avoid failing because of equipment malfunction; now allow me to explain what I intend to do,” said Heather, describing her amended plan in detail.

“Admiral, I want you and your people to assume we will have a massive attack on the financial system. I want them to find the rogue AIs that will launch it in Zyla’s absence. I want every institution informed of a potential disruptive attack,” said Horti.

“Horti, we faced a similar problem caused by the Destroyers. One can’t be too careful,” said Annjus.

“As soon as I heard Zyla and bank, I knew there was a problem. Track down her money and her resources and confiscate everything. Use every resource you can. She wanted negotiable valuables on the other side. Go into every corporation she owns and track what damage she can do to us. Every second is important. She will disrupt everything she can. Find who was involved and how she developed her biological weapons. She used AIs to mess up my mission for two million years. What has she intended to do? Find her AI businesses and find out what they do. Confiscate everything.”