She sat and buckled in, happy to find an upgraded, though still six-decade-old, five-point harness. She tightened it down… and waited. The elevator continued up at its same casual pace. Zahra willed it to go faster. Her legs bounced, her eyes closed, and she bit her lip.
“Nervous flyer?” Yana shouted.
Zahra opened them and looked over her right shoulder and across the aisle. “Not usually. But this thing kinda feels like a winged soup can.”
“Not to mention that we only have three working engines!” Hammet added.
“Not helping!” Zahra shouted.
The platform
“We ready?” Yana asked. Zahra gave her a thumbs up. “Okay. Let’s do this!”
Even from halfway across the main house, she could hear her grandfather screaming at someone on his phone. Usually, she didn’t pry, but she was too curious not to. She used her years of training to move silently. Even at her age, nineteen-year-old Zelda Krause had already been on several missions, mostly assassinations. She was exceptional at getting up close to her targets and killing them with her favorite weapons, her twin karambit knives.
Even now, Zelda had them sheathed at the small of her back beneath her white designer jacket. She never went anywhere without them or the Walther PDP pistol holstered beneath her left armpit.
She leaned into the heavy, wooden door and gently pressed her ear against it. The first thing she heard confused her.
The second thing she heard shocked her.
“I don’t care if he’s your commander!”
“He has been negligent in his duties. Do not let him escape!”
Zelda leaned away from the door.
“If he does, detain him and bring him to me. But if you must, kill him.”
Zelda knew for a fact that Henri Vogel was an exemplary soldier. When her father was alive, he would go out of his way to tell her so.
“Do you understand, Petty Officer? Do not let him leave the Underworld! Lock down the lake!”
Zelda’s eyes opened wide.
Her grandfather’s latest outburst caused him to break out into a coughing fit. She hadn’t heard him this worked up in years. He was always in such control of his emotions. Whatever had happened regarding the commander, it had deeply upset him, and she doubted it was negligence of duty.
Zelda lifted her fist to knock but stopped. She leaned in again and listened to him hack uncontrollably.
She listened to him struggle.
She listened to him suffer.
What if she didn’t help him? What if he died here and now? The stress could easily stop his heart.
Since she’d been a little girl, Zelda had been promised the world. She’d been refused a normal life and assured a major leadership role while on her way to inheriting the Sixth Seal. And since her father died, Zelda had heard very little about it from her grandfather.
She realized something just then.
But she didn’t know enough yet. She needed more time to collect additional intel. She had a few people inside the organization that believed in her. They were the same people who had believed in her father. They believed that the Sixth Seal needed a younger mind at the top, someone less risk-averse, someone more willing to do something drastic.
She composed herself and knocked.
Then, she said, “Grandfather, are you okay? Grandfather?” She made sure to lace her voice with faux concern. Until this recent revelation, she had admired her grandfather deeply. Zelda’s mother had died when she was very young. She hardly knew the woman. Her grandfather was the only family she had left.
The door unlocked, and she rushed in. “Grandfather, are you okay?”
He was sitting back in his chair wheezing, holding his chest, but it looked as if he’d gotten his air back. The color was returning to his face, too. She went straight to his personal bar and poured him a glass of water.
“I’m here, Grandfather. I’m here…” Zelda hurried to his side and handed it to him.
He took a long sip and let out a long breath. “Incompetent fools surround me.” Zelda looked away. The comment really did sting. “Oh, Zelda. Not you. These
She held back her smile.
“Grandfather? With Commander Vogel — with
He sighed. “I’m not sure what will happen.”
