Two and a half months later.
Jake had a small smile on his face as he listened to the reports from his subordinates while he sipped some bitter beer that he hadn"t been able to get used to yet in the bar that he had bought recently.
He had taken his ident.i.ty of one who had perpetual bad luck and turned it into one where all of the bad luck had meant that he had good fortune waiting down the line, by suddenly finding an Ether block mine under his land.
The truth is that all of these Ether blocks had been stolen from the private reserves of a few hard-working individuals on this continent by his subordinates who were skilled in mind control, and he had placed them all in this manner to be found so that he could use these funds as he wished.
"Having money is really a very easy method to worm ourselves into the top echelons, boss. It was a genius idea! I bet those guys must be floundering around, not knowing what to do, while we"re well on the way to succeeding and getting their rewards."
"Yes, boss! If you hadn"t made the bet, they would have gotten those rewards without doing anything, and that would have really left a bad taste in my mouths! Now, we will get even more rewards, and we will also be able to show them what the power of the Over-, I mean, the Underlords is!"
Jake winced as he heard that last part, because he still hadn"t really gotten over the fact that his name, which had also become the name of their team, had had to change.
Well, he would be having at least a little of his revenge soon, so he nodded with a broader smile and asked them to continue.
"The best time to launch action is on the day of the debate, boss. I"ve been asking around, and it seems that on that day, there is a party planned inside the main building. Because of both the debate, which is supposed to be very interesting, and the wine which keeps getting opened prematurely even though it is only supposed to be drunk during the celebration, security is weakest, so infiltrating using our contacts and getting to the central area should be easy. We have managed to find some information about those people from the Church whom we"re supposed to kill, but they were all extremely well concealed and protected whenever they were on the outside. Large groups of Champions were always shadowing them, and they were also quite alert, as if they were used to having a.s.sa.s.sination attempts targeting them."
"Yes, boss. Whenever they go out, it is only for a very few personal reasons, and each time, they"re always glancing around with those squirrelly eyes of theirs, convinced that someone might be watching them. You remember that one of us was even caught almost, right?"
Jake nodded, recalling the incident where they had almost failed. The first plan had been to maybe kill some one in the inner circle and take their place, but even attempting to lay a trap had resulted in them being caught, which showed just how cautious they were.
Hence, they had gone back to the original plan, and it was Jake"s idea which had allowed them to reach their present stage.
"Boss, I think you should contact those fools and at least confirm that they won"t eat their own words and target those sc.u.m from the Church on the same day. We don"t want to have to run into extra problems, because it will be very hard anyway."
One of those in front of him, who had always been quite an intelligent guy in his team said this, which led to Jake nodding.
The other team had constantly been on his mind, and whenever any of his teammates had been free, he had asked them to go shadow them and find out just what they were doing.
Each and every report he had received was quite weird. At one point, the entire team had started to slowly infiltrate a specific place, but it was one that was completely unrelated to the government. At another, that team had targeted those from the Church when they were outside, too, but none of them had seen them get any success, either.
This showed more than anything that the bet had been made in bravado, and that they were hastily trying to figure something out. In that case, the best option would be to make a last-ditch attempt to target the headquarters of the government on the day of the grand debate, so it was best to initiate a line of communication and make it clear that they should stop.
Of course, he would have said this outright if he wasn"t scared of the power of the guy who had directly countered his Champion Path, but he still decided to send a message saying almost the same thing, albeit in a much better tone.
Daneel was busy finalizing the last steps of their plan when he received the message from the Underlord.
Curious, he checked to find something that made him laugh heartily, which resulted in his sovereigns asking what was so amusing.
In response, he held up the trinket given to them, and the message was heard by everyone.
"Overlord. I hope your plan is going well, but I"m sending this message so that we won"t interfere with each other and cause unnecessary problems. On the day of the grand debate, I hope that you will not be targeting the headquarters of the government?"
Hearing it, the five others in the room also burst out laughing, and it was only after they controlled themselves that Daneel finally sent a reply.
"I can confirm that we will not touch the headquarters, at least in the same way that you are going to. You can rest a.s.sured that we won"t be in your way."
Even this reply caused peals of laughter to erupt from Elanev, and even usually stoic Faxul cracked a smile. It looked like his action of letting out that last laugh has been confined to those moments, as he had returned to his normal self afterward.
As for Aran and Ca.s.sandra, there were slight changes, but Daneel hadn"t been monitoring them when they had not been required to carry out certain things. He knew for a fact that both of them were in the same village as they had already returned thrice together as they needed to maintain their original ident.i.ties, but beyond that, all he saw was them being closer than before.
This made him recall Elanev"s confession again, but this island was definitely not the right place to discuss it. And besides, talking about these things would result in them exposing their original ident.i.ties to those who were spectating everything, and that was the dumbest thing they could do.
The next moment, they all got back to work even though they had just had a moment of brevity, because they were working on the most crucial part which might decide the outcome of their entire work these past two and a half months.
The next week pa.s.sed swiftly, and the entire Island of Creylia was gearing up for the largest celebration that came every 10 years - the debate, followed by the election which many hoped would see a change in the leaders.h.i.+p of the government which would take up their problems and solve them.
It had always been the tradition on the island that these two events would be marked with pomp and vigor, to herald in a new age for them all. Each and every village, town, and city would have fairs of different sizes according to the population, and everyone would join in the festivities even if they usually kept to themselves in the ten years following up to it.
Families would get together in case they were settled in different places, marriages would happen in case they had been put off and even historically, the nights that followed would result in the population growing much more than it had in all the years before.
All in all, it was a momentous event, and even the government always pulled out all stops to ensure that the people would be happy.
It even subsidized the cost for setting up the fairs and even the feasts that were always thrown, and hence, there was no better time for enjoying oneself.
Of course, the center stage of the entire thing was the grand debate, which in many cases had proven to be the most important event because it would directly influence the voting that would happen on the day after it. Historically, there had apparently been four times where the winner who was expected until then had messed up in the debate, and had given away leaders.h.i.+p to the other group. Debates were also really fun and informative to see, because they would detail all of the steps taken by the government that wanted to retain leaders.h.i.+p, and all the mistakes that they had made would be pointed out by the group that wanted to win.
There would be heated discussions, and whenever there were breaks, there would even be performances by some of the major artists on the island, all paid for by the government. There was an independent ent.i.ty which handed all these things, and although it didn"t have much power, it was respected for its impartiality that had allowed its leaders to remain the same for the longest time.
The entire thing was a four-day long affair, with the first two days consisting of the final steps of campaigning which would be undertaken by both groups together. They would have mini debates, which would build up a lot of hype for the final one, and both of these days went well, with many even remarking that the celebrations this them seemed to be even more extravagant than the last.
There was always a main leader chosen by each group who represented them, and these were usually the most well-spoken ones who knew the arts of keeping an audience hanging on their words. Anyone would love to keep listening to them, and they repeatedly showed their skills by articulately putting forward what the wanted to say.
In this happy atmosphere, the day of the final debate loomed, and Jake and the rest of his team began their way into the government headquarters from where they would slowly make their way up into the central room where the family from the Church resided.
This was a long process which would see them spending a lot of time bypa.s.sing many formations and hoodwinking the guards, and there would even be times where they would have to stop and rest in secret places so that they could allow a certain someone whom they couldn"t take out without raising an alarm pa.s.sed.
Both to pa.s.s time and also to keep an eye on the situation, Jake had brought along a display trinket which showed the situation in a large gathering area close by.
The island was divided into three major cities, and the one where the headquarters was situated was the largest one. Hence, it also had the largest gathering area where over 300,000 people were all standing currently in front of a humongous display trinket which was showing two podiums on which the leaders of the two groups would soon be speaking.
Everything looked to be normal as the crowd swelled, following which the entertainment programs began.
Everything was going well - their infiltration, as expected, had been smoother because of the lax att.i.tude of many of the guides due to the grand occasion, and if things remained the same, they would reach their targets soon.
Yet, suddenly…in the span of a single moment, everything changed.
BOOOOOMMMM!!!!
A loud explosion rocked the entire headquarters, and for a moment, Jake wondered whether they had been found.
Yet, he saw a guard near them get some sort of communication which he yelled out loud, and listening to him made Jake focus on the display trinket.
"That was from the broadcasting wing! Someone set off an explosion there! Send backup, send backup!"
At the same moment…the displays on all the display trinkets changed, and the image they showed made Jake widen his eyes and almost exclaim with shock.
Two people were sitting around a table on which wine bottles could be seen, and one of them was a port-bellied man whom they had all seen before as being a member of those from the Church.
The one in front of him…was a sweet girl dressed in n.o.ble clothes, and she was actually familiar.
She was the lady whom that infernal guy had brought along, and as Jake was about to ask just what the heck was going on, the port-bellied man cackled with laughter and said something that made all those watching all over the island take in a sharp breath and stare with incredulity taking seed in their eyes.
"Bwahahaha, that entire debate is a sham! Those d.a.m.n sheep all think that at least one group supports them, but we control them all! We take their hard work and exploit them! They"re a bunch of stupid cows being raised like livestock, I tell you!"