In Between The Ends

Chapter Twenty Eight

"You're late."

Myles Darcy was propped up on his cot, arms folded, watching as a new guard stationed himself at the end of the mostly abandoned cell block in the Veritas Justice building. The rotation of personnel was meant to have changed hours ago, leaving Darcy to his fuming much longer than he expected. It was bad enough that they had left him to rot in this damp hole; now they weren't even keeping him in the loop.

The young man he spoke to grunted in response.

"You're lucky we came back at all after how badly you and your team screwed up Ackerman's capture."

Darcy scoffed dismissively. "As if that was any fault of ours, Elliot. You didn't tell us the damn "Heroes of Humanity" were right behind them; that filthy rat and his little brats were supposed to be isolated."

The guard glanced around for a moment and then trudged down the hall, stopped in front of the iron rails that held Darcy.

"They were supposed to be isolated. We still have no idea why so many of them were in Cardend." Elliot shot back in a low voice. "Not only that, immediately after the raid they all fucking vanished. Not one of our Regiment has any idea where they went, just that they aren't anywhere they are supposed to be and that we have lost contact with our informant."

Pushing himself up, Darcy looked at him with a frown.

"Do you think they have mobilized?"

Elliot shrugged. "Beats me, but the Council sure seems to think so. How could they not? There's no way they get wind of Historia Reiss's kidnapping and not do something about it."

He turned and side stepped away from the cell, feinting a rapt attention on the opposite wall as two men passed by the end of the hallway. Without moving, he tipped in chin back towards Darcy.

"Your "escape" is set for tomorrow morning during the next set of patrols. Despite their better judgement the Council is allowing you and your men to continue, though if Mr. Arlert's team is in fact on the move there isn't much we can do. Keep up with your reconnaissance, and if somehow they make it back from whatever suicide mission they are on, we can go from there."

Elliot made to move back towards his sentry position, but Darcy stood up and peaked through the bars at him as he went.

"That woman your Leader is looking for... what does she look like, again?"

     "Ah, isn't she a beauty!" Oz cried as they picketed their exhausted horses and walked through the Kardif airbase towards what was indeed an incredible looking airship. Unlike the low flying plane they had used in their previous escape, this craft more closely resembled a blimp: massive in size, wings reaching out over their heads and a large air-filled canopy on top.

"The biggest difference between a regular Marlyean airship and this bad boy," Oz said as they made their approach, "is the prototype thrust engines. These suckers are powerful, but that's not even the best part. They can also be rotated, allowing us to have way more control over maneuverability."
He pointed excitedly to the two large turbines that were located just forward of the plane's wings. "This will not only speed up our travel time drastically, it will also allow us to push the airship over the Northern peaks and fly higher than anyone ever has before!"

To Oz's disappointment, no one else seemed to be quite as excited at this revolutionary accomplishment. In fact, most of the group looked rather green around the gills at the prospect.

Pfft, killjoys. Oz thought, shaking his head. Taking off at a lope he headed over to the flight crew that was approaching from the hanger bay; folks who would certainly share in his enthusiasm. The rest of the group was met by Onyankapon, who had been charged with administering flight training to the to the new crew, and they all got to work.