Chapter 9

“Break them into small groups,” Kara’s voice came over the group call, “I can listen and see who is panicking.”

Someone snorted. “All the geeks when Arius and Autumn walked into the cafeteria.” Paisley laughed.

Abe glanced at Bastian, and they both smiled. He pointed to a door telling the prince he was going there next. Bastian nodded and kept moving down the hall behind his Uncle Quinton.

Opening the door, Abe paused and touched his earbud, “Heading downstairs.” He looked at the door at the bottom. There was a keypad beside it.

“There’s a downstairs?” That was Bastian.

“Hold up and wait for me.”

Abe had no idea who said it but stopped in the doorway. “Looks like a very secure door at the bottom.”

“How secure?” Uncle Rafael asked.

He watched a man jogging down the hall and wondered if that was who he was waiting for. “Swipe lock.”

“Ah, I have a whole handful of badges. Where are you?” Uncle Chase asked.

“Main floor, end of the left corridor.”

“On my way. This is fun.” Chase sounded so amused.

The man stopped in front of Abe. He wasn’t sure of his name, just that he was Bastian’s brother. He glanced at the pendant Abe wore. “Another lost brother?”

Abe smirked, “Nephew. Lost brother’s son. Abe.”

He nodded abruptly, “Trendan.”

“Let the party begin.” Chase waved his hand in the air as he reached them.

Abe pulled his blades from his back as his uncle found the right card. There was no telling what was on the other side of the door.

“Supervisor is very concerned about the basement,” Kara reported.

With that news, Chase handed the cards to Trendan and pulled the swords from his back.

“I’ll go in first,” Abe told him. Chase gave him a bored look but stepped back. His uncles had made sure Abe was programmed to keep Alterealm’s kings from doing stupid, heroic things—like rushing into unknown, possibly dangerous situations.

“Got it.” Trendan grasped the handle as the lights on the panel went green.

“Let’s see what’s behind door number one.” Chase sounded amused, but the expression on his face was dead serious.

Trendan jerked the door open, and Abe went through it. There were two men standing beside a control panel. One of them pulled a knife from his waist.

“I wouldn’t.” Abe moved over quickly, more than happy to disarm him.

Chase breezed right past him and made sure the other male saw the swords in his hands. It was a very intimidating pose, the large king with a broadsword in each hand.

The knife was dropped, and both males raised their hands. They were looking at Trendan as they did it.

Chase put one sword away. “Yours?” He motioned to the floor with the sword. Both men moved in slow motion to lay on it.

“Yes, they’re from here.” He touched his earbud, “Two more Solrelm traitors.” Trendan went over and checked their wrists and pulled rubber bracelets off them.

Abe went over and looked at the panel and then through a small window. On the other side of it was what looked like a smaller version of the big teleport platform they’d arrived on. “Is that a teleport platform?”

Chase came over and looked, “tsk, tsk, gentlemen. Don’t you know making transporters is illegal?”

Abe checked on the men. He didn’t know what the silver thing in Trendan’s hand was, but he had a feeling they would lay there compliant because of it. He turned and went over to the table in the corner. A leather case the size of a briefcase sat on it. He opened it and looked inside, his eyebrows went up, “that’s not all they’ve made.” He pulled out two rubber bracelets. “Are these your link bracelets?”

Trendan came over and took one from him. He scowled and looked at it. “They are.” He moved over and looked in the box.

Abe checked that the two men were still lying on the floor, although with Chase standing over them, they’d be stupid to try anything. He turned and looked for another door. Other than the one into the transporter, there wasn’t any. “Were they just hanging out down here?”

“This man is worried that the dish will be found.” Kara’s voice came over the call.

“Feel like coming down to see what these two were up to, Cupid?”

Abe grinned. The nicknames his uncle called his aunts were strange. He was lucky that no one stabbed him because of them. Then again, some of the names he’d used over the years weren’t much better.

“I’ll bring her down in a minute.” Uncle Leone responded.

Turning around again, Abe went over to look in the boxes in the corner. “There has to be several here that are involved.” He opened the top one and looked in it, “for them to come and go without notice.” Putting his blades away, he dug through the items inside. It was mostly snack foods.

“There’s an exit at the end of the hall, so they could come and go without going through the main areas.” Trendan came over and squatted beside the boxes. Opening the one on the floor, he touched his ear, “What color is the pottery we’re looking for, Bas?”

Abe leaned over and looked in the box. Inside was a green ceramic dish.”

“Green,” Bastian answered.

Beside the dish was a tall bottle. Inside, it looked like was filled with water.

“The dish is intact,” Trendan informed them.

“Art said if we found one intact, he could trace it.” Uncle Michael said.

Nodding without comment, Trendan reached in, picked it up, and carried it over to the table. His expression was dark, and considering the illegal transporter, bracelets, and now dish, Abe didn’t blame him. A lot of traitors were hidden amongst them. He had to wonder how they were going to track them all down. They had six realms to hide in and several centuries of planning to avoid getting caught. He scowled at the floor; what his aunt said seemed to make perfect sense now, nothing was random, and all of them were together now for a reason.

“We’re going to check out around this location to look for other buildings.” Rafael’s voice broke the silence.

“Autumn and I are in. This was a pretty lame breach.”

Abe almost laughed out loud. She was disappointed there was no fighting. He touched the earbud, “I’ll come with.” He glanced over to see Chase nod to him. He was more comfortable searching outside than with magical pottery and illegal devices. He’d always felt better outside than he did in a building.