Dashing devil 5 bold beg.., p.17
Dashing Devil 5: Bold Beginnings, page 17
“How did you identify the account?” Davis asked, stern expression still firmly in place.
“Through information gathered during Miss Bailey’s ongoing investigation into the missing Changed,” Boyd reinserted himself in the discussion, catching Tinker’s relieved expression when he did so.
He didn’t like where this was going.
“You mean information gathered from Lenny Snell’s mind through an illegal application of a mental Power,” Davis stated flatly, holding up his tablet with an image pulled up on it.
The image featured Mindy in a dirty blonde, bob-style wig and contacts. She was wearing a bright orange hoody and forest green cargo pants that were several sizes too large in order to hide her figure. She looked nothing like herself as she strode into Snell’s office just behind Kayla. In the image, she was looking down at a tablet she was holding—ostensibly to operate the drone could be seen floating over her shoulder.
“I’ll give you that the disguise was quite excellent.” Davis sounded impressed, but he still wore a stern expression.
He looked up from the image. “Even the facial recognition software couldn’t get a read on her. You have truly impressive makeup skills, young lady.” He’d turned to Mindy for the last.
“Thank you,” Mindy replied in a perfectly friendly tone, ignoring the stern expression that clearly displayed the Directors mood.
“If Laura hadn’t been there,” Davis continued, losing the impressed tone, “and the fact that Miss Bailey had been moved to an undisclosed location just the day before wasn’t common knowledge, our agents who were watching Snell’s office after we received a massive dump of information in regard to his illegal dealings from an unknown source might not ever have reported it.”
“And…?” Boyd returned Davis’s stern expression, his golden eyes bordering on but not quite crossing into insubordinate glare territory.
“And,” Davis ground out, “gathering information in such a way is not only illegal, unactionable, and against every rule of your post as a Hero, it is completely unethical.”
Boyd tried to restrained the urge to growl back at the man and failed, “Rules… Ethics?!”
‘He is not your enemy,’ Mindy reminded him, her mental tone soothing, ‘he is a good man. Be gentle.’
Boyd took a moment to compose himself. As he unclenched his fists and resettled his wings, which had extended slightly, he sent a mental thanks to his gothic love. When he continued, he was much more composed.
“Director Davis,” Boyd asked, “were our enemies following the rules or acting ethically when they purchased a young woman from your city to rape, torture, and murder?”
Davis frowned and opened his mouth to respond, likely with something along the lines of ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’, but Boyd wasn’t done. The big hero pushed on.
“Are you going to allow the Authority’s rules and your ethics to let them torture and kill one or more people at this next gathering? Will you let them keep gaming the system that allows them to commit atrocities because stopping them would require performing a minorly illegal action? Is that what the laws you uphold seek to support?”
“That’s not what I said.” Davis still wore the same stern expression. It was likely one he’d practiced since before Boyd was a glimmer in his father’s eye—whoever that happened to be. “This is a matter separate from your proposed mission. This is now about whether or not you or the members of your team should face charges yourselves.”
“What charges, Sir?” Boyd kept his composure from slipping, reminding himself that he’d expected this reaction from their by-the-books director.
“It is a clear violation of the Principle of Privacy—a principle which our society relies on to protect our citizens' rights.” Davis maintained his stern expression, though his tone grew a little heated.
“No, it wasn’t,” Boyd stated simply.
When Davis arched his eyebrow, the big Hero elaborated. “Director Davis, you seem to be operating under the impression that Mind Witch didn’t have a valid reason to be in Snell’s office where she just so happened to overhear a thought about the amount he was paid to arrange to traffic a young woman under our charge—a citizen of Glorith—out of the city.”
“Oh? And what reason did she have to be there?” Davis asked, his skepticism clearly challenging Boyd to explain this one.
Mindy cleared her throat and stepped forward. “You assigned The Devoted to provide Miss Bailey with security while she reports on a story that exposes her to danger. I was providing Miss Bailey close quarter’s security in an early detection role.”
“And why would you allow her to leave the safety of your base?” Davis growled, likely realizing he had been outmaneuvered… again.
“The interview was scheduled before she was transferred to the base,” Boyd replied. He shrugged a shoulder before continuing, “and it was prior to her making the report that made her a target. I deemed it an acceptable risk, as ceasing her personal investigation at that point would have interfered with her career.”
He firmly repressed the smirk that threatened to ruin his professional manner. “I felt there was little to no risk with Mindy guarding her—especially since the rest of the team was on standby in the Osprey and Silver was no more than fifteen seconds away from our assigned protected at any given time. Even that time assumes she’d use the doors instead of just going through a wall.”
“Wait… the Astral Osprey was in Glorith yesterday?” Davis’s stern mask cracked for just a second, his lip twitching down on one side for just a moment.
“Yes, and Tinker has suggestions for some modifications to Glorith’s sensor grid that will prevent others with the same tech from exploiting the same gap.”
Boyd let the smirk surface. It was a small carrot, but a carrot, none-the-less.
“We’ll get to that later,” Davis sighed, dropping the stern mask and raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I know Royce scheduled that appointment, so your argument is a senseless technicality—but I’m sure it’s a technicality you are prepared to hide behind… if I make you.”
“Monitoring my calls, are we Boss?” Royce asked grumpily.
He’d made the call on a personal, supposedly untraced line.
“No, Royce.” Davis sighed again, lowering his hand and placing it on his glass top desk. “We were monitoring Snell’s calls and have been for some time. He must be using other means of communication for his illicit affairs, though, because that was the first interesting call we heard on any of his lines.”
“Well… shit.” Royce chuckled. He continued with a levity the situation probably didn’t call for, “I was just doing an honest favor for a reporter friend, I swear.”
“I’m sure it was just a favor, Royce.” Davis shook his head, let out another sigh, and drummed his fingers across the glass top of his desk twice before continuing. “Alright, we have the ill-gotten information now. There is no reason not to act on it. I’ll approve a reconnaissance through the use of drones. You can gather evidence we will use for a future arrest.”
They had expected the Director’s rather conservative, safe recommendation of safe middle ground.
“Sir,” Boyd said, “I’ll tell you in advance that I have several ways already in mind that will let me get around those orders and save any victims I can. But instead of going into those details, let me tell you why you should let us proceed with the recon, rescue, and arrest.”
“You’ll get around my…” Davis growled before audibly clicking his jaw closed. “Fine…” the man visibly restrained the roll of his eyes.
Boyd flicked his Black Flame Vision back on and pointed to his now darkly burning golden orbs. “I can see the energy that gives Powered their abilities. It comes from the sun. I’ll have Tinker send you a briefing on all the details we have been able to gather, but what matters for the purpose of this conversation is that I can gauge how strong someone’s Power is using it.”
“That’s…” Davis’s pale blue eyes had gone wide in shock.
“It’s a lot of things, Sir.” Boyd smirked, dismissing the dark fire from his eyes and returning from the brightly lit world he saw through it. “And I am putting a great deal of trust in you by revealing it.”
Davis blinked at him.
Boyd watched as the man’s brain shifted up a couple of gears as he considered the implications of Boyd’s Dark Vision—both the ability to see the force behind Powers and the fact that he chose to reveal it to the Director.
Boyd gave him a moment, then pushed on to get his mind back on track. “So, part of the recon phase will be me getting close enough to judge the number and relative strength of the Powered present. From there, I will make a judgement call on if we can safely proceed with the rescue and arrest phases of the plan. If we can only perform a smash and grab to rescue the victims, that is what we will do. If we can’t even safely do that, we’ll gather evidence for future arrests as you suggested.”
“The kid’s not going to send a single member of his team, including himself, on a suicide mission, Boss,” Royce added. “That said, he knows their abilities and what they can handle—and it’s a hell of a lot more than either of us think they can handle. That’s the thing with Boyd. Every time he’s said he could do something I thought he couldn’t do, he went and proved he could do it.”
“Get to your point, Royce.” Davis drummed his fingers across his desk in a display of impatience.
In the Director’s defense, a Handler’s typical job was to get their Hero to listen to orders, not to get his Director to listen to their Hero. Royce just happened to be a good Handler.
“You’re going to look at something like this and think, ‘Yup, that’s a suicide mission.’ And because you’re a damn good Director, your instincts will be to block it,” Royce explained. “Hell, if it was anyone else bringing you this plan, I’d probably agree with you. But remember who is standing in front of you.”
Royce snorted, giving Boyd a wry look. “Killing the Last Dragon? Suicide mission. Killing Omega Ray? Suicide mission. Hell, taking out fucking Blast Front should have been a suicide mission.”
Davis sighed, his fingers going up to massage the bridge of his nose again.
Royce pushed on. “Remember what I told you. The kid lived up to his end of his promises this time. He came to you with his plan ahead of time. If you dismiss it out of hand, he won’t come to you next time—other than to ask for forgiveness. You will have made yourself an obstacle between him and his job.”
“Obstacles are either worked around or removed, and never allowed to interfere with the objective,” Tinker added absently, as if voicing a stray thought.
Somehow, the little inventor’s completely innocent intentions made the threat she didn’t know she was delivering all the more menacing.
“She did not mean that the way it sounded,” Raev said with one of her velvet chuckles. “Well, Tinker did mean the ‘work around’ part. Boyd can find the loophole in any of the Authority’s regulations and do that all day, but he respects you enough to have no desire to work under a different Director.”
“Thank you for the clarification, Kitsune.” Davis rubbed the bridge of his nose harder for a moment then dropped his hand back to the desk with a thunk. “I’m scheduling another massage after this,” he muttered, before clearing his voice and saying in a louder tone, “Fine. Keep me abreast of the plan as it develops.”
“Of course, Sir.” Boyd nodded. “We’ll return to the base and begin fleshing out the plan and associated contingencies immediately.”
“One more thing…” Davis pressed a button on his tablet and the shutters retracted as the lights returned to their normal soft white glow as the vaguely annoying hum ceased. “Congratulations are in order, Devil. It has been determined that it is time to select the next World Hero, and you’ve made the docket.”
“What?!” Boyd blinked.
When Boyd’s brain stumbled to a halt before trying to catch up again, Mindy giggled inside his head—likely having detected the Director’s thought about the announcement long before it was made.
Silvie squealed in delight from behind him and to his right where she had been floating. “I knew it!” she cheered. “My Darling is the best Hero that has or ever will be, and everyone can see it already.”
“I wouldn’t say everyone, but enough to make the official docket,” Davis replied with a smug smile. He was evidently pleased by his own, albeit limited, contributions to the achievement. A Changed had never been nominated for the title of World Hero, let alone added to the official selection docket.
“And I dare say,” Davis continued, his smugness only growing, “if your plan works the way you hope it does, then your following will surely grow. This would be conveniently timed, given that a gala will be held in four weeks’ time to announce the commencement of the official selection process.”
Royce grinned. “Make sure to practice your steps and break in your dance shoes, kid.”
Boyd nodded in absent agreement, finally catching up to the fact that he might actually become the next World Hero. As a boy, before his Change, he’d never dreamed of soaring so high—and that was before he had wings. Even now, with his various feats, he thought if any of The Devoted had a shot at the title it would be Silver, the dynamic powerhouse in a bombshell’s body.
Of course, now that the opportunity was here in front of him, he began planning how to claim it. A title like ‘World Hero’ would look awful nice next to ‘Dragon Slayer’, and it would certainly amplify his voice and his ability to enact the types of changes their world desperately needed.
Chapter 18
‘Mindy, status report,’ Boyd rumbled over the team's new telepathic comms.
He was crouched on a ridge overlooking the luxury fortress the Bell family had built out in the Wild Lands for their private retreat. It was a three-story mansion, complete with a ballroom, several conference rooms, and resort-like accommodations for a hundred guests as well as the staff to meet their needs. Massive windows covered the structure—and while they were armored, the glaring structural weaknesses made Boyd wonder who thought they were a good idea, even in this moderately safe location.
It was situated in an enclosed valley, not unlike the one the team had begun to tame outside their base. This one had been made habitable for humans long ago, though, with much of the life driven from it and discouraged from returning by automated defenses. A strong threat could still push its way through if it was determined enough. Or a sneaky one—that’s how they would get in, after all.
Then, the inhabitants would find out exactly why windows were a bad idea.
Due to its location, nestled away in a forested valley like it was, the moderately defended mansion in the mountains was cast into shadow—even though it was still an hour before sunset. The compound was lit up, throwing light into the encroaching darkness in long arches while leaving several dark gaps between them. Boyd had already chosen the shadowed path he would use to cover his approach.
The Osprey had circumvented the building's outer detection grid, which had taken some doing, as apparently privacy was deemed more important than security for the structure itself. Though there were an extensive sensor grid along the ridges and the entrance to the valley, it didn’t have a single sensor that would capture anything that occurred within a mile of the building itself.
Boyd thought it displayed a shocking amount of arrogance without enough sense to balance it out.
‘We’re inside and mingling,’ the Mindy who sat at the edge of the bed in his head smirked up at him and said, amusement in her eyes. ‘Nothing too strenuous, we aren’t really expected to speak much. I’m picking up a lot of useful intel that I’ve been passing along to Tinker, although I’m going to need you to help me wash some filth out of my head when we get home—these people are worse than Lenny Snell.’
Boyd was a consummate professional so kept any thoughts of how he would help her clear her the filth out of her head out of his mind.
‘Kuh-he! Oooh, I like that one. Do that.’
Okay, so maybe a few thoughts of what he would do slipped through for just a second. He did his best to refocus on the situation and not dwell on such thoughts.
Mindy, Silvie, and Raev had infiltrated the party under illusions conjured by his favorite vixen. They had chosen three sisters who looked a lot alike and were known to be inseparable. They all had to stay in Raev’s vicinity so she could continuously update the illusion. Otherwise, Mindy and Silvie could just walk right out of theirs.
Boyd flicked on his Black Flame Vision and scanned the mansion.
Seeing through the stream of bright and colorful orbs that poured out of the sun and bathed the planet took some practice. He still couldn’t pick out the non-Powered from the soup past more than twenty feet, but he found his three loves easily enough and used them as a beacon.
He counted six other bright clusters he assumed were Powered in the same ballroom as them: a red, two blues, an orange, a green, and a violet. They didn’t have enough data to figure out which colors represented which abilities, but none of them burned nearly as brightly as Silvie. Only one of the blues and the green were close to Mindy or Raev in brightness and presumed Power.
That said, there were six Powereds. Three of them were sticking together which might indicate they were a team. It was common enough for low-ranked Powered to band together and be capable of fighting much higher Ranked that Boyd was worried for his under-cover loves.
‘We seem to be waiting for the final guests to arrive,’ Mindy continued over the telepathic channel. ‘I’ll bring everyone up on the net… why don’t you run through the plan one more time. It will make you feel better and the sisters we are impersonating aren’t receiving any bites so far, so we are just standing around and looking pretty.’
‘Please do,’ Boyd gave her a mental nod and blinked the Black Flame from his eyes. It would be a good use of their time.
