Nightingale

Chapter 30 Elation

The Learjet's engines whined softly as Lucius sat in a padded Italian calf-leather seat, peering into a large touch-screen. The Asian markets were about to open, and he wanted to get a feel for the mood of the world's investors today, not that he expected any surprises.

Adel Todesfall approached and whispered. "We've got a problem. We've lost contact with our retrieval squad. It appears that the boy is a dream assassin and a leech." Adel waited half a moment for the information to sink in, and then asked, "Shall we abort the mission?"

"All of our operatives have gone silent?" Lucius demanded. He couldn't quite believe it. The team was headed by a dread knight, nearly a thousand years in the making. Sure, she'd reported that they were suffering the effects of leeching, but had there ever been a leech so powerful?

Not in the six millennia that Lucius had lived. And this one was a dream assassin, as well.

Lucius's heart raced. It was too much to hope for. On impulse he said. "No, we shall not abort. I want to visit the kill site, investigate our operatives' remains. I want to see them with my own eyes."

Adel gave him a long look. "Are you sure, my lord? The swamp is a dangerous place...."

"I'm more dangerous," Lucius said.