“That is one reason. I believe the other is because Fayte’s a romantic at heart. She wants to be swept off her feet by her knight in shining armor. She wants a man who will only look at her and no one else.”

  Adam nodded before his curiosity got the better of him. “And what about you? Do you want the same thing?”

  “M-me?!” Susan squeaked.

  “Yes, you.”

  “Well, I… I’ve never really thought about it.” Susan fiddled with her fingers as they rested on her lap. “To be completely honest, I always assumed I would marry whoever my father told me to. It was only recently that I told him I would like to choose who I marry, so I don’t really know what I want.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that. You should take your time deciding what you want. It’s better to be completely confident in your choice than to make a choice you’ll regret later.”

  “Hmm. I agree.” Susan nodded, then her cheeks and ears turned pink as she looked away. “Th-that said, I do know what kind of qualities I’m looking for in a partner.”

  “Oh? Would you share them with me?”

  “Well… they’re…”

  Susan wasn’t able to get very far before someone appeared in the living room. It was Asmodeus, dressed in his typical ninja garb. He looked around for a moment, spotted Adam, and quickly knelt.

  “Master, we have a situation,” he said, and the dark undertones in his voice made Adam realize whatever he had to say was dire.

  “We’ll continue this discussion another time,” Adam said to Susan.

  Susan looked disappointed, but she nodded. “O-okay.”

  To Asmodeus, Adam asked, “What is it?”

  “Levon Pleonexia has discovered your real identity. He’s planning to launch an attack on you tonight.”

  Adam closed his eyes. He didn’t know how Levon had found out about him. He was sure that he had been careful to mask his identity, but the hows and whys could be solved later. They wouldn’t help him solve their current situation.

  A midnight assault, huh? It looked like he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight, and sadly, he wasn’t staying up late for the reasons he preferred.

  Midnight Assault

  Adam called Aris and Lilith and had them all log off. He would have called Fayte too, but she wasn’t online. Susan also logged off. She had asked if she could help, and he promised he would let her help him. He planned to use her skills as a hacker to assist them.

  After logging off, Adam explained the situation to both women. Lilith accepted his explanation with a simple nod, but Aris bit her lip and looked at her feet, seemingly bothered.

  “Aris, what’s wrong? Why do you look like someone just killed your cat?” asked Adam.

  “I’m sorry… this is all my fault,” she mumbled.

  Adam sighed as he reached over, grabbed the back of her head, and pulled her into his chest. “You can’t blame yourself here. Everyone starts off with standard equipment. You just happened to get unlucky. None of us could have known Thor would see what you look before you got a veil to hide your face.”

  “Mmm.”

  Had this happened before they became estranged from Fayte, Aris would not have been this hung up. Adam believed she felt so guilty because the guilt over her reckless actions prior to this had led to the rift between them and Fayte. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do about her feelings beyond providing emotional support. She would have to overcome that hardship herself.

  “Since it’s come to this, we need to come up with a plan,” Adam let go of Aris and walked over to a table. It looked like a regular dinner table, but when he pressed a button underneath it, the table transformed. The brown surface turned back, then lit up, and a 3D holographic map of the surrounding area appeared before them.

  “Should we ask Asmodeus to come and provide backup?” asked Lilith.

  Adam shook his head. “No. The Grim Reapers are our trump card, and the moment we reveal them here, they’ll lose their effectiveness as spies and saboteurs. We can handle this on our own.”

  “How are we going to fight them?” asked Aris. “I don’t think I need to tell you this, but Age of Gods aside, I’m not much of a fighter.”

  “Then it’s a good thing you won’t be fighting,” Adam began with a wry smirk. “Our goal here is not to fight, but to flee. I’m going to distract their main forces. While I do that, I want you and Lilith to escape through the alleys. Also, while I don’t plan on using the Grim Reapers to fight, I do plan on having one of them meet up with you. He’ll take you to one of our safe houses.”

  “Are you thinking of calling Leviathan?” asked Lilith.

  Adam nodded. “He’s the best driver in the group. I’ll have him come pick you two up.”

  His cell phone began ringing at that moment, so Adam picked it up. He looked at the caller ID. After seeing who it was, he put the phone on speaker and set it on the table.

  Susan’s voice came over the speakers the moment he did.

  “Adam, I’ve hacked into the security cameras surrounding your apartment, but I’m afraid I can’t access the recording program. Levon has a very skilled hacker on his side. They have disabled the ability to record video footage. I also can’t send data to the Department of Safety. I suspect Levon has a mole there who shut off the security feed to those cameras.”

  The security cameras were a two-way road that sent data in the form of video footage and received instructions via the security network within the Department of Safety’s many relay stations. Each station was dedicated to specific city blocks. The information was then routed from the relay stations to the main headquarters, which was not located in New York but the American Federation’s government center--the Trihexagon--which was located smack in the center of the nation.

  The only way to shut off a security camera’s ability to send video footage to a relay station was for someone to manually shut it off.

  “Have you informed your dad about what’s going on?” asked Adam.

  “I did as you instructed and told him the gist of it. He’s pretty livid, but he’s agreed not to stir up the hornet’s nest. Um, he did say he would like to see you though…”

  Adam furrowed his brow. “Tell him… I’ll see him if I can, but it might not be possible for a while, given the situation.”

  “I’ll let him know.”

  “Thank you.”

  Adam was about to say more, but a ping alerted him to a text message from Belphegor. He read the message and sighed. Craning his neck to glance out the window, he saw that darkness had already crept upon the land.

  “I just received a message from my informant inside Levon’s forces. They’ve already mobilized their troops.”

  “What?! Already?!” came Susan’s startled voice.

  “Isn’t this bad? We haven’t finished planning yet,” said Aris. For once, she looked worried.

  Adam remained calm. “There’s no need to worry. Fortunately, Levon can’t bring out a large task force to deal with us. Five elite squads of ten members have left the Pleonexia Alliance headquarters and are on their way here. Susan, I’m going to give you their license plates. Can you track them for me?”

  “O-of course! Please leave it to me!”

  “Thank you.”

  Adam copied the information Belphegor had sent, then pasted it into a text message, which he sent to Susan. Silence reigned in the room for several seconds. Even Aris didn’t dare to break it. She was even holding her breath as though worried just breathing would cause the situation to snap.

  “I’m currently tracking their location. It looks like each vehicle is taking separate routes. Based on their route, I think their intention is to surround you.”

  Adam nodded. That was a standard attack formation when you wanted to keep someone from escaping, but it was also a terrible idea when you were fighting against an enemy like him.

  Of course, it wasn’t like Levon could have known that dividing his forces in this manner would only weaken his position. He didn’t know Adam’s strength. He had no idea that Adam had taken on entire battalions by himself.

  Susan sent over the data showing their locations. Adam uploaded the data onto his map. The vehicles showed up as red blips that were traveling swiftly toward his location from five separate directions. Just like Susan had said, they were planning to surround his location.

  “It looks like we don’t have much time. They will be here in about fifteen minutes,” Adam muttered, then looked at Aris and Lilith. “Lilith, put in the call to Leviathan and ask her to come pick you and Aris up at location Delta. I’ll head out now. I’m going to cause a big distraction, once I begin making noise, you two will begin moving. Susan, you’ll be their guide. I want you to use the security cameras to keep them abreast of any suspicious activity. There’s a very good chance the forces we can see aren’t the only ones Levon has sent to deal with us.”

  “You think there are more?” asked Aris.

  “It’s a standard tactic to hide a smaller, more powerful force behind a larger one,” Lilith said.

  Adam nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Levon sent a sniper squad on top of the five squadrons. It would be a hidden squad sent from a different location to avoid detection. Anyway, Lilith, you should suit up. You too, Aris. I have equipment for you both.”

  Aris blinked. “Did you know this would happen?”

  Adam shook his head. “No, but I always try to plan for every scenario.”

  Adam, Aris, and Lilith went into another room. It seemed empty at first, until Adam pressed a button, revealing several mannequins with skin-tight outfits and racks full of weapons.

  Aris stared in shock at the armory before her. “How come I never knew any of this existed?”

  Adam shrugged. “Because there was never a need to reveal it?”

  “That’s not a good answer.”

  “Just get dressed.”

  Lilith quietly stripped her clothes off and suited up. These black suits were designed to help them blend into the night. They came with a variety of features like camouflage and heat masking. Lilith also put on a pair of sunglasses, then tapped a button on them, which activated the HUD. Like the suits, the sunglasses came with a variety of features such as night vision and heat vision.

  Aris and Adam also put on a suit. While Adam went over to a weapon’s rack and grabbed a spear, several knives, a pistol, and a submachine gun, Aris began feeling herself up.

  “This suit is so weird. It feels like I’m not wearing anything,” she murmured.

  “It’s called a Knull Suit. It’s symbiotic clothing that mimics your biorhythm to create a suit that provides protection against both physical and energy attacks by distributing the inertia from such attacks evenly across the suit. It won’t stop an explosion, but it can withstand anything else, including sniper fire. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should let yourself get hit. These suits can only take a certain amount of damage before they stop working.”

  Aris nodded seriously. “Got it.”

  Another ping caused Adam to look at his phone. “It seems they’re here. Looks like they plan to blockade the main streets and travel the rest of the way on foot. I’m gonna head out and stop them.”

  “I will protect Aris,” Lilith said.

  “Adam… be careful,” Aris added.

  He smiled at them. “Don’t worry. I will.”

  Jack Davis grunted as their vehicle stopped moving. He looked at the empty street ahead of them, then at the eight people sitting in the back.

  “We’ve arrived. Everyone, get out and get ready. This operation is beginning now.”

  “Sir!”

  Jack and the driver left the vehicle along with the others, who opened the trunk door of their vehicle—a Ford Transit Custom. One of their men had already opened the bottom hatch on the floor, which revealed a large variety of weapons. There was everything from SMGs and assault rifles to standard 9mm pistols.

  “Don’t forget to attach your suppressors,” Jack reminded them.

  “We know. Don’t worry. This isn’t the first time we’ve done this,” said one of his men. He was a blond man whose bright gold hair was currently covered with a cap. Like everyone there, he wore clothes designed to hide his identity, including a mask that hid his face.

  “But it has been a while since our last mission,” added another. He sounded older than the first person who spoke.

  “I’m actually excited. We don’t get to go on very many missions,” said a man with a scratchy voice. Jack made a note to tell him to lay off the cigarettes.

  Jack add a suppressor to both his pistol and assault rifle. While the pistol was a standard issue, the rifle was a Smith and Wesson that fired 5.56 nato-caliber bullets. It had an adjustable scope and was very versatile. He had been using this particular weapon for close to fifteen years now and it had never let him down.

  “I can’t believe you’re still using that old gun, captain,” one of his men said.

  “Right?! We’ve got all this new tech and awesome weapons, but he’s using something from twenty years ago,” laughed another.

  Jack scoffed. “Say what you want. Older weapons are more reliable. The current weapons might have automatic aim adjustments, but they’re too heavily reliant on their computer chips. What would you do if the chip malfunctioned? You’d be shit out of luck. I’ll stick to weapons that require real skill to use.”

  “So you say, but I think you just don’t like using new technology. You’re like a stubborn old man who likes to talk about how things were back when you were younger,” said the one who first mocked him.

  Jack would have said something, but a scream cut off any conversation. Everyone reacted quickly. They spun around and aimed their weapons at where the scream had come from, but even they were unable to hide their shock when they saw one of their own squealing like a gutted pig.

  And the reason he was screaming was the spear that had impaled him from behind.

  Jack had seen many polearms, but he’d never seen something quite like this. The spear wasn’t pure black, but it was so dark it blended in with the night, and it had a streamlined shape that made it seem like more than just a spear.

  Two more of his men went down in less time than it took to blink. Someone had shot them from behind. He and the others spun around and aimed their guns at where they thought the perpetrator had come from, but all they saw was their vehicle.

  “Everyone, stay alert! We’ve got an enemy hiding somewhere around here!” Jack shouted.

  “Yeah, no fucking shit,” said another.

  “Did anyone see who did it? I feel like I blinked and missed it.”

  “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Someone alert HQ,” Jack ordered.

  “We can’t. Our signal has been jammed.”

  “Fuck.”

  Jack was just about to suggest they move when someone opened fire from their left. Two more of his men went down in a hail of automatic fire. He wasn’t able to see or hear the bullets, which meant their enemy was also using a suppressor.

  Jack and the others quickly went behind their vehicle for cover. His heart was hammering in his chest as he realized whoever was attacking them was good. Very good. They had attacked before he could spot them, and even now, he could not actually see who was attacking them.

  “There’s a good chance our enemy has already changed locations. Activate infrared sensing to spot him,” Jack ordered.

  Everyone did as they were told. Jack also followed his own orders. Yet even when he looked around with infrared, he could not see anything, which meant their enemy was wearing something that masked their body heat.

  “We won’t find him this way. Switch to night vision.”

  It would be harder to spot their enemy with night vision, but so long as they were alert for any movement, they should be able to find him before he found them.

  “Do you think the person attacking us is that Adam guy?” asked someone.

  “Don’t know, but they’re a pro, whoever they are,” said another.

  Jack didn’t say anything as he looked around. He didn’t see any movement. Either they were very good at staying still, or they were a master of stealth.

  A soft ping made him twist his head. His eyes widened. Even though he couldn’t see anything, his sense of danger was screaming at him to retreat.

  “Everyone! Step away from the—”

  He never got to finish his sentence as the van they had been hiding behind went up in flames. The last thing he saw was a blazing inferno as it engulfed him, and the last thing he felt was the pain of a searing heat burning him up and shrapnel tearing apart his body.

  “Squad 2? Come in. Squad 2, report!”

  Levon sat in the command center as the operation to remove Adam from the board of life took place. He was not making any decisions regarding this operation. He was simply there to witness it.

  However, it seemed not everything was going as planned.

  It all began when squad 1 stopped moving. The holographic map in the center of the command center showed a real-time 3D representation of the area where the operation was taking place. All members of their elite force were represented as green dots.

  The green dot representing Squad 1 had stopped moving several minutes ago, even though they should have been traveling toward Adam’s apartment to help enclose the net around him. They had sent Squad 2 over to investigate. The controller had been communicating with them until several seconds ago, when their communications cut out.

  “What’s the situation with Squad 2?” he asked in a calm voice.

  “I don’t know,” the controller said, voice on the verge of panic. “I wanted to see if they could figure out what happened to squad 1, but they cut off mid-sentence.”

  Could it be Adam?

  “Have the other squads converge on the last known location of where Squads 1 and 2 disappeared. Also, bring out our reserve units and have them surround the apartment. Have several checking alleys and side streets,” Connor ordered. He stood beside Levon, calm as could be as he handed out commands.