Six Of Foxes (Six Foxes)

Christas

...[.Eight Clangs, Half-Hour Dicing]...

Ken watched Krista carefully, his eyes the color of bitter coffee glittering in the light of the dome.

    "You know the costume" Krista said. "Heavy coat, hood. That is all the people of Barchen will see. Riverdale Deer. Horse Knuddelbare." He gulped and forced the following words from his lips. "Katsi Zemeni." Not people, not even women, but the object of a beautiful collection. I've always wanted to wrestle with Riverdale women, a customer whispers sometimes. Knuddelbar has red hair. Zemeni women have skinned caramel color.

    "Riskan, yes," said Ken.

    "What jobs are not risky?"

    "Ken, how are you and Reader going to get there?" ask Silva. "We need you to break the key and just in case something goes wrong on the island, I don't want to be left stuck around. I doubt you can disguise yourself as a Cerveny member."

    "That shouldn't be a problem" Ken said. "Reader's covering up something from us."

    "Is that so?" ask Krista.

    "Not--" Reader rubs her pinched hair. "Where do you know, you son of a bitch?" he told Ken.

    "Common. The Royalemerald series is a multi-layered security masterpiece of antibiotics. The glass bridge is impressive, but in an emergency, there must be a way to deploy reinforcements to White Island and get the royal family out."

    "Yes" said the exasperated Reader. "There is another way to White Island. But, it'll be troublesome." He glanced at Silva. "And obviously it can't be done while wearing a dress."

    "Wait a minute" cut Tera. "Who cares if you can all go to White Island? Suppose Silva scraped Erikson's location from the higher-ups of Barchen and you managed to bring him here. We're still trapped. At that time, the guards must have completed the search so they knew that six prisoners had exited the sector somehow. And then our chance to go through the embassy gates and the checkpoints."

    Ken squinted past the dome, into the open embassy grounds and guard posts on the outer walls.

    "Reyn, how hard is it to jam the gates?"

    "To keep open?"

    "No, to keep it closed."

    "You mean to ruin it?" Reyn shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think it's too hard. I couldn't see the mechanism when we entered the prison gate, but from the layout, I guess how it works is standard."

    "Catrols, gears, big screws?"

    "I know how it works, Reyn," said Ken, shaking his head. "Can you check it out?"

    "I think it can, but what's complicated is the alarm system that's connected to it. I doubt I can tamper with it without triggering the Black Protocol."

    "good. So can."

    Tera raise her hand. "I'm sorry, but don't we just want to avoid the Black Protocol whatever the stakes?"

    "I think the Black Protocol will make our history final" Silva said.

    "Not if Erikson hasn't died yet" Ken looked at Silva. "Not if we use them to harm themselves. Tonight, most of the Royal safeguards are concentrated on White Island and at the embassy here. When the Black Protocol rings, the glass bridge will be closed, thereby trapping all the guards inside the island and the guests."

    "But, what about the alternative route to leave the island that Reader mentioned earlier?" ask Silva.

    "They can't move a large army down that road" Reader admitted. "Can't be fast, rather."

    Ken glared at White Island while shaking his head, his eyes lacking focus.

    "Face hunching," murmured Krista.

    Tera nodded. "Clear."

    Krista will miss that expression.

    "Three gates on the outer wall" said Ken. "The prison gates have been locked because of the Yellow Protocol. The embassy gate was a narrow point crowded with Baarchenian guests who would not move troops through. Tera, means staying at the gate in the Dushenka sector that you need to deal with with Reyn. Use that gate to trigger the Black Protocol, and then you're broken. Damaged in such a way that any guard who had been moved would not be able to come out to follow us."

    "I would like to lock the people of Barchen inside their own fortress" Tera said. "really. But, how do we get out? Once we trigger the Black Protocol, you'll be trapped in the outer ring. We don't have guns and explosives."

    Ken was shaking a knife-sharp grin. "It's a good thing we're pure thieves. We'll go shopping first-and Barchen will pay for it. Krista," she said, "let's start with the kinclong-kinclong."

~Next Krista 2