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Stories from the Verse
Garden of Versers
Chapter 107: Kondor 152
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 106: Hastings 166
O.K., Joe, we’re coming. How about a situation report?
Joe was so surprised to hear Derek in his head, he answered aloud, “Coming?” The guard at the door looked at him; so did Zeke. He tried to ignore them, and thought back to Derek, We have one guard in the room with us, ostensibly to take care of our needs but presumably to keep us from leaving. I think there’s also one on the door outside, but I can’t see him.
O.K., we’re almost there. Give it about half a minute, and then distract the guy inside the room so he doesn’t hear anything outside the room. I’m going to do this as quietly as I can, but I can’t really guaranteed the guy won’t shout, and I certainly can’t catch him if he falls hard.
Understood. He turned to Zeke. “Derek is almost here; he’s with someone, I presume Slade, but he didn’t say who.” Then he thought, and turned his attention to the other guard. “Laban,” he said, “we need a momentary distraction; we’re about to be rescued. Go talk to our guard—hem and haw a bit, but ask him whether we can use the latrine. That is, if you get that far. Derek is going to come through the door in a moment, and he wants us to distract our guard from any noise he might make. I’ll tell you when to go.”
Ready, he thought, hoping that Derek still had the link in place. It was only a couple seconds, though, when Derek answered.
Go
“Go,” Kondor said to Laban, who started walking across the room, talking in Arabic as he went. Kondor had no idea what he was saying, but it was definitely distracting the guard.
Suddenly the door opened, Derek in sprite form flew in and fired a tiny arrow at the guard’s arm. The guard turned to look at it, and collapsed. Slade came in behind him, dragging the body of the other guard. “Want to give me a hand with this guy?” he said, and Zeke hurried over to help.
Derek landed. “Well,” he said, “I had thought when I got here I would turn back into Derek, but the only weapons I brought are Morach’s so I guess I’ll have to stay like this until we reunite.”
“If you guys are ready,” Slade said, “we’re going to call Shella and have the girls meet us on the way to the tower. Derek, do you think you know the way from here?”
“Maybe. I’m half counting on Sheherazade leading the girls to the right place, so I can track the scriff in Shella, and in my gear which Button Nose should be bringing. But I know it’s,” he glanced around, and then pointed, “that way.”
“Lead on.”
“How do we want to do this?” Kondor asked.
“How?”
“Should we move in urban combat formations from cover to cover, or just look nonchalant?”
“Oh, I think right now nonchalant works better. If you don’t look suspicious they won’t suspect you. They probably won’t notice me, so Derek is the only one who has to try to hide.”
“They’ve started lighting the lamps,” he said. “I should be able to flit from one to another and be pretty well hidden.”
“Just so long as you don’t lose us,” Kondor said. With that, they left the room and headed in the direction which Derek thought was toward the tower.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twelve other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #310: Versers Mobilize. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
