I learned more about my captors on the way back than I did the entire time I was a prisoner.”
Velmar sounded defeated and that was completely out of character for the sorcerer. He was powerful and he knew it. Most found him arrogant not someone to be pitied, yet sympathy was clear in all the females’ eyes. Luckily, Velmar remained focused on Malik, so he didn’t see their expressions. Velmar was much too proud to accept pity from anyone.
“Do you know what they wanted from you?” Malik asked, carefully. Allowing the females to participate was probably a mistake. Malik might have gotten Velmar to expound more easily if the women weren’t present. “You said they tried to get you to cooperate. What did they want you to do?”
Velmar glanced at each person in turn before admitting, “I think I was initially kidnapped so I couldn’t exonerate you. When you foiled Zerna’s plans, she didn’t want my power to go to waste. She never came right out and said what she wanted me to do, but it was obvious she wanted access to my abilities.”
“Is that even possible?” Malik wanted to know. “You’ve spent a lifetime learning to control your power. Can someone else channel your abilities?”
“Not while I was collared and not against my will.” Velmar raised his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed as he added, “We both knew the instant she removed the collar I would flash out of the fortress. Whatever she wanted me to do was crucial to her plans. Ironically, her quest for power likely spared my life.”
“Well, I’m thrilled to have you back whatever the cause,” Malik told him. “Hopefully, my news will help you rest a little easier.”
News? Salvo hadn’t said anything about important developments. Jaron’s gaze flew toward Kara. “Are you pregnant?”
She laughed. “Not yet, at least not that I’m aware of. This is almost as exciting.”
“We set a trap a few weeks back and it snapped close this morning,” Malik said with a triumphant grin. “As you know, Salvo has been working on a line of undetectable surveillance bots.”
“By modulating the shields much as we do with our ships, I was able to achieve an undetectable product,” Salvo explained. “The risk however was that the Opposition Force would get their hands on the bots and use them on us. So I programed in a faint signal and created a scanner that detects it.”
“But that defeated the purpose for modulating the shields,” Jaron pointed out.
Salvo just grinned, so Malik went on, “I’ve known from the beginning that the Op Force has agents scattered among my soldiers, so I bragged about the new spy-bots and left each group with a new scanner.”
“You skipped a step,” Kara said, then to Jaron, “They planted the new spy-bots in the apartments of the twelve most likely leaders of the Opposition Force before Malik made the announcement.”
“Wouldn’t the scanners allow them to find the spy-bots,” Jaron asked. Clearly, this was leading to the “trap” but he didn’t see how. “Why pass out the only device capable of detecting the new bots?”
Velmar sat back and watched, silent and brooding.
“Two sets of bots were installed in each apartment,” Kara explained. “One completely undetectable and the other emitting the signal the scanner picks up.”
Jaron nodded. He could see where this was going now.
“We wanted them to let down their guards, to think they had outsmarted us,” Malik told him. “As expected the scanners quickly found their way into the hands of the elite and the elite used them to locate the spy-bots.”
“Half the spy-bots,” Salvo corrected.
“What did you see or hear with these undetectable bots?” Velmar prompted, sounding tired rather than impatient.
Malik’s smile twisted into something menacing. “Zerna arrived this morning. Hastos deposited her in her living room then flashed out of sight.”
Velmar shook his head and his lips pressed into a grim line. “She thinks she’s untouchable.”
“The orange-haired bitch is here in Lake Walker Village?” Nikki’s voice was so filled with fury that everyone looked at her.
“She lives in Riverside, the capital,” Kara told her. “But listen to the rest. The story is just getting started.”
Nikki agreed with a reluctant nod, so Malik continued, “We already had concrete evidence that Zerna was one of the leaders, so we were aggressive with the spy-bots’ placement. You won’t believe what our overconfident villainess did next. Calm and secure, as if she weren’t plotting with aliens from another dimension—she decided to take a bath.”