War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past by Conner Walworth Page B

are ready?" the figure
asked.
    "My men will be leaving here in three days'
time, so they should be at the Palace within four days at the
latest," Kirill answered.
    "I will make preparations. What do you need
me to do?"
    "I've decided on an undetectable poison. My
men can get into the Palace, but we will need someone to secretly
deliver the poison to the Queen."
    "Sounds easy enough. The Queen and her
Council trust everybody working in the Palace. There are more than
a handful of workers who would like to see her dead," The blue
figure nodded its head. "We will get it to the Queen, but your men
need to get to the kitchen. I will have a servant put it in her
drink before she has a meal."
    Kirill grinned. "Perfect. I will contact you
again when my men have arrived and are ready to proceed."
    "I will be waiting," The figure answered
before the blue hologram shut off.

    Donnchadh quickly walked down the corridors
to Ulisse's room and entered without knocking. The steel door
hissed open and he stepped inside to see Ulisse laying in his bed
asleep. He shook his head and made his way to the bed, bent down,
and flipped Ulisse off of the mattress. Ulisse quickly sprung up,
ready to strike whoever had just woke him up and eased when he saw
that it was just Donnchadh.
    "We have work to do Ulisse," Donnchadh said
before he had the chance to ask him why he was here.
    "We just got back Donnchadh. What is there to
possibly do?" he slumped. "We usually get a couple of weeks off
between missions."
    Donnchadh folded his arms. "We take time off
when it's permitted. Right now we get to go kill the Queen. Is that
something that you want to turn down?"
    "How much time do we have before we go?"
Ulisse nearly jumped in excitement.
    "We have three days before we depart Erebos,
preferably sooner if you're able to work quickly. Kirill has
already arranged everything for the mission." He unfolded his arms.
"You need to make a poison that is undetectable and will show
natural causes of death."
    "Three days and natural symptoms," he
muttered. "How are we delivering this to the Queen exactly?"
    "There will be someone on the inside. All we
have to do is get in undetected. After that we get out of the
Palace and back to the ship to wait for confirmation, which won't
take very long if you choose something that acts quickly."
    "Okay, so that means the hard part will be
getting in. Or let me rephrase that, close to impossible . Do
you know how much security there is at the Palace?"
    "Not as impossible as you would think,"
Donnchadh held up his hand. "Remember, I used to work for the Queen
and I know her home very well. On top of my experience, we have
Kirill's, which is much better than mine. He is providing us with a
updated layout that has all the secret passageways marked on
it."
    "Nice, Donnchadh," he said, nodding his
head.
    "We get it in and out undetected. We kill
nobody but the Queen."
    "Quick, silent, and almost simple. Sounds
like a good plan."
    Donnchadh nodded. "We both know it won't be
that simple, but we're planning on simplicity. I chose Sanguinarius
to come along with us as backup just in case things do go
haywire."
    "We haven't failed a mission together yet and
we won't start now."
    "That's right. We won't start now," Donnchadh
hesitated. "I'm going to let Sanguinarius know that we're leaving
in three days to go to Hera."
    "Alright. I'm going to go to start creating a
the poison for the Queen," He turned around and went to his lab
bench.
    Donnchadh watched as he started pouring
liquids into beakers and set up racks and tubes to create his
poison. He didn't understand any of that stuff and that only made
him respect Ulisse that much more for his masterful
concoctions.
    He turned around and left the room so Ulisse
could make his poison without any further distractions. He slowly
made his way down the hall to tell Sanguinarius that he would be
coming along on the mission too. Sanguinarius wouldn't be too happy
that he was more of backup, just in