I was deep in thought as I left Vice-Commander Carpenter’s office with a small magitech device that she had slipped me when she dismissed me. While I was glad that I had done the right thing in standing up for my teammates, I didn’t like Command using them to test me like that and putting us through all that with the first training session. I could understand where they were coming from and how important it was that I be able to know when to take orders and when to think independently though. A lot of pressure would be on me in the field to make the right decisions and they needed to get me used to that and make sure I could handle it.

This was especially true since standard comms devices aren’t reliable in Incursion Zones, something that I knew from experience. My implant had informed me of the Incursion, but it wasn’t useful for much of anything after that. Kelly’s implant had been similarly scrambled during the Incursion, and it had to be completely reset to factory settings when she was brought to the hospital after being discovered in Egypt. Ainslee’s family probably would have had similar problems with their comm rings, even if they hadn’t been rendered useless from being so close to the Breach when it opened and being exposed to the EM pulses.

I guess that something about the Wild Magic pouring into our world through the Breaches messes up standard communication signals. The people at the university who were developing magitech were looking into more reliable means of communication, but it seemed like they hadn’t found anything useful yet. Until they did, options for communicating orders to Vanguard units in the field consisted of Altered with telepathic abilities.

There were problems with that as well though. While there were some Altered species, like Moonlight, who had telepathic gifts as part of their species, most of those were short-range, only worked with others of the same species or specific individuals, and/or had other quirks involved that made them impractical. There were some Altered, like Jade and Vice-Commander Carpenter, who had special abilities that were telepathic in nature, but those were almost as rare as my ability to teleport and were often limited.

The VC could read minds, and Jade was capable of two-way telepathic abilities, but both of them were fairly short range. Jade’s ability had a maximum distance of roughly five meters, while Vice-Commander Carpenter’s required physical contact of some sort. If the Vanguard had someone capable of two-way communication with the type of range that would let them pass on new orders to those in the field or let command know about a developing situation during an Incursion, that person would probably be worth their weight in gold.

They didn’t though, so the team commanders needed to be able to think on their feet in an Incursion and follow the spirit of the orders they were given while prioritizing the wellbeing of civilians and their teams. That meant that there was going to be a lot of pressure on me beyond being able to follow orders, not quite what I had imagined when I was first coerced into this leadership thing. I guess the positive side of that was that the orders at least wouldn’t be rigid, and I would have some leeway in how they were carried out.

I tried to put all that out of my mind and consider what she had actually called me to her office to talk about. On the surface, the Vice-Commander made it sound like taking a bit of a break, which we could all use after the last few days, but there was far more to it. This was a covert mission, should we choose to accept it, and I did mean we since I wasn’t going to make this decision for my team without their input, especially Karen’s.

Karen would end up being the bait and this would affect her the most, so I would need to go talk to her first. Without her cooperation, there was no point in even telling the others about this, and when and if I did tell them, I would need to do it somewhere secure, probably here inside the tower. If that asshole had eyes watching Vanguard Tower or at least its entrance, then he might also have eyes on us. I didn’t think it was likely since it wasn’t public knowledge that she had been placed on my team, but it was public that Ainslee would be feeding on her and I thought it better to be safe than sorry.

After a quick call to Ainslee to let her and the others know that I would come back to the university stables after talking with Karen, I headed to the Dark Elf’s room. Once there, I quickly sent my authorization code to unlock and open her door to find Karen sitting on her bed and looking bored. As the door closed behind me, I flew over to join her on the bed and turned on the tiny magitech device that Vice-Commander Carpenter had entrusted to me.

Well, it was tiny to most people, but I needed to use both hands to carry it. The device was an anti-surveillance device that would make it sound to any cameras, listening devices, or other people like we were talking about everyday things like the weather rather than things that would better be kept secret. “We need to talk,” I told Karen without preamble.

“Hmmph,” she huffed as she quickly schooled her expression into something more disinterested. “The person who brought me lunch earlier said that you probably wouldn’t be available today.”

“Yeah, sorry if it felt like we were suddenly brushing you off or something, but Kelly was in no condition for training this morning and needed support. She found out this morning that the nightmares of her time as a captive on the other side of the Breach are probably real memories and it has her pretty shaken up,” I told her honestly.

For a moment, she allowed her mask to slip and looked like she might actually be concerned about my sister. “I’m… sorry to hear that. How does that concern me though?”

“Honestly, it doesn’t,” I admitted. “You don’t really know any of us very well yet and with the way you try to push people away, I wasn’t expecting you to show any support for her yet. I’d like you to be our friend, but it’s not something that can be forced, so I’m trying to give you time to ease into having people who care about you again. On the subject of caring about you, I’m not here for my sister’s well-being, I’m here for yours.”

Karen made a show of rolling her eyes, but it wasn’t very convincing as she replied in what seemed like a forced impassive tone, “Well, I’m fine. I needed a day off from you and this team-building shit. So, whatever pep talk you came here to…”

I needed her to take this seriously and not push me away right now, so I cut whatever she was about to say off before she could finish. “Alistair Davenport has someone watching the main entrance to Vanguard Tower. Vice-Commander Carpenter believes that he’s waiting for you to be released or to have some reason to leave the tower. Given what I’ve read about him in the file we have on him, I believe that she’s right and that you might be in danger if you leave the tower. She said that he’s made certain… threats to you before.”

Karen’s eyes widened, and she visibly shuddered as a look of horror and disgust showed on her face, an honest reaction before she could think of covering it up as her face went several shades paler. “I… yeah… he has, and he’s not one to give up easily on the girls he pursues. He was… the first time I used my special ability was the day he sent me a ‘gift’. The sight of it, and the note…”

Her voice trailed off and the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes made me very concerned for her. It wasn’t hard for me to piece together a general idea of what happened, given what she had just told me. If what he had sent her, and the contents of the note that came with it, was so bad that she developed an acid beam to get rid of it, then I didn’t want to even think about what it might be. She had already confirmed that he threatened her, and what I had read in his file gave me a pretty good idea of what those threats entailed.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m a prisoner here then, isn’t it,” Karen said with a nervous laugh, breaking me out of my thoughts. I flitted closer to her and wrapped my arms around her upper arm in a hug, only to have her unsteady voice inquire, “What are you doing?”

“Giving you a hug,” I told her seriously as I continued to hug her arm. “I know, the difference in sizes makes it awkward, but you looked like you needed one. Usually, with my other friends, I’d try it closer to their faces, but I couldn’t be sure how you’d react to that. And you’re not a prisoner here, you can leave, as long as it’s with your team, and that’s only until we start at the university in a few weeks.”

“And when that happens…” her voice was choked and quiet as she put two and two together and couldn’t seem to make herself finish that thought out loud.

“You’ll have your teammates watching your back,” I finished for her. “Like I said, I’ve read everything we have on this guy. He’s a sexual predator and the cops and the civilian courts can’t seem to make anything stick to him. We have another option here in Amethyst Harbour though. You might just be a recruit, but you’re a member of the Vanguard now, so if he comes after you, or any of your teammates, he can face a trial like you did, with the Commander and Vice-Commander presiding.”

“So, what? Once I’m out of here, we just wait for him to attack me?” she snarled. I almost backed off at the anger and frustration there, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. She was terrified of this guy, and I couldn’t blame her for being pissed. If I thought that I had no option but to wait for someone who threatened to rape me to attempt to do so, I’d probably be terrified and frustrated too.

I wished that I could give her a real hug, but I would do what I could for her. “I’ve been given another option, but this has to be your decision, Karen. I won’t make you go through with this if it’s not something that you think you can handle.”

“Anything would be better than waiting for an attack that I know is coming but have no idea when or where he’ll strike. I… can’t. Just the thought of what he would do to me makes me feel…”

She had trouble finishing her sentence again, and I couldn’t blame her. Even if she was heterosexual, and I had no idea whether she was or wasn’t, the idea of waiting for some rapist to come after her and force himself on her probably came with some very mixed negative feelings. I tried to put myself in her shoes, but while I could probably come close, I would never really feel what she was because that threat was against her, not me. Still, it was enough to make me want to make this fucker pay for even thinking about threatening and coming after my teammate.

I took a deep breath and nodded as I told her, “It’ll be okay, Karen. We’ve got your back. Now, about that other option I was talking about… how do you feel about being the bait for a honey trap?”

I carefully explained what I had discussed with Vice-Commander Carpenter earlier about the camping trip idea to draw Alistair in. I assured her that we would have stealth strike teams nearby patrolling the woods and there to watch our backs in case he decided to show himself. I and our other team members wouldn’t let her out of our sight either, she would always have a buddy with her, and I would have Moonlight staying ethereal and keeping watch for anyone approaching our campsite.

Another thing that I focused on was that this would be a covert operation, completely off the books. I believed that was in part to cover us in case Alistair somehow had contacts inside the Vanguard, but it was also to protect us. If he, or anyone attacked us, and it looked like we were actually in danger before our backup could arrive, we were authorized to defend ourselves by any means necessary.

I think that the last part reassured her the most. Though she obviously wanted to avoid using her acid beam on any living people again, knowing that she was free to defend herself if everything else somehow went spectacularly wrong, was reassuring for her. Honestly, I was expecting that. She wasn’t used to having people that she could count on, only herself, but maybe this could help us to prove that she didn’t need to keep going it alone.

Once I had explained everything, I also shared all the information that we had on Alistair Davenport with her. She had a hard time keeping her emotions from showing and her expression grew more conflicted with every detail I revealed, but I figured that this was information that she deserved to know before making her decision. By turns, she was disgusted, angry, and scared, and by the end, she looked like she might be feeling all of those at once.

“I… didn’t know he was that bad, though I started to suspect when he sent me that… package,” she finally admitted in a tremulous voice. “I didn't really know any of them. I just saw the faces that they showed while we were hanging out and I wanted to keep them at a distance. I’ll... let’s do it. He needs to pay for what he did to those other girls.”

It concerned me that she didn’t say anything about him needing to pay for what he’d done to her. Even though he hadn’t sexually assaulted her yet, she obviously had some trauma over whatever he had sent her and his threats if the incident had been enough to cause her to develop an ability like her acid beam. Did she think that she didn’t deserve to be avenged or was she just thinking of his previous victims more than herself? I guessed that made sense in a way though, what with the large donation she had made to the orphanage.

I hugged her arm again to reassure her as I told her, “Okay then, I’ll go talk this over with the others. Don’t worry, I know when I tell them what’s going on, they’ll have your back on this whole thing too. If everything is good, I’ll talk to Vice-Commander Carpenter to work out the details and we’ll all meet in the mess for dinner.”