Chapter 31 - Pirates and Pursuits (1/2)
After Bruce and Evelyn left, Winston and Yassin were left in the room. ”I didn't expect you tell me that your grandson defied military law by failing to inform his superiors about something that important. Aren't you concerned that I might cause trouble to your grandson?” Yassin asked Winston.
”Frankly speaking, both I and Walter wanted him to resign his job at the force and come back here. If not for the fact that my father and elders insisted that it is best, we have a person in the alliance force, I would have had him back here a long time ago,” replied Winston.
”Hmm. Who are Samuel and Ethan?'
”Samuel is my uncle. Even I don't know who Ethan is. There are two generations of people above me. I am just passing on a message.”
”Fine. I am not going to mess around with those ancient ones. I will keep it a secret and you can expect co-operation from the Achaemenid family.”
”We also suspect that there might be at least one Rhodium level assassin among their members. We think that the person Dave, we heard about from Balthazar after the explosion is a Rhodium member of the Nirbaadh pirates. Obviously, Dave is an alias.”
”Hmm. So, you suspect the explosion on the frontier was also a work of the Nirbaadh pirates.”
”Well, we haven't been able to relate the two assassins who made an attempt on Balthazar after the explosion to any group. There is a good chance that the assassins were either from the knights or the Nirbaadh pirates.”
”That is a bit farfetched isn't it?”
”Just suggesting the possibilities. The Nirbaadh pirates would not have announced their return, if they didn't have a few strong members among them. In case, you remember, Asuragana Veeraprasad and his brother were platinum level agents and even you are still considered a Rhodium member. We still don't know where his brother had disappeared to after his death.”
”In that case, are you sure you want Walter to be tracking someone that dangerous.”
”Rupert is also a Rhodium level agent, and Walter I think can be considered to be a Platinum level agent by now.”
”Walter is considered platinum level now?”
”I think so. I don't have the clearance level to check about him.”
”You are the Patriarch, right?”
”Some things especially the secret ops are kept even a secret from me. You know plausible deniability. Similar to the reason why you are kept out of the Achaemenid family.”
”You are really Walter's brother, aren't you? You both have knack of using the person you are talking to, to make your point.”
”Easier to convince people that way.”
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A few light-years away, a ship was parked on a desolate moon of the planet GT-14. It was Unhindered waiting for Dave to dock back on to the ship. A shuttle just docked onto the large grey pirate vessel that was on the moon.
As soon as the shuttle docked onto the vessel, Dave walked out on to the vessel and was quickly taken to the captain's quarters by a bunch of guards where the captain of the ship, Asuragana Rana pratap. He seemed to be talking with one of his subordinates about something they were smuggling out.
Rana Pratap was more than 7 feet-tall with long black hair that fell down to his waist. He had toffee colored skin and dark red coloured pupils with thick strong beefed-up muscles which were clearly visible due to the tight-fitting black suit, he wore. He had a red combat armor covering his chest over his suit.
”It has been a long time, brother. How are you?” asked Rana Pratap.
”I have seen better times. I hope you didn't have much troubles escaping from the Blyths,” replied Dave.
”Yeah, it was fine. It was just escaping from them and we managed to ambush them to rescue Max from them,” said Rana Pratap. ”Guys, could you leave us for a minute or two. I need some privacy to talk with Dharma.”
The men quickly left leaving both of them alone in the captain's quarters. Rana pratap gave a quick hug to Dave and set him down at his seat while he rested himself against the wall.
”I heard that the Blyths are looking for you. They seemed to somehow managed to connect the name Dave with both the knights of the old republic and us.”
”Yes, despite all the precautions we took they somehow managed to get my alias. It looks like the Blyths have a better network in the shadows than what we expected. That man Walter sure lives up to his reputation,” said Dharma.
Dave's original name was Asuragana Dharma Pratap and he is the younger brother of Rana Pratap. He spent more than a couple of decades creating a believable alias Dave for himself before he was given his mission to execute the Blyths. He was very upset with the fact that someone managed to relate his alias with the knights or the Nirbaadh pirates.
”It isn't Walter who found out about you. According to my man in the alliance force, it was your target Balthazar who leaked the information about Dave. He managed to convince them that the woman you recruited Jane was the one responsible for finding out about you. Also, the attack was a failure because he managed to identify the glitch in their systems and fixed it silently.”
”Yes, I heard about him and how he managed to subvert our plans. It is best we take care of him. But I never heard about Jane being his informer,” agreed Dharma.
”Nevertheless, the fact that Balthazar found out about you has become well known to various factions of the knights including ours. They want Dave to be dormant for some time to let it all cool down,” said Rana Pratap.
”What? That is ridiculous, I have been a Gold-level assassin for more than a decade, bordering on Rhodium level. Why do they want me to calm down because of some young Colonel, who probably is a silver-level agent.”
”Well, for some reason, Walter Blyth seems to take his word regarding the intel on Dave and he might not actually be as weak as he lets on. I heard that he managed to defeat Max at the Blyth mansion in combat,” replied Rana.
”You kidding, right? Though Max is not much of a fighter compared to us. He is not that weak either.”
”Yes. But the rumors about the kid are quite confusing and he is being protected at the Blyth mansion. It is best we leave him alone for some time.”