Is this destiny?

It was early morning, close to 5 AM when Sarah and Aiden approached the main base of the poachers with their group.

They decided on an early start because it is a high probability that the poachers will still be sleeping or just waking up and their alertness will be low. Also, most of them should be in the base before they go to check the traps or whatever other tasks they have. Sarah and Aiden want to reduce the risk of being caught off guard by poachers who are returning to the base.

While on the topic of other poachers, the sooner they attack, the smaller is the risk that these guys will be alerted of the happenings in the other two bases from the previous day.

Kitty is missing, and Sarah is concerned that she is stuck in a trap or that she left, but Aiden told her that Kitty is probably sleeping somewhere, and to focus on the mission. And she knows that he is right at least about the need to focus on the mission because while approaching the base camp of the poachers, they encountered two poachers who were checking the traps. Sarah hopes that those two are the only ones who like to wake up before sunrise.

They are observing the camp from the distance and this is definitely a much bigger base than the other two they raided on the previous day. This base has one large building that is used for sleeping and food preparation and two smaller buildings. One is used as an office and the other one for the storage of things that should be kept off the rain. They have a generator running, so there is electricity as well.

On the left is a large area filled with cages, more than half of them are with animals inside. Animals are unusually quiet which means that they are either used to being in a cage, or sleeping, or drugged.

Two drones provided them with the information that there are twenty-four poachers inside the camp. Eighteen are in the bed, presumably sleeping. Two men are outside, smoking and chatting and four are in one of the two smaller buildings.

Aiden swiftly laid out a plan to take out the six guys who are awake first, with a priority not to make noise and alert the others. Next, they will storm the building where eighteen people are sleeping.

Aiden wanted to use drones to knock down the first six targets, but Master Hollow stopped him. "Only through trials we learn and grow. This mission is a good learning point for my disciples."

Aiden was not sure he wants those disciples to be part of the plan at all. What is wrong with knocking everyone out?

"Yes, but in order to learn, they need to survive the trial because dead people don't learn and grow.", Aiden responded. "There are too many enemies who are armed. And this is not a game."

Master Hollow agreed with him, but… "They have the four of you to show them the way. They will not have a better learning opportunity."

Aiden pressed his lips into a line and gave in. With this, Bo, Souta, and Wing were part of the attack team, and drones will not knock out anyone. Master Hollow gave them a few inputs and then moved to watch from the side.

It all went smoothly. In less than five minutes, twenty-four poachers were either knocked out or tied up (most of them were knocked out). They dragged them out, in front of the biggest building, and tied them well because even the unconscious ones will wake up eventually.

Sarah sent a signal to Mishi to start with his part. She hoped that he will not be too upset that she is waking him up. It's almost 5:30 AM local time, which means that it's 2:30 AM in Romania. And she was not sure if Eliza joined him by now. Eliza stayed with her parents in Budapest while Mishi was busy with opening up Ceresc Solutions. Eliza's due date is one week away, so there is a chance that she decided to stay in Hungary until after the baby is born.

She was happy when less than a minute later Mishi confirmed that he received her signal and he will start his part. Nothing in his message indicated that he is upset, and that is a good thing. 

Sarah looked around and sighed when she could not spot Kitty even with her Eve-lens. She hopes that Kitty knows how all this is the punishment these poachers are getting because they killed Kitty's real mother. And she hopes that Kitty is safe. Wherever she is.

Bo, Souta, and Wing stayed at the center of the camp with Master Hollow and discussed this mission. Master Hollow is using every opportunity to teach them. He told them how their moves changed under stress because this is the real thing and not the training grounds.

Sarah, Aiden, Haru, and Nala went to release the animals.

They were all surprised by the variety of animals found here. It confirmed Aiden's theory that this is something like a distribution center because some of the animals are brought here from other places. They are all from Asia, but definitely not local. Like sand cats which can be found about one thousand miles to the West, in Turkmenistan.

Other than black bears and red foxes which are common, they also found exotic (and endangered species) such as radiated tortoises, fennec foxes, and amur leopards. There was a section with aquarium-like glass containers where reptiles and small rodents were kept.

"We can't release all of them here. Some don't belong in this forest.", Sarah said.

Aiden saw that Sarah is ready to adopt them all. He panicked internally, is their home going to turn into a ZOO? Many of these animals are not legal! Well, Kitty is not legal in California either, but that is only one large cat. There are hundreds of animals here!

He told himself to stay calm and think about this rationally… "The tortoises can go near the lake. They will be fine there. As for the others, let's release the ones which are old enough and belong here, and then we will see what is left."

To his relief, Sarah easily agreed to this.

They loaded a few cages with foxes and wolves in one of the trucks. There was a mini-crane available to lift heavier cages.

Haru and Nala drove about five minutes down the road before opening the cages and releasing the animals. And then they drove the truck back to get the next batch of animals.

They stopped around 8 AM in order to have breakfast, and then they resumed their 'release the animals' operation. Guys took turns loading the animals and Aiden and Haru drove one truck each while making sure that at least two people are watching over the prisoners.

Master Hollow walked around the base when he was not giving his insights related to the animals. He said that most of the animals in the cages will survive in this forest, even if they are from a different area. Aiden was happy to hear this.

The building with an office had a map of the forest with locations of traps marked. Sarah was delighted about this, now they can make sure they take care of all of them! From that map they also found out about a smaller lake nearby, only five minutes' walk from the main base and they released the tortoises there.

Bo and Master Hollow were watching over prisoners, while Aiden, Haru, Souta, and Wing were loading the cages in the trucks.

Nala went South, deeper in the forest, with one container which had a large krait snake. They were not sure how to handle venomous snakes, but Master Hollow confirmed that this one is harmless because the snake does not have her venom glands; they were removed, obviously as a preparation to make her a harmless pet, and he also said that the snake will be able to find food in this forest.

Sarah saw that everything is going fine, and she decided to check on Bo and Master Hollow…

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