Chapter 337: Shadow trials[20]

On the northern perimeter near the industrial yards, Team Gamma—led by Xander Gray—was moving at a remarkably leisurely pace.

?Xander whistled a quiet harmonious melody as he walked past a row of stacked shipping containers, his silver stylus twirling effortlessly between his fingers.

Behind him, his five teammates looked around with mounting unease.

?"Xander," one of the junior assassins whispered, stepping up beside him.

"Team Alpha is already pushing toward Sector Four for the Cipher. Team Delta is heading straight for the transit hub. Why are we walking toward the administrative onrehouses? There are no relics listed in this sector."

?"Because, my dear friend," Xander said, stopping beside a closed de terminal aga was off was off was off was off was off was offinst the metal lock, "relics are heavy, inconvenient things."

"Why carry them across twelve city blocks when you can let someone else do the heavy lifting and simply adjust the delivery address?"

?Xander’s terminal chirped softly.

A hidden private message—the secondary objective assigned exclusively to him at the start of the trial—glowed briefly on his screen:

?[PRIVATE OBJECTIVE: ENSURE TEAM ALPHA SECURES THE CIPHER FIRST, BUT DIVERT THEIR EXTRACTION ROUTE THROUGH SECTOR FIVE.]

?Xander smiled, pocketing his terminal.

"Come along. We have a very polite conversation to prepare for."

While the teams collided with the Bastion’s automated defenses, the true battle of Trial For was being fought in the quiet, invisible spaces beARE tween terminals.

?Deep within the secured data facility of Sector Four, Team Alpha had successfully breached the primary terminal room.

?The room was bathed in the cool blue glow of dozens of cascading holographic servers.

Piles of decrypted data logs floated in the air above the central console, displaying hundreds of movement schedules, transit logs, and operational reports.

?"The Cipher is here," Lucian announced, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he cross-referenced three separate intelligence streams.

?Beside him, Kaelen Sorel stood guard near the heavy double doors, his rapier drawn.

"Hurry up, Ash. My terminal just pinged an alert. Team Gamma’s signature was spotted moving past the perimeter."

?"Ignore Team Gamma," Lucian said without looking up. "They’re two blocks out. We have the data integrity locked down. The Cipher core is—"

?Lucian stopped. His fingers froze above the glass keys.

?The data streaming across his console split into two conflicting pathways.

?The first pathway, pathway Aindicated that the Keystone in Sector Seven was currenunlikeguarded.

The second pathway, B indicated that the Keystone was surrounded by a heavy automated defense grid that would vaporize any unauthorized tcomewithexpfrom expect from expect from expect from expect from expect from in five seconds.

?"One of these is planted misinformation,"Lucian realized instantly.

"A trap."

?What Lucian did not know—what no terminal display would tell him—was that Kaelen Sorel was currently staring at his own private terminal screen, half-hidden behind his raised arm.

?[PRIVATE OBJECTIVE: ENSURE TEAM ALPHA DOES NOT LEAVE SECTOR FOUR WITH A UNIFIED INTEL PACKET.]

?Kaelen’s breath caught in his throat. The academy had assigned him a private secondary objective that directly conflicted with Lucian’s operational success.

If Kaelen allowed Lucian to secure the clean intelligence stream without interference, Team Alpha would dominate the trial, cementing Ash family supremacy for another generation.

?Kaelen’s fingers twitched against the hilt of his rapier.

?"Just a slight data corruption," Kaelen thought, his ambition warring with his team loyalty. Just enough to make him choose the wrong route.

?"Ash," Kaelen called out, his voice unnaturally calm.

"The southern corridor is clear. But... I checked the secondary feed. The Keystone in Sector Seven. It’s undefended. Everyone else is looking in the wrong place."

?Lucian glanced up, his dark eyes narrowing as they locked onto Kaelen’s pale face. He didn’t answer immediately. He studied Kaelen’s expression and posture for a few moments.

The other boy deliberately avoided eye contact, keeping his eyes fixed to his comm.

"Something doesn’t add up," Lucian thought.

His gut told him there was something wrong with Kaelen’s info.

"Not to mention the unnatural certainty in his voice."

?"You’re lying, Sorel," Lucian said coldly.

?"What did you say?" Kaelen snapped, stepping forward.

?"The intelligence stream is locked behind a double encryption," Lucian stated, rising slowly from the terminal.

"You didn’t check the secondary feed. You don’t have clearance for it. Your terminal just gave you a private prompt, didn’t it?"

?Before Kaelen could deny it, the heavy metal doors behind them rattled violently.

At the forty-five-minute mark, the Bastion’s automated public address system chimed across every street, alley, and rooftop.

OBJECTIVE UPDATE.

- ONE COVENANT RELIC HAS BEEN SECURED.

- TWO REMAIN.

- CURRENT ALLIANCES ARE NO LONGER. GUARANTEED TO REMAIN ADVANTAGEOUS.

- ALL TEAMS RECEIVING UPDATED PRIORITY OBJECTIVES.

Up in the VIP observation deck, Jax Sterling whistled softly, leaning forward over the console.

?"Well, now it gets messy," Jax laughed.

"One relic down—looks like Samantha and Cassius cleared the transit hub for the Keystone—and the academy just dropped a grenade into the command structures. Look at Team Alpha."

?On the monitoring screen, Lucian and Kaelen were standing several feet apart inside the data facility, their weapons half-drawn, while their four teammates stared at them in stunned confusion.

"What the hell..."

?Nadia Varas crossed her arms, her silver-grey eyes fixed on the display with intense professional interest.

"This is why Trial Four is the true test. Every contestant knows their teammates have private objectives, but nobody knows who is compromised until the mid-point shift forces their hand."

?"And Xander?" Jax asked, panning the camera feed toward the northern warehouses.

"What is our favorite assassin doing while his rivals tear each other apart in data rooms?"

?Nadia smiled faintly.

"On the contrary, unlije the others, Xander isn’t fighting. If I were to take a wild guess, he’ll probably try to rewrite the rules of engagement in the unique style we’ve cone to him for."

*****

The rusted service corridor behind the northern industrial warehouses smelled of stale ozone and heated copper.

Overhead, a solitary red warning light blinked at uniform intervals, casting long, fractured shadows across the corrugated steel walls.

Xander Gray stepped out from behind a damp concrete pillar, his silver stylus twirling effortlessly between his fingers as he blocked the narrow threshold of the metal fire exit.

"You know," Xander said softly, his voice cutting through the hum of the overhead ventilation, "for a boy attempting to lose two of the most perceptive Talented in the academy, you take an awfully loud route."

Jonas, a junior assassin assigned to Team Delta, froze in the center of the walkway.

His hand instinctively twitched toward his belt casing before he caught himself, his eyes widening with startled guilt.

He stood alone; Warren Frost and Edmund Brewer were currently double-checking their tactical readouts two turns back down the corridor, entirely unaware that their navigator was leading them in circles.

"Gray," Jonas muttered, his throat tightening as he tried to force a defensive posture.

"What are you doing over here? Your team is operating on the western perimeter."

"Oh, I was just admiring the scenery," Xander replied, stepping closer with a lazy, unhurried stride

. He didn’t draw a blade or summon any umbralis. He simply smiled—a bright, disarming expression that only made his target look more nervous.

"And wondering why Team Delta—which includes two of the highest-scoring Talented in the institute—has spent the last fifteen minutes walking parallel to the Citadel instead of toward it."

"We’re executing a flanking maneuver," Jonas snapped, though his voice lacked conviction. "Avoiding automated sensor grids."

"A flanking maneuver that requires walking through a subterranean maintenance tunnel famous for non-lethal immobilization grids?" Xander tilted his ,head, his dark eyes sharpening. "Odd strategy for a team trying to beat the clock to the Crown. Unless, of course, your primary goal isn’t to get them to the Citadel at all."

Jonas went rigid.

A thin sheen of cold sweat broke out across his forehead. "You don’t know what you’re talking about."

"I don’t know the exact serial number of your private objective," Xander admitted smoothly, stopping a few paces away. "But I know human arithmetic. The academy doesn’t award bonus points for taking the scenic route through an obstacle course. Someone on Team Delta has a private assignment to delay Warren and Edmund until they can’t contest the final objectives. And looking at your current expression and your sudden desire to be anywhere else, I’d say congratulations—you drew the short straw."

Jonas swallowed hard, his eyes darting toward the exit door behind Xander.

"If you think I’m going to—"

"I don’t want to ruin your career, Jonas," Xander interrupted, his tone dropping its playful edge into something remarkably steady. "In fact, I want to help you complete your private assignment without turning Warren Frost into an icicle when he figures out you sold him out."

Jonas blinked. "Help me?"

"You want Team Delta delayed so you satisfy your terminal prompt. I want Warren and Edmund free from your little trap so I can have a quiet, civilized chat with them about the Citadel’s front door," Xander said, pulling his terminal out and tapping the screen twice.

"Here is the trade. You give me the exact location of the immobilization traps in that maintenanto ce tunnel and confirm your sabotage parameters. In exchange, I give you a clean, unmonitored exit route out of this sector and a coded data log that makes it look like you were ambushed by an automated security drone instead of caught dragging your feet."

Jonas stared at him, suspicion warring with desperate relief. "And what stops you from broadcasting my private objective to the entire academy the second I walk away?"

"Nothing at all," Xander smiled, slipping his terminal back into his pocket. "Except that I have far more interesting things to do with my time than ruin a junior assassin’s GPA. Do we have an agreement?"

Jonas looked back down the dark corridor toward where Warren and Edmund were waiting, then back at Xander.

With trembling fingers, he tapped his own terminal and beamed a short data packet across to Xander’s screen.

"The tunnel is wired at the fifty-meter mark," Jonas whispered quickly. "Non-lethal grid triggers on thermal movement. My objective was just to stall them for twenty minutes."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Xander murmured, stepping aside to let the junior operative slip past down the secondary service stairwell.

Xander checked the incoming data packet on his screen, confirming the precise coordinates of the trap. He smiled faintly, pocketing the device before turning back.

*****

A few moments later, in a quiet, sunlit shipping courtyard behind the central transit line, Xander Gray was leaning against a wooden crate, sharing a ’polite’conversation with Warren Frost and Edmund Brewer.

?Warren stood with his arms crossed, his demeanour was calm but guarded, while Edmund looked at Xander with undisguised suspicion.

?"Let me get this straight, Gray," Edmund said, his voice dropping into an icy register.

"You pulled Team Delta out of our defensive position in Sector Five under the pretext of an automated drone strike, just so you could walk us over here and offer us a cup of tea?"

?"Well, that’s not exactly right but you’re half right. It’s not tea I want to offer you, Edmund. But an alliance," Xander corrected smoothly, popping a roasted nut into his mouth.

"Team Alpha is currently tearing itself apart in Sector Four. Team Beta secured the Keystone, but Cassius is probably itching to smash everything in sight. That leaves the Citadel and the Crown."

?Warren adjusted his collar, his eyes sharp.

"And why would Team Delta share the Citadel approach with Team Gamma? Your team is currently sitting in third place on the cumulative board. If we help you secure the Crown, you overtake Samantha and challenge Lucian."

?"I don’t want your help to secure the Crown," Xander said, his playful grin softening into something startlingly direct.

"I want your help to save you. If you get what i mean..."

?Edmund frowned.

"Save us from what?"

?"From your own inefficiency and lack of information," Xander replied, stepping away from the crate.

"Edmund, your team’s primary strategist—the junior assassin on your flank—received a private secondary objective at the forty-minute mark. His objective is to ensure Team Delta reaches the Citadel too late to claim points. He’s currently leading your unit down a rigged maintenance tunnel wired with non-lethal immobilization traps."

?Edmund went entirely rigid. His ice Talent flared faintly beneath his skin, a sub-zero pulse of pure, instinctive shock.

"How could you possibly know that?"

?"Because," Xander said, tapping his temple with his silver stylus, "I traded information with the assassin who was assigned your sabotage. People love to talk when you offer them a cleaner route out of the Bastion."

?Warren silently stared at Xander for a few long seconds.

"What’s your price, Xander?"

?"No price," Xander smiled, turning toward the ladder leading up to the rooftop access.

"Just a promise. When we reach the Citadel, you let me handle the door."