To Be A Champion

Chapter 35: Take A Chance On Me

Fanfare music rings through my headset, and I bite back an ireful moan. I'm sure that stupid tune is burned into my brain by now. I'll be hearing it in my sleep at this point.

"Hello, Mor Islanders. This is Prime Minister Amelia Spens. Listen, I am a reasonable person. One of you has the Edda of the Wakened Warriors. More importantly, you have a specific piece of the Edda that is the key to stopping the red fungus growing on the mainland. Now I know you don't much care about the mainland, or indeed, anything of greater global importance than this year's turnip yield, so I'm offering a reward. Power, luxuries, as many turnips as you can eat—whatever you want. You'd be surprised how many things I can make happen. Just bring me that Edda."

Jody groans as her tan hand tugs at her ponytail. "Sam, is there no way to block that out? It's the eighth time just this evening!"

Sam sighs apologetically. "Sorry, Jody. Amelia has the Undaunted broadcasting it on all frequencies."

"Yeah. Can't go a second without listening to her annoying voice," Nicole murmurs beside me.

I know she's pissed since yesterday I requested her to move the laptop and headsets somewhere more secure after almost getting caught by Tom. After transferring it to a different location in the med bay, she tried to get in touch with Abel so a message could be passed to her favorite nephew. That stupid message repeated itself four times in the five minutes it took her to set everything up. She ended up giving up and just sent Peter a Roufflenet message so he could repeat it to Phineas.

My request did come with a price, even though keeping this secret kept Nicole out of trouble as much as it did me. She annoyed me with more questions about my deterioration condition. I didn't have it in me to lie, not that I'd been really lying about this anyway, so I told her what little I knew, assuring her that no harsh side effects had come up yet.

It was better to just appease her since I'm sure if I didn't, she'd have set off to try to find Catherine herself and make her work on a cure for me now. Or worse, kill her to see if that would make things better.

Nicole never fails to baffle me. If the Torrencers gave the order, she would kill me, yet she nearly loses her mind at the thought that I could be dying now. I'm unsure if her only being fine with me dying by her hand is a sibling thing, a Torrencer thing, or possibly a mixture of both. Whatever the case, I've managed to get her to calm down enough for now and appeal to the logical part of her that appeals to the mission and saving humanity.

Sam sniggers at Nicole's vexed tone. "Yeah, she's hellbent on getting the Edda, especially now since she knows the King of the Rocks connects to it and the red fungus."

Jody nods. "She's got her marines to quarantine the cave me and Five found two days ago, the one with the seed pods. They're experimenting with acid to dissolve them. But we need the Edda to find out how to stop the fungus for good. Is the bribery even working?"

"Um, sort of? People are bringing her everything from the Ladybird Book of Vikings to An A to Z of Fungal Infections."

She scowls. "Don't they realize this is serious?"

"They're just trying their luck. But Janine got a message on Roufflenet that could be legit, and Amelia wants us to check it out."

She cocks a brow. "Let me guess—because it's perilous and unpleasant? Doesn't she have a sub full of marines to run errands for her?"

"No, no, it's got to be us. Here's the message: 'Colonel De Luca, thank you for your actions during the zombie invasion. You've earned my trust, unlike the Prime Minister. That's why I'm telling you I have the Edda. The pages I have describe the wizard Loki and the zombie guards.'"