The Moon Fortress

Chapter 11: Night in Gale

And even with so much time passed since the day he had come to own this document, he was no closer to understand what it could mean. Seeing the tattoo on the slave girl had confused him even more. Maybe this was just a coincidences? Why everything had to be so sophisticated? Why couldn't his father have written a word or a clue hinting what this sign meant?

Mon-El exhaled with frustration and put the small paper back where it was. He only wanted to see it again to make sure it had no extra details he might have forgotten about, wanting to know if the tattoo on the girl's wrist was the same as this mark and it was. But nothing was clearer even now. If anything, it all seemed far less meaningful. Maybe they were not the same things at all. He had only glanced at that tattoo for a few seconds after all.

After closing the drawer back to its previous state, Mon-El busied himself with some work – mostly Moon River related – and then he checked Marley's background once more. Nothing seemed different from the first time he had checked. She and Lexie had come from a planet called Earth where they had yellow sun and were stranded here for a few years. He gave up on his search when he couldn't find anything else and spend some more time on his club related business. Checking the payments, signing some forms to order new furniture for one of the VIP rooms after one of the costumers had accidently scorched them during the Garata Fest, answering some calls and so on.

By afternoon he returned back to the DEO base with few half ideas on how to break into that abandoned hangar in two days to find out about this big shipping. It seemed like one of the hardest missions he was going to plan yet.

He found everyone in the main room silently watching the only existing map of the hangar and its surroundings, all deeply in thought. Mon-El glanced at Marley, observing her defeated posture. She seemed much more stressed than usual. She must have noticed her device was gone by now. Or was she still struggling with her feelings over the death of that poor girl? What secrets was she keeping from them?

Just as his gaze lingered on her, she raised her head meeting his eyes as if she felt the weight of his stare. Eyes which weren't covered by his usual goggles and mask anymore. Mon-El turned his eyes sideway quickly and cleared his throat. J'onn was the first to greet him.

"Oh, good you're back."

"Do we have a plan?"

"Well..."

J'onn looked at Winn and he fidgeted with his lip before answering.

"No... eh...We don't have a plan."

Mon-El took in the sight of his messed up hair and tired eyes. He seemed to have pushed himself too hard this time.

"Why not? Don't they have a hole in their security system? There must be something. There's always something."

"Not this time. I can't find anything."

Mon-El walked over to the table and looked at the maps for some minutes. How could Winn not find a way in? He had never disappoint them.

"They use a very sophisticated scanning matrix system on the area. It has to be from another planet. It can detect a fly passing from two kilometers away. I don't have anything to defy or mislead this level of technology."

Winn explained as if he sensed their confusion.

Marley put her hands on the table.

"What other options do we have? We can't just barge in there and say we are lost tourists around here. That would be too suspicious."

"No we can't." Mon-El agreed still keeping his eyes on the hangar that looked more like a fortress than an actual hangar. It was obvious they were trying to hide things there. This was the core operation base of the Beasts. He had never paid too much attention to their activities until the recent year since they had started meeting more royals in secret and even her mother that drew his attention to them. Only a few years back they were merely drug and slave dealers. Now they seemed to be working on something much bigger and no one, not even that bastard Cor-Gan had a clue what was going on. That was why they needed an insider and Lexie risked going amongst them. A mission that seemed to have failed.