[The Tempest trilogy: Book 3] After the fateful battle for Bifröst, Zoya lost everything, including her will to fight. However, the war with Nightingale and the Yeomen is not over yet and Zoya soon realizes she has what it takes to settle them for g...
In the rear side of the vessel, there is a bridge deck almost as big as a family house with numerous broadcast towers, antennas and satellite dishes made to establish communication with the outside world. My technicians have already disabled them, but they still contribute to the ship's magnificence.
Every single day, I imagine myself standing in the bridge deck, a captain of the ship sailing towards new beginnings. Its name is fitting - my new flagship is called NSS (Next-generation Solar Ship) Opportunity and this name is written on its side with huge letters.
Soon, both aircarriers and Opportunity will start their journey. My technicians are turning Opportunity into a warship, reinforcing its shielding technologies and mounting massive weapons on it. It's for sure the enemy side will try to stop us - and I mustn't let them succeed.
I am the captain of this magnificent fleet and they will soon learn who are they messing with.
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Jaroslav takes me on a walk through Prague - he insisted I need some fresh air so I can recover more quickly and I didn't argue. However, I am constantly looking over my shoulder like a paranoiac. I expect to see Adrian Bureš or Tomáš Zeman himself, eliminating both me and Jaroslav.
Or maybe they sent a gang of thugs. Or Petra, that dark-skinned girl with a knife.
My stepfather feels my anxiety and puts his hand on my shoulder in a calming gesture. "There's no need to worry, Zoya," he tells me. "They wouldn't attack us here, on such hectic places."
It's true - our walk is basically a sightseeing tour, so there are always countless tourists nearby. We just blend with the crowd and continue our conversation - the only people who interrupt our privacy are Neoclash fans who recognize my face and ask me for a photo or an autograph.
However, I have noticed their numbers are sharply decreasing in the past weeks. Neoclash was the only reason some people tolerated the Castaways and now, when the whole sport is on a hiatus, they have no reason to defend us any longer.
Actually, I encounter hateful glares or open insults more often than the words of praise. I see several people wearing button pins with a cartoon mushroom-shaped cloud and letters NNN (Nuke Nightingale Now), giving away their opinion about the Castaway problem. I also see stickers with the same picture on the walls or streetlights. Some of them have the letters changed to NAN - Nuke Amiss Now.
We've come to the point most of the society holds grudge against Castaways, no matter if they side with Nightingale or not. The only hope to make things better is to defeat Nightingale and make everything get back into the groove rut.
"There's one more problem I wanted to discuss with you," Jaroslav says. "I'm sure you already heard about the Flicker epidemy which appeared in the past weeks."
"Of course I do. I think Nightingale did it somehow, to make more Castaways dependant on the cure she stole. It's the only logical conclusion."
"Yes, your thinking has some logic, especially when you consider the newly ill Castaways are mostly former Neoclash Champions. However, I was thinking about it. According to Occam's razor theory, the simplest solution to a problem should be correct. But what if this isn't the case?"
