Chương 350: Chapter 8-348 – The Eyes of Coralost

For a mage, Archangel Jehudiel was fairly skilled at stealth and evasion techniques. Unfortunately for him, he relied a lot on magic to do the real stealth work, and his skill at hiding in plain sight was, once he was positively identified and his face passed around and planted in the Markspace, definitely subpar. Like almost all mages, he was only worried about escaping the eyes of mages or perhaps Beasts searching for him, and completely ignored mundane people. Those mundane people didn't ignore him.

Even more amusingly, wizards, alchemists, and artificers could gain Familiars if they wished. As long as the Familiars didn't do anything to betray the fact they were intelligent, they made perfect spies and observers for the people who had them, just sitting on a rooftop, napping on a windowsill, watching with tongue hanging out from an alleyway, or even just flitting by randomly overhead, or sitting there with their head poked out of a hole.

Old men playing chess in a park, punks walking down the street in a gang, a mother out shopping with her kids, taxi-drivers cruising on by, part of the crush of pedestrians walking past, garbagemen emptying their loads, construction workers getting stuff into place, random people eating lunch at their seats or on the go, businessmen hurrying to and fro on their very important tasks...

They were just mundane or the lowest of the low Casters, and they watched and didn't get involved, doing their part to crack open the web of the Synod and Church's influence for deft removal by people who actually knew what they were doing. This Archangel had the Psychic Element and had no hesitation whatsoever about diving into people's heads to find out whatever he wanted.

Our own Psychic mages and wizards had no problem using the Marklinks to mask the surface thoughts of the observers, making them every bit as dull and uninteresting as possible, with occasional sparks here and there to break the monotony and yet encourage the man to look elsewhere. He seldom actually met with anyone, because he didn't need to. His Psychic Element allowed communication across distance, and so that's what he did, never talking to any of his agents himself.

The facts that there were spells that could listen in on Psychic communications, that there was a worldwide psychic network he knew nothing about, and that Sama and Briggs could listen in on active Psychic chatter like living radios was not something we spread about for some reason. By now we had co-opted servants in basically every Family and Great Family that existed. There were few things more invisible to most nobles and wealthy people than the hired help.

The most mundane of maids, janitors, gardeners, and sometimes the kitchen help were preferred for this reason. There was always resentment somewhere against the arrogance and entitlement of the Families... and when there wasn't, we basically had no reason to be spying on them, so it was moot. How they treated the help was a good indication of what kind of loyalties they had, too.

It became remarkably easy to assess the Families after a few stories and just having the help observe the personal agents of the Families and how they acted in passing. We never endangered the actual servants. They were never to go out of their way to get information, we only wanted what they picked up in passing. If we wanted more, Sama or some of her very skilled infiltrators would go in and go looking for more.

They didn't have to listen to what their masters said, they just had to hear it, and let us listen through their ears, see through their eyes, and be completely passive about it all. Telling them NOT to be eager, NOT to go out of their way, NOT to act any different than they normally did, and NOT to do anything in the slightest bit suspicious was what had to be drilled into them, mostly because many of them were perfectly happy to take risks to bring down so, so many of the arseholes that they worked for.

Also, we paid pretty well, in untraceable accounts, and we were pretty good about getting family out of there in completely mundane ways if they needed to go. The Coralost Intelligence Service was a real thing, and it stretched into a whole lot of areas that would have absolutely horrified many, many parties to realize. Finding Archangel Jehudiel hadn't actually been that hard, once we cracked the finances of the Church.

Following the money eventually led us to where he had to be, and mundane surveillance got us the man's face. Suddenly all the passive eyes everywhere could track him, and we could get assets into place to track and listen in on his Psychic conversations, thus identifying his well-hidden agents and marking them for future usage.

The twat also had a habit of appropriating the services of local taxi drivers to get from place to place via mental control, then wiping their memory of him being there while stiffing them of their fee. So, not only did he fuck with minds and use people as pawns and slaves, he was a cheap bastard, too. Sama had identified him years ago, and worked 'around' him ever since.

No Coralost operators ever got within a half-mile of the guy if they could help it, and if they had to be closer, they were all under cloaking magic. Still, even if the guy moved around a bit, he still had favorite places to go to send and receive his messages, and it wasn't all that hard to get assets into those areas to listen in ahead of time once they were known. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Unfortunately for him, Sama's patience and amusement at letting the man think his organization of spies, pawns, hapless servants, and knowledgeable contacts had escaped her had just gone thin.

The rapidly-disavowed Priest Santiago and his helpers had been one of Jehudiel's quiet hands, the team of Whispers meant to kill me while I was distracted by Camazotz and his followers was one of his most-trusted teams of assassins, and the agreement with the undead would have resulted in the slaughter of over twenty thousand Mexican troops, plus our Undead Hunters, and countless civilians. Normal people didn't remember him passing by, mages wouldn't even see him.

That is, they wouldn't know they saw him, but the amusing thing is that if someone is looking out your eyes passively, they can and will see things that you do not, right through the psionic invisibility painting 'nobody there' into your thoughts. Which was pretty entertaining, as well as Mr. Psychic skipping over scanning the mundane animals which couldn't possibly be intelligent because they weren't Magic Beasts.

Thus it was that we were totally aware of when Archangel Jehudiel hijacked Gabriel Hidala's mind as the taxi driver was on the way to another fare, had him pull over, got in the back, and directed him to the airport. The twat had Gabriel shut off his radio and music so he could sit in the back in peace, treating the no-magic portly middle-aged driver like an automaton to be used and abused at his whim.

Making the other client wait was naturally not something Jehudiel cared a fig about, or what kind of trouble Gabriel would get into. Sama had another taxi go pick up that client, just to be nice about things, while a quiet note to the dispatch center alerted them that a powerful mage had commandeered Gabriel and his taxi, and he was on radio silence heading to downtown, but to say nothing, as people were listening. They were pretty happy to comply, especially since not doing so might get them killed.

Gabriel pulled into the spot reserved for taxis waiting for fares, a standard procedure for drivers, pulling in and waiting for passengers who needed a ride immediately. He never noticed his passenger open the door to his vehicle and disembark. There was an abrupt jerk as the hold on his mind faltered and broke. Gabriel floundered for a second, wondering where he was, how he'd gotten here, and what was going on as the Psychic illusion spun over his mind shattered before it could be truly completed.

There was a grunt and shifting, and he looked back over his seat as a man in dark coat was shoved back into his car. Something was off about him, as he saw a hand up under the man's chin, and his eyes seemed to be bulging in disbelief. Then a pair of heaven's-blue eyes glanced over at him and froze him to the spot in stunned realization. Boss Sama was getting into his taxi!

She drove the corpse of the man right across the back seat without perceptible effort, despite the leverage, her hair reaching out to grab the handle of the door and pull it shut behind her. Corpse, because there was absolutely no reaction from the man as he was handled like that, and Gabriel could see the end of a hilt under the fist she had clenched up under his jaw.

"Drive, Gabriel. Unlike your passenger right now, I'll pay the full fare," she told him with light-hearted grimness that nonetheless sent shivers down his spine.

"Yes, Boss!" he replied, turning around and putting his taxi into motion.

"Where to, Boss?" he asked as he pulled away smoothly.

"Somewhere a body can Burn away to dust and not be missed."

"I know just the place, Boss!" he said cheerfully. Abandoned lots were all over in Mexico City.

"Do I want to know who he is?"

"You most definitely do not," she told him firmly.

"However, you have permission to ask me again a year from now." Gabriel glanced at those too-blue eyes in the mirror, her dark hair already flowing to blonde and a sun-darkened skin tone fading to a faint tan. Eyewitnesses weren't going to report much of anything.

"Yes, Boss," he agreed quickly, not looking at the dead man, who now visibly had a sword hilt that looked to be made of crimson metal jutting from the underside of his chin, his dead eyes staring ahead in shock and disbelief. There was a crack and a crunch from somewhere, and Boss Sama was suddenly holding what looked like a tightly furled set of golden wings. Gabriel swallowed as he saw them, having a sudden idea of just how much trouble he could be in if he ever said anything about this.

He quickly shifted his mirror so he couldn't look back at all anymore.

"I'm going to forget I saw that, Boss."

"Wise," she replied.

"Your daughter's doing well, by the way. Good job, letting her help you with the cars. She's got the makings of a natural Artificer." Gabriel's heart swelled with pride.

"She's much smarter than her old man, that's for sure, Boss!" he agreed happily. Getting his daughter enrolled in one of the Coralost Academies away from the city was probably the best thing he had ever done for her.

"She and her mother talk like every night. She's very homesick, but there's so much stuff she's learning she doesn't have time to be sad!" He heaved a big sigh.

"No hope for my boy, though, eh?"

"Not in magic, no. You've got to be smarter than the average to have the least potential, and gifted to have a future in it. He's not dumb, he's average, like most people. There are things we could teach him, but they wouldn't involve using magic. Would keep him out of the gangs and having to live as a hack." Sama's voice was mild and unjudgmental.

"On the other hand, we always have a use for hacks who can blend in, keep their mouths shut, and eyes open." Gabriel smiled grimly, his dark eyes glinting.

"Never thought I'd have the Boss herself in my ride," he admitted.

"Never admit that to anyone, or you'll probably end up dead," she warned him levelly.

"Just drive me to where I can watch this bastard Burn away, and be about your day. Make sure you curse the fucker vehemently and tell everyone some damn mage made you drive him to downtown and stiffed you on the fare... if they ask. If they don't, don't say anything. A fact, there and gone.

"Oh, and change license plates with that asshole Pulio. He's running dreamrot for the Harachis. Be real nice if someone smart actually digs far enough on airport security and picks him out instead of you, right? We'll take care of the video." Gabriel nodded, licking his lips despite himself. This was indeed very dangerous, which was making his heart race with both fear and the thrill of it.

"Mind if I turn the music on?" he asked her hesitantly.

"Knock yourself out." A moment later they were both humming along to Gigi Estafalla's latest hit, and the battered yellow taxi headed for its destination only a couple miles away.