Alex was confused. “A cultural thing, huh?” she muttered.
Gill nodded. “All our cultures are strange to others. A drow delicacy is live slugs. And humans love to bleed trees for their desserts.”
“Bleed trees?”
“Yes. I believe your kind call it maple syrup.”
“But maple syrup is delicious.”
Gill gave Alex a blank look. “It’s barbaric. The trees have no way to defend themselves.”
Alex shrugged as she looked into Gill’s eyes. The drow clearly thought the method for making maple syrup was barbaric, and not wanting the conversation to digress into a defense all of humanity for what they slathered on pancakes, she nodded in Brath’s direction. “I didn’t know that gnomes were so violent. Guess, I always thought that was more of a dwarfish thing.”
“Most people think that—until you meet a gnome. Then you realize they’re just balls of anger. Makes for interesting friendships, to say the least.”
Alex looked at Brath, who was marching along the side of the wall. “Yeah, I imagine it probably does,” she mused.
Gill tapped the side of his visor, opening Jollies’ channel. “Hey, how’s it coming so far? Are you closing in on the war room?”
Jollies’ voice crackled over the headsets of the entire team. “Getting closer. And I haven’t come across anyone so far. I think that we might be in the clear. How about you guys?”
“Looks like we’re in the clear right now. Nothing—”
Gill stopped talking abruptly. Up ahead, Brath had stopped and was holding up his right hand in a fist, signaling that there was an enemy up ahead. Gill had been right in deciding to take the long route. It would have been foolish to assume the entire facility had been vacated.
Brath joined up with the rest of the team as they moved back. Gill whispered to Jollies, “Be careful, there are definitely people still in the building.”
“Got it,” Jollies replied. “I’m going dark.”
The comm cut out, and the larger portion of Team Boundless moved farther back to plan how they were going to deal with the situation. “We gotta take them out,” Brath said. “That’s the only way that we’re getting past them.”
Gill shook his head as he pulled up his visor. “I don’t think that is the wisest choice. There could be more than we’re expecting. Also, we might face more extreme consequences.”
Alex impatiently squirmed. “How much time do we have on that, anyway?” she asked. “That simulation isn’t going to last forever.”
“You’re right. Let me check. Hmm, it looks like we’ve got a little over half an hour. They still haven’t reached the coordinates the simulation is broadcasting.”
“What’s the best plan of action? We could get in serious trouble for attacking someone, but I don’t know how we’re going to talk our way into getting in there.”
Brath puffed his chest out and slammed his fist to it. “I got this. You guys don’t need to worry about anything. They don’t call me Bronze-tongue Brath for nothing.”
Alex raised her eyebrow and asked, “Isn’t it usually silver or gold tongue?”
“Well, yeah. I’m not the greatest, but I’m a hell of a lot more charismatic than you chumps. Hold on and watch me work my magic.”
Before anyone could stop him, Brath walked in the direction of the soldier. Alex hit her face with her palm as she shook her head, and the rest of the team watched. “He really thinks he’s the charming one of the group,” she muttered.
Brath walked up to the guard and cleared his throat. The guard jumped when the gnome suddenly appeared. “Uh…” the guard said. “Can I help you with something?”
“Yeah, you can,” Brath answered. “There’s a coolant leak in the basement, and I’ve been trying to get on the horn with someone. I can’t seem to find anybody, but if that leak keeps on going, this whole place is going to lose power.”
The guard looked around as if he were going to magically find a senior officer. Brath grunted as the officer tried to figure out what to do. “Yeah, that’s what I’ve been saying,” Brath whined. “I can’t find anybody. It’s like they all went out to lunch or something.”
The guard nodded in agreement. “There’s an attack, reinforcements for that troll party that got taken care of a little bit back. All hands on deck. There’s probably only six or seven of us here right now. Not even a skeleton crew.”
“Well, guess that means you six are going to have to take care of that leak. Otherwise, by the time everyone gets back, this place might have already blown sky-high.”
“It’s that bad?”
“That bad.”
Brath pulled up his HUD and scrolled through his inventory until he found a book. He selected it, and the book materialized in his hand. He handed it to the guard. “This here’ll show you anything you need to know about coolant leaks. You take care of this, you’ll be a hero. Definite promotion.”
The guard took the book and looked it over. “Hey, if you know so much about leaks, why don’t you take care of it?” he asked.
Brath shook his head as he tapped his noggin. “Would if I could, but this isn’t the only leak I’ve found. I have to keep checking. All I’m saying is I need a hand because I’m not going to be able to patch everything up. I’m just a diagnostics guy.”
“All right, all right. Makes sense. I’ll get the rest of the guys together and go take care of this. If you run across any other leaks, let us know. Don’t want this place falling apart while everyone is out.”
The guard walked down the hall as he radioed for the rest of the guards in the facility. Once Brath was certain the guard was out of earshot, he
