GEBBO’S POV

Gebbo, the traitor servant who had been working for such a long and boring time in Sir Azarah’s mansion, felt uneasy as he waited in the secret passage with the other goons assigned to guard it.

After leaving the boss’s hideout earlier that day, Gebbo had gone back to work. A couple hours later, a shiny silver-black beetle had flown in through an open window, landed on his shoulder, and whispered a message to him.

That was not a normal occurrence. Not by any means.

The boss himself would be showing up tonight.

His own boss, the one only a very few members of the band even knew existed, had instructed it.

The same person who had provided the band’s occultic messenger beetles, one of which now sat on Gebbo’s shoulder.

It was apparently very important that this job go off without a hitch. Ghetorix’s boss himself needed the ingots of Imperial platinum for some purpose.

Gebbo wondered whether they were blessed or in some other way useful for the creation of magical items. Though platinum was extremely valuable, surely the boss’s boss didn’t care about mere money.

The light in the secret passage was very dim. It only barely illuminated the grimy walls. Gebbo had been blessed with darkvision by the boss’s boss, through a beetle which had crawled down his throat and melded with him.

That was a horrific experience, and Gebbo wasn’t sure he could ever go through it again, no matter what additional blessings the beetles might grant him.

He never told the other members of the band that he had this power. He assumed some other members had similar abilities, but they never shared them with him, either. Whatever anybody’s relationship with the boss’s boss was, that was no one else’s business.

The human thugs which stood nearby Gebbo did not possess darkvision, and Gebbo was fairly sure they had no knowledge that their band was anything other than a simple criminal organization. They wielded clubs tightly, staring down the tunnel as it disappeared into darkness.

The idiot butler surely knew something was up by now. The bombs they had used to access the vault would have been audible throughout the entire mansion in the dead of night.

But what could Lanter do? All his authority as head of the servants was meaningless when there was violence to be done.

Sure, the butler had perfected some kind of stealthiness, but there were so many fighting men packed into the secret tunnel that there was no way the butler could get past them.

And if the stupid boy who was their guest for the evening decided to investigate? Well, they would leave him unconscious. The idea was to make it look like he was working with them.

Sure, he would have a story the next day about how he had fought off the invaders before being knocked out, but that’s exactly what someone would say if they were trying to look like they were not working with the invaders!

They had so many thugs on the job that they would quickly overwhelm the boy, and that would be that.

That was, of course, assuming he would be stupid enough to not just lock his room door and hide until everything settled down.

A sound came from down the hallway.

The thugs raised their weapons slightly, and Gebbo squinted. He saw the unmistakable outline of the tall, thin butler approaching. The servant was wearing his full suit, as though he were on the job.

The idiot must have taken time to get dressed after being woken up in the middle of the night! What a simpering fool.

“Stop right there, Lanter!” said Gebbo. “Now look, I don’t like you, but you don’t have to die tonight for a rich master who would throw you away in a heartbeat if it meant saving his own skin. You can’t sneak past us, so just turn around and go make a midnight snack!”

Lanter approached until he stood at the edge of the dim lantern light. He had a fork in his right hand, one of the pieces of good silverware. With his left hand, which was covered by a pristine white glove, he ran a finger along the wall.

“Goodness,” he said. “I have neglected ensuring the secret passage remains properly cleaned. It is disgraceful for it to be in such a filthy state, even if the only eyes upon it are yours.”

Gebbo smirked. There was a small alcove several meters down the passageway, and their second rogue lurked in it. Lanter had walked right past him, and would in only a few moments get a knife in the back of the neck!

“Always the professional, asshole? Look, this is all out of your league! I work for a very important person, someone who’s not afraid to kill fools who get in the way.

“You’ve always paid me on time and made sure I get my days off, so you’re better than some annoying pricks who call themselves manservants. But you’re a hardass who thinks he’s as righteous as a god, and if you insist on posturing here, I won’t think twice about ordering my men to kill you!”

“Your men?” one of the thugs muttered. The thugs had completely relaxed upon seeing Lanter enter the light.

They had clearly been worried that Sir Azarah himself had returned, but it was only his butler. The idiot didn’t even have a weapon! He was only holding a fork as though it were a dagger!

“Threatening my life?” Lanter asked coldly. “How dare you? As you have not offered your resignation, nor has Sir Azarah instructed me to terminate your position, you are still an employee of this household. I give you this one chance to return to your duties, Gebbo. Will you do as you agreed on the day I hired you, or will you persist in this insolence?”

In response, Gebbo grinned, snapped his fingers, and stood in place as the thugs rushed the butler from the front and the rogue sprang into action from the rear.

Ghetorix’s crew closed in on the butler, and only Gebbo noticed the tight smile that rose to Lanter’s lips.