Late at night Shi Lang and his team boarded a royal flying vessel from behind the queen’s residence and flew away to the designated secret base. The location of this base was kept hidden even from the rulers of the empire.
The reason was to provide the palace guard an environment where they could train away from the disturbance of the palace politics. They were the palace guards with only one purpose, safeguarding the one who sits on the throne. If the need arises, they will be discarding the heir to the throne to safeguard the ruling king or the queen.
Shi Lang sat behind Captain Ameris, who was piloting the vessel. This vessel looked like a bug, the rotors were blades as if the wings of a bug. The speed was three times that of sound, and the most amazing thing was that this vessel emitted almost no sound. Jenkins and the rest were looking at the vessel with great interest.
As military geniuses, they were calculating and deducing the various equation put together to make this thing work. Shi Lang asked, “Captain Ameris, you told me that the palace guard only has one purpose, that is to safeguard the life of the ruling Emperor or the Empress. I would like to ask, why do you all address Her Majesty, Nexalia Neytiri as the Queen and not empress? It does not seem to be too loyal to me.”
Ameris sighed and said, “In order to earn the title of the Empress, the candidate must control the court at her fingertips. Do you think, her Majesty has complete control of the court? When, Her Excellency, Empress Maine Neytiri passed away, the court was shaken, and those old people with the political ambition thought of it as a chance.
Finance Minister Abbey? Well, do not even get me started on that man. He is a snake. If not for the fact that this guy was outside the palace for a month before the incident, I would have suspected him of being responsible for the death of her excellency.”
Shi Lang gazed outside the window and said, “I would doubt him nonetheless. Being outside for a month is not the grounds to be left out of the scope of the investigation. It was obvious that he warmed up to the people in the Intelligence department.”
Rosa nodded from beside him and Darcx said, “Captain, I suggest that we first take out the key cards held by the subject.”
Darcx was also a secret division operative, his intellect regarding his work area was not lesser than anyone else. Shi Lang nodded and said, “Darcx, you are the tech expert, right?”
Darcx replied with a yes, and Shi Lang said, “Good, you will study the Neomonian tech with instructor Rosa. You have a week to get me inside the mainframe of the Defense department mainframe.”
The two people nodded and replied in a firm tone, “Yes, captain.”
The designation of the instructor was akin to a first officer. After ten hours the vessel began to descend, and the floor of the lake, they were flying over parted, revealing a space, smaller than the vessel’s wingspan.
Quinn said, “Captain, reminds you of something?”
Shi Lang smirked and said, “Seems like, X made a good recon.”
They were communicating through the telepathic instrument, and thus the others did not understand what they spoke about. It was an internal joke, Mythya had a vessel similar to this, and the location where the Terran team trained during their last week had a similar setting. The others on the team had also realized this but they did not mention anything about it.
Ameris pulled the joysticks back to her and the wings retracted before the vessel went in a nose-dive, and with a whoosh, it passed through the small opening. The surface of the lake returned to normal after the vessel entered.
The secret base was made under the lake in a derelict wild region. As the vessel landed on the floor, a group of guards came over. Ameris turned off the engine and opened the hath doors for everyone to get down to the ground. They were not afraid of getting tracked here, the vessel had been checked twice all over for any tracers and this region was masked from satellite scans.
This was something done by the predecessors to stopping the prying eyes of the intelligence department. Ameris said, “Call everyone, regroup in Zone one.”
The guards nodded and they all moved quickly. Shi Lang asked, “Will you give us an introduction, Captain.”
Ameris nodded with a smile and said, “Yes, sir.”
Then she took a deep breath and said, “Welcome to the Den. This base was commissioned three hundred years, by the ruler. To date, this place has the best equipment, well, some loyalist families still support the purpose of the Palace Guard.
This facility has seven floors and one docking zone, where we are standing currently. Zone five is the med-bay, and pantry, while zone six and seven are the accommodations of the in-house personnel. A small part of zone five serves as the detention center and investigation room. Zone two is the surveillance zone, it has the best technical equipment.
Zone one is the gathering area, where we do the briefings and zone three and four are the main training areas. On the eastern side of the base is a pathway, leading to the woods on the shore, where they have set up an obstacle course, but it is highly risky to run through it.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “Thank you, I would like to get to work as soon as possible.”
Ameris nodded and led them all to the elevator. Shi Lang said, “Darcx, Instructor Rosa, head directly to zone two, and begin studying the tech. Jenkins, take Harley, check the training zone, and decide on a regime to enhance agility and stealth. Amy, you are to survey the obstacle course outside.”
The people nodded and replied, “Yes, Sir.”
The elevator came to a floor below, which was the gathering area, Zone one. Shi Lang and Amelia stepped out while the others were escorted to their work areas by a guard inside the base arranged Ameris.
The Captain of the palace guards said, “You sure have a good crew.”
“I am aware.” Shi Lang’s demeanor has changed completely. Ameris could sense that the boy meant business right now, so stopping her blabbering, she led him to a small podium on the side. The hundred palace guards selected by Ameris were gathering, some of them were still not present.
Shi Lang waited patiently, after five minutes the people were assembled. He took a step forward and said, “Today is the first meeting so allow me to introduce myself, I am Captain Ace. You all will be training under me from now on.”
Ameris had told the people of the general circumstances, but not his age, which made the ladies of the guard unit frown. Shi Lang could see the change in their expressions and said, “You all have the gall to frown at me when it took you five minutes to gather over? Interesting. If any of you is stronger than Captain Ameris, or you think you are stronger than her, take a step forward.”
His words carried a chill that made the ladies shiver. It was because they recalled that Ameris had been defeated by him in battle. Shi Lang said, “Captain Ameris, how long does it take for one to rush over here from the seventh zone?”
Ameris replied, “The best is three minutes. Sir.” her tone was respectful because she was at this moment, helping him set his supremacy in front of the troops.
Shi Lang said, “You all will be given three minutes to regroup here every morning to report. Anyone late will be running the obstacle course outside. Just so you know, every minute you are late will mean an additional lap of the course.
Second, until you do not report on time, you will not be allowed to train. Third, if you are late three times, then you can say goodbye to this post in the palace guard, I will have, Her Majesty remove the weak links in the chain. Do you understand?”
The ladies all became alert when he announced the rules. They said, “Yes, Sir.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “For every mission you accomplish, you will get appropriate rewards, and more than that, you will only report to her majesty. You will not have to stand inside the palace corridors all the time but move out, visit places, kill people, and all this to help your Queen become the true ruler of the empire. You will be her hundred arms, help her pull the strings.
Remember, you are here because the empress needs you, however, if you tried to usurp the very throne that you protect, we still have ways to make you regret such thoughts.”
The ladies replied, “We serve the throne!!!”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “From today onward, you all will be called The Queen’s Snare.”