The laughter crackled through Carlos's earpiece.
"Pfff, hahahaha!"
Rex's voice cut through, practically dying with amusent.
"And here I thought you were going as her partner, but no, you're just the bodyguard! What a promotion, huh?"
Carlos rolled his eyes, his hand subtly adjusting the communicator to mute Rex's laughter.
"Ha-ha, hilarious,"
he said, his voice flat and biting.
"This arrangent works better for everyone, so shut up already. We're going in."
With a firm tap to the device, Carlos switched it off, cutting Rex's chuckles short just as they approached the mansion's entrance.
The guard at the door was a burly man, more muscle than manners, and his eyes drifted rather unprofessionally toward Cleo's body. She was dressed to perfection, wearing a flowing white gown trimd with golden accents that caught the dim light like molten fire.
Her mask was a work of art, a delicate bird design that covered her entire face and added an air of mystery.
Carlos, by contrast, looked plain and deliberate in his standard black suit and a half-face mask that left his mouth uncovered. His entire ensemble scread
"bodyguard"
with just a hint of
"don't ss with ."
The guard barely tore his eyes from Cleo to talk, "
Your invitations, please."
Without hesitation, Carlos stepped forward, deliberately positioning himself between the guard and Cleo, cutting off the man's wandering gaze like a slamd door.
"Here are our invitations,"
Carlos said, his voice deep, professional, and utterly uninterested in nonsense.
The guard examined the invitations with the practiced eye of soone who didn't care much but needed to pretend otherwise. Satisfied, he stepped aside.
"Enjoy your evening, ma'am,"
the guard said, his voice dripping with feigned politeness.
As Cleo and Carlos walked past, the guard couldn't resist the urge to steal another glance at Cleo. But instead of the graceful curve he was hoping for, his view was obstructed by Carlos's broad, square butt.
"Ugh,"
the guard muttered under his breath, annoyed, as Rex, perched on a nearby rooftop, quietly marked him in his sights. Through his binoculars, Rex smirked.
"That one's definitely on my list,"
he murmured.
The inside of the mansion was a grotesque display of wealth. Every surface glead with polished excess, from the chandeliers that dripped with crystals to the reinforced glass cases showcasing artifacts no one in the room had likely seen before.
Even the walls were lined with paintings of the mayor, all of them varying degrees of narcissistic. One particularly large painting in the grand ballroom featured the mayor reclining in the nude, his posture majestic, his "assets" less so.
Carlos stopped in his tracks, staring at the painting with the kind of expression usually reserved for finding a rat in your soup.
"This guy's ego doesn't just touch the sky; it's orbiting the damn moon,"
he muttered, shaking his head.
Cleo barely reacted, her focus elsewhere. As they walked, she subtly deployed her spider-like scout drones, crafted in real ti beneath the folds of her dress. The tiny chanical creatures skittered out unseen, scattering into the mansion's crevices to map the layout and report back.
The murmurs of the crowd suddenly hushed as the grand hall's lights dimd. A single spotlight flicked on, illuminating the staircase at the far end of the room. There, standing tall, or as tall as one could with a head like that, was the mayor.
The man's body was humanoid, dressed impeccably in a suit that likely cost more than a small fortune. But his head... his head was a full octopus, with writhing tentacles that seed to twitch and shift as if alive.
"Welco, ladies and gentlen!"
the mayor began, his voice smooth and charismatic despite his unusual appearance.
"First of all, I must thank you all for accepting my humble invitation to this little masquerade soirée, hosted in honor of Nexum Dynamics. It brings great joy to share this night with such esteed company."
He gave a theatrical bow, his tentacles swaying dramatically.
As he descended the staircase, the crowd surged toward him, eager to win favor. Parents elbowed each other out of the way to present their daughters, while others scrambled to heap praise and curry favor. The mayor accepted it all with an unsettling grace, basking in the attention like a sunbather on a sumr's day.
anwhile, Carlos leaned toward Cleo, his tone dry as he gestured toward the unfolding circus.
"Well, it looks like the mayor's ego has plenty of cheerleaders tonight."
Cleo didn't reply; her attention was fixed on the intelligence streaming in from her drones. But beneath her mask, she couldn't suppress a small, knowing smirk.
"Rex, the mansion's completely mapped,"
Cleo said, her tone cold and asured, as always.
"I'm starting the operation to kidnap the mayor now."
"Roger that, my dear wife,"
Rex replied, a sly grin evident in his voice as he pulled up the hood of his rain-soaked cloak. The downpour had begun to intensify, droplets drumming steadily on the rooftop where he crouched.
"You do your part, and I'll do mine. Just don't leave hanging."
Cleo didn't dignify his teasing with a response; her focus was locked on the task ahead.
Inside the mansion, the masquerade continued in all its gaudy splendor. One overeager guest, a man with far too much jewelry and far too little sha, pushed his daughter forward, practically shoving her into the mayor's personal space.
"Mayor, this here is my daughter,"
the man said with a proud grin, gesturing at the young woman with the enthusiasm of a salesman pitching his wares.
"She just beca an adult a few days ago! Isn't she stunning?"
The mayor's bulbous octopus head tilted, his cold, calculating eyes scanning the girl's voluptuous figure.
"Oh, yes,"
he murmured, several tentacles slithering toward her without hesitation, brushing her shoulders and curling around her arm.
"She's… very beautiful."
The girl flinched slightly at his touch, her smile faltering, but her father bead like he'd just won the lottery.
And then, in an instant, everything changed.
From her position in the shadows of the mansion's upper floor, Cleo pressed a command on her wrist device. Her voice was calm and detached as she muttered,
"Well, then... let the main event of the masquerade begin."
Every light in the mansion went out at once, plunging the grand hall into complete darkness. Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd as panic began to set in.
"What is happening?!
" the mayor yelled, his voice echoing angrily through the pitch-black hall. His tentacles writhed in agitation, their movents barely visible in the faint light from the rain-streaked windows.
The guards sprang into action, rushing toward the mayor from all corners of the room to form a protective circle around him. Weapons drawn, their eyes darted around the shadows, searching for any sign of an intruder.
Outside, the faint rumble of engines grew louder. Dozens of city guard vehicles were speeding toward the mansion, their sirens cutting through the rain-soaked night. Above them, military transport ships roared through the storm clouds, converging on the mayor's location like predators closing in on prey.
Cleo's voice cut through the chaos, low and icy.
"Kill all the guards."
The command was absolute, and from the shadows of the grand hall, dozens of glowing red eyes flickered to life. For a fleeting mont, the guards glimpsed the glint of sleek, tallic shapes of the phantoms, their razor-sharp blades glinting faintly in the darkness. Enjoy more content from empire
And then, in the span of re seconds, the room fell silent again.
One by one, the guards collapsed, lifeless, their bodies crumpling to the polished marble floor with barely a sound. The Phantoms had struck with surgical precision, their movents too swift and calculated for anyone to comprehend.
The guests, blissfully unaware of the carnage in the shadows, continued to murmur nervously amongst themselves, their fear focused on the darkness and the missing lights. Not a single scream broke the eerie calm.
From her vantage point, Cleo marked the mayor's location on her HUD. Her system confird that the guards were neutralized, and her Phantoms had already begun sweeping the mansion for any remaining threats.
With cold precision, she stepped into the grand hall, her heels clicking softly against the floor. The sound was barely audible over the storm outside, but to those who heard it, it might as well have been the toll of a bell.
The mayor's tentacles twitched nervously as Cleo erged from the shadows, her white dress now illuminated faintly by the dim ergency lights flickering back to life. Her golden accents glinted like the edge of a blade, and her bird mask made her look like so vengeful phantom of the masquerade.
"Who... who are you?!"
the mayor demanded, his voice trembling slightly despite his attempt to sound authoritative. His protective circle of guards was gone, and he was all too aware of it.
Cleo didn't answer imdiately. She stepped closer, her gaze locked on the mayor like a predator sizing up its prey. Her hand hovered over the controls on her wrist, ready to deploy the next phase of her plan.
Outside, Rex chuckled softly to himself as he watched the chaos unfold through the scope of his rifle. "And it is because of this situation that I love that woman," he muttered, the rain rolling off his hood as he adjusted his position.
Perched on the rooftop, rain dripping off his hood, Rex adjusted the scope of his rifle, the faint glow of its targeting system casting a golden light against his face. Below him, the patrol cars of the city guard rolled into view, their flashing lights cutting through the stormy darkness as they approached the mansion in a tight formation.
"They're here,"
Rex muttered to himself, his tone laced with anticipation. His finger hovered over the trigger, steady and precise. He exhaled slowly, letting the rhythmic patter of rain fade into the background.
His scope locked onto the lead vehicle, focusing on the driver through the supposedly "reinforced" crystal windshield. Without a hint of hesitation, Rex lowered his finger and squeezed the trigger.
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