Chapter 76: Book 1: Chapter 27 (Part 2 of 5)

Five minutes later we were strolling up the hill in the gentle breeze. I recognised from the maps I’d studied that we were heading towards the Governor’s residence. The manse was only a few hundred metres up the road and the buildings disappeared quickly as we walked. We halted outside the gate to the residence which was ensconced in a grove of leafy green trees.

The National Guardsman lined up in front of the gate and there was a further half dozen soldiers who had been stationed here. Sergeant Macdonald went inside, and we were instructed to wait until he returned.

I was content for the moment to see where playing nice got me.

I peered through the hastily erected chain link fencing that surrounded the place to the manse within. The building was three storeys made up of white shingled walls and both a recessed and a second protruding porch. The whole thing sat on a stone foundation, so I expected it had an extensive basement.

While we waited, I looked about the street and my gaze locked on to a busty attractive woman with long, flowing, blonde hair with light green highlights loitering on the other side of the street.

I stepped off the pavement onto the road and smiled at her. She responded in kind and beamed back at me showing off a row of gleaming pearly white teeth. She stepped into the road as I had and opened her mouth to hail us when I heard several rifles being cocked and readied for firing.

One of the guards at the residence entrance barked out. “We will not warn you again, Miss Belmont. You are to come no closer to the residence than the opposite sidewalk and you are not to utter a word. If you do not comply, we are under direct orders to open fire.”

The blonde hastily retreated back as far as she could on the other side of the road and made a zipping motion across her lips to demonstrate she was indeed complying. The reaction of the guardsmen both surprised and intrigued me, so I had to analyse her now.

 

Patricia Belmont (Siren)

Whispering Bard (P) 2

Character Aptitude: Very High

Loot Value: Low

Threat: Very Low

XP Value: 6,480

Current Affiliation: None

Fertile Receptivity: 0/141

 

With a name to go with the face my memory dinged.

Patricia Belmont had been the news reporter I’d seen covering the story about Governor Reynolds just before the Framework integrated the Earth into the Darkwyrlds. I hadn’t recognised her straight away, she had far less make-up on than when she had delivered that report and was much prettier for it in my opinion.

Although my lack of recognition may have been more to do with the changes that integration had wrought upon her, she had become a siren and taken an impressively high-grade and apt class. She smiled sweetly at me again, but there was a steely determination in her gaze.

I hadn’t missed the fact that women had an extra line of information on their analysis sheets compared to the gentlemen.

A quick roving eye on my party confirmed the same fresh information was available for them as well. Shana’s receptivity was currently 5/137.

Presumably, based on what Dean told me, if Shana slept with someone else then that progress to five would either be wiped out or reduced. However, this was one area that I wasn’t willing to experiment to gain further knowledge.

Predictably, as a dungeon avatar, Anastasia’s receptivity score was Not Applicable.

My attention was drawn back to the activity at the impromptu gate as a stern-looking, auburn-haired, woman in her fifties garbed in a cream business suit that accentuated a trim figure approached. Her high heeled shoes clacked on the pathway, and she gave us a cursory once over when she reached the fence.

 

Regina Reynolds (Pact Noble Human)

Baroness (T) 2

Character Aptitude: High

Loot Value: Moderate

Threat: Very Low

XP Value: 2,160

Current Affiliation: Michigan State

Fertile Receptivity: 0/164

 

If her name was any indication, this must have been the Governor’s wife. It could be another relative, like a sister, but the sour lemon expression on her face had the hallmarks of a long-suffering, oft cheated upon, politician’s wife.

“What do you want?” she demanded curtly.

Straight to the point then. “Good morning, Mrs Reynolds,” I started brightly. “I’m Torin Carter, captain of the Marena’s Mercy, currently docked in the bay, but I’m sure Sergeant Macdonald told you that already. I’ve come to make a friendly trade with the Governor.”

“You want to trade us your ship?” she asked nonchalantly, but her eyelids flickered, betraying her keen interest.

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“Not in the slightest,” I replied. “The Marena’s Mercy is mine and will stay that way. Sure, you could try and take her from me by force. However, if you were successful, and that is a mighty doubtful if, you wouldn’t be able to make use of the ship without me anyway. That doesn’t mean we can’t come to another mutually scratched backs’ accord, though.”

Regina’s eyes narrowed and took on a faraway look for a split second. It was likely she had some kind of analysis ability like mine. Her demeanour shifted to one of resignation when she was done. “Let them through, corporal. Governor Reynolds will see them.”

“Should we remove their armaments Ma’am?” the dutiful corporal asked as she turned away.

Regina Reynolds shrugged. “They could have more in their inventories, so I don’t see the point.”

The corporal blinked in surprise but motioned to his men regardless, and they pulled back the chain link fence and let us through. We followed the Governor’s wife up the path that led to the summer residence.

“This is very trusting of you, Mrs Reynolds,” Shana spoke up as we reached the white steps that led up to the porch of the main entrance.

Regina stopped halfway up the steps and looked back at us. “The world has changed greatly over the last week, Miss…” she prompted.

“Colton,” Shana answered quickly.

“Yes, much has changed Miss Colton, and we must adapt with that change. For example, Sergeant Macdonald, is a good and reliable man, but has struggled with such adaptation. Hence, he left ten men, the least experienced, plus the gate guards to oversee you. Foolishly believing sixteen would be more than sufficient to handle four strangers. When in fact, they were seriously outmatched. Or have I overestimated you and your crew Captain Carter?”

“You have not,” I smiled.

Of course, the Governor’s summer residence being an officially recognised premises of the Michigan State faction did offer them several bonuses that their forces would not enjoy out on the street. Bringing us within shifted the balance of power back towards whoever they had stationed inside.

I knew this thanks to Jackson and Quix, but how many others would be as aware?

She turned without another word and led us into the building. The interior of the manse had been constructed using yellow pine and gave it a very homey feel.

We passed Sergeant Macdonald and his patrol as they were going in the other direction, back outside, though I suspected only as far as the porch and that they would creep back in once the audience with the Governor began.

We had to wait a moment as Regina went into what I took to be the Dining Room before us to speak with her husband. She returned a couple of minutes later and asked us to follow her. I was a little surprised they didn’t have somebody else to do this for them, but then again, maybe they’d been killed by a monster incursion or left.

Regina led us into an expansive room with large bay windows that looked out onto the lake and had a huge varnished dark wood dining table covered in paperwork at its centre.

Apart from six more guardsmen standing in the corners of the room, there were four other people. Two of them stood on the other side of the table and were similarly attired to Mrs Reynolds.

The hawkish analytical looks on their faces as we walked in screamed lawyers or accountants.

Governor Reynolds sat behind the table. He was a man in his fifties with slick-backed, black hair and an easy smile. Integration had been kind to him, I recalled his laugh lines and the wrinkling around the eyes as being quite pronounced. His skin was smoother and though he sat behind a large table, there was no sign of the previously growing paunch around his midriff.

The improvement to the Governor’s physique was not, however, the jaw-dropper in the room. That honour fell to the strikingly beautiful, fiery, redhead who stood at his side. Her beauty was indeed noteworthy, but what really stood out about her was the honest to Shattered Goddess pair of wings that sprouted from her back.

The woman flexed and flapped her wings as we walked in drawing everyone’s attention to the unexpected appendages in all their glory. Her feathers were a bright white-edged with red that matched her hair colour. Her eyes were a piercing green, and she had a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. She also had plump kissable lips which were currently curling up in obvious disgust at my mere presence, which put a bit of a dampener on the moment.

 

Raven Reynolds (Angelblood)

Minor Justicar (N) 2

Character Aptitude: Immense

Loot Value: Moderate

Threat: Low

XP Value: 11,040

Current Affiliation: Michigan State

Fertile Receptivity: 0/382

 

<Bloody hell> Quixbix whistled. <Will you look at the aptitude on this one! She is almost as badass as you, boss, and without any helping hand from the Framework. Shame about the class and species, though. Still, it could be worse, at least Justicar’s aren’t Valiant. The whole justice is blind schtick.>

Her aptitude wasn’t exactly what dazzled me at first, but my imp who had been quiet since the quay wasn’t wrong.

I’d been reading through some of the material available via our character sheets and knew that Angelblood was a tier three species just like Acheronian. Her N-grade class was third tier too. Earlier on the street, Patricia Belmont’s aptitude had been a bit eyebrow-raising, but Raven’s eclipsed hers and then some.

Immense was the highest possible classification and matched mine. Shana’s had been High, but that still put her in the top five percent of people on planet Earth. When we drilled down into the details, it turned out Shana was only a point or two from being in the Very High category, meaning she was closer to the top one percent in reality. The Very High’s like Patricia made up significantly less than one percent, probably closer to one in every ten thousand people. Extremely High, the penultimate ranking, was possessed by perhaps one in every fifty thousand people. We were talking one in every millions who qualified for the Immense rating.

And these were the ‘at integration’ numbers. Paradoxically, the higher aptitudes became even rarer as time went by.

Quixbix explained it had something to do with those with greater potential taking more risks and therefore perishing, while the weak would often hide behind the strong and survive, unless all the strong were killed in which case it was a total wipeout.

Over time, as the surviving higher aptitude people paired off and had children the ratio would begin swing back in favour of the upper-rank aptitudes, and they would be increasingly frequent once more.

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