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~~The Valentine's Days Special -- (page 2 of 12)~~
'Why did the mission go badly?' said Hector.

'He went without me, so I don't know everything that happened, but my understanding of it was that his cover was blown from the very beginning. There was a huge information leak the previous day in a completely different country, and it compromised the identities of dozens of undercover operatives. So his whole team walked right into a trap.'

'Oh, man...'

'They were all captured, except for him. He just barely managed to destroy his own brain in time. Couple of their reapers were killed as well. I might've been one of them, had I been there.'

Hector's eyes went to the bed below him as he processed that.

'Oddly enough,' said Garovel, 'MY identity was never leaked, only his.'

Hector cocked an eyebrow. 'How could that be?'

'I think it was because of the way the Vanguard stores information. It's possible they do it differently now, but back then, they didn't keep records of servant-reaper pairings. They DID keep records of servants and reapers, but not together. Perhaps for this very reason. If one's identity is compromised, they didn't want the partner to automatically be compromised as well.'

'Huh.'

'It's particularly odd, because with undercover work, it's usually the reaper who presents the most risk of being outed. Our long lives make us much more likely to be recognized by enemy reapers. That was why he was able to go on so many missions without me. Bringing a reaper along was often considered an unnecessary risk, anyway.'

Hector supposed that made sense. If spy work was more about gathering information than combat, then reapers were probably a lot more valuable staying behind and relaying intel back to HQ as the servants discovered it.

That seemed pretty potent, now that he was imagining it. No need for coded letters or encrypted phone calls or anything like that. Just tell your reaper what you find as soon as you find it, and bam. Mission accomplished.