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~~((The Totally-Not-Random May 1st Special -- page 15 of 18))~~
Hector excused himself from the meeting table and stood up to walk over to her.

"Lord!" she whispered urgently. "This is--! What did you--?!"

"Sorry," he said, ushering her farther away from the others. "It's for your own protection." He nodded sideways toward Hanton. "Against that guy."

Her wide eyes stuck on the Sparrow sitting there, and she said nothing.

Hector wasn't sure how good a Sparrow's hearing was, so he kept leading Mara all the way back to the double doors of the Entry Tower.

She was still staring when they got there, however.

"Ms. Rogers?" pushed Hector.

"Y-yes, Lord?"

"I assume you came up here to tell me something."

"Ah! Yes, Lord." She leaned in closer and lowered her voice even further. "Word has just come in from the team in Vantalay. And it is grave news, sir. They are reporting a humanitarian crisis. They've discovered a location where human trafficking is being conducted."

Well, shit.

One question came to mind first. "Is it the town of Miro?" he asked.

"Yes, Lord. It is."

Of course it was. Had he even needed to ask?

'Hector,' came Garovel's private words.

The reaper was still encased in iron and orbiting around Hector's body. Hector had left a small hole in it when he first made it--not for air, of course, but rather so that Garovel would be able to overhear their conversation with Hanton. Without doing so, the soul-infusion would have blocked all telepathic thoughts from reaching him.

Hector hadn't been too concerned about leaving an opening for Hanton's abilities, because the suits of iron armor that he'd made for everyone else obviously weren't air tight, either, and they'd still provided mental protection.

'What?' said Hector.

'As much as I would like to ignore this problem, we can't,' said Garovel. 'For multiple reasons, that is.'

'Yeah, I think you're right...'