Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 182: Eyes on the Emperor

Niko noticed that the old granny was still watching him, and he looked at her, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head towards the two women. ’How did I do?’ he mouthed at her.

She gave him a thumbs up, her eyes twinkling with delight. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Good job, young man," she said over her shoulder as she shuffled past him with her daughter, who was no spring chicken herself.

He smirked with satisfaction. He didn’t always play these things right, in fact it seemed he almost. never played them right, but it seemed he had had a small win today.

"What’s going on, man?" asked Baer. "We were in the middle of getting the guards’ timing down. This had better be important."

"Sorry bro," it was an emergency. "Opal was turning on the waterworks. I couldn’t be caught up in that or Indy will throw away the key to the doghouse and never let me out."

Baer slapped his friend on the shoulder. "I really don’t think the General would agree with your definition of emergency, man," he replied; "and I can’t help you out on this stuff. I’ve managed to lose both my girls, so I won’t be giving you any advice from out here in the wilderness. Clearly, a handsome face and looking good in a tool-belt’s not enough for these palace chicks. They want some kind of PC shit from you. Talk to Cormac, he seems to have that romance shit down pat, he’s like some kind of Casanova... or a stalker, take your pick. Or take a leaf out of Wolf’s book and play the agony aunt. That seems to have floated Araminta’s boat."

"I’m not listening to anything you say about women. You have the Kenny touch, man. Everything you touch turns to shit. You’re so busted."

Baer snickered in good humour, nodding his agreement with Niko’s assessment of him.

There was a ripple through the crowd, and the men rapidly looked for the source of the commotion. There was a company of soldiers marching towards the markets. It was large enough to indicate a very senior visitor was about to arrive.

Baer strode over and grabbed Indy by the hand.

"Emperor’s coming," he whispered, pulling her over to join the growing crowd, pushing his way through to a front-row position.

Niko reluctantly chaperoned Opal into the sea of people that were quickly lining the street behind the advance soldiers. The guards faced into the crowds, armed to the teeth, and keeping a close eye on the audience while shouting at them to move back.

The guards linked arms and formed a human fence, clearing out the entire marketplace except for the stall keepers who had clearly been briefed about the visit in advance.

After about five minutes, a series of royal carriages pulled up at the markets, and some of the Emperor’s consorts started to descend from the first three elaborate coaches, their jilbabs richly decorated, marking them out as palace women. Eunuchs appeared and attached themselves to the group of consorts.

The soldiers moved the crowds even further back, so that the women could view the market stalls unimpeded and with some privacy.

There was much shoving and jostling for position as the crowd surged, and people fought for the front row, where they could watch the royal entourage from a distance.

Baer put his arms protectively over Indy’s shoulders, linking his hands around her neck and standing directly behind her, mindful of what had happened to Delphi. No fucking way was that happening to Indy on his watch!

Niko had no such compunctions about Opal, who was being buffeted about by the jostling crowd, and in fact was now separated from him by several people.

Niko glared over the crowd at the equally tall Baer, who stood out just as he did. He could see that the man had his bloody hands on Indy! He started to push his way through the sea of people, shoving people roughly aside as he went.

"Niko!" shouted Opal into the noisy crowd as he disappeared from her line of sight.

She was too short to see much of anything at all now, and she started to become anxious in such close proximity to so many strangers, all pushing and touching her. Thoughts of what had happened to Delphi were front and centre.

She started to force her way out of the crowd, trying to head backwards instead of closer to the royal family, hoping the crowd would thin the further away she went from the action.

Niko gave Baer a hard crowpeck and Baer spun around, his fist raised.

"Oh, it’s just you. What the fuck man?"

"Right back at you," Niko hissed in Baer’s ear. "Get your hands off her. I’ll look after her from here."

"Settle down man, she’s my partner," Baer spoke so Indy couldn’t hear him. "I was protecting her for you."

"Well bloody protect her without touching her, or we’ve got a problem," Niko vented.

"Where’s Opal?" asked Baer at a more ordinary volume.

"No idea!" Niko said angrily.

"Niko!" cried Indy.

"What the hell, Niko!" said Baer. "You don’t just leave a woman like that unprotected in this type of crowd. Not cool, man. I’m going to find her. Make sure you find out everything about the Emperor’s movements. Can I trust you with that much?"

Niko nodded, happy now that he had Indy in his arms, and actually, he did feel a little bad about leaving Opal unprotected like that.

"Thanks man, I owe you one," he raised his hand to clasp Baer’s, and Baer reluctantly grabbed Niko’s big mitt.

"You owe me big time for this one," growled Baer, "and that’s two you owe me now, not one!"

Baer pushed off into the crowd. There were so many people he didn’t even know where to start looking for the little woman who was covered from head to toe in a nondescript robe.

The Emperor finally climbed out of his carriage, and a huge roar went up from the crowds, with people pushing and straining to see the man.

Niko had prime position right near the front and being so tall, he had an uninterrupted view.

There he was, the man of the hour... and their target...