Concordia, some called it the pillar by the sea. I referred to it as shit, and I wanted to leave from the day my mother abandoned me. It''s not an easy place to escape from. The walled marvel was like a drug that kept you coming back, continually beating into you a reason to stay. My reasoning was Rain Reinhurst, the man who killed my family five years ago. How could I leave while such a devil enjoyed the breath of life?


    I could''ve gone to Baltigo, our neighboring city-state. Calico told me they treat cambions well there, that our arma was sought after to help society prosper. But, alas, I found myself looking down on Concordia from the top of the wall. The view was deceptive, beauty covering layers of a hateful society. These views made me think of Palm. I''d promised her that she''d see the ocean one day, framed by glass buildings taller than the walls; a promise that''d been broken for five years now.


    "I''m getting tired of all the waiting, Calico," I didn’t mean to come across as whiny, but the words just groaned out.


    We were on top of one of the inner walls, towering to a height rivaling small skyscrapers. However, in this sector, the wall was taller than everything else, providing a good view of the military office where we''d find Rain. Calico sat next to me, cross-legged and teetering at the steep edge like a cat balancing on a fencepost. Her hair was always neatly kept in a bun, and she wore a tank top with pocketed military pants. She was cute, though, admittedly not my type.


    "Oh, pipe down, rookie. Don''t be all in a hurry to go dying on us. We have a lot invested in you."


    She carried sarcasm in her voice, but I was used to it, even though we''d known each other for less than a year. Though, her eyes still frightened me regardless. They were angled, sharp, and aggressively magenta. Calico always looked as if she was hunting you, whether her intentions were malicious or not.


    Cambions, or devils to the Concordia citizens, often had eyes that could be mistaken for CGI or contacts, aside from mine. I lacked this trait; I instead had silver irises and pitch-black pupils. Though, I did have somewhat unique hair, like obsidian with veins of silver ore shining through.


    "I''m not eager to die. I''m eager to finally kill this bastard."


    "Well, rushing in blind is only going to get you killed. This is a Lieutenant General and a category 3 Cambion we''re talking about. You''ve been an operative for less than six months, so pipe down."


    Her words were slightly aggravating. Despite not being an operative long, I felt like I had made great strides. I''d been on a dozen missions and only been hurt once, though the scar on my back still ached some days. Besides, who was she to say anything about going in blind. Calico practically went through life blind, recklessly acting on her own instincts without thinking about her team. She was the queen of reckless behavior and blindly dangerous endeavors.


    I impatiently leaned back from the edge of the wall. I knew Calico was right, though, but the idea of possibly letting this opportunity slip gnawed at me. After all, this was the man that killed my family we were talking about. This was years in the making, and years of unfulfilled aggression I''d been sitting on. Shaking my foot off the ledge was all I could do to calm my nerves while waiting on the rest of the team.


    Yeahh, Sylas, Calico, is everything going smoothly on your end?


    This voice came from a telepathic link within our heads, like someone talking directly into my thoughts. It was Raust, and Calico responded.


    Aside from Sy''s jitters, we''re good. In position and ready for the drop.


    I couldn’t help but shutter at her casual phrasing, as "the drop" was not something I was looking forward to. Most people would say they feared heights, but I would say I feared falling from heights. Mainly because as I sat on the edge of the wall, looking out at the sector beneath me, I felt tranquil. Inversely, Calico’s excitement for falling from this height was actually the thing that terrified me.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Yeahh, understood, Calico. Sylas, try to keep your eagerness in check. This is a critical boss we''re after.


    I responded mentally, It''s checked. I’ll keep things straight and narrow.


    By this point, I figured Raust would''ve found the target; Lieutenant general Rain Reinhurst, the man in charge of Concordia’s cambion expulsion program. He was despicable, a Cambion himself with no inkling of empathy for his own kind. In truth, he was the embodiment of the Cambion we were told to fear by the military police. Rain was emotionless, cold, ruthless, and inhumane in nature as much as biology. He gave us all a horrid name, yet he bore the uniform and the title of the same people who vilified our kind. Rain was irony in walking flesh.


    Calico chimed in again on the telepathic link.


    Raust, dear. How are things on your end? Have you found Mr. Big bad?


    Yeahh, I think so. Rain is using void currently to blend in, but I’ve got his heat signature locked in. Looks like he''s surrounded by some low-level NPCs. Eclaire, Shugr, you see what I''m seeing?


    Cambions abilities were broken into four states; void was a state in which you could erase your presence from other Cambions and blend in with humans. The other states were station, flow, and arma, the last being a Cambion''s trademark ability.


    The telepathic link was Eclaire’s arma, and it gave her the ability to cast her own consciousness on to others. This allowed us to communicate but also let us tune in to each other’s senses. Raust was right; Rain was on his way to a garage within the compound. Through Raust’s eyes, I could see the heat forms of everyone within the building. Rain was in the middle of a group, heavily guarded as he was transported to an armored vehicle.


    Yeahh, looks like they’re using an armored transport after all. Eclaire gets experience points for her guess.


    No need for compliments; my Intel is always accurate, never guessed. Captain, please regroup with me at the security terminal. She responded.


    Our captain, Shugr, chimed in for the first time.


    Roger roger. I’ll be makin’ my way up to ya from the west wing. I went snoopin’ through some of their files, got myself some goodies. Meet you there, Eclaire! Oh! That rhymed!


    Outstanding captain. We will be going dark as we extract to point B. Raust, I am placing you in control of the rest of this phase of the operation.


    Yeahh, thanks, vice-captain. I''ll lead the quest from here. Calico, the target is leaving the facility and is en route to you. It is a 2 minute drop time—good luck, and Raust out.


    We''d been planning this mission for almost as long as I''d been an operative. It would''ve been one of Dead Circus'' biggest hits, a Lieutenant General of the military. I was placed on Shugr''s team before the mission was formulated, so fate sided in my favor with it being Rain. I wasn''t usually a fan of fate, but this time she had pulled through for me.


    Our team comprised only five, with two infiltrating the military office, one providing overwatch, and two assaulting the target. Much to Calico''s pleasure, I was placed on the assault team with her. Calico had an odd obsession with my suffering, but she always claimed it was out of love for her comrades. She was strange, and despite her sadistic tendencies, I couldn''t help but be drawn to her bubbly schoolgirl attitude.


    Shugr and Eclaire took on the infiltration, being our captain and vice-captain. I liked Eclaire; she was blunt and direct, but I felt safe when she was the one coordinating our operations. Shugr, on the other hand, was just as brash as Calico, but with a swagger and coolness, I couldn''t comprehend. He was the kind of guy that could shut down a room just by walking in.


    Raust was our eyes on almost every mission, which was fitting with his arma. He was like the little brother on the team, despite him only being a few years younger than me. Calico was super defensive of him, more so than even me, her punching bag.


    I returned to my own eyes, having watched Rain leave the facility through Raust’s vision. Calico was already preparing herself, rigging her harness and tightening it at her thighs and shoulders. I did the same before hiding it all beneath my coat.


    “You ready, Sy? I know you hate this part,” she said through an evil grin.


    “As ready as I can be…I guess.”


    We stood at the edge of the wall together—100 meters straight down to cold, hard concrete. We were above the gate from sector 9 into sector 5, and the plan was simple enough. Fall from the top of the wall, land on Rain’s moving vehicle, and eliminate him. Honestly, this plan even seemed tame compared to some of the things I’d heard about Dead Circus before joining.


    “There it is!” Calico hopped happily at the edge, her toes hanging over slightly.


    Rain’s vehicle was coming in hot directly toward us, with its emergency lights on so civilians would pull out of the way. I looked to Calico, and she''d activated her crown. Glowing cat-like ears and a tail erupted from her body, reminding me how she got her namesake in the first place. Her eyes glowed hot pink, vibrant neon even in the late afternoon sun. We clipped our harnesses together before we approached the edge and jumped.


    It only took about 10 seconds to get from top to bottom, and we timed it perfectly. With 10 meters left to fall, Rain’s transport was nearly beneath our feet, and we were lined up to land smack in the middle. This was a military transport, an eight-wheeled armored jeep with two doors per side and a hatch on top. The hatch was our target, and the second before our feet touched the transport, Calico activated her arma.


    Free falling was quite a sensation itself, but the part I had dreaded more was Calico’s arma, ''Cat Snatch.'' It allowed her to manipulate momentum, either increasing or decreasing it at will, all the way from zero to terminal velocity. So, when we were falling at 10 meters per second, having all that kinetic energy ripped away from me in an instant was jarring.


    We landed softly, so softly that the people within the transport couldn''t even hear us. My stomach was sloshing, and despite having done this more than once, I still struggled not to throw up. On the other hand, Calico was okay and beaming as she pulled two magnetic discs from her bag, each with a hook on the back. She leaned down and placed one beneath each of our feet before we each clipped our harnesses to them, ratcheting them as tight as they would go.


    “Ready?” Calico smiled at me.


    I pull my gun from my shoulder, holster, “I guess.”


    Calico’s ghostly tail twitched with excitement before she placed both hands on top of the transport and halted it instantly in the road.