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“It looks like the Watchers check every vehicle that wants to enter the Black Obelisk district. Even their own,” I said as the gates clanked shut after the other black SUV.

“If that’s the case, how did the Cursed Ones get in yesterday?” Asher pointed out.

“You’re right. Good point.” I shook my head. “I have no idea how that could happen.” I filed the mystery away for later exploration. “But I’m pretty certain the Watchers won’t letusin.”

“Then how are we supposed to deliver the treasure to the General?” Kylie wondered.

“We should ask the guards to let us in,” Bronte said. “If we could just explain that we?—”

“Hijacked a Government vehicle for our own nefarious purposes?” Asher said, chuckling.

“Our purposes aren’t nefarious,” Bronte shot back, indignant. “We’re only trying to complete the Quest the Government gave us.”

“You mean the fake Quest they designed to be impossible? Yeah, I’m sure the guards will be happy to let us right in,” Asher snorted.

“The guards will never open the gate for us,” Kylie sighed.

“No, they won’t,” I agreed. “So it’s a good thing there’s a big, bad battering ram mounted on the front of this SUV.”

Bronte gasped. “You can’t possibly be serious!”

“Dead serious. Kylie, drive full-speed at the gate. Aim for that part.” I pointed at the thinner section, the section on a moving track which opened and closed to let the Watchers’ vehicles into the district. “As fast as you can.”

I pressed the dashboard button that looked like the battering ram on the front of the SUV, and the whole vehicle started to hum. Then I selected a second icon, this one in the shape of a fluffy cloud. White smoke blanketed our vehicle.

“Brace yourselves, everyone!” I shouted.

“Kylie, don’t you dare!” Bronte protested.

Kylie hit the gas, and the resulting burst of speed threw Bronte backward. Our SUV smashed through the gate before the guards even knew what was happening. We screeched to a stop.

“Hurry!” I shouted, throwing open my door and stepping out into a curtain of smoke.

Dutch jumped out after me. “How did you know that would work?” he coughed. “The gate is heavily reenforced.”

I pointed at the glowing, sparkling object mounted to the SUV’s front, throwing up a pretty impressive lightning storm. “I knew that was no ordinary battering ram. It’s clearly magical, likely crafted by the Alchemist Knights at the Castle.”

“Yeah, Winters, but how did you know thatbeforeit started glowing?” Asher asked.

“I don’t know. I just knew. Somehow.” I circled around to the back of the SUV and popped the trunk to reveal a bunch of Watcher gear. Including uniforms. “Ok, guys, put these on. We need to blend in.”

“We just smashed through the gates of the Black Obelisk. I think it’s safe to say that ‘blending in’ is off the table,” said Asher.

“There’s smoke everywhere. If we put these on and duck away before the Watchers get here, we can just disappear into their midst.” I started dressing myself. The uniform was way too big for me, but hopefully everyone would be too busy to notice. “Hurry, guys. Suit up. We don’t have much time. The smoke and lightning will only keep them at bay for so long.”

We quickly disguised ourselves as Watchers, then snuck off under the cover of the smokescreen. By the time the Watchers closed in on the crashed SUV, my team was on the building’s doorstop. We slipped through the front door.

Chaos had broken loose inside the Black Obelisk. Watchers were running along the corridors, up and down the stairwells, in and out of the rooms. So when we did the same, we didn’t even look out of place. We didn’t even look suspicious.

From a pair of passing Watchers in the halls I overheard that the General was in the war room, so we made our way upstairs. We burst into the room to the sounds of beeping alarms and buzzing alerts. There were two Watchers posted by the door, but they didn’t stop us. Their attention was fixed on the big screen mounted to the wall.

“General, the SUV is empty,” a sharp, male voice spoke out of the radio in the General’s hand.

“What do you mean it’sempty?” the General growled, looking up at a soldier’s body cam footage of our abandoned SUV, playing out in realtime on the TV screen. “Is the gate secure?”

“Yes, General. We’re guarding it. No one has tried to escape through the gate.”

“They can’t be far! Find those Apprentices!” Then the General slammed the radio down on the table.