All this time, X and Zero were listening attentively to what Dr. Cain had to say. When he was done, the two sat in thoughtful silence.

Finally, Zero broke the ice. "That’s very touching, Doctor, but that doesn’t help us in the slightest bit."

"Au contraire, mon ami!" Dr. Cain exclaimed. "Now we only need to locate my good friend Dr. Cartago and ask him about the construction of this reploid. Perhaps we’ll glean some valuable information."

"Of course!" X cried, as though he had thought of it himself. "Well then, just tell us where this Doctor is, and we’ll be on our way."

"Actually, no one really knows where he is," Dr. Cain said sheepishly. "Ever since the loss of his daughter, he has isolated himself, and no one has heard from him for these three years."

Zero leaned back in his chair. "This could prove to be a difficult task."

Theta ran over in her mind what she would tell Vile. She had to seem as in control and confident as possible. The key thing was to shift the blame onto Zero. That's always a good solution.

As she stepped through the doors to the war room, she was dismayed to hear a self-praising tone of voice and to see the tall figure of Storm Eagle. Eagle turned around at the sound of her entrance and immediately smiled. This time he remained silent and waited for Vile to reprimand Theta.

Vile gestured for her to step closer, then began in a voice with a slight edge of suspicion and violence, "so I hear you lost Zero to the Hunters. How unfortunate. Yet how convenient that this should happen right before we launch our attack."

"Zero knows almost nothing about our plans," Theta hastily replied, lying through her teeth. "It is an unfortunate loss, but if Zero was so incompetent as to have himself captured, he is hardly worth worrying about." Theta thought it was a shame that Zero wasn't here to hear this. She would have enjoyed seeing his reaction.

"Now wouldn’t it be nice if that were true?"

"In order to compensate for Zero’s folly, I have made this decoding chip," Theta said, not so subtly switching the topic. "With this installed in Hunters Headquarters, we shall be able to tap into their communication signals."

Eagle snatched the small square from her hands and showed it to Vile. Theta held back a smile as the two puzzled over it. Vile slipped the chip into a device and scanned its system. He obviously did not understand much of what he saw, but he said, "good," nonetheless because he knew an evil superior should say monosyllabic phrases. It was crucial to the position.

Eagle inspected the chip carefully, as though he could spot any treacherous programming by mere inspection. Finally, he roughly handed it back to Theta.

"I shall have to go personally and adjust the chip according to their signal frequency at their Headquarters. I have installed the receiver in the main computer in our com lab. Once the chip is installed, the receiver will be activated automatically, and we shall be able to hear their every plan. I’ll go alone as soon as possible so we can begin the attack around the middle of the night."

"I see the forcefield around the generator is up. I trust it is securely connected to this power supply. I take it the generator is ready?" Vile asked, seeming not to have heard her plan.

"Thoroughly done and absolutely ready to go." She chose not to mention that there was still some last minute alterations she had to make as well as a few connections which were done poorly.

"Then we’ll start the attack as soon as the receiver is activated, whether you have returned or not."

"I shall return."

"Yes, right after you go through enemy headquarters by yourself," Eagle said sarcastically.

"Yes," Theta stated.

Vile watched Theta briskly walk out the door. He turned to a console showing the location of the other domes around Elysia. "You were right, Storm Eagle. I trusted her too much." He played with his shoulder cannon in thought. "You are aware that she used to be on the humans’ side," he stated.

"So I had guessed."

"But we need her for our plans."

"There really is no need to rely on her skills anymore."

"Follow her and make sure she’s on our side. We still have a use for her, so be gentle," Vile added.

Eagle tried to smile darkly, but came out rather strange since he had a beak and not a mouth. "Of course, sir."

Zero not-so-subtly tapped his foot and drummed his fingers on the table.

"Have you figured out some way to disable the generator, Dr. Cain?" X asked.

Dr. Cain had his back to them, studying the plans for the forcefield generator. X inched over to see how he was doing and found that the scientist was starting to drool.

"HEY! WAKE UP!" X yelled into his ear.

Dr. Cain’s head popped up and he exclaimed, "semper ubi sub ubi!" [translation: semper=always ubi=where sub=under]

Zero still retained his knowledge of Latin due to Dr. Cain’s fascination with the language; he was not amused by the scientist’s not-so-insightful comment. He strode over and put a rather unfriendly hand on Dr. Cain’s neck. "I certainly hope you have something else to say. Perhaps something along the lines of how to break through their forcefield."

"Of course I know how to crack it. I’m not senile yet. The actual device shouldn’t be hard to build, but it won’t work unless I know the frequency of the waves in the forcefield." Dr. Cain said rather indignantly.

"Okay, Doctor. You work on the device, and I’ll get the troops ready. Try to have it done soon; an attack at night will give us an edge," X said.

He turned to Zero, "we’ll have to attack from the sea. I’ll go brief them, you set up the formations." X ensured that he was emitting an air of confidence before going to face the terror of briefing the rowdy troops.

"Don’t the blueprints have the frequency on them?" Zero asked Dr. Cain.

"Would I have told you I needed to know the frequency if it was right on the page?" Dr. Cain said a little irritably. "Besides, she would be smart enough to change the frequency in case you knew it."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I must admit that despite my great mental capacity, I do not know."

"If only we could get our hands on Theta, we might be able to force it out of her."

Onwards to Chapter Fourteen
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