Saurris nodded in triumph, signaling that he had finished. For a moment there was silence at the table, after which Tennius, with difficulty restraining his anger, tried to answer as calmly as possible.
«I don’t consider my actions or the actions of our guard wrong. I, and in general, we all were displeased by this, he looked around at all those present with a meaningful look. «Therefore, I think that it makes no sense to procrastinate on this issue further. I have already explained that the guard of Base No.18 changed his original intentions and made a different decision. His original decision was based on one piece of information, and then he correctly reacted to the warning signal and learned more information that influenced his solution. Processing this information, he proceeded to a quite reasonable conclusion, and acted as the instruction prescribes when it comes to special services. To our great regret, he failed to foresee all the consequences and calculate all the risks. However, in view of the unusual nature of the situation, I do not believe that he violated the rules of confidentiality. Therefore, I think it is appropriate that our further discussion should be more focused towards the elimination of the problem that has arisen, and not towards the search for accusations.» At that Tennius nodded proudly, indicating that he was finished.
«Well, I agree with Mr. Tennius, and I think that what he has proposed is quite reasonable,» said Ounn. «I’m sure you’re more than competent, keep your finger on the pulse of the matter, and be able to eliminate unpleasant consequences or the leakage of information, dear Mr. Tennius. Thus saving us from wasting time?»
«Yes, of course,» Tennius replied with an air of dignity.
«Dear colleagues,» Alyette addressed the assembly. «Forgive me my curiosity. Although this is a trifle, and an annoying one, I would still like to clarify it. Did you manage to find out how these uh… children… ended up with our chip?»
«Yes, I have found that out,» said Tennius. «If you are interested, I can show you this video. It does not take a lot of time. I can’t call it anything other than the intrigues of the Enemy, as the toggle switch was turned on, but not pressed to the end, and all the other actions of the guard ensued.»
After a few seconds of preparation, the magician turned on the recording, and all those gathered fixed their eyes on the holographic screen located directly above the table. The device allowed magicians to see the image equally well from all sides of the table. Nothing was noticeable on initial viewing, but when Tennius showed the video in close-up and slowed it down, it showed that the teen named Andrey could be seen leaning back as he fell asleep. At that moment his hand abruptly landed on the table. From the created micro vibration, one of the plastic containers on the opposite shelf opened just a little, and a small cylinder fell out of it and rolled on the table. Reaching the little finger of a teenager, the cylinder stuck to his nail, after which the hand slid off the table and hung along the body of the sleeping teen.
«Incredible!» Alyette exclaimed. «Why did it get stuck?»
«I have already asked myself this question,» said Saurris, «but I think the answer is obvious. The teenager climbed a tree before arriving at the base. Most likely, his hand touched the tree resin, which created an adhesive surface to hold the chip.»
«And then he mechanically put his hand into his pocket, and the chip peeled off and remained in his pocket,» Nonnie suggested.
«Y-yes, indeed, you can’t call it anything other than the intrigues of the Enemy,» Ounn replied grinning.
«And that takes the blame off Mr. Tennius and his ward considerably,» said Saurris thoughtfully.
«I propose to bury this question in the past,» Tennius reacted somewhat irritably to this remark. «Do you have any questions about what I am going to do with these young people?»
«Yes, you just need to remove all three, and that’s all,» Alyette said, nodding.
«And thereby arouse even more suspicion?» Ounn asked. «I was curious to find out that this FSB officer was not included in the circle of initiates, unlike his boss.»
«Even so,» Nonnie replied harshly. «We need to remember that we are at war. So, he just needs to be removed.»
«I completely agree. And these teens should have been removed immediately, but since we did not do that, I want to take revenge on them for all the trouble they caused us,» Tennius reacted to the comments.
«How disgusting,» Saurris chuckled. «But anyway, I agree. And the sooner the better.»
«Deal with this, Tennius, and quickly,» Ounn expressed his agreement. «Too much attention to such a trifle.»
«Then, dear colleagues, since the next question concerns Base No.56 and our beloved SRINT located nearby, I can leave you for a while to give the necessary orders to the guard Alex,» Tennius said and then left.
* * *
Kanny reached the barrier of fear and stopped at the point where his whereabouts could already be detected by the sensors. For the sake of the experiment, he decided to try again to return to human form and, concentrating, cast a spell. At the same moment, he felt the Spell as if it was reluctantly letting him go, and… in a moment he was a man again. The sensations were somewhat different than when he transformed in the presence of Alex. Here he performed the transformation on his own, and he succeeded. From the realization of this, his whole being overflowed with joyful pride. At the same time, he again noted that the process was far from being as painful as it was before. He did not see the terrible wolf grins around him, his consciousness did not grow cloudy, and he did not lose it. After examining himself and making sure that he looked normal, he quickly dressed and walked towards the house. He was always interested in the question of how quickly he would feel the barrier while in the human body. He could never find out, because he did not know how to transform on his own.
It turned out that he could walk another 200 meters before he began to feel the fear caused by the screen. The master said that the screen of fear was some kind of special radiation, designed to scare away all living things that were around, with the exception of the smallest creatures. A normal person, in theory, should have simply felt an unreasonable fear and turned in the other direction, not particularly aware of his actions. Now Kanny wanted to see if he could overcome the feeling of fear and still approach the base. Why he conducted such experiments on himself, he did not know. From the place where he initially felt fear, as a man, he managed to walk another 100 meters, constantly struggling with the instinctive desire to stop and go back. Or to simply turn in another direction.
There were still 300 meters to the base, but the owner’s house was still not visible behind the trees. However, Kanny had to ignore with all his strength the almost overwhelming desire to run away as far as possible from here. It was like a breathtaking fear of heights. If it were not for the conscious volitional decision to overcome this feeling, he would have succumbed to fear long ago and walked away. At some point, he even instinctively suddenly turned around to leave, but nevertheless, by an effort of will, he overcame this desire, which was close to panic, and continued to move forward.
«I think that if I can do it, some well-trained person may be able to walk all the way to the house.» he thought. As never before, he now felt the difference between the human and the wolf nature. As a beast, he was almost always instinctive first, and would have