“Okay, I have everyone tuned in,” the chief said through Anandur’s earpiece. “Our team has verified that all twenty Doomers and thirty-one humans are in the building. The Doomers are on the bottom floor, and the humans are on the second. You’re clear to go.”

There were a total of ten two-bedroom apartments in the crappy old building, five downstairs and five upstairs. The twenty-two Doomers shared the bottom five, and the thirty-one humans shared the top ones.

The beauty of this arrangement was that the five ground level entry doors faced the street, with the Doomers’ cars parked in front of them, so there was no hallway with a creaking floor to traverse. It was concrete all the way.

This part of the raid was going to be so easy that it was almost disappointing. The Guardians assigned to the warehouse were going to have so much more fun.

It wasn’t fair, but that was the life of a Guardian. If Anandur wanted to call the shots, he should’ve vied for the chief’s position. But since he wasn’t interested, he had to abide by Onegus’s decisions of who went where.

Besides, the chief wasn’t taking part in the fun either. Onegus was sitting in the control van together with William and monitoring everything via cameras that Turner’s people had attached to the utility poles outside the building. Once the mission started, William was also going to launch his drones.

At the rate technology was advancing, Anandur was sure that pretty soon warriors would become obsolete. Battles would be fought from afar by pimpled teenagers with joysticks because this would happen way before they found a cure for acne.

As the five teams of Guardians took position in front of the five doors, the one holding the bump key in each team did the honors of opening the way.

Anandur and Magnus had gotten the commander’s apartment, which housed only him and his second.

Crouching by the door, Magnus used his bump key for breaking and entering, doing it almost soundlessly, which was quite impressive.

As soon as they had the door open, they rushed inside. In the couple of seconds it took Anandur to reach the bedroom, his Doomer had woken up and bolted out of bed, making Anandur so happy he was ready to kiss the dude before biting him.

The guy didn’t wait for Anandur to launch his attack, leaping three feet in the air and using his momentum to topple Anandur down.

Anandur didn’t fight it, letting himself fall back with the Doomer on top of him. But the Doomer’s victory didn’t last long. A millisecond before hitting the floor, Anandur flipped them both around and landed on top of the Doomer, immobilizing him immediately.

“It was a good fight, buddy.” Anandur smiled down at the Doomer’s shocked expression. “But you’re out.”

The guy struggled, trying to get free of Anandur’s grip, but it was no use. Once down, it was game over. No opponent had ever succeeded in dislodging Anandur’s grip, not Bhathian with all his muscles, and not Dalhu with his formidable size and strength.

Well, there was that one time when he’d been distracted by Wonder during training, but that had been a fluke and was never going to happen again.

As the Doomer realized it was over, he closed his eyes in resignation.

For some reason, Anandur felt magnanimous. “Don’t worry, buddy. You’re just going to sleep for a very long time.”

The Doomer’s eyes popped open. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“You’re going into stasis.”

The lack of comprehension in the Doomer’s eyes was pathetic. Those suckers were told nothing.

“As I said. Long sleep.” He hissed before sinking his fangs in the guy’s neck.

Contrary to what he’d told Magnus, Anandur was very careful. He listened to the Doomer’s heartbeat slowing, and retracted his fangs before it stopped.

One day this Doomer would get to live again. Lifting the guy over his shoulder, Anandur checked the other bedroom, but Magnus and his Doomer were already gone. He hadn’t heard any sounds of struggle coming out of there, which meant that Magnus got the guy while he was sleeping.

As Anandur emerged from the building with a Doomer draped over his shoulder, Magnus tapped his earpiece. “That’s the last one,” he said.

“I was the only one that encountered resistance?”

“Seems so.”

“Good work, people,” Onegus said in his ear.

Right. As if it had been any challenge at all.

Anandur climbed to the back of the truck and laid down his cargo next to his buddies. There were twenty of them. Scanning for Grud, at first Anandur didn’t recognize him. A trim had changed the way the Doomer looked.

As per Onegus’s instructions, Anandur stripped every last stitch of clothing from his Doomer, checked him for any trackers that might have been glued to his body, and then dressed him in the nylon pants and long-sleeved shirt that were designed not to disintegrate during his long rest in the catacombs. All the other Doomers had been given the same treatment.

Jumping down, Anandur stuffed the Doomer’s clothing in a trash bag, wiped his hands on his pants, and then reached for the sanitizer he kept in his back pocket.

He tapped his earpiece before rubbing his hands. “What about the other team?”

“They are done as well,” Onegus said.

“Any money found?”

“Your brother is working on the safe.”

“Let me know. I’m curious.”

Onegus chuckled. “Will do.”

Magnus pulled down the back door and put a lock on it, then walked over to the front and handed the key to Gregor who had been chosen to drive the Doomer cargo all the way to the keep.

“Don’t forget to stop by the warehouse and collect the other two,” he told the guy.

“I won’t.” Gregor turned on the ignition and pulled out into the street.

Casting a look at the upper floors, Anandur was glad to see that no lights were on. Evidently, the humans had slept through the raid with none any the wiser. But then Yamanu had been shrouding the entire area, and they’d been affected as well. Hopefully, the shrouding hadn’t compounded the damage to their brains.

Shrouding wasn’t as invasive as thralling, but it must’ve had some effect.

Now the question was how to wake them up and tell them that they were going on a surprise plane trip.

Thralling them again was out of the question.

“The bus is on its way,” Onegus said in Anandur’s ear.

It was time for phase two of the mission.

Shai had rush ordered T-shirts for all thirty-one humans, the five guardians who were going to accompany them on the bus trip, and extras for the Guardians who were going to assist in herding the humans into the bus. The words Fabulous Retreat were printed in thick yellow letters on the blue fabric just below the rays that extended from the illustrated yellow sun.

“So what now?” Magnus asked as the bus pulled into the spot the truck had vacated.

“Now I’m going to look for a T-shirt in my size.”

“I mean after that. How are we going to herd the humans out?”

Anandur shrugged. “I’m going to knock on the door, and the moment it’s open, I’m going to shout, Surprise! You won an all-expenses-paid vacation in the picturesque Ojai.”

Magnus smoothed his hand over his goatee. “What if it doesn't work and they get scared?”

“Then we pick them up, carry them to the bus, and call Yamanu to the rescue. He can sing them a lullaby to calm them down.”

Magnus quirked a brow. “A lullaby?”

“Yeah, why not? Or he can just tell them a story. It doesn’t matter. All they need in order to calm down is to hear his voice.”