The Princess And The Lord-Chapter 1406: Another Bad Plan

When Lory and the others reached the rooftop, they were immediately greeted by a small aircraft that God knows where it came from, has already waiting for them. As Lory jumped into the plane, she was stunned to see Jay sitting inside, looking completely at ease. Not long after, Stephan climbed in, followed closely by Clift.

"When did you guys get here?" Lory asked with wide eyes as she looked at Jay and Clift alternately.

Jay flashed a wide grin. "About a day ago. I heard you were stirring up trouble in Dolza with Fargy, so I invited myself to join the party."

"I figured you two would create havoc, so to make sure it does not get out of control, I came here as supervision," Clift said, trying to sound official.

Lory raised an eyebrow. "So you blew up the Elysium?"

"Well, if someone hadn’t infiltrated the most dangerous building in Dolza and caught by the Paladin, I wouldn’t have needed to blow anything up," Clift said self-righteously.

"Hey, we had it under control," Fargo cuts in.

Clift gave him a dry look. "Of course you did."

"Blame the old man," Fargo said, jerking a thumb at Stephan, who remained entirely uninterested in the conversation and stared out the window as if this conversation had nothing to do with him.

Lory then realized something, her forehead creasing. "Hold on a second... if you’re both back here—who’s flying the plane?"

Her gaze darted toward the cockpit. Clift followed her eyes and gave a pointed look. "Well..." he said vaguely.

Lory stepped forward and looked into the pilot’s seat. A tall, broad-shouldered man with cropped black hair sat confidently at the controls. Her breath caught.

"Samuel Albrecht?" she exclaimed, turning sharply back to Jay. "What in the world is going on?"

Jay’s grin faded into something more serious. "It’s... a long story."

Samuel gave a small nod without taking his eyes off the sky. "Good to see you again, Princess." his words imply he already knew everything.

Lory stood in silence for a moment, then ran a hand through her hair, trying to make sense of it all. "I saw Garrof and Lloyd earlier, too. How did they know we are here?"

"I told them!" Clift said matter-of-factly. " He looked for Miss Shawn, so I told them to come. Besides, I had a feeling you’re gonna need backup. Looks like I was right."

"And what about Maddy?" Lory turned toward Samuel again. "Last I heard, she was with you, right?"

"She is. Right now, she’s in a safe place with a guy named Jack Quaid—and another one, Gavin, I think," Samuel said with a slight snort, clearly unimpressed.

"So... everyone’s here?" Lory’s voice was etched with helplessness and worry. She didn’t like the idea that Maddy came to this dangerous place.

"Yeah. And she has a good reason for it," Samuel replied, his voice low and steady.

Lory tilted her head, curiosity creeping in. "Does it have to do with the S.A.I.N.T. organization?"

Samuel drew in a slow breath, his jaw tightening. "Yeah. It’s personal."

Sensing the weight behind his words, Lory didn’t press further. at least, not now.

She shifted gears. "Then where’s Fred? Don’t tell me he tagged along too," she doubted it, but still, she had to be sure.

Clift shook his head grimly. "No. Fred’s still back at Cestine Palace, keeping up appearances and building alibis for the rest of us." He pulled out his phone and held it up, screen glowing. "Case in point—Fargo was reportedly spotted wining and dining some blonde at a five-star restaurant."

On the screen was a news photo: Fargo in a tailored suit, laughing over a champagne lunch with a stunning woman.

Fargo squinted. "Hey, is that me?"

"One of Fred’s stand-ins," Clift said, not looking away from the screen. "He probably has a dozen of them out there, playing our parts."

After the chaos at Elysium, media scrutiny had ignited like wildfire. The damage was too big to hide, and the world would start asking questions. And anyone who had the resources to pull off something like that, well, just say they would look straight at us and Harland.

Fred knows that, that’s why he stayed behind to manage optics, manipulating public perception. If they couldn’t fool the enemy, they could at least fool the world. And that might be just enough to keep the real enemy from making a move.

Then Samuel’s voice cut through the tension like a blade.

"We’ve got a tail! Everyone, hold onto something!"

Alarms shrieked through the cabin. Two enemy aircraft closed in fast from behind, guns already lighting up the sky. The plane jolted violently as evasive maneuvers began. Everyone inside was thrown sideways, scrambling for the nearest seat or handhold.

"Seatbelts! Now!" Clift shouted, already running toward the cockpit, bracing himself against the walls as the plane shook beneath him.

Lory slammed into a chair and fumbled with the belt. Jay was already halfway to the floor. Fargo cursed and clawed at an overhead strap.

Clift finally reached the cockpit and dropped into the co-pilot’s seat beside Samuel. Without a word, he buckled in, grabbed the weapons control, and flipped the safety off.

"Engaging rear turrets!" he called out.

Red lights blinked to life as he took aim. A split second later, the turrets roared—and the sky lit up with counterfire. Clift managed to take down one of the aircraft, but unfortunately, more are coming.

"You know what" Fargo scream with a playfull grin "I think we pissed them off"

"No SH*T!" Jay cursed.

"Hey, language," Stephan never forgot to reprimand them.

The barrage of gunfire thundered around them, relentless and deafening. Tracers streaked past the windows like furious comets, and a missile whistled by—narrowly missing the wing in a fiery blur.

The plane lurched violently, rattling bolts and bones alike. Though they were far from any populated area but because of that the enemy had no restraint to fire out without limits.

Clift kept his focus locked on the targeting system, fingers dancing across the console. He fired another round, then one of the enemy aircraft spiraled away, smoking, but two more surged forward to take its place.

"We’re getting torn apart out here!" Clift growled. "Ammo’s almost dry. Anyone got any idea? We really need one, right now!"

"Can we throw Fargo to the enemy aircraft and let him deal with them directly?" Jay said half-joking, half-serious.

"Yeah!" Fargo answered excitedly.

"No!" Stephan snapped. "If we used our gift, they would know who we are!."

"Then what’s your idea?" Fargo shouted back, gripping the seat in front of him as the plane jolted again. ƒreewebɳovel.com

Everyone was turned silent before Lory began to speak; her voice was a bit restrained. "Um, I have an idea..."

Everyone turned toward her, instantly suspicious. Fargo squinted as he looked at Lory inquisitively. "Is it a good idea?"

Lory pursed her lips, "Hey, you asked if I had an idea and I have it...but it might not be good."

"We’re running out of options," Stephan said grimly. "We might not have a choice."

Suddenly, the plane rocked hard—a fresh hail of bullets had grazed the wing. Warning lights flashed across the cockpit dashboard. The right aileron was damaged—steering was sluggish, and the whole aircraft began to drift to one side.

"Hey, we got one bad idea here!" Jay screamed as he relayed the message to Clift.

Clift cursed, fighting the controls to be stable. "I’ll take it, say it, Lory!"

All eyes were on her. The air inside the plane was just as tense as the one outside—thin, electric, and ready to snap.

Flames licked across the damaged wing, blackening the metal as gray smoke poured from the engine, trailing like a dying comet across the sky. The plane shuddered violently, dipping lower with every passing second, on the brink of collapse.

Then, just as it looked like it would plummet into the trees below, the aircraft jerked upward in a sudden, impossible maneuver. It twisted sharply to the left, cutting through its own smoke trail like a blade.

The enemy pilots flinched, "Where the hell are they going?" one of them barked over the comms.

"Are they running away?" another voice asked.

"No—they’re circling us. Damn it, that smoke’s messing with our visuals!" a third snapped, coughing through the static. "I can’t see a thing!"

"Are they trying to blind us? Suicide dive? What do they want?"

"I don’t know! They’re supposed to be run out of ammo, so nothing they could do, they shouldn’t be—wait... wait, something’s coming—"

His words caught in his throat. On his radar, a single blinking dot was accelerating fast.

"Don’t lose them. Prepare the weapon to engage, wait for them to—"

And then the nose of the enemy’s own radar lit up in real-time horror. Through the smoke, the damaged plane roared out of nowhere, flying sideways, ramming one of the fighter jets with brutal force. The impact sent both planes spiraling.

Before the second enemy could react, the rogue aircraft slammed into him as well.

’BOOOMM!’

A fiery explosion ripped through the sky, two enemy fighters engulfed in a brilliant storm of flame and metal.

Back at the Luxemborough command center, alarms screamed and red warnings flashed across multiple screens.

"Sir, we lost all three Aircraft."

"Sir, we’ve lost satellite visuals on the engagement zone!" a technician shouted.

The commander’s expression hardened. "What about the radar?"

"They’re all gone, and we don’t have visual, so we don’t know what happened"

"How could that be?" the commander’s breath hitched, his heart thumping as his eyes locked on the screen, as the smoke billowed thick, covering the whole area with a dark grey color.

How could the smoke from the burning plane cover a vast area of the sky so fast and so thick, like smoke from a wildfire, unless, unless... unless one of them was a people gifted with the wind.

Even so, a powerful gifted people who can manipulate wind in the open sky to confuse three aircraft was rare even during the Dark Age War; there are not many Gifted people this powerful.

There’s only one place where a few powerful, gifted people gather: Harland.

The room turned cold in an instant, as if the air itself recoiled. A heavy, unspoken pressure radiated from the commander; the feeling was sharp and unbearably suffocating. Everyone felt it. The tension crackled like static, brimming just beneath the surface of his silence.

"Find the body!" the commander hissed, "No one survives an explosion like that at this altitude. I don’t care if we have to raze the whole damn forest—FIND THEM!" he slammed his fist against the console.