Two days passed. The Hat Lady and Demadrian had a plan to reach and convince Ryan that Tiberius was behind the attack on the stadium. They had falsified some photographs that they would claim were taken from security cameras. The Hat Lady was going to shapeshift into Percival and Demadrian into a senior enforcer. Benny was going to shapeshift into Demadrian for the head count, and the technicians were going to cover for Benny, which would be considerably easier than covering for Alset family members. As there were so many technicians, the head counts for them were less thorough.
The tunnels led all the way to Agriah. One of the tunnels passed near Ryan’s home. Demadrian was going to tunnel upwards in close proximity to Ryan’s home. This enabled them to make a quick escape if needed. They were to travel in one of the small tunnelling vehicles.
Another two days passed. Demadrian and the Hat Lady reached a spot near Ryan’s house, which Demadrian believed was most appropriate.
‘This is perfect,’ said Demadrian as he climbed out of the vehicle. ‘I can create a temporary compression tunnel.’
‘Sounds cool. Care to elaborate?’ asked the Hat Lady as she climbed out after him.
‘We insert a collapsible tube,’ said Demadrian. ‘We expand the inside of the tube. It compresses the soil around it, creating a nice little tunnel for us. When we are done, we collapse the tube, and the soil moves back into place like it was never there.’
‘Sounds too good to be true,’ chuckled the Hat Lady.
‘Then again, so do I,’ remarked Demadrian as he began setting up the tunnelling function of the vehicle.
In less than ten minutes, the compression tunnel was ready to climb.
The Hat Lady climbed up first. She poked her head up to look around.
‘Looks like you brought us up inside a shed,’ remarked the Hat Lady as she sighed.
‘Brilliant, that’ll give us extra cover if we need it,’ commented Demadrian.
The Hat Lady popped her head around the corner of the door. She could not see anyone. She shapeshifted into Percival, and Demadrian shapeshifted into an enforcer wearing full body armour and a helmet.
The Hat Lady and Demadrian approached the house. It was now almost sunset, but no lights were on.
‘Do you think he’s home?’ asked Demadrian.
‘He should be,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘In this part of Agriah, everyone is in their homes before dark.’
Not far away, a group of enforcers led by a senior enforcer was watching the Hat Lady and Demadrian approach the house.
The Hat Lady knocked on the door. They both waited about a minute, but there was no response.
Demadrian turned the door handle and opened the door.
‘He must be home,’ said Demadrian as he entered the house. ‘The door’s not locked.’
‘They don’t lock their doors here,’ said the Hat Lady in an annoyed tone. ‘They don’t expect strangers just to wander in.’
The senior enforcer radioed to Tiberius. ‘They’re here,’ said the senior enforcer into his handset. ‘I believe the suspect has shapeshifted into the Head Enforcer. She is accompanied by someone else who has shapeshifted into a generic enforcer.’
‘Take them both out,’ replied Tiberius through the radio.
‘Ryan,’ called out the Hat Lady. ‘We need to speak to you urgently.’
There was no response.
‘Something’s wrong,’ said the Hat Lady as she turned to face Demadrian, who had just walked into the lounge. ‘Seriously!’
Demadrian saw the top of Ryan’s head. He was sitting in an armchair. ‘Ryan, sir,’ called out Demadrian as he rushed over to Ryan. It became immediately clear to Demadrian that Ryan was dead.
‘Damn, he’s been killed,’ said Demadrian as he turned to face the Hat Lady, who had just entered the lounge.
‘We need to leave now,’ said the Hat Lady in a desperate tone.
They both became invisible and rushed towards the front door. The Hat Lady was the first out the door. She was followed closely by Demadrian. On his way out, he accidentally brushed the front door with his arm, causing it to move. The senior enforcer saw this movement. He immediately signalled the other enforcers to open fire. They fired several dozen bullets in the general direction of the house; two of them hit the Hat Lady, causing her to fall to the ground. She was hit in the side of her torso and leg.
Despite being shot, she was still able to remain invisible. Demadrian saw the blood splatter from her body. He dropped down next to her to check if she was okay.
‘Are you able to move?’ Demadrian whispered in her ear. ‘We need to get back in the shed.’
The Hat Lady could not respond. She was breathing heavily as she desperately tried to remain invisible. Demadrian picked her up as he continued towards the shed.
The enforcers had closed in on where they thought they might have shot them.
‘Over there,’ called out an enforcer as he pointed towards a blood patch on the ground.
The enforcers ran over to the blood. The senior enforcer saw the shed door open and then close.
‘They’re in there,’ shouted the senior enforcer as he pointed to the shed. ‘Look, blood droplets lead straight to the shed. Quickly surround it to make sure they can’t get out.’
Within seconds, the enforcers had the shed surrounded.
‘We got them trapped in a shed,’ said the senior enforcer into the radio to Tiberius. ‘One of them has been badly injured. We believe that is she. She was still able to remain invisible.’
‘She has remarkable fight in her,’ said Tiberius through the radio. ‘She will be dangerous to the end. Finish her now!’
‘Oi, you two, go in and finish her off,’ shouted the senior enforcer to two of the enforcers.
An enforcer opened the door. He was greeted with a pitchfork, which was promptly jabbed into his chest. He fell backwards as the door slammed shut.
‘We better shoot through the door,’ said an enforcer to the senior enforcer.
‘No, just torch the shed,’ said the senior enforcer as he turned to the enforcer who was carrying a flamethrower. ‘Let them cook.’
The enforcer set the shed ablaze. The others stood back and watched. The enforcer who was stabbed by the pitchfork was bleeding badly, but nobody seemed to care.
It did not take long for the whole shed to be burnt to mostly ash.
‘We’ve taken care of them,’ said the senior enforcer into the radio to Tiberius.
‘Do you have their bodies?’ demanded Tiberius sternly through the radio.
‘We are about to retrieve them,’ said the senior enforcer. ‘There won’t be much left of them.’
‘I don’t care,’ shouted Tiberius. ‘I want whatever is left of her brought here.’
‘Yes, governor,’ replied the senior enforcer as he put down the handset.
Once the heat from the fire had died down. The enforcer began rummaging through the burnt remains of the shed. However, they could not find any bodies.
‘They’ve been turned to ash, sir,’ called out an enforcer who had just tossed one of the last burnt beams to one side.
The senior enforcer turned to look at the injured enforcer, who had been jabbed with the pitchfork. ‘Your death will be more valuable than your life,’ he said to him as he grinned. He then turned to the enforcer with the flamethrower. ‘Light him up.’
The injured enforcer screamed as he was set ablaze. The other enforcers callously watched as their colleague died in agony.
Demadrian and the Hat Lady had managed to escape down the tunnel. They had collapsed it as planned. They left almost no trace it had ever existed.
The Hat Lady had lost a lot of blood, and her condition was quickly deteriorating. Luckily for the Hat Lady, the tunnelling vehicle was equipped with a well-equipped first aid kit. Demadrian temporarily sealed the Hat Lady’s wounds to stop the bleeding.
‘This will stop you bleeding out,’ said Demadrian calmly. ‘We will fix you up properly when we get you back to Carrington.’
‘It’s over. He’s won,’ said the Hat Lady as she tilted her head to one side.
‘Let’s focus on getting you back safely and then healthy again,’ said Demadrian as he rubbed his hand through the Hat Lady’s hair.
The Hat Lady sighed in despair as Demadrian moved her into the back of the vehicle, where she could lie down.
A few hours later, Tiberius organised a short press conference from the palace to announce Ryan’s death. Tiberius also announced that his killer had been killed. He also revealed that she worked for James. He argued that James was partly responsible for her behaviour. This would be added to his existing charges. He also declared a week of mourning for the country’s Pound Ball hero and first governor.
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my 
