No, wait, before that, it should be made known that Tim actually wasn't supposed to be on the East Side. Remian had quite specifically told him that this would be his day off and to take it easy and go someplace safe or join the defenses as he liked.

But to Tim, the safest place there was from an enemy attack would be the enemy's own base; he wouldn't attack himself, right?

More importantly, there was still a lot of money in the money pool that he hadn't stole- ahem! Appropriated for the Espionage Department yet. Since these gangsters were really their enemies, taking their resources and using them for your own side was simply sound military strategy; like Markus taught all the trainees, strategy was an important part of war that they had to learn.

The amount of coins in the pool could flood the Lynxmice with cheese for generations to come. Already, Tim had them siphon off too many coins to count and hid them in new tunnels all over the town area, especially the airport. Some of those tunnels were even under the church. Someday, a hungry priest might try his hand at gardening the church lot and suddenly dig up a pot of Lir…

But in any case, this was his day off, so Tim could pretty much do whatever he wanted to do; including plundering the enemy while the enemy was on the offensive.

However, his pleasant day off was interrupted rudely when the enemy decided to hold a meeting in his own secret den. Imagine that! The spies' leisurely looting had to come to an unfortunate end when those guys decided to have a secret chat in their own base.

Fuming, Tim decided to wait and see what was so important that his looting had to be interrupted.

"Has the crystal been placed?" the boss of the Secret Waves asked. He was a fisherman who usually spent most of his time at his home fis.h.i.+ng or enjoying the highest quality drugs his crew could refine.

"Yes, boss! We placed it in the western settlement." The gangsters there chuckled. "Are you sure you don't want to put it in the church or the airport?"

"Those are just fronts. There's almost n.o.body there." The SW boss waved a hand dismissively. "No, I want those sand people to bleed. They think they can come and live on my territory without my permission, without paying me tribute? I'll have them learn the consequences of their foolishness!"

"Your territory? But they never set foot on the East Side." The poor gangster was confused.

"East Side? Do you see any other warlord standing other than I? No! The other gangs have been wiped out! Frontier Town- yes, the entire Frontier, in fact- belongs to me! I am the last warlord standing! I am the king of the Wildlands!"

Tim exchanged glances with the three Tier 3 Lynxmice next to him, then all four of them shook their heads at that self-proclaimed 'king' wordlessly.

"Great! So, since our job is done…"

"Done? When has your job been done? The settlement is still standing! It has not yet been destroyed!" the SW chief 'king of the wildlands' exclaimed. "Until it is overrun and the sand people are torn to pieces by the Beast Wave, your job is not done! Go keep an eye on the crystal! Only leave it at the last minute!"

"But boss, the Beast Wave is already on the way! We don't know if there'll be time…"

"GO!"

Grumbling, they went. The 'king of the wildlands' meanwhile, took a dip in his coin pool, never quite realizing that half of it had been taken away already.

Tim snuck out after the gangster sent to safeguard the crystal.

That was how he found out exactly where the gangster put the crystal. He stayed there at the crystal while the gangster eyed the orange smoke from the Guard Towers and took off running for safety, leaving the crystal completely unguarded.

Tim watched him go, and before he'd made even ten steps away from the site, lunged forward and grabbed the crystal himself.

"Put this in the Fis.h.i.+ng House kitchen!" Tim gave it to the fastest Lynxmouse in the Espionage Department.

Away the Lynxmouse darted.

The Fis.h.i.+ng House, incidentally, was the home of the Secret Waves chief, the fisherman who called himself the 'king of the wildlands'. It was where he loved to sit and fish from the river below through a hole in his backyard. The kitchen was roughly ten feet away from his favorite fis.h.i.+ng spot.

***

At that time, the Beast Wave had reached the spot where Mindy's airs.h.i.+p was anch.o.r.ed. This was practically the border of the town ruins, where the Iron Legion had previously made their stands. This was also where the Secret Wave reinforcements were promised to be posted, except that Mindy didn't see a single one of their people here now, Slayer or otherwise.

It wasn't that they weren't called earlier. Messengers had been sent the moment the first smoke signal went up. Alarms had been drumming the entire time. There was no way they could not know the Beast Wave was approaching. Yet n.o.body showed up. Not even one.

As for the Wilds in the Beast Wave, oddly enough, they seemed to be headed toward the west rather than directly north into town as usual. Maybe they were a little lost…?

Goodness at this rate, they were going to hit the workers' settlement! Mindy got a fright for a moment.

But then she calmed down. There! They seemed to be correcting their course, changing directions more and more northward.

Pretty soon they pa.s.sed her anchor point.

Mindy drew a sigil and cast a Fire Bolt spell from a scroll, targeting a specific smoke stack prepared nearby. Once lit, this fire let out a column of red smoke, letting everyone know that the Beast Wave had reached town.

Interestingly, their change in course kept going eastwards, so that their end destination s.h.i.+fted… past the West Side where the Burning Steel Forge was being rebuilt… past the church and the central square…

Goodness this time the Beast Wave was headed right into the East Side!

"Cease fire!" Mindy yelled. "Cease fire! The Beast Wave are friendlies!"

"Wha…?" Candice and Denise both looked at her with blank faces.

"I… I mean… we can't shoot at the East Side!" Mindy cleared her throat, blus.h.i.+ng. "We might hit people! We mustn't shoot into the East Side!"

Denise seemed to get the idea easily enough. "Right, right… that area is off-limits to us. We'll just have to let them handle things themselves from here on out."

Fifteen Tier 3 and four Tier 4 Wilds careened into the Secret Waves' East Side without any organized defense to stop, slow, or even greet them.

***

The self-proclaimed king of the Wildlands was luxuriously back-stroking in his pool of coins wearing only his favorite golden silk swimming trunks, wondering which girl he should call for company today when the screaming started.

"Is Abdul torturing the girls again?!" he scowled, then yelled. "Someone tell Abdul to gag his toys!"

The screaming went on.

"Not Abdul?" he frowned. "Who's making all that ruckus? Whoever it is, shut them up! One free Dream Ticket for anyone who puts an immediate and total end to that infernal noise!"

A Dream Ticket was basically a packet of Dream Powder, the product the Secret Waves were famous for. Generally speaking, the members of the Secret Wave Gang (and a good portion of the rest of the Five Gangs, previously) would climb up walls and dig under floors to get one.

But this time, n.o.body responded.