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The Tygerian ships were only a few hours away from entering Lorian airspace when Ryan called for a meeting. All of them were included, and all of them were there. Kalen, Ryan, Kevin, who had turned out to be General Haggoz’s mate, and Rakkur and Dartan along with six other men, all humans, and allnobyos, who were members of a team that Ryan and Kevin played for in the Tygerian Games. Kalen had heard about these Games, but never witnessed them. All the men were in excellent shape and ranged in age from their twenties to perhaps fifty. Eleven of them in all. Rakkur’s guard was outside the door, along with a few others, considering there were three royals included in this illustrious group.
Ryan started the meeting by looking around at each of them. “I was told to make a plan. And I think I have one. But first, I want everyone to wear body armor. We don’t need casualties.” The men all nodded. “Now, let’s go over what we know. Mikol and his men are being held at the palace—his warship, which is still in orbit, of course, has located him on scans and verified that. He’s on the lowest level of the building, but we don’t know exactly where.”
“It has to be in the dungeons,” Kalen said, glancing over at Dartan. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yes. Behind bars, definitely, if they’re afraid of them, as I’m sure they are. The dungeons are far enough underground that scans don’t work.”
“Let’s hear the rest of this plan,” Rakkur said, leaning forward. “Because we’re almost there.”
“I’m aware of that. It just took me a little while to come up with it, that’s all.”
“Go ahead, Ryan,” Kevin said encouragingly. “I’m sure none of us have found anything better.”
“Okay,” he said. “Kevin, I know you’ve heard of the Trojan Horse, from ancient mythology.”
“Sure.”
“That’s the basis of it.”
Rakkur shook his head. “For those of us who didn’t grow up on Earth and have no idea what you’re talking about, can you explain, please?”
“The Trojans were an ancient tribe on Earth, and they’d been fighting with another tribe of humans there called the Greeks. The war was going on and on until the Greeks hid inside a giant horse and had it brought inside the city gates and delivered to the Trojans. That night when the Trojans went to sleep, an entire army that was hiding inside came out and slaughtered everyone and took over Troy. That’s sort of what I’m proposing.”
Rakkur looked incredulous. “A horse? What kind of horse? Whatisa horse?”
“It’s an animal on Earth, but this wasn’t a real one. It was a giant wooden one.”
A silence fell and then Rakkur cleared his throat. “I think that’s a fantastic plan, except for the fact that we don’t have a giant horse—or any wood to make one, for that matter—and we don’t have city gates, and oh yeah, we don’t have an army to hide inside it either.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so literal minded, Rakkur, honey. It’s a metaphor.”
“Once again,” Rakkur said, “not sure what that is.”
“Then hush up and listen. The story is a metaphor—which is a representation or symbol for something else—in this case, for anykind of trick to get into a place that’s guarded. It’s hiding our intent until it’s too late for them to fight it.”
“How do we do that, Ryan?”
“As you know, they have forbidden any Tygerians, but they want tribute or ransom to release Mikol. Not that we think they really will release him, but we’ll pretend as if we do. The ransom, the gold and diamonds Nerol wanted, will supposedly be in a large box that two of us will carry in. We’ll walk behind Kalen, looking meek, like Nerol thinks allnobyosare. I think Kevin and I can handle carrying the box.”
“And how will he know you’renobyos?”
“By our robes, of course.”
“So, he won’t be scared of you?”
“He’ll underestimate us.”
“Where will the rest of us be?” one of the other men asked.
“I’m getting to that. First, I want Rakkur to be inside the box instead of the ransom. Then when Kalen gives it to Nerol, he or one of his lackeys will come over to check it out and see if it’s all there. Instead, as soon as he opens the box, you’ll jump out and start shooting.”
“Oh. I like the sound of that.”
Ryan grinned. “I thought you would. That will be the signal for the rest of you who will be hiding on the ship to come out with disruptors blazing.”
“We’ll get Nerol for sure. But what if there are too many of them for us to kill them all?” Rakkur asked.
Ryan frowned at him. “I didn’t say I thought of everything, Rakkur. Give me a break.”
