Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 864: Developing Spycraft

CH864 Developing Spycraft

***

Alex broke into a smile as he caught the familiar scent and felt the familiar warmth around his body.

He poured another cup of milk and honey for the new arrival while she pressed her head and breasts into his back.

Once done, he finally turned around and hugged her back.

"You are back, Udara," he said, hugging her and stroking her hair.

Alex felt the urge to thank her, but he held his tongue, as he knew she didn’t like it when he did so. Instead, he just let her have quiet moments like this.

It wasn’t much to him, but it was to her—and what she wanted the most. The feeling of having a home in and with someone else—a genuine home.

After Udara loaded up on her Alex tonic, the couple took their cups and moved to the nearby sofa.

They drank quietly for a moment in each other’s embrace.

"You’re not going to ask me about what I’ve been doing?" Eventually, Udara asked, looking up at his face as she rested back against his chest.

"It’s been nothing but work for the past few days. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to have some peaceful quiet," Alex replied with a smile as he pecked her nose. "And I was sure you’d eventually fill me in if I waited patiently," he added.

Udara—or rather, the Frontier March’s Military Intelligence—had been busy in the aftermath of the execution of the Mirador plan.

While lower-ranking operatives of the intelligence outfit investigated the suspicious people among the domain’s newly admitted citizens, Udara and a few of her high-ranking operatives headed towards the other domains within the Empire’s north-east region.

To the best of Alex’s knowledge, Udara’s Military Intelligence was setting up intelligence networks to cover the greater north-east region of the Celahan Empire, with Arvendon being a centre of strategic importance for the outfit.

In reality, Alex himself didn’t know the full extent of the Military Intelligence’s reach.

"I met with the Syndicate’s branch leader in Arvendon," Udara said.

"Wait, you went to Arvendon?" Alex was surprised.

"I didn’t initially plan to. I just found myself there. Don’t worry, I had Dread and Senu with me. No one could have stopped me if I wanted to leave," Udara said confidently.

Alex looked at the woman resting against him. She was getting bolder and bolder the more she came out of her shell in the line of duty.

’I guess that’s to be expected, considering she has Amazon, Drow, and Succubus blood flowing through her veins. They are nothing if not bold,’ Alex thought inwardly.

"You are our Spymaster. You are supposed to send operatives to cultivate agents there on your behalf—not go there yourself," Alex said worriedly.

Udara stood up from his embrace and quickly explained.

"We don’t have that many competent operatives currently. Plus, like I said, I didn’t originally intend to go to Arvendon. Matters forced my hand, and only I could go," she explained. "It was either that or you went."

Alex gently pulled her back to him, shaking his head to show her he wasn’t angry—merely worried for her.

"You wanted to use the Black Scar Syndicate’s intelligence network?" he asked, guessing her objective.

"Not use. Take over," she said.

"Huh?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"The Syndicate has given me—you—the highest authority over their assets and resources. Raven Horn specifically gave me a token that would allow me to take over any of the Syndicate’s intelligence outfits anywhere on the plane, aside from the ones in the Imperial Capitals. Those would require direct authorisation from the Alston Elder Council," Udara explained.

"I thought your plan was to build an intelligence outfit independent of the Syndicate’s. What changed?" Alex asked.

"Nothing did." Udara shook her head. "The domain’s intelligence network would still be independent of the Syndicate’s. The Syndicate’s network would handle general intelligence, as it currently does, while the domain’s network would target intelligence that is useful and directly actionable by the domain for its agenda.

"I would have moved for the Syndicate’s network sooner or later. There’s no need to ignore a useful card just because it was given to us for free. I just wanted to wait until I felt competent enough to actually control it."

"And what? You think you’re ready to take it over?" Alex asked with a smile.

"I’m not." Udara said seriously, much to Alex’s surprise. "However, I felt I needed the help as soon as possible. Since I’m going to tap into the network anyway, I might as well bring it under my control."

Alex had mixed feelings about the takeover, but, following his ’trust who you use’ principle, Alex decided to defer to her judgement.

Especially since she was the one in the field and was now a better spymaster than he was. After all, his knowledge of the field came from movies and literature from his previous life, while she had been trained by a couple of the best people in the field in the worlds of his current life.

It was fair to say she was a better authority on the matter than he was.

That said, there were two reasons why he was reserved about her actions.

One was the political implications, i.e. his relationship with the Alston Clan. Fortunately, he didn’t have to give up much, since all Udara had done was take up the offer from the other side.

The second, more important reason was because using an intelligence network was a two-way mirror. It gave you a view of what was on the other side, but it also gave those on the other side a view into you.

The Black Scar Syndicate could deduce a lot about Alex, his subordinates, and his domain’s intentions by analysing the intelligence they gathered through their network.

"Don’t worry, Master. I didn’t take up their offer for free. I offered to invest twice the branch’s current capital into it, plus upgrade their facilities with a Runic Server and other Rune-Tech solutions.

"The branch manager liked the idea so much, he was practically begging me to take the keys."

"You sneaky..." Alex laughed.

His second worry was solved if Udara got her way as she had reported.

If the Syndicate’s branch did indeed switch to the Runic Server—Arcane Library—then that was no different from giving Military Intelligence full access to their intelligence archive. At that point, Military Intelligence wouldn’t need the Syndicate anymore.

Of course, the domain’s intelligence outfit would continue to use the Syndicate’s network in order to keep up appearances.

With this, Alex put down the last of his concerns.

"So, what made you go to the Arvendon branch?" Alex asked.

"We have been keeping watch on Marquis Brandford’s closest allies—vassals—and subordinates in the region. But none of them made any moves even after the details of the Mirador operation reached them and, no doubt, the Marquis.

"The inaction caused me to become worried, so I headed to Arvendon to alleviate my fears," Udara explained.

Her gaze became serious.

Seeing this, Alex’s expression also became serious.

"What did you learn from the Syndicate’s network?" he asked.

"Surprisingly little," Udara replied, shaking her head. "All they had was that Marquis Brandford, after receiving the news, handed a letter to his Knight Commander to personally deliver. The content of the letter is unclear, as is its destination."

"Judging from the bearing the Knight Commander took, he isn’t heading to the Imperial Capital, but rather to the west. The west of the Empire is quite large, so we can’t figure out his destination.

"We also can’t actively track him because we’ll likely lose him as he crosses the Western Wilderness, and there is a chance he might drop off the letter during the time we don’t have eyes on him," Udara reported helplessly.

"For now, I had the Syndicate’s branch head reach out to his colleagues in the west of the Empire to help us keep an eye on the Knight Commander while we investigate who he could potentially be delivering the letter to," she added.

Alex thought about it, then commented, "I don’t know if it will help, but you can try following the money.

"According to your reports, Marquis Brandford has been in the ore and, to some extent, arms trade for decades now. He has also been trying to grow his House’s reputation over the carcass of House Skywalker for years. Be it for trade or political gain, the Marquis should no doubt be greasing some hands close to the centre of Imperial power.

"If I were in Marquis Brandford’s shoes and was stuck in a quagmire—not knowing whether to advance or retreat—I would most likely reach out to the contacts and collaborators I had built over the years. Chances are that money or goods have exchanged hands between the Marquis and these collaborators many times over the past few years."

"That’s going to be a long list. Arvendon and House Brandford are household names in the ore and arms trade in the Empire. They must trade with a lot of people and organisations," Udara muttered.

But then she realised something. "Well, I guess I should look for outliers—suspicious trade balances, inflated or deflated goods pricing and the like—anywhere it might be possible to hide a bribe or something."

"That’s the idea." Alex nodded with a smile.

Udara suddenly flipped over, lying on top of Alex’s chest.

"Enough about my troubles, Master. Tell me about your week. How’s your research going? I’m guessing you succeeded," she said.

"Yes and no," Alex replied. "Our plan worked, but the result wasn’t as great as we expected. Still, it shows that we’re on the right path."

"That’s actually why I called you back. As premature as the research is, I believe the Rune Tattoo set I have planned for you can benefit significantly from the gains of the research," Alex revealed.

Udara propped herself up on his chest.

"Wait, Master, are you saying...?" Her eyes glowed.

"Yes, it’s time to get you the first phase of your Rune Tattoo set." Alex smiled.

***