Page 3 of Capture of Capricorn

Upon entering the office, Capricorn noticed Aries sitting behind his desk looking grim. Then again, the man rarely wore a different expression. The sight of Sage, Aries’ wife, sitting in a chair, hands resting over her rounded belly had him tingling in anticipation. Only one reason she’d be present. Looked like it was his turn to be sent on a mythic quest.

“So, we have a mission for you,” Aries started to say.

“Hell yeah. My turn to Indiana Jones the shit out of the next artifact. Yeehaw.” Capricorn rubbed his hands together. He’d heard the stories of how his brothers had found some ancient relics. Locating long-lost caverns, evading traps, solving puzzles… Capricorn couldn’t wait to crush his mission.

“Not exactly,” Aries replied. “Seems like Cetus already has it in their custody. Your job is to extract it from their secret base in Area 51.”

The statement raised Capricorn’s brow. “Um, isn’t that an old military installation, meaning I can’t beam in—or out.” Something about the underground base prevented them from using their starbeaming power, a fancy word for essentially dematerializing in one place and ending up in another—hopefully with everything intact.

“Yes. Plus, it’s going to be guarded to the nines,” Aries added, steepling his fingers.

The info brought a frown. “Then how exactly am I supposed to retrieve it? We going in with the whole gang?”

“No, just you,” Aries stated.

It was Sage who next murmured, “I’m afraid, for this next task to work, you’ll have to be captured.”

His jaw dropped. “You want me to lose on purpose?” The very idea made him cringe.

“It’s the only way to win,” Sage replied. “Yours is the most important task, because if you fail, the world dies with you.”

No pressure.

Fuck.

“Are we sure about the captured part? I mean, surely there’s a backdoor I can sneak in, locate the relic, and then hightail it out. Soon as I get it outside, I should be able to beam my ass and the artifact out of there.”

Aries glanced at Sage, who shook her head. “Attempting to enter via subterfuge will fail.”

“But I’ll succeed if I let them nab me?”

“Maybe.”

He arched a brow. “That’s not exactly reassuring.”

Sage waved her hands. “The future is murky beyond your capture. I don’t see if you succeed or not. All I know is, it has to be you who attempts to retrieve it.”

“I have every faith in you,” Aries added. “After all, weren’t you bragging just the other night about being the best on the team?”

He had. In Capricorn’s defense, he’d downed a few shots of whiskey. “How soon should I leave?”

“In the morning,” Sage declared. “But I wouldn’t recommend starbeaming too close to the site.”

“Let me guess, you saw that going bad.”

“Well, you’d still end up where you should be, but how do you feel about a new scar?”

“Chicks dig scars.”

“This one would run from jawline to eye socket and you’d lose part of your left ear.”

Mar his pretty face? “Guess I’m taking a portal then. Anything else I should know?”

Sage stared at him with eyes that swirled with freakiness. “This mission will either make or break the world.”

“In other words, don’t fuck up,” Aries growled.

“Who, me?” Capricorn exclaimed. Then grinned. “Don’t worry. I got this.” Because failure wasn’t an option.

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