The Cadre Files (Vorcian Imperial Chronicles Book 1)

by Taki Drake

  George restated, “We will make a decision by the end of the day and contact you so that you know what is going to happen.”

  “But…”

  “I am sorry, but that is what we are going to do. If that’s unacceptable, you are welcome to go to another firm. We will not be hurried at this point, so if you want to work with us, you have no other option.”

  “All right, if that’s how you want to play it. But please let me know as soon as possible. I really need your help.” Peter quit resisting Dorothy and Dreyer, allowing them to escort him out. His downcast eyes and slumped shoulders drew reluctant sympathy from the BattleMage.

  Corda could see the George was uncomfortable about something, but she wasn’t exactly sure what created that expression on her friend’s face. I will have to ask him later, she thought to herself.

  As the door snapped closed, George turned to Corda and said with an astonished tone, “I thought we were going to be totally quiet for a while. What the hell just happened?”

  Before Corda could respond, the door opened up again behind them, revealing two men in very different attire. Mentally punching down a total sense of déjà vu, Corda stared at them wordlessly. One of them looked like an attorney, while the other looked like an accountant. None of the surprised office occupants could form a coherent sentence for a few seconds.

  Luckily, it was just a small moment of surprise before Sgt. Dreyer was on his feet and moving toward the two men. Sticking his hand out for a handshake, he quickly introduced himself and inquired who their new visitors were.

  The amusing part to Corda was that when the men introduced themselves, one actually WAS an attorney and the other an accountant. They wanted to welcome Corda and her team to the office building.

  They were her closest neighbors with Frank, the attorney, across the hall, and Bartho, the accountant, occupying the entire floor above them. The two men were amazed to find out Corda and the rest of her team already had business knocking at their door, carefully asking about how this was possible. When George and Corda explained that it was a total surprise to all of them, Frank said, “Business is all about who you know, and obviously you either know somebody who sent people your way or someone else knows about you and your abilities.”

  When none of the group responded to his fishing question, the attorney changed subjects. Speaking with great animation on what was obviously a favorite topic, Frank waxed poetic about how important it was to establish one’s self in the city and how difficult it was to get customers.

  The accountant simply placed a plate of warm cookies down on the desk and said, “Welcome to the building.” The poor man then turned beet red as he stared at Dorothy, before fleeing.

  Realizing that it was time for him to leave also, Frank mentioned, “if it helps you at all, I am always available if you needed any legal work performed. Please feel free to give me a call at any time.”

  George responded, saying, “We will keep that in mind, thank you. If we need supplemental work, we will certainly consider you assisting us.”

  “Of course, I will give you a discount since you’re in the building.”

  “Such professional courtesy is always welcome.”

  At that point, Dreyer firmly escorted the man out the door, murmuring something to the man before closing the door behind him. With a broad grin, Dreyer turned back to talk to the team with his shoulders firmly pressed against the door, saying, “I did just happened to mention that George here was a retired judge. I don’t think we’ll see him again for a while.”

  Dryly, Corda said, “I think you’re right. He looked a rattled there, especially at the end. I wonder what he was trying to find out?”

  Alana piped up saying, “I think we need lunch. Or at least I do!”

  Laughter became general, and Alaric began to gather information as to people’s desires for food. Concealed by the general noise, Corda reached up and touched a gentle finger against Dorothy’s ear, saying, “I think you have an admirer.”

  Dorothy had a somewhat stunned look on her face, blurting out, “What do you mean?”

  Corda looked at the plate of warm cookies placed in the center of the Armorer’s desk and smiled. Raising an eyebrow, the BattleMage asked, “Do you need me to draw you a picture?”

  Dorothy’s laugh was deep and booming. And colored with the faintest hint of surprise.

  Chapter 4 – Client Review

  It was a better fed but still confused group that cleaned up their lunch debris. Corda and the rest of the cadre had chosen to meet in the small conference room to eat and talk but had focused on nonbusiness topics. Once they had completed their meal break, by unspoken agreement they sat down around the conference table again.

  Corda started off the discussion, saying, “This was not what I expected for our first day. I hadn’t even expected to see two clients in the first week or first month of opening a civilian business.”

  George nodded his head, adding, “Especially since we didn’t do any advertising. When I was looking at what we have to do to start a civilian business, there were all of these points about marketing and advertising etc. The promise was there was no way of people knowing what you had to offer if you didn’t spend a lot of money telling them what you could do.”

  “I know. That was the result of my research too, but to be fair, I didn’t really think about the logistics and the mechanics of this very much.”

  Wordlessly, Dorothy patted the BattleMage’s forearm as it lay on the conference table. Erasing her sad look and replacing it with a determined smile, Corda said, “We must be fortunate that two people found an unpublished office and came looking to obtain services that we hadn’t defined, both on our first morning of existence as a business.”

  “I find that very suspicious,” Alana almost whispered.

  Many of the people in the room nodded their agreement, but Corda refused to get stuck in too much introspection. “None of us expected the sort of response that we’ve gotten so far and none of us know what to do with it unless somebody’s holding back.”

  George let loose with a sharp laugh, exclaiming, “In this group?”

  The laughter and jokes that followed after cleared the air and let the people in the room relax. Corda stayed separate from the mirth and general conversation, thinking about possible ramifications of the two clients.

  After everyone settled down, Corda started out the discussion again, “We need to formally decide to take one or both of these cases. To do that, we need to understand how much we are going to charge them and what’s involved. Who has information on either of those subjects?”

  “I have a projected cost and risk analysis here,” was George’s contribution.

  Alana chimed in, “I did a background check on both of them, of course. Here’s the analysis, but the short summary is that Mark has an impeccable reputation and Peter not so good. Neither one of them has any chargeable issues, but Peter plays fast and loose.”

  Dorothy was the next one to contribute. She said, “I checked with the Pilots Guild and with the insurance groups around here. Both of the men definitely have reported losses, and the scuttlebutt talks about attacks and other damage. There doesn’t appear to be any subterfuge, although I believe that Peter has had more damage that he’s not telling us about.”

  Alana added, “Peter is terrified out of his mind. It wouldn’t surprise me if he were concealing things to make the problem not look so bad until we accept his case, but it could be that he’s just so frightened that he felt he needed to get a business that didn’t belong to the area to help him.”

  “That may be part of the reason that Mark came also,” Dreyer contributed. “That man is a bit scary, but he’s got a very good rep. He also would make a very poor enemy.”

  Corda asked, “Does anyone have anything else to add?”

  Alaric spoke up, startling the people next to him. The big man had been so quiet that when he spoke, it came as a bit of a shock. In a rumbly, soft voice, he sai
d, “I understand about the possible two clients. I keep thinking about our two neighbors.”

  Irene asked, “My dear, what you mean?”

  “The accountant guy, the one that is sweet on Dorothy, said that Frank arranged with him to come welcome us today.”

  “I don’t see what suspicious about that.”

  Alaric straightened up and looked around the group meeting each person’s eyes as he said, “Frank knew nine days ago that we were coming to this office. Corda signed the lease eight days ago. How would he know that we were going to take this office and why would he pressure Bartho into coming with him?”

  In a contemplative voice, George murmured, “Interesting. That is very interesting. Perhaps we better dig a little deeper into our oh so friendly neighbor, Frank.”

  Alana nodded, saying, “On it!”

  Corda looked at each of her team members in quiet amazement, thinking, This is amazing. I don’t know what I would do without them.

  Aloud, she asked, “I am inclined to take both the cases. Do you agree?”

  Ted Dreyer was the first one to add his vote, a laconic, “Agreed.”

  Each of the other team members followed suit quickly. All of them voted to take both cases. The BattleMage smiled and asked George to notify both men.

  “I will get right on that, Corda. This certainly has been an interesting day.”

  General agreement sounds filled the room as each person got up to go back to their tasks and the general process of settling into a new office. They were busy, and having something to do was comforting.

  Their first day had been marked by two new cases. It was something unusual and exciting. It was their first day in the office, the first in civilian life. Each member of the cadre worked on, a swirl of intriguing thoughts and questions spinning around their brains.

  George went off to notify both the men that they would be taking on their case, starting in the morning, while Corda wandered a bit aimlessly.

  Corda left the conference room, pausing briefly in the doorway when she saw that the new sign had been placed in their doorway. It read, “BattleMage Investigations.”

  It was a new life, a new way of living. It wasn’t necessarily what they had planned, nor had it been what they expected. However, it looked like it might have compensations. Compared to battle, civilian life seemed to have less danger and other benefits. The BattleMage’s mind snagged once more on the intriguing face and the broad shoulders of Mark, their first client. Even when the woman started to unpack one of her many boxes, the glint in his eye, and the traces of a ready smile behind his lips haunted her.

  Maybe civilian life wouldn’t be so bad. Perhaps you didn’t need a heart of stone to live it.

  Author Notes

  I don’t know if I’m the only author that frantically scribbles down ideas and then lets them marinate until they have the right flavor. All I know is that these three stories belonged to a series idea that I have been poking and prodding at for several years. My vision of this universe is philosophical and, like much of my writing, combines aspects of technology, magic, and military.

  In the Vorcian Imperium, I have created the universe that has haunted my dreams and distracted me from myriad chores over the last several years. Once the event of creation was done, I found that the stories I had already planned out to write in that universe fell into two groups, adventure tales of one sort or another and mysteries.

  Rather than further confuse all of you, I’ve broken them into two series, which occasionally touch as they encounter the same characters, situations, or locations. To give you some insight into my plans, I thought you might like a couple of general arc diagrams.

  If you’re not into pictures like this, feel free to ignore them. That is one of those right-left brain people, I try to get all of my details down in image form.

  These three stories are non-mystery, so they fall into the Vorcian Imperial Chronicles series. Look for the next book in that series before mid-November.

  The series arc for the mystery stories, gathered under the umbrella of BattleMage Investigations, will have its first book published later in November. It is proving to be a joy to write and I am excited to hear what you think of the story.

  It is my hope that you will enjoy all of them!

  Cheerfully,

  Taki

  Author Introduction – Taki Drake

  The mixture of technology and magic is where my mind and heart live. In today's world, it mixes engineering and creativity. In the worlds of my mind, technology and magic live intertwined. I hope that you will find my stories interesting enough to be frequent visitors to where my heart beats.

  I am continuing to write my stories of intertwined technology and magic. The challenges of that are fertile grounds for many story lines and series. Several of those planned for the next few months have been listed below. I am happily writing each of them, discovering new worlds, new situations and new challenges. The wonder for me is the number of readers that are enjoying my visions and tales.

  Enjoy the stories in the emerging genre of techmage!

  Please feel free to contact me via email at taki@technologymage.com or visit my blog or my Amazon page.

  Unfettered Mage

  We Are Not Prey

  Fleet of the Mage

  Mage and Mate

  Traditions of Childhood

  Social Combat - Oct 2019

  Tattered Wings - Dec 2019

  Elemental Connections - Dec 2019

  Vorcian Imperial Chronicles

  An Attitude Adjustment

  Cadre Files - Sept 2019

  In the Cards - Oct 2019

  Burnished Blade - Nov 2019

  BattleMage Investigates

  Battle Cadre Arises - Oct 2019

  The Case of the Frozen Hand - Nov 2019

  Badger Hole Bar

  Thru the Badger Hole

  Grand Opening

  Fashion Forward

  The Gift of Fashion

  The Remembrance Wall

  Dirty Bucket Brewery - Oct 2019

  Treasured Knowledge - Dec 2019

  Becoming Sephera

  A Learning Experience

  You Just Go On - 2020

  Life Rebuilt - TBD

  New Paths - TBD

  Standard of Honor

  Shade of Honor

  Coven Codex

  Floating in Time

  Road to Honor

  Honor’s Bridge - January 2020

  Familiar Magic

  Familiar Shadows

  Familiar Trials - Fledgling

  Familiar Travels

  Unfamiliar Pathways - Oct 2019

  Familiar Trials - Expert - Dec 2019

  Familiar Trials - Master - TBD

  Familiar Trials - Adept - TBD

  Cookbooks

  The Badger Hole Bar Food Cookbook

  Marcella's Garden Cookbook

  Marcella’s Summer Bounty Cookbook

  Marcella’s Autumn Harvest

  Tasting Sampler

  A Food Palate - Holiday Heartwarmers

  Taking it on the Road

  Baba’s Kitchen - Coming Soon!

  Anthologies

  The Expanding Universe: An Exploration of the Science Fiction Genre

  The Tide: The Multiverse Wave

  Inanna's Circle: Flight of Imagination - Thru the Darkness

  Holiday Heartwarmers: An Anthology of Short Stories

  Inanna's Circle: The Game Begins

  Mysterious Hearts

  Journal with a View

  CyberWar: Digital Battlefield

  CyberWar: Byte Conflict

  Prime Fantasy

  Phoenix Fantasy

  Phoenix Imagining

  The Imp Prince

  The Goblin and the Grocer

  Prime Peek I

  Snapshots of Life I

  Tales from the Pumpkin Patch

  Haunted Hearts I

  Reindeer Don’t Fly

  Silent Thanks


  Shadowed Light

  Powerhouse Punch