The Hine

Waiting is hard.

I'm not JUST waiting, of course. I'm directing minions through making gear from stolen supplies(a Veil of Attentiveness makes mass minion management much more manageable… and it's cheap). I'm supplying spell points to my direct minions, making more with spare spell points, buffing them up, and sending them out. I'm monitoring the news to see if they do what they must. I'm getting status updates from the minions climbing the BMM's ladder to find out how far up my insurance can go. I'm getting reports back from the scouts that are locating BMM facilities. I'm setting up a couple of the ‘Dan-ish nuns’ (as the news named them), for meeting up with the news. I'm repeatedly copying a few days of security footage for handing over to news facilities… and dropping it in the mail for standard overnight delivery: Even if they do choose to kill me (and succeed for real this time), they're STILL going to be exposed… and if they admit it on schedule, the video I mailed will be old hat… but it will still exist, as it was all done with purchased computer hardware.

Yes, I'm hedging my bets: I don't THINK they're that cold… but I don't KNOW, and I'm not sure what stage of the chain of authority makes the call, nor how far up my minions need to climb to get to the guy who's actually going to pull the trigger on ‘The Hine’ - whatever that

[is.

So](http://is.So) I keep myself busy, a timer on my magic computer counting down.

Twenty-three hours before deadline: No new news, just the tizzy over my healers.

Twenty-two hours left: A few assassinated healers: It doesn't stick.

Twenty-one hours left: Huh, someone made a church of me? I can't imagine what they're preaching, as I've said very little publicly, even through proxies. I assign a minion to invisibly scope the place out.

Twenty hours left: It was some idiot attempting a scam. My minion put the fear of me into him, and now she swears up and down she'll go legit. She's now espousing be kind, be charitable, heal the world type stuff. No, I don't mind if she makes enough to get by, but I assign that minion to keep an eye on her permanently.

Nineteen hours to go: Oh, some John Smith sightings. Woo.

Eighteen hours to go: Huh, legit worshippers. Weird. I visit a few during their prayers - it's a thing the Powers of Faith lets me do, for ‘the scene’ - I give a few minor blessings out to each, tied to good behavior via the Conditional Spell metamagic feat: Mythic Heroism, Mythic Fly, and Celestial Healing fit the bill pretty well.

Seventeen hours to go: Gas leak explosion at… ah. Looks like they cleaned up the Kansas facility. Not a good sign.

Sixteen hours to go: Oh, apparently I won an all-expense paid cruise! I just need to show up in person at an address I have flagged as a BMM facility. Hard pass. Thanks for letting me know this email is compromised as well.

Fifteen hours to go: Another mystery email from myself in my known-compromised email account. Oh, they're holding my stolen money ransom? Pfft. Like I care. I've been using cash harvested from Johns for what little I need.

Fourteen hours to go: Oh, yeah, I knew the BMM was international, but apparently I've climbed up far enough along the chain of responsibility that I have minions raiding Great Britain. Huh.

Thirteen hours to go: So I have three hundred people on ice with my Conjuration Companion in Antarctica now. Wow. I am quite the mob boss, I guess.

Twelve hours to go: Oh, another email from ‘me’. Hmm… yes, I'm aware I'm playing very dirty. I reply to let the actual sender know they'll be returned unharmed once I'm sufficiently convinced they're NOT going to kill me… using their email address. Turns out the Computers skill from Starfinder is crazy-useful when all machines are connected and a high skill check lets you skip needing to find actual vulnerabilities. Go Mythic Combinatorial Explosion!

Eleven hours left: John Smith is apparently a wanted man in all fifty states, plus the territories. Seems there's also forty-eight corpses of his on file… oh, and they all have the same fingerprints, huh? I have GOT to check out their cloning hardware. At least they're going to have a hard time using their meat shields in public now.

Ten hours left: My Computers folks tracked down the rented server instances their AIs have been using to handle finding what to suppress… by way of a sudden spike in power grid usage and massive rise in AI card rental costs. Heh. Well, they're now using faulty models of my design.

Nine hours left: For no good reason, my pulse starts pounding, hard, in my ears. I hear ‘Adam’ in my head: ‘Reflective Hide is ineffective vs. this Major Artifact. Waxen Regeneration is ineffective. Delay **** is ineffective. DR is ineffective. Energy Resistance is ineffective. Taking damage…’

He starts rattling off numbers as I feel a blade dig into my gut at my groin, and slowly drag upwards. I try healing spells, and the only result is the ‘Adam' in my head noting that healing spells are ineffective too. A Wish doesn't stop it, nor does a Miracle. As I watch my guts spill out from the phantom blade and my sight starts to go dim, all I can think is, ‘Well… we both made our choices…’

The last thing I hear is the ‘Adam’ in my head saying, ‘Rejuvenation…’