Chương 40: Warehouse

The sound of the iron shutter rolling open echoed through the empty street. It didn't open entirely, forcing us to duck to get inside. As the lights flickered on, they revealed an ordinary storage area, cluttered with shelves and cartons. A couch rested against the left wall, facing a television on the opposite side. The iron shutter closed with a thud.

"Cool base, I guess," I mumbled, though it wasn't really; my apartment was better.

"You haven't seen anything, dude," Toby said, walking past me. Cerise placed her palm on an unimpressive empty wall. A line of white light originated from the bottom, traveling straight to the top and splitting the wall in two. Then, it moved. Both halves slid away from each other, revealing the actual cool base.

"This is the cool base," Toby announced, walking backward into the newly opened area. I followed Cerise and Toby inside. The doors slid shut silently. The place was massive. One wall was filled with weapons: rifles, snipers, RPGs, swords, spears, and shields. The other side held an array of gadgets: grappling hooks, steel nets, intercoms, a centrifuge, various cameras, sensors, and other things I couldn't identify. Cerise settled at her computer desk; three large monitors covered her field of vision.

Images flickered across their surfaces, appearing one by one and neatly arranging themselves in rows and columns.

"I got the CCTV footage of every camera within a 1km radius of Life's Last Hope," Cerise stated.

"What are these empty ones?" Toby asked, pointing at the grayed-out blocks.

"Inside the plot where the rift was. All thirty-two cameras are now broken; their hard drives have been unplugged."

"Were you able to get anything when you hacked it the first time? You can show it to Toby so he can start believing us," I asked.

"Yeah, they couldn't have been faster at destroying the cameras than you hacking them. Why haven't you shown me the footage yet? It would be so much easier for me to believe you guys." Cerise didn't answer for a moment; I turned to look at her. She looked embarrassed.

"I did hack them, but I was so shocked by not seeing the rift that I forgot to save the recording."

"Seriously?" Toby asked with a deadpan expression. Cerise nodded slightly in response. Toby sighed, then walked over and slouched into a beanbag.

"Forget that, just tell me what the plan is."

"Most of the cameras have been tampered with; footage is missing. I followed the missing footage trail, but they planted decoys." The pictures on the monitors changed rapidly.

"Still, I was able to narrow it down to three locations." Only three images now remained on the screen. The left image displayed the docks, the middle one a warehouse district, and the third a tall, multi-story skyscraper with a phoenix symbol.

"Those places are on the opposite side of the damn city," Toby complained loudly.

"And how are we going to look for Tina inside the Phoenix Guild's headquarters?"

"I am already in their system." The pictures on the monitors changed once again. All of them displayed the inside of a building: the lobby, the stairs, the training grounds, offices.

"What did you find?" I inquired.

"Nothing much, but..." A blueprint of the Phoenix Guild's headquarters was now being displayed on the left monitor. It turned to show its back. A section of it changed from blue to red, from the back to the left end and up to the top floor.

"This area in the building is devoid of any cameras." Toby clicked his tongue.

"So, the question still remains. How are we going to get in?"

"The guild master, Farnes, is holding a party for his son to celebrate becoming an adult and a gold-ranker." A picture of a man appeared above the blueprint. He had a sharp jaw and slicked-back black hair. It was the same person I saw at my silver-rank registration.

"It's the same guy," Cerise confirmed my suspicion before I could even ask.

"I thought he didn't have a son," I mused.

"That was a frequent topic in news articles until those stories were replaced by reports of the journalists who wrote them going missing."

"How do you not know?" Toby interjected.

"He adopted him, named him James Solberg, and overnight announced him the heir of Phoenix Guild. It's all the buzz; how do you not know?"

"I was in the rift, and afterward, I haven't had any real time to check the news. When is this party, and how are we going to infiltrate it?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Tomorrow, and have you forgotten who I am?" An invitation appeared on the screen.

"Guildmaster of The Phoenix Guild, Farnes Solberg, formally invites Guildmaster Eric Truman of the Truman Guild and his family to attend James Solberg's inauguration as the Phoenix Guild's master." Cerise wore a smug expression.

"And what's the plan after getting in?" Toby asked.

"I will tell you on the go. Right now, we have one night and day and two places to check."

"What are we waiting for then?" Toby stood up and cracked his knuckles.

"They could be traps you know." I said.

"Do we have a choice? Stop being a pussy and let's go." — I arrived at the warehouse district on the bike Toby lent me; he had already gone to the docks in his van.

"Exactly how many warehouses are here?" I asked Cerise through the intercom. She was back at base, assisting Toby and me via her computer.

"Three dozen," she answered. The case at the back of the bike opened on its own, and a drone silently flew up, climbing into the night sky until it was almost invisible from the ground.

"There are no cameras here," Cerise said.

"I'll be using the drone's night and thermal cameras to help you. I've also hacked about fifty-three phones in this area and have been listening in since this evening. Three conversations were suspicious. I've identified one as monster smuggling; you'll have to investigate the other two."

"Isn't that illegal? Shouldn't we do something about that?"

"It isn't our job. I'll alert the police after this. Focus on your task." I didn't like it, but we had more pressing matters to address.

"For a second, I thought I'd have to check all thirty-six of them."

"You will have to; these two are just top priority." I sighed and channeled my magika. Focusing on Shadowstride, I vanished and emerged on the opposite side of the high walls protecting the warehouse district.

"Get out of there quick, someone is coming!" Cerise screamed into the intercom. I hurriedly used Shadowstride again and went back outside. Gasping, I heard a stream hitting the wall on the other side.

"You idiot," Cerise shouted.

"Why did you just teleport in?"

"I sensed the shadows on the other side, and it was clear, so I went right in. But it looks like that guy's shadow overlapped with the wall, which made me unable to sense him." I heard Cerise doing her breathing exercise.

"Do not teleport just anywhere until I give you the clear. Is that clear, Clark Benz?"

"Yes," I answered with resolution.

"Good, that guy is done pissing. You can teleport in now."

"Can you tell me how clear it is? I don't really want to go anywhere near where he pissed."

"100 meters to the west and north, 40 meters to the east, all clear." I teleported seventy meters northwest into the tiny alley between two warehouses.

"Okay, now that I'm in, which one do I have to check out first?"

"Third warehouse to your right. The thermal camera is detecting two people, both on the topmost floor, drinking, I think. But there are five phones in there. Through one, I can hear snoring, and the other two seem to be actually guarding whatever they're supposed to be guarding."

"Okay... is it safe to teleport?"

"Teleport three warehouses across, just outside it." I teleported where she asked me to.

"I'm using your button camera to get the heat signature. Face towards the warehouse... good, looks like there are no extra guards. They're guarding a trailer. It's insulated; I can't see inside it with the thermal camera. You will have to go in."

"Okay, so two drunkards, one snoring, and two are actually guarding the trailer. Do you know if they are walkers?"

"They aren't registered walkers, at the very least. Can't help you beyond this."

"Okay, here's to hoping they don't have a detection skill." I channeled the magika, focusing on Shadowstride. A thin veil of my shadow covered me, strengthening my muscles, but I did not teleport. The room was mostly dark, and I detected only a snoring man and one guard. Mental note: don't always depend on shadow detection, especially in dark places. Instead, I used my enhanced strength to leap, hopping from wall to wall and utilizing tiny crevices to ascend.

I reached the topmost window, peering through to spot two men drinking. Three empty glass bottles lay on the ground while the men each gulped from another. It seemed they were thoroughly enjoying getting drunk on duty. I chose a darker corner and teleported in, unnoticed by the drunkards. I pulled out the pistol Cerise had given me. It wasn't lethal; it fired sleeping darts—or rather, not even darts.

Cerise had described them as tiny paintballs that the skin absorbs, which then enter the bloodstream, sending the target into a deep sleep within a minute, leaving no trace. I aimed at the closer drunkard, relying on my copper-ranked shooting skill, unlocked at the costly arms training. I fired, hitting him in the neck. He scratched at it, dismissing it as a bug bite. I then shot the other man's hand, and he reacted similarly. After a minute, both men began to snore.

I walked to the outer edge, still hiding in the shadows, and looked down from between the railings. The trailer was parked at the opposite end from the gates. One guy sat on top of it, a rifle lying beside him, while the other sat on a carton with a spear. They talked to each other about mundane things. I suspected the guy with the spear was the Walker, but whoever it was, I would prefer to avoid a fight. I aimed first at the guy with the spear. It was hard to aim with a pistol from this far away.

I took a deep breath and held it, stabilizing my hand. I fired. There was no sound. It hit him right in the shoulder.

"Does it work through clothes?" I asked Cerise in a very low voice.

"Yeah." The spear guy scratched the spot where I had shot him. Next, I aimed at the guy sitting on top of the trailer. He was harder to shoot because he was in the dark, and I couldn't see the upper half of his body. Somehow, I managed to get a shot at his belly. The spear guy dropped first.

"Hey, hey, what happened?" The other guy jumped down from the trailer and walked toward his companion. Then he dropped on top of him. Both of them snored loudly.

"The already sleeping guy is right below you. Shoot him just to be sure."

"Done before you asked." I teleported and shot him before Cerise completed her sentence. I walked toward the trailer, past the sleeping guards, and broke the iron lock under my grip. The door opened with a creak. It wasn't what we were looking for. There were drugs, guns, and gadgets.

"Looks like it's a bust," Cerise said.

"On to the next one, I guess."