It is raining again. I used to be annoyed by the rain - it messes with my hair, but today it makes me smile and think about Nathaniel when he laughed and told me, that the constant rain here makes him feel right at home.
The book job took some unexpected turns, if that is what you want to call it.
As planned, we met relatively early on the 9th. Discord had done some research and found out that there is a Manatech Spray, FAB I, that can make Spirits that have not manifested visible under UV light. Both he and Romeo contacted their fixers and got six bottles for us, while I bought some UV flashlights.
Then we decided it would make a better impression to call the TFS first and make an appointment, rather than to just show up. So Romeo called, spoke to the Agent handling their phone calls, and that thing gave us an appointment for today at 9am! I mean seriously, 9am! On a Saturday! If I manage to go to bed early, that means like four to five hours of sleep for me. But, well, what can I do…
We then also tried to come up with a good plan on what to tell them. It might be a bit too forward to ask them about the specific copy of the Sixth Book of Moses that we were planning to get from them. They probably wouldn’t sell anyways, and if they became suspicious they would up security for the book. Instead, we thought, we could bring our own ‘magic book’ and have them consult us about security for it, which seems to be part of their main business. And who knows, maybe they would show us exactly how and where they secure their magical artefacts, that would be quite convenient!
But, for that we needed a book. I own two book. One is my Junior High School Math book from the black site, the other one is “Cosmology - An Introduction for fist year students of Astrophysics” by Dr. Alexis Irdan. None of them seems exceptionally magical…
Romeo said, that his parents have a library (- of course they have! Probably right between their indoor pool and their fucking horse stables!) He was going to have a look at the books there, while I was planning to check out the flea marked close to my apartment block in Tarislar.
On the way there I called Nathaniel! I thought, since I had the evening off, maybe we could do something. He said he would love to, but he had work until the morning. But I could come by Saturday, if I wanted to. I let him know that I had a meeting that day, which seemed safe enough to tell, but that I would visit him afterwards if I got out at a reasonable time.
I decided to do my best not to get injured, so I could show up showered and nicely dressed like for a date, rather than bruised and bleeding, needing medical attention. Maybe I could even get him some flowers. Thinking about it, he might actually like that.
At the flea marked I was marginally successful. I found a book. An old clothbound one, written in some strange foreign script that looked just weird enough:
Бѣлыя ночи
Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский
But when I asked the seller about it they said it was probably Russian. It wasn’t too expensive, so I took it, just in case Romeo couldn’t part his family from one of their library books.
It would not have been necessary since it turned out that Romeo could not only get a book from there, he even managed to find the fucking Sixth Book of Moses itself! A newer version than the one Andrea wants, but still, what the hell!?
But I am kind of happy about owning three books now. And since I spent my Friday evening at home and got curious about it, I bought a Lingua Soft for Russian to read it. It is a collection of some short stories. They are actually quite good.
So I got up early today. Like around 7am. The sun’s barely up at that time! Not that one would have noticed, since it had started to rain over night… Still, I had to put on my suit and get ready for Hunt0rKill0r69 to pick me up. To be on the safe side, I stuffed my coat and sword into my duffle bag and took them to the Van, and boy was I glad I did that!
We were out of the car for maybe five minutes before we returned. While getting changed, me into my coat and Romeo into Discords Body Armor Bag, we explained to a confused Andrea and a seemingly vexed 69, who we had interrupted right after starting a new video game, that some shit must have gone down at the TFS office building.
The front door to the building was locked (fair enough at this hour, I guess…) and no one was to be seen through the glass front, despite - as Discord pointed out - there being several cars parked at the employees parking. Romeo even called and spoke to the Agent, which confirmed our appointment and told us that a receptionist would let us in any moment now. Only, there was no receptionist. So we decided to gear up and open the door ourselves.
Romeo, in his chick bag, opened the lock. Discord mentioned a barrier and switched off his powers to walk through the door, then immediately turned them on again. And I just walked in.
Inside it was semi-dark. The rain outside was the only sound to be heard, except for the usual annoying buzzing of electronics. And not a soul to be seen. Only a shit ton of moss and flowers everywhere, decoratively planted. I remember reading something about Glow Moss once. It can detect astral stuff, I think. At least it starts to glow when Discord comes closer, and gets dimmer again when he moves away. And Romeo explains that the flowers are Haven Lilies which are used to create mana ebbs.
As we walk further inside, moving away from the door, the glass front and the rain, the silence becomes heavy and uncomfortable.
We employ the FlySpy to have a look around the floor, but there is nothing, and no one.
There are some elevators, all moving up til the 7th floor, as well as to two levels of basement. We decide to start with the basement and take the elevator to B1.
We are ready for anything as the door opens, but the only thing there is, is more electronic buzzing. Server rooms and mundane storage. No books, no Spirits. No people. So we go further down to B2, and find it pretty much the same.
Obviously Romeo is bored already, he keeps reading in his families copy of the Sixth Book of Moses every chance he gets. At least Discord seems alert and keeps updating us on how the magic is behaving on each level. The 7th floor, to which we go next, he describes as magically muffled. I wonder if it feels as crushing as the eerie silence that reigned below.
Up here the rain is drumming on the ceiling, which I find even more taxing. I am tense and my skin crawls. Now I wish I could still hear everything around that might not belong here with us.
We let the FlySpy take a turn again, but there is nothing other than executive offices and a shit ton of lilies. We try the ghost spray. Nothing.
So we look around. Maybe we can find a safe or something that might contain Andreas Sixth Book. Then we could get out of here and go home. Have a nap maybe. I only got four hours of sleep.
As we walk past a secretaries work place, we notice that the mouse and keyboard are placed quite unusually. It seems as if someone tried to hold on to them for a moment while being pulled back. Something dark and brownish is sprinkled all over the chair. I think of old blood.
Also in the Men’s we find sings of a struggle. Someone has left a shoe behind, and some of their body fluids as well…
And then we find a new elevator. It needs a treatment from Romeo to work for us, but as the doors open we can see even more blood on it’s floor, and smeared bloody hand prints halfway up the wall.
There are two new buttons inside, B6 and B7. Weapons ready we go right down all the way to B7.
We walk out into a hallway. On each side there are two doors. Ahead of us is another one. Everything is bright, white and sterile; except for the blood stains.
The bloody trail leads to the door ahead, so we follow. We move in a V-formation with Discord, our best armored and probably most capable melee fighter in the lead.
It is uncomfortably quiet again down here. Also my ears haven fallen shut in the elevator and I can hear my own heart beat, somewhat elevated.
As Discord opens the door I get ready to shoot, and get shot in the back.
Two guns have appeared from the ceiling behind us. And now I am really glad I have changed to my Armor Coat. This will be a bruise, but nothing more. Romeo got hit as well, but also seems to be fine. Discords Body Bag did a good job.
We rush through the door and close it behind us, just to find ourselves in another white hallway, filled with bright lights and stained with blood.
This time I take the rear and walk backwards, while Romeo keeps his eyes fixed on the ceiling, as we walk along the corridor to the next blood smeared door.
Discord opens it and in both, the hallway behind and the one ahead, the wall opens in two places and releases two drones. Immediately he shuts to door again, so we can deal with them two per two.
In our hallway we are faced with two dog drones running towards us. I shoot at the first one, and it goes down. Discord meets the second one halfway, deals it a good swing with Silencer, and the encounter is over.
Romeo decides to take care of the other drones. First he sends the FlySpy through a crack in the door. We can see the two Steal Lynx pointing their HK227-X submachine guns at it. Then he hacks them and shuts them down.
I feel a bit queasy walking into the hallway, the SMGs pointing right at me, but the Lynx are properly turned off. To be on the safe side, and also safe some money on ammunition, I empty their clips and but the ammo in my pockets. It’s just regular, but still.
At the opposite end of the corridor is, who knew?, another door. But this one is different. Symbols, I am guessing arcane ones, are engraved all over it. And it has a huge steel bolt that can be used to lock it from the outside. This certainly leads to some weird magic shit. Maybe a vault, and the stupid book that we came here for?
Discord listens and tells us he can hear crackling and sloshing from the room behind the Magic Door.
So, before opening it we make use of the available security. We bring the Steal Lynx and place one in front, the other one behind us. They are a decent cover.
I check my HK Urban Combat, making sure it is ready and loaded with ExEx ammo.
Then, again, we open the door just a crack to let the FlySpy go through.
The room is very different from the sterile hallways we are in. The walls are made of stone. They look old, much older that the city above us. Troughs in the floor lead from the walls to an altar in the centre of the crypt. And a crypt it is. Bodies lie on the floor, their blood feeding the troughs, filling them with dark red liquid.
I also notice a person on the floor behind the altar, leaning their back on it. As the FlySpy gives us a better look I recognise him from the surveillance video of Marley’s Hut. He was one of the guys who came to buy the fucking old Sixth Book of Moses. And, speaking of the Devil, or at least his bedtime reading, the book is there as well, lying on the far side of the alter.
We decide to keep making use of the drones. One becomes a door stopper, to keep it from falling shut behind us and potentially locking us in with the bodies, blood and book.
The other one we carry in front of us as a cover, as we enter the crypt. A few steps in we put it down and crouch behind it. We use the ghost spray. Still nothing. Discord bangs his tuning fork on the ground to find out God knows what. And sure, the place is creepy, but what the hell, we can’t move at this speed forever.
I feel a rush of adrenaline as I decide to get up and just go grab the book. I mean, how hard can it be? And it is surely better than to hang out in this place for ages.
SMG ready I start to move towards the alter, and as I am halfway there it appears.
It manifests as a swirly, dripping thing of blood and bone and body parts on top of the altar. It is freaking huge and pretty disgusting. It lifts a thing that one might describe as an arm, makes a gesture, and a body comes flying right at me. I try to get out of the way, but it still knocks me down.
Getting up I get a quick look at Discord behind me. His eyes are bleeding!
I shoot a long burst at the thing, but most bullets go through, as it opens its body in various places for them. Only one hits and explodes, but it doesn’t seem bothered by it.
Discord runs over and hits the thing with Silencer. That it takes note of! And it hits right back with one of its abhorrent limbs. I hear Discord wince. The thing must have injured him pretty badly.
This time I have to get it’s attention! I take a breath, and shoot another long burst at it. And this time the bullets hit it and explode, and I notice it shifting its glance towards me, so I head back behind our Steal Lynx.
Romeo, in the meantime, has managed to run all the way up to and behind the altar. He has grabbed the book and starts back into the direction of me and the door. “Jace, cover us!”, he yells.
Discord swings at the thing one more time, but misses. Then he also starts to run to the door.
I feel a sharp, throbbing pain as blood vessels burst in my body. “Get out!”, I yell at the guys, shooting in the direction of the creature, but missing it, as more of my blood vessels burst and my nose starts to bleed.
Romeo runs out the door, Discord on his heels. I shoot, miss, and follow them, just so noticing that the bloody apparition disappears from the crypt as well.
We can’t even close the door behind, before it manifests again in the hallway ahead of us.
I shoot, and hit it this time. Discord runs at it with Silencer, hits it hard, and the thing explodes, spraying blood all over the place, and all over Discord.
This time it is gone for good!
We have a short discussion about maybe taking one of the Steal Lynx. Then we remember the dude behind the altar. He didn’t look quite as dead as the others, so maybe we should check on him. But as we send the Fly Spy in, to make sure no further spirits have appeared, he is gone. Maybe it’s for the best. Creepy bugger. Probably played some stupid games with the book and won himself a fucking monster.
We lock the door with the steel bolt as we leave.
Back in the car Romeo immediately lights up a Jay.
Discord asks if I want to take a drag now, after the shit we just encountered, but I decline, actually politely this time. I want to be sober when I see Nathaniel. Bad enough that I am coming to him as a patient again…
I look at the guys. Especially Discord seems pretty hurt. Not sure about Romeo, but he looks quite upset, frantically sucking on his Joint.
It seems that instead of flowers, I am going to bring more work.
And how the hell am I supposed to explain all the blood…