They arrived at the mine. Its design was certainly dated, predating anything Gunnar had seen before. Even within the ancient maintenance tunnels, it looked like parts of it were even held up partially by wooden beams.

Somehow, something else awaited them at the mine’s entrance, other than Natalia of course. A familiar van with a familiar man standing next to it. Nati stood by Oswin, looking none too pleased. Rather than his usual rude self, the man seemed to be apologising, quite profusely too. Something he had never done to Gunnar.

Though they were out of earshot, Gunnar could read his friend’s body language well enough to know that she wasn’t amused by the situation. In fact, she turned to glare at him and stomp her feet, marching over. ‘Here we go,’ Gunnar sighed under his breath, Kat stifling a snort next to him.

‘The fuck Gunnar,’ Nati pointed a finger at the confused mercenary.

He placed his hand to his chest. ‘Did I do something?’

She turned her pointing finger to the van. ‘That flatcap wearing oddity just said that they were listening in to our conversations. Why the fuck did you let them do that?’

‘Oh right. I forgot that I’m omniscient. I do apologise, my lady.’ Gunnar bowed. Whilst staring at the floor, he felt a light, pointed fist slap his arm and a few more stifled giggles.

Still, despite his joking, Gunnar certainly didn’t like the thought that his employer was spying on him. He looked back up to see Oswin walking towards them, his expression saying that he very much didn’t want to be there. ‘Care to explain, Oswin?’

There were a few grumbles and a dismissive glance. ‘Lord Walther wishes to speak with you.’

Gunnar looked at the sisters, Nati was now scowling more at Oswin than him, just as he had hoped. He didn’t know that he was being spied on, but then, Walther had all those cameras, maybe they just had audio too, or maybe he had something even worse out there. ‘We’re in kind of a rush here, can’t it wait?’

Oswin shook his head. ‘It’s related.’

‘Well now I can’t even ignore it, thanks flat arse.’ Gunnar pushed past Oswin who had begun to growl and complain as usual. It was a pretty light insult in Gunnar’s mind, but maybe the flatness of his posterior was something of a trigger for the man.

As soon as he reached the van door, it slid open, with a decorated black cain appearing in the doorway. ‘Come in Gunnar Vaene.’

He hopped in the van, seeing Walther in his usual spot. The door closed behind him, it was routine now. ‘So you’re fully spying on me now?’

Walther held a remote, using it to flick through various news stories, most of which were about the riot or the murder. ‘You should have better awareness of your surroundings. It’s not like my drones have camouflage,’ he replied quite absent minded.

Gunnar sat down opposite the distracted old man, he took a glass of what looked like wine and gave it a sniff. Placing it back down with a sour expression. ‘So. Is it alright for them to be here?’ He nodded towards where his friends stood.

‘You’ve talked to them about me. I’m sure even more than the times I know about. Besides, it’s not like you gave me much choice, you’re always with them these days.’

The mercenary raised a brow. ‘You could have just called me? I messaged you days ago, when all this shit went down.’ He pointed at the screen behind him.

Walther’s eyes were still glued to the screens, his expression didn’t change. ‘Look at all of this. All triggered by one foolish fatalist view of humanity. Every screen, every channel. The timing feels direct, on purpose, as if to mock me.’ He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, rubbing his temple.

Gunnar looked around and cleared his throat. ‘So… Why did it take you so long to call me?’

His employer looked up, bemused. ‘You may think me paranoid, but I was waiting. What you requested required me to get others in my employ involved, which I am loath to do. I had to make sure that you were not in Puppets pocket.’

If there was any surprise left in Gunnar, it wasn’t going to be wasted at his employer’s trust issues. ‘I’ll take it I passed, since I’m here. Though that does beg the question of why I am here.’

Walther sat himself up straight again. ‘Before that. I wanted to get your insight. You have interacted with the Sinman more than any of us. What do you think they hope to accomplish here?’

Gunnar puffed out a breath of air. ‘War?’ He shrugged.

‘But could it be so simple?’ Walther pressed.

The mercenary could only think like a mercenary, like a warrior, so this sort of thing wasn’t his expertise. ‘Either way, doesn’t this help you? Even if it doesn’t trigger a war, doesn’t a rebellion against the nobles help you with your plans?’

Walther scoffed, dismissing Gunnar’s thoughts with a wave. ‘Did you forget I’m a noble too? I don’t want the nobility dead, I just want them better. At a more equal level to the rest of the city.’ He pressed a button on his remote, switching the screens off behind Gunnar. ‘We’re well off topic now anyway, I may as well ask why you’re after the Gospel of Puinsee?’

Gunnar sat back in his chair with a smirk. ‘You have your secrets, I should be allowed mine.’ Though he didn’t have many these days with Walthers drones dotted around. It was a miracle he didn’t know their purpose here.

The hint of a smile peaked in the corner of Walther’s mouth. ‘Just be careful. The Gospel is more elusive than the Ubara House.’ Walther then pulled the pad out that sat on his arm rest. He looked down at it, pressed what he needed to press, then looked up at Gunnar. ‘I’m sending you an address. Or co-ordinates to be more precise. As the address is somewhat… Fabricated.’

Gunnar pulled the pad from his pockets to see the file Walther had sent. The fifth warehouse in a district of twenty mostly abandoned warehouses. Sitting in the middle of an old industrial complex turned-dweller housing estate. ‘Why?’ he asked, not taking his eyes off his screen.

Walther took a long breath. ‘It’s the location of my operation for sector fourteen. You’re going to meet the rest of the team.’

Gunnar stared at his pad, then back at Walther. He blinked a few times, then simply smiled. ‘Finally time, huh?’

He didn’t get much of a reaction. Instead Walther tapped the wall of the van, to signal Oswin still stood outside. ‘I imagine this outing is somewhat urgent, so I’ll wait until after you’re done. Just be quick and let me know before you arrive.’ As he finished the door slid open, to Oswin tapping his foot.

Gunnar didn’t really know how to react, so he just nodded his thanks and threw his pad back in his pocket. As he climbed out the door he paused to look back at Walther. ‘I’ll try not to disappoint,’ he replied with a wink, before jumping out.

He patted Oswin’s shoulder as he walked past, who shrugged it off and grumbled like usual. Gunnar waved at the sisters, stood nearby and motioned towards the mine. ‘You girls ready?’

‘As long as they’re not coming with us,’ Nati replied.

The van started up and began to drive away, Gunnar threw a wave at them and Nati joined. Gunnar turned back to the sisters as soon as the vehicle was far enough away. ‘I Think I might’ve just gotten a raise?’

Nati slapped his arm with a big grin. ‘Ha! Finally moving up in the world huh?’ She elbowed her sister. ‘Maybe one day he’ll move out of that ruin, right Kat?’

The younger sister’s attention seemed to be far off, she responded with a grunt and nothing more. Nati and Gunnar looked at each other. ‘Hey, lil sister, you good?’ Nati patted her cheek.

Kat looked down and gawked at her sister for a second before blinking, resetting her brain. ‘Uh yeah, sorry. Think I’m just stuck on the mess at the Park, y’know? Shits taking a while to dawn on me maybe?’

Understandable, but something seemed a little off. Still, they had a job to do, Gunnar turned and pulled his gun out of his jacket. ‘Just try and not do that when face to face with a cultist, yeah?’ He felt a familiar light thump on his right shoulder, he smiled, ignoring the barely registering pain and carried on walking, into the mine’s entrance.

They had already told Aethel about where they were headed, as a group they made the decision that Aethel wasn’t to join them. He was the only one that voted against that, unsurprisingly. Despite his protests however, Aethelstan did stay back. Even he knew that his personal investment would cloud his decision making. They had no idea what really transpired and Aethel wasn’t the type to live comfortably after taking innocent life. Instead, he was waiting on call with a whole squad of militia, with Finch’s permission. Whether they could even get the connection to signal him deep in a mine was questionable though.

The mine seemed normal from first look other than the heavy use of wood. Not that any of them had ever been in one before, but they had all at least seen them on the news or in dramacasts. The only thing that stood out to Gunnar at least was the fact that almost every torch was lit. It was the best sign that they were on the right track, if no one was here, why would the torches still be going?

It also begged the question as to why the Gospel would light them, since it hinted at their hideout’s existence and also might help guide others to it. Though that part might be on purpose, perhaps the patterns of the lights helped the lost members reach their church. The torches were lit randomly, at first glance at least. Looking deeper it seemed as though there was some kind of pattern to it, unfortunately, it was quite hard to discern.

Out of the three of them, Kat had the best eye for such details, she had a love of all detective novels. She might not have been as trained as the militia’s best, but she was decent for a mercenary. Generally mercenary work needed some level of detective skills, but it really depended on which contracts you decided to pick up. Gunnar tended more towards the loud and violent or the sneaky and stealy style of work.

Long story short, they relied on the youngest sister to guide them. According to her, the pattern was simplicity hiding in complexity. The torches were hung in sets of three. If the middle was lit, it meant go on ahead, if the left was lit it meant go left and if the right was lit it meant go right. Pretty simple on the surface, the issue was sometimes there were multiple and sometimes none at all. Also there were turns that didn’t appear for a while after the torches. If it was the pattern, it didn’t make much sense. Even to the woman who now claimed to have it all under control.

Eventually Kat’s route led them to a large open area. It looked like a deeper camp, a base of operations for the deep mines. Broken mining equipment and air canisters could be seen scattered across the room. Tents, torn and withered were dotted around with the odd bit of clothing or dusty trinket. A muddy ramp with a single track ran down the middle, separating the tents like a street. At the bottom of the ramp were two tunnels and in between them a prefab office still standing since it was made of a metal and plastic compound. The problem was, the torches were lit in front of both tunnels.

Nati started to look around without waiting. Searching for anything interesting she might find in the old camp. Gunnar turned to Kat, hands on his hips. ‘Any ideas?’ he shrugged.

Kat stepped forward, finger on her chin, brow screwed in concentrated thought. She looked between them then at the small office. ‘That’s mostly intact right? Might have something that could help us in it.’

Gunnar followed her finger then turned back. ‘How?’

‘Well… I dunno? Like we don’t know how long the Gospel has been here for. Maybe their home predates the mine. Could even be why the operation stopped. Or maybe the Gospel themselves have used it, worth a look at least.’ She smiled broadly, quite happy with herself.

Gunnar watched as she practically skipped down the track. At this point, rather than worry over whether they found the cult, his main worry was whether or not they could find their way back out of the mine. They were already so deep inside. Nati’s fancy vision enhancements let her highlight the residue from recent footsteps, but would they be done in time to follow their tracks so far back?

Nearby, the aforementioned older sister continued to loot, for lack of a better term. She always had a thing for it, treasure hunts and the like. The same reason she liked shiny new guns probably. ‘Hey! I think I’ve got something!’ At the bottom of the ramp, Kat called out to the pair of them.

He arrived at the building shortly after Natalia. Kat knelt down pushing around a few pads and notes. She grabbed one note in particular that was already partially revealed. It was a simple message from the foreman to themselves about a large cavern needing further prospecting. Kat smiled widely, full mouth. Kat and Gunnar peaked at each other, both thinking a similar thing. It may have been a small lead, but it was a lead.

The note implied said cavern could be found deeper through the left tunnel, left from where they came in that is. Nati sucked her teeth. ‘I guess we’ve got nothing else.’

The sisters carried on the search, one clearly happier in stride than the other. Gunnar followed close behind, but grabbed a nearby black notepad first. He frowned. These must have been very old notes, given how expensive paper was these days. Given how expensive it’s been for a long while now. They’re probably very valuable, very important pieces of old history.

Gunnar had to resign himself as he began to rip pieces off and stomp them gently into the mud. A bread crumb trail. Their boot prints helped but half of the ground was stone, so there weren’t as many prints as he would have liked.

For another thirty minutes or so the group followed a rough estimation of the torches guide. There were finally signs of life, or signs of life once calling these tunnels their own. Old matted bedrolls and long forgotten camps. Small living spaces, likely for the desperate and lost. Eventually, they found themselves in front of something completely different. Something a little odd, even in their line of work. A door of fog, to be exact.