On the first underground floor in the reception area, Mike was met by the same girl on duty as yesterday.

"Good afternoon," she said, "Mike de Graaf right?"

"Good afternoon," Mike greeted her, "That's right."

"You haven't finished all the tests yet?"

"I'm left with the psychologist's office."

"The psychological test is in room seven," she reminded him. "You can go through."

"Thank you," Mike answered her and headed in the direction she indicated.

 

There was no one in front of Room 7, so Mike knocked and went inside.

In the spacious, comfy office was an elderly man sitting at a desk facing the entrance.

"Good afternoon," Mike greeted him. "Mike de Graaf, passing attestation."

"Good afternoon, young human, I remember you," the man said and then pointed his hand to two chairs in front of his desk, but on opposite sides of him "Have a seat."

"Thank you," Mike said, choosing one of the chairs. "And Professor. I already told you I don't have a drop of human blood in me."

Mike put his papers of attestation on the table. The professor began to fill them out.

"You'll have to excuse the old man, my memory isn't what it used to be. Often fails," the professor apologized.

Mike, however, was skeptical. There were many rumors about Professor Charles Stonehead in the Ministry, but his poor memory was not one of them. Some considered him almost the second most dangerous creature after their boss. With some of the rumors, Mike was in complete agreement, but on the whole, the professor left a pleasant impression.

This was not the first psychological test Mike had taken. He usually took it once a year, just like everyone else. This time it was almost a year and a half from the last test because of the mission. Each test was in some way similar to the previous ones, some of the tasks remained the same and some changed each time and were never repeated.

When he finished filling out the papers, the professor pulled out a stack of cards from his desk.

"So," the professor said. "You've taken the test more than once before, so I won't explain much."

"Yeah, sure," Mike agreed with him.

"Good. Then the first test."

The professor laid out eight colored cards in front of Mike.

"Just like before, pick the one you like best out of the eight colors," Mike chose. "Now from the remaining seven."

So Mike chose colors until there was one left. The professor wrote down the result and then pulled out another set of colored cards.

"Now do the same with these cards," the professor told him.

Mike repeated the test, although he clearly thought the colors on the cards were perceived to be different. Everyone, he asked also noticed that the cards were perceived differently.  But, no one could say how or why.

When he finished with the colored cards, the professor moved on to the next test. He pulled out another impressive stack of cards.

"I'm going to show you cards with abstract pictures. Your task is to say what you see - people, animals, objects, or nature. Or maybe something else entirely."

"Okay professor," Mike said and the professor showed him the first picture card.

There were about forty picture cards in all. On some Mike could tell exactly what he was seeing, but on others, with all his imagination, he could not tell what he was seeing.

"Next test. I say a statement and you will answer - agree, disagree, don't know," the professor explained on the next test.

Mike nodded affirmatively.

"Most of the time I'm able to hold my temper. I rarely lose my temper."

"Yes," Mike replied without hesitation.

There were more than a hundred such statements, so the test took quite a long time.

"Not tired," the professor asked Mike.

"No. I'm fine. We can go on."

"Okay. Next test."

The professor put a blank sheet of paper and a pencil in front of Mike.

"You have five minutes. You can draw any picture you can think of."

"Okay Professor," Mike said and started drawing. After five minutes, he handed it to the professor. The professor looked at the picture and put it in his papers.

"Good. One last thing. Tell me, young human, what good things and bad things have happened to you in the last year."

 

In the afternoon a carriage arrived at the Lone Star Bar. A tall dark-skinned man in an expensive suit and carrying a cane got out of the carriage. He looked around and headed inside.

"The bar is closed," the barman said when he heard the bell of the front door.

"I know," he heard him reply and looked up at the person who had entered.

"Sorry sir, we're always open for you," recognizing the person who entered. The barman immediately apologized and bowed.

"At his place?" asked the man.

"Yes, sir," replied the barman.

The entered man made his way toward the inner rooms, stopped by the door, and knocked twice. A few seconds later the door was opened by a big bald man, recognizing the stranger, he immediately let him inside.

"Leave us alone, Johnny," said the man.

Johnny obeyed without further question and immediately left, while the entrant sat down in a comfy chair.

"Monsieur de Brian, I did not expect to see you today," asked Quick as he sat down.

"Paul, I have heard you had a visitor," asked Louie de Brian.

"Yes, sir."

"And who was it."

Paul named the visitor.

"Wonderful," marveled de Brian. "What a figure came here. And what he wanted?"

"That I should do one job."

"Surely you agreed to it."

"Yes, sir," said Pull, then he opened his vault and drew out the papers and handed them to de Brian.

"How interesting. Have you decided how you're going to carry out this job yet," he asked Paul as he read the papers.

Paul told him a rough plan.

"I've already sent people out to start surveillance. And I think we can do it tomorrow," Paul finished his story.

"Hmm," de Briand thought to himself. "If it works out and he gets locked up...Let me know where they send him. I might have my own plans."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Has my cargo been delivered?"

At that question, Paul grimaced.

"I hope she's all right?" worried De Brian.

"She finished off one of ours and put another one in the hospital."

"And where is she now? I hope she's alive?"

"She's alive, just a little banged up. Sitting in a cage downstairs."

"Is at least someone keeping an eye on her?"

"Yeah, there's two men on guard duty."

"Come on, show her to me."

Paul and de Brian came out of the room.

"I'm going down," he said to Johnny standing by the door. "Follow me this way," he pointed a hand to de Brian.

They went down into the basement. The cellar was dark with no lights. Paul took a portable magic lamp on the wall near the entrance and lit it. The basement was large for several rooms. There was a lot of miscellaneous junk underfoot, but it was walkable.

"This way," Paul pointed toward one of the next rooms.

The room was small, three by three meters, and completely empty. Paul lit two extra lights on the walls. There was a pentagram on the floor that took up almost the entire size of the room.

Paul took out a pouch and took five crystals from it and placed them in the holes in the floor. With the last crystal, the pentagram began to glow and activated after ten seconds.

The room where they had transferred to was a spacious hall, five meters wide and a little longer. The room was lit by a single lamp on the low ceiling just above the pentagram.

Two guys were sitting at a table near the wall. There were cards laid out on the table and a couple of mugs and bottles with obscure contents.

When one of them saw Paul and de Brian, he tried to hide the standing bottles.

"Boss..." began the second of the men sitting there.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing here," Paul immediately snapped when he saw them. "I gave you an order. Watch the girl. Keep an eye on her. And no booze."

"Well, what's she gonna do," replied one, "She's on a chain and won't bite, she can only bark."

"Ha-ha-ha," both laughed richly at their joke.

"Shut up, both of you," barked Paul. "If anything happens to her, I'll shove your eyes up to your ass."

"Boss, we were checking on her five minutes ago," one apologized. "It's all right, don't get steamed up."

"Fucking morons," spat Paul on the floor. "Put the booze away, now."

"Yeah, boss," they agreed, reluctantly.

Paul and de Brian went to the next room. The room was arranged with three 2.5 meters by 1-meter cages made of thick iron bars.

The two side cages were empty. In the central one was a chained girl. Thick anti-magic bracelets were put on her wrists and she was suspended from the ceiling by chains. The length of the chains was just long enough for her to stand on her toes, but no more.

The girl was quite beautiful, tall, slender, and young. However, right now her appearance left a lot to be desired. The only clothes she was wearing were her underwear. If one looked closely, there were cuts and bruises all over her body, though the dark color of her skin made them barely noticeable. She wore a slave anti-magic collar of black metal around her neck. There were also black anti-magic metal bracelets around her ankles.

When Paul opened the door the girl woke up and looked with difficulty at the men who had entered.

"She doesn't look well," de Brian remarked. "Did you at least bring a doctor to see her?"

"Yes, I had a healer, and he fixed her up," Paul replied affirmatively.

They came closer to the cage. The girl gathered her strength and said.

"Do you know what will happen to you for kidnapping me? Do you know who I am? Do you..."

It was obvious that she was having difficulty speaking, but de Brian interrupted her before she could finish.

"My dear. I know exactly who you are. That is why you are here, Lieutenant Selvi Meyer," de Brian smiled. "I'm the only one asking questions here. Do you understand?"

In response, Sylvie spat in his direction but did not hit him. De Brian sighed.

"Hurting girls gives me no pleasure, but work is work," he said and poked the end of his cane into her right pinky finger. The next moment the pinky turned black and crumbled to the floor in ash.

"Aah..." the girl screamed in pain and convulsed.

When she stopped screaming and calmed down a little, de Brian asked her.

"Again," de Brian repeated slowly. "I ask, you answer. Do you understand?"

There was no answer.

"All right. I'll do it the hard way."

De Brien briefly poked her in the heart area with his cane. After a moment Sylvie was out of breath, she could not breathe in or out, and after a second her eyes went dark and her legs began to buckle.

After waiting five seconds, de Briand poked her again briefly in the same spot with his cane. After another second a strong breath followed, and then a violent cough mixed with an attempt to breathe.

"You know I have many more ways to hurt you," he turned to Sylvie when she came to her senses a little.

"Sir," Paul addressed de Brian. "I will be outside. If you need anything, just let me know."

 

Paul had been sitting with his two men in the pentagram room for about an hour. They sat gloomy, silent, in no mood at all to continue playing cards. Paul even had a few drinks, but it didn't help. Even through the closed door, they could regularly hear the screams and groans.

Finally, de Briand came out to them. All three of them stared at him. They could see from de Brian's face that he was annoyed.

"The trashy girl is still stalling and won't tell me what I need to know."

"You haven't managed to get her to talk at all, sir," Paul ventured to ask the question.

"No, on the contrary. She told me a lot of things. But it's all garbage."

De Brian thought for a moment, and then gathered his thoughts and said.

"Clean it up in there," he nodded his head toward the room. "And get a healer to fix her up. I'll work with her again after tomorrow."

 

After finishing the psychological test, Mike went up to his department. They're waiting for him was Lieutenant Caroline de Tarro, who immediately jumped up when she saw him.

"Chief, chief," she rushed toward him. "We have a serious problem."

"What happened, and where is everybody?" he asked her.

"Lieutenant Selvi Meyer is missing, sir."

"Missing how? She didn't show up for work?" surprised Mike.

"Yes, she didn't show up for work. Her department got worried but didn't pay much attention. And when our people came to see them, they decided to go to her house after all. Anyway, all our people are there," Caroline said in the same breath.

"Hopefully they'll figure out to get the local guards involved right away."

"Yeah, they split up, and Captain Nights went there right away."

"Do you know her address," Mike asked.

"Yes, sir. 31 Third River Street, apartment 7," replied Caroline.

"Great. Pack up Lieutenant, we'll go to the place."