The longer I spent aimlessly wandering these corridors, the more my anxiety grew. I had crossed paths with several people, but thankfully, as soon as I greeted them, they all came to the conclusion that I was working for Mr Solomon, and that I had every right to be here. Of course, I didn’t contradict them, but I couldn’t exactly ask for directions either.

At least, thanks to my ‘backtrack’ skill, it was easy enough to remember which corridors I had and hadn’t gone through. So, eventually, I found myself in a new area. It seemed to be newer than the rest, with more modern floors and ceiling, but also more secure-looking doors lining the corridors, and visible security cameras.

There were also more and more people loitering around these corridors, and an alarming number of them were wearing military uniforms. The rest either had civilian clothes or lab coats. I inferred from this that I was getting closer to my goal. But it also meant that now I had to take steps to avoid these people as much as possible. I had to backtrack whenever I saw too large of a group heading my way, and I had to hide behind corners to avoid others.

At one point, I noticed that a guard had started trailing me. I was slightly surprised that it had taken them this long, as I had been here for some time now, but it also meant that I had to get my ass out of dodge, so to say. I tried to lose them amongst the corridors, but they knew the lay of the land well enough not to fall for that.

So, I did the next best thing, and used my keycards (both of them at the same time), to unlock a door that looked more secure than the rest. I assumed it was some sort of server room, which would have been a perfect place to hide in. But, when I pushed the door, I found myself in a small and empty conference space which overlooked a large laboratory.

“Wait!” The guard called out.

“You saw someone else.” I whispered as I closed the door behind me.

Thankfully, it had a physical lock on the inside, which I promptly turned. Then, I crouched, so as to not be visible from the other side of the windows that ran the length of the room.

“Ah, there you are!” A male voice exclaimed.

I jerked up and pulled out the gun. But no one had entered the room.

“I have been here for the past half hour David. Had you only bothered to show up on time.” Another male voice replied.

I realised that the voices were coming from a speaker in the room. Upon further inspection, I saw that a cable ran from the speaker through into the floor, no doubt to the open space beneath. It didn’t matter much though, as I had other places to be.

I kneeled by the door, and listened for any footsteps or commotion, trying to find the best time to leave this office space.

“I was busy with subject Alpha.” The first person replied, his voice transmitted once more through that speaker.

I froze, and then, as silently as I could, made my way towards the windows.

They opened on a large, hangar-like structure, which was divided in two by a long row of growing tubes. Only, instead of plants, they were filled with jellyfish-like masses and other unidentifiable ones. The outer walls of the lab were lines with workstations, separated between them with equipment I could not name. A handful of people busied themselves in this area. The two people that did catch my attention were two men located in the leftmost corner of the room, just under the conference room. One of them, a broad-shouldered, dark-skinned man with glasses was leaning onto a radio relay. At least, I assumed that’s what it was, because of the cables that run from it and into the rest of the facility. One of these cables did run up to my hiding spot.

The other man stood opposite his colleagues, with arms crossed over his chest. He wore a military uniform, but not the kind you’d wear to the field, and more one of the non-combat ones.

“Yes, you always are. What I need to know is when you’re precious human slaughterhouse will be able to intervene on the field.” The dark-skinned man spoke.

The military man made a diseased sound and started pacing around.

Having seen enough, I ducked back under the cover of the concrete wall that supported the window. I was pretty sure they were talking about Cain. Unless they somehow held another S-tier prisoner. Which I highly doubted, considering the level of security in this place, or rather lack thereof.

“He is unresponsive to so many things!” The military man complained. “Both positive reinforming and punishment. And the fact that he can recover from everything but a nuclear bomb doesn’t make things easier.”

“Ah, so that’s what the aeroplane engine was for.” The other man dismissively replied. “Listen David,” he continued, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We have the means to change history, to win the war. I hope you understand that. So please, get that kid under control. How hard can it be, with your background?”

“You do realise that he doesn’t want to be here, right?” David said bluntly.

The other man scoffed.

“No, Hermand, I’m serious. He’s putting up too much resistance. I think you don’t realise what will happen if we deploy a soldier that can go mental on us any second.”

Hermand scoffed again.

“I really don’t see the issue, David. Train his casting skills. He won’t be much good if he runs out of MP.”

David rubbed his temple in a dramatic gesture.

“Do you even read the reports I send you? So far, he’s always been holding back, waiting for the perfect chance to attack either my men or yours.”

“Are you sure your men aren’t just a bunch of idiots? I’m not saying that as an insult, I just think you need to do some restructuring.”

“I’d like to see you have a go at taming an S ranker with your C and D skills.” David replied in an annoyed tone.

As I was still listening to them, and occasionally peaking through the window, all remaining doubt about kidnaping Cain had vanished from my mind. These people were as fucked up as I’d imagined them in the book and even though I had ulterior motives, mine were still morally superior to theirs. However, apart from setting my moral dilemma, the two men didn’t give me much useful information. And I was starting to worry again about staying in the same place for too long.

“Mr. Solomon!” A third voice called out.

I peaked through the window to see a guard running up to the duo.

“Yes. What is it?” The man in military uniform turned around.

“Subject Alpha is out of control again. They need you in Blue Lab.” The guard reported.

David gave Hermand the ‘I told you’ look, before gesturing to the guard to lead the way.

I sneaked back to the door, and after checking that no noise was coming from the other side, I unlocked the door and slipped into the hallway.

“Hey, you,” I could just about make out Herman’s voice over the radio. “Go and check meeting room 3, either this tech is more malfunctioning than I thought, or we’re having a rodent infestation.”

“Shit.” I swore under my breath and closed the door as silently as I could.

I had to act fast. Thankfully that David person was about to lead me straight to Cain.