novelraw Chapter 51: The 2nd Prison
Chapter 51: The 2nd Prison
"What do you think?" a woman in a dark room asked. She had been hiding in this place ever since last night when they had attacked the two young men.
"What should I think?" the man next to her asked. "Our information was correct. That’s all I’m thinking."
"No, I meant about what the boss said," the woman asked. "He said the mayor would be doing something out of desperation, right? And he did. The boss seems to know a lot of stuff. Do you think he might be an ex-Defender? How did he find out about the truth, I wonder."
"How should I know," the man said. "Either way, since the information we got was correct, then our knowledge about the 2nd prison must be correct as well."
"I don’t know, this feels wrong," the woman said in a hesitating voice. "Isn’t that prison supposed to hold the worst criminals in the town? If they are let loose, will they help us? Wouldn’t they hurt the innocent people instead?"
"I... don’t know," the man said. "I try not to think about it."
The man was still a little shaken from yesterday’s fight. Someone had recognized him and had also remembered his son. That very person was going to be the next mayor too.
’Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing,’ he thought.
The two of them had nothing else to do in the darkroom but simply wait. Someone would come once in a while to bring them food, but other than that, there wasn’t much human interaction on the outside.
They were hiding in a place no one should be searching for, so when they heard a knock on the door, they were surprised.
"But we already got food," the man said softly.
"Who could it be then?" the woman wondered
"Open up!" a deep voice spoke up from outside.
"Boss!" the two of them immediately stood up and went to the door. When they opened the door, a figure walked in that was completely hidden from them.
It was as if the man was clad in shadows, his face invisible within the hood he wore.
"What brings you here, boss?" the woman asked.
The boss ignored her and his hood turned toward the man. "You said the other prison was through the tunnel outside the mayor’s mansion, next to the right cliff, right?" he asked.
"Y-yes," the man said. "A bit further away from the first gate."
"Are you absolutely sure it’s that tunnel?" the boss asked. "You didn’t make any mistake and thought it was that when it wasn’t."
"Yes, I’m absolutely sure," the man said. "I still distinctly remember the young man’s memory of him delivering a criminal there himself about 4 weeks ago."
The man spoke nothing for a few moments before finally saying a single word. "Shit!"
The man and woman looked around. "What’s... going on?" the man asked.
"I made a miscalculation," the man said. "Those criminals aren’t there. The 2nd prison is empty. Dammit! Of course, that would be the case. How could I be so stupid."
The boss turned around and walked away from the room, leaving the two people by themselves once again. Neither of them understood what had just happened, just that there was most likely a problem.
* * * * * *
The mayor looked at the report he had received just moments ago.
’So someone came and checked that place huh?’ he thought. ’They used the memory that they extracted from Bradley?’
He looked through the report and frowned when he realized that it was impossible to tell who had come to check on the location of the 2nd prison.
’They must be using some sort of power,’ he thought. He looked away from the report and wondered what that person was there for.
’So I should be able to conclude without a doubt that there still is a group out there that wants to see my downfall, huh?’ the mayor thought. ’They are after something even after I resigned, so... it’s not me they are after. What else could these people really want?’
He wondered for a bit when a thought crossed his head.
’That incident 3 months ago. That was not normal,’ he thought. ’Someone caused the many crawlers to come through the veil back then. Could it be... the same person?’
When he thought in that direction, he started fearing a bit more than usual. "I must get rid of them as soon as I can. If they cause another such accident then..."
The mayor worried, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t suddenly start a town-wide hunt. These people would just hide in that case.
’I should let them grow,’ he thought. ’They need to grow so much that when trouble comes they can’t hide.’
"I need to find people with appropriate powers to help me," he thought. He had put into work those who he had found, but there were more people he would need if he wanted to nip this problem as soon as he could.
"No time to waste then," the old man thought and grabbed his cane next to him before he started walking away from the room.
He went up a flight of stairs, went down a hallway with quite a few turns, and arrived at the door of the mansion.
He knocked on the door of the room that was right next to the main door. A grumpy, 7-foot-tall Illan walked outside with a frown on his face.
"Were you sleeping already?" the old man asked.
Illan nodded while still holding his frown.
"Well, sorry to wake you up, but we need to go down the town," the mayor said.
"Where to go?" the big, dumb Illan asked.
"To the Defenders," the old man said. "I need to grab some documents there. Come with me."
"Okay," Illan said and walked out of the room.
Then, the two of them strolled out of the mansion and down into the town during the evening so that the mayor could get his hands on the census information.
More accurately, he wanted to see just what sort of powers people had, and just which one of them he could make use of.