Chapter 308
Ann Family's prison cell. Inside the lobby was a simple room with sterile metal walls, metal chairs that were clearly designed to be uncomfortable or easy to clean, and a single round metal table.
Rachel, Kyle, Clyde, Jeanne, Marine, and Gale all sat around the round table, except for Erin, who floated beside him, not bothering with a chair.
"Anyone wanna go first?" Kyle asked.
"I'll go first," Rachel said, clearly looking annoyed.
Pulling out her phone from her pocket, she tapped rapidly until she got into a yellow notes app. "After some convincing, Bonnie talked. Said most of her gang was in on the plan to get distribution channels not just about the money. She wanted to reproduce the dust strain that the Silver Lions produced."
"The lethal one?" Kyle asked.
"Yup. Apparently, still better odds than dying in rifts," Rachel said. "Bonnie claims it was something Spotlight was working on before Gerard took him out. She thinks if she can get any leftovers at all, she'd be able to reproduce it and sell it at a markup since Ollie's too busy fixing his own side."
"She that smart to analyze a vial herself?" Clyde asked.
"It's her innate skill. She has composition analysis via her telekinesis," Rachel said.
Rachel turned to Kyle and Clyde. "What did you find in Chinatown?"
Kyle leaned back, arms crossed. "Found some people who knew Yuxuan. Dealers. Some worked with the bastard directly."
"And?"
"Every single one of them died the moment they started actually talking. The usual shit."
"How many?" Rachel asked.
"Four," Clyde said. "We stopped asking after the fourth one."
"But we did get something from an Early-Attuned before he croaked." Kyle pulled out his phone and showed a photo of a man's face with yellow fluids flowing out of his eyes, nostrils, and mouth. "He said we should try Richmond Hill. Then he died too."
"Big area. Any specifics?"
"Nothing. He died before he could say more."
Jeanne cleared her throat. "Marine and I have information on Sombra."
Kyle nodded for her to continue.
"Well, Sombra isn't an individual. It's a Canadian group," Jeanne said. "We followed rumour trails through Markham. Multiple sources said that the abandoned Pacific Mall's basement was their hideout."
"What did you find?" Kyle asked.
"Bodies." Jeanne's expression didn't change. "Mundane. Seven of them. They'd been dead for at least a week based on decomposition. No signs of Sombra anywhere. The place had been cleared out."
"Cleared out or abandoned?"
"Cleared out. There were marks on the floor where furniture had been moved. Scuff marks from heavy equipment being dragged. Someone packed up and left in a hurry."
"Either those Sombra bitches knew you were coming or they move on the regular," Clyde said.
"Probably the latter," Kyle snorted. "Make a point on busting them later. Yuxuan's more important."
Clyde turned to his side. "Gale, got anything?"
Gale materialized the dust vials and bricks from his space storage, setting them on the table in the middle of the circle.
"Went to Golden Mile Plaza. Found a thug named Paul who worked for the BA Guild." Gale paused. "Paul led me to Big Albert's house on Moreau Trail near St. Clair and Warden. Whole place was covered in yellow paint with red markings, so I couldn't see through the walls."
"Go on," Kyle said.
"Big Albert was inside. Drugged out of his mind. Drooling, rashes everywhere, couldn't even speak." Gale looked directly into Rachel's eyes. "I ended up killing him."
Rachel's fist clenched. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. Just sorry I didn't get him in alive."
"No need to mull over it. Shit happens," Clyde said.
"Wait, did you say drooling and rashes?" Jeanne asked.
Gale nodded.
"Weird. Lily did say something about getting into a fight with two mundanes with the same symptoms..." Marine said.
"You think it's related?" Clyde asked to Kyle.
"Has to be. Problem is, what the fuck is this drug if it can affect Awakened?" Kyle asked.
"Why would that be an issue?" Rachel asked.
"Think about it, Rachel. Once mundanes awaken, all the drugs in the world can't work anymore on them. Some of them miss that high and then turn to dust. If they don't have to take dust and just use the drug, they'd definitely do it," Kyle said.
"And if they can use that drug and had the taste of dust, there's no shot they wouldn't mix them together to get a bigger high," Clyde said, turning his eyes onto the vial on the table.
Gale turned to Erin. "Can you analyze the dust vials?"
Erin simply raised her hands without question, and a single vial floated towards her. They hovered in front of her face as a magic circle materialized between them and her eyes.
The circle was small, maybe the size of her pupils. Patterns rotated as if zooming in and out of the vial. After a few seconds, the circle faded. The vials floated back down to the table.
"Primitive dust compression method," Erin said. "It is of the same quality as what I had augmented back in the tomb."
"Anything weird on them at all though?" Kyle asked.
"Its efficacy is 80% of the short one's product. That is all."
"Is it similar to Ollie's company's stuff at all?" Clyde asked.
"I do not have a reference sample of the short one's product at hand."
"Ollie's been resting," Rachel said. "Wait, I think we got someone who's familiar right here."
"Who?" Gale asked.
"Let's go over to Bonnie's cell." Rachel stood up from her chain.
Everyone rose as well. Kyle cracked his knuckles, Clyde cracked his neck. Jeanne and Marine followed both of them. Gale hurried and took a step beside Rachel while Erin floated beside him, but not before dematerializing the dust vials and stacks of bricks back into his space storage.
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They left the lobby and entered a long hallway lined with prison cells where only a thick piece of glass separated the inmates from the outside. Each one seemingly had no exit, or no visible one at least.
As they walked, Gale looked into the cells, noticing the prisoners. Most had signatures between Awakened to Resonant, averaging more around the mid-Attuned side. Their signatures had a different feeling to them, as if they had more animalistic types of signatures.
Must be from the Silver Lions. Liam Duvall had a similar animalistic feeling they gave off. Some had signatures that felt like a bear, cheetah, and most notably, lions.
Continuing deeper into the sterile prison, the cells became much larger, with glass walls now towering over him.
Then Gale recognized someone.
A tall blonde woman with long legs sat cross legged in one of the cells, her back straight against the wall. She was reading a book, seemingly unbothered by her imprisonment. When she looked up at the group passing by, her ice-blue eyes met Gale's, and a smirk formed on her lips.
Olga Popovic. The one that single handedly suppressed their whole squad while rescuing Ollie.
"Why is she here?" Gale asked.
Rachel glanced at the cell. "Olga was willing to work for the Anns if the pay was higher than what Glory offered. But she's not officially employed yet. Grandma is taking care of the paperwork."
"Guess her loyalty can be bought," Gale said.
"She's a merc through and through at the end of the day," Kyle said. "Unlike us."
"Still better to have her on your side than on the other," Clyde said.
"You can thank Jeanne, Marine, and Jessica for handling her," Rachel said with a smile. "Did you guys get your compensation yet?"
"Yup. Cash is all there. 120 Aur coins each."
Kyle whistled.
"We'd do bounty hunter work if it wasn't so much for having no hazard pay," Clyde muttered.
"Much easier too," Kyle added.
"Keep moving, we're almost there," Rachel said.
Finally, the group arrived near the end of the hallway. To their right, inside the glass walled cell, was an individual with the signature of a mid-Resonant. She wore a green turtleneck sweater, thick glasses, and had a pocketbook with a pen. Her hair was orange, face freckled, and lips cracked from being picked. She was no taller than 155 cm, with a stature that looked like she couldn't even take on a bear, even though she was a Resonant.
Rachel stopped in front of that door, and so did everyone else. Snapping her fingers once, the red light by the side turned green.
"Bonnie, come here," she said.
Bonnie looked up from her pocketbook, not moving at all from where she sat against the metal wall.
"What?" Bonnie asked.
"We need your help," Rachel said.
"Asking help from an enemy?" Bonnie snorted, closing her pocketbook and setting it aside. "Bold of you, princess."
"Prisoners don't have a choice. Now come here."
Bonnie stood up slowly, brushing off her green turtleneck sweater. She walked toward the glass wall separating her from the outside, her cracked lips curving into a mocking smile. "What if I tell you the wrong things? Point you in a bad direction? Send you on a wild goose chase while your witch just rots away in bed?"
Rachel glanced to her side and nodded at Kyle.
"Look," Kyle stepped forward until he was right in front of the glass, fogging it up slightly. "If you want a cleaner sentence, an easier time in here, then you'd help. Simple as that."
"I didn't do anything wrong." Bonnie's smile widened. "Once Neutral Grounds hears of this false imprisonment, the Ann family could just be giving me my retirement on a platter while letting me go because of their shitty attitudes. Little fire princess here doesn't have the authority to hold me forever."
Kyle's palm slammed against the glass hard, yet the glass didn't even vibrate nor make a sound. Just a dull thud. "Neutral Grounds isn't here right now. And if you don't wanna disappear, then you better play along."
Bonnie didn't flinch nor say anything. Her eyes stayed locked on Kyle's.
Clyde stepped forward and put a hand on Kyle's shoulder, pulling him back gently but firmly. Turning to Bonnie directly as he stepped forward, he said, "Is there anything you'd bargain with? Something you actually want?"
"I want out." Bonnie's smile faded.
"What about your members?" Clyde asked. "The ones the Anns picked up along with you?"
"Don't care," Bonnie said. "As long as I can get out, they can rot in here for all I care."
Gale heard her words. Loyalty is truly fickle in Aur, huh. The people that followed her probably already assumed she'd say that too.
"Then we could reach an agreement," Clyde said. "Instead of staying in this cell, you work for the Ann Family for two years. After that, you can have your freedom."
Bonnie's eyes narrowed, glancing at Rachel. "Does the princess even have that authority?"
Before Rachel could speak, Clyde cut in. "That's for you to figure out. And it's either that or ten years in this shithole."
"You think I'd fall for—"
"What about your little brother?" Kyle asked.
"Heard he's started his 3rd semester at UofT this January." Clyde replied prompty.
"Hey Clyde, also heard he's in computer science, right?"
"Don't forget the minors in linguistics."
Bonnie slammed her palms on the glass. "You fucking prick! Leave him out of this. You both know full well that mundanes can't be touched. FUCK YOU."
Kyle looked down on her. "You think we give a shit here eh, bud?"
"You really looking down on the Path twins?" Clyde asked.
Gale sighed. As standard and horrible as this was, he'd do anything to find Yuxuan. This was just an unfortunate situation for his enemy.
"What. Do. You. Fucking. Want?"
"Now we're talking," Kyle said, nudging Rachel.
Rachel turned to Gale. "Hand her a dust vial."
Materializing one of the dust vials from his space storage, Gale walked up to the glass and phased it over to the other side.
Bonnie's eyes widened for a split second at the display. Then cleared her throat before taking the vial from his hand.
Gale withdrew his hand back through the glass.
"Analyze that vial," Rachel said. "Tell me if you recognize whether it's Silver Lion's strain or Glory's."
Bonnie held the vial up to eye level. It floated out of her palm, hovering in front of her face as she tilted her head left and right. The vial spun slowly, then faster, the liquid inside swirling against the glass walls. After a few seconds, she grabbed it back with her hand.
"It's neither," Bonnie said. "This is a new strain. Very similar to the Silver Lion's product, but not the same."
"What's different about it?" Kyle asked.
"There's a sub layer in the composition. Creates a carrier that bypasses the ether pool entirely and goes straight into the veins." Bonnie squinted at the vial. "It looks more like something the Jiuling would do."
"Why would they do that?" Gale asked.
Marine spoke up. "Jiuling usually use Qi Refinement pills. But they have all sorts of pills that refine their body. Those pills need passage through the ether pool, otherwise, the effect is minimized."
"Then whatever's in this goes directly into the body without being filtered," Bonnie finished. "It's possible that this is what's causing Aurians to get high on drugs again. The ether pool usually burns out any mundane hostile substances. This bypasses that entirely."
Rachel muttered under her breath. "You're being surprisingly cooperative."
"You better give me that job that idiot mentioned." Bonnie glared at her.
Clyde cleared his throat. "Where was the last scuffle you had with Yuxuan?"
"London, Ontario." Bonnie pocketed the dust vial (no one batted an eye). "But you better be careful of Sombra instead. Those bastards are planning shit against mundanes."
"Someone's got a brother complex," Kyle smirked.
"Fuck you. That's why I went into this fight in the first place. Wanted to fuck up that idiot before I saw the money on the table." Bonnie crossed her arms. "Sombra's worse than Yuxuan. At least the chinese bastard only targets Aurians."
"We couldn't find anything on Sombra," Kyle said. "Pacific Mall basement was cleared out."
"Try Hillcrest Mall. Or around that area." Bonnie shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. Just know one of my men disappeared from around there and never came back when searching for Sombra."
Clyde turned to Rachel. "Is it even worth going after Sombra when we just wanna fuck up Yuxuan?"
Gale cut in before Rachel could answer. "It's worth it. But after."
Everyone looked at him.
"It's not just about Lily. It's about her parents too," Gale continued. "Sombra is specifically targeting mundanes. We hit London first, find a trail on Yuxuan. Once we get him, we hit Sombra too."
Kyle nodded. "Got it."
"Agreed," Clyde said.
Rachel looked at Jeanne and Marine. Both of them nodded as well.
"Then we're all on the same page," Gale said. "Everyone good to leave in an hour?"
"Good here," Kyle said.
"Same," Clyde said.
"We're ready," Jeanne and Marine said at the same time.
Rachel nodded, turning to Bonnie. "I'll do what I can with grandma."
Before Bonnie could respond, Rachel snapped her fingers, and the green light by the side turned red again, and none of what Bonnie was saying could be heard.
"I have matters to attend to with Leah," Erin said. "I shall not be accompanying you on this excursion."
Right. Erin had her own priorities. She wasn't needed anyways. Gale then said, "Alright. Everyone prep up whatever you need. Ammunition, supplies, whatever. Meet back in the lobby in an hour."
The group dispersed. Kyle and Clyde headed toward the exit together, already discussing weapon loadouts. Jeanne and Marine followed Rachel deeper into the prison.
Gale was about to follow the twins when Erin's voice came to his head.
Child. Remain.
He stopped and turned back to face her. The hallway was empty now, just him and Erin. Bonnie had already gone back to reading her pocketbook by the wall.
"What is it?" Gale asked.
"Hand me one of the bricks you collected."
Gale materialized one of the soft bricks from his space storage and held it out to her. Erin floated it towards her, and a magic circle formed once again between the object and her pupil.
After a moment, the circle faded.
"Why?" Gale asked.
Erin's eyes met his. "There are traces of corruption within."
"So it is... happening?"
"There are traces of corruption that cause sanity decay. The signature is unmistakable," Erin pocketed the brick into her lab coat. "Child, you must remain vigilant against the ones you call 'Sombra' or 'Yuxuan'. Either of them could be a vector for the corruption currently in hiding."
"Nn... I get it," he said. No fucking way he'd let the tide into Earth.