Now that Darragh was gone, their march towards the basement was a whole lot quieter. Thomas gave the occasional nod and smirk, Cruz kept his gaze faced ahead, and Jaeger stumbled forward in a crestfallen front. They weren't running into any trouble as of yet, but that made Cruz all the more uneasy.
Not to mention the very fact that Darragh was gone, in and of itself.
Cruz couldn't stop his mind from running through the various scenarios that could be taking place. Page could have stabbed at Darragh like he did Jaeger, and then proceeded to lock him up, too. He could have handcuffed Darragh and interrogated him, sounding the alarm once Darragh could no longer give him the answers he requested. He could have simply locked Darragh up for not being an actual employee here.
Cruz's stomach churned and churned, and Thomas gave him a sideways glance, his dark brown eyes conveying a look of empathy and reassurance mixed into one that must have taken centuries to perfect. Cruz immediately felt a bit more relaxed.
Darragh could handle himself. He always did. He always would.
As the group continued on, they saw less and less people, until they were encountering none at all. Cruz could only wonder why this part of the building was abandoned currently, and he pulled up a rough mental picture of the blueprint of the place.
They had entered through the parking garage, moved through the section with office-type cubicles. Gotten past the security room. And now they were passing the labs.
Cruz stopped at a door, causing Thomas to raise an eyebrow and Jaeger to frown. It was shut, and through the window in it, Cruz could see the lights were off.
Curiosity got the better of him. He twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open. Jaeger groaned audibly, which Cruz ignored as he flicked the light switch.
For a lab, the room was quite messy. Then again, that was from the experience Cruz had had with labs. Which was none.
Machines still had their monitors on; pens and clipboards lay about on desks and counters; and rolling chairs were pushed out and about. People had left in a hurry; Cruz could tell that much. But to where? And why? Had Junpei already started his part of the plan?
Cruz picked up a clipboard and glanced it over. From what he could tell, it detailed various chemicals and their effects on...
Thomas appeared beside him, totally silent, and looked at the clipboard too. As he read, his face became more and more stoic. These people were torturing his brother -- they were using the same chemicals on Thierry again and again, knowing full well it wouldn't have any different effect.
At the bottom of the page, a log for today's date read only one thing: "The Basement Testing Area, 11:11"
That was five minutes ago.
Cruz and Thomas's eyes met in a sort of understanding, and Jaeger just looked at them funny.
"Change of plans," Thomas said, a strange sense of authority emanating from his voice as he spoke. "We're no longer going to the cells."
--
Isaac knocked at the dark oak door, his coat pulled over his shoulders as the sounds of the city night carried on behind him. It was a corner office, and a signboard read "Ripley Forrester -- Private Investigator."
A figure appeared behind the frosted glass, and the door opened up. A middle-aged woman with tired blue eyes and long brown hair tied into a messy bun stood there in a checkered flannel and jeans, blunt hidden lazily behind her back.
Ripley raised an eyebrow, and nodded him in. She shut the door behind him and locked it as Isaac took a seat in front of her desk.
"I'm guessing this is about what Cruz and Darragh told you?" she began.
