Alcingeria

Chapter Forty Nine: Infiltration

Chapter Forty Nine Infiltration:

Saturday July 3rd 1690

Gerald and the others came back half an hour later. Someone had come up to check on the men who'd stormed the bar earlier, but Robert and Macalister were on him before he could raise alarm. He was dragged up and knocked out.

"Sorry we're late," Gerald announced, eyeing the unconscious man. "The Queen likes her reports."

"We should get a move on before any more come up," Robert told him. "While we still have the element of surprise."

"I agree." Edwin nodded. "Let's go."

We all put on our amulets and Robert led the way, drawing his gun. He tilted up the hatch to have a look. When he didn't see anyone down there, he nodded, mounting the small ladder and descending. After him was Don, Macalister, then me. The others followed.

We found ourselves to be in a corridor, a passage that had been finely cut out of the rock foundation of the building above.

"Magic must have been used." I noted. "No pickaxe could have done this."

"Looks like it," Edward agreed. "So the prisoners have been put to work. This isn't good."

"It only leads to speculate what they're planning." Gerald said grimly. "Be on guard, everyone."

Ahead of us was a door. It was reinforced with steel, but the frame that allowed it to be built into the rock was wood. If we needed to, we could have smashed it down easily. Everyone however, with the exception of Macalister, opted for a more stealthy entrance.

"Can one of you pick the lock?" Edwin asked.

"I can try," Robert shrugged, putting away his pistol and replacing it with the dagger.

He slid it into the keyhole, which was sizeable enough to accommodate it. He wiggled it around without any luck.

"This one's tricky," he clenched his teeth, jimmying it harder.

"Give it to me," Stella said smugly, most traces of her fear and anxiety now gone.

Robert stepped aside and after a few more seconds, the door swung open. she inspected the weapon, finding only a small area near the tip where the edges of the keyhole had bit into it and gave it back. Robert drew his pistol.

"I'm more than just eye candy, you know," Stella said with a wink.

Inside of this new room, we saw that the walls were lined with cages. Some of them were small, but others were a little bigger. They were all empty at the moment.

"Just our luck," Robert murmured.

"This must be the prison corridor." Don piped up, looking around. "Tabatha was here."

"Why are the cells empty?" Macalister demanded, ignoring Don's emotional lapse.

"Perhaps it's a mess period or something." Gerald suggested. "There's little reason they'd be out of their cages in a place like this. This may even be a disused area."

"They might be being put to work as we speak." Edwin speculated. "If the mafia somehow managed to control their magic, every prisoner here would be a slave to their captors' purposes."

"Let's look around a bit," I said. "Gather some more information, maybe find out what their goals are. Plus, we'll get the layout of the place, which will make it easier to get around in a hurry."