Lupin The Third: The Beast of Lykanisches

Chapter 10

"There. That's them," said Jigen, thrusting a finger at the monitor.

Dressed as Aderlass' covert soldiers, he and Lupin had infiltrated the surveillance room and knocked out the two security guards within. Having cameras installed in all the guest rooms was already suspicious enough as it was. But knowing that Aderlass was up to something underhanded, the security cameras admittedly weren't much of a surprise.

Lupin, having taken the helm at the surveillance station, quickly switched between security feeds, searching the monitors to determine which part of the castle Aderlass had placed 'Bennosuke Ishikawa' and his wife, 'Gabriella.' Thus far, they'd seen several guest rooms evacuated by security, wheeling away poor, unconscious athletes on gurneys, no doubt to be the next group of unwitting test subjects in Aderlass' terrible human experimentation. These poor souls must be rescued. But first, they had to find Ruby.

And find her they did.
But what they saw was horrifying.

Not only was the room melting around them, it seemed to be attacking them as well!

"Woah!" exclaimed Lupin. "What's going on in there!?"

"What the hell? Can we get audio into that room?" asked Jigen.

Quickly, Lupin found the means to do it. As he did, Ruby's voice came through the monitor: "G-Goemon!" she gasped. "I-I think the room is made of nanites!"

"Nanites?" said Jigen. "Like... Nanomachines?"

"Like the ones on the gold island, near Zufu,"* remarked Lupin, his expression grim. His own past experience with nanotech hadn't exactly been a picnic.

Helplessly, Lupin and Jigen watched as things went from bad to worse. Lupin leapt up from his chair and the cigarette fell from Jigen's mouth as Goemon was overwhelmed and pulled into the wall.

"AH!"

"SHIT!"

"LET HIM GO!" Ruby shouted. "PLEASE!"

"Ah yes... Ishikawa..." Aderlass' voice boomed out from parts unknown. "But not the one you pretended to be. Your deception was quite elaborate... but all for naught. For I've known you both since the exposition. I've had my eye on you all along! Which brings us to the here and now..."

"I'll do anything!" Ruby rasped out. "You already know I'll do anything you want so long as you don't hurt him! Whatever you want... it's yours."

And just like that, Ruby relinquished herself.
And the moment she did, the floor swallowed her up.

"WHAAAAAHH!!"

"D'AAAAH!!"

The thieves' hearts pounded in a panicked tandem, both realizing the worst-case scenario had finally happened.

Aderlass had Ruby.

Lupin's brow was dotted with cold sweat as he looked at Jigen.

"We gotta get them outta there!"

~~~

Ruby gave a lurch as the platform descended into the bowels of the castle and stopped at its ultimate destination. The doors opened, revealing the high-tech facility which awaited her. But this laboratory was certainly not the same brightly-lit and pristine pharmaceuticals lab as the one they'd seen during the tour. This was something else.

As the guards dragged Ruby out of the elevator shaft, she saw a plethora of machines that did who-knew-what. And just like the lab back in Switzerland, several grotesque things floated in stasis pods – things that may have once been human. Ruby shuddered. This must be in the farthest reaches of the castle, just above the catacombs of which Bernhard had spoken; far from prying eyes, where the worst imaginable experimentation was conducted. Which begged the question...