Chapter 36: Evading Traps (Patreon)

They were both inside the warehouse when Hugo realized that he had been manipulated again. This was a stupid idea. The whole city was up for grabs and he was being sent to the one place that they knew was a trap. The boss had used his charisma on him again, and convinced him to do something that might get himself killed. The corps weren’t going to treat him with kid gloves, not tonight.

Hugo was about to tell Sebastian that they had to leave, when the young man pointed to the left and whispered to him.

“That’s it, right there,” he said.

Below them and surrounded by a double stack of crates was a metal enclosure, like a small cage. In the low light he could see a faint glow coming from inside it. Sebastian started to creep forward and Hugo stopped him.

“Sweep the building. I still think this is a trap. I will check for alarms around the manastone,” Hugo whispered.

Sebastian nodded and crept the opposite direction. The warehouse was large, but they could see most of it from where they stood on the catwalk high above. Hugo carefully walked over to where the mana core was nestled amongst the crates.

Everything about this screamed trap to him. The terrible locks on the window, the ease of discovery, the lack of guards. But still, he couldn’t run until he had something solid to complain about. It wasn’t like the fox gang accepted bad feelings as a valid reason to skip out on a job.

With his Mana Sight active, he scanned the area. As he expected, there were lines of mana snaking across the floor below. He idly wondered if the traps were alarm traps or deadly ones. He was going to act like everything would kill him regardless though.

If he wanted to, he could probably skip the floor altogether, jumping from the catwalk to the top of the stacked up crates. But of course, those were trapped too. He wondered how many times he would have been caught by now if he didn’t have the ability to see mana.

The array of traps and mana triggers surrounding the target were pretty much impeneratible. Hugo smiled. Now he had an excuse to walk out of here alive. When Sebastian returned, Hugo carefully pointed out where all the mana tendrils were. This way his partner could back him up that the job was impossible.

“What about the rafters? Are they trapped?” Sebastian said and looked up.

The ceiling had arching rafters, wide metal struts that held up the tin roof. And to Hugo’s surprise, they weren’t covered in mana. As Sebastian knew now, it was fairly easy for Hugo to create cable from thin air. It wouldn’t be too hard to lower himself from the rafters down to the mana core without touching anything.

Hugo could have lied. He really should have, but he didn’t. He shook his head and said, “Nope. And you are right, I can get to it from above.” As much as he knew that this was a bad idea, he still wanted to do it. The shimmer corps thought their trap was impenetrable, but an academy drop out had found a way in without alerting anyone. Their arrogance would be his payday.

A few minutes later, Hugo had a length of braided cord in his hands. It took a few times, but he soon had the grapple hooked on the rafters above. He swung out, above the metal cage the mana core was in, and slowly started lowering himself down.

There was a brief moment of panic when he realized that his cord was too short, but he was able to successfully add some length without weakening the metal. Soon he found himself hanging feet away from the cage. He made a loop on the bottom of the cord and stuck his foot in. This way he would be easily able to hang there and study this out without having to hurry.

The cage was covered in mana tendrils, along with the floor surrounding it. He would say that the defenses were overkill, but this was a mana core they were talking about. The fact that Hugo was so close meant that it wasn’t enough.

So close and yet so far.

He knew how to take care of at least some of the mana tendrils. He had figured out that his pure aluminum was very mana conductive. He could create a bypass for a few of the tendrils, allowing him to slide in closer. It took him longer to figure out the math in his head than it took to actually create the strips of aluminum. Once they were in place, the mana flowed around the cage instead of directly over it. Hugo lowered himself even further.

At this point, his pride wouldn’t let him walk away. He just had one last layer of security to overcome and then he would have it in his hands. Perhaps if he knew anything about runes he would be able to reroute them without setting them off. But he didn’t. He just hung there, not caring if Sebastian was getting worried.

His heart started beating faster when he realized something. The traps all along the metal cage didn’t connect to the ones on the floor. The cage was bolted to the floor, but the mana flowing through the runes didn’t go any lower than the bars in the cage. If he could saw off the four bolts, he could just lift off the cage without even touching any of the hidden runes.

He turned off his Mana Sight as he thought about this. He was already under fifteen points of mana now. If he committed to this and still tripped an alarm or trap, he would have almost no mana left to defend himself with.

Then a calm feeling washed over him. He could do this. Cutting the bolts wasn’t even that hard, it was just getting into position that would be tough. He was going to do it.

Spending some of his precious mana, Hugo created a small flexible saw. It was a lot like a garrote, but only for cutting the heads off of bolts. He braced himself on the bolt he was cutting off, and quickly pulled back and forth. The sounds of the metal screeching weren’t that loud, but they still filled the warehouse. The boss was right, now was the only time to attempt this heist, when the warehouse was empty.

He hated to admit it, but all of the security that he was risking his life to bypass wasn’t even the primary security around this mana core. This was all just secondary security, the real stuff was the group of shimmer corpsmen that normally patrolled the warehouse.

The first two bolts were relatively easy. He was using every single point of his twenty-two dexterity, but he got it done. The other two bolts were out of reach though. He had to climb back up and reposition the cable and try again. While he was up in the rafters, he tried to mime to Sebastian what he was doing, but all that accomplished was confusing his partner in crime.

Once he was back down and the other two bolts were off, he activated his Mana Sight again and carefully lifted the cage off of the mana core. It required some awkward juggling, even getting his feet involved, but he was finally in position to pick up the mana core. He hesitated at the last moment.

The mana core was fuzzy. Only in his Mana Sight, a cloud of thin mana reached past the actual gem and into the air around it. He didn’t know if this was yet another trap, or if mana cores just did that. They were enormous gems full of mana though, so maybe this was normal?

Hanging here with a metal cage dangling off his foot wasn’t going to solve anything though. Making up his mind, he grabbed the mana core and tucked it under his arm. It was a little larger than his head, unwieldy but manageable. Once the cage was back in place, Hugo quickly climbed up the cable and across the rafters. Sebastian wasn’t happy to see him though. He was standing at the window

“They are coming,” he whisper-yelled. “You must have set something off. There is a guy standing on a roof over there. I think he is waiting on reinforcements.”

Hugo got angry instead of scared. It must have been that damn fuzziness. It was probably how his mana sight interpreted alarm wards. “We shouldn’t wait until they get here then.”

Together they raced across the catwalks to the opposite end of the warehouse. Sebastian peeked out the window, then slumped back down, “There is another one out there.”

They were surrounded then. Hugo started thinking of alternate plans. Maybe he could hide in the rafters, or in a crate. Hiding was probably a bad idea though. The shimmer corpsmen would be sure to scour the warehouse when they got here.

“The sewers,” Sebastian said, “They have a bathroom in the back, but I bet they don’t have plumbing. I bet we can get into the sewers.”

Hugo recoiled at the idea, but he didn’t have a better one yet. They might as well check it out. They raced to the back of the warehouse and into the bathroom. Sebastian’s guess was correct, the toilet was little more than a hole in the base of the building, which dropped directly into the sewers. It would be a tight fit, but both of them should be able to fit down there. The smell wafting up showed that it had been used recently.

With very little hesitation, Sebastian lifted the toilet seat and dropped inside. The drop was a little more than ten feet down, and he squished when he landed. Hugo shuddered at the sound.

“Throw it down,” Sebastian whispered.

“No thanks,” Hugo said. He didn’t know this guy nearly well enough to entrust him with something this valuable.

He lowered himself down into the sewer and followed Sebastian. He tried to breathe through his mouth and ignore the sounds. It didn’t work. He almost threw up before they made it three feet. But the shimmer corps would enter the building soon, they had to get going.

They headed southwest, away from their final destination. The sewers fed into the sea, and that is where they were heading now. It was an unspoken agreement that they wouldn’t head directly for the fox gang’s base of operations. They had set off a trap specifically set for the fox gang, of course that would be watched.

Hugo was a little surprised about how cramped it was in the sewers. He had expected to be able to stand, but he had to crouch so low he was almost crawling. It took them almost an hour to reach the settling ponds at the edge of the sea. Once Hugo cut the grate to let themselves out, they both decided to walk right into the ocean.

Once they were washed up as much as they were going to get, they turned and looked back at the city. They had passed under the walls and now they needed to get back in. Hugo stood there pondering his options, while Sebastian nervously shivered. There weren’t a lot of aquatic monsters around the city, but there were some. It was best that they head back into the city as fast as possible.

Instead of climbing the walls in front of them, Hugo decided to chance the docks instead. Maybe the unrest they had heard about earlier would make it easier to sneak back into the city. They walked along the beach, shoes squelching as they went. They would probably want to burn these outfits when they were done.

Getting back into the city should have been hard. Not only were there multiple anti monster defenses, sentinels patrolled the docks too. But not tonight.

The docks and shipyard seemed abandoned. A block away from where they stood on the beach, a fire raged. It looks like someone set a warehouse on fire.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Hugo walked up to one of the gates into the city. During business hours this gate would be wide open, but tonight it was locked with a padlock. It didn’t last long against Hugo’s wire saw, and they were through the double gates without seeing a soul. Hugo hid the mana core under his shirt. He wouldn’t fool anyone looking for him, but it would at least limit the number of curious citizens.

The pair jogged through the city, trying to get back to headquarters as fast as possible. This night had been too unpredictable for them to trust the luck they had been having so far. As they drew near to the burning warehouse, they started to hear yelling.

It was indistinct, but he could hear a chant being repeated every so often. It sounded like “tell us what you know”. It was an odd thing to chant, but it was probably related to the riot the boss mentioned. There was something the hedge mages wanted to know and they started a riot about it.

Hugo couldn’t believe the shimmer corps didn’t have it handled yet. Regardless, he gave the shouts a wide berth. He was curious what was going on over there, but he couldn’t afford to indulge his curiosity, not tonight. They jogged along empty streets, only slowing when they saw people. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves if they could avoid it.

It was early morning at this point, and he saw a few golems carrying large shimmer batteries. He almost laughed. Golems made their normal deliveries every morning around this time. It looked like the problems with the city's power had been solved, and right on schedule. There must have been something wrong with the shimmer veins, otherwise the power would have been restored hours ago. But whatever the problem, it seemed to be fixed now.

They followed the golems for a few blocks, the shimmer batteries giving off enough light to see by. Not too close of course. Concentrated shimmer was bad for you, particularly soulmarked like Hugo.

The golems turned north and Hugo and Sebastian continued east. This was the first time since they reentered the city that they were walking alone. As they drew closer to the fox gang headquarters, Hugo grew more and more paranoid.

“Sebasian,” Hugo said, “I need you to run ahead and get the boss and bring him here. I am going to hide up on the roof of that building, and wait for you to come back.”

Sebastian immediately swore and then said, “Forget that. I am not leaving you alone with a mana core. I ain’t gonna get killed when the boss finds out you ran so you could keep the core to yourself.”

“I am not going to run. I have seen too many snitches die, I am not going to steal from the fox gang. I know my place,” Hugo said. He shuffled off the street, and into the shadows. “Listen. We know this core was a trap for the fox gang, right?”

It took him a bit but Sebastian eventually said, “Right.”

“And if the corps have really lost track of us, where are they going to look? Huh? Where is the one place in town that the shimmer corps knows the fox gang is going to be?”

“I don’t know man. If the corps already knew about the headquarters under the restaurant, don’t you think they would have raided it by now?”

“Trust me, they know. If random kids on the street know, the corps know. They have just held off on busting the place because the fox gang didn’t do anything too bad yet. Or maybe the foxes pay bribes. But this,” Hugo gestured to his bulky shirt, “This is big. Too big for them to pretend they don’t know. Run to headquarters. Tell the boss right where I am. The faster you are, the happier the boss will be.”

Hugo could tell that Sebastian believed him, but still didn’t trust him with a mana core. That amount of money messed with someone’s mind. It clawed at you, broke down the strongest wills, and made sinners out of saints. Sebastian couldn’t just leave him alone with the core.

Casting around, he saw something that might actually convince his partner in crime to go. He said, “Look over there, see that rat? And that one too? I am sure those are the eyes and ears of the gang. Run go get the boss, and they will keep watch over me.”

It took a little more convincing, but eventually Sebastian ran off. Hugo took the apartment stairs and quietly walked up to the roof. The door was locked, but that didn’t stop him long. He stood up on top of the roof and waited. A few moments later, a rat followed him up there. Maybe Hugo’s guess about the rats was actually true.

He ignored the pest and looked out over the city. There were sections of the city slowly lighting back up. Most of the richer sections of town already had their street lamps back on. He guessed that everyone would have power back on by morning.

Despite everything, Hugo considered taking the core and running. But he really didn't feel like running from the corps and the fox gang both. Besides, he had no idea where he could fence something like this. So he just stood there and waited.

The shadows tipped him off to the presence of the boss. They started moving and rolling. Hugo stood up straighter and looked at the door to the roof.

“I didn’t believe him at first,” the boss said when he landed on the roof. He hadn’t taken the stairs, he had jumped from a nearby building. “Do you actually have it?”

“I really do,” Hugo said and pulled out the mana core from under his shirt.

The boss seemed hesitant to touch it, looking around to the other rooftops, perhaps expecting a trap. But then he snatched it up, examining it closely. Then he chuckled softly, “I guess miracles do happen.” He tucked it into a thick bag and slung it over his shoulder. He said, “You are a good kid. I couldn’t be prouder of you. Go back home to your apartment and tell no one of this. Pretend it never happened. I will send for you once we have this fenced.”

Then the boss disappeared before his eyes. One moment he was there, the next he was gone. Hugo wanted to feel relief, but the anxiety didn’t go away. The shimmer corps were still out there, searching for him. He hurried down the stairs and headed home. He jumped every time he heard something. Eventually, his exhaustion caught up with him, and he just accepted that everything would probably go wrong. It was with that certainly of doom that he fell into bed and slept like the dead.

Author Note:

Oh hey. Tomorrow’s chapter will be big. Huge changes for Hugo are coming. Be sure to tune in exactly on time for the exciting chapter. I am so excited to see what you think.