1011. Knocked an hour later (Patreon)

“Ah, sure.”

In front of the dazzled demon, Mike simply stabbed Whitehilt into the gap between the door and the frame and slashed down, severing the bolts of the lock. Tano cleared his throat.

“You are lucky these doors aren't secured with an alarm...” he mumbled embarrassed to have taken so long and took the lead going in.

“About the way to contact Minas Mar...” Mike returned to the topic.

“Can't you see I'm on a mission? You can return with me to our base. You have to go there anyway if you want to contact them,” the goat shut down Mike's question. Thinking about it, there was no reason not to help the goat, he was going to cause trouble, to begin with.

“Fine, what are you even doing here?” the beastman asked as he followed the demon as they walked down a barren hallway with a concrete floor and no doors.

“After helping Seth collect souls I had nothing to do and heard about the objective to infiltrate Emerald City and save as many people as possible.  I thought the guys here had interesting skills and I could sell their souls for a high price, so I came to join Adam,” the demon mumbled seriously as they carefully passed the hallway.

“I meant what we are doing here, specifically... Like, are we going to save people, or sabotage something?” Mike asked helplessly, confused by the demon's jump in logic.

“...Oh.” Tano'Mol halted for a moment and looked back at him. “We got information that they are holding people here that will be either traded as slaves or used as materials. A convoy with supplied and “goods” returned today and I used the chance to sneak in,” the demon explained.

“Materials?” the catboy asked perturbed by the worrying phrasing.

“Yes, materials. Listen, I don't have the time to explain everything to you now, just follow me. We will decide what to do, once we know the situation.”

“Alright,” Mike finally agreed and followed the demon silently.

They didn't walk far after that, to reach the end of the hallway. At its end, they faced another door It was a plain white steel door with the label “Security”. In the corner was a camera observing the door, but the demon didn't seem bothered by it.

“Good, we are right here, hide on the side,” the demon instructed Mike to stand beside the door. Next, the demon suddenly knocked on the door. Moments later, its unsettling eyes opened unnaturally wide and projected a cone of red light onto the door and the small dot that was the spy hole. Moments later, the door lock clicked a few times and was readily opened from the inside.

“Otis, what the fuck are you doing?” Mike still heard from inside, but something shot forward from the demon's hoofs and the second person inside ceased being with a tragic gargle.

“Why weren't they warned by the camera?” Mike asked confused, as he followed the demon inside the guard room.

“Why do you think I have been walking in front of you all the time? I have been constantly weaving a spell to keep us hidden from Urthan's technology. It's really not that hard, once you understand how they work,” Tano'Mol answered offhandedly as the walked forward to the control board of the room.

Inside were a bunch of panel and door controls, but Mike's focus was drawn to the windows that allowed a 180° view of the whole floor. It was completely open, only segmented into cells by walls of metal bars.

These cells were filled with all kinds of people and humanoid monsters in all kinds of conditions. Severely hurt, or outwardly fine, men, women, children, Urthans, and people from the Pathworks, everything could be seen and all of them were almost naked.

Dirty rags exposing most of their skin gave way to see the patterns of dark veins that could be seen through their skin, as if they all were suffering a severe sepsis. It seemed to be independent of their physical conditions, as those without visible injuries seemed fine despite the black network covering their skin.

“What is wrong with them?” Mike asked, not specifying whether he meant the captives, or the people holding them captive. Since the demon thought it was obvious what was wrong with the captors, he talked about the people in the cages.

“It's a way to prepare them for further “processing”. They are people that were judged to have no worth as slaves, so they will be used as materials.” the demon answered grimly, as he operated the computer of one of the guards.

“materials for what?” Mike asked disturbed.

“You know, health, and stamina potions, mana potions, medicine. I heard they even managed to make an experience potion...” the demon told him, preoccupied with the computer.

“Give me the codes for the intranet,” the demon commanded the hypnotized guard, as Mike was still comprehending what the demon just told him.

“Are we going to save them? Can they be saved?” Mike asked, looking at some in worse conditions.

“That is the plan. Once we know the full scale of this facility we can think about how we get them all out. The demon showed his adaptability with technology, as Mike could not even start to comprehend what he was currently doing.

“There are bout 1300 people in this building. It will be hard to get them all out without anyone noticing. It's almost evening, they will switch the guards soon...”

“Evening? Oh, shit. I have to return to my room. Martha said she would look for me for dinner,” Mike exclaimed when he realized how much time had gone by.

“Dinner, huh? That sounds like a good opportunity. Here, drink this before you eat that dinner.”

“This is?” “Obviously, it's a special antidote. While you hurry back so they don't suspect anything, I will go and poison their dinner.”

Realizing what the demon intended to do, Mike nodded and hurried back the way they came. The path was not long and it was only early evening, by the time he was back in his room.  Tensely, he waited for Martha, hoping he had not returned too late. He heaved a sigh of relief when the woman knocked almost an hour later.

“Dinner is ready!” she exclaimed outside as she knocked on the door.

“Great!” Mike exclaimed as he opened the door.

“oh, my! Were you hungry after all? You should have said something when I asked earlier,” she said when she saw Mike all excited.

“No, no. It's alright,” he said a little embarrassed, and forced himself to calm down. If he acted weird, he might jeopardize the operation.

“Then let's go. The other's probably already started,” she answered with a smile and led the way.

The led him to a big dining room where dozens of people were already absorbed in absorbing food and drink. It seemed almost like a celebration, but it was just the members of the convoy relaxing after weeks on the go.

Mike might have felt empathy and happily joined them, if he had not seen or heard, what he saw and heard. Still, he had to play along. He had already taken the antidote after he returned to his room, so now he just had to make sure not to stand out too much and wait for the poison to act.

As such, the catboy ate a drank, with the human traffickers, even happily laughing with them and taking part in shallow small talk. He waited and waited, but by the time he was able to return back to his room, nothing had happened! Had the demon failed?

“Yo, you are back,” Tano'mol greeted the beastman the moment he entered the room. The goat was already waiting for him, leisurely lying on the bed.

“Tano! What about the poison? I had to endure these people for almost the whole night!”

The nervousness and anxiety finally broke out of him. It would have been better for his nerves if they just decided to kill everyone, as fights were much easier on his head than these kinds of undercover things.

“It should be acting by now. If you make too much of a commotion, we won't be able to get all the people out of here, that's why I used a strong, but slow-acting sleeping poison.”

“Sleeping poison?” “Yeah, the moment they fall into bed, they won't be waking up for a few days..some may not wake up at all.” the demon affirmed.

This way there would be no suspicions until the next morning and even if they activated some kind of alarm, there would only be a few people who had not eaten dinner, that would be able to react. They were practically free to do whatever they wanted now.

“I after poisoning the food, I used the rest of the time to prepare our escape.” “And?”

“We will be using the convoy trucks they so graciously parked in the garage below,” the goat answered with a cheeky smile. The next steps were simple. Their support was already waiting, the two only opened the doors, and Adams people flooded into the building. They emptied the cells, loaded the people on the convoy some of them came with, and drove off into the night.