Dark Fate, Chapter 45 (Patreon)

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Chapter 45 – Warehouse

Driving across the city was fairly simple. Most businesses were still readjusting, and the city itself had been decimated (quite literally), with over ten percent of the population having been killed in the last few weeks. Normally, that would have caused a flight from the city, but it was the same or worse everywhere else.

Actually, it was far more dangerous out in the rural areas, rather than the city itself. The city had plenty of people who could work together for protection, and the monsters that spawned inside the city limits were generally pretty weak. Really, now that the initial craziness had worn off, life in the city was just about as safe as it had been before the Apocalypse.

Outside the city, however, things were different. The further you were from major population centers, the more likely you were to have high-level monsters spawning. And even a single Level 20 Goblin was going to be too much for a level 5 farmer, to say nothing of a tribe of them. Then, you had other humans (and former humans) who decided that raiding was a better use of their time in the apocalypse than building something themselves. To make it worse, people were too spread out, so help was stretched thin, and had to go further to get to you.

This had led to a few interesting effects on the city itself. First, people were seriously starting to talk about going back to the idea of having city walls. For a city like Atlanta, that would be… problematic, but less so when you took Magic and the System into account. Even having walls around individual neighborhoods would allow people to better defend themselves from attack.

Walls were useless without people to man them, of course. The Governor had activated the National Guard, and it didn’t look like they were getting deactivated anytime soon. In fact, recruitment was up, and they were taking all comers. Put together with the population decrease and the lack of commuters, and the streets were relatively quiet.

We rode in a convoy of three cars. Two unmarked police cars and my van. The officers were all wearing plainclothes, to keep from alerting everyone about what was happening. We were just fact-finding, after all, not kicking in the door.

We paused at a gas station several blocks from the storage center that had gone out of business even before the Apocalypse hit. Officer Rose brought out her laptop and placed it on the hood of Detective Austin’s car. With a few keystrokes, she brought up schematics of the storage center.

Looking at us, she said, “All right, according to records, the storage center is basically a big box warehouse which was converted to a storage center. Original plans for the building show three stories above ground, and one basement. During the redesign, the new owners basically used cinder block and concrete construction to create a building inside the building, divided up into all the storage units.”

Detective Clark nodded. “Looks like floors two and three are pretty basic. Smaller units, not climate-controlled. First floor is the big units, and has climate-control. The basement has smaller climate-controlled units. Obviously, the smaller units on the upper floors are cheaper. Not a bad system.”

Austin grunted. “We’ll worry about the architecture of storage centers later. Now, we don’t have cause for a warrant, so we can’t just barge in, searching storage units. We need a way to get more information.”

“Why not just tell the truth?” I chuckled as all eyes turned on me. “Oh, not the entire truth, but enough of it that we can’t be called out for entering the building under false pretenses. After all, we have to keep it legal, right?”

Austin just nodded, and motioned for me to continue. I took a breath, and said, “So, you just hired me as a consultant, right? To deal with System-related things. Well, for this we’re probably going to want a location for rituals and other such things, that aren’t my private home. And the police station doesn’t have the proper facilities built. Seems to me that a large, climate-controlled storage unit could be useful for that.”

I saw that I had their interest, so I went on. “Of course, we can’t just go in and buy the storage unit sight unseen. We have to make sure it would be appropriate for what we’d need. Has to be big enough, and we need to make sure that it can be secured to police standards, and warded to mine, naturally. Otherwise, evidence could be compromised and bad things could happen.”

Officer Nixon grinned. “And we can’t have that. So, we would need to make an inspection of the facility. Obviously, we wouldn’t be able to search any occupied units, or go snooping around. But anything that we just happen to notice while we’re doing legitimate business would be at least enough for probable cause. Not fruit from the poisonous tree if we go in on separate business.”

Austin nodded. “I was going to say we just walk up and ask if we could ask a few questions, but that works, too. Probably better, since it gives us an excuse to check out the facility. But just so everyone’s on the same page, this means that we can’t do anything that would be pushing into areas we aren’t allowed.”

He took a breath. “So, this is how it is going to go. We ask permission for everything. Checking the perimeter? Ask permission. Looking at an empty unit? Ask permission. Try to keep your requests small, and reasonable. We don’t want to spook them if they are connected, but we don’t want anyone to walk because we didn’t follow procedure. Not with a serial killer.”

Clark cleared her throat. “Not to put too fine a point on it, but we have nine people here. All of us going in at once is going to spook them, anyways.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yes, we’ll need two groups, I think. Myself, Officer Nixon, and Rachel in the group going in, with the rest ready in case we need backup? Three people is enough that we can hold our own, at least until reinforcements arrive.”

Austin raised an eyebrow. “Why that group?”

“Because Nixon, as a rogue and infiltrator, ought to have some skills suited for reading people, and getting information discretely. Even without the System, he was undercover before the Apocalypse, so he should have some training in a variety of skills, right?”

Nixon nodded once, and I continued. “Obviously, I’m going, since figuring out the System-related stuff and dealing with threats is why you hired me. And Rachel is coming with me, because she’s a priestess, and that makes her very effective against demons.

“Now, it is important that no one goes off on their own, if they can help it. If we’re dealing with an incubus, as suspected, then they are gifted in manipulation. Not just using their charms to seduce someone, but they also can have mental manipulation abilities.”

Rachel motioned to me that she wanted to speak, and I nodded. “As he said, I can counter much of an Incubus’s abilities. However, you should be cautious. While incubi gain strength from feeding on women, their abilities are not gender specific, for the most part.”

Detective Clark nodded to Rachel. “Any idea on why that is?”

I cleared my throat. “I can answer that part. Incubi and Succubi come in different varieties, same as other creatures. For a Lesser Incubus or Lesser Succubus, a Tier 1 creature, feeding on a male would make them violently ill. For the Tier 2 Incubus or Succubus, that reaction is reduced, so that it is not unlike eating wet cardboard. It doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t feed you, it isn’t filling, and it doesn’t satisfy in the slightest. It is only when you get to the Tier 3 Greater Incubus or Greater Succubus that they can feed as they please, though a Greater Incubus feeding on males would be like a human feasting on powdered doughnuts and popcorn for all their meals. It is not something anyone would recommend.”

Clark nodded. “You mentioned before that the system turned you into a demon, right? What kind, exactly?”

I chuckled. “I got lucky with the System’s changes. I’m a Greater Incubus. The biggest change from the lesser versions is the fact that I have more control over my… appetites, even if I need to feed more often. Oh, and if the incubus we’re looking for is anywhere near my level, I’ll almost certainly be stronger than he is in a one-on-one.”

Nixon raised an eyebrow. “So, these ladies?”

I nodded once, though not before making eye contact with Detective Clark and offering her a wink before I continued on. “Yes, they are part of my harem, and bound to me. There’s more to it than that, of course, but suffice to say that none of them complain about my feeding. Do you, girls?”

Talia smirked at me, and said, “No, Sir. We can’t complain.”

Detective Austin grunted. “All right then. How will we know if you need help? Can’t exactly issue wires without warrants.”

“Nixon’s cell phone should work, or I can use a sending to send a quick message to one of my girls out here. That should be sufficient. But if it is not, you can always look for the explosions.”

“Explosions?”

“I’m not one to ‘go quietly’ if being threatened by a serial killer or his minions, Detective.”

Austin nodded. “Fair enough. Go in, and see what you can get. If possible, make it so we can drive the other vehicles onto the property to ‘set up’ and make ‘evaluations’. That will allow us to get closer.”

With that in mind, we changed vehicles. Rachel and I got in Nixon’s unmarked car, Detective Clark slipped into my van with Hitomi and Taelia, and Detective Austin and the other two officers took the third car. As we neared the warehouse, the two other cars split off, parking across the street, while Nixon took us to the gate.

The security gate was open, since it was during business hours. However, I could see a keypad to the side, and a camera focused on the gate to keep track of everyone who came and went. That must be how they allowed people onto the site to get to their units when the business office wasn’t being manned. Simple, and reasonably effective, as far as physical security went.

The moment we passed through the gate, I felt it. Looking over my shoulder to Rachel in the back seat, I could see her nodding. She felt it, too.

Nixon hadn’t missed the look, but he clearly didn’t sense what we had, so I explained. “We just passed through a ward. Magic-users can sense them. I’m definitely smelling a demon’s magic, here.”

Nixon nodded. “Being a demon, or using magic, isn’t against the law. But I’ll send a text to the team. They’ll be ready to charge in, if we need it.”

“Have them go ahead and come in if they see anyone going to try and close the gate. We noticed we went through the ward, so the one who made it might have noticed, too. If they get jumpy, they may send someone to try and cut off any help we might have coming. All depends on how paranoid they are.”

The undercover officer was obviously interested in something that could affect his line of work. “So, if anyone crosses a ward, the person who made it gets an alert?”

“Something like that. Depends on how the ward is tuned. The simplest wards are basically like a car alarm. They let you know someone stepped in. For a business, that’s not terribly useful, since you’d constantly be getting alerts. A more skilled ward would have conditions on it, or ways to control who triggers an alert, but for someone in a hurry, restricting the hours the business is open each day is a way to reduce overwork.”

Nixon parked in front of the door. There was only one other car in the parking lot, no doubt belonging to the owner. We all piled out of the car, and started heading for the door.

Inside the aluminum sided industrial warehouse, we saw the cinderblock towers with steel walkways, like we were expecting. On one wall, I could see large, roll-up doors to allow vehicles to drive in, and there looked to be a decent amount of space, enough for vehicles to get around on the ground floor. To our right was an office next to the door, clearly the business office for the facility.

The moment we stepped into the business office, I frowned. This was going to be more troublesome than I thought. As the woman behind the counter rose to greet us, I whispered to Nixon, “Get the others in here, now.”