28. Chapter 27: Infiltration for beginners

Yuna turned around the corner of the back alley she hid in, observing her target.

The building where the ammunition was being produced, situated in the wealthy district of the Elbian capital, didn't really stand out. It shared the architecture of its neighbours and only the smell of gunpowder and the guards at its front confirmed it was her target.

It was two-stories tall, with a gate at its side likely leading to an inner courtyard. In front of the entrance was a guard with a spear, with a dog sitting at his side. Despite the late hour of the night, both didn't even look sleepy. The sharp gaze, the immaculate armor, the strange runes etched in the metal and in the dog's, collar made her realize that those weren't simple guards. Maybe expensive mercenaries, or even royal guards taken from the castle.

And it made sense. According to the locals of Alnus, even the combined armed forces of the former vassals were less numerous than the Empire's military might. The Gatlings heavily supporting Elbe's attacks and the fact that the former vassals currently attacked the Empire from all sides was the only factor which gave them an edge in the battlefield. With that in mind, it would be normal to protect the facility with your best soldiers, but with not too much of them to at least try to hide the importance of the location.

Seeing that the front door was out of question to enter unnoticed, Yuna went back in the alleyways, taking a large detour to avoid detection and check the other sides of the building. All windows were barred with thick metal bars, and there was no other door.

Taking her last option, she went back to the side of the building, where the courtyard was. A wall separated it from the streets, forcing her to climb it using the stone jutting out. Once on top of it, she looked for a landing zone.

Inside the courtyard were three carts covered by a thick cloth just under her, as well a few crates stacked on top of each other. On one of the crates was a sitting guard, fortunately without a dog, watching the gate to the streets.

He was back to her, but she would have to be extremely careful to remain unnoticed.

Step by step, fingers hurt from the lack of proper platform, careful even of the noise generated by her clothes' friction, she made her way down.

As she neared the floor and dropped her hold on the wall, a small fragment of stone crumbled down, loudly bouncing on the ground. Silently swearing, she ducked behind one of the carts, holding a hand over her mouth.

The guard glanced back with a "hum?", grabbing a spear in one hand and a lantern in the other.

Yuna's heart raced as the steps neared closer. The shadows shortened more and more, and sweat dripped on her forehead. Would her attempt finish this quickly? She prayed that it wouldn't.

The steps stopped when the guard reached the other side of the cart, separated by less than two meters to Yuna. As he moved his lantern around, looking for the source of the noise, a squeaking rat suddenly ran out from the cart, quickly followed by two if its brethren.

"Damned rats…" Muttered the guard, quickly losing interest. "Told them to get rid of the corpses immediately…" He said, going back to his previous position.

Yuna's heart slowly calmed as the immediate danger disappeared. Confirming that the guard wasn't looking in her direction, she took a peek under the cloth and immediately regretted doing so.

Mere centimeters from her face was a bloodied face, looking at her with hollow eyes. The slanted eyes, pale skin and dark green garb left no doubt as to who the person was. At least, she wouldn't have to search for the remaining members of Bowman.

She silently gagged and took a closer look. They had been killed with bullets, all from the back. That and the bullet holes on the wall she just saw now made it clear what happened to them. The two traitors that attacked them probably gunned the soldiers by surprise at this very place, not leaving a single chance for them to fight back.

She grabbed the dog tags and put them in a tight pocket so they wouldn't make any noise, then pulled the cloth back on their face, praying for their souls.

That done, she looked at her options for the next course of action to take.

A large gate lead to the inside, but it was way too large to open quietly. Choosing her second option, she stepped from cover to cover, making sure that the guard didn't hear her. She quickly reached the hatch she had spotted earlier and opened it. Judging from the black soot around it, it was a coal hole.

With just enough place to fit her body in the slim opening, she went in feet first, quickly falling on a pile of coal. She remained unmoving for a full minute, listening for any noise, but it seemed her fall wasn't heard. Just before leaving, she considered the black rocks she was on for a short while then rubbed one against her face. That way, at least light wouldn't reflect from her pale skin as much as before.

In one half of the room was the large pile of coal she just landed on, while on the other were a number of barrels. She opened one of them and just like she thought, black powder filled them. And just now, something striked her that she should have thought of before.

A single spark could send the entire building into flames, not even speaking about the surrounding area. Her whole plan with the C4 crumbled just like that.

She had expected them to store the actual black powder in another place to avoid incidents, but those people were literally touching and manipulating the powder for less than two months. Of course, they would have security flaws.

Closing back the lid of the barrel, she left the room through the staircase leading up. She found herself in a larger room, with many large tables on which rested small sheets of paper and various ingredients in smaller barrels.

Then, another fact striked her. Of course they wouldn't have machines either! The investigation led by the JSDF had showed that the Gatlings used paper cartridges. Most likely, there were multiple teams working each day to produce the ammunition in this very room. That meant no machine to destroy, but it also meant that she could do nothing permanent about the production of the ammunition.

With the C4 now completely useless to her, she hid it behind a crate. They may find it, but it was likely they would never even know what it was.

The exit led to a corridor which had a staircase at the end, a T-shaped intersection and two doors, one opened with a dim flicker of light trickling out. She tip-toed to the first room and peeked inside, but only found what looked like a kitchen. She was about to leave when something caught her attention. Revealed by the light of a small electric lamp she had, was a purple uniform with a white maid apron on top. As an idea sprang into her mind, she quickly put on the purple uniform over her clothes, cut a hole in the middle to have access to her weapons then hid it with the apron, and then cleaned the soot on her face with a jug of water on a counter.

Satisfied, she left and continued her exploration. The path branching out at the intersection led to the entrance so she approached the second door which was opened.

A light cackle froze her movements.

Her heart froze, before going back to its regular rhythm when she realized the laugh came from inside the second room.

Inside, under the light of a candle, three guards were playing a dice game with filled mugs in front of them, while, to her horror, at least ten more guards soundly slept in beds. On the other side of the room was a true armory of swords, shields, spears, armor and halberds.One of the sitting guards, instead of having a regular armor, instead had lighter clothes and a wristband with a large ruby embedded in it on his right hand.

Two of the guards were back to her, but the third was facing her and while he was focused on the dice, he wasn't completely blind either. As he took his mug and drank a big gulp, she tip-toed past the door.

"Hey!"

She immediately stopped. The guard's mug hadn't been enough to cover her figure in the hallway. He pulled out a sword from his side, quickly followed by his two allies then approached her.

With all the guards nearby, she had no chance of getting the information she wanted if she fought back. Instead, she took her best imitation of an intimidated maid she could.

"S-Sir guard, what is-"

The guard cut her, threatening her with the point of his weapon. Meanwhile, her mind was working at full speed, trying to come up with a valid excuse.

"Who're you?!"

"Milord! I was sent by Mistress Osgarda! She forgot an important item in her office, she sent me to get it to her!"

The head guard remained silent for a moment, studying her face. His sword was still pointed at her, and still very threatening. She prayed the sweat on her forehead wouldn't betray her.

"I've never seen you before…"

She faked an uneasy smile.

"Milord, I was only recently hired. The head maid didn't want to bother herself, so she sent me instead at this hour of the night…"

She saw it in his eyes. He didn't believe her one bit. She prepared to pull out the gun behind her apron, but one of the two other guards put a hand on his shoulder.

"Reolus, wait. I did hear about Miss Bourdon hiring new maids in preparation for her sister's child. Plus, she has the Bourdon's uniform, no weapon and…"

Yuna didn't have to fake her surprise when suddenly the man brought his right hand in front of her, and the ruby on the elaborate wristband glowed brightly.

In retrospect, it made sense for such an important place to have a mage defend it.

"She has no magic powers, and no magical items on her. Do you really believe anyone would sent anyone like her? I'll go with her, there's going to be me, Bertulf and Rathar up there watching her while she gets whatever item she's looking for, then she'll leave. Is that alright with you?"

The guard named Reolus looked at her for a while, still unconvinced, but he grumped and sheathed back his sword.

"Hhmpf. Be quick about it, Andovald. You still owe me a whole denari, don't forget about it."

With that said, the head guard walked back to the gambling table followed by the third guard, while Andovald led her upstairs.

How lucky she was! Not only did her disguise work, they were leading her right to where what she was searching for would be.

Well, it wasn't a 100% certainty, in fact, whatever important information she would have to find would be hidden. But still, she was closer to her goal than before.

The first floor consisted of a hallway with a door on each side, the left one guarded by two other armored soldiers, most likely the two other people Andovald had mentioned. The mage led her to it, as they looked at her with curiosity.

"Osgarda's maid. She needs something in the office, open the door."

She was studied for a bit, then the door was unlocked and opened. The inside was only lit by the moonlight coming from a barred window, so there wasn't much she could see.

However, before she could do anything, she was violently pushed inside. She fell ungraciously on the floor, managing to painfully twist a finger in the process.

Andovald looked at her, expressionless, then closed the door with a bang.

"What the-…"

Before she could finish her sentence, a gag blocked her mouth from behind and a black bag was stuffed over her head, and while she struggled to remove it, someone pinned her down. Again, she struggled as much as she could, but two other pair of hands maintained hers in place. A thick rope bound her wrist, and another quickly did the same around her feet.

"Stop struggling girl, you'll only hurt yourself!" Said a gruff voice.

Hearing the Japanese voice shocked her, to say the least. She didn't expect to hear her people's language in such a place.

Given that she was essentially harmless now, she stopped fighting back the hands that checked her body and unarmed her. The hands spent a little bit too much time in her nether regions and around her breasts to her liking, but she swallowed her pride and remained silent.

Once her weapons were taken away, she was hauled up, and put on a chair.

The black bag was removed from her head, letting her see the surroundings.

Just in front of her was a solid wooden table on which rested a lit camping electric light. Behind the desk was a man in luxurious Elbian clothes, but the gun resting in front of him, the radio station on a nearby smaller desk and the thin glasses on his nose assured that this was only a disguise. His face… Well, she could only describe it as the archetype of a Japanese salaryman, it being probably the main reason he was able to somehow sneak through the Gate.

Behind her were three other men in Elbian soldier garb but again, the firearms laying on a desk nearby, the ammo boxes and the few modern devices left no doubt about the true nature of these men.

In corner of the room, she noted the existence of a small safe, the type usually seen in civilian homes to keep valuable jewellery and such.

"Can we remove that gag? I don't like my conversations to be one-sided. If you want to scream, scream away but it'll be useless. This room has thick walls and the guards won't help you." Said the man sitting in front of her.

Scared, she nodded and one of the three men behind her removed the gag. Meanwhile, her belongings were placed on the desk in front of the man.

"A knife, an electric light, some dog tags, a suppressed Glock with two magazines, meaning that you were probably with the soldiers who tried to infiltrate the building a few hours ago, a light bulletproof vest and… A police baton? How did you expect it to be…? No, nevermind…" He said, sighing.

"The Japanese government must be really panicking if they're sending policemen to infiltrate us… Then again, with the growing pressure from the UN I'm not that surprised. Only a matter of time before the Japanese are forced to give in. Now then, do you have any questions? After all, we'll be spending quite a lot of time together."

An expression of honest surprise showed on her face, momentarily hiding the fear in her eyes.

"Are you not going to ask me questions? Torture me?"

The man looked at her with a defeated face.

"Aaaaagh… Fucking Hollywood… In hostage situations, antagonizing the hostages is the least thing you want to do. I prefer to keep a… good relations with my hostages, if you will. I'm not a barbarian. We'll take measures to keep you from running away and you may not like it, but do know that I'm not doing it out pleasure."

His grin told all the contrary. She unconsciously tried to lower her feet even more as they already were as sweat appeared on her face and unpleasant imagery popped in her mind.

"As for questions? I already know all I need to know! You're part of a team sent by the Japanese government to stop the ammunition production for the Elbian Gatlings. Your name will be of no importance here, we may as well call you "dog" or "pet" that it wouldn't change anything."

She shuddered, thinking of all the implications such a name could bear.

"You're not important enough to know anything of value. Your only value is as a hostage. There's also your policeman friend and that Siren, but if they're not here that means you somehow got rid of the two traitors of the Special Forces soldiers. That's a regrettable loss, hardly replaceable, but they knew the risks. We all do."

A pause ensued. The man was staring at Yuna intensively, gauging her state of mind, while she desperately tried to come up with an escape plan. After a few minutes of the intense glare battle, the man checked his watch.

"Well, you're not very talkative…" He said, sounding almost disappointed. "It's quite late in the night, and I have plenty of work to do, police girl. We'll see each other tomorrow. Satoshi, Qwong, take her to the cell, then go rest some."

Without waiting for an answer, the man raised from his chair and left the room, while two of the three burly guards took her through a door she didn't see before. Inside the second room were three simple beds, likely for the three guards, with their personal belongings on various furniture.

Another, smaller door was unlocked, and she was unceremoniously thrown into the new space, before the door closed back.

The sound of the lock sealed her hope of any chance of escape.

She was alone in the darkness. Her arms and feets were still bound. And as the reality of the situation dawned on her, all she could do was to try to keep herself from sobbing.

Hello there, author here

Thanks to those still supporting me!It seems there's less comments lately. Honestly I can understand that "individual" stories may appear less appealing than the whole "geopolitical" side of the story but well, they're necessary to progress the plot. Not much I can do about that, but I hope you people still enjoy the story.

Thanks again, and see you next week!