Chapter 258: Ramping Up Efforts
Laz didn't have much hope for the council in the first place. He just needed henchmen to do some information running for him. He wasn't about to treat them like his own personal army since he already experienced their lack of ability.
But now, he couldn't even use them for that since who ever leaked the ones who got arrested were sure to be paying attention to what they did in the mean time.
Although Laz was disappointed with what went down, he also had questions.
'Why did the foundation realm people get ignored?'
'Were they ignored or did the person who leaked the information not know who they were?'
'Was the who's who's not really known?'
Laz didn't have answers, but he knew that these questions were probably running through Julia's head as well and she might be able to provide some answers.
Of course they wouldn't talk about it on the job.
Unknown to Laz, his council wasn't the only ones impacted by the arrests. Many low level figures in all three organizations were rounded up, with the fewest being Freya's Vampyres. The reason for this was that they were a rather tight group of girls overall and none of them would betray their sisters. That didn't mean that there wasn't one or two who could be convinced, especially the newer members who hadn't really become sisters yet. The people they met were limited, but that didn't mean they didn't know anyone.
...
In the basement of the nameless office building, Tommy was standing there with his arm crossed while dozens of heavily armed guards dragged in sedated infected in cages. Behind him were two young and healthy looking men with silver hair who both stood at respectful attention. Although they were the ones that normally ran the children of god church within the city, the man in front of them was one of the higher ups of their backer. It was only thanks to the funding of the Global Sciences Group that they were able to not only be the main enlightened branch within the city, but also able to take in and support however many enlightened arrived on their doorstep, which wasn't few.
In front of Tommy was a what looked to be a door. It looked like on the side were three hinges while on the other side was a large handle, hence why everyone called it a door.
Interestingly, that's the only way in which it was similar to a door.
The door stood by itself in a large, empty cavern that had originally been discovered when the church was looked to make a bunker underneath the office building. Once they discovered it, they reported it right away to Global Sciences who sent down researchers and others to study the door.
The reason why the door was so interesting was because it looked like a series of clods, sprockets, and gears, all interwoven together into it's current shape. On top of that, the 'door' looked more like it was a free standing arch.
It was a door that lead to nowhere and guarded nothing which was all the more reason they wanted to open it.
The only problem was with how they were suppose to do that. As far as anyone could tell, the door's handle was jammed and wouldn't open. Then, after months of research and a whole lot of luck, they discovered that they could directly fuse energy with the door which would fill up some barely noticeable power banks. Although no one could guarantee that once the door was loaded up on energy, it would open. But it was normal to assume as much.
Global Sciences had found various different treasures that contained large amounts of energy, but they didn't want to waste them on some unknown door.
"This door... are we sure this is working?" Tommy said as he looked around, noticing the teams at work. One group was bringing over captives and strapping them into the chairs that were placed around the door. The next group was monitoring the captives that sat in the chairs while a needle and tube were placed in their arms, allowing the blood to be slowly drained from their bodies. Then the blood was fueled by pump into certain crevices in the door where it quickly vanished. Once the second group decided the individual no longer had any blood to give, they would call in the third group that would remove the almost bloodless corpses and take them away.
The entire operation was methodical and frightening in it's simplicity and effectiveness.
The two silver haired twins both nodded..
"We find that the door takes the blood, breaks it down and uses all of the energy inside of it."
"It then discards the remnants underneath it, hence why we had to have a drainage systems installed."
"Is that where the smell comes from?" Tommy asked while using a cloth to block his nose.
"Yes. Sadly, no matter how much we irrigate it, the particle remains of the blood is basically..."
"like a clog that can't be flushed..."
"Whatever. As long as we figure out what's behind this door, that's all that matters. With the new shipment of tranquillizers and gas canisters, begin taking more of those dirty infected. No one will notice them gone anyway. Besides, we can just cover up their disappearances with arrests. Their blood will help get us the rest of the way quicker. Did they do the calculations?" Tommy asked as he made his way around the door.
"Yes young master. According to the current level of energy in the air, the door would open in around a hundred years from now."
"Of course, that's just according to the current calculations. From what your researchers have gathered..."
"The energy is getting thicker, I'm aware." Tommy didn't need to be told this. Unlike the infected which drew in the energy and changed their bodies with it, the chosen, like himself, were able to manipulate it directly, causing a much more volatile effect.
This was the true difference between the two of them and also the reason for how the chosen stayed 'pure.'
"As you say," Both twins replied at once.
"Still though young master. We must warn you that although quite a few of the dirty infected are lone wolves so to speak,"
"Quite a few of them have connections with groups and organizations in the area. We might alert them if we grab to many of their members, even the lower level ones."
"And you think they might cause a problem?" Tommy asked, aware of the situation.
"The group calling themselves 'the council' won't be an issue. They are a loose nit group in the first place, playing house amongst themselves. And their combat power is truly lacking. But the ones called the Vodun are much more organized although they are still rather separate. The ones we least wish to provoke are the vampyres. They have a very strict hierarchy and will attack back if pushed.
"It doesn't matter. If they stick their necks out, we will just have more fuel for the door. Still, since we haven't gotten complete control of the government yet, we should take it slow. The less that is known about us, the better off we are. Take the ones you can find but ignore the two groups if possible. Still, if you end up plucking a few of them, whatever. They have no idea how much influence we already have and even if we are not yet untouchable, we are getting closer and closer every day."
"Yes young master."
"Hmm, this gauge? Almost 75% full right?"
"Yes young master."
"Excellent. Soon we shall have an answer."
"Young master. What do you think is behind this door?" Although they had been meaning to ask for a while, they never had the chance. Now that it seemed like Tommy was in a good mood, they posed the question.
"Behind this door? Most likely another world."
"Another world?!?" Neither of them expected this answer as this was the first they had heard about it. Still, Tommy wasn't going to explain.
"Just keep it up. When the time comes, you will both be welcome to join me."
"Thank you and praise to the young master."
"Little Piggy?" Tommy suddenly called.
Turning their heads, the twins looked at what was walking over. Well, crawling over.
The person was on all fours with a leash around her neck while all of her hair had been shaved off. In fact, there wasn't a spot of hair on her body. Not only that, on top of her bald head, sown onto the skin, the woman had fuzzy, pink pig ears. And, if one were to look over her, a little curly tail was extending out from behind the bottom of her back, almost at the top of her butt. The next thing the twins noticed was that her legs had been tied from the calf to her tights, meaning that she couldn't straighten them, no matter what she did.
"There's my little piggy. Beautiful, isn't she?"
"Yes, quite so young master."
"Sadly, I had to put my last piggy down when it ran into some traffic while I wasn't paying attention. This one I just got before coming down here. I haven't had time to make the necessary alterations to her yet, but as soon as we get back... She will be perfect."
"Alterations?" The twins asked, since it looked like Tommy wanted them too.
"Why yes. Who has ever seen a piggy with such long, grotesque legs before? It's a pity she was born with that deformity. But since I am a very loving master, I shall do my part to fix her of that problem." Although the 'piggy' tried to hide it, she shook a little after hearing this. After all, none of her senses had been blocked and even her face was uncovered. Had Laz been here and seen her, he would have recognized her as his former homeroom teacher, Ms Roberts. Although several years had passed, she still looked as young as ever. Not only that, but she also had the fluctuations of a low level, newly awakened infected.
"What's this? My piggy doesn't want to be fixed? Well then, I can give you a choice. You see, we need people to 'donate' some blood to help open that door over there. If you want, you can feel free to volunteer. If you do that, you will be free of me, forever." Tommy had noticed her shaking as he mentioned his plans.
Hearing this, Ms. Roberts really, really wanted to just give up and let herself be killed.
"But remember. If you do that, I will have to find a new piggy. And this time, I should probably raise her from young so that she's more obedient to me, right? So how about that four year old daughter of yours, hmm? She's like you, right? Infected? Right now she's too young and being kept for observation by the research group. But I'm sure I can pull a few strings and get her to be my new piggy, one that I can train and love for a long, long time. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Most of the indiviuals in the room right now were either chosen, security or workers and researchers, hired by Global Sciences for the sole purpose of opening that door. Perhaps they had families of their own or close friends or lovers, like all normal people would. But even though Tommy was talking loud enough for everyone to hear him, no one said a word. No one spoke up. In fact, they acted like they hadn't seen anything and just kept right on going.
Perhaps Ms. Roberts had some hopes that with so many people around, someone would do something, especially when this monster who used to be a student of hers was threatening her like this. But those dreams were dashed by the silence and indifference.
The only person who could save her daughter from that fate was her.
"Oink." Ms. Roberts made a sound while shaking her head. She never once raised her eyes to look at Tommy.
"Oh? You promise to be obedient from now on?"
"Oink, Oink," she responded, even shaking her well endowed ass a little so that the tail would move.
"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful! See? I knew a old pig could be taught to behave itself," Tommy said, laughing. The twins joined in with him as well, seemingly not minding the situation at all.
"See this gentlemen? This is how you have to train these animals. Make sure to take notes."
"Young master is too wise."
"We have already learned a great deal. I can't wait to see what the young master shows us next."
"This world is changing gentlemen. And pretty soon, men like me will be it's gods. And for those loyal to us, they shall be kings," Tommy laughed and he began to walk towards the elevator with the twins following behind him, clearly in a good mood.
As the elevator door closed, the people kept right on working as if they hadn't noticed a naked woman being treated like a pig on a walk.
No one spoke about it.
No one even looked at the elevator door after it closed.
Only a select few people looked in the direction of a blacken stretch of rock that seemed as though it had been burned and melted. Then, with barely a sigh, they turned back to their work, eager to be done with the day.