Chapter 179

  A dull thud from above caused Enzo to look up at the ceiling.

  What was that? he thought in fusion.

  He khere were only two guys on the sed floor of the HQ: Ned and Kus. They both seemed like serious and reliable people, which was why Miller had assighem the task of keeping wat the sed floor, where the security trol room was located.

  Enzo kept staring at the ceiling, straining his ears, but no additional sounds came from above. It robably nothing. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it sounded like a body colpsing onto the floor. Likely, it was just his imagination—he always had quite an active and vivid one.

  Besides, he was well aware that there was no way anyone could infiltrate their base, sneak into HQ, and make it to the sed floor pletely ued by the guards stationed everywhere—not to mention the advanced mae gun turrets that were incredibly sensitive and capable of sensing even the slightest suspiovement in any dire.

  Still, he knew he o iigate that noise, just to be sure. He Masuo, who stood nearby.

  “Hey man, did you hear that?” Enzo asked.

  “Heard what?” Masuo replied.

  Maybe it was nothing after all. Still, he had to make sure.

  “e with me,” he said to Masuo, who obeyed without questioning him. All the people assigo guard HQ were the most disciplined ones.

  “Where?”

  “Upstairs.”

  “Something wrong?”

  “That’s what we’re gonna find out.”

  Unslinging their ons and gripping them tightly, they approached the staircase and began to asd, pointing their ons upward as they climbed. When they reached the nding and started up the flight of stairs, the corridor on the sed floor came into view.

  “What the fuck,” Enzo muttered as they both froze half.

  There was a body sprawled in the corridor. From where they stood, they couldn’t determine whether it was Ned or Kus. There was no sign of the sed guard, alive or dead, but the door to the security trol room was wide open.

  “What do we…” Masuo began, but he never finished his question.

  From the er of his eye, Enzo spotted some kind of movement. He wheeled in that dire, but there didn’t seem to be anything oaircase beside them. However, in the instant, to his left, he noticed a distortion in the air that inated from a spot on the wall he ceiling. Before he could prehend what was happening, he heard a gurgle behind him. When he spun around, he saw Masuo staring at him with wide eyes.

  Blood poured from a gash ihroat of his panioempted to speak, but only a gurgling noise came from his mouth. The moment, Masuo’s on slipped from his grasp, cttering to the steps and skittering down. He fell sideways, sliding down the wall until he reached the floor. His weakening fingers clutched his throat, but the gash in his flesh was too severe for him to stem the torrent of blood.

  Enzo realized there was some kind of invisible mutant ging to the wall just a moment too te. He wheeled back to face the spot where he had noticed the strange distortion, raising his on. But before he could line up his shot, he caught a glimpse of movement—a barely visible tentacle darting through the air toward him.

  In the instant, he felt something incredibly sharp thrust into his throat, cutting through muscle and cartige with surprising ease. The bde effortlessly sliced through the flesh deeply enough to sever his spinal cord. Enzo was dead even before his body colpsed to the steps.

  Adri and Borys, positio the door leading out of HQ, heard a strange noise ing from the staircase. They paused for a moment, but the sounds did not return. They knew Enzo and Masuo were not far from the staircase, so if there was trouble, the two of them would take care of that. However, after the initial disturbance, an uling silenveloped the area. Not a single sound pierced the stillness.

  Adri g Borys before turning to face the corridor that led to the staircase.

  “Enzo, Masuo,” Ardi called out to them. “Is everything alright?”

  There was no response. Adri and Borys exged anxious looks before cautiously advang toward the source of the hey didn’t get far, though. Adri spotted a distortion in the air above him. There was some kind of invisible creature crawling along the ceiling! What it was or how it had mao infiltrate HQ pletely ued was a plete enigma to him.

  It dropped on top of him. The invisible creature was surprisingly heavy, causing Adri to colpse to the floor and knog the wind out of him. Before he could recover from the initial shock, he felt uedly strong fingers around his throat, choking him and sileng his attempts to call for help.

  The creature that was choking him suddenly became visible, revealing itself in all its terrifying glory. The obsidian-bck monstrosity straddling his chest had twe eyes, wide jaws brimming with triangur bck teeth, and three loacles extending from its back. These tentacles writhed through the air like sheir tips sharp and pointed, gleaming menagly.

  From the er of his eye, he saw Borys point his assault rifle at the mutant. However, before he could pull the trigger, two tentacles shot toward him with astonishing speed. In the instant, they stabbed Borys in both eyes, killing him instantly. After that, something strange happened.

  All three tentacles suddenly detached from the monster’s body, dropping to the ground where they quickly turo dust. Adri’s vision began to fade as the ck of oxygen took its toll. He thought the creature inteo suffocate him, but as it turned out, it had other pns for him. With its left hand still strig around his throat, the monster reached for a knife sheathed at Adri’s belt with its other hand.

  The creature then pluhe ko his chest several times in rapid succession. After that, still clutg the bloody knife in its right hand, the mutant rose to its feet. As Adri’s sciousness began to fade, a grim realization crossed his mind: he now knew what had happeo the uards at HQ. Ned, Kus, Enzo, and Masuo were most likely dead by this point. However, there was still one guard left—Raul—positioned oher side of the first floor. The st image etched in Adri’s fading mind was of the obsidian-bck mutant silently rag toward the corridor leading to where Raul was stationed. Somehow, Adri felt certain that Raul wouldn’t stand a ce against such a powerful and ing foe…

  Raul stood at the far end of a corridor, the most distant point from the ret massacre. For that very reason, he heard nothing—though there wasn’t much to hear in the first pce, as the previous guards had been killed almost in near sileno shots had been fired, and nobody had even had the ce to call for help.

  Raul shut his eyes for a brief moment to stifle a yawn. Guard duty at HQ was undeniably dull. When he opened his eyes a sed ter, he saitch-bck figure, its posture slightly hunched, standing at the far end of the corridor, having seemingly materialized out of nowhere.

  What the fuck?!

  Before Raul could determine whether he was actually seeing it or if his mind ying tricks on him, he saw the bck figure hurl something in his dire. A glinting object hurtled toward him at incredible speed, flipping end over end. He immediately reized the object for what it was, but before he could do anything, the bde of the knife embedded itself into his throat, sinking all the way to the hilt.

  Standing at the other end of the corridor, Jake straightened up. Just like that, every guard in HQ had been taken care of. All that was left to do was get the Skeleton Key and carry out a quick, silent escape.