Chapter 182

  Jake wasn’t sure how Johnny was going to help him escape the base unnoticed. Those 360-degree sers that the turrets were equipped with were incredibly sensitive, capable of deteg even the slightest movements. Other than pletely deactivating the mae gun turrets, there was no way to slip past them ued.

  While examining various data in the security trol room, he had located a ste unit taining mana ables. However, it was locked, and only guards had access to it. When watg the base from the high-rise roof, he had also learhat workers didn’t have access to the ste unit with mana items. Therefore, whenever a worker needed a mana able for one of the maes, they had to call out fuard to provide one.

  However, if Johnny tried to get a mana item from a guard and brought it into the tent, the guard who handed him the item would surely follow him io see what Johnny to. Or the guard might ask first what Johnny even needed a mana able for.

  As for Jake, he himself hadn’t attempted to access the ste unit taining mana ables, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to do so without beied. It wasn’t why he had infiltrated the base anyway; his goal was to steal the Skeleton Key and gather some intel in the process.

  “You o promise me something,” Johnny said, taki another small step closer, wreng Jake back from his musings.

  Jake remaiill, his gaze fixed on Johnny, waiting for him to tinue.

  Johnny inhaled deeply and, in a loud whisper that wavered with emotion, said, “After I help you escape the base, I need you to save my girlfriend. Will you do this for me? You have to promise that you’ll save her!”

  Jake had no idea how he could promise something without knowing aails about it. However, Johnny clearly wasn’t going to help him until Jake gave his assurahe human was watg him with an intense expression on his face, his fear of Jake pletely fotten.

  So Jake nodded, and Johnny released a breath he seemingly didn’t realize he was holding. The relief on his face was almost palpable, as if Jake’s promise had already ensured his girlfriend’s safety. Did Johnny truly view him as some sort of superhero capable of aplishing anything?

  John his gaze and said thank you, even though Jake hadn’t done anything to deserve it yet.

  “Let me tell you what happeo her and where you find her,” Johnny said.

  He was about to tinue when the sound of approag footsteps made him pause. Jake heard it too, but thanks to his enhanced senses, he had been aware of them for a little while. His abilities also allowed him to predict outes iain situations, so he could tell that the person outside wasn’t going to ehe tent and that they were just passing by.

  Johnny, however, didn’t know that. He grew tense, and for the several seds, he remained silent and motionless, ing his o peer around Jake’s form at the entrao the tent, which was covered by a fp.

  “Someone’s ing,” he whispered, his voice filled with terror.

  Jake shook his head, trying to put him at ease. He even pted pg a f hand on Johnny’s shoulder, but sidering how tense Johnny was at the moment, he thought the gesture might freak him out, so he decided against it.

  The footsteps began to fade into the distance as the person moved away from their tent. Once he realized that no one was going to enter, Johnny rexed a out a sigh of relief.

  “That was close,” he muttered.

  No, it wasn’t, Jake thought.

  Johnny gnced up at him again.

  “I nearly lost my shit,” he said with a lopsided grin. “Pardon my French.”

  Jake tio stare at him through his emotionless unblinking eyes. Johnny’s grin faded as he realized that his humor had gone unappreciated by the obsidian-bck mutant before him.

  “Anyway, we don’t have much time since I have to get back to work as soon as possible, so I’ll be quick,” he finally tinued. “My girlfriend’s name is Samantha. We were captured together. Both of us refused to join the ranks of those bloodthirsty bandits when they offered us the ce. So we were forced to do bor for them at this base. Only Samantha wasn’t happy about it.”

  Johnny made a pause, as if gathering his thoughts.

  “She always was the reckless one. She kept talking about esg while I tried to vince her it was a bad idea. Eventually, she agreed with me. It’s impossible for those of us designated as workers by the base’s puters to flee. See, the turrets are programmed to open fire if we attempt to escape. We witnessed several escape attempts, all ending in tragedy as the turrets killed the fugitives. Sam was trying to find a way to bypass the turrets somehow, but eventually she had to relutly admit it was impossible to break out of this base alive.”

  Johnny gave Jake a faint, sad smile.

  “Do you think Sam was fihough? Fat ce! Since she couldn’t get us out of the base, she decided to mess with our captors as much as she could. She set about sabotaging various traptions that produced ammo for the gang. She kept at it for a while, each time doing her best to make it look like a malfun rather than the work of one of us. Sam allocated many skill points to Intelligend worked on improving her Engineering and Meics skills, so she became very good at it. She mao sabotage the base’s traptions several times, always making them look like malfuns. While one traption was being repaired after her handiwork, she moved on to sabotage another one.”

  Johnny couldn’t help but smile at the memory.

  “Sam is incredibly smart. At one point, she even sidered breaking into HQ and hag the puter to disable the turrets, giving us a ake a break for it! Unfortunately, she was never able t her pn to life.”

  Johnny took a brief pause before tinuing.

  “The base leaders weren’t stupid. They uood that the traptions couldn’t malfun so often, especially right after being repaired. They suspected someone was behind the sabotage but couldn’t identify the culprit. Sam was too smart to be caught i. Eventually, the leaders lined up all the workers and threateo torture and kill us one by oil they discovered who was interfering with the base’s equipment.”

  Johnny shook his head.

  “Of course, Sam couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t stand by and wateone suffer because of her as. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. She gave herself away before those bastards could pick their first victim.”

  He fell silent for a moment, as if the memory was too painful to revisit.

  “I was terrified they were going to kill Sam, probably in the most brutal way to demonstrate that they weren’t to be messed with. But they did something worse—they sent her away.”

  He went silent for a sed yet again. It was being increasingly difficult for him to speak about it.

  “They took her to the main base,” he finally finished his thought.

  Jake had no idea what it meant. What made beio the main base worse than fag a slow and agonizih?

  Johnny stared at him for a moment, as if trying to figure out if Jake got the gist. He didn’t.

  Since his monstrous face couldn’t vey aions—except for ohat resembled pure, barbaric rage whenever Jake opened his mouth—Johnny had no way of knowing what he was thinking. So, he opted to crify.

  “I’m not sure if you know this, but those bastards carry out terrible things at their main base,” Johnny said. “Have you ever heard anything about it?”

  Jake shook his head. Johnny gnced around Jake, as if to make sure that nobody stood behind him to listen in. Then he leaned in closer, speaking in a hushed but intense whisper, “They make monsters out of us at their main base!”