Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 115: Entrance to Nymph Base

They pulled up to Vana's apartment in the gray van. Vana and Ulin were standing outside with a travel bag. Tako stopped the van and they climbed in. "Are you ready to go?" Jace asked as the ladies climbed into the backseats.

"Yes I am. Am I still not allowed to contact headquarters?" Vana asked as Tako pulled away driving to the hidden tunnel that would lead to the abandoned Grand Hexarian Base. The entrance was located on the edge of nowhere so they would have a long drive until they arrived. freёwebnoѵel.com

"For now, when we get on the Anvil you can contact them. But for now it would be best that you hold off on that." Jace answered as he leaned back in his chair.

She went quiet as the trip continued for a few hours and the time neared midnight. The only thing that was breaking up the silence was the van's built in music system. When they were nearing the location to the hidden entrance Jace's communication watch began making a dinging noise.

Jace tapped his watch and a hologram began playing. It was a hologram of the lobby in the mansion they were working out of the last two days. In the lobby was Patrick making a call on his own communication device. It was still ringing when Jace had pulled it up.

"You have a surveillance device in the mansion?" Vana asked in bewilderment. "Why?"

"Watch." Jace answered.

The call connected and Jace looked out the window, "I am calling to leave an anonymous tip. It is in regards to the two diseased officers at the abandoned factory and the location of one Arthur Sanders." Patrick's voice was clear as he nervously looked out the window.

Jace put on his aviators. He began manipulating data on his glasses and making preparations.

"Is he leaking intel?" Vana asked in surprise.

"Yeah, your intelligence agency purposefully placed a weak willed person with us in the hopes that he would leak intel. Maybe even catch us, it is a political game. Something we care little for." Ulin explained with a sigh as she pulled out a triggering device. "It is armed."

Jace nodded as he finished what he was doing. "I am ready as well."

"Hello, yeah it is about the police officer's killers, they are going to an abandoned-" The video suddenly cut off with a crackle while a distance behind them there was a small light in the sky.

"Explosives triggered, the leak is plugged. How about Ellis?" Ulin asked as she leaned over from her seat to look at Jace as he pulled off his aviators.

"Not necessary, he already left to make an in person report at their headquarters. They will understand what happened to Patrick when I send them a video." Jace answered as he looked back at Vana. "Will that be a problem?"

Vana seemed to think for a moment as she frowned. Then after a few minutes she shook her head. "No, we work as expendable parts. If he screwed it up and got caught in the crossfire because of political mind games it is not your fault. But I am surprised you were prepared for that."

"We were expecting it. We were given orders to prepare for one of the people we work with from the Woltar government to betray us. So Jace ordered me to smuggle in explosives and plant them around the mansion where you three would not be able to find them." Tako explained from the driver seat.

"You knew we were going to rally and group up at the mansion? How? I thought that was last minute." Vana pointed out as she leaned back in her seat.

"No, it was planned. I chose a property that would not be missed if it was destroyed and that we could in no way be blamed if it was determined to be nonaccidental." Jace explained as Tako pulled up to a warehouse by the beach that was in the middle of nowhere. "I think we are here."

"This is the supposed entrance. What now?" Tako asked.

Jace opened the door and climbed out. "Stay in the car." He then closed the door and walked over to the warehouse entrance which were two sliding doors which were locked closed by a simple padlock. Jace looked around and saw a camera pointing to the entrance.

Jace pulled on the padlock and broke it as he pulled on it. The padlock and bolt it was attached to broke off the door. Jace then pushed the doors open easily, revealing the empty warehouse. He walked inside once they were open enough for the van to enter.

Inside there was nothing inside but there was some light coming in through a few open windows near the roof. He ignored the wet spots on the inside and walked to an electrical box that was near the back of the warehouse. Behind him he could hear the van pull into the warehouse.

Jace opened the electrical box and found that it was the 'key hole' to enter but the key required seemed to be some sort of device. Which they definitely did not have. In the center of a warehouse was a spot where the ground clearly would lower. It was likely an elevator.

Jace closed his eyes and touched the 'key hole' and found the interconnecting parts from the schematic. He was right about the elevator but it seemed all the key did was complete a circuit which he could do without the required device.

"Park the van in that spot." Jace directed and Tako peaked his head out the window to line himself up as he realized what Jace was talking about. Once the van was lined up Jace reached into the electrical box and used his hand to complete the circuit.

There was a momentary jolt before his body stabilized the electricity that was running through his body. The colored components in the electrical box lit up and there was humm from a machine for a minute as everything began starting up. Jace stayed up for a moment as he waited until the lift would run on its own.

KA-CHUNK!

There was aloud metal on metal noise before the spot the van was on jostled and then began lowering into the ground. Jace removed his hand from the electrical box. Then he walked over to the platform that was lowering and jumped onto the elevator. He walked up to the driver window as Tako leaned out.

"When we get to the bottom you are going to drive further into the tunnel. I have to flip a switch to send the elevator back up. But we have a while before we reach the bottom." Jace told them as he glanced at the walls as the elevator descended further into the ground.

"How can you tell? We have only just begun descending." Vana asked from the back seat. He did not notice before but it seemed that Ulin and her had begun playing a card game at some point.

"I got the schematic for the base from my boss. We have a record of places like this but since it is not in the empire's territory we do not have any reason to come here or use it." Jace answered honestly as leaned against the door.

"Do you guys just get requests completed quickly like that all the time?" Vana asked in surprise. "We usually have to wait for several different people to make approvals before we can even get a weapon for a mission. I was actually surprised we were supplied with laser pistols so quickly."

"That was likely in part because of our government." Ulin shrugged, "we managed to sneak into your country with just about no warning. Basically we showed how good we were because usually Inquisitors were welcomed at the spaceship terminal. Instead we just came right onto your planet. Not to mention we have a military ship somewhere near Nymph and they probably still have not located our space ship yet."

"Wait, you have a military spaceship in orbit? That is terrifying. Especially if my government is really struggling with finding it." Vana took a deep breath. "Anyways, can you tell me a bit more about this person you are tracking? I recall you asking Arthur Sanders and saying his name was Lord Hoodwink?" Both Ulin and Tako looked at Jace at those questions.

Jace shrugged, "we do not know much except that he is a problem. He arranged some saboteurs to assist the Crystoph Federation. Said saboteurs were Vexical Soldiers that were experimented on and basically brainwashed. The experiments clearly violated the rules regarding nanobots so he made it to the top of the empire's most wanted list. His experiments also veered into man-machine combinations which got him wanted by the Rogue Metal Legion. Ulin has heard a bit about him from Salem. But the guy is basically a scientist and clearly a former noble from some country." Jace explained with a sigh. "We were able to happen upon Devan's connection as a smuggler. We already knew about that communication station he was smuggling to."

"So you came here to figure out what else he knew. Are you hoping Devan has specific files on this Lord Hoodwink?" Vana asked a lot more interested to know that she was learning about their mission.

"No, but if he was as paranoid as I was thinking then we should find some goods that he would not have wanted to offload. Searching the goods he stored gives us something to do while we are waiting for Chen to get his new body." Jace explained with a shrug.