165: A Company of Fools: Sho’lajah’s Justice II

"Your plan is to have one of us impersonate Karen and have them sneak into this section of the base and steal KC back?!" Louie exclaimed. He paced the interior of the shop and ran his hands through his hair.

"Um, Chase, none of us look close enough to her to be able to pull that off." Iris said, pointing to the tied up Karen in the corner.

"Don't worry about that. My family has a spell that allows two people to swap physical appearances and voices. The boss here made an upgraded version of it." Sin said. Iris looked surprised but nodded her head in recognition.

"Well, how exactly are we going to explain away the missing caravans and dead evos?" Louie asked.

"Blame me." I said, then smirked. "In fact, you're going to hand me over to the higher-ups."

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Louie and Haws exclaimed.

"The higher-ups want you dead! You embarrassed one of the company's biggest supporters!" Haws bellowed.

"Which is why the person in charge will be super excited about having a chat with me before they turn me over to Caldifax." I said with a devious smirk.

"Oh shit…." Iris, Sin, Jade, and Nate said in unison. Haws lowered his head and groaned.

"His grandmother got the same look before she did something crazy…" He muttered tjen loomed up at me. "What are you planning, Chase?"

"You want to destroy the base, don't you?" Iris asked. When I just smirked her, she rolled her eyes and sighed. "I knew it."

"Wait! Destroy the base! That's a little ambitious, don't you think?!" Nate asked.

"Well destroying the base is a secondary objective. The main one is getting KC and Angie off the base." I said. Nate nodded and scratched his chin.

"Do you need Jade or my help for this?" Nate asked. I shook my head and pointed to the shop.

"You two will have enough to worry about with the shop and Bo today. Iris, Louie, Haws, Sin, and I will be enough." I said Bo pouted and crossed his arms.

"What do you mean you guys will be enough! What about me?!" He exclaimed.

"You are going back to the lab on campus or to Baset's tower. I still need three more Orkands." I said. Bo started to argue but then paused and looked confused.

"Wait, what?" Bo asked.

"Six orkands, that's what I need in order make this remodel of the shop happen. You already made three, and i need three more. you are the one who can create them, so I need you either at the lab or Baset's tower making them." I explained.

"Wait, so you want me to actually do something helpful?" Bo queried, then scratched his chin and looked at me suspiciously. "This feels like busy work!"

"Seriously? Creating the backbone of my company sounds like busy work to you? Do I have to explain how much money I will be safe by having orkand's doing the maintenance work?" I asked.

"Well no…fine I'll go and make some more orkands." Bo said, dropping his head and crossing his arms.

[Bone-lasher, tell me if he starts to follow after us.] I told him.

[Alright Boss!] Bone-lasher replied.

"What do we do with Karen then? Are we taking her with us?" Haws asked. I shook my head the bit my finger and started writing runes on my arm in blood. Haws and Louie both looked concerned as I finished up the blood runes.

"Chase, what are you doing?" Haws asked.

"Blood casting, I'm making a spell that will keep Karen asleep while we infiltrate the base. That way, we don't have to worry about her somehow getting out and causing a problem later." I said. As I channeled mana into that arm and cast an axiom spell sigil.

A small orb of purple smog formed in my hand. I looked at Karen and tossed the orb in her face. It broke apart on contract and covered her body. She opened her mouth to scream, but her head sagged instantly, and she laid out on the floor unconscious.

"That…is kinda scary…" Haws said softly. He walked over and crouched in front of Karen and poked her face. She didn't even stir.

"What now?"

"Now we prepare." I said, then turned to Jade. "Jade, I'm going to need a few bracelets if you have them, and I also have to tell you about a new deal that I made with the college that I'll need your help with."

"Okay. I'll go see about those bracelets, you can tell me about the deal when I come back." Jade said, then walked into the back of the shop.

"Nate, how long until that company comes to work on the shop and teach Gargesh?" I asked.

"Not too much longer." Nate replied. "Given the area, they might be taking their time getting here."

"Well, let's use that. Sin takes Karen out back for right now. Bo, go with him, then head to the college." I said.

"OK…" Bo grumbled as he moved to follow Sin, who'd already lifted Karen's unconscious body onto his shoulders.

"Oh and Sin, we're going to need some steeds." I added. Sin paused at the door and smirked.

"I know, just the place to get 'em."

***

"How much farther is the base?" Sin asked with a groan. He was laying on the back of Haws' Steed with his hands tied behind his back and his feet bound up as well.

"Not much further. Maybe another twenty minutes." Louie replied.

"Can we kick this up to ten minutes? This is not comfortable at all." I said from my own spot on the back of Iris steed, tied up as well. Iris looked back at me and scowled. She swapped appearance with Karen before we left the city.

Louie, Haws, and Iris were riding through the desert towards the base with Sin and I posing as their captives. All part of my plan to get into the Justice technologies facility. I, however, didn't factor in how far the base was from the city.

"I'm wearing another woman's face. You want to talk about uncomfortable?" Iris said. I scowled back at her and tried my best to look up at her.

"You seriously want to compare to swapping appearances to being hogtied and thrown over the back of a steed?" I groaned.

"You don't even feel anything when it happens!"

"No arguing, you two!" Haws said sternly. I scowled at him.

"I've been tied up for four hours! I'm tired!" I snapped and kicked at the air. "The ropes are dogging into my wrists, and I'm pretty sure they are bleeding!"

"Oh please! You can heal your wounds instantly, thanks to your weird mana thing!" Sin snapped.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt!" I snapped back.

"Thor's breath…" Haws groaned.

Everyone's steeds started climbing over a particularly large sand dune, which took a while since steeds were not designed to move through a desert. Honestly flying or using a evo that could slither across the sand would be easier but since neither Haws or Louie were splicers so they couldn't reasonably control something other than a steed which were trained to be used by normies.

As we reached the summit of the dune, a small facility came into view. It didn't seem like much to look at on the surface. There were only three buildings in the perimeter of the base, two smaller ones that looked like guard shacks and one larger one between them that looked like a sort of mess hall or massive meeting hall, only it wasn't.

Thanks to the Bone-lasher, I could see inside the building and see that it was actually a massive elevator that led into deeper parts of the real facility. The real facility was a large underground labyrinth that stretched for miles. We'd actually been walking over the furthermost part of the facility for the better half of thirty minutes.

"We're here!" Haws announced as his steed reached the summit of the dune. "Iris, you should take the lead from this point on. If there is one thing that Karen hates it following after someone, she thinks that only weakling and underlings follow after someone."

"I understand." Iris said.

"It would probably make things easier for everyone if you and Sin pretended to be unconscious when we head into the facility Chase." Haws said.

"Already on it." I said, then slumped over the back of the steed and pretended to be unconscious. Sin did the same. The group headed towards the facility, which was still a ways away.

It took another hour before we finally reached the actual facility. Thanks to Bone-lasher, I could see what was going on around me even with my eyes closed. Iris and the group had come to a stop in front of one of the security booths. The guard that was stationed inside the booth quickly jumped to his feet and rushed out of the booth to greet Iris.

"Ms Ashley! You returned! What happened to the caravan that you left with?" The guard asked.

"We were attacked before we got to the city. It seems that those thugs we were doing business with betrayed us." Iris replied with a huff. She reared back and smacked me on the head. "We managed to snag these two in the middle of the attack."

"Wait…?" The guardsmen said then moved around to get a better look at me. "…that's the man the director said is target number one!"

"Yes, I don't know why we spent all that time and money on those thugs. Nothing but a waste."

"A group that's being lead by a fucking splicer, of course they wouldn't be trustworthy." The guard said then spat on the ground. "Head on inside ma'am."

The guard walked into the booth and pressed a button that raised the metal arm and allowed the other inside the base. Iris said nothing to the guard as she urged her steed into motion. She lead Haws and Louie into the base, the later two politely excused Iris as they trotted away.

<Good job not reacting to his comment about splicers.> I said to Iris through the mental link. I had cast the spell before on the group before we left the city.

<Fuck that's weird hearing Chase's voice in my head.> Haws said. I heard him shower slightly.

<Who would have thought a splicer was capable of something like this…> Louie said.

<You Americans don't know anything about splicers, do you?> Iris asked.

<Apparently not…in America we're taught that splicers are weak and evil people that's why they make evos. To cover for their weakness. We don't know anything about magic, it's a myth back home.> Louie said.

<Generations of American splicers being killed left everyone in America without any idea that magic exists. By trying to wipe us out and declaring splicers their enemy they forgot about the the splicers greatest weapon…it kinda comical really.> I said.

<Fucking stupid actually.> Sin grumbled.

<Are we almost to the real base?>

<Yeah, we're nearing the elevator now.> Haws told him.

Iris and company road the steeds into a larger building where they were greeted by a host of guards and workers trying to get Iris (Karen's) attention.

"If you can't tell by what I have strapped to the back of my steed I am busy right now! I have to report to the commander right away!" Iris snapped at all of them while simultaneously presenting me like a trophy.

"Yes ma'am! Sorry ma'am!" A worker exclaimed.

<You're really good at pretending to be a bitch.> Louie said.

<Who says she's pretending…> I joked.

<Ass!> Iris snapped then slapped me on the back of the head. To anyone watching it looked like she slapped me for no reason. I pretended to still be unconscious and had to struggle to keep from smirking at her reaction.

The ground suddenly jerked downward slightly then slowly descended. Through Bone-lasher's vision I could see that the massive elevator platform that stood at the center of the building was slowly descending into the massive underground base that sat underneath the desert.

<This place is massive guys!> I told everyone through the link.

<Yeah it's super easy to get lost. Better to stick with someone that knows the way.> Louie said.

<Can you see KC from here Chase?> Iris asked.

<Not sure, this place is massive and even though I'm aware of everything inside of Bone-lasher's detection field my attention can't be everywhere at once.> I replied.

<Well fuck…search the lower floors first, if he's somewhere off the grid then the lower floors are a great place to keep him.> Haws said.

<Got it!> I said.

From what I could tell there were five floors to this base. The way each was laid out seemed to correspond with the way a cave tunnel would naturally develop. Which would make since, considering Justice technologies is only two years old there was no way they were building a militaristic base in another country from the ground up with the local government knowing about it. The only way that could be possible was if the base was mostly constructed already.

<Hey guys, I'm going to tune out while I looked for KCt so slap me if anything happens.> I said.

<We'll get your attention.> Iris said. For a second their I thought her tone was teasing or slightly vindictive but I quickly realized she was serious. This was a operation and she was now solely committed to its success.

I tuned everything out and focused on searching the available space for any sign of KC. At first I didn't think it would be that hard to find a child inside the base however that was quickly proven wrong. There was an entire section of the base that was full of them on the second floor of the base. At first I thought they were all being experimented on like Karen said KC was but that wasn't the case. They were the other children of the staff members on base. The section I was searching was the living section of the base.

I turned my attention to the third level of the base. There was a lot more activity and not all of it was human. The floor was divided into four main sections with each main section further divided into four smaller subsection. The four subsections looked to have very different purposes inside each main section. Some seemed to be designated as laboratories to techno-splicing while others were offices or cubicles. There were even large farms of gestation tanks, on a scale that made the setup we head back in St. Louie look like a amateur chemistry set.

I ignored those for the time being an focused on the fourth floor. This one was mostly filled with evos and a lot of handler personnel. I didn't see anything that would look like a two year old so I just glossed over that floor.

As I checked over the fifth floor I had to really concentrate. The fifth floor wasn't massive and even expansive as the other floors intact it was mostly tucked away and at the very edge of Bone-lasher's vision. I couldn't tell much of what was going on but security seemed heavy compared to the rest of the base.

I was about to tell the others that I might have an idea where KC is when I felt a heavy blow to the back of my head which knocked me back to reality.

I opened my eyes and saw myself staring down at the ground, I was looking at a pair of expensive alligator skin men's cowboy boots. I could feel blood running down the back of my neck as I craned my head to look up at who was standing over me. I nearly groaned with distain when I saw who it was.

"Captain Barker…no wonder I felt dumber…"