Chapter 111

They soon came across stairs that seemed to lead to a room on top of the factory. There was no one around, hence they walked straight up. The door was locked, but it wasn't a problem for Alvin, who easily jimmied it with a pick he has in his pocket. The both of them then entered inside.

The room looked well decorated and comfortable, with another opening leading into the factory. There were papers, files, plates, glasses, and such random things scattered around.

"Well, it looks like he isn't here. Should we go looking for him?" asked Fred.

"No hurry. A supervisor like him will not spend too much time in the factory among the heat and sweaty workers. He will rather sit down in the room with excellent ventilation that is his office. In less than 15 minutes, I am confident he will return" said Alvin, as he started going through the files scattered around.

"If there is some person or group that is being researched, that means they might be suspects in the break-in. In case he still doesn't know the culprit, it is better to have this information than bleed our wallets dry later searching for it" explained Alvin seeing Fred's puzzled look.

Fred nodded, and also started reading the files. A few minutes later, they heard footsteps coming from outside the door. Alvin put on his Dream World Hat, and continued what he was doing. Seeing this, Fred did the same.

A pudgy man pushed open the door and walked in. Alvin touched his hat, and the man started sleepwalking towards the couch, and collapsed upon it. Alvin then proceeded to finish reading the relevant clues before he turned to Jose. He beckoned Fred to stand next to him, and entered the dream of Jose.

In the dream, they entered into the most familiar place of Jose; high up near his room, overlooking the hundreds of workers in the factory below.

Alvin walked up to him from the side and said, "Boss, the higher-ups are asking about the stolen batch of gunpowder"

"They like to bother me in this way. I have told them many times that it was one of those individuals with strange powers that did this job. But they do not send a few people like that to look into it. Instead, they send a few useless goons, and expect me to solve the problem"

"How do you know that the individuals who did this have strange powers?" asked Alvin.

"How else would they have accessed the gunpowder that was stored beneath the factory, with the door under that huge machine that is impossible to move without a sound, and then managed to get out? Clearly, these are those strange people one hears about" said Jose.

"If only someone saw them. We could have caught them red-handed" said Alvin.

"Unfortunately those bastards were in and out before anyone even detected their presence. Now the higher-ups are on my case" grumbled Jose.

"What about the Red Knife Gang?" asked Alvin.

"Well, they tried to buy huge stocks of gunpowder from the Baccardi Gang. When they were refused, they tried to buy it from me directly. But how can that amount of gunpowder be sold? The MI9 are not fools. They know we are probably smuggling gunpowder. But in order to not clash with our backers, they pretend to be ignorant. But if we sell that much gunpowder, and it causes some public incidents that lead to an outcry, we will be screwed. Hence we refused them. 2 days later we get robbed. It's definitely them" said Jose angrily.

"What have you found so far?" asked Alvin.

"After a portion our reserves got stolen, they never asked for more gunpowder again. That must mean they have gotten it, stealing from us no doubt. And the members of the Red Knife Gang seem richer in the past few days, throwing money around on drinks and prostitutes. Definitely, they are the ones that hit us. But those higher-ups refuse to investigate the Red Knife Gang on their own, nor are they willing to give me the authorisation to deal with them. They just expect me to magically make up the losses of over 5000 pounds" said Jose miserably.

"And who is this backer of yours?" asked Jose.

"Mach Gore. He is the only one we have contact with. But he is obviously not the one in charge. I think he has some nobles behind him. Illegal gunpowder and munitions sale brings a profit of close to 30000 pounds a year after all" said Jose.

Alvin asked a few more questions about the stolen gunpowder, the safety measures, and the higher-ups, and then exited the dream with Fred who was quietly standing by the side.

"What do you think?" asked Alvin to Fred.

"The amount of missing gunpowder is horrifying. Whoever stole it could cause at least another dozen incidents of that scale" replied Fred.

"Or a couple of incidents of horrifyingly huge proportions. And this time, people may die. Lots of them" finished Alvin.

"Why would those higher-ups he talked about be unwilling to investigate?" wondered Fred.

"Maybe they are investigating. They didn't tell this guy because they want to keep it a secret. As evidenced by his rambling about the highly illegal and secretive stolen goods in front of multiple outsiders, he is not good at secrets. He may start boasting about the investigation team of Beyonders by the evening if he knew. Hence they didn't tell him. He probably is intimately related to one of the so called higher-ups. Otherwise a person like him wouldn't be in charge of such a huge and secretive operation"

"I'll inform the captain about this and start gathering information on this Mach Gore. Also, we should raise alertness for this matter, and get some divination related Sealed Artifacts to predict the whereabouts of that huge amount of remaining gunpowder" said Fred seriously.

"You are right. But before we do that, let's first check out the underground storage. We might find some useful clues" said Alvin.