"This is a little weird…" Reagan said as well approached the front doors of the hotel. There was no guard on the door like last time and for some reason it felt like the hotel was less guarded than last time too.
"Yes it is." I agreed.
Anders opened the door and held it open for all of us. As we stepped into the hotel I realized why it had seemed to unguarded. There was nobody around. The lobby and lobby bar were completely deserted, save two guards standing guard at the doorway to the stairwell.
"Creepy…." Anders muttered.
"They are definitely up to something." Reagan said as he glanced aroujd thd empty lobby. "Beaufort is too much of a coward to leave his base of operations this deserted for no reason."
"Agreed." Anders said.
"Head up to the upper floors. Use the rings to communicate from here on." I ordered then headed towards the stairwell.
The guards didn't say anything as we approached and headed up to one of the upper floors which also struck me as odd. Considering how I had to basically convince them I had vital intelligence to get them to let me up last time.
The three of us split at the second floor with Reagan heading up to the third floor leaving Anders and I to search the second. The second floor was just as deserted as the lobby. Not a soul in sight though when I infiltrated the hotel the first time it was pretty much the same.
"You calls myes ladysss." Rainbow Sparkles asked.
"Yes, turn invisible and follow after us from the ceiling." I ordered, giving him a scratch on the head. He accepted his scratches then his body simmered between multiple colors before becoming transparent and then invisible.
when it comes to advancement.> Anders replied with a sigh.
Finding the aforementioned dumbasses room only took a couple of seconds. As if to further the point of his dumbassery his room was unlocked and the door was open slightly. I groaned and shook my head.
I started to push the door open when Anders suddenly grabbed my hand. He held his finger up to his lips then pointed to a spot on the bottom of the door. There was a small smeared blood stain that looked fresh. I instantly went on alert, a little confused because I swore Rainbow Sparkles cleared that room as having nobody in it. Rainbow Sparkles shared his vision with me again, I saw mostly hues of yellow and blue in the room though there was a greater concentration of yellow on the floor near the door.
Laying on the floor was the mutilated corpse of the one that I suspected was Lieutenant Ambrose. Anders walked around me and knelt down to check the body. I continued to sweep and clear the rest of the room. Finding that nobody else was in the room I circled around and checked on the body with Anders.
"How did he die?" I asked.
"Multiple stab wounds to his kidneys. He was tortured before he was stabbed though." Anders replied. I narrowed my eyes on the wounds, he had lots of thin slashes on his chests that were slow and deliberate. Not meant to kill, Anders was right.
"What for?" I asked.
"Files he kept in his room maybe…so same reason we're here…" Anders supplied. I paused and took a look around the room. It was spotless, not a thing out of place. Like nobody had ever lived in it.
"Something is wrong with that idea. The room is too clean to have been ransacked. It's like nobody has lived in here for the last two days." I said.
"Well it's not like he was killed days ago. Maybe someone cleaned after they ransacked?" Anders offered. I shook my head and shot that idea down.
"If they cleaned up the room after they ransacked it then why wouldn't they clean up the body?" I rebutted and pointed at the very dead body.
"Point taken…" Anders muttered then his eyes suddenly widened. "…unless they're coming back for the body!"
I held my knife at the ready as I heard two sets of foot steps approaching the door. Someone pushed the door open slightly and stepped into the room. A man in a American army uniform. The man called to his accomplice in English so I had no idea what he'd said.
I held my breath and waited to strike once the second accomplice entered the room. However he never did. Instead I heard the familiar thwip of Rainbow Sparkles tongue and the thud of a body hitting the floor. Before the first man could turn around I bolted from behind the door and pulled the guy into a chokehold, knocking him out before he could even begin to fight back. Not wanting to take any chances I snapped his neck.
"They're neutralized." I said to Anders, letting the body of the soldier drop to the ground. Anders poked his head up from behind the bed and sighed.
"Great, I think we stumbled into a revenge plot." Anders said as he stood. "That guy was telling the other one to hurry up so they could get rid of Ambrose's body. That he'll pay for what he did to their sister."
"Well now I fell bad for killing him…" I said looking down at the soldier I killed then out to the body of the soldier in the hallway.
Rainbow Sparkles was visible again and standing on top of the body. The man wasn't dead yet, he was convulsing and squirming on the ground, choking on his own vomit. The venom on Rainbow Sparkles tongue was too powerful to create a antidote for, the only way to purge the poison was to have regeneration abilities.
"We can't let him live anyway, he's seen our faces…even if they're fake." Anders said.
"I know, I just feel bad." I said then motioned for Rainbow Sparkles to come to me. Rainbow rushed over to me, dragging the body of the other soldier in with him. I closed the door and then broke his neck so he could die quickly instead of the slow poisoning he'd get from Rainbow's venom.
"What do we do now?" Anders asked.
"Continue with the mission. This isn't our problem to cover up and hopefully we'll be long gone by the time they find the bodies." I replied.
"Gotcha." Anders confirmed then started looking around the room for files.
It only took a few moments of searching for Anders to find secret files stashed away in his drawer and under his bed. Honestly I thought through guy deserved to die for choosing such obvious hiding spots, nevermind what he did two the other two's sister.
"Operation Torchlight…" Anders mumbled to himself while he looked at one of the files. "…a meeting with multiple nations…hmmm…Look at this."
Anders handed the file over to me and immediately looked it over. It was a file for a operation that the American's executed yesterday. The file was redacted heavily already, which was what Ambrose was probably in charge of doing and why he still had the file.
"Seems like your people are making friends…" I said.
"Former people." Anders quickly corrected.
"I can't make out much about the mission but the fact it took place yesterday and is already this heavily redacted speaks volumes." I said. Anders pointed to a particular part of the file with a serious expression.
"The problem is that the report switches from using universal standard to English words at this point. And not only that but they are coding it using a very old cipher." Anders said.
"Can you read it?" I asked.
"Yes, my great-great-grandfather made this cipher for use during the American Revolution. It talks about a French, Chinese, and English contact." Anders replied proudly. "Parts are redacted though so I could be decoding it wrong…"
"I don't have a reason to doubt you so far. So the Chinese, French and English could be a part of a plot…possibly against us…?" I replied then scanned the document again. "Does it say anything about Chase or Sho'lajah Artifact Company?"
"Yes…though indirectly. The coded parts refer to a 'crystal cursed bastard' multiple times. I only remember one person being called that." Anders replied.
"Chase…" I muttered softly.
"We need to find out more of this Operation Torchlight." I said.
"Agreed!" Anders replied resolutely. "Maybe Reagan has already found something on it."
"Speak of the devil…" Anders groaned while grabbing his head.
Reagan explained.
"Come on Anders!" I growled then rushed towards the door. Anders followed after me with Rainbow Sparkles following close behind, turning invisible and jumping onto the ceiling to crawl from above.
"And Reagan complains about me causing problems." Anders muttered.