Part 4: Thank You Rolf, But the Hostage is in Another Tower

Chapter 4: Thank You Rolf, But the Hostage is in Another Tower



With no map of Shure, and no idea where inside it the Scoundrels were hiding, we decided on a hunch to take the left passage at the entrance. I scanned the walls with my portable sonar unit as we walked. The display revealed two large hollow objects, probably containers, on the other side of the north wall, as well as a transport chute leading up.



I was surprised to see Biomonsters in Shure. If anything, there were more of them in here than outside. Maybe the Scoundrels thought that letting Biomonsters live here would help keep people out, or maybe they were just doing a lousy job of securing their hideout.



Shure was in a pretty severe state of disrepair. The walls were cracked, and pieces of broken machinery littered the floor.



We reached the box I'd detected from the other side of the wall; it contained a cache of money. There wasn't much of it, but every meseta I took from them was a meseta they couldn't use to finance their criminal activities.



At least the Biomonster infestation here gave me a chance to practice the Tsu technique, which gathered up ambient light energy and concentrated it into a laser beam. While requiring more intense concentration than Foi, it was about twice as effective: with it, I could instantly kill any Biomonster we'd encountered so far.



We found a chute and took it to the second floor.

"Strange that we haven't seen any Scoundrels yet," Rudo remarked. "They were keeping their money down there, and yet there were no guards, no traps, nothing but Biomonsters."

"Do you think they somehow found out we were coming and went into hiding?" I asked.

Rudo frowned. "I can't be sure. But I'll be watching out for an ambush, and I suggest you do the same."



The second floor had even more Biomonsters than the first, but still no Scoundrels anywhere in sight. The Spinner was a protoplasmic life form: not very dangerous on its own, but an unwelcome distraction while fighting more powerful Biomonsters.



Well, more Biomonsters meant more targets for my techniques. Gifoi, an enhanced version of the Foi technique, was no more draining than Tsu and even more effective.



We took another chute back down to the first floor, where we found a first aid cabinet, still stocked with medicine. The medical supplies inside would definitely come in handy: Dimate was three times as effective as Monomate.



Unfortunately, the next container we came across was securely locked. I could probably have broken it open, but didn't want to risk damaging the contents without knowing what was inside.



More Biomonsters: the Carrier was a large crab-like Biomonster, so named because it was the preferred host species of a fungal symbiote. When the symbiote matured, the results were... unpleasant. Fortunately, these Carriers didn't seem to be infected.



Another locked box. Well, the Scoundrels probably had the key. We could just take it from them, assuming we ever actually found where they were hiding.



Shure was a maze of chutes and dead-ends, and we still hadn't come any closer to finding the Scoundrels. It was starting to get frustrating. How did the people who worked here back when the factory was operational ever get around this place?



At least there was some good news: we found an unlocked crate containing some protective headgear, which I put on.



And with every bit of good news came some bad news: more protoplasmic Biomonsters, designation Amoeba. They weren't the toughest Biomonsters we'd faced, but the constant fighting was wearing us down.



We made our way through more semi-ruined passageways. Making our way across a narrow catwalk far above the ground floor was especially nerve-wracking: the floor looked just about ready to give way under our feet, and we heard the creaks and groans of strained metal underneath us as we walked across it.



We made it across safely, though, and on the other side we found a chute leading to the top floor.



Well, I guess we'd found out why the Scoundrels hadn't come out to greet us yet. There was one lying sprawled on the floor not far from the chute, his upper body half-eaten by Biomonsters. Seeing one kind of monster wipe out another caused me no distress at all, but it didn't bode well for Teim if the Scoundrels had been keeping her here when the Biomonsters attacked.

Nei looked away in disgust while Rudo and I searched the body.



Our search was interrupted by the sound of giant wings beating behind us. We turned around, drew our weapons and faced some new Biomonsters, designations Waspy and Buzzer. They were tough, but so were we.

The search turned out to be fruitless anyway: everything that might once have been of some value had been chewed up almost beyond recognition by Biomonsters.




The Biomonsters kept on coming in droves, but I had a new trick up my sleeve: the Zan technique forcibly drew all air out of an area, causing anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be in that area to suffer explosive decompression. Messy, but effective.



The Scoundrels had abandoned some of their loot up here. Among a lot of useless junk, we found a band of razor ribbon, apparently designed to be worn on the head as protection. It looked about as likely to injure the wearer as to deter Biomonsters, but Nei showed no hesitation in taking it and putting it on.



The added protection came in handy, because immediately afterwards we were attacked by another protoplasmic Biomonster, designation Pulser. With our equipment and training, they weren't a significant threat.



We only found one other body up on the top floor. Two people couldn't possibly have looted Arima so comprehensively on their own. Had the rest of the Scoundrels escaped?



At least this body still had stuff worth taking. Rudo found a small steel key and a photocopy of a letter in the dead Scoundrel's pockets. He looked at the letter and started reading it out to us: his voice was grim.


daughter Teim locked in Nido tower. Pay 50,000 meseta in one month if you ever want to see her again."

"So the Scoundrels have another hideout," I said. "The Tower of Nido... that's the decommissioned control tower to the southeast, right?"

Rudo nodded. "We should hurry. Teim might still be alive."

"Shouldn't we go back and open those locked containers first, now that we have the key?" Nei asked. "If the Scoundrels kept their dynamite here, the survivors might come back for it. I can't bear to think of another town being destroyed like Arima."

"No," Rudo said. "That can wait. Haven't you thought about what those bastards could be doing to Teim, and how many more people Darum could kill while she's gone? Once we've killed the Scoundrels, they won't be able to use their dynamite anyway."

I shook my head. "Nei's right. I hate to say this, but we don't even know if Teim is still alive. Making sure the Scoundrels don't have access to dynamite should be our highest priority."

Rudo silently considered my words for a few seconds.

"Fine," he said reluctantly. "But I hope you can live with yourselves if our delay costs Teim her life."



The first container we unlocked contained more ill-gotten cash.



The second was just a first aid cabinet, but I wasn't complaining. More money and medical supplies never went astray.



In the third and fourth, we found what I hoped were the Scoundrels' last two sticks of dynamite. I held on to them: if we could use them to set a deathtrap for the surviving Scoundrels, the irony alone would make it worth the trouble.




Rather than walk back out, I used my Hinas and Ryuka teleportation techniques to get us all back to Paseo in the blink of an eye. After a brief stay in hospital, we'd be ready to tackle the Tower of Nido.

"Hang in there, Teim," I heard Rudo whisper. "We're coming for you."