We climbed down the ladder that led to the basement carefully.

I managed to find it after we searched around for a bit since it was just a small hatch located in the corner of the warehouse.

I closed the hatch after we climbed in, which also served to cut off any sound coming from the outside.

Right now I’m hoping that those two girls that had gone past us would take longer than we did to think about going to the Security Office, otherwise they might see us appearing on the screens later.

Of course, I was not counting on that so we should just hurry and get the girl before those Mercs call their friends to stop stalling and storm into the warehouse.

Descending from the ladder brought us to some kind of storeroom, though it was empty aside from some discarded containers.

The door was open and it led out to a corridor that had trash littering the ground every few dozen steps.

The thugs definitely weren’t keeping this place clean that’s for sure.

Amber peeked outside the door with her pistols held at the ready, giving me a curt nod before moving out into the corridor.

I pulled out my new shotgun and double checked that it was loaded, thumbing off the safety as I did so.

There’s no way we can hide any shots we make in here so I’m going in with the big gun from the start.

I let Amber take the lead while I covered her rear… And it was a really nice rear by the way.

Ahem…

Using our memory of the map, we made our way towards the place where we saw the thug standing guard easily enough, walking past a rather familiar door that had the words ‘Security Office’ as we did so.

That must be the room that contains the second button needed to activate the anti-riot countermeasures.

We neared a corner and stopped there, both of us peeking around it to see the place that we had seen on the screen back in the first Security Office.

A single thug stood in front of an open doorway looking bored, his gun leaning against the wall on his left.

Voices were coming through the doorway and whoever was there did not sound happy.

“Fuck! What do you mean the deal’s changed?! I got the girl didn’t I?! And… Huh? Wait… No… No, no, no… I did as you asked so it’s not my fault that we were seen!! Wait! Alright, alright! We’ll take her there!! Just get the money ready ok?! … Yes, yes! I’ll be right--”

A thug suddenly ran past the guard and rushed into the room, “Boss!! Boss!!”

The same voice growled at him, “What?! I’m in the middle of something! This better be important!”

“Mercs!! Mercs are outside!! We already lost half of our guys boss!”

“Fuck! What? No… Nothing! Don’t worry about it! I’ll bring her there! Just get… Get ready the money!”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

There was the sound of something breaking inside before that boss guy started shouting again.

“How the fuck do I only know about this now?!”

“Greg got squashed by their car boss! We didn’t even know he died until just now!”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! I knew I should have put more than one guy on alarm duty!! Call everyone else that is here, we’re taking the girl and getting the fuck out of here!”

“But… Which way, boss? Those Mercs got all of us pinned down at the front! The truck is there!”

“Forget the truck! Take the ladder and go out through the back! We’ll just make a run for it and jack a car somewhere! Hey Bomm! Get your ass in here and carry the girl!!”

The thug standing outside the door turned towards the doorway and stepped in, making grunting noises as he walked.

Amber turned to me and I nodded.

Now’s the time I suppose.

Both of us hefted our weapons and charged down the corridor while that thug’s back was turned to us.

He was in the midst of turning back when he heard our footsteps before Amber fired her ballistic pistol at him.

The round completely blasted the thug’s head apart, blowing a hole through it and sending splatters of blood flying messily through the air while the body fell backwards.

I slid in through the doorway, finding two surprised thugs inside watching the first thug’s body fall.

One of them was of course the runner who came in to warn the boss which outed the last guy as the boss of this gang.

He really went for the punk look with his spiky hair and leather clothes I see, ignoring the fact that his two arms were clearly modded with how they had streaks of light lining its surface and they had a metallic sheen on them.

The first shot from my shotgun eviscerated the thug who had ran in to warn the boss, the blast flinging him away to crash into the wall.

My second shot went straight to the gang boss’s head and would have also blasted it apart if it wasn’t for a translucent blue screen materialising in front of him.

“You fucking Mercs!” He roared, flipping over the metallic table he was standing behind to use as cover while he lifted his arms to point his fists at me.

I didn’t like that pose and quickly rolled to the side behind some crates, which proved to be the right decision since his knuckles opened up to reveal gun barrels and he started shooting at me.

Amber peeked around the door and fired her pistols at him, only to have her bullets be blocked by the shield as well.

The gang boss shifted one of his hands to point at the doorway and Amber was forced to hide behind the wall again to avoid the hail of bullets tearing through the air after her.

Sure, both of us had shields too but it’s still a preconditioned response to avoid getting shot at I suppose.

Also, this gives me the time I need to switch the next shell in my gun to a shield buster.

I peeked out and fired off the first buckshot before squeezing the trigger again to fire the energy shell.

The first shot was blocked by his shield as expected but the second shot completely obliterated the shield.

That obviously pissed him off since he turned both his fists towards me again and fired everything he had at me, my shield materialising to block a few of the bullets as I ducked back behind cover again.

Amber then leapt out of her own cover and fired a single shot into the guy’s head, blasting his brains out of his skull.

I stood up and nodded a thanks to the blonde Merc, receiving a grin from her in return.

I then directed my attention to the rest of the room, finding another door in the corner which must be where they kept the girl.

I went to try the door but as expected, it was locked tight. And since it was a sliding type of door, it’s not like I could just use my gun and blow open the handle or something.

“Tera~” Amber called out.

I turned to her and she pointed at a console near where the dead boss was.

Ah, maybe that controlled the door?

I went towards it and tapped on the screen impatiently, watching it come to life before I searched around to see something that would help.

Luck was on our side as an application literally called ‘door controls’ was on the front page and I tapped on it, only to find that it required a passcode.

Fucking hell.

I took out my Codex and connected to it, hacking into the console to grant me access while Amber took the time to look the Credit Chips off the dead thugs’ bodies.

By the time she was done collecting those, the sound of me unlocking the door could be heard.

I rushed to the door and it slid open with a hiss, revealing a dimly lit room with a young girl no older than ten tied up and gagged to a chair in the centre of the room.

Her eyes widened in fear when she saw us and she struggled against her bindings while screaming into her gag.

I raised my hands in a placating manner, “Hey, hey… It’s alright now. We’re here to rescue you. We already took care of the bad guys outside ok? We’ll get you out of here.”

She seemed to calm down a little but by how her breaths were still coming out in quick gasps, I figured she was still quite frightened.

I approached her slowly and undid her gag first, letting the cloth fall onto the ground.

The girl sobbed, “Waaahh… Mommyyyyy…”

“There, there… It’s ok now. We’ll get you out of here, ok?”

The girl sniffed and nodded.

I untied the ropes and she tried to stand up, only to stumble forward on shaky legs so I was forced to catch her lest she fell..

Ah, I guess she won’t be able to walk on her own.

“Shall I carry you?” I asked.

She nodded again.

I slung my gun behind my back and lifted her up in my arms, turning to Amber who had been waiting at the door to give her a nod.

Package secured, time to get out of here.