“Szechuan Drool Chicken.” A tall, cold, emotionless waitress came over and basically threw a plate of chicken on the table - on the edge of the plate there was still some frost, and the chicken on it looked like it was several days old and topped with canned spicy sauce.
“Well, at least we know for sure that it’s not because of their food that they can afford to continue renting this place.” Caroline shook her head and said: “What is this - boiled chicken?”
“And it’s indeed chicken legs.” Jason scraped away some of the sauce from the top, revealing more pieces of chicken underneath.
“Okay, we’re probably the only normal customers here. The other two groups seem like just their security staff and waiters taking their break and some customers for other stuff. And it looks like they have security staff everywhere as well.” Thomas came back after taking a fake bathroom break: “Their kitchen is on the other side of the bathrooms, and they have some kind of storage room there, watched over by two hidden cameras, so whatever’s inside it must be quite important.”
“No obvious way to get below?” Aimee asked.
“No, and I don’t think pulling their blueprint would be easy either.” Thomas sighed: “So, I think the only way to do this is to create a distraction I think? We’ll need someone to cause a fuss while others try to sneak in?”
“No, I think it’d be safer to retreat and wait for more backup.” Agent Hall shook his head: “I think I just recognized someone from the profiles - the short man sitting at the corner table wearing red jackets? I think that’s Zack Dooms.”
“Zack Dooms? What kind of name is that?” Jason snickered.
The ear of Zack Dooms twitched, and his eyes rose from the cup of tea and fixated on the table at which Jason, Caroline and their group were sitting.
“Uh-oh.” Laura put down her tea cup.
“Fuck, he’s listening to us and he heard.” Jason noticed this subtle yet not too subtle move and made a “let’s get out of here” gesture: “Mr. Dooms, your beard is very cool, but this Szechuan Drool Chicken is garbage, please use fresh chickens and freshly made sauces next time. If you wanna try it authentically cooked, go to Xianshi Inn in San Jose when we’re open. We’ll be leaving now.”
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But when the group stood up and were about to walk out the front door, the front door was closed by two waitresses wearing qipaos that were too tight and too revealing to be traditional, with combat boots and knives in their hands.
“Well, it’s good that we’ve got their attention.” Agent Beckman sighed and put his hand on his pistol holster: “Boy I should have stayed in the car.”
“Well, what’s the problem? ” Caroline stepped forward and asked, pointing at the small pile of cash on the table: “We didn’t eat, but we paid - with tips too!”
“We have Division Agents at my place, we should have treated you with more of a decent welcome, instead of, you know, lousy boiled chicken just barely out of the fridge, topped with expired sauces.” Zack Dooms walked behind the group with his henchmen and henchwomen and said: “But the thing is, I wonder why you would need access to our basement, and, uh, let’s not forget the basics: WHAT are you doing here?! SNOOPING AROUND at MY PLACE?!”
The henchmen and henchwomen growled and revealed their claws, some of them even grew fur and mane on the backs of their necks and their cheeks.
“We’re not Division agents.” Jason raised his hands in the air and said: “I am a receptionist at an inn.”
“Yeah, me too.” Caroline also raised her hands.
“How stupid do you think we are?” A large man standing beside Zack Dooms flicked his cigarette butt away and pointed at Agent Hall and Agent Beckman: “The moment you walked in, our men recognized those two - ”
“Silence!” Zack Dooms raised his left hand.
“Well, shit - just when I thought we’re gonna hear the good stuff.” Thomas sighed: “Spies in the Division, not surprising at all. But hey, who wants some tofu milk tea?”
This was the code word, and Thomas, Agent Hall, Agent Beckman all took out their guns and started shooting at the lycans around them. Jason waved his hand in the air, and a ring of silver energy appeared around them, slicing the ground on which they stood, while Caroline released a ring of fire around them, forcing the lycans back. Laura made a few hand seals in quick succession and created a few floating energy shields around them, blocking and pushing back at some lycans who attempted to lunge at them from some tricky angles.
“Crack!” They crumbled and fell to a lower level, bringing them along with it into a giant underground hall with metal plated walls and metal arrays engraved on the floor.
Before they fell onto the ground, Jason thrust his arms at the hole he created and unleashed a stream of silver energy at it. The silver stream of energy became a temporary seal on the hole and blocked the lycans from the upper floor from entering.
Jason’s both hands became blobs of blurr when he wrote in the air with them, words and symbols made of silver energy were launched into the silver seal, forming into additional buffs and hardening arrays. Laura sent a few floating green energy orbs circling around the metal magic seal, which would serve as an additional layer of defense for the breach on the ceiling. And then she turned around mid air and cast another spell to slow the fall of the piece of ground on which they were standing.
“Bang!” The ground cracked as they reached the ground, but everyone on it was unscathed.