Casper waited anxiously for the elevator to bring him to the lower levels of the complex. It was unbelievable how long it lasted. And, differently the first elevator he got, the nervousness was not making him lost his notion of time; the lower levels were really, really deep into the ground.
He counted that the wait since the elevator started to descend was about fifteen minutes. It probably was right, since Casper had a good notion of time.
"It's getting a bit hotter here. This local is stuffy. I am with two layers of clothing too, so no wonder I am sweating all over…"
The elevator stopped suddenly, shaking slightly. Casper thought it would help to make himself be more at ease, but it just raised his anticipation.
He got out of there, facing an entrance quite similar to the first one. A corridor, followed by a spherical room with a lot more corridors connecting on it.
Casper saw in those buildings' plans that those rooms were marking the center of the laboratory. That is, the last spherical room he saw was exactly above.
This time, there were no guards to stop him to enter there and go further. Probably, they just did not believe that someone could infiltrate so successfully in the lower levels.
The first levels were full of Ridire walking around the place. There were a bunch of scientists as well, cameras and other security measures.
Besides, it was already difficult to pass from the very first floor of the Third Laboratory, that one on the surface.
"They seem to not be so prepared for attacks, differently than what I supposed… Maybe the Civil War could not affect them in a threatening way? Is there not even a single more person who would try to make a raid here? I mean, the Jarls are greedy people as well, so there is a threat even among them, probably."
Nonetheless, Casper could not lower his guard. Although there was no Ridire at the entrance, he could see some of them walking around the spherical room and the various corridors.
Casper started to walk around, too. He knew that it was a must to stop thinking too much about trivial things and persist in his search.
It was not easy, though. If he stopped to think about trivial things, the ones that worried him the most would come.
"Either way, focus! You need to focus! It's not your first time doing this." He shook slightly his head, looking to the corridors and taking one that he was familiar with due to the building plans.
Hastily, he searched for the section he was aiming, while taking a peek at what people were doing there as well.
"Seems that the lower levels are doing somethings that are… bolder…"
Casper did not saw weapons there. He could not consider those things only as weapons. Those were truly kill machines. One could even look at those crafts and address them as monsters.
One section was finishing some sort of fire gun in which each bullet seemed to explode when it touches the target, and the fire rate of that thing was just unbelievable.
There was also a flamethrower that seemed to turn all the scenery into a copy of the hell.
There was a type of dark blade that sliced bones like butter.
The combat vehicles were something you would expect to see in the apocalypse, subduing everything and everyone.
At some point, tests were being made with robots, but there were sections where humans were being used as guinea pigs.
He felt so disgusted at that sight that his hands clenched in fury.
There were a lot of different things that that much of knowledge would do, and Casper knew it very well. But everything was being formulated to have the potential to kill someone…. no, to destroy a whole city in a matter of seconds.
The more he walked inside there, the more disturbing all that scenario looked to be.
The lower levels were not as big as the superior ones, so it had fewer researching groups and rooms. Because of it, he could easily cover more than half the complex in less than 30 minutes.
He was a bit lost, but as per usual he found himself and got used to the place very quickly.
He was so absorbed in look at all those crafts that he forgot to act like a true scientist. He did not speak with anyone, nor entered the sections to take a better look at their researches. He just peeked at the rooms and then left.
If he really wanted to know what each group there was working on, Casper would just need to find the room he was looking for.
In the middle of the way, he ended up finding another elevator.
He realized that that one did not look like the others. It was smaller and poor-looking. Nobody that passed there even looked at it, as though it was invisible.
"They are ignoring this one… Not even a single person tries to enter it. What's going on here?"
Casper was concerned because of that, since that elevator was not even drawn in the building plans, and another level even lower was not mentioned as well. However, he could not afford to go any further before accomplishing his main goal first.
He was going straight, then needed to turn left. Because of his rush, he ended up bumping into someone on the curve.
He cursed with a low voice, closing his eyes and scolding himself internally.
"That's not the time to be so clumsy, man… What's going on with you currently?" Just as this question popped up in his head, hard moments that he passed in the Midwest Battle came to mind.
"Brush it off, soldier."
He turned back, already apologizing to the person he bumped.
"I am very sorry…"
Then, he froze for a moment. The first thing he saw was the white and blue uniform made with wool and fur, with a blue cape covering his back. That attire was cool, but also imposing.
Two huge pistols were resting on his waist, their design all in black and red, with a threatening look. They had drums and a long barrel for a normal pistol. Those guns said all over their design: "I am capable to explode your entire head."
But there was something that stood out from the rest of his attire, and Casper was sure that it was not common.
It was a sort of device that looked like a backpack. It was over the cape and was turned off.
"No need for apologies, you can go back to your work." The man had a calm voice and talked at a comfortable pace. However, it had some authority behind it.
Casper was sure, he was an Aesir.
"Sure, I will be going." After taking one more discreet look at him, Casper turned again and walked over.
He noticed that the man kept looking at him intently, and this feeling just got wiped out when he turned to another corridor.
"I need to admit, it was scary. That guy gave a vibe to be cool and strong… But particularly cool."
Finally, after several minutes of walking in those levels of the complex, Casper reached the room he was looking for.
It was also a file room, like the attachment he had entered before, but that one was smaller and had all the data and information of value that they have archived into the Third Lab.
Casper picked up from his pocket the green card he had to bring with him.
"It's better that this thing works, because, if not, I will be screwed totally." He used it, with his heart on the throat.
The door got unlocked with a loud, bell-like sound. And then opened automatically in front of his eyes.
He entered the room in a rush, and the door closed again behind him after some seconds.
Inside there was just a huge control center with a gigantic screen. There were many buttons there, but he could see that it worked like a computer or something.
"I will need to go in the trial and failure here. I hope I don't mess up with everything."
He started to operate the control center, testing different things over and over again. In some minutes, he was able to catch up with how that thing worked, at least enough to know how he could navigate through the pastes and different files.
It did not take too long for him to find what he was searching for: Odin's curse.
That was the supposed name of the project of the masks.
He entered there and started to read. It took around twenty minutes to finish everything.
"Yeah…" He nodded to himself. "As I thought, those freaking masks are nothing but a different type of handcuff. A resource used to spy, control, restrict, and manipulate people.
"These masks are put on someone the exact moment they are born, and then… They are dancing onto the Jarls' hands."
He read more, searching for the details.
"It seems that you went deeply on it, right, Ugly man?" Someone's voice echoed in the room.
He looked back, and a woman was in front of the door.
"This voice… I never would forget… That crazy woman." He widened his eyes in disbelief. "What is she doing here?"
She was this time wearing a green coat. Her mask was a fake one as well, and it was the hexagonal one.
He could not see her face, but he knew she was smiling because of her tone of voice and her devilish eyes.
"Don't worry, Ugly man. Soon or later, you will comprehend everything, okay? For now, just forgive me." She giggled, saying in an ironic tone.
After this, she drew a gun quickly… and shoot…
Casper waited to feel the pain spreading on his body, closing his eyes, but it never came. Instead, he heard a cracking sound behind him, then the sound of glass shattering.
He looked behind and saw that the big screen he was looking at a while ago was completely shattered.
"Crap! That woman! I will…" He was ready to rush forward and beat that hell of a woman
"The woman disappeared…" He thought, astonished.
In no time, the alarms of the Third Lab started to sound.