There were six of them when they took their seats at the round table. After a moment of silence and staring at each other, Nox stood up from the table and greeted the others with a slight lift of his hat.
"There doesn't seem to be any useful information for me here. I'd better leave so you can talk freely behind my back."
"I'm sorry," said an old man wearing a round, gold-plated monocle with a thin gold frame over his left eye, bowing his head slightly. "But we have been told that a descendant of Arthur is with you."
Nox's face broke into a big smile as he smoothed the front of his hat with his fingertips, tapped the cane on the ground and bent his back slightly forward.
"Mr. Mitru. I will ask you to remember these words, for another time you may have to lick your spit." He raised his cane and straightened his back. "Before you go, let me give you a little information as a result of my favor. Ra Ibulo Hito was here. I think they've loosened security measures a bit."
"One of the remnants of Damascus is still alive," a veiled man with his arms folded across his chest wheezed as Nox turned and walked out the door.
Nox opened the door by raising and lowering his free hand. When he stepped out into the hallway, he didn't have his usual smile on his face as he walked back the way he had come.
As Embroise Vollard walked the long way home, passing the doors he had to pass through, flashes of images flashed through his mind like a circus show, accompanied by dazzling lights. Corridors underground. The darkness. The smell of damp. The chain. Blood. Children crying. Children strangling each other. Heads exploding. Crying blood. Cannibalism. And room 1910...
With a sudden start, he looked around and realized that he was already walking alone down the dark street. And she could easily see the front of her house, and that the door was missing. But she walked slowly, unperturbed, and when she entered, there was writing in blood on the wall.
DIRUJAN
Sighing, Nox stared at the writing for a while longer, then went back inside to his room and licked his lips with his tongue when he saw the exposed writing in the notebook on his desk.
"Looks like I'm going to have to act a little early." He opened the doors of the wardrobe in his room and looked down at the twins, their mouths, arms and legs completely bound. "Right, Big and Ud?"
Crouching down, he untied the twins' mouths and rested his left elbow on his knee, resting his chin on his fist. "I'm listening to you."
"Crazy bastard," Big said, looking at him with a faint look. "Who are you working with?"
"And what do you want from us?" the lute added.
With a sigh, Nox pushed his glasses in front of his nose with his index finger and looked at the twins over them. "I want you to take me to the place of those two women..."
Big said, "Huh? What makes you think we know?"
Nox raised and lowered his shoulders. "I don't know. Just a guess."
"I'm sorry," Oud began, bowing his head. "But all we know is that they are very rich. That's all."
Nox stared at the twins for a moment, biting his upper lip with his lower teeth, and the screams echoed through the empty streets of the entire district as he unbuttoned and opened the front of the zero-sleeved jacket he wore over his shirt.
...
Report White Owls. Red Alert. Ra Ibulo Hito is on the move. Subject-0075 is missing. You are being summoned to the Dıruj District. The prize is the Breath Pill. Last Bullet.
A young, dark-skinned soldier with a crew cut stood up from the Enigma machine and looked at the other soldiers in white uniforms gathered around the map on the table.
"What do you plan to do?"
"The prizes are nice," the fake blonde with her hair pulled back admitted. "But, to meet Subject-0075..." she pointed with her index finger to the rectangle labeled 'Ni' just below the rectangle labeled 'Dıruj'. "We need to go up one floor from here. The Nihi Zone is not a problem, but passing through Mik will cost us dearly."
The black man with Afro hair put his index finger on the empty space of the map on the right side of the Ni District. "Maps are not honest. They only show what the maker saw. We can use the Empty Corridor." He looked into her eyes. "Don't think so straight, 05."
Zero Five rolled his eyes with a sigh, slammed his hands hard on the table and leaned forward. "It is forbidden. Do you understand, 11?" he opened his mouth wide and spelled the last word. "Forbidden!"
"Our uniform is white," said the largest of the team, who looked like an MMA fighter, as Eleven and Zero Five looked at each other. "We are the only people in this dark country who wear white. Because we are not afraid. Of being ambushed or attacked. Because of us, those who should be afraid of the dark are afraid of the light. We are the White Owls. We are a bird trying to fly between the tunnels."
The emo guy with pencil drawn over his eyes started clapping and grinning. "Words we can't hear from a barbarian like you 02. Personally, I think this could make a good song. Or should I say anthem?"
Zero Two stated his jawbones through clenched teeth. And taking the cigarette in his mouth between his fingers, a man in a cowboy hat blew the smoke of his cigarette on other people. "But he's right," he interjected when the smoke cleared. "The empty corridor seems like the most logical option, right 01, 02, 04, 05, 11?"
"I didn't know you had a say in these matters, Brendon Cook," Zero Five said, raising one eyebrow.
Brendon took another drag from his cigarette and blew it in her face. "I do what I want. Right, Captain 01?"
Zero One nodded with a sigh. "Enough of these empty words. For the sake of your fallen comrades, keep your mouths shut." No one said anything. "Good. We're taking the route 11 said. Get your weapons ready. Especially melee weapons."