Assuming the identity of a silent mercenary, Lucas walked the train corridor in the direction of the Middle-Class compartment. His target was any train attendant who was alone; he needed to gain more information about what was happening.
Just as he opened the connecting door, he found a man in a uniform standing in surprise. Quickly, Lucas grabbed the man's arm and chanted, "Sleep!"
He then dragged the unconscious train attendant into the toilet where he had hidden his luggage before.
"Let's see what you can give me," he mumbled expressionlessly.
Placing his hands on each of the man's temples, Lucas began concentrating and imagining rewinding a film roll.
As he did that, the man's memory started surfacing in his own mind. It was like watching a film being rewound.
First, he saw the man's latest memory of being grabbed by a stranger with black hair.
Lucas wanted to take that part of the memory away, but it would take too much of his spirituality, so he decided against it in the end. He was wearing a disguise after all, so it would be safe for him.
The memory then ran backward; the train attendant walked in reverse to the other part of the corridor. Lucas sped up the unimportant part until he got to the point where the train attendant was knocking on the door of a compartment.
He let the memory unfold until he got to the point that he needed. Lucas then let the man's memory play normally in his head.
It was a room where the train attendants could rest. His target was one of the seven people in that room.
Bzzz
It was the sound of the man's earpiece.
"Everyone, can you hear me?!" it was the voice of a man that sounded alarmed.
"Yes, I am here. Some others are still on duty, but I am sure they can hear you," there was an answer from another train attendant, who looked to be in charge.
"This is an emergency! I will only tell you this once, so make sure you all listen and follow my instructions!"
The mood in the room suddenly grew heavy.
"We received a bomb threat. We don't know where the bomb is yet but it is most likely in the First Class carriage. Team 1, that would be those under me, evacuate all passengers to the Third Class. Team 2, those who are under Jacob, go to the Third Class carriages and move the passengers as best as you can. We will need two empty carriages at least. Do not let any of the passengers know about the bomb!"
"Team 3, those under Diana, go to my location for further instructions. We don't have time to waste, so move quickly!"
The voice from the earpiece stopped there and following the instructions, everyone started doing what they needed to do.
Lucas stopped the memory reading there and leaned back on the wall, his breathing heavy.
"Shit, that was tiring..." he complained.
Reading someone's memory took a lot of his spirituality, and the longer the memory he had to read, the more spirituality he had to spend.
"Luckily, I can recover fast,"
He stayed there for a good few more minutes. The sleep spell he had put on the train attendant would be good for at least thirty minutes, so he was in no danger of his victim suddenly waking up.
"Right," he tapped his thighs and got up, "So it's a bomb. It would still be dangerous even if we hid away in the far back of the train. I wonder if the train doesn't stop because of the threat too. That would make sense."
"So I will need to them help find the bomb. I guess I will borrow your identity for now," he said.
Lucas memorized the train attendant's appearance and began 'sculpting' in his mind. He only had seen the man's mannerisms shortly through the man's memory, so the identity would not be perfect. However, it was still enough for the job.
Swiping his hand in front of his face, his appearance quickly turned into that of the train attendant. He became 178cm tall, and his hair turned silver in color. His facial feature became softer.
Since he only copied the physical appearance, he was not able to perfectly bring out the man's whole identity, like the man's gait or the way he exuded his personal aura, so Lucas would try to stay away from others as he could.
Stripping the sleeping train attendant, he borrowed the man's uniform and made sure his gun stayed concealed. He then took the man's earpiece as well and left the toilet.
"Let's remind myself to put more sleep spell if Dan wakes up" he looked at the name tag on his chest, "That is if we even have thirty minutes,"
"Now it's time to look for the bomb. But how do I go about doing it? It's not like I can perform divination..."
He started walking toward the Middle-Class carriage again while racking his brain, mumbling to himself as he walked.
"If there was a suspect, I could read his memory. Firstly, where did the threat come from?"
"I would also need to know which terrorist group planted the bomb. Depending on that information, the people responsible might still be inside this train,"
"Poor Randolph. He must not have expected that Mulch was this dangerous..."
Lucas had made up his mind and he had decided to ask some questions to the person giving the attendants those instructions. He hadn't read the attendant's memory that far back, so he didn't know who the person was, but he remembered the man's voice well.
"Hey, how are things on your end?" a female train attendant was approaching him from the other direction. Although she tried her best not to show it, Lucas could still sense a feeling of worry in her tone.
"It's all good now, I guess. I need to meet the boss," Lucas spoke with Dan's voice, doing his best to mimic the way the man spoke.
"He should be at the office. I still need to take care of the passengers. I hope everything is alright," she sighed, "I might not take the job again if the train goes through Mulch in the future."
"I know your feelings. Good luck back there," Lucas answered and quickly walked away.
Now, where might this office be...? Must be near the locomotive, he thought.
He kept passing train attendants who were busy with their own tasks, nodding and avoiding conversations with them as he could. A lot of the attendants came from their break room which was located at the end of the Middle-Class carriage.
The Middle-Class and the First-Class carriages were separated by a restaurant Normally, passengers would be sitting there enjoying a nice meal or just a cup of coffee, and there would be restaurant workers serving them. Because of the situation, however, the restaurant was empty; even the workers were nowhere to be seen. They must have been asked to help with something else.
By the time he reached the First-Class carriage, he saw that the door was blocked, so only people from the other side could enter.
"Shit. Dan, why didn't you show me this in your memory? I've wasted precious time this way," he complained.
Because of the blockage, even if Lucas were to forcefully enter, it would only make him seem suspicious. On top of that, there were a lot of people who were busy searching every nook and cranny there, and he couldn't deal with all of them.
"Why did they block this passage? Are they positive that the bomb is there? Did the threat mention that?"
Lucas sat on one of the restaurant tables and began thinking deeply.
"It's difficult to find the bomb due to the lack of information. I don't even know what the threat sounded like and for some reason, this boss guy didn't share it with his subordinates."
"What is the purpose of placing the bomb in this train? To ask for ransom? But why does the train have to keep moving?"
Suddenly, a realization came to his mind.
"Wait, the nearest city from here would be Loraine. Could the terrorists be targetting Loraine station?"
Loraine is a big commercial city south of Denver, and the station is a major hub for supply transport. A bomb exploding there would cripple the country's supply.
"If there is such a vulnerable target on the way, surely they had placed Unnaturals on this train for security. But we cannot underestimate the enemy either. I should definitely help find the bomb as best as I can."
"A group that would target the country's supply hub must be a member of the opposition. The General's group? They are the most likely group to do such an action."
"But the General has been killed, so if they had planned it beforehand, with the general out of the picture, they shouldn't have been able to still execute the plan perfectly..."
"Or maybe the plan was not perfect, but this was their only opportunity. In that case, we will still have a chance to stop it."
"If it's really that group, they should still be on this train. Those cunning extremists wouldn't miss a chance to see the fruit of their labor."
Lucas got up and quickly walked in the direction of the Third-Class carriage. He had come up with a method to bait the terrorist group to show themselves.