Gustav rubbed his eyes, but the stinging sensation wouldn't go away. He had begun to regret his decision.
Ansem had given him the mystical eyes of truth. A tool he would need to capture Abbey Dodson's killer. So far, it had proven quite a nuisance. All to see some scribbles on the walls.
"Care to explain what you did to me?"
"I placed a hex on you, detective." Ansem explained, "it's a powerful one, but you'll need it if you want to survive all the way to the end."
Hex? More of this occult nonsense. Gustav heard that word before. It was some type of spell or something like that. It began to dawn on him that this case would not be like the others he had tackled in the past.
He also wondered how long it would last, if it would stay with him forever? Did his eyes looked any different?
But those questions had to wait. There were more important matters at hand.
"You mentioned something about glowing sigils?"
"Yeah. We have to press them." Ansem glanced around the room. "It should be a faint glow. Easy to miss."
"Fine." Gustav replied.
Gustav felt foolish searching among the scribbles on the wall for one that was glowing.
"I found one," Ansem said across the room.
Gustav groaned and resumed his search.
But when he was about to give up and force Ansem to help him. In one of the lower corners of the room, he found that glowing sigil.
"Found it. Now what?"
"We press it at the count of three."
"One... Two... Three."
Upon pressing the glowing sigils the rest of the sigils on the walls began to blur, fading little by little. However, Gustav was shocked to discover, that the seemingly empty room he was in was lined up with large vials that contained mounds of deformed flesh suspended in a sickly looking green substance.
"What the hell is this?"
"This is what you are looking for, detective." Ansem replied calmly.
"Like hell! This has nothing to do with the case I'm working!" Gustav chided.
"We must move quickly, before they find out we're here." Ansem began to search the room.
"Hey! You better not touch anything." Gustav demanded. "Everything here is evidence."
"I'm looking for a door." Ansem replied as he stood in the middle of the room.
A door? Was there more?
Gustav observed as Ansem knelt down in the middle of the room, and with his hand began to feel the surface.
"Found it," he finally said. "Detective, can you give me a hand?"
There was a hatch on the floor, which wasn't there before.
"Do you have any idea where does it lead?"
"Answers, I hope."
Gustav knelt down and helped turn the handle and open the heavy hatch door. A blast of cold air blew in their faces. There was a set of stairs that lead into an inky blackness below. Ignoring the knot he was feeling in his gut, Gustav followed Ansem.
**
The footsteps of Gustav and Ansem echoed as they made their way downstairs. Eventually, the darkness gave way to a cold, white light at the end of a long tunnel. The tunnel was narrow, barely able to fit more than two people. Large metal pipes ran across the wall and the grate flooring made so much noise that Gustav wondered if whoever was in charge already knew of their presence.
At this point, Gustav decided to radio Rosya to bring back up. However, his cellphone was turned off. He tried turning it back on, but there was no reaction. The device was dead.
"Your phone isn't working, detective?"
"How do you know that?"
"It's just a hunch," Ansem replied.
In the twilight darkness of the tunnel, Ansem's eyes glowed, and instinctively Gustav reached for his gun. He was alone in this strange tunnel, with a man he didn't really trust.
After a walk that felt like it lasted an eternity, both men finally reached the end of the tunnel and stepped into the brightness of the white light.
"What is this place?" Gustav gazed at the tubes filled with strange creatures in large tubes. He saw fully formed yet grotesque caricatures of human beings, unlike those he had seen in the freezer.
Gustav deduced this was the place where those "homunculi" had come from, for several of the tubes were empty.
A worry crept up Gustav's mind. What would happen if these things were to 'wake up' and make their way to the surface? A lot of innocent people would be hurt. But, how to destroy these things?
"We'll find a way," Ansem replied, as he had been having the same thought. "However, before we destroy them, I think we should look around a little more. Let's see what else we can find."
"I'm allowing it, but you better not touch anything." Gustav warned.
"Fine," Ansem smirked. "I won't touch anything unless you tell me to."
The more and more the two men explored the place, it became evident that it was a laboratory, and someone had been funding it. There were state-of-the-art machines, computers and assorted equipment.
But what was the purpose of this place, other than to create those homunculi? There had to be a reason, a purpose. But, how was all this connected Abbey Dodson's murder?
Exploring the facility gave more questions than answers. They built each room in a hexagonal shape, interconnected by walkways and supported by giant pillars that faded into the darkness below.
"Who the hell built this place?" Gustav wondered out loud.
"The very same who are breeding those homunculi," Ansem replied.
"But did they keep this all secret?"
"That's what I want to know as well. I've been looking for one these facilities for a very long time."
Another layer of mystery added to an already strange case. Gustav felt his work was cut out for him this time.
"I'm getting tired of wandering around this strange place," Gustav complained. "Let's find a way to destroy this place and get out of here."
"Not before I find what I came here for," Ansem told Gustav as he headed to the next room.
"And what exactly are you looking for?"
Ansem refused to elaborate. To Gustav meant that Ansem knew more about what was happening that he let on, and he would find out eventually, he always did.
When they arrived at the next room, it bothering Gustav that they had been able to explore the facility without any restrictions. No locked doors or any obstacles of any kind. Whoever was running this facility was confident that no one would ever discover its location.
It was careless. But part of his success as a detective was to exploit the careless those that thought they were smarter than he was.
Except for this particular door that blocked their path. It didn't have a lock like the others, but it couldn't be opened.
"This has to be the place," Ansem commented.
"What makes you so sure? Because it's the only locked door?"
Ansem chuckled.
"Didn't think you were the type to jest, detective."
"I do have my moments."
Facing the door again, Gustav asked. "How are we going to get inside?"
Ansem pondered his options. "There's a way, but it's risky."
"How risky?"
"Well have to turn off the power of this facility to open this door, but doing so would release the homunculi in stasis, among other dangers." Ansem explained.
"That's suicide," Gustav reprimanded. "Think of another way to get inside."
It was startling that someone who looked so calm and collected would suggest a course of action so reckless. Or maybe, he was testing him.
"I'll help you with whatever plan you come up with, but you have to tell me what's inside this room."
Helping a man that had disrupted his murder was the last thing Gustav would ever do, but for now, it was the only way to reach a solution and to bring a murderer to justice.
Ansem hesitated for a moment.
His hesitation wasn't to keep Gustav in the dark, but how to explain it, in a way that the detective would understand.
"Are you going to answer me or not?"
Ansem sighed, then finally spoke.
"Inside this room there's a creature that has eluded alchemists for centuries. A type of creature that has only existed in legends, alchemical diaries and old thaumaturgical texts."
To Gustav, this explanation sounded like nonsense, but he listened without interrupting.
"Rumors arose a two years ago that an individual managed to crack the code and bring this creature into existence. A being so perfect, it defies reality." Ansem continued. "And I they me hired to take this creature into custody."
"And what sort of creature would that be?" Gustav finally asked.
"The perfect homunculi," Ansem replied with hesitation, as if those words made little sense to him, as they did to Gustav. "To be clear, I'm talking about Abbey Dodson's homunculi."