He whispered before silently leaving the room and walking down the hallway, observing every corner and noting the people in each strategic spot. Only one guard was posted at the end of the hallway. Neizan approached him with a casual expression.
『Guard: What do you want? 』
『Neizan: I really can't hold it, man. Where's the bathroom? 』
The guard looked at him, clearly annoyed, and pointed to a hallway on the right.
『Guard: Down the hall, to the right. 』
Neizan frowned, feigning confusion.
『Neizan: Oh, yeah? I just came from there, and I didn't see anything… I think I'm too high... Couldn't you just come with me? 』
The guard sighed, rolling his eyes.
『Guard: Fine, but just for a moment. 』
『Neizan: Let's go, then; I don't want an accident. 』
The guard, looking both disgusted and slightly amused by Neizan's crude comment, led him to the hallway where the bathroom door was.
『Guard: There it is. 』
『Neizan: Thank goodness, man. I was really about to have an accident. 』
The guard turned his head, annoyed but with a faint smirk at Neizan's crude remark. Just then, as the guard started back toward the hallway, Neizan lunged at him, pulling the knife from his sleeve and stabbing him in the neck with precision.
『Guard: DAMN U…! __Agrh! 』
Neizan slit his throat before he could shout, silencing him. With the guard gasping on the ground, Neizan quickly dragged him into the bathroom, leaving a trail of blood along the way. Once inside, he searched the guard, finding a set of keys and a pistol with ammunition.
Quickly, Neizan dismantled his shoes to retrieve and assemble the silencer, attaching it to the gun. He put his shoes back on and mentally calculated. It had been six to nine minutes since he'd left the first room. He knew time was against him; he couldn't afford to fail now, with the mission's final stage ahead of him.
『Neizan: «Damn it, I don't have time to clean up this mess; I'll have to leave it as it is.» 』
He quickly returned to the hallway, glancing around to make sure no one was coming. Seeing no one, he headed back to the room where Elena was, opened the curtains, and approached her, taking her hand.
『Neizan: Elena, we have to leave now. Get up if you can and follow me. 』
『Elena: I'm… going. 』
With a fragile voice, Elena tried to get up, but she was too weak. Luckily, Neizan was there to help her to her feet, letting her lean on his shoulder to stay upright.
『Elena: Sorry, I can't walk on my own right now. 』
『Neizan: Don't worry, I'll help you. Just hold on tight. 』
They both left the red room and carefully moved down the same hallway where the guard had been, which was now empty. Moving as quietly as possible, they advanced until they reached their first obstacle. Just as they turned the corner, two guards were chatting in front of them.
Neizan held still, waiting for the conversation to end.
『Guard 1: Well, I'll go check with Jose to see how much longer the client has. 』
『Guard 2: Alright, I'll go greet the next client on today's schedule. 』
After that, the two guards separated, and one of them started walking toward Neizan and Elena's location. Hearing the guard's footsteps getting closer, Neizan acted quickly. He had anticipated that one of the guards would come this way, so he had left a scarf on the ground as a distraction.
『Guard: Who the hell left this here? 』
As the guard bent down to pick up the scarf, Neizan quickly appeared from a different corner, firing a single shot to the guard's temple and killing him instantly.
『Neizan: Don't look, Elena. From now on, you need to stay close to me at all times and keep silent. Got it? 』
Elena nodded determinedly and leaned against the wall to support herself as they moved, while Neizan kept watch down the hallway.
『Neizan: No one's coming. We can keep going; come on, I'll help you. 』
With both hands on his weapon, prepared to react instantly, he advanced alongside Elena, who was clinging to his jacket with one hand while her other arm rested on his shoulder.
『Neizan: «Leaving through the main entrance isn't a good idea. We need to find another way out, maybe through a window or a back door. If I remember correctly, there should be an exit about 50 meters down this hallway.» 』
Neizan had spent days analyzing the blueprints that Owen had brought him of the building. They both concluded that, in the event of an emergency, he would have to face at least 20 guards, likely armed, not to mention the other attendees at the location. Upon arriving where the two guards were conversing, he took a glance at the stairs, but there was no one, so they quickly crossed. Neizan paused for a moment, aware that if anyone returned, they would discover the corpse.
『Neizan: «Shit, I don't have time to think. If any of the remaining guards raises the alarm through their microphones, they'll realize something's wrong. And if the other guard comes back soon, we'll have even less reaction time to deal with the body in the hallway. About 15 minutes have passed since I left the room; they usually communicate every 20 or 30 minutes, and they tend to do so in groups of five. So, in this section, there should be three guards missing who connect with the others. But I don't know how much time I have before they report that there are already two dead.» 』
Resuming his search for an exit, Neizan reached a door that he could open with one of the keys he had stolen from the guard.
『Neizan: Elena, hold these keys and wait here for a moment. I'm going to see if that guy is coming back. 』
As he turned down the hallway, he saw two men coming up the stairs. One of them was the previous guard, and the other appeared to be a new client.