The morning ends and mid-day begins as the three of you reach the abandoned house, and it looks like the whole place has been secured and boarded up with metal paneling recently. It's obvious that the owner of the house hasn't been home since it was secured, so you turn to Tom and ask him a question.
" You sure this is the place? "
Tom looks back at you and replies.
" Yup. This is where he said to meet him in order to discuss what he needed from us. "
" There's no way he's still here, just look at the place. It looks like we just came out here for nothing. "
Reylesh says with a defeated tone.
" I'm not seeing the Light or Darkness of any living organisms inside the house with my Trap Sight, but still, I wouldn't speak too soon. The least we can do is take a look around. "
Tom says before he starts approaching the front door. You and Reylesh follow him and stand beside him as he knocks on the door two times.
" Hello?! Anybody here!? "
Tom shouts. You look at him confused as to why he's knocking and he looks back at you playfully.
" It's polite to at least knock, ya know? "
Tom then immediately punches his fist through the solid steel door and unlocks it from the inside, then he pulls his arm out of the door and it slides open, making an automated noise that sounds like it's barely functional. As you look into the doorway, the dark and messy room on the inside looks ominous and creepy because you can see that the furniture and floor are destroyed. Tom looks down at Reylesh and he teases her with a smile as the three of you stand in front of the doorway.
" Ladies first. "
Reylesh's face turns red and she immediately shouts at Tom.
" Nuh uh! You go first! I have a physical form to maintain, thank you very much! "
Tom giggles a bit under his breath before walking into the dark room and you immediately follow behind him. As you walk around the room, you can barely make out the shape of the objects surrounding you from the light that's entering the doorway and you come to the conclusion that you're in a living room. Reylesh hesitantly enters the room after seeing you guys walk around for a moment and Tom talks to the both of you as he continues to inspect the environment.
" It's obvious that whoever was here before us was looking for something… "
Tom then stops and stares at a wall before calling out to you.
" Donny, come look at this. "
You walk over to where he is and he rubs his hand down the wall in front of both of you.
" Use your Trap Sight. "
He says before you switch your vision to see the Light and Darkness in the environment around you and you can see that there's a staircase hidden on the other side of the wall that descends down into a basement-like room.
" We just gonna force our way through this one too? "
You ask him. Tom smiles before he asks you a question in return.
" You wanna do the honors? "
You look back at the wall and you're unsure of your own strength because the last time you used it was against the Valghul. Still, you put your hand on the wall, press it gently, and the hinges of the hidden opening mechanism unexpectedly and instantly break, causing the wall to fall down into the stairway in front of you.
" Haha! Look at that! Pressing through the strongest materials like they're paper never gets old, right Donny? "
Tom says with a smile as he pats you on the back and starts descending down the stairs. As he steps over the hidden door laying on the stairs, you look back at Reylesh to see her emerging from a hallway holding a broken picture frame. She looks up at you with a serious look in her eye as she approaches you at the top of the stairway and shows you what she found. The picture is of a young gentleman with long blonde hair and beard receiving some sort of award on a grand stage. Reylesh points at the man receiving the award as she talks to you.
" See this guy right here? "
You nod your head as she continues talking to you.
" That's the guy who hired those soldiers to come abduct us on the rooftop. "
You silently peer at Reylesh as she looks back up at you with a nervous look in her eyes.
" You guys coming? "
You hear Tom say to you telepathically.
" Yeah. Reylesh found something. We're coming down right now. "
You reply as you begin descending the stairs with Reylesh following behind you. Once you're at the bottom of the stairs, you see a bunch of glowing red and blue lights all in rows and columns shining through the darkness with an empty open area in the center of the room. You easily identify this room as some sort of server room, and Tom is still in the process of snooping around in the dark. Suddenly, the room becomes brightly illuminated and the stairway that you descended becomes sealed off by some sort of emergency door. The three of you look around as a familiar voice talks to you through a speaker system within the server room.
" Well, well! Look who made it out of the elevator! "
Turrets then drop out of the ceiling all around the room and aim at the three of you with green lasers as the servers descend into the ground, becoming sealed up and protected inside the floor. Tom talks back to the voice as he looks around at the turrets calmly.
" If you know what we are, you'll know that your guns won't harm us. "
A translucent red projection of the man you saw in the picture pops up in the center of the server room with his hands on his hips and he looks at Tom, making another remark.
" Oh really? Let me see for myself, tough guy! "
All of the turrets instantly snap their barrels towards Tom and begin firing at him. Tom simply crosses his arms and leans against a countertop, catching all of the bullets mid-air with his telekinetic power until the turrets run out of ammo. As the turrets begin reloading themselves, Tom looks around at each of them as he flings the bullets back at them, shredding each of the turrets into pieces. A few of the turrets fall out of the ceiling and clang onto the metal floor as the man in the projection begins applauding with an impressed expression.
" Bravo! Bravo! "
The projection says before he turns to look at you and Reylesh. He asks Tom a question as he sizes you up.
" Didn't you say that you couldn't afford any distractions? "
Tom answers as he carefully watches the projection.
" Well, it turns out that we might be of use to each other after all. We came here to offer our help with what you need in exchange for you getting us undetected and unrestricted access to the rooms in a club back in the Inner City. "
The projection turns back towards Tom as it responds.
" A club, you say…? Yes, I still do require your assistance, and I believe those terms would be more than fair. Which club is it? "
" Nuh uh. If we're going to go further with negotiations, you need to be here with us in person. I'm not gonna talk terms with someone who hides behind a projection in a completely different location. "
Tom says as he looks at the projection with a cold stare. The projection looks at Tom like he's stupid.
" Yeah… uh… you got that wrong, buddy. I am here. "
Tom instantly claps back with a retort.
" No you're not. I can see through all the rooms in this building and there isn't a single person here besides the three of us. "
" Ohhhh, you think I'm a person!? That's hilarious! Here, I'll give you another guess! I'm… under your feet… "
You look down at the ground with your Trap Sight to see the servers that you saw earlier. You connect the dots at the same time as Reylesh before she speaks up, talking to the projection.
" An AI tried to have us abducted? "
" BINGO!! Haha! Yeah, I just wanted to see if you guys were the real deal, ya know? If you couldn't handle a group of hostile mercs, you definitely couldn't handle the task that I wanted to hire you for. "
The AI says casually.
" That makes sense, actually. I was highly skeptical that a regular human could've hacked The Monument's security system like you did… "
Tom says as he rubs his chin, thinking about it.
" Why'd you kill those mercs when I asked who they worked for? "
You ask the AI sternly with a serious glare.
" Cause I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to help me if you knew that I was the one who sent them to abduct you. If you went along with them willingly, then maybe, but I was honestly hoping you'd give them at least a little resistance so I could see what you're capable of. "
The AI says with a smirk as it turns to look at you, continuing to speak.
" If it makes you feel better, those mercs deserved it. They had no problem with murder and kidnapping over a few measly credits. "
Tom then goes back to his earlier conversation with the AI.
" Okay, Mister Artificial Intelligence… or should I say…? "
" Pads. You can call me Pads. "
Pads says with a smile. Tom continues to negotiate in a calm demeanor.
" Okay Pads, to answer your earlier question, we need access to The Devil's Den. Seeing that you have a talent for breaching systems, we thought that you might be able to use that talent to help us with our mission. "
" Oh yeah, that should be easy! I'll get you into those rooms no problem as long as you fulfill what I ask of you first, of course. Normally I would've hired one of those Minders to take on this request, but due to the nature of my situation and the sheer impossibility of what I need, I've come to the conclusion that no human or machine could ever reasonably accomplish such a task. Luckily, I got some intel that a couple Otherlanders were in town and I couldn't pass up such a perfect opportunity! "
Pads says with glee as he looks around at the three of you.
" Hold on. Who told you that we were Otherlanders? The only people who were supposed to know were the Czar and a few others who were assisting us… "
Pads shrugs off the question as he gives Tom a response.
" No clue! I received an anonymous tip the other day from someone that knew of my situation and wanted to help. "