“Wait, they knew we were the ones buying the place?”

“H.A.V.E helped us track down the owners, so they have to be pretty stupid not to add two and two together. Okay, let’s see what we have here.”

Even with the black helmet, Jennifer could tell that Walker was impressed. Being cheated by your partners was a common occurrence in business but when your boss was a well-known C-list villain, things were different. Anyone who try to cheat a C-list villain in a business deal deserves what was coming to him.

Jennifer and Walker walked around the warehouse as the men began clearing away some of the small rubble. They were looking for anything useful when one of the men cried out.

“There’s something here.”

Everyone went over but Jennifer stood back as Walker went to speak the man. Whatever was said got Walker excited as he began poking his head at a bunch of rubble. He told the men to beginning clearing the rubble before walking back to Jennifer

“What is it?” she asked.

“Not sure yet, but it looks like there’s a door behind those rubble. The door is still intact and was hidden by the rubble.”

Jennifer pressed on her tablet and brought up the blueprints of the warehouse. “That’s odd. There shouldn’t be anything there.”

“Well, this is King’s Edge. It shouldn’t come as any surprise if the previous owners had engaged in some extracurricular activities.” For the first time since they started the tour, Walker sound delighted.

“Tell the men to be careful.” Jennifer warned. “We don’t know what’s behind there.”

Walker nodded and began overseeing the men. Jennifer waited patiently as they slowly cleared the rubble. Once the door was revealed, everyone cleared the area before one of the men kicked the door open. He quickly stepped back, and they waited. There were no explosions, no traps, and no alarms. Two of the men approached the now opened door. One of them shouted.

“There is a staircase heading down. Does this place have a basement?”

No, it didn’t. Jennifer shook her head, and the two men headed down while the rest of them waited. Jennifer wasn’t sure why these two were the ones who went down but she assumed they had certain skills that were useful in such a situation. After about ten minutes, one of the men returned.

“You will want to take a look at this.”

Jennifer went down with the men and saw another door at the bottom of the stairs. That door was opened though Jennifer could see an electronic lock on the door. One of the men must be a thief or a low-level technomancer and picked the lock. Jennifer walked through the door and entered a big basement. It was filled with various strange items. A few large cauldrons, tables with various flasks, and what looked like a forge in one corner. Jennifer frowned behind her mask.

“What are all these?”

“It’s a magical atelier.” One of the men said.

“What?”

“It’s an atelier.” The man pointed to the various items in the basement. “All these are items you would find in any magical workshop. Whoever was using this place must be running an illegal magic workshop. They were creating magic items here.”

“What sort of items?”

“Potions, runes, magic weapons; could be anything really.”

“None of those items are illegal.” Jennifer said. “Maybe magic weapons, but I could buy them at any magic shop in the city. Why would anyone run an illegal magic workshop making them?”

“Money,” the man said. “It is like running an illegal gun-making workshop. There is no oversight from the authorities, you don’t have to pay taxes and duties, and you don’t have to register the items with the police. There are even some spells and potions which are considered too dangerous to be sold to the public. There is more money to be made in the black market if you have the right contacts.”

Jennifer did not know much about the black-market scene in Velocity City, much less the magical black-market scene. This was totally out of her wheelhouse.

“Can we use any of these?” Jennifer asked the man who seemed to be an expert in the matter.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Wait a minute, do we even have magic-users in the crew?” Walker asked. “We can just clear the place and use the basement for other purpose.”

Jennifer was certain there were a few magic-users among the crew and having a place for their magic-users was not a bad idea. However, Walker was right in saying the place could be used for other purpose. This was not her decision to make.

“We shall tell Master Fist of this and let him decide. Any of you knows if any of these items are valuable? And let’s search the other places again to make sure there are no other surprises?”

The men began looking through the basement when they heard footsteps running down the stairs. They had left a few men on top and one of them ran into the basement.

“What is it?” Jennifer asked. She was afraid the answer would be heroes. Instead, the answer was worse.

“Master Fist is under attack!”

“What? Where? When?”

“Right now! He is along King’s Street. There was an explosion. It is all over the local news.”

Jennifer felt a deep pit in her stomach. She felt cold. Frozen. Then, rage began filling the deep pit. She scowled. “Get everyone.”

“Everyone?” Walker turned to look at her. “What do you-”

“Get everyone!” She screamed. “I want everyone to King’s Street right now!”