[Lock and scramble that door as soon as I pass through. Make sure nobody that used to have access can open it. I’ll be releasing my Darkness Magica immediately after. The ice will stay until it melts on its own.]

The half-meter-thick door slides aside and I immediately step in and to the right as mana projectiles fly by my left through the now closing doorway, into the ceiling, floor, and my hidden armor. I can feel a drain on my mana as the projectiles slam into my chest, legs, arms, and head; thankfully I feel no pain through my armor construct, but my mana is dwindling at a prodigious rate. I’m down to 28% and falling with each blow.

Less than a second after I enter, the entire room is flooded with a cloud in inky blackness. I run to the corner and begin moving along the wall behind the group of humans battling with their own demons of sensory deprivation.

[Mana Sight], which I flipped on immediately upon entry, tells me two are looking about frantically and screaming, four are ducking down and curling into a ball, two are simply frozen still with open mouths and wide eyes, and one, the most dangerous and the only one that remains armed, is firing their projectile randomly, threatening to harm or kill his compatriots or damage the equipment I need to find Aria. I immediately strike that one with a blast of muted lightning causing him to drop the blaster and shudder on the floor.

The door is sealed and locked. It is possible that someone with superior access rights such as the facility director may be able to override my lock, but it will take time. . .

A brief tactical scan shows this room to be only five meters deep with two entire walls, the far and right, filled with cryspad screens and various crystal structures to manage and monitor the facility’s security.

[Where do I get what we need?]

Unknown at this time. Start with one and I will be able to make a determination. . .

I walk carefully through the now completely black room and touch the nearest access control crystal. As I do so, I glance at the screens showing me a large number of humans running through hallways, into and out of rooms, and overall trying to figure out what the hell is going on and what to do about it. No Aria so far as I can tell.

[Can you lock down the facility? Stop anyone from leaving?]

Not from this terminal. I need a little more time to gain full access. . .

Four and some minutes later the silence of the room is broken by Jo.

This is surveillance control and communication. While it cannot accomplish what you wish, I can tell you that surveillance was disabled for a short time prior to your entrance. Please move to the next console. I have terminated surveillance in this room by the way. . .

When I touch the next, Jo tells me it is a security personnel assignment calendar and log. After that are the prisoner acceptance, relocation, and release logs, a number of terminals involving tracking orders for various equipment for different departments, and finally at the very end, a personal terminal for someone important. The constant reassurance of checking my ring does not dampen the mix of anger beginning to boil over and the gut-wrenching terror of losing Aria. I have snapped out (probably too strong) lightning to stun each of the female humans as I pass them, drain them into unconsciousness with death serpents and send them into the cave with the others. Jo asks me to hold off on sending the men in so I just knock them out and drop all mana use.

I believe I have deduced what happened and what your next steps should be. A command-level officer, Security Chief McCormick, temporarily added a Charles Atkinson to the facility guard rotation, added to the prisoner log that this previously unknown guard was escorting a prisoner to the isolation cells on the lower level, added random meetings, and ordered the guards to attend these meetings in certain locations away from their walking path. He also ran a script that disabled surveillance in a predefined pattern which would allow an individual entering the facility from the emergency exit door to walk through the facility’s less busy pathways towards the lower cells which are rarely occupied and mainly used for storage according to the purchasing log. To that log, he added a container of miscellaneous reports large enough to store a body, which is scheduled for pickup and delivery to a storage facility elsewhere in the city. . .

The entire room is alight with azure as my fury causes me to lose control of my mana. Growling in my mind to Jo, I ask, [Which one is he?]

But I don’t wait for an answer and scan the six unconscious uniforms until I find one that looks the most senior.

Taking a breath, I return to the original crystal terminal and touch it.

[Lower Cells Surveillance.]

The screens in front of me change to show five hallways and sixteen dark rooms. All but two appear to contain only boxes, piles of clothes and sheets, and other miscellaneous junk. No sign of Aria or Charles. Where are they?

There is more. The personal terminal is primarily used by Security Chief McCormick and has a record that he recently communicated with one Charles Atkinson about how Charles has successfully lobbied to be placed in the defensive position 33 which just happens to be outside the secret entrance to his prison allowing him an escape if need be. The security chief offers to arrange everything and asks only for the “normal” compensation. Apparently, the two are acquaintances and business partners although the communications do not state why. And yes, that one you are looking at is indeed Security Chief McCormick. . .

I walk over, reach down, grab him by his neck, drag him across the room, lift him over a hard steel chair and release my fingers. He lands with a clank - I hope he broke something. After stepping away to send the rest of the men into the now crowded cave, I walk back to the unconscious human. At this moment and for the foreseeable future it is just me and the corrupt McCormick in a sealed room with no one to hear him scream.

Two minutes later the security chief wakes up strapped to the chair looking at my neutral face, sitting with my elbows on my knees, and leaning forward in an identical chair across from him. “What the f-”

Lightning sparks and McCormick screams in a tone that sounds like music to my ears. I release the mana and the black scale collar around his neck stops glowing and crackling. “Security Chief McCormick, you assisted Charles Atkinson in stealing my wife. If you tell me where they are right now you will die without pain. If you do not, you die in greater pain than any human in history.”