“Alonzo, hold that door!” I called out to the Italian man.

He looked at me with slight surprise, but his expression quickly changed to a neutral one, once I whispered under my breath that I was supposed to be here.

It seemed my combination of skills was designed for this particular situation. Well, at least the handful of passive skills that had helped me follow Alonzo all the way into the facility. I crossed not one but two security cordons, and thankfully caught up to Mr Stupid just as he was about to enter into the facility proper.

I was wearing my civilian clothes, and if not for the sword hidden under my jacket, I would have looked like some sort of health and safety inspector. My only worry was the number of security cameras that had seen me. But I needed to find the central security office anyway, to locate Cain, so I didn’t see it as too much of an issue.

“Thank you.” I said, as I finally caught up with the man.

“No problem.” He replied. “Can’t imagine how hard it must be running errands for Mr Solomon like that.”

“Oh, yes.” I simply replied.

‘Black trail’ was a useful skill, but damn, would I have liked to know just what kind of nonsense it put into people’s minds.

The heavy door behind me shut, and I found myself locked in an industrial-sized elevator with Alonzo. He idly scanned his key-card on a designated pad, and the elevator slowly went down.

“Lovely weather we’ve had yesterday.” I spoke, hoping to start a conversation with him.

Chatting with him would make the next step of my plan way easier, as it would allow for me to ‘naturally’ follow him to his lab, but considering how lax the security had been so far, I reckoned I could make do by myself.

“Yes,” he simply answered.

“Perfect for a hike…” I added, hoping to resonate with his favourite hobby.

“Oh, you hike as well?” He turned towards me with an expression of genuine glee on his face.

“Not really. I don’t have the time, with work and all that…” I tried to sound disappointed.

“Yeah, it can be tough. But getting away from everything is always worth it. I might be too tired to differenciate between halogen desiccators and moisture analysis, but damn does it feel good to get some fresh air, you know?”

He looked at me with such an expression that I couldn’t help but feel bad about lying to him. But this needed to be done.

“Yeah, I love how trees smell after the rain as well. My friends argue it all smells like wet water, but I think wet asphalt and wet leaves smell nothing alike.”

“Right?” He exclaimed with a smile. “And the further in you go, the better it gets. The other day I found a mushroom, all by myself! That was one of the proudest moments in my life.”

I wondered if a man like this should be working in this kind of environment. But I didn’t say anything on the subject. Instead I joked:

“Was it the eating kind, or the smoking kind?”

“Eating, I think?” He didn’t sound convinced.

Just as he was about to elaborate, the elevator finally came to a stop. Its doors slid open, revealing a large intersection of corridors. Alonzo left the elevator, and was about to turn around to say goodbye, but I didn’t leave him the chance.

“I think the wildest thing I’ve ever found in a forest was a shoe with moss in it. I always wondered what happened to the person who left it there.” I said, as I crossed the short distance separating us.

“Are you going this way as well?” He asked, surprised, as he pointed towards one of the corridors.

“No.” I replied. “But, it’s not often that I meet a fellow outdoorsman, and a small detour can’t hurt.”

He smiled, wides than ever before, and gestured for me to follow.

For about ten minutes, he led me through corridors and staircases. It seemed whatever part of the facility we were in was wrapping itself around some central point. Either the rock was too hard to dig through there, or another part of the facility was there. It somewhat made sense, when I thought about it, to have different sections that could easily be isolated in case of an emergency. It also worried me just a bit, that I might not be able to get out as easily as I’ve gotten in.

During the whole walk, Alonzo did not shut up for a single second. He somehow deviated only to the topic of that ancient tree, and what it meant for him to have found it. I, in turn, had to make something up about how my favourite tree was one located in London (which I only knew about after skimming through the wiki page of Alonzo's cryptid tree).

“Ah, this is my stop.” He said, stopping in front of a door labelled as ’02-584-A’. “Would you like to grab lunch sometime at the canteen?” He asked.

“Sure, although I can’t promise anything, with my schedule.” I said, as I slowly moved my hand towards my sword.

Alonzo carried on talking about making plans, as he fiddled with his key-card, then the doorknob. Finally, he opened the door, to reveal a large space that smelled like disinfectant, and held an impressive amount of equipment. Some of it looked like the industrial fridges we had at my workplace. The rest, I couldn’t even guess what it did.

“So, does Thursday-”

I hit him at the base of the neck with the pommel of my sword. I could only pray I had used enough strength to knock him out, but not enough to actually wound him.

I caught his body before it had had the time to fall to the floor, and winced under the weight. But it was too late to back down now. I dragged him inside, ignoring the growing soreness I my back, and gently put him on the floor. I then closed the door behind us.

Alonzo’s chest moved up and down rhythmically, indicating that I hadn’t committed anything I couldn’t go back from. I let him be, as I looked through his lab.

Beyond the little plastic trays with gross-looking meat-like stuff in them, and the refrigerated bags of dead snails, there wasn’t much to steal. Although, his box of surgical gloved did catch my eye. I quicky replaced my leather gloves with those, and pocketed an extra pair, just in case.

He had a desktop setup that I tried to turn on, but failed to log into after trying ‘password’, ‘tree’, ‘forest’, and ‘123456’. I decided to leave my attempts at that, as I didn’t want to lock is, or send some sort of security ping to the central network, if it even was connected to one.

I then looked through the other lockers and drawers. I managed to find a lab uniform that would fit me well enough, and a spare key card. I assumed it was deactivated and that Alonzo kept it for sentimental value, as I could see no other reason to keep a key card inside the room you’d need a key card to access.

With that thought, I headed back toward the unconscious man, and went through his pockets. I found the key card he’d used to get in, as well the keys for his apartment. He also had a thin wallet on him, with only a few cards, and no coins in it (not that I was planning on stealing anything).

I got up, and looked at the lab outfit. I wasn’t sure if I should change into it or not. On one hand, it would make it easier to blend in, on the other I wouldn’t have anywhere to hide my sword, which just about fit at an angle under my jacket.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Doctor Rossi.” A female voice called out. “Is everything alright? I noticed some unusual activity on your computer. May I come in?”

“Damn.” I swore under my breath.

There wasn’t enough time to hide the body, plus there was no way I would be able to do it silently. Then an idea popped into my mind.

Mocking Bird

English

Alonzo Rossi

Possible word choices:

I

Imagine (d)

Forest (s)

autumn

Run (ing)

Errand (s)

Solomon

Like (d) (es)

Stop (ing)

Hike (ing)

that

you

lunch

Thursday

++ more to display++

MP - 2

“Doctor Rossi?” the voice asked again, more instantly this time.

I mentally cursed at the man on the floor. Why was his vocabulary so restricted? But I had no time to waste. So, I chose the ‘display more’ option.

A long list of all the words he’d said ever since we’ve met appeared before my eyes. As I tried to think of a sentence to say, the words began arranging themselves in a different order, like automatic suggestions on a smartphone.

“I am a bit busy. You need to come back later.” I said, in a perfect imitation of his voice.

MP - 1

“It is my duty to check on your safety, doctor. Could I come in for just a second? I won’t disturb you for long.” The person on the other side of the door insisted.

I bit down my lip. Then I looked at the body, and back at the door. There seemed to be enough space between the door and the wall for a person to hide.

“Yes, alright. I will let you in.” I said, once again using his voice and not mine.

Mp -1

I crept behind the door, and readied my blade. I only hoped that this unwanted visitor wasn’t wearing a helmet. Otherwise plan B was to sneak out while they weren’t watching.

I pushed on the handle, just enough to creak the door ajar. A strong hand pushed it open from the other side, as its owner asked, in a worried voice:

“Doctor Rosssi?”

Then, having noticed the body, they exclaimed:

“Shit! Are you alright?”

The guard rushed toward the unconscious doctor, leaving their back exposed. In one swift movement, I hit the back of their neck with the pommel of the katana, using just a tad more strength than last time, just in case.

They fell onto the floor, landing over Alonzo’s legs.

I quickly shut the door, and went back to check that they were still breathing. As I did so, I felt that same warmth emanating from my blade. For a split second, it seemed as if the sword was asking me to pierce both the bodies with that while, polished metal. In one smooth and swift movement, they would have both been gone. No witnesses, no problems.

I blamed those thoughts on the stress of this whole situation, and put the blade away. Then, I kneeled by the unconscious guard, and started going through their pockets.

They wore a simple uniform underneath a bulletproof vest, and had a key card hidden within a pocket of their trousers. They didn’t seem to have any personal belongings on them, but they did carry a firearm.

I pulled the gun out of its holster. It was a heavy thing, a mixture of plastic and metal with a thick barrel and even thicker handle. It was definitely on the larger side for a pistol, but too small to be anything else. I wondered if it shot actual bullets, or rubber ones. I wasn’t sure what would have made more sense in this context, and taking out the magazine did not help with the matter.

With great caution not to wake the guard up, I took the holster off their belt, and tried to unclip the bulletproof vest of their body. That last part yielded no results, and I quickly gave up. But I did find a spare magazine clipped onto their utility belt. I had to undo a good portion of the belt to get that magazine (and the plastic holder it came in) off, before realising that it had a clip at the back, and didn’t have to be slid off.

After hiding both my weapons under my jacket, and making sure that I had both key cards with me (Alonzo’s card was labelled with his lab number whereas that of the guard had a sticker with the letter ‘S’ and a serial number on it), I took a deep breath, and headed back into enemy territory.