Alcingeria Chapter Fifty One: Infiltration

The task force infiltrates the mafia base at long last. They discover their friends in almost critical condition, but alive.

Chapter Fifty One Infiltration:

Saturday July 3rd 1690

We exited Queen Yuka’s castle. The mission wasn’t far from completion; get everyone out and destroy the mafia base. That was it. That was all we had to do. Easier said than done.

            “Alright men, let’s get everyone back!” Gerald shouted.

We all cheered our approval to his plan. Gerald led us to the bar that had the mafia’s base beneath it. We put our white fedoras on as we stepped through the door.

            “Stay focused. Anything can happen down there.” Gerald warned.

He walked over to the trap door, opened it and jumped through. We were right down after him. We came to a little stone passageway. The rock around us didn’t look like it had been dug, but blasted away. It was jagged and crude. Torches lit the walls. There was a door at the end of the corridor.

            “How did the mafia build this?” Stella asked in wonder.

            “They must’ve needed a lot of pickaxes.” Macalister remarked.

            “Or a lot of magic users.” Don corrected.

I looked around at the blasted rock. Dynamite would’ve been too loud. Magic had to have been how the mafia built this.

            “Alright, let’s go.” Gerald said quietly.

We crept up to the door. Gerald reached forward and opened it. Another stone corridor was layed out before us. Cells lined the walls. They were all empty.

            “This must be the prison corridor.” Don said.

            “Why are the cells empty?” Macalister asked.

            “I don’t know, but let’s find out.” Edward said, walking through the corridor.

We reached a door at the end and we stepped through. We were in a large room with a counter at the back. Tables and chairs scattered the room.

            “The mess hall.” I remarked.

            “No one’s here, we need to keep looking.” Robert urged.

We looked around and found multiple doors on the far side of the room.

            “Let’s go over there and check out all the doors.” Darwin suggested.

            “Good idea.” Stela said.

We walked over to the door on the far left and walked through. All that was in it was jarred fruits and vegetables, bread and wine.

            “Nothing.” Edwin said.

He was about to close the door, when Gerald held up his hand. He walked over to a small bottle of wine, inspected the label and nodded, impressed. He stuck it in his back pocket. He turned back to us. Edwin eyed him strangely.

            “What? This is the good stuff!” Gerald protested.

            “Nothing. Let’s just get a move on.” Edwin said.

We walked to the next door. There were swords, shields, spears and a few other types of weapons. There were also multiple Vulrock Law Enforcement uniforms in a pile.

            “They must be the ones jumping our men in the city!” Darwin exclaimed.

We then heard what sounded like rapid gunshots. Of course, that was impossible.

            “What’s that sound?” Stella asked.

            “It sounds like gunshots.” Gerald said.

            “That was a lot of gunshots.” Macalister said.

More rapid gunshots sounded. What was making that sound? No weapon in Alcingeria could fire that fast!

            “The sound is coming from the room behind this door.” Don said, pointing to the next door.

We walked through that door. What we saw made our jaws drop. We saw a target range set up, no more than twenty feet between the shooter and the target. It was the weapon they were holding that was so shocking;

It had a metal and wood exterior. It had a stock that was braced against the shoot’s shoulder, like that of a musket. There was a sight on the weapon. There was a trigger as well as a vertical magazine. When the user fired the weapon, the bolt flew back and forth very quickly. Each time it came forward it set off a bullet, discharging it from the weapon. It tore the target to shreds in a matter of seconds. What in the world was this weapon? It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen! A fully automatic firearm!

            “Quite impressive, isn’t it?” Asked a man who had come up behind them during the shooting.

We all turned around in shock.

            “It’s amazing! How did we engineer this?” Gerald asked.

            “Where were you ten minutes ago? Artemis gave an explanation. He said it was the ‘offspring of science and magic’. It’s enchanted so that when the user holds the trigger, the bolt flies back and forth, setting off bullets and discharging them faster than any weapon can. At the same time, bullets from the vertical magazine are being pushed into the chamber by the enchantment.” The man explained.

            “Incredible.” Don murmured.

            “Indeed. We only have one at the moment, as the prototype was just built an hour ago.” The man explained.

            “Science and magic was used to create this weapon?” Darwin asked.

The man nodded, smiling.

            “Yes. With the help of the magic users we stole from Queen Yuka and the help of our brilliant engineers, we designed the first fully automatic firearm.” The man said excitedly.

            “Can you tell us where the magic users are?” Gerald asked.

            “Certainly. They’re being held in the workshop. Go back to the mess hall and it’s two doors down from here.” The man said.

            “Thank you.” Gerald said.

He led us out of the shooting range and into the workshop. As we walked through the door, we were hit by a blast of heated air. Wow! It was hot in here! There was a huge furnace in the room with witches and warlocks shooting jets of flames into it. There were tools floating around the room, people being treated for cuts and burns by healers and other magical things happening around the room.

            “This is it.” Stella said.

We walked through the room, seeing if any of our friends were here. Everyone around here looked absolutely exhausted. Tables were scattered across the floor. They all had witches and warlocks shackled to them. The furnace also had witches and warlocks shackled to it as they sent jets of flame into it. I looked around and saw Don looking at a witch who was shackled to one of the tables. She had passed out from exhaustion. It was Tabatha! Her witch clothes that were black with green trim had faded considerably, probably due to this searing heat. I was starting to sweat. Don shook her shoulder. Tabatha’s head rolled to the side to look at Don.

            “Please… Don’t hurt… m-me…” She whispered.

            “Tabatha, I’m not going to hurt you.” Don said in a caring voice.

Tabatha’s rich brown eyes widened.

            “Don…?” She whispered.

Don smiled and nodded. I walked over to Antoinette, who was shackled to the table next to Tabatha and found that she had passed out from exhaustion as well.

            “Antoinette, wake up.” I said.

Her emerald eyes slowly fluttered open and swam into focus.

            “R-Redmond?” She stammered in a confused whisper.

I caught sight of multiple guards in the room, nodded and raised a finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet.

            “I’ll explain everything later. Right now you need to listen to me. There are too many guards around, but we’ll find a way to free everyone. Just hold out as long as you can.” I told her.

She lazily nodded, about to pass out again.

            “Antoinette, stay with me.” I urged.

It was no use, her eyes closed again and she slumped against the table, unconscious. I looked to Tabatha and saw that she had passed out again as well. I spotted Walden over by the furnace, sending jets of flames into it.

            “We can’t go over and talk to Walden, there are too many guards around. We need to get out of here and make a plan. Antoinette will tell Tabatha and Walden that we’re here to save them.” I said.

            “That’s a good plan. Let’s go.” Gerald said.

We walked out of the workshop, glad to be out of the searing heat. We were all sweating.

            “Man, it’s hot in there!” Don exclaimed.

            “We need to think of a way to get everyone out.” I said.

            “Agreed, but how?” Darwin asked.

            “We’ll play it by ear. We need to know the guard’s routines, the prisoner’s routines and we’ll need a map of the place.” Edward said.

            “Sounds good.” Stella said.

Just then, we heard the sound of metal hitting metal.

            “Alright magic users! Your curfew draws near! Back to your cells!” A man yelled.

A minute later, there were witches, warlocks, fairies and guards piling out of the workshop. They were headed towards the prison corridor. I caught a glimpse of Antoinette, Tabatha and Walden in the crowd. Walden caught my eye and I gave him a wink. He grinned and followed the crowd.

            “Until we have what we need, we won’t be rescuing anyone.” Edwin said.

            “Right then, let’s get on it.” Gerald encouraged with a grin.

Author's Note

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