189 Finding Leona (1/2)

The main compound was a modern take on an old style country mansion. It had the flair of the south mixed in with the complexities of multiple buildings arranged into one, much larger, complex. So, what that meant was that the outer buildings formed a ring around the open center courtyard. The main house was at the front while various facilities were located in other spots. On the original print Laz had seen from the house being built, there was simply the main house in the front on there. A four story building with a basement and an attic that looked like the original structure. Although that was great for Laz in terms of exploring that building, the hard part was there the surround buildings, while not as tall, took up far more space length wise. And this wasn't including the outer sheds, the pool house and some storage building that Laz could only conclude stored things like cars.

Although Laz had made it to the main building, he couldn't help but swear to himself at what an impossible task this was going to be.

What Laz didn't know was that his silent movements were going unnoticed because of Fred's fear of him. Fred didn't feel safe, even in the compound while being surrounded by guards. Therefore, he ended up convincing both Brian and Agent Wallace that Laz would be the type of individual to charge in through the front, or to take a side path. Basically, any main route that he could find. So because of this, most of the security was focused on the front of the main building.

Guards with guns, traps, sensors, riot gear. Instead of spreading out, they just kept a minimal presence throughout the rest of the house while focusing on the main door. It was only because all of this added protection which was concentrated in one area that Fred felt safe.

Agent Wallace felt like it was a waste, but after hearing Fred exaggerate about the warehouse incident, he had no choice but to bring his guys closer together.

”Isn't this overkill?”

”You going to tell the boss that?”

”Hell no. But, we've got enough munitions to take down a drug cartel, all because of one guy?”

”No fucking clue here. The ones higher up say jump, we jump. That's how this works.”

Although the men were being quiet and keeping to their posts, that didn't stop Agent Wallace from catching bits of their conversations while they waited and knew that there was a lot of distrust.

And he didn't blame them either. The biggest problem that he couldn't address was how was he suppose to describe things to the men and get them to believe him? I mean, the guy can set a person on fire just by touching them? No one is going to believe that. So instead, he could only treat this as a training mission and tell the men to be ready for every order they were given.

Agent Wallace could only wait and hope that he wasn't backing the wrong person. After all, this was the only lead he had so far.

Laz was being silent as he moved around the buildings occupying the ring around the center. He would have much preferred to have been able to jump up to the roof and walked along it there, but that would have left him out in the open. As such, he could only follow along the lines of the buildings, gently spreading out his senses to detect people and cameras while also carefully probing the inside of the buildings. It was slow moving, but he had no choice. The uniform he was wearing was rather useless if he was walking somewhere he wasn't suppose to be.

At this point, it was already rather late at night and he had already been at it for almost two hours. It had taken a while, but at least Laz was sure about some things.

First, he knew that Leona must be in the main house as his search had lead to nothing on the other buildings in the ring.

Second, he knew that the main force was also located in the main house as he could sense a lot more people there than in any other spot.

Third, he knew that there was at least one infected in the main building along with one of the 'blessed.' Based on this info and recognizing the infected's energy, he figured that asshole from the club and escapee from the warehouse was also here. Laz wanted to play connect the dots to figure out how he had ended up here, but he knew that it really wasn't important. The only important bit was that with those two in the same building, Laz couldn't probe it to find out where Leona actually was.

Laz was scared of being discovered and being attacked, he was afraid they would use Leona against him and that wasn't a position he wanted to be in. Laz knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't let herself be used and that would put her in even more danger.

For the moment, Laz had no choice but to wait, watch and listen for a chance.

While Laz was wandering around above ground, Leona was currently stuck underneath the ground, while locked in a cage. He head was throbbing from the drugs still running through her system and she could barely see straight. That mixed with the low light, dank air and confined space, she had a hard time staying upright. But she refused to lay down again. Of course, even if she wanted too, she could only barely do so in the cage. And even then, with the one blanket on the floor, it wouldn't be very comfortable.

In an effort to stay upright, she was gripping onto the bars with everything she had, trying to brace herself while focusing on the cage itself. With her normal strength, although she couldn't rip out the steel bars from their foundation and escape, she should at least be able to bend them enough to fit through them. But no matter how she exerted her strength, they wouldn't budge. She could only blame the fact that with the drugs still in her system, she couldn't focus enough to circulate her energy and strengthen herself.

Her head wasn't clear, but she could still make out that there were other cages in the area and she though she saw figures moving around in them. She tried several times to get someone to respond to her.

”Hello?”