The Monument Security Team (2)
"Hey. Patrol time."
"Is it that late already?"
"Good luck out there."
The three Wolves in the Monument's 7th-floor security office filed out together.
"What's our route today again?"
"Same as always."
"Ugh, I hope we can skip the VIP suites. Something smells off up there, I'm telling you."
"Off how? I've never smelled anything."
The dog-headed Wolf shook his head with a grimace of disgust.
"It's the smell of a human dying of sickness. You two heard it too. That coughing every single night."
"Oh, come on. What would people who eat nothing but delicacies all day possibly be sick from?"
"Now that you mention it, the defense fleet's been acting strange lately too," the cheetah-headed female Wolf countered, when the cat-headed Wolf waved her hand dismissively. "The defense fleet? What's wrong with them?"
"Soldiers showing up at the hospital with bodies suddenly gone weak — more than a few of them. And over half the officers have taken sick leave."
"Even the officers? What the hell are those people eating?"
"A buddy of mine went to the hospital and even they couldn't figure out the cause. Anyway, word is the defense fleet's in chaos over manpower shortages right now."
"Manpower shortages, my ass. I'd just like to work a little less overtime over here."
"Tell me about it. I've been staying away from the Entertainment District so long my balls are about to burst."
"You absolute lunatic."
They went about their patrol, chewing eagerly over the upper floors of the Monument.
Nothing in the world is as entertaining as gossiping about other people — and by the time they'd run out of complaints, the route was nearly finished.
"Just the 3rd and 4th floors left, right?"
"Yeah."
The 3rd and 4th floors housed the food storage warehouse and the supply depot, respectively. Each facility occupied its entire floor, and no unauthorized personnel were allowed access.
"Hey, sorry, gotta hit the bathroom real quick."
"You should lay off the coffee, man."
"Yeah, yeah. We'll cover the rest ourselves."
While the dog Wolf dashed off to the bathroom, the cat Wolf and the cheetah Wolf took the elevator down to the 4th floor.
They'd just arrived and were heading for the supply depot when they found a woman standing there.
A master card for the 3rd Central Monitoring Room hung at her chest.
"Oh? You're — the one from the monitoring room, Ms. Anna, right? What brings you here?"
"Hello. My flashlight broke. I came to get a replacement, but my card won't let me in, so…."
Anna spoke with an apologetic awkwardness.
"For that, you'd have to contact the inventory management team, file an incident report, and have it replaced that way."
"Figured it would be something like that."
Anna nodded along as if she accepted it, but showed no sign of moving.
The cheetah Wolf, catching on to what she was angling for, opened her mouth to say something — but the cat Wolf slipped in between the two of them first.
"Hey, hold on. Ms. Anna, doing it that way means another long wait and a whole lot of hassle, so let me just help you out."
"And what about the patrol?"
"We're supposed to check inside anyway. I'll help Ms. Anna and be right down — you go ahead to the 3rd floor."
"Oh, for crying out loud, you really are…."
Watching her teammate work his angle, the cheetah Wolf shook her head.
There was no point in stopping him, so she kept her mouth shut in a way that said do whatever you want.
The cat Wolf stepped out of the elevator with a bright, easy smile.
"Thank you."
"Ah, don't mention it. Shall we, then?"
Having left his teammate behind, the cat Wolf walked the corridor alongside Anna.
Since the two facilities occupied their floors in their entirety, there were few doors along the way — little more than the entrance to the supply depot and the door leading to the emergency stairwell.
"How's the monitoring room been lately?"
"Oh, the usual."
"Right? The security team's got it rough too, with all the higher-ups breathing down our necks. It's like nobody here remembers they're Cultists, everyone so prickly — ah, not that I'm talking about you, Ms. Anna?"
"Ah. Right."
The cat Wolf's mouth never stopped moving as they walked.
Anna's face had been deathly pale with not a trace of color from the moment he first saw her, but he took it for nothing more than irritation over her broken flashlight.
"Here, I'll open it for you."
Reaching the depot, the Wolf unlocked the door with his security team card.
The moment the door swung open, the cat Wolf stopped short instead of going in. His pointed ears swiveled sharply toward the interior of the depot.
"Hm?"
"What is it?"
"Ah — I thought I heard something…."
Sound coming from a depot that should have been empty.
It resembled the chirping of insects — a sound so faint that unless you strained to listen, you would lose it in an instant.
The only reason the cat Wolf registered it at all was that it was a dissonance so jarring it set his nerves on edge.
But unlike him, a Wolf with keen hearing, Anna seemed to sense nothing amiss whatsoever.
Without a care, she walked in ahead of him.
"I don't hear anything."
"Really? Must be my imagination, then."
The cat Wolf shook his head and put the noise out of his mind.
He followed Anna into the depot.
The supply depot was cavernous.
Countless steel drawer cabinets filled the space, along with metal shelving units tall enough to brush the ceiling.
"What's wrong with the lights?"
The small ceiling lamps were supposed to switch on automatically.
Instead, far more of them were dark than lit, and some flickered wildly, out of their minds.
'Shit. That's creepy as hell.'
Was it the strange noise, or the ominous strobing of the lights?
He felt the shaggy fur covering his body beginning to bristle.
"Ms. Anna?"
Perhaps it was the darkness — Anna, who had gone in ahead, was nowhere to be seen.
He clicked on his flashlight and carefully picked his way between the metal shelves.
The musty smell of slightly rusted metal mingled with the scents of the stored goods, filling the air with a stale reek.
"Ms. Anna, where are you?"
"In the back."
Perhaps her flashlight really was broken — she wasn't using any light at all.
'I can barely see myself, and she managed to walk all the way in there. Impressive.'
He followed her voice deeper into the depot.
With every step, the strange noise filtering into his ears grew louder.
'Where the hell is it coming from?'
The sound echoed through the metal shelves, bouncing in every direction, making it impossible to pinpoint its origin.
One thing was certain: the closer he drew to Anna, the louder that unwelcome noise became.
And at last, he found her.
"Ms. Anna? You scared me. Why didn't you answer me?"
She stood deep among the shelves, her body turned toward the wall.
Despite his calling out, she didn't so much as twitch, rooted to the spot.
"Ms. Anna?"
"……"
Only then did he realize something was wrong with her.
Her body — slender in the way of all Cultists — was trembling violently.
Just as the cat Wolf stepped toward her, the flashlight's beam stuttered, broke apart, and died.
"Now what?"
In the pitch-black dark, he smacked the flashlight casing a few times with his palm.
"Ah, there we go."
In that instant, light returned to the flashlight.
At the same time, the grating noise in his ears vanished.
Anna had turned around and was looking at him.
No — to be precise, her gaze was fixed just past his shoulder.
By the time he realized this, it was already too late.
The moment his head began to turn, the thing hanging upside down from the ceiling lunged down and swallowed him whole.
"Where the hell are those guys?"
"Think they're holed up somewhere sleeping again?"
"Haah, honestly."
Kenneth, the Cultist of the security team office, scowled at his subordinate's words.
"Slackers, the lot of them."
Meaning to give his lazing subordinates a piece of his mind, he picked up his communicator.
A crackling tone rang out, and soon one of his men picked up.
"Hey, you. Where are you? Why aren't you back yet?"
"Zzt — b-b-big trouble, zzt —"
"What? You're breaking up."
"Att— zzt —attack— zzt —"
Kenneth's face went rigid.
The connection was so bad he could barely make out the words, but one word came through with terrible clarity.
Attack.
"Where are you? I'm coming down right now!"
"Foo— zzttzzt —storage— zzttzzt —"
"Hey! Damn it! Everyone grab your weapons!"
"What's the matter, sir?"
"Intruder in the food storage warehouse!"
At Kenneth's shout, the six Wolves remaining in the office tensed as one.
VIP guests were lodged throughout the Monument for important business. An intruder at a time like this would be nothing short of a catastrophe.
While his men equipped the weapons kept in the office, Kenneth contacted their superior facility, the 1st Central Monitoring Room.
"Why won't this thing work either? Hey, someone give me your communicator."
When the communicator that had worked just moments ago went dead, Kenneth took one from a subordinate.
The instant he tried to call again, the power to the office cut out completely.
Emergency power kicked in a moment later, washing the room in red light.
"…This is definitely an emergency, it seems. Everyone, prepare thoroughly."
The Wolves nodded at Kenneth's words.
Plasma pistols went to their hips; bracelets with built-in miniature psychic shields were strapped to their wrists.
In the meantime, Kenneth activated his psychic power technique.
The technique's name was Body Enhancement — an ability that drastically amplified the combat capability of his allies.
Body Enhancement
After casting Body Enhancement on each of his subordinates in turn, Kenneth collected the motion detector kept in the office.
"Beep. Beep. Beep…"
When he switched it on, the device displayed the movements of the Wolves in the office, along with the guests in the rooms above and below.
Kenneth adjusted the detector so that it filtered out his teammates and registered only other movement.
"Let's move."
Listening to the faint signals that chimed whenever a guest shifted in their room, Kenneth rose to his feet.
Leaving the office, they crossed the corridor and took the elevator.
The Wolf in the center activated his psychic shield, while the rest pressed themselves flat against the sides of the elevator doors.
The 3rd floor arrived and the doors opened, but the corridor was empty.
The power was out here as well, leaving the hallway swallowed in total darkness.
The Wolves and Kenneth switched on the small lanterns mounted on their plasma pistols.
A multitude of thin beams carved shadows into the abyss-drowned corridor.
"Sniff. Faint scent of blood from beyond the corridor, sir."
"…Of course. Everyone, stay sharp."
They passed the emergency stairwell door and came to a stop before the food storage warehouse.
"Beep—beep—"
Movement had been detected inside the warehouse, just as someone had said.
At Kenneth's hand signal, the shield-bearing Wolves took position at the door while the others behind them raised their plasma pistols, ready to fire at a moment's notice.
As everyone held their breath, Kenneth pressed his security card against the terminal beside the door.
The instant the door opened, a black bundle of fur burst out from inside.
"S-save me, somebody!"
"Hold fi— wait! Hold fire! Friendly!"
It was the dog-headed Wolf.
Confirming he was one of their own, the Wolves lowered their pistol muzzles at Kenneth's command.
"Haa— hik — w-we have to r-run, quickly!"
The dog-headed Wolf was completely oblivious to how close he had just come to dying.
His shaggy fur was soaked through with sweat, and the face that had never once lost its good cheer was now brimming with sheer terror.
Kenneth calmed the half-delirious Wolf down.
"Steady now. What exactly happened down there?"
"I—I had to g-go to the bathroom, so I split off from the others for a moment, and when I c-came back down—"
"Slowly. Tell me calmly. What about your teammates?"
"Wh-when we came down to the warehouse, the inside was c-completely covered in blood. Th-the thing was e-eating them. Eating our friends."
"Eating them?"
Something about that struck Kenneth as wrong.
He had clearly spoken with the dog-headed Wolf's teammate — the female Wolf with the cheetah head — before coming down.
Going by the dog Wolf's account, he had just held a conversation with a dead subordinate.
"That can't be. I talked to them on the comm before coming down."
At that moment—
"Beep—"
The motion detector in his hand went off.
And directly behind them, a door rattled open with a heavy clang.
The door leading to the emergency stairwell.
Wrapped around its handle were purple claws.
'That makes nine Wolves.'
I bit clean through the dog's head I held in my hand.
There was a faint gamey odor to it, but nothing particularly offensive.
Something like tearing into ribs at a lamb joint, I supposed. The kind of taste that smells a little off but is oddly addictive all the same.
After swallowing the remaining head in one clean gulp and sucking the meat off even the fingers, I looked down at the Cultist I had newly captured.
"……"
His whole body was paralyzed from the barbed spines.
His handsome face was smeared with tears and snot.
'Still handsome, though.'
Fitting, really, for a race that collected nothing but beautiful faces.
Whether it would comfort him or not, he was not the only Cultist here.
The Cultists who had been working the central monitoring rooms and become my slaves were here with him — because I had gathered them all.
"Grrrumble… whiiiich… one… hhh… has… the·mo·st·people·"
"…Currently, the 4th Central Monitoring Room has the most staff. Three people. Ah? Wait a moment— ugh!"
Every other monitoring room currently had only a single operative under my control, or at most two counting the new additions.
'If people started vanishing from those rooms without a word, the higher-ups would launch an investigation immediately.'
As Anna's case showed, every room except the 1st and 2nd Central Monitoring Rooms operated with a minimum of two to three people.
Which meant that even if the 4th Central Monitoring Room's headcount dropped to two, there would be no real problem.
Of course, a silent resignation would still strike someone upstairs as odd — but compared to everywhere else, it would draw far less scrutiny.
'Besides, the zone the 4th Central Monitoring Room covers isn't somewhere I intend to go.'
In other words, the Cultist of the 4th Central Monitoring Room was of no use to me.
Without hesitation, I seized his neck and snapped it.
Tongue lolling out, the dead Cultist's nostrils gave birth to black threadworms that wriggled free.
'You know where to go, don't you?'
The parasite crawled without a moment's pause toward the face of the fallen security-team Cultist.
The man turned desperate, pleading eyes toward his fellow Cultists — not that his kin could do anything for him even if they wanted to.
While the Cultists turned their heads away, the parasite went searching for its new home.
I brought my face close to the fallen security Cultist.
"Uu— uuuh!"
My face reflected in his trembling eyes.
To the man shaking with terror, I explained everything he would now be expected to do — how many more Wolves he would need to offer up, how the cleanup was to be handled, and so on.
By the time his paralysis wore off, his master was no longer the city's chief administrator.
From that moment on, he served a new master.
Amorph.