I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 81: Secret Infiltration (Patreon)

Lily slipped into the hide. Black mist soon poured out, rapidly filling and stretching the Dover Demon’s skin.

She rose to her feet and twisted from side to side a couple of times like a cat.

“Little One, how do I look?”

“You look perfect. You just move too much like a cat.”

Liam picked her up and turned her this way and that, confirming that she looked exactly like the Dover Demon he had seen.

“Now let me fix the way you move.”

Using his memory of the Dover Demon’s posture, he began teaching Lily how to hold herself and move properly.

“Little One, look. I’m the Dover Demon...”

Lily struck the poses while making eerie noises.

But with her childish voice, she wasn’t frightening in the slightest. Instead, she made Liam laugh.

Before long, Lily had gotten very good at imitating it.

During the process, she also discovered something unusual.

“Little One, this thing isn’t a living creature at all. This skin only looks like real skin.

“But it can store an enormous amount of spiritual energy. I have no idea how it does that.”

By now, Liam had a pretty good idea what it was. This was probably something that faction had deliberately placed here to collect spiritual energy, much like The Skin-Taker at the Home of Wanderers.

Just then, Brooks, still uneasy, decided to come over and check on them.

Liam heard his footsteps from far away, but made no attempt to stop him from entering.

The instant Brooks saw the Dover Demon, his heart nearly stopped. He thought Liam had failed to deal with it and that the creature had come back. His knees almost gave out beneath him.

Then he turned his head and saw Liam standing nearby.

“Well? Does it look convincing?”

Brooks trembled as he answered.

“Way too convincing, bro. Could you warn me first next time? My heart can’t take this.”

“Don’t worry. There’s plenty more you won’t be able to handle.”

Brooks knew perfectly well that the things those people had him doing couldn’t possibly be clean. But for the money, he had always forced himself to ignore that fact.

“If you find anything horrifying, please don’t tell me. I’d rather go to prison than know.”

“With the kind of power they have, do you really think you’d survive in prison?”

“Then at least I’d die without knowing anything. I wouldn’t have to live with the guilt.”

Liam found the whole attitude disgusting. He had no respect for people who buried their heads in the sand like this, and there was no point continuing the conversation.

Brooks looked as though he had just been granted a pardon and hurried back to his bedroom.

Time slowly passed, and before long, it was time for someone from the organization to arrive.

In the silence of the night, Liam heard a car driving into the estate and immediately moved far away to hide. He and Lily had formed a contract, allowing them to sense each other’s location no matter how far apart they were.

Meanwhile, Lily copied the posture Liam had taught her and slowly moved across the table in the basement.

Soon, a black luxury sedan stopped outside the estate. A man in a black suit and sunglasses stepped out, carrying a lead box.

He didn’t bother looking for Brooks. Instead, he headed straight for the basement with practiced familiarity. Clearly, he had done this many times before.

Once inside, the man in black put on a hat made of foil, pulled gloves over both hands, then placed the Dover Demon Lily had transformed into inside the box.

The whole process was remarkably quick. Barely ten minutes later, he was finished.

The man in black returned to his car and drove away, leaving the estate looking as though no one had ever visited.

Only Liam knew that he was about to uncover the true face of this organization.

He returned to his car and immediately focused on sensing Lily’s location. Through their connection, he could tell that the man in black was taking her through downtown Boston, even circling around several times.

When Lily finally stopped moving, Liam knew it was his turn.

He started the car and drove toward the location he sensed.

One block from his destination, he pulled over. When dealing with an unknown force like this, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

He picked up a portable video camera, the same kind he had used while filming the Skinwalkers.

He walked through the streets before dawn. The edge of the sky had begun to turn pale, but the dim light only made everything harder to see.

Liam surveyed the area and found nothing but perfectly ordinary commercial buildings. It was nothing like the remote, deserted place he had imagined a secret organization would use.

If anything, that suggested the organization had already embedded itself deeply within ordinary society.

When he finally reached his destination, he stopped in front of an inconspicuous building and read the company name.

Abraham Life Sciences.

It might have seemed unusual, but small startups like this were extremely common in this era.

Several highly educated specialists in biological fields would often join together to establish a small biotech company. As long as they came up with an idea profitable enough to attract investment from a major corporation, they could rise almost overnight.

Of course, Liam had his doubts about just how far that rise could really take them.

The company’s front doors were locked tight. Through the glass, however, he could still see the sparsely furnished reception area beyond them.

A U-lock like this couldn’t stop Liam, but he had no intention of making unnecessary noise.

He looked around and confirmed once again that no one was nearby. Then he activated [Light Body], kicked off the ground, and scaled the wall all the way to the roof.

Sure enough, the only thing securing the rooftop entrance to the top floor was a rusty padlock. Liam gave it a hard pull and snapped it apart.

He pushed open the door and entered the top floor, where he found a fully equipped laboratory. It stood in stark contrast to the shabby lobby downstairs.

Liam examined the equipment carefully. Everything looked new, suggesting the company had only recently been established, yet for some reason, not a single machine was running.

He knew very well that some laboratory equipment had to operate twenty-four hours a day. Something must have happened here.

He could sense Lily somewhere in the building, but her position was lower down.

These people really seemed to love their basements.

With that thought, Liam headed downstairs.

When he reached the first floor, he noticed a group photograph of several young people hanging in the lobby. They were probably the company’s founders.

It didn’t take him long to find an unremarkable steel door. It looked like an ordinary normally closed fire door, but when he pushed it open, he found a staircase descending underground.

He switched on the camera as he headed down, intending to record whatever secrets were hidden below.

The farther he descended, the more baffled he became.

Was there something wrong with this organization? Why did the place go so deep underground?

By his estimate, he had already descended the equivalent of three or four floors.

Eventually, the stairs ended at another steel door.

Liam didn’t hesitate. He pushed it open, and the sight on the other side stunned him.

There was a secret laboratory hidden underground.

Several large culture tanks stood inside, each containing one of the giant Reptilians he had seen before.

“Mr. Liam, I’ve been waiting for you for quite some time.”

A disheveled young man sat in the middle of the laboratory.