Series of Death, Draft 02, CH 51 (Patreon)

The building Jockon led him to was large, looked in good condition, and other than the empty parking lot and the sign on the open fence gate, saying the facility was closed and off-limit; it looked like it could still be operational. There had been more written, but Trembor hadn’t paid attention beyond noticing the word ‘lawsuit’. The gate had been held closed at one point by a chain, which was now on by the side of the road, mostly hidden by too overgrown grass.

He drove around the building. As much as he wanted to rush in and save his brother, he had to know what he was getting into. There could be dozens of criminals there. For all he knew, this was crime central now that the company was shut down.

The main entrance was a glass door, now painted opaque to prevent looking in, and more warnings it was closed. The side of the building had two marked employee doors and three more unmarked ones without handles on the outside. Decommissioned or emergency exits anyone could flee through? The back had loading docks, all against the wall, none with trucks; another way they could escape. The other side was a mirror of the first one. Two usable doors, three not. This was where he found the van, parked by the door closer to the back of the building.

He drove by it. It was obviously how they’d expect anyone to come in. The front was out of the question, as were the docks. One had to be watched, and the other would require tools to cut through. So the employee doors on the other side.

“Call it in,” he told himself. “You can’t take on all of them on your own.”

Only there was just the van there. He’d expected more vehicles. They’d be parked at one of the nearby facilities, he decided, to maintain the illusion this one was unoccupied. If he called it in, he was handing the situation over to someone who might not have his brother’s best interest at heart. Trembor wasn’t interested in taking down the criminals, all he cared about was saving his brother.

“And go hunter on whoever hurt him,” he told himself. There was no way he could afford everyone in there. He drove out of the lot and parked at the one next to it. His only option was to sneak in, find his brother, and sneak both of them out.

“Maybe I could ask L’nard to lend me his female. She’s the one with the experience doing action movies.” He chuckled bitterly as he remembered how enamored with it Marlot had become.

He walked back to the facility, pad in hand. Trying to convince himself involving the enforcers wasn’t just the right way to do this, it was the only one. He stayed by the fence to lower the odds of being spotted until he was by the corner and then hurried to the building, finally putting it away. It would take too long for the enforcer to organize and get here.

He looked around the corner, searching for anyone guarding the doors. They had to know he was here. At least suspect his driving away was a ploy. That mole had seemed too smart to leave anything to chance. He saw the cameras, but they were angled to detect approaching vehicles, so if they had someone watching them, they already saw him. No guards outside meant they were inside.

The closest door was the obvious choice, so he walked past it. He looked the first decommissioned door over for any way he could open it, but the gap between the door and the jam was covered, and while he could slip claws in, trying to pull would just break them.

As he reached his target door, someone rounded the other corner, and they both froze.

Trembor had a moment of conflicting emotions; irrational anger that this wolf was behind it all, again, and unadulterated joy at seeing him. He shoved both down. He didn’t have time for this wolf and his games. He had to rescue his brother.

“What are you doing here?” Trembor demanded.

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