“Hey Trey! Trey?“

  Liam shouted loudly but he didn’t receive an answer. He opehe door, returning to the ft. Staring at Trey’s back he suddenly smmed the door shut, causing a loud rumble to run through the building.

  But strarey didn’t seem to notiything as if the sound did in his world.

  Liam found the situation somewhat eerie but at the same time he was amazed by the item’s power.

  He tried to make a few more sounds, and waved his hand before Trey’s eyes but the young man didn’t notiything. Only when Liam touched him did Trey look to the side in fusion, but he still couldn’t find Liam.

  After getting a good idea about the ws of his shadow cloak, Liam hid in a, patiently waiting for the cooldown to run out. He could only hope that Trey wouldn’t get anxious in the meantime seeing no movement at the warehouse.

  A b hour went by slowly before Liam was fident enough to leave the building. He followed his prepnned path, approag the warehouse form the side.

  Liam walked in the shadows of the surrounding buildings until he got close to the warehouse. Taking a deep breath, he activated his shadow cloak.

  Suddenly Liam darted forwards. A simple metal door was in front of him, guarded by two tattooed gangsters leaning against the wall in boredom.

  Liam reached for the door as his heart suddenly skipped a beat. One of the gaurned his head towards him, looking him right in the eyes.

  “Hey, Bill, how many hours do we have left?”

  “Two…”

  The first gangster growled, spitting on the floor. Liam let out a huge breath of relief and opehe door. The two gangsters didn’t seem to notice at all.

  Only when the door had long been shut did one of the gaurn to the other:

  “Did something happen just now?”

  “Must’ve been the wind…”

  “You’re probably right…”

  At this point Liam was already in the warehouse, sing it quickly. To his surprise there were actually people w here, moving rge crates, pag some cargo. The rge space looked rather busy without any wall to divide it, certainly not a pce where the pastor would be hidden.

  Knowing that time was tight Liam didn’t stay long, running towards some stairs not far away. The people he brushed past ignored him pletely even when he overtook them oairs.

  The lower floor was dominated by a busy, spacious area as well, with several rooms lining the sides. Liam directly ehe first door, finding himself in a break room with a small kit and a few chairs.

  Just as he was about to leave, a small blinking light in the er of his vision attracted his attention. He was immediately shocked.

  Only 30 seds left?! Did time pass so quickly?

  Liam turned around, frantically sing the room. Knowing there wasn’t much time left he hastily pulled a chair below a vent. He pulled on the grating, thanking all the gods he knew as it moved, and dove into the ventition shaft.

  Enduring the dusty air, Liam id down and stopped moving. A few seds ter the timer hit zero and his anxious wait began.

  Time ticked by while Liam only listeo the sound of the workers outside. Suddenly his body stiffened as the door opened with a bang. Footsteps and three voices could be heard.

  “Finally, I grab a coffee and a smoke! This game is killing me!”

  “Yeah right. I thought we would have some peaceful days, but now we are forced to train?!”

  “Back then I didn’t agree when they made us train martial arts, and now I don’t agree with pying this stupid game. I tell you guys, if I have to perform one more double ssh, I’m bashing someone’s head in.”

  “Ok ok, guys, to down. Don’t let someone hear you!”

  “Whatever.”

  After that the voices fell silent and only the sound of a coffee mae could be heard. Suddenly Liam noticed a few more steps ing closer. A noise came from the chair close to the vent and the smell of a cigarette wafted to his nose.

  Liam sched his face, but he didn’t dare to move even a tiny bit. Luckily, he was soon distracted from his plight when the gangsters tialking:

  “By the way, did the boss say anything about that bigmouth?”

  “Nope. She’s too focused on the game. Yesterday she spent the whole day buying information and pnning for the future. It’s insane!”

  “So, what should we do? That bigmouth is still locked ie. Should we let him go?”

  “Just wait for the boss and make sure he doesn’t starve to death.”

  “Hmpf. Look at us, feeding the homeless. We are basically good Samaritans at this point.”

  Dirty ughter souhrough the room, followed by the door opening and closing.

  Liam breathed shallowly, soon notig that the smell in the air was gone.

  That’s it! The persoalked about has to be the pastor!

  Liam grew excited but he didn’t dare to move yet. Gng at the cooldown timer there were still about 15 minutes left.

  Waiting patiently, Liam was under high pressure until the cooldown finally hit zero. Knowing that no one was in the room, Liam took the risk to get out of the vent first.

  Ba solid ground the young man sighed in relief, patting the dust off his clothes before activating his shadow cloak.

  The door to the break room opened without anyone g as Liam hastily ran along the wall. A froeared on his face as he checked the room, finding shelves filled with all kinds of parts for maery.

  He let his eyes roam the ste room, but didn’t find the pastor. tinuing quickly, he opehe door a his stomach sink. Various boxes were stacked in this room.

  Do they have multiple ste rooms? Then how am I supposed to know where the pastor is…

  Liam had no choice but to tinue. He peeked into the other rooms, cheg the one by one. With each look his fidence decreased as he found too many pces which could be called ste.

  Some of them were extremely spacious. Even if Liam ehose, he might only find the pastor with a stroke of luck.

  However, wheimer began blinking his effort still weren’t rewarded with success. Thinking quickly, he backtracked, entering one of the rgest stes.

  Liam choose this pce because he could just hide in a er if someoered, and the many shelves should be enough to cover his body.

  However, after he walked some distance from the door, his body suddenly froze. He looked in disbelief at a shelf not far away.

  This ’t be…

  Liam hastily approached the shelf and picked up a rubbery thi in a small box. His body trembled wheretched it carefully and found a lifelike, familiar face.

  Memories of the day he was kidnapped involuntarily came to his mind.

  A mask? Could it be that these people were wearing masks that day? Are they from the same gang?

  Liam turhe mask in his hand and his doubts slowly subsided. He was sure that this was ihe face of the man he had fought that day.

  Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he spotted something at the back of the mask.

  CCM? Is this some kind of code?

  Not able to figure it out he shook his head, pting how to proceed from here.

  With such eviden my hands, I might be able to get the army to move… If they clear this warehouse the pastor should be safe as well.

  Liam pondered over it, gauging the risk. But he eventually figured that there was no harm in trying. Taking out his phoook a few pictures before sending them to the leading officer and tardner.

  Liam waited with bated breath until he finally received an answer.

  On my way…

  Liam felt a pressure lifted from his shoulders, which he didn’t notice so far. After a life where everyoried to curry favor with him, it was not until this day that he really uood the power of es.

  Knowing that help was on the way, Liam looked for a fortable spot and waited. It didn’t take long until Liam faintly noticed the sound ing from outside being frantic.

  Suddenly a loud bang rang through the ste room as the door ushed open. Liam’s heart skipped a beat while he hid between the shelves.

  Urgent footsteps echoed in the room, ing closer. They were apanied by some other noises which Liam could hardly match with anything.

  Liam peeked around the er, notig a man carrying a rge box ehe row of shelves where those masks were pced.

  Suddenly a frantic voice could be heard, making Liam flinch:

  “F*ck what’s going on?! Why are there only seven masks here?”

  mykrail