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Rumi’s eyes adjusted to the fluorescent light of the cell block. Honmoon Inc. used harsh cool white for all the lighting in the containment zone. She hastened past the cages of miserable looking demons as quickly as possible.
This place sent shivers down her spine.
She’d briefly toured the facility for a school excursion once. The development laboratory had unsettled her. The cells had been kept empty while her class had been shown through. The extractors probably knew that if children saw what they really did in this building, it would give them screaming night-terrors.
The intake cataloguer looked up from his desk at the sound of her heavy boots stomping forward. He gave her a little salute. “We don’t see many top-ranking field agents in the lab."
“I’m looking for a Jeoseung Saja,” Rumi said in a commanding voice, before repeating the tag ID she’d memorized. “He would have been brought in a few hours ago. He’s wanted for questioning.”
The cataloguer typed the details into their system, walked towards the gates and tapped a pass. He gestured to her to follow. “Right this way.”
He led her down the corridor to the extraction wards. She recoiled from the blast of cold air as the door opened. Goosebumps erupted on her body. The baby hairs on her neck stood on end.
(Rumi was still getting used to the feel of her shorter hair. The military captain hat did little to keep her head warm. Her signature braid had been discarded in a bin after she'd finished snipping with the scissors not too long ago. It would have kept her neck a little warmer in this frigid place. )
“Do they always keep the extraction wards so cold?” she asked, trying to cover her anxiety.
She didn’t remember it being so cold on her school visit.
(But the demons hadn't been inside the building then. Honmoon Inc probably kept it just above freezing for them).
“First time here, eh?" the cataloguer smiled, adjusting the scarf around his neck. "The cooler temperature subdues and demoralizes the creatures. That makes procedures easier and keeps the yield fresher for longer."
A desperate whimper echoed down the hall, but the cataloguer continued blithely on, talking over the tragic keening noise.
“The one you tagged scored high in everything. He got rated pristine. Pristine Jeoseung Saja are a rarity now. His bone marrow will be more effective in treatments, so we can charge a premium fee for his product. You’ll get a nice little bonus this month,” The cataloguer said conversationally.
Rumi clenched her fists in rage, but smiled politely back.
There was another pitiful whimper, closer this time. Rumi turned towards the sound.
A dokkeabi was strapped to an operating table in the medical bay next to her. An amputated horn lay on the floor. An extractor was sawing through the second. The poor creature stifled a sob. The extractor noticed her looking in horror and shut the privacy curtain. The sound of metal grinding through bone and muffled whimpers continued after a moment.
Rumi’s guts churned. She pushed down her nausea.
“Don’t you sedate them?” She asked as they walked deeper into the wards.
“No point. They don’t feel pain like we do. Besides - it’s only cartilage,” the cataloguer shrugged. “Dokkaebi cartilage is worth a fortune.” He opened a door that led to an eerily quiet hallway lined with extraction cells. “It’s better here. R and D had the walls completely soundproofed in this section. We call it the quiet corridor.”
That made it sound almost tranquil.
“Why did they soundproof this section,” Rumi asked, clicking a button on her phone inside her pocket. “Were the creatures complaining too loud?”
What was a little corporate espionage while she was here? If she could record him admitting the real reason, it would be more proof they could show the courts.
“You could say that. Honestly, it's the bone drills that caused the biggest issue. Since we started drilling them without anaesthetic, the noise has been a problem. Some of the demons can produce this eldricth ear-piercing shriek. If you hear it, it haunts your dreams for a century." He shuddered theatrically. "Anyway, it gave extractors nightmares. We don't get paid enough to put up with that shit. So they automated the process and soundproofed all the rooms. Now we just hit a button and close the door.”
Rumi swallowed back the bile rising like hot acid in her throat. She nodded politely and followed behind as the cataloguer continued walking. She pretended to quickly check her phone and sent the soundbite to Mira and Zoey.
The cataloguer opened a door halfway down the hall.
Someone she loved was strapped down under a flickering bulb. His hands and feet had been tightly cuffed to the frame. Red welts had formed where the metal dug into his skin. He was groaning softly through gritted teeth. Based on the new defensive wounds slicing along his arms and torso, he'd put up a crazy struggle before being subdued. Blood was draining out of one extractor tube that had been jabbed into the soft skin of his elbow crease. A bone-marrow sucker pierced his hip. The tell-tale scorched circular burn was still clearly visible near his belly button.
(He didn't get that in the raid. Someone in this awful place had shot him with a burn stunner at point blank range. She was going to rip whoever had done that apart with her bare hands. She was going to beat them senseless. She was going to shove that burn stunner up their ass and shoot them where the sun didn't shine. She was going to -)
“Here he is, demon JS975-382,” The cataloguer gestured like he was presenting on a game show. “You might not get much out of him now. He’s halfway drained already."
That wasn't his name, and Honmoon Inc. were going to pay for reducing him to a serial number. Rumi was getting him out of here, even if she had to burn this building down to do it. She would rip the the whole rotten system up by the roots and salt the earth underneath before she'd let them make another ounce of 'product' out of him.
Step one had been finding where they were keeping him.
That had been the easy part.
Step two was going to be a little more difficult.
Rumi set her weapon to stun, and turned to the cataloguer with a disarming smile.