Chapter 150: Mole
"Someone who was given the same mission as you." The strange man replied, his voice was weak and weary as Joe Joe shone the light on him.
"What do you mean?" It was normal for contracted workers like Joe Joe to keep their assignments highly confidential as they carried out their jobs, so there was no way that this strange man would immediately know what he was there to do.
"I’m incarcerated, not foolish." The man coughed, a very throaty cough, and for a second, Joe Joe though he could see blood drip out of the man’s mouth. "I can see that you’re human, and I know you took out the jailers, even though they deserved it anyways.
But I tell you for a fact, if you go that way, you’ll be caught in less than a minute." The man said, Joe Joe was surprised that this stranger could see that he was human from where he sat.
"Don’t tell me..." Joe Joe’s voice trailed off.
"Yes, I was sent by the elder covenant, for the same job you were sent to carry out." The strange man said.
"How did you end up here then?"
"I followed the path you are about to take, we did everything right. Took the path through the well, waded through the mutated rats and ended up here. Unfortunately, the person who gave us information about the well, also tipped the guards off about our arrival. When we got here it was dead quiet, we didn’t know they had already planned to subdue us. We were caught in seconds. If only we hadn’t waited for a few hours before going through the well." The man narrated in his weak voice, sounding like he was about to die at any moment.
"When you talk, you say ’we,’ who’s the other person you’re referring to?" Joe Joe inquired, his facial expression remained listless as he talked to the man. He had already ascertained that just like the other prisoners, this man was beyond saving. Even if he was to rescue him, he would have to carry him back to the starting point, through the well. It was something that would definitely deter his progress in the mission.
Right now, he was just determined to get as much useful information as possible.
The stranger chuckled, he looked at the dried up skeleton laying beside him. "That’s my comrade, Caspian." He was killed instantly, and thrown in here to rot alongside me. There is something you do not know about Helmand."
The man paused again, coughing hard and spitting out another glob of blood from his mouth, his nose had begun to bleed.
"What is it?" Joe Joe’s eyes widened, this skeleton he was looking at looked like a fossil, to think it only had been there for no more than a month or two was preposterous.
"This place changes humans, if you breathe in this toxic air long enough, you age in a very bad way. It’s even worse as a corpse. I’ve watched Caspian’s body decay significantly over the last month. This is no place for humans."
The entire underground tunnel went quiet after the man said those words, a chill swept through the stagnant air as Joe Joe stood there, looking at this man.
"What’s your name?" Joe Joe asked him with a serious expression.
"Haha, he wants to know my name. He wants to know my name." The man said with a very weak laugh, he shook his head from side to side, showing significant damage that had been done to his skin. "I’m Ruen."
"Okay, Ruen, what is the safest way to reach the main building."
"I wouldn’t know, as we did not get very far. I suggest you go try the smoke holes in the walls. One of the jailers liked to talk very much as he beat me. According to him, smoke holes were installed in the castle walls because of the Demon King’s experiments. To avoid the building getting congested." Ruen said as he leaned his head against the damp concrete wall.
"Smoke holes—where are these smoke ho—" Joe Joe suddenly looked to the west end of the walls from where he stood, stationed on the wall above the ground was a huge, man sized hole, covered in tightly knotted wire-mesh.
It seemed very convenient but, all the same he didn’t want to be too trusting.
"We didn’t see it either, but those things lead to everywhere in the castle, you only have to worry about the smoke, which depending on the experiment being carried out, could actually kill you."
"Thank you Ruen, you’ve helped me more than you know." Joe Joe thanked him, giving a slow nod.
"I don’t want your thanks." Ruen said.
"What do you want?"
"If you do make it out in one piece, I want you to pass a message to the Ironfells."
Joe Joe’s ears perked up upon hearing they last name, what could be so important that he had to tell Alaric. "Tell me."
Ruen was breathing heavily now, gasping desperately for air. "Tell them that there’s a mole, someone high enough to know every mission before it’s carried out. We weren’t the first ones sent here."
Joe Joe’s pupils contracted. If this was true and Alaric had already told the Elder Covenant that he was sent here under his command, then there was trouble.
"How do I know you I can trust you?" Joe Joe inquired.
"You don’t. You see the state I am in. If you die here, then another will be sent in your place. But none of you will ever get to fulfil the mission." The man said as he gasped for air again. He was slowly losing the war with life.
Without another word, Joe Joe extinguished the light that he had placed in Ruen’s cage, he had begun to hear distinct sounds of footsteps and voices, walking towards the door that he had previously planned in going through.
He quickly moved towards the west end of the small space, jumped up and cut through the wire-mesh, climbing into the smoke hole.