The Slavers- Part 1

"This is so boring."

"I know"

Octavia wanted to disagree, but how could she. Here they were sitting in darkness, covered in their dark outfits…staring at the shop. This was the epitome of boring. They had to do all they could not to fall asleep.

That was no easy feat. So far both of them had drifted off a few times, only to be woken by the other, or some noise elsewhere. They really didn't know how much longer they could go on.

Octavia brought out a few fruits, hoping the act of eating and the sugars that were in them, assuming they had sugars like on Earth, may given them some energy and keep them going. Sadly though, it didn't.

"How long do we need to sit here for. I mean, I was all for this stakeout when you explained what it was, but nothing has happened." Sylvia moaned out in her boredom.

Again, Octavia wanted to disagree and talk about the importance of it, but what she said was true. They had been sitting here for hours. The moon slowly moving on its course and nothing had happened.

There was hardly any life in the streets of this village. Everyone had gone in, had their fill and headed off to bed. The only things on the street were the occasional rodent or animal, and the odd guard doing their patrol.

"Not doing it very well," Octavia couldn't help by think, given that the two that they had seen had no idea they were sitting nearby.

That or they just saw them and didn't care for some reason.

Either way, Octavia was beginning to realise there wasn't much point in staying here any longer.

"Ah,"

But that's when it had occurred to her. With the odd conversation with their 'Observer', and the tiredness she was plagued with, she had missed that key detail.

Nothing had happened.

When the lights inside went out, and the last of the villagers that had previously entered before left, nothing else happened.

No one had left after that to head home, there was no more movement in the window. It was as if the shop had closed and everyone that worked there had vanished.

On top of that, during her lucid moments, the house next door followed the same pattern. The only difference being that it looked like no one lived there from the start. With no lights being lit or movement in the shadows, it still looked like the abandoned building it was made out to be.

That could only mean one thing.

All of the people there, and from this revelation likely meant all of the people working at the grocery store were also in league with the slavers, were staying in the shop. How no one had noticed that before, she didn't know. Surely a guard or someone would have wondered why they never saw them leave the shop when they were out late.

Anyway, this was both good and bad for them. Bad because no one left the shop to head home. Which meant there wasn't anyone they would single out to get information from. But good, because it meant they no longer had to stare at the shop.

It would probably have been better to say that was 'alright' news.

All of this meant there was only one option left to them.

Infiltration.

…

Explaining what she had realise to Sylvia, they got a move on.

Heading out of the shadows they had been lurking in, after watching the next patrol go by, they headed towards their destination.

They were however, not suicidal, and so opted to head for the abandoned house over the shop.

They still needed to be careful, obviously. While they hadn't seen movement in either place, the people inside had to have gone somewhere. It was entirely possible they had managed to get into the house some other way. So, they had to go into full stealth mode when looking around.

Before heading in, they moved around the side of the house, peering into the windows to see what's what.

Darkness was no problem for Sylvia and was easily able to see that at least in rooms they could see into, no one was there. Octavia using her sight, was able to confirm this as well, finding no heat signatures indicating life. Well, aside from the rat looking thing that ran out of the room that made her shiver a bit.

While this was all well and good, recent experience had taught her that there were limitations to her sight. Thick walls or a good number of them would likely dull any heat signature she was see, maybe even mute it completely, so that ability wasn't all powerful.

Could she train with it…improve it somehow. It was odd how skulking around in the dead of night was the time that this sort of thought entered her mind. But she had to wonder, would it be possible to make it more powerful. To be able to increase how far she could see it with it, and how deep it could penetrate through walls and the like.

Well, these were thoughts that really should be left for when there were not in danger of being caught by guards or slavers, so she put them to the side.

Finding nothing in the nearby rooms, they decided to head inside, though the only door they could see in the house.

The front.

So, again after waiting for the next patrol to go by, they headed over and moved inside.

"…"

Well, they would have, had the door not been locked.

"That's odd," was the whisper she heard from Sylvia.

For Octavia, in her sleep deprived state, it didn't seem that odd to her. On Earth, pretty much everyone had locks on their doors.

That is until she remembered the incident during their escape from the town. This was not an era where locks were common place.

So why is there a lock on a door for an abandoned house.

Her mind wondered. It was possible that the building was dangerous, structurally so, and the head of the village locked it to ensure no one got hurt.

The more likely scenario was that none of the slavers wanted anyone inside getting close to seeing what they were up to.

This however made them even more eager to see what was inside.

The only problem was how to get past the lock.

"Do you know how to lock pick?" Octavia whispered to Sylvia thinking to check.

"Really."

The response she got shut her up. When she really thought about it…why would a noble girl know how to lock pick.

So, with her idea quickly shot down, they had to figure out another way through.

They could try to make a mould of the key using the lock, or try to find a skeleton key to open it, by they really didn't want to waste more time with this mission. The longer they did, the more likely it was the slaves would end up being transported elsewhere, destroying the evidence they needed to gather.

As she looked at the door, she could see that the lock itself did not look very well made. She could only really compare it to Earth, but it looks rudimentary, rusted and worn. It was possible the slavers had taken a lock from somewhere else and placed it here. There was probably some worry about calling on a locksmith to set up a lock, in case they found out what they were doing.

That or they had been operating for so long, the lock had just rusted away and broke down over time.

Because of this though, the thing had not been 'installed' very well. It was wonky, and a little too far away from edge of the door. All of which should work in their favour.

So, forgoing a good old shove to the door hoping to knock it down and wake everyone up, she tried to do the trick you always hear about but never really do.

Using a card to open the door.

In this instance, she decided to use her dagger.

The blade was thin, and thankfully thin enough to get between the shoddy workmanship that was applied to the door and the frame.

She easily slid it inside and started to wiggle it.

"…"

Nothing happened.

Undeterred by this, she tilted the angle of the blade setting it somewhat diagonally inside the small gap against the bolt. She pushed against the dagger, shifting it around a bit, even going so far as to try and cut the bolt, but nothing moved.

Pulling the blade out, she decided to go for it again. This time, as she tried to move it around, the blade all of a sudden slotted into something.

"Huh"

She was quite surprised by this, not really sure what she had done, but it was clear the dagger was notched into something on the bolt. With this being the case, she figured she may be able to force the bolt back into the lock.

So with a twist of her hand, she shifted the angle of the dagger, hopefully pulling the bolt back with the blade.

She leaned against the door, hoping that this would work. Then with some perseverance and a little more wiggling, she felt the door give and swing into the house.

"Yes!" she internally cried out.

Quickly grabbing it, lest it slam against the wall and wake everyone up, they quickly moved inside as quiet as can be.

Octavia was just about to close it when she wondered what had actually happened.

With an inspection of the bolt that had spung out from the lock, she was able to see how she had managed to break in.

The shoddy workmanship and the age of the lock had very much worked in her favour. The rust on the bolt meant that with the sliding of the blade she had done in her frustration, it had formed a grove, which is what she was able to find purchase on.

Also, with the lock being just far enough away from the edge of the door, the grove she made was very close to the edge of the bolt. This meant that when she tried to pry it back, it had just slipped out of the other end of the lock, allowing the door to open.

These slavers really should have paid for a locksmith to install this thing. Or if one did, they really should have headed up market.

But, that was out of the way, and so with a twist of the knob, Octavia closed the door. Thankfully, they could open the lock from this side, so they had a way out. But, with the door now closed, this left them alone standing in the darkness of the house that was adjacent to the grocery store.

*Creak*

Well, almost alone, given the creak they heard somewhere within the house, freezing them on the spot.