They walked through a few halls. There were only a few that they killed before moving on. Most of the side rooms and offices were empty. The only places that were not empty of living people on the first floor were the garage, their next destination. Then there was the main factory room, where Devan was having his meeting.

    As Jace quietly moved into the garage through a side door, he finally got a response from Anvil regarding the diplomatic plates he saw earlier. Amusingly enough they were from the Vexical Empire.

    Apparently they were being used by a contingent of nobles who were in Woltar for business meetings and establishing supply chains on behalf of the nobility. That was the explanation they had been given but the connected noble families were all suspected of participating in both the regular slave and sex slave trafficking markets.

    Jace was given the go ahead to execute them since they would not be missed. Which had become relevant as Jace spotted not only Devan''s guards but also several mercenaries that were obviously brought by the ''diplomats''.

    Jace glanced at Patrick who was looking at him waiting for orders. Jace nodded and then made several hand signals. Telling him to work his way from this door to the other side of the room. Jace would act as back up and take out anyone that noticed Patrick before he was ready to take them out.

    Jace took up a position behind a wooden box. He ignored the sounds coming from the van as well as it shaking as he could tell there were several people tied up in the back while bound who were struggling and moving trying to escape.

    Patrick moved behind some boxes until he arrived behind a guard that was watching the area from next to a box. He covered the man''s mouth while his knife slid into his back. He quickly ducked behind the box moving behind it while dragging the deceased man.

    There were four more guards, and three mercenaries left in the garage room. Two of the guards were standing on either side of the garage door that led outside. The last two were standing by the garage door controls on the other side of the garage. One of the mercenaries was leaning up against the van that was shaking. Another was leaning on the hood of the diplomatic town car. The last mercenary was walking back and forth along the garage door that led to the main factory room where Devan was having his meeting.

    Jace watched as Patrick moved onto the next target. The guard on their side of the room that was by the garage door. He slid the knife into a spot between the guard''s ribs while his other hand covered the guard''s mouth and then he pulled him behind another set of boxes. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    It only took a moment for the other guard to notice and start walking over whispering as he came near, "Ray? You better not have snuck off again to snort some more drugs. I do not want to get punished-" His whispering was cut off as a knife slid into his back and Patrick''s hand covered his mouth. He was pulled behind some boxes with his friend while he perished.

    Jace quietly repositioned as Patrick moved over to the other garage door and waited until the mercenary was near them. Patrick moved forward as the mercenary''s back was to him. He was in front of the truck so he was hidden from view of his mercenary friends when the knife slid into the back of his neck. Patrick quietly lowered him to the ground.

    He then took a moment to compose himself before he moved to the other mercenary that was leaning up against the shaking van. They were unfortunately out of view of Jace as they were on the other side of the van from him. But Jace listened to them and watched their feet.

    Patrick seemed to struggle for a moment as there was an audible grunt and a quick shuffling of feet coming from the mercenary before he collapsed loudly on the ground. The mercenary leaning up against the hood of the town car stood up and looked over. Suspicious of the odd noise.

    "Hey!" The mercenary was frowning before his eyes widened and he raised his weapon to fire.

    PSSH!

    There was the suppressed shot as Jace''s silenced Pyre fired. The mercenary''s head, who was leaning on the hood of the town car a moment before, snapped to the side and he fell to the ground a moment later.

    But the last two guards who were on the other side of the room were suspicious now as they moved toward the center of the room. "Hey where-"

    PSSH! PSSH!

    Two more shots. Two more heads snapping back with their bodies collapsing. Two more kills.

    Jace walked forward and looked on the other side of the van where Patrick had crouched; he was holding onto his bleeding shoulder that had a knife sticking out of it. "Are you still good?" Jace asked with a raised eyebrow.

    "Yeah," Patrick sighed as he stood up. "That sucked. He caught sight of me a second before I struck and managed to stab me in the arm. He was going for my head but I managed to dodge to the side in time."

    "Then you got lucky." Jace told him. "These mercenaries were Vexical born which means they had to spend at least some time in the military. We do not skimp on our training and enhancements. But considering they were mercenaries they were probably forced out or quit after their mandatory service was finished." Jace moved over to the garage door that led further into the building.

    He stood near the garage door and listened as Patrick patched himself with what he had on hand. Patrick had to use some cloth as a bandage after removing the night. He would have to get better first aid later.

    Jace could hear the conversation through the door between Devon and the fake diplomats. He expected it to be bad but he was still surprised by what he heard.

    "As I said before these conditions are unacceptable. You said you could smuggle girls back to our empire if we got you the locations of Vexical Military patrol routes. But now you want us to hand deliver you information on a bunch of military programs in addition! We are going to need some more in exchange for such an outrageous demand." That was definitely one of the nobles from Vexical.

    "I am perfectly fine with that. I can increase the amount of shipments. I can even ship some foreign military goods to help build up your military faction. From what I understand the Archduke himself suffered a severe set back because of the Victorium. I have many military grade goods I have struggled to sell because of the lack of need for them." That had to be Devan, his voice croaky like he is a smoker.

    "Hmm… I would need to see the quality of these military goods to say whether or not it would be acceptable. How about a weapons display?" The noble asked with a smug voice but Jace could hear his heart beat increase like he was excited. He was probably hiding it to get a better deal.

    "That unfortunately, would not be possible. There are far too many variables to successfully do that on this planet. If I get your guarantee I could at least bring it off the planet and you can see it before we ship it." Devan offered.

    "Then how are you so sure it would be what my faction would need? Even if you are well informed I doubt you are that well informed." The noble pointed out.

    Devan began chuckling, "believe it or not there is quite a bit talking about what you nobles are up to over in the Vexical Empire. Your internal matters are not as unseen to the other countries and nations as you might think."

    "Well-"

    "Jace, this is Vana. Ulin and I are in position, we have cleared the second floor." Vana''s voice crackled over the communication channel. Interrupting Jace''s eavesdropping on Devan and his noble counterpart.

    "Tako, double check, are we all clear?" Jace asked as he backed up from the garage door.

    "We are. Aside from the eight people in that other room there is no one else." Tako declared.

    Jace nodded to himself before looking at Patrick, "go to the door controls. Open on my signal then cover this exit." Jace then spoke over his comm device. "Ulin and Vana take up position and wait for my signal, I will be the distraction so capture Devan when you get a chance."

    Jace took a moment to switch out the magazine he was using so he would have a magazine full of bullets in his gun. Keeping his combat knife drawn he looked over to Patrick as he took several steps back from the garage door.

    Then he signaled for the garage door to be opened.