Umbran City. It has been three days since Benjamin visited the Café of Dreams. Since then, he hadn't made any big moves. He was still processing everything he had seen that day. The Café of Dreams was too mysterious to the point where Benjamin's worldview had been altered. Now he was doubting whether other similar forces were hiding in the shadows. All those obscure conspiracies he would have usually ignored suddenly caused doubts in his heart.
For example, there was the case of Mara Coleman, a serial killer twenty years ago. She escaped police again and again until she was one day found dead in some alley, her body a charred corpse. Multiple questions surrounded the case.
The corpse had been identified based on DNA, but the samples had later been lost after the corpse had already been cremated, the ashes scattered in the wind according to the deceased's will. But wait… a will? Why did the serial killer leave behind a will? What was written in there? Its contents had never been made public. And why was the corpse found in the alley where Mara killed her first victim? Coincidence?
Benjamin couldn't help but spend his evenings digging into such cases. Even his work lost some priority. However, he couldn't continue like this forever. On the fourth day after leaving the Café of Dreams Benjamin had to participate in another meeting. All the people of importance in the company were present. And so was Mister Grey, a trusted employee of the future presidential candidate Marlene Garner.
Listening to the discussion Benjamin realized that the charity foundation had been advanced by quite a bit. The initial structures had already been finalized. Only some questions regarding the funding remained. Benjamin felt some shock. Soon, it would be too late to implement his own ideas.
That evening Benjamin went to the safe in his study. He had his eyes scanned, his fingerprints tested, and entered a password before the safe's door swung open revealing its contents. There was jewellery, some drives holding sensitive documents, and… coffee.
Benjamin took a deep breath. It was already too late to hesitate. He grabbed the coffee and closed the safe again. Next, he went to the kitchen and personally brewed a can of coffee using up about a third of the beans. It was quite strange doing something like this by himself. Since his wife left him, Benjamin always had staff around for such miscellaneous tasks. It took him a couple of minutes to even find a suitable can. Luckily, he had sent everyone home, so no one was watching him embarrassing himself.
After completing the difficult task of brewing coffee, Benjamin left with the can in hand. He stepped outside and saw that his bodyguards were already waiting with a car prepared for him. Benjamin nodded at the two tall men and entered the car together with them. After a short flight the trio had once again arrived at the Exhaust District.
Benjamin wandered the street, looking around for suitable targets. This time his bodyguards were almost excessively armed, carrying their laser pistols out in the open.
After a while Benjamin had to accept that the streets were deserted. No one wanted to have anything to do with the outsiders. Thus, Benjamin had to change his tactics. He scrutinized the buildings around them and finally chose a somewhat spacious three-story building. It seemed to be a bigger complex with the goal of housing more homeless.
"Sir. I don't know what you are planning to do. But we shouldn't underestimate the dangers in the exhaust district. We all know what happened last time."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm prepared. Now, don't waste time and follow instructions."
"Yes, Sir."
The bodyguard stopped trying to dissuade his client. He but on an indifferent expression and opened the building's thick metal door. The creaking sound echoed through a hallway and a disgusting smell reached the trio's noses. A flickering light illuminated glass bottles and a concrete floor. A dirty, old carpet covered the ground near the door.
However, with how loud the door was it didn't matter that the carpet softened the bodyguard's footsteps. From all sides one could hear the sounds of people scurrying around, probably escaping through another exit. But not everyone was fast enough. Benjamin and his bodyguards sped up and entered the first room they heard movement from.
This was a spacious room covered in multiple old mattresses. Old pill bottles and syringes laid everywhere. At the opposite side was a single window which had been destroyed. Five people were crowded in front of it. They all tried to escape through the window, pushing each other away, tearing on their old clothes.
The person closest to the window was an old man which sparse hair and holes in his shoes. His body was leaning through the window. But at one glance one would realize that the old man didn't have the strength to heave his body through the window even if no one tried to stop him. With the other two men and women grabbing onto the old man's body it was even less realistic for him to escape.
Yet even the others were remarkably weak with thin arms and pale skin. They didn't have the strength to pull the old man away from the window.
"You little… rad. I should've drown you oud long ago!"
The old man slurred as he blindly waved his hand behind his back, trying to shake off the others.
"Old man. There are outsiders coming! Let us go!"
"Led me go fird!"
"No no no no!"
The five people all sounded confused. Benjamin only shook his head. He couldn't understand how people were able to live like this. Well, at least they were the perfect specimen for a little experiment.
Benjamin nodded at one of his bodyguards and the man immediately got going. He appeared next to the five inhabitants and with a light pull brought the old man back inside.
"Ouh! Who are you peop? Whad do you wand?"
The bodyguard only signalled towards Benjamin with his head. The five inhabitants looked at the man in a fine suit, feeling that his smile had something terrifying about it, especially in the dim light.
"No need to be afraid. I am only here to give you something good. Do you see this?"
As he said this, Benjmain took out a certain pill bottle which the five recognized at a glance. Immediately a greedy fervour appeared in their eyes.
Benjamin's gaze only turned more disparaging. He approached the man on the right who didn't dare to move under the threat of the two bodyguards. Benjamin dangled the pill bottle in front of his eyes, asking in a tempting voice:
"Do you want one?"
"Y… yes, Sir. Of course."
"Mhm. Good."
To the man's disappointment Benjamin took the bottle back. Instead, he put on gloves and grabbed a dirty bottle from the floor. Without hiding his disgust, he lifted the can he had been carrying with him and filled the bottle with a few sips of coffee.
"Drink!"
The man was confused. He stared at Benjamin, who held the dirty bottle in front of his face.
"If I drink this, will I get a pill?"
"Yes."
"Ok…"
Hearing this, the man was brimming with enthusiasm. He didn't care about the dirt on the bottle at all as he brought it to his mouth and downed the hot coffee in a single go.
"Ah! Is this… is this coffee? Wow it must have been ages…"
Benjamin observed the man closely. Although he seemed close to tears, this didn't seem to be a specific reaction to the coffee. Other than that, he had wide pupils, a pale face, and a few wounds on his arms, but this was not different from before.
Unable to gauge anything from the reaction, Benjamin continued. He took out one of the pills, attracting the undivided attention of the five people. A few looked like they were just short from tackling him, but their fear held them back.
Benjamin ignored them and threw the pill on one of the mattresses, stating to the man he had been talking to:
"You can have this pill but only if you pick it up with your mouth and on all fours. Like a dog."
"Yes, yes. Ehm... woof!"
Then, under everyone's gaze the man really went on all fours and rushed over to the pill, gobbling it up with his mouth, ignoring the disgusting feeling of the mattress against his mouth. Benjamin nodded lightly and glanced at the other four people. Upon seeing some jealousy in their eyes Benjamin lightly wrinkled his forehead.
"Interesting. But it looks like you would have done that even without drinking the coffee…"
Benjamin kept his discoveries in his mind and turned towards the second subject. It was a woman with deep eyebags and a greedy glint in her eyes. Benjmain repeated his experiment, but this time asked he asked the woman to eat three pills. This was pushing things a step further. Three pills were more than these people would usually take. They would suffer from severe side effects for at least a week, more dead than alive.
At first the woman appeared reluctant but after drinking some of the coffee, she readily complied. There was no hesitation in her eyes as she ate the three pills.
Benjamin's chest tightened uncomfortably, but he still kept the findings in mind. Next, he took another step and arrived in front of the old man who tried to escape first.