1 Hour and 30 Minutes Earlier
The Merc watched the Thief as she left, then took the chip that contained his next assignment. The Leader began to speak when he plugged it in, when he was finished the Merc left as well, he knew the mission was borderline suicidal but that's why he became a Mercenary in the first place, plus he owed this to him for saving his life. He arrived at the luxurious, first class train half an hour later and bought a late night express ticket. The man in the booth looked dubiously at the rugged soldier for hire, then at the first class ticket that he was purchasing then handed it over. "forty czuts, please" the booth attendant said, the Merc was wondering if it was worth the price to actually buy it when he remembered the Leader's specific instructions not to have any unnecessary casualties.
He grudgingly handed over the precious coins and boarded, his seat was in the first compartment on the left hand side near the window in the front. The man that was to sit beside him was wearing a thin mask covered in what appeared to be sand, apparently the city he had come from was in a large sandstorm that was headed in the direction the train would be taking. "Perfect conditions for a holdup" thought the Merc, he took his seat just as the train began moving, the magnetic energy surged as the train lifted gradually off the track. At that moment the jet engines kicked in sending the train zipping down the line at over four hundred miles an hour, they would arrive at their destination in less than an hour. At least that's what the conductor thought, however the Merc had other plans that involved a change in the schedule, he stood up and walked briskly toward the bathroom.
Once safely inside he reached into his coat and grabbed an oddly shaped metal contraption, it was cylindrical in nature but widened into two seperate handles on one end. The other end had long pointed needles sticking out of it in a small circle and seemed to make an odd buzzing noise whenever the Merc brought it near the negative magnetic parts of the train. He flicked a lever on the side and watched the machine whizz to life, small blue bolts of lightning licked the needles as the machine started to roam about as if seeking something. Mere seconds later it had found it, the chain of negative electromagnetics that held the compartments together, he then waited silently for the sound of sand pebbles rebounding off the train at over four hundred mile an hour. Minutes passed in breathless anticipation, he began to think that they had missed it when suddenly it became unbearably loud, he plunged the needles instantly into the stream of energy.
The sound of the compartments of the train being released was muffled, the Merc then proceeded to run out of the bathroom screaming for added effect and entered the engine room. The passengers saw this and assumed that he must've never been on a train in a sandstorm before and that he was simply going to complain to the conductor about the racket. This was partly true, the Merc had never imagined how loud it would be in a situation like this so the acting was partially real terror at the heartwrenching sound but that immediately vanished as he cut the act and became serious. The conductor rushed about the room flipping switches, pressing buttons, and typing commands, every now and then he stared at a specific graph for a while then resumed the frantic rush. It took a few minutes for him to realized that there was another living soul in the room, when he finally did he yelled something incomprehensible then pulled at several levers and switched.
Gradually the noise grew smaller until it was merely a nuisance in the background, the conductor said "Sorry about that, the first few minutes are the worst. Rest assured it has passed, now all the compartments are soundproofed, well I think they are, the graph over on the left says the other eight compartments aren't accounted for but this is an old model so it's probably no big deal." the Merc stood guarding the door, "Or maybe it is" the conductor slowly processed the position he was in and made a rush for the door. One punch and he was out like a light, his eye seemed swollen but other than that the Merc guessed that he would be fine, he was told that the emergency shut off switch would be a large yellow lever. However there were at least three of those, he would have to use his primitive knowledge to figure out which it was.
If he was wrong lots of innocent people could die, "God help anyone on this train" he thought before he pulled a particularly large yellow lever. Something outside went flying away down the track, the Merc released it, he tried once more with a smaller yellow lever and the train started wobbling left and right, he immediately pushed in back to its original position and the wobbling stopped. He tried one final lever with a gear visible below it, to his amazement the train began to slow down until it floated to a halt somewhere in the desert. He found the speaker system on the raised platform at the opposite end of the room, there was a touchscreen control system set out in a semicircle around the chair in the center, the walky talky looking device hung from the ceiling and echoed when the Merc talked. "Good evening ladies and gentlmen, it is my great pleasure to announce that your conductor has fallen asleep on the job and now the train is motionless. It will remain motionless unless the good fellow in seat 38-B agrees to come forth to the front of the train to have a word with me. Thank you for your valuable time, this is your temporary conductor wishing you a wonderful day!"
The Merc spun about in the chair and observed the security cameras, waiting for the ensuing panic and eventual forcing of the man to come forward. They responded as predicted and he spun back around to view the man he was sent to interrogate, he was tall but skinny, his face was angular, and he had light brown eyes, he seemed frightened but there was a look of determination in his eye that didn't seem quite normal like it was the will of another that forced his mouth to be shut tight. "Please have a seat" the Merc said with a sly grin gesturing toward the empty seat to his right, the man walked uncoordinatedly to the chair and sat "shall we begin?" Over the next half hour the Merc tortured the poor soul unaware of what torture he was really in, yet the man kept saying the same thing "Ahriman shall soon come, do not resist." The Merc tried everything in his arsenal but only when he began to chant a Light Magic spell did the man respond, at first he screeched like a dying animal then he sat up looking confused and scared.
"Who is the Associate?" the Merc asked for what seemed like the millionth time, the man only said one thing barely loud enough to hear "the diamond pocketwatch, the diamond pocketwatch..." That was all the Merc needed to hear, he pushed the emergency brake forward again and the train once more hummed to life. He called in the information he had gathered then suddenly a flash of light filled the room and he was gone. Moments later he left the downtown temple, followed minutes later by a very satisfied looking woman.
