Chapter 4: Begin the Hunt

Ivan was almost totally freaked out by Laleh's story, which she had not gotten the chance to tell him until the current time on the train ride. "Whoa! You mean your father wants to reduce all the cities to rubble?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. These clothes feel so nice." It was the fifth time she'd said it, but it was true all the same. After wearing rags for her whole life, wearing real clothes for a start seemed like heaven to Laleh.

"So what do we do know?" Ivan asked quizzically.

"I suppose we try and talk my father out of it."

"That's insane. He'll just kill you. I say that we try and contact the authorities."

"I don't think they can help. We're dealing with something beyond their control."

"Well, Laleh, I've already notified them. They are doing nothing. They say they have better things to worry about then some mythical beasts."

"So I guess we're all alone, then."

"Yeah. Anyway, my first bet as to finding these bastards is to go to the libraries in Biblioven, then conduct a long and tedious search of the whole country..."

"I think I can track the Regis myself. I have some sort of special power that means I can do that. But I'll need concentration."

"Wait until we get to our destination. I don't want you slipping into a trance on the train."

They did so, checking into another cheap hotel in a small town named Tongaghu. When Ivan had went to bed, Laleh was up sitting in a trance muttering unpronounceable words to herself….

In the sealed chamber, a proper submarine had been leased by HPP and Alexi Kuststad himself was there, along with about a hundred mercs. "Find anything?"

"We've found a small escape tunnel, sir. I tried to go through, but it was plugged at the other end."

"Dammit! Their leader escaped!"

"Sir, we could try blasting through the tunnel. Our trainers have Voltorbs that can serve as explosive charges."

"THEN GET TO IT!"
"YES SIR!"

The mercs wore olive drab uniforms with green baseball caps and HPP logos embroided onto their uniforms. They began to crawl through the tunnel. A blast was heard as they broke through to the other seafloor cavern.

No one was there except for a small number of women and small children. The mercs promptly rounded them up for interrogation. Not that they had anything useful to say. All they said was "They've gone to look for the Regis…."