Eren.
That was Jeremy's first thought upon regaining consciousness.
Mulligan.
That was Jeremy's second thought upon regaining consciousness.
The three of them were approaching East Ham Library in the car which belonged to the Minister for Magic. Jeremy saw the mysterious building Hermione was so suspicious of, a slim white and blue three story thing at the very corner of two streets, seemingly built just to fill up the empty space on that specific spot in the city. He would go there in a few moments, once he took care of Eren and Mulligan down below.
The glass doors opened for them automatically. Mulligan moved slowly ahead of Jeremy, who held his wand pressed against the small of his spine. Though Jeremy had to also assist the slowly healing Eren with walking, he was still more than capable of casting a spell on Mulligan if he tried to escape.
The building was deserted, save for the three of them. That would suit their purpose. The password which opened the hidden tunnel to this safehouse changed day to day. Jeremy now recited the password given to him by Hermione, an aphorism from the I Ching to which the fourteenth of the Thirty Six Stratagems referred. „It is not I who seeks the young fool; the young fool seeks me." The 14th Stratagem was titled 'Raise a corpse from the dead,' and went something like this:
He does not let himself be used who can still act for his own purposes.
He will plead to be used who can do nothing more.
One must use the useless for one's own ends.
They waited a few moments in silence broken only by Eren's efforts to subdue his increasingly louder breathing. Standing up straight was a real effort for him now, but soon he would be sitting down... Jeremy hoped. Where was that damn tunnel?
There was a crack, and then a whole section of the floor began to slide open with a dull grinding sound. Beyond this entrance stairs awaited them, stairs leading into darkness at the end of which stood a crest of the Ministry of Magic, glimmering in the air. For a brief moment Jeremy pulled away his right arm which he was supporting Eren, reaching into his pocket and presenting the brooch Hermione imparted unto him. The pale colorless glow of the magical seal faded somewhat, which Jeremy took for a sign that they could enter. And enter they did.
Once inside, Jeremy couldn't help but wonder if Hermione had been trying to tell him something through the password and the 14th Stratagem to which the password referred, because what she called a safehouse was clearly more than just that. It resembled more a relic of the Cold War than a mere safehouse, repurposed and hidden deep underground. Made in the shape of a horseshoe, the structure had more than a hundred rooms so it was easy to become lost inside. Dormitories, conference rooms with projectors and television sets, a war room of sorts, kitchens, bathrooms, a fully equipped operating room from which they retrieved a wheelchair for Eren, this place had more than enough for its three new occupants, first visitors in God only knew how long. Furniture was covered in plastic, and a thick layer of dust lay over everything.
„Do you mind?" Mulligan said once they had left Eren in a wheelchair in a conference room, and Jeremy pressured the wizard into helping him explore this bunker, still pointing a wand at his back.
In response, Jeremy lowered the wand but did not put it away.
Mulligan rolled his eyes. „Please. Even if I wanted to, I doubt I could escape. I don't even have my wand on me. Shall we get a move on?" He asked, when Jeremy remained silent.
They moved on. It was surprisingly warm down here, and humid. Mulligan began to sneeze more and more frequently the longer they were inside, muttering something about his damn allergies. For Mulligan's sake and their own, Jeremy thought it best to find out where the climate control systems were. A facility of this size had to have them. And indeed it had. Climate control, maintenance rooms, an ancient telecommunications office with three black phones, a generator which provided electricity for the entire bunker, a backup system for every primary system down here. Jeremy had seen very little that would mark this facility as the Ministry's property, other than its crest at the entrance. If there were other, more magical means of protection, he saw no sign of them.
„Mulligan, I've been meaning to ask..." Jeremy began when the air began to clear up and the temperature started going down.
The wizard gave an overdramatic gasp. „He speaks!" he exclaimed.
Jeremy was not amused. „Fine, I'm not asking then. Now that we have the systems up and running, we are going to go above ground. You will help me investigate a certain building across the street."
„Me? Why?"
„Because Eren has been put out of commission, and I suspect there is a passageway there that can lead me to Malachi Greymist. You might just know where it is."
Mulligan stared at him blankly for a second or two. Then he broke into a chuckle, crossing his arms and blinking, hard. „Very good, Mr. Taylor. But I am afraid such things are on a need–to–know basis, and I didn't. I had never went to Malachi's base on my own, and never directly," he said, blinking all the while.
Jeremy tilted his head slightly. „What's that supposed to mean, then?"
„I am not repeating what I said, lad. Wash your ears–"
„I don't mean what you said. I mean that stupid blinking you're doing."
Mulligan paused. Jeremy was no longer holding him at wandpoint, but he felt himself constrained by that gaze alone.
„Are you lying to me, Mulligan?" the Auror asked, dangerously softly.
„No," Mulligan said, while realizing he had been found out. His eyes darted wildly here and there around the bare, narrow white corridor they were standing in.
„Are you telling me no?" the Auror asked. Only his chest was moving now, up and down, heavy breaths as if he were getting ready for violence.
„N–no."
„Is that what you're saying?"
„Not exactly..."
„What are you saying?"
„I'm just saying..." here, the merchant began to crack. „I know why they call him the Excruciator. And no offense to you, lad, you have a promising career ahead of you as an interrogator. But you don't scare me as much. I know who I'm working for, that's all."
„No, you haven't a single solitary clue," the Auror nearly barked those words. „Walk with me."
„What?"
„Walk with me."
„No."
„Yes."
„No."
„Yes."
„No."
„Yes."
„I can't."
„You can."
„I can't."
„You can."
„Don't do this to me," Mulligan warned.
„Do what?"
The merchant stared. Jeremy stared back, unblinking. And then the resistance crumbled, with a deep sigh one heard from men sentenced to death. „Fine. I'll go with you."
Greymist had the professor, to produce the weapon in its crude form. Greymist had the professor's daughter, to ensure the man's cooperation. Greymist had Irion and his papers, to ensure the weapon would do what he wanted it to. Greymist also had Hermione, but Jeremy's logic faltered there. Why would he need her? This was the foremost question in his mind now, but for the time being he had no answer, thus he put it aside in favor of other questions.
„There's something else I've been meaning to ask," he began, as they opened the white, plain, modest door of the mysterious building. He looked to Mulligan, who kept his silence. „Why join with a man who openly calls himself the dark lord?" Jeremy asked as they walked inside. „Assuming you joined him willingly, of course."
Mulligan began to answer, but both him and Jeremy were stunned into silence by the interior of the building which, from the outside, appeared perfectly normal. This place was certainly built by the wizards. As they explored its uninhabited insides which were bigger than the outside, they decided that the wizards in question were insane. Inside were corridors to nowhere, unreachably high windows, grand gateways which opened onto monk–like cells, staircases that went in every possible direction, up, down, left, right, forward, backward, sideways... or staircases that went nowhere, spiraling away above their heads and then just ending. It was a maze, but not exactly. A maze was built to confuse those within. It was built with that purpose in mind. But there was no purpose to this place, and there was no possible way Greymist could've made its interior so bizarre in expectation of Jeremy's arrival. He was brilliant, not clairvoyant.
„Good God..." Mulligan muttered after a good ten minutes of exploring the corridors and finding nothing but one unplugged TV and hundreds of wooden crates and empty barrels scattered about. „Oh, yes, you asked me a question! I remember now."
„I did?" Jeremy asked. He had turned away from the room with the TV as soon as he saw it.
„Yes, why join with Malachi. It all comes down to my father, you see. We were descended from nobility, but had fallen on hard times. My father was the one who taught me that, when it's not your war, you join the side that is going to win. And so I have been hoping that, when Malachi wins, my family will be restored to its honored status, the estates we were forced to sell off returned. One day I will be a rich man. One day I will be a nobleman."
Jeremy hummed, but made no answer for a few good minutes. „You believe Greymist is going to win?" he asked at last.
„Aye. He will hold London for ransom, and with the money they give him he will finance his cause–"
„Wait a moment, hold London for ransom? He told you that?"
For a moment Mulligan was caught on the backfoot, and he did not know how to answer. „Y–yes?" he stammered uncertainly.
„And you believed him?"
Before Mulligan could answer, the unplugged television set screeched into life.