137 Something strange

First, they decided to check out the 10th floor. For some reason, both of on them thought that the more powerful residents should be located at the lowest levels. But to their disappointment, the whole floor consisted of one large round hall with the arena in the middle and seats circling it. It looked a lot like a circus.

" It must be the place where they have the competition for the leadership rights." - Lana guessed, looking around.

"Okay, let's go!" - Sofia said without much interest, pushing her companion, who was still looking at the area with curiosity.

"Wait!" - the she-wolf suddenly stopped her. - "Something strange."

Sophia raised her eyebrows in surprise as Lana walked down the steps to the arena and made looked around, inspecting the walls and the ceiling with her eyes from down there.

"What is it?" - asked Sophia with irritation, not understanding at all what could have attracted the attention of the girl so much that they were forced to lose time here.

"Seats for spectators looks oddly. See for yourself."

Sophia went down to Lana, grumbling under her breath, but still glanced around. And frowned. The bottom row was located at different heights. Right in front of the entrance, there were seven rows, and the front seats were almost even with the arena, only separated by a small stone fence from it. And then it went higher, forming a kind of arch over the passage to the stage and went down again. As if forming a tilted ellipse. The rows too merged, going up, so that at the top was only one seat left.

"So why did you find such an arrangement of rows strange?" - Finally gave up and asked Sophia. For her, this order didn't seem like that much unusual, and certainly not to the point of wasting precious time to observe it.

"Just very symbolic. I am sure that the lower section is for the ordinary Watchers. And then during the competition, according to the results, one of the winners would receive the right to go up by a few levels. And so on to the very top. Even the seats look more like steps than a place for seating." - explained Lana, going to the area for onlookers and pointing at one of the stone platforms, just a rectangular box in fact. - "There are no passages between the seats. Most probably at the start of the event, there is no one at the top, so going up is not a problem. But by the end, the leader is forced to wait until the others leave their places to go down, and this is somehow not connected with their concept of the Head, who need to lead even at such a function."

Ruslana has already climbed to the top. The highest place looked like an ordinary stone block, no difference from the rest. But the girl's attention was not attracted by it, but by a niche with a big black gargoyle. She examined it first with her eyes and then ran her fingertips over the cold surface.

"I'm sure there must be some mechanism here." - Ruslana said, turning around to Sofia that just approached from behind. The girl immediately grew fascinated by sculpture and began to explore the niche very carefully.

"You're right." - finally nodded fox. - "My six sense tells me that there is definitely something exciting here. But the mechanism must be electronic, tuned to a card or some kind of control panel. I am sure no old-fashioned button or lever is hidden in here."

Lana felt defeated right away. And retreated a step.

"Then there is no way to get in, right? But something tells me that we really need this door!" - The she-wolf spoke with vexation. Sophia turned around and narrowed her eyes, studying the girl. Then apparently making some decision again opened her bag.

" If you say so, then it must be that way." - She stated, laying out on the floor a few small boxes.

"What is it?" - Asked Lana, stepping closer and watching with curiosity as the girl pulls out next some very thin metal plates and begins to lubricate them with some kind of clay-like substance from the boxes and pair them together. Like this, she made about seven strange metal sandwiches and extended a couple to Lana.

"No question. You'll see everything. Now we need to stick them as far as possible into the gap around the arch. No matter what the mechanism is there, the main point is to have a hollow behind it. If there is, then we will get there for sure."

Lana did not understand anything, but she accepted the plates and hastily began to shove them into the indicated places, pounding it more deeply with a hammer that Sofia also pulled out of the bag. When the work was finished, the fox examined everything intently, then took out some kind of flask with muddy liquid and began to water their metal sandwiches plentifully.

" What's now?" - impatiently asked Lana, hovering behind her.

Stepping back, Sophia thoughtfully assessed her work, turned to the she-wolf and broke into a wicked smile, announced.

" And now is the time to run!" - And rushed at full speed to the edge of the podium. Here the front row was at the height of almost eight meters over the arena. But the fox, without stopping, flapped her arms. And jumped down.

Lana in puzzlement watched the back of her companion despairing from the sight. A terrible crackling behind her back made the she-wolf jerk forward and finally realize what was about to happen.

Lana launched ahead but didn't have time to get to the edge as fragments of stone flew into her back,flipping the she-wolf in the air and throwing her down. The unlucky girl fell flat on the arena ground, not even having time to group. When the ringing finally stopped in her head, Lana tore off her face from the stone floor and slowly began to rise. Sophia was already there, bouncing around all excited.

" That was one hell of a jump!" - she admired. - "But you still need to work on the landing. You fell as a cow dropping. Flop and scatter. Not very sexy."

Lana gritted her teeth, which were already terribly sore, but did not say anything. A trickle of blood oozed from the nose, but the girl did not pay attention to it. She got up and quickly set the broken bridge of her nose with her palms, heading back up. Sofia grimaced hearing the crack.

"What was it?" - Lana asked when Sophia caught up with her. The she-wolf face looked less menacing than a minute ago, so the foxy girl exhaled and answered.

"Titanium plates, and between them a particular substance. When a specific mixture hits it, the matter begins to expand and harden at a tremendous speed, thereby moving the plates apart and with them the cracks in the wall. The principle is about the same as in the ancient mines with wooden pegs, which are moistened with water. Only many times faster and more powerful. By the way, it is also the stuff of your boyfriend's company. Excellent aid at some wreckage sites, like the ruins of the building after a bombing or natural disaster."

While Sophia explained, they had already reached the top. The niche and the arch were completely broken down, and a passage opened behind the rubble.

"Now we definitely can not leave unnoticed." - Ruslana grumbled, walking over a pile of rocks and looking inside the dark corridor.

"We would hardly have succeeded anyway. I think this is even better. Your father probably keeps this information with him, and after the show of your boyfriend, he will want to destroy it. So he will notice the damn thing anyway. And like this, you also show him that you did not just sneak into his lair, but literally kicked the door out, without giving a f*ck."

Lana smirked at the comparison. The dark corridor quickly dispersed to the side, and after a couple of minutes, the girls felt that they were in some kind of room. Rays of flashlight tore out of the darkness the outlines of a spacious room, with high bookshelves everywhere by the walls. On both sides, two forged spiral staircases were leading to the balcony that went along all the walls in a circle. Three doors were leading onto it. And in the middle of the hall, stood a roundtable - an exact copy of the one in the building of the Council.

"What an audacity!" - Sophia relished, bypassing the table around. - "Gosh, your father has long seen himself as the Head of the Council and not evenhidden it all that well."

Lana didn't care much about what Sophia said. It was an old new after all. But she still frowned, looking at the setting, very much like her father's study on the estate. Only the table was different. Although ...

Lana walked along the shelves, checking the details in her mind.

"Do you think that door in the middle of the balcony is your father's office?" - Sophia asked, heading for the stairs.

"No!" - Lana stopped her and pointed around. - "This is his office. And the table is just for the show. The father has always adhered to the principle that all people are equal, for him some are much more equal than others. So this is his table and nobody's else."

She walked around the room around the perimeter and stopped at the wooden chair in the head of the table. In front of it, the surface of the tabletop was somewhat different. Lana looked at the pattern on the shiny wood, and a victorious smile appeared on her face. After releasing the claws, she with a great pleasure pierced them into the wooden board, tearing it to pieces.

"Why it seems to me that it gives you a special satisfaction." - Sophia said with a smile, coming up from behind. Ruslana growled in response, baring her fangs.

" You can't even imagine how much! Here the whole surface is written with my father's favorite phrases. I heard them a thousand times, all my childhood. Sometimes it seemed to me that it was only with them that he could talk to us."

The last plank flew off to the side, Not able to withstand the pressure of Lana's hatred to her father. Under it opened a hidden case with a pile of papers inside. Several of them were even handwritten.

" Oh! Look at that. How fascinating!" - Sofia reached, taking out the first few sheets and quickly running through it with her eyes.

"And how long has your father been experimenting on shifters? - She drawled, finally tearing off her eyes from the text and looking at Lana's eyes filled with horror.

Just the headlines on the documents already made Lana's head spin, and her heart froze.

"This is some kind of nonsense!" - She blurted, pulling reports from the hands of Sophia. - "It's impossible! The father is one sonofb*tch, but he cannot be such a monster who uses his own kinsmen as laboratory rats! How can it be?"

The girl began to search through the rest of the documents, with trembling hands, rummaging in the case in the hope of finding confirmation of it. Maybe it's just planning, simply some meaningful garbage. But the farther she searched, the more evidence stuck out. Photos, records, detailed writing of observations.

" It seems that they don't do the experiments on anyone, but on specific shifters." - Sophia said, showing the girl something that made Lana flinch and move back. But then, the fear was suppressed by a completely different feeling in Lana's head. Anxiety.

"We urgently need to get out and warn Greg." - With concern announced Lana. They need to hurry. Greg didn't even know who he was teasing. If Ian is capable of this, then Greg shouldn't piss him off, or who knows what might happen?!

"I'd rather be worried about what could happen to you now." - Came the hissing voice from the door. And a woman's figure slowly appeared by the entrance.