Luna took a deep breath. She checked her leg one last time. The strap of her dagger was tight. She advanced toward the wide square in front of the building. Four guards were patrolling and all were armed. Luna's heart began to race. Even a single mistake could ruin everything.

  Luna began walking toward the front of the factory, stumbling slightly. One of the guards noticed her and immediately aimed his weapon. "Stop! Stay where you are!"

  Luna stopped and raised her hands. Tears had already begun to flow. The guard quickly approached her, while the other three guards were also on alert.

  "What are you doing here!" the guard shouted harshly. "This is a restricted area. What business do you have here?"

  Luna began to sob. "I... I just..." She fell to her knees.

  "I said what are you doing here!?" The guard had his weapon pointed at Luna's head. "Tell me!"

  Luna began rummaging through her bag with trembling hands. "Please... I'm just a... I was kidnapped..."

  "Faster!" shouted one of the guards. The second guard had already reached for his earpiece. "We have a suspicious woman. We're checking it out."

  "The Mist Thieves kidnapped me! I barely escaped from them! They're after me now, please help me!"

  One of the guards gave another a concerned look. "The Mist Thieves?" he asked, his voice filled with doubt. "Which Mist Thieves?"

  Luna answered shakily. "I-I don't know... Their faces were masked. But that's what they called themselves. They held me for three days..."

  The second guard touched his earpiece and muttered something quietly. Then he turned to the other guard. "That's impossible. Our teams haven't conducted any operations in the last two weeks."

  The guards surrounding Luna exchanged meaningful glances. One of them said, "Someone is using our name," through gritted teeth. "This is unacceptable."

  A voice came through the earpiece and one of the guards quickly responded: "Central, we have a suspicious situation. Someone is impersonating us. Yes, the woman is here. She appears quite frightened... Understood, we're waiting."

  Luna dropped herself onto the sidewalk and continued sobbing. "Please... Please protect me. They'll come back... They'll kidnap me again!"

  "Calm down," said one of the guards, still not lowering his weapon. "Nobody is going to kidnap you. Now we want you to tell us exactly what happened. Don't miss the smallest detail."

  Luna nodded through her tears. "I was going home... It was late. Someone approached me from behind. They were dressed in black, with gray masks on their faces and they were only wearing underwear. One grabbed me, another covered my mouth. Then everything went dark..."

  One of the guards clenched his fist in anger. "They're trying to humiliate us."

  "Continue," said another guard to Luna. "Where did they hold you? How many were there?"

  Luna wiped her face with trembling hands. "I don't know exactly... My eyes were always blindfolded. But it was a cold place. Damp... Maybe a basement. There were three or four people. They were constantly whispering."

  The man who appeared to be the leader of the guards reached for his earpiece again. "Central, the situation is more serious than we thought. We might need to inform the boss. Yes... Yes, I understand. Okay, we're waiting."

  Luna suddenly fell to her knees and began to scream. "There! One of them is there!" She was pointing to a dark corner.

  All the guards quickly turned in that direction, their weapons aimed. Luna used this opportunity to put on an even more dramatic performance. "Please, please don't go! Don't leave me alone!"

  "Calm down!" said one of the guards sternly. "There's nobody there."

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Luna dropped herself onto the sidewalk and curled up in a fetal position. Her sobs and moans were growing increasingly intense. This unexpected behavior had made the guards even more anxious.

  "Hey, pull yourself together!" One of the guards touched Luna's shoulder. "You're safe, okay? Now calm down and..."

  Luna suddenly jumped up screaming. "DON'T TOUCH ME! They did that too... They were always touching me..."

  Avis was gliding near the roof of the factory. As her wings opened and closed silently, she analyzed the situation below with her goggles. Thanks to the thermal imaging feature of her goggles, she could clearly see the positions of the guards on the roof. Although the equipment she carried in her backpack created a slight weight, her balance was perfect.

  "Luna is doing a great job," she whispered into her earpiece. "All four guards on the roof are focused on the front area, where Luna is. None of them are checking the back."

  Avis rose a bit higher. With her night vision goggles, she examined every detail of the building. The guard standing by the ventilation system had yawned. The other three were also moving toward the front, listening to the sounds.

  "Rex, the back is completely clear. The guards seem to have fallen for Luna's performance. You can proceed easily."

  When the last guard standing by the ventilation system on the roof also started moving toward the front, Avis quickly moved toward the water valve. She fully extended her wings to catch the wind behind her and landed next to the water valve almost without making a sound.

  "I've reached the water valve. I'm ready to shut it off and break the valve... Give me a signal when you're in position." While Avis was taking out the necessary equipment from her bag, she continued to monitor the surroundings.

  When they heard Luna's signal, they were looking through a hole behind the wall surrounding the factory. As the guards ran past them, they jumped over the wall and entered.

  "Why is it so easy to get in?" asked Ran.

  "This is the Mist Thieves' territory. No one dares to enter. Except for us..." Rex replied.

  "Why do you dare?"

  "Astralis. For the right price, you can even find people who would die for you. In this city, money opens every door, especially when there are desperate enough people. If you're wealthy enough not to worry about your own pocket, you can always find someone willing to take risks for you."

  They slipped in silently through the back door and quickly climbed up the stairs. This part of the building was completely empty; there was neither a guard nor a security camera. Under the dim light, they exchanged meaningful glances and without uttering a word, following the route they had planned beforehand, Ran, Rex, and Cipher began to move with quick and determined steps toward their target at the end of the corridor.

  When the man and Shade approached the stairs, Shade signaled the man to stop.

  "Wait for my signal. I'll create a space for you to hide."

  Shade's body began to transform into a cloud of smoke. The man stared in amazement at the transformation taking place before his eyes — Shade had first turned into a blurry smoke, then the smoke thinned and disappeared completely.

  Shade floated down the stairs, invisible to the eye.

  Shade shifted her attention from the surroundings to the corridor. Two guards were standing side by side, engaged in a boring conversation. Shade moved behind the guards from within the shadows. Her invisible hands became visible for a moment and grabbed both of them by their necks, digging her sharp claws into their throats. As the guards were about to collapse to the floor, she threw them into a pit filled with green liquid next to the drains on the floor.

  "Clear," Shade whispered through her earpiece to the man waiting at the top of the stairs. "But hurry, we don't have much time."

  The man quickly descended and moved in the direction Shade indicated. When he reached the end of the stairs, he hid behind a column.

  Shade reappeared beside the man. "The room where the old man is located is right across from us. There are only a few guards left along the way. They're far from each other and facing different directions. It's impossible for me to take them down one by one."

  "How can you turn into mist?"

  "I can't explain the secret of my ability, boss."

  "Alright. Let's use the device Avis gave us on that water pump. In the meantime, let's hope the others have done something."

  At that moment, Rex's voice began to come through to his ear.

  "We're inside, boss. Cipher is trying to log into the system. It might take a few minutes."

  He could speak comfortably since there was quite a lot of noise in this part of the factory.

  "Great job! Did you encounter any problems?"

  "There were a few people inside, but we managed to clean them out."

  "Cracking the codes will be harder than I thought," said Cipher, concentrating on the flashing ciphers on the screen. "It doesn't resemble any standard encryption algorithm. They're probably using a custom-developed system." While his fingers flew across the keyboard, he was squinting to examine the screen.

  "How much time do we have?" Rex asked anxiously.

  Cipher shook his head. "Five minutes... maybe less. They're using some sort of two-factor authentication system. Every login attempt might be monitored."

  "This terminal seems to control all factory operations," Cipher muttered while examining the complex control panel on the screen. "Production lines are visible here, even those misty machines you mentioned. If we can crack the right code, we can stop all machines with a single command."

  "Guys..." Luna called through their earpieces. "They've released me. I couldn't continue the role any longer. An old man and a woman beside him suddenly showed up. The man told the guards to 'release the woman.' The guards are returning to their positions. Hurry up."