Chương 104: Mysterious Creature

"I talked to some acquaintances in the department, and they told me the longest it will take is around a month, and the shortest will be a week."

"Can they help us speed up the time?" Lucas still felt it was too long. John shook his head and spoke: "This is them already doing us a favor." Lucas nodded thoughtfully, he understood that they didn't have someone with political influence to support them. If they had, this could have been easily done with a phone call. Just as he was thinking about this, his phone buzzed. When he looked over, he saw a message from Mary saying that they had found information about another shapeshifter.

"I have some business, we will talk later." Without waiting for a response, Lucas walked away. •••• Once he arrived at his house, he immediately called Mary.

"So what kind of shapeshifter did you find?" His tone was rather eager for answers.

"I don't know the specifics…" There was a brief silence, but Mary spoke immediately after.

"But the ones that found it had one of their members killed, it was in some kind of underground tunnel. They only found parts of his body corroded and filled with some kind of mucus." Lucas tried hard to think of what creature it could be, but nothing came to mind.

"That's all?" Mary stayed silent for a moment, then spoke.

"No further information, but…they asked for $200, 000."

"I will send you the money, get me the location as soon as possible." He agreed without hesitation. The details of the creature interested him, if it proved to be something unique then that money was worth the information.

"Okay…" She was surprised by his directness. Lucas ended the call and walked to the basement. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. 3 hours later he walked back to his room. He spent the time reading through his family's books, looking for creatures with the same description. He focused on shapeshifters that were rarely seen or were presumed gone. Unfortunately, he found many descriptions matching those details, so he couldn't be sure what creature it was.

•••• In the morning he dropped by Allison's house and said goodbye. He couldn't leave like last time. As he drove away, he could see her figure in the mirror.

"Sigh…" He wanted to bring her with him, but he felt it would be too dangerous. He shook his head, then focused on the task at hand. This morning he received the details with the location of the shapeshifter. It was close to the border, so he could also finally deal with the Calavera problem. Letting them live didn't feel right to him. He then went back to his house. He loaded all his equipment into the rented SUV and drove toward his destination. After driving for 3 hours Lucas arrived in Silver Ridge Town.

He parked his car and entered the bar. The bar had everything except people. Not giving it much thought, he headed for the underground bar. When he passed by the two people standing guard, Lucas could feel their bodies tensing. Shaking his head in disappointment, he entered. He didn't want to hide his presence, so his steps were loud and clear.

"He's here!" Someone shouted as he noticed Lucas at the door. Then the whole bar went completely silent. Everyone stopped drinking and glanced at him with various expressions.

"Well look at that!" Lucas examined their faces and smiled. What he didn't know was that his smile seemed very evil to them, like a butcher ready for slaughter. Lucas adjusted his backpack over his shoulder and ignored them. He glanced at Mary and saw her gesturing him toward a certain room. As he entered, he saw the old man Steven enjoying a lemonade.

"See? You're already tasting the benefits of working for me." Steven sipped from the straw and rolled his eyes when he heard this. He got only problems since working for him. But he didn't mention his complaints.

"Did you bring the money?" Lucas nodded, then reached for his backpack and grabbed 5 bearer bonds and gave them to him.

"Two for the payment, but exchange them first. And the rest is for the recruiting and training." Even before having the idea of opening a security business, he thought of starting to train hunters. Not to form a team with them, but to spread them out to gather information and eventually make them hunt the smaller targets, after all hunting is their duty. The security company will be a perfect front, and with John, he could gather true experts, not your average slow-witted neighbor.

Steven took the bonds and looked at them for a second, but didn't say anything. He thought they were some kind of legacy passed down by his family.

"We did start to recruit some people, it will not take long before we have our own intelligence gathering." Lucas nodded. Having his own men would cost less, and he could find a wider range of shapeshifters. Now the only pressing question was, what kind of shapeshifter would he encounter?