Upon greeting him, Leo's composure had almost immediately hardened.
Not a lot of Cryptids, let alone mere men, could instill unease within him. Nikolai was one of these rare exceptions.
Nikolai felt his pockets for a moment before looking back up to Leo.
"Got a smoke?"
Leo fell silent for a moment before pulling out a small cartridge of cigarettes and opening it towards him.
He gave a small polite nod in gratitude, but Leo didn't fall for it.
Nothing the man did, had done, or ever would do was for the sake of something as human as gratitude.
Nikolai held the cigarette in his mouth for a second before his gaze returned to Leo expectantly.
Begrudgingly, he put his finger out to the cigarette and used a bit of Somnia to manifest a small, stable flame.
"What are you doing here?"
Nikolai took a long, deliberate puff before responding.
"Where else would I be? After all these years, you really thought I'd be some subservient Reveur like you?"
Leo stiffened, his brows furrowing as he sternly repeated the question.
"What are you doing here?"
Nikolai stared at him for a moment, noting the serious tone.
"I'm the Director of the ICF."
Leo was a bit surprised to hear this. It did somewhat make sense though.
It had always been obvious that he held a sort of high position within Augustine, military or not.
A moment later, Leo held up a folder.
"I'm here to fill a report on Abel Benenson's current condition."
Nikolai looked from the folder to Leo then lightly smirked.
"Yes. Abel. We were just about to deal with him."
Leo shuddered upon hearing this, his mind imagining the worst.
` What the hell is that supposed to mean? Something intense like electroconvulsive therapy? `
Nikolai began to walk, silently beckoning Leo to follow.
They walked through a hall of countless steel doors. Each being heavily locked just like the double doors in the front lobby.
After some silence, Leo finally asked the question burning in his mind.
"So, how exactly are you going to deal with him?"
He abstained from answering, leaving Leo's question unanswered as he continued down various halls.
Finally, they stopped at a door. The numbers "1312" were engraved on its surface in bold.
"Here it is. That's his patient number."
Leo nodded, then looked back down to his paper and began filling out some spaces.
Abel's name and patient number had been filled in. All that remained now was the patient's current condition.
He stood there waiting for Nikolai to unlock the door.
As he waited, he inspected the door and noticed a lack of any locks other than a small pad.
Looking down the hall, he recognized that the subsequent doors also had the same setup.
Nikolai put a hand up to the pad, transferring a tiny bit of Somnia into it.
Suddenly, the door unlocked.
` Ah. Must be some sort of Somnia-based lock. That's smart. Wait, why don't we have those at the Reveur Headquarters? I'm kind of jealous now… `
As Leo shortly thought of the locking mechanism, Nikolai slowly pushed the door open.
His brows furrowed in confusion and trepidation as he stepped inside the room.
The interior seemed like some sort of operating room, rather than a living space.
The blinding rows of lights mixed with the white tile floors illuminated the room as if one were looking straight at the sun.
In the middle of the room was some sort of hard bed-like platform with steel restraints fixed to where one's wrists and ankles would be.
To the left side of the room from where Leo stood was a metal trolley, cluttered with surgical utensils.
A large set of lightly rusted pliers stood out amongst the tools on the table.
Leo could've sworn for a moment that the glare from the lights gave sight to slight crimson stains, but he quickly chalked this up to his imagination.
After taking a moment to examine the room, he failed to notice Abel.
"Where is he? The patient, I mean."
Nikolai stood outside the room, his eyes turning to his side as he stepped out of the way.
Abel slowly came into view, being rolled in on a wheelchair by one of the facility attendants.
His eyes were hollow. Devoid of any clear signs of stimuli reaction.
A light-blue hospital gown hung around his body.
Leo's insides turned and twisted upon seeing him in this vegetable state.
"What the hell did you do to him?"
Leo asked with distraught in his voice as he looked back at Nikolai with wide eyes.
Nikolai stood there, unmoving and uncaring for the concern in his tone.
"He gave quite the struggle. The drugs ultimately triumphed over his mind, so all is well."
A shock coursed through his spine as he heard him describe how they essentially euthanized the young man.
"Was it really necessary? Was he really that close to Corruption?"
Nikolai looked back at Leo, his eyebrow cocked.
"Corruption?"
He paused for a moment before a small, artificial smile grew on his face.
"Ah. Yes. That. Of course he was."
Several other facility personnel had entered the room, assisting in propping Abel's corpse-like body into the restraints of the bed.
"Do you wish to watch the process, our beloved Captain Morwyn?"
Leo looked from Abel to Nikolai, contemplating whether or not he wished to remain ignorant.
Perhaps directly witnessing the system he served would broaden his perspective a little. Maybe even give some solace in what he served.
A cog could only ever understand its place if it viewed the entire machine. And hopefully, that machine wasn't as cruel as Charlotte thought.
He gave a short, hesitant nod.
Nikolai acknowledged his acceptance and closed the door behind himself as he stood beside Leo.
The attendants surrounding Abel looked at Nikolai, awaiting his approval.
"You may begin."
They began to prepare; fastening aprons, tightening gloves, and rolling the metal trolley of instruments closer to Abel's bed.
Nikolai turned to Leo for a moment.
"Last chance to back out, Captain Morwyn."
Leo felt his stomach churn at the sheer wickedness of the man's voice.
He gulped.
"Continue."