Weak White Sheep in a Fence

Chapter 9: Dr. Mouse Eater

It was almost midnight when Ian arrived at the Hunter’s Headquarters. After some processes, he was immediately taken to the one building situated between the Annex Residential Area to the southwest, the Hunter’s Academy to the southeast, and the Apex building to the north. This building was not so tall compared to the HQ but its entire area was vast and was composed of three gates positioned right in front of the three large and important infrastructures.

This was the Hunter’s Medical Facility. From an aerial viewpoint, it looked like two buildings, both with a round dish shape, where one part was for sick, infected, or contaminated Hunters.

The hospital is divided into two in order to isolate those possibly with infectious diseases from the Hunters who are in normal condition and who are treated in the other building.

Ian was currently in the ‘safe’ building still with a locking device around his wrists while several Hunter officers who brought him were speaking to a doctor with glasses.

Everyone knew him by the name Dr. Mouse, short for his nickname Mouse Eater because sometimes, they sew him hunting mice around the Annex. They didn’t know what he was doing with them, but because they didn’t know where the mice he was hunting went, there were stories being made up all over the Annex and the Academy that he was eating them.

Because of this, Hunters didn't usually get close to him when they needed treatment. Some even stayed away from him because he might be carrying an infectious disease.

“So… you’re telling me that this guy was the one your department gave me?” He asked the officers, his voice quite sleepy and his eyebags were obvious. The doctor was young, but he looked old because of his very tired face. It was obvious he hadn’t rested all day.

His eyes would turn to Ian for some time, staring at the man he knew very well with a hint of doubt. It was as if he was asking what kind of trouble Ian was doing this time.

“You requested for this.” One of the hunters responded, turning to Ian as he continued, “Our rules for providing a sentence to anyone who violated any of the Hunter’s Code of Conduct or committed any offense can’t be applied to him. The head of our office decided to give him to you.”

“I asked your department to assign me any Hunter who had committed at least one offense to help me with my work. I never thought it would end up being this ‘chicken’ here.”

Dr. Mouse really said the word. He meant that Ian was so weak. He knows how weak Ian was because Ian was very well-known in their facility ever since he was training at the Academy.

“Sigh… Okay. Thank you very much.” He seemed to not be in the mood to listen to the officers anymore so he let them go.

The only ones left in his office were Ian and him. The two were very quiet, but suddenly Ian spoke while stroking his hand that had just been unshackled.

“So, doc! I’m here again!” He smiled, getting himself closer to Dr. Mouse.

“What happened to you, huh?!” Dr. Mouse banged Ian’s head using his own fist, although the pain wasn’t that much. “When you come here, I see you wounded or unconscious. Not because you did something wrong!”

“Sorry. This time, it’s my fault.” Ian apologized while massaging his head.

“What happened to you?” Dr. Mouse took a deep breath and then held his forehead. It seemed like his head was hurting from what was happening.

“I just tried joining the Apex’s current mission by trying to pretend to be one of the inductees. I don’t know why, but that Commander of theirs seemed to figure out my disguise so easily. Sigh. I regret liking him.”

“What?! You just disguised yourself and then you got into the mission?!”

“I thought my disguise was perfect. But their leader still noticed me.”

“So that means, you almost got out of the barrier if it happened that they didn’t know you weren’t part of the mission?”

Dr. Mouse can easily understand the idea of what had just happened. It seems his brai got more alarmed accompanied by his stress and sleeplessness when he learned what Ian did.

“You’re in trouble if your father finds out about this… Ah, no. They don’t care about you, right? You’re such a pitiful person…” He started mumbling, typical of a person closely tied to almost having a mental breakdown. “But if the whole Hunter Force finds out about this and it reaches the higher-ups, your father, as well as your brothers, will surely find out… You have no escape. You are pitiful… But it’s also your fault…”

Ian doesn’t know if Dr. Mouse feels pity for him or if he is mocking him. All he knows that he felt hurt more than gratitude.

According to the Hunter’s Code of Conduct, the consequences of a Hunter violating the rules depend on the severity of his offense. From losing your job, getting imprisoned for long, to not receiving a remuneration for one or more months despite ordered to work.

A problem like what Ian did was never specifically mentioned in the Code. It only mentions a part where a Hunter faces major punishment when they inflict major disturbance on Hunters who are doing their job whether it is intended or not.

For Ian’s case, there was no life at threat aside from a slight disruption of the Apex’s mission, but someone’s career was almost ruined (referring to the inductee whom he locked up in one of the lockers in the Apex base).

Ian will just likely lose one month of his pay, but then one of the information sent by Commander Alex was a statement:

‘Would it be okay to stray from the guidelines? I will be happy if I found that he is locked up somewhere where he cannot see the day.’

The Internal Affairs Department might have had a hard time trying to find a solution on how to deal with Ian in order not to irritate the Apex’s leader while still following the guidelines. They might have come up with the idea of giving Ian to Dr. Mouse who was requesting a Hunter like him who had committed an offense.

“Okay, forget about that. Since you were the one they gave me, then this task will be easier because I can trust you more with this job.”

Dr. Mouse walked towards his desk and knelt beneath it. Ian didn’t know what was happening so he just went closer.

“There is one thing I want you to promise me before we proceed.” Dr. Mouse first looked at Ian. His eyes hinted a serious gaze as if what he was about to say would not be easy.

“What is it?” Ian asked.

“Please keep everything you will see later a secret.”

A secret, huh? — Ian thought. He had heard a lot of that word from his mother. Because of how many times he kept hearing it, he became accustomed to just nod, not having any thoughts of questioning what makes certain things a secret.

“I promise.” He said simply.

Dr. Mouse smiled despite his face so tired hearing Ian’s full and serious answer. The kid didn’t even have second thoughts about what might happen to him.

Ian noticed that Dr. Mouse touched a part under his desk until he was surprised to feel a slight tremor underneath him his feet, on the tiles where he was standing.

“Come here.” The doctor ordered him to come closer to the desk so he just obeyed.

He was slowly noticing that the things around them were lifting, even the floor around them aside from the part where he stood together with the doctor.

Actually, they were the ones descending. Ian felt that the floor they were standing on was slowly moving down until he just noticed that the whole surroundings were getting dark.

“Welcome back to the underground laboratory, Master.” An AI voice was heard from an unlocated speaker. Ian didn’t know where the voice came from other than realizing that the voice sounded like the same AI he heard from Commander Alex’s battle aircraft.

“Checking your vitals… Vitals are quite unstable. Your energy levels are low about to go lower within a healthy range. I have activated the air filtration system as per schedule.”

A little later, as they were going down, the AI spoke to them again.

“Warning: Unrecognized human detected. Do you want to terminate the entity?”

Terminate.

Ian got a little nervous when he heard that word.

“Keep him. He will assist me with various tasks that you can’t handle.”

“Processing biological data... New entity identified: Ian Velen. Beta Hunter rank verified. Updating user data.”

When they reached the bottom, the whole surroundings automatically lit up.

Ian saw large capsules that he had only seen this time. Each capsule consists of an unknown preserved creature in which some appeared to look familiar while some are hard to distinguish whether it is a monster, an animal, or just an infected, mutated creature.

This place doesn’t give off a safety vibe for him.

“Scary, isn’t it?” Dr. Mouse commented as they walked. “Legally, these creatures are supposed to be brought to the Novu Babel, but after they hired me to work as one of their secret laboratory researchers and gave me this underground lab, the number of creatures in this place increased.”

It seems there is something going on between the Hunter Force and the Novu Babel which, to normal people, is not made public. Ian didn’t know what it was. He also didn’t want to meddle with the problems of the high-level people around him.

They reached one of the rooms where some of the experimentations are being done. There are many tools and materials arranged in the cabinets. There are also devices and machines placed in some parts of the room. The one noticeable thing is the single but very wide table in the middle that was divided into four sections using a partition.

“You will be tasked to assist me with my experimentations since I can’t always come here. You just have to follow what I order you. The job I will give you is not complicated.”

Dr. Mouse brought Ian to another room. This time, the room is smaller. It has its own bathroom, a single bed on the side, two chairs in the middle surrounding a small table, and a small cabinet on the side near the bed.

“This is your room.” Dr. Mouse explained. “The Internal Affairs Department didn’t really know that I would put you in this place, but because they gave you to me for three weeks, just expect that you won’t be able to get out of here until your sentence is over.”

“Wait.” It took a moment for Ian to process his sentence that he will be staying underground without seeing the sun. “I will live here for three weeks without being exposed to the outside?”

“Of course. If possible, I prefer that you would work here forever since I know that you are not fit for your job,” Dr. Mouse simply responded, telling the truth with honest words.

It seems Ian will be having a serious problem later on.