They chose a table in the corner of the room, the one closest to exit, as per their standard practice - it was one of the measures to keep themselves away from the line of sight and have a strategic position in case of trouble.
At first look, the guy behind a bar seemed bearish, but quickly turned out to be a nice and sympathetic man, and Karl's friend.
"But they are adult, right?" he asked their guide, pointing at other four.
"I wouldn't bring kids here" Karl assured him "you know me."
"I know, I know. The thing is, they all look so young. I've never seen such youngsters being with the organization."
"Why do you think they are from some organization?"
Bartender appeared abashed.
"They aren't?" he immediately covered his mouth with a palm of his hand "I'm sorry, Karl, I..."
"Just let us leave this matter alone, Dieter, okay?"
The man nodded and quickly took a notepad.
"Can I get the menu?" Stella asked.
Bartender looked at her with such a noticeable surprise that his eyebrows completely disappeared under his fringe, and it was not that long.
"Apologies, but we don't have anything so fancy" he explained "Everything that can be ordered here is listed there" Dieter followed with pointing at a huge board hanging on the wall.
A moment later, once they all have been sitting there for a while and received their orders, the place seemed much nicer and more comfortable than everyone originally thought. Despite several drunk individuals, this bar was quite quiet, and the chairs and sofas made of barrels were surprisingly comfortable to sit in. Temperature was also alright, perfectly adjusted to the outside weather.
"Is this place always so calm?" asked Ada while looking around.
"No, normally the crowd is much thicker" Karl replied "but it's still an early hour."
"Do you have many places like that?"
"Pubs and smaller bars are quite high in number and fare much better than small stores or restaurants. You see, people around here are not meeting that often at their own houses. It's much easier going to a place like this, though it's also important for it to not be that far away from home. You know, it's the times that we live in that require precaution."
"And you? Do you visit here often?"
"I'm quite regular at a number of places. However, this one is for sure within my top three. Places like this are perfect for gathering information. One can hear a lot of gossip here. Besides, most people tend to say more than they should after they get a bit to dring."
"Based on what you are saying, it's not feeling as if you had that many missions to take care of" this time, it was Kyoko who joined in the conversation.
"If you mean strictly fighting, then that's a fact, I rarely participate. As you have probably guessed already, I'm mainly responsible for gathering information and taking care of, how I tend to call it, more "technical" side of things. It's really extremely rare event for me to participate in anything combat-related"
"Speaking of work" Ken immediately reacted to the topic "When should we expect more details to come? So far, you didn't say anything about where exactly should we get and what to seek."
Karl looked around carefully before saying anything.
"That's one of the reasons why I chose this place from among others" he explained "We can talk more freely here. Now, about the trip that's awaiting you and the information I got to be passed to you. The tickets purchased for you allow reaching a station for which the name I got from the headquarters, but it's not your final destination. I was told that details on the destination after you reach that point will be provided via communication devices you are all equipped with - all you need to do is to confirm reaching the station within the interface. This will be the final piece you get before being on your own. You will need to organize base of operations on your own. I suggest getting a bigger building in case you need to receive any kind of backup and accomodate them. Additionally, it needs to have a good location - preferably for you to have a good connection to the biggest cities."
"Why do we even need all these precautions, if you are basically telling us nothing?" Stella was basically piercing Karl with her eyes "In short: take the train and reach the station as per what you have on the ticket, and the rest you will get once you are there. So what it comes down to? We travel by a train, get out and have a look at our personal interfaces, hoping that everything goes according to plan?"
"Of course not. Now, to get to the point for which we needed a quiet and secure place. Turn on your interfaces in secure mode and set the direct data transmission."
Everyone did as Karl instructed. After a while, their communication devices had a new application installed with a big data package available.
"Amazing" Kyoko was the most handy with their IDs in their whole team and immediately started browsing "For sure, this is full regional data. We even have information about hunters from organization, who operate there. And all of this after you told us you know pretty much nothing."
Their guied pointed at his own ID.
"Choose this and have a look. You will see the update history. Check the last date."
Kyoko checked and grumbled angrily.
"It's before the attack... Still, it's more than what we have from our current headquarters. How's that you have information no one else has?"
Karl smiled at her.
"Actually, this is related to another thing I must share with you" this time he sent them a code via his communication device "Activate it once you reach the destination. The recovered data I passed to you is something we owe to a particular individual, who will be able to find you with this code."
All four of Echo V team looked at each, which their guide immediately caught on.
"I see there's nothing more I need to add on this topic. I guess you all know who we are talking about."
"I guess so" Ken admitted "Do you have any other important notes for us? Anything that we should be mindful about?"
Karl put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands - the man's face was much closer to everyone than before.
"Situation in Poland is dynamic and always changing, when it comes to hunters, so you need keep your eyes open and be extremely careful. The most important thing is to be mindful of any other hunters and be wary, even if you get in contact with those, who are included in the database you have now. It's a well-paid business nowadays, so there's many people who take advantage of the situation. I heard they often kill demons, regardless of their affiliation, and even more, there were also cases of killing people, explaining they were actually demons."
"That's horrible!" Stella immediately showed her outrage loud enough for several faces to turn their way.
The guide raised his hence in apologetic gesture to other guests, making all the suspicious looks to be no longer targeted at them.
"Of course, our organization would have never allowed for anything like that" he said that with conviction "In the end, we are finally sending someone there" he nodded to Echo V members "Maybe the boss finally managed to convince the council to do something there."
"Let's hope it's indeed a part of this plan."
Since they still had quite a bit of time, everyone went on with lighter topics and discussed more private matters - as if it was just a regular meeting among friends.
When Karl was telling others about his personal antics collection, a sudden rumble, followed by screams, could be heard, and the man was first one to stand up.
Something passed through the entrance. Their guide, with exceptional dextertity, reached under his coat. Second later, he shot twice, and Ken jumped up in front, killing the mad dogs, causing the black liquid to splatter on the ground.
"These are not demons, just some animated corpses, infected dogs" Kenichiro concluded after investigating the dead animals "Someone must have been controlling them. Cannot be far from here..."
He looked at his team - all girls nodded in unison. However, before they managed to move, Karl stopped them, pointing at his watch.
"We don't have that much time. We will handle this mess on our own, after you are delivered to the train station" he looked for the bartender with his eyes "Don't touch these dogs. I will send someone to take care of them in a moment."
Dieter's face was white as a sheet of paper, but he still managed to raise his thumb in reply - based on this reaction, it was obvious that the man still did not recover from the whole situation well enough to speak.
"What matters is that no one got seriously hurt. I will get back here later to make sure everything is okay" Karl continued, while paying for their order "Thank you for a good meal and a nice service."
"Thank you" others followed.
Colors started appearing on bartender's face again. He even tried to smile, having calmed down, and managed to bid them farewell with following words:
"Thank you for your patronage."