"Anyway, as Erin said, we are going to keep you safe." Felix tells Scout 15. "Even if you don't tell us of use to help Caine's dad. But we would appreciate if you do."

Scout 15 nods.

Robin nods, "Yep, that's the deal. We definitely want to be the good guys here, we're not going to hold you hostage for information or anything. Catch more flies with honey, and all that." 

Caine almost frowns, but doesn't argue with any of them. 

"Well, this is gonna take a while, it might be a good idea if we make some food while we figure out what we are gonna do and how he is going to help us."

Jamie stands, "That's an idea. Who's helping?" 

Robin and Erin exchange looks, before looking at Caine. Caine huffs, but stands to join Jamie. 

Felix tries to get Erin and Robin to talk somewhere where Caine won't hear.

Catching his meaning, they follow him out of the room, leading him to Erin's father's study, on the opposite side of the house from the Kitchen where Caine and Jamie are preparing food.

"He's pretty volatile right now," Erin says of Caine. 

(Fenris follows them there.)

"I guessed. What I am concerned is with him turned to violence."

"Unproductive violence. The shifter - who no one asked the name of yet - doesn't look particularly smart and not the sort that will react well to an outburst. If he doesn't try to turn on us."

Robin smacks his face sheepishly, "Not asking names seems to be a theme for us," he says. He glances off in the direction of the kitchen, thoughtful, "We don't usually see Caine get really angry, you know? I mean he thinks a lot of people are annoying but he usually doesn't do anything about it." 

"I haven't really seen anything like this from him since he lost his mom," Erin agrees. "Still, I don't think he'd actually hurt... our guest. He might get noticeably angry, though. Maybe we should just keep him occupied away from them." 

"Yes. I was hoping a solution like that. Me and someone else with knowledge of the local area and lots of patience should interview our guest."

Erin shrugs, "I'll stick around," she offers. "Everyone else could poke around the house for... secret passages, or whatever we might find." 

"And maybe some of us could go back to Caine's place? We should really take the dogs out - we should have done it before we left, but with Mr Atten missing..." 

"Do you want to make this your main base of operations? It is worthy spending some time strategizing here before going back there. I think. That place might have more useful stuff, but it's an obvious target. Maybe..."

Robin frowns, "I dunno how defensible this place is? There's a bunch of exits, it'd be hard to cover them, never mind the windows. Then again, we have no idea what kind of changes Erin being an Alien lizard person- Allurian - might have caused. Maybe there's, like, force fields on the walls now, or something." 

"So we should definitely take a look around before we decide whether to make this place or Caine's place our base," Erin suggests. 

"We have some wards that make the place harder to find, but we have them up at Caine's place and if we put them up here, they will fade there."

"They're a one-place-only deal? Alright-" 

She leans back against her father's desk, holding her hand under the lip to keep her balace. Unexpectedly, her hand shifts, a quiet 'click' coming from beneath the desk. 

In the wall to the left of the door, a bookshelf slides aside, revealing an opening with a staircase leading down. 

Felix is about to reply when the bookcase moves. "Huh... Do either of you volunteer to investigate?"

Silly question! Robin's already moving to peer inside. 

"Huh! I guess the house has a basement after all." 

"I guess so," Erin replies to both Robin's statement and Felix' question. "Are you coming?" She asks the twins as she crosses to the secret doorway to peer in herself. Robin preceeds her down the steps, setting lights on the walls of the stairwell glowing as he passes them. 

"Of course."

They follow.

So they head down the stairs. 

At the bottom is a large room, a round metal table filling the middle of it. In the center of the table is a pyramidal device of unknown use, and various buttons cover a band around the edge. A number of tall chairs are tucked into the table, made of the same metal as the table. The right wall is covered by a bank of lockers, and to the left a number of couches sit. 

There is one door in each of the other three walls. The one to the right opens to some kind of infirmiry, containing four beds sectioned off by curtains, currently open, and a number of cabinets, and tall thin machines. On the other side of the room is another door, which leads to a small operating room. 

The door across from the stair well leads to another armory like the one at the Caine's apartment. The walls are covered in racks and shelves, filled with similar weapons and devices to the ones they'd seen in Samuel's hidden room.

Finally, the door to the right leads to, what they can only assume is a massive underground hangar. The pit, which looks about twice as deep, wide, and long as the house itself, is currently empty. A smaller berth at the same level as the rest of the secret basement contains a winged vehicle that looks large enough to carry four people. 

"Okay. This is a cool secret dungeon."