There was something oddly disquieting about the unknown building after dark. The large utilitarian construct stuck out like a sore thumb amongst its aesthetically designed neighbors. Bleak, white plaster walls surrounded it, with no windows to let in subtle traces of moonlight.
It looked the same at night as it did in broad daylight.
Besides making the building appear inelegant, the design also put Thane at a distinct disadvantage. At a glance, the front door was the easiest way inside, but it was locked. If Thane hacked it incorrectly, an alarm would undoubtedly go off.
Its lack of windows made it impossible to tell who or what would be awaiting Thane inside. A quick survey of the building yielded another entrance, but Thane was hesitant to take it.
At the back of the building, set on the ground was an air-conditioning unit, similar to those mounted on rooftops, and beside it, an exhaust vent leading into the building.
Thane stared into the dark passage, annoyed with his own hesitance. He knew that when a mission hinged on make a decision, one's personal preference took a back seat to efficiency. But that didn't make him feel any better about the prospect of fumbling around in the dark.
Steeling himself with thoughts of Honored Messenger and the vows not to fail him again, Thane crawled on hand and knee into the vent.
Once inside the passage dipped sharply and deposited Thane on a sub-floor in the bowels of the building. He waited, listening for sounds of life before exiting the shaft, to the right of a single, large elevator.
The floor was lined with doors that stretched from floor to ceiling, and as wide across as two drell standing arm-to-arm. A dull, steady hum prevailed in the darkness.
The refrigeration units crossed the floor as far as Thane could see. It wouldn't pay to stay here.
Carefully he followed the staircase down to the next level. He opened the door a crack and listened: no footsteps, no voices, no mechanical hum.
Crouching low, he left the safety of the stairwell and accessed his surroundings. He was beside a row of open cubicles, too high for him to see over. Sidling to the end of the aisle, he chanced a glance around the corner.
Each row held ten to fifteen cubicles, each housing various supplies: vials, pipettes, microscopes, slides and small personal terminals. The place reeked of disinfectant, as if it recently cleaned thoroughly.
In the center of the floor, was a room, closed off from all the rest. It had tinted glass walls and a glass-paneled door. Through it, Thane saw a large terminal, along with filing cabinets, with labels on them. This looked to be data storage.
The lock opened easily enough, and Thane quickly slipped inside. A large sleeping computer dominated the room.
Fumbling in his back, Thane retrieved the imaging device and set it on the desk. It was a clever device, designed to transfer the contents of the hard drive of one device to another.
As the monitor powered on, he fished out his companion device. Going by size alone, this terminal's hard drive would hold more information than his omnitool could handle. His omnitool acted as an intermediary between the two devices, asking if Thane was sure he wanted to copy all data.
Without much else to do, Thane waited and listened, trying to keep his mind occupied. It wasn't long before his thoughts strayed to thoughts of the person whose fault it was that he was here in the first place.
Her interference had ruined him. It wasn't the first mission that Thane hadn't completed successfully, but the reason why left him shaken.
His mind still nagged at him that she was Arashu made flesh, and that he should seek her out, but his own logical reasoning told him that was an idle fancy. It hadn't happened for hundreds of years, if the old stories were to be believed. Some believed that the drell had left their Gods behind on Rakhana, and didn't answer the prayers of those who deserted their home world.
He needed to move on. To push this girl out of his mind as best he could and reclaim his honor. There were thousands of drell in the city, and the chances of him seeing her again were slim. Part of him was thankful for those odds. The other part was surprisingly disappointed.
A light chirp from the imaging device brought him from his thoughts. Its task completed, Thane stuffed it back in his bag. Thane crept out of the data room and headed back for the stairs. If he could forego the vents on his way up, he would.
"Hold there," an odd voice called from behind him. Thane stopped in his tracks for a heartbeat.
He'd been lucky enough that the guard hadn't been on this end of the floor when he'd arrived but had stayed too long. Thane broke into a run, the guard yelling at his back.
Thane didn't want to engage the civilian. He was just doing his job, and his skills should have been nothing compared to Thane's own finely honed skills. Bullets whizzed by, and Thane ducked behind a row of cubicles.
The bullets stopped, replaced by the clacking of mechanical feet. The guard had activated a set of security mechs. Those, Thane had no compunctions about dispatching.
He popped out from his hiding place and put a few well-placed shots into the first robot's mechanical brain. The machine shuddered and collapsed in a heap.
The other mech was nowhere in sight, so Thane took the opportunity to press on towards the stairs. When he rounded the corner and found the mech waiting for him just in front of the door leading to the stairs.
Short on time, Thane approached the mech straight on, and incapacitated it with another round.
In the moment it took for Thane to catch his breath, the guard caught up to him. He started firing on Thane, who dove into the stairwell. Fire licked up his side.
Thane fired haphazardly, trying more to scare the guard into hiding, rather than hit him, before darting up the staircase. The pain seared through him as he forced himself back into the vent.
Emerging in the night air, Thane sped away as fast as he could, trying to put as much space between the building and himself as possible.
Every part of this assignment was more complicated than it should have been, and Thane couldn't wait for it to finally be over.