Chapter 47

Infiltration

Bolt's heart hammered inside his ribcage as he crept through the trees and bushes near the sleeping guard, trying to make as little noise as possible. Everything he had worked for...everything that mattered to him now, hinged on his ability to sneak through this area without being noticed. If he made a mistake here, at the very end of the road, he was finished...and so was Penny.

With every step he took, Bolt was forced to restrain himself, control his desperate desire to just break any attempts of sneaking and simply sprint for the facility. His instincts screamed at him to run, to cover the ground he had to cross as quickly as possible, but he kept them in check. If he did that, the noise he made would almost certainly alert the other guards, and the alarm would be raised. He could not afford that, not now. So he forced back his panicky desires, and concentrated on moving with deliberate slowness, carefully moving with each step, trying to make as little noise as possible. He had already risked enough chance of exposure using his Heat-Vision to cut through the mesh fence surrounding the place...he was not going to try his luck any further.

After watching the facility for a few more minutes, to make sure that the coast was completely clear, Bolt had crept down from the hill he was watching the facility from and reached the perimeter fence at the exact point where the sleeping guard lay, hidden amongst the trees. There, he had waited until the guards either side of him had absolutely no chance of spotting him, before using tiny beams of Heat-Vision to slowly cut a gap in the fence for him to pass through. It had been a slow process, using beams so weak they melted the metal wire rather than cutting clean through it, but he had no choice. A larger, stronger beam would almost certainly have been spotted by anyone nearby...he could not risk that.

But now he was through, and facing the most dangerous part of this exercise; passing the sleeping guard in the trees he was sneaking through. The guard was most definitely sleeping, not merely resting. From this close up, Bolt could see the man's slow, even breathing, and although he could not see the eyes past the man's bug-like helmet, he could also make out a trace of a snore. Well and truly asleep. But still Bolt was careful, continuing to put delicate care into each footstep, because he knew that the slightest sound, a single poorly placed paw, and the man's sleep would almost certainly be cut out in an instant. Bolt's path through the trees took him directly behind the man, the White Shepherd's sense of panic forcing him to watch the man as he worked past the sleeping form, painfully slowly. There was still no sign of him stirring, but that might all change at any moment, and Bolt was not going to be caught off guard when that -

Snap!

Bolt winced, then froze, inwardly cursing his mistake. He had been so focused on watching the sleeping form of the guard, that he had forgotten to watch the ground where he was placing his paws. As such, he had inadvertently stepped on a twig, cleanly snapping it with a loud crack that Bolt was certain could wake the dead. Standing stock-still, he continued to watch the man, knowing that at any moment he must jump up, trying to figure out where that sound had come from. But, miraculously, he man did not wake. The loud sound had caused him to stir slightly, but he merely mumbled a few incoherent words, before unconsciously settling into a more comfortable position and resuming his nap.

Bolt waited for a few more terrifying moments, not convinced that the guard could have slept through such a disturbance. But after a full minute without any more sign of life from the man, Bolt finally heaved a quiet sigh of relief, before turning back to his task, now focusing more intently on the ground, making sure that he did not repeat his mistake again. For a moment, Bolt was slightly tempted to simply kill the man there and then, and make sure that he could not be disturbed...he had already come too close to being discovered too many times, the man was only serving to slow him down...

NO! Bolt actually bit himself in the paw lightly to stop his train of thought, letting the flash of pain sever his thought train before it took hold of him. He had already been through this, he was not going to kill in cold blood...not any more. He had seen first-hand the monster he had become on this adventure so far, and he was not, after sparing his own life with the promise of changing his ways, going to fall back into that trap again. He had promised himself that he would kill only when he had absolutely no other choice, when his own life, or the lives of those dear to him, were in immediate danger...he was not going to break that promise just so he could more easily infiltrate this facility.

In the end, his self-control gave his conscience a good boost. He had restrained himself from needless killing, and in the end, it did not make any difference. After a few more minutes of careful, deliberate sneaking, he finally found himself at the other side of small gathering of foliage, with nothing but a huge stretch of grass and concrete between him and the glass building that was his target...several hundred metres of it. Careful to keep himself concealed inside the shadows of the trees, Bolt looked around, trying to figure out where the two nearest guards were on either side. When he finally did see them, he noticed that they were some distance away, but currently heading towards him, following the fence as they went. Desperate to continue on, and find Penny as quickly as possible, he quickly assessed the situation, trying to determine if the risk of being spotted at this distance was worth the couple of minutes time he would get from leaving now, as opposed to waiting until the guard's backs were turned, when he'd have no chance of being spotted. In the end, he decided to wait. No point taking unnecessary risks when the gain could be worth nothing. He pushed his desperation to be on his way aside, although he continued to remain on edge. It would be much better to wait until there was the lowest chance possible of being detected, then he'd move.

But fate, it seemed, had other ideas. As Bolt settled down to wait for the guards to both turn their backs on him, he heard a loud, exaggerated groan from the man sleeping in the trees as he stirred and stretched. Bolt looked back, his eyes boggling. The guard was waking up! Now that's not fair! he complained silently as he jumped to his feet, looking at the guards, who continued to approach. Watching them carefully for a few moments, he realised that their attention seemed to be unfocused...they were daydreaming as they patrolled.

But even as he tried to make absolutely sure that this was fact, and not just a wild hope on the White Shepherd's part, he heard the guard in the trees get to his feet, groaning as he stretched his stiff muscles. Bolt realised that, daydreaming or not, he had to move now, before the guards got any closer...or before something snapped them out of their daze. He backed up slightly, drawing on his powers as he did so. If he was going to avoid the attention of even a daydreaming guard, he would have to move so fast that they would not see anything more than an indistinct blur, which they would then be able to simply dismiss as a fragment of their daydreaming minds. Moving at such speeds meant he would need every last bit of his power...and he would need to use it all in the space of a few short seconds. It was a massive risk...if there were any more dangers ahead of him, Bolt would be, quite literally, powerless to defend himself against them. But he had no choice, fate had thrown him into this situation, and the only way out of it was to weaken himself to any further problems.

Bolt backed up into the trees slightly, giving himself as much run-up room as time allowed. He needed to be at his absolute fastest by the time he cleared the trees. But, once again, he heard movement from somewhere behind him, and knew that his time was up. If he wanted to remain undetected, he would have to go now. Stopping, Bolt took a few deep breaths, before gathering all his powers...and unleashing all of it as he sprang off from the mark.

The instant he took off, Bolt knew that this burst of speed was something entirely new. He knew that he had pushed his powers to the limit when he had been trying to escape the exploding Bolivia facility with Mittens, and that he had gone unbelievably fast then, but this was something else entirely. Even lost track of where he was, seeing nothing but a completely indistinct blur, and hearing nothing but the rushing of the wind in his own ears. He forced himself to hold this blind sprint for a couple of moments, then dragged himself to a stop, trying quickly to figure out where he was. With no real sense of speed or direction, other than he had been going insanely fast in a straight line, he could be anywhere in the facility by now, he realised.

The first he did was look behind him, to see if the guards had noticed his sudden appearance from the trees. He saw the two guards, approaching the trees from either side, had stopped, and were looking at each other. Bolt took this as a bad sign and froze, noticing the shadow of a building nearby, and slowly crept into it, waiting for the guards to dash off in his direction, guns up and ready to shoot him down.

But it never came. After several tense moments, during which the third guard appeared from the trees, the three of them resumed their respective patrols, showing no sign that they thought they had been breached. Bolt could not help smiling slyly to himself. He had done it! He was inside Calico's biggest, and most important, facility...and even closer to Penny. His smile widened when he turned around, and by some amazing stroke of luck, found himself right outside the glass building that had been his target...the living quarters, he could tell. He was now certain of it.

"Your time has come, Calico!" he said venomously to himself as he wandered along the edge of the building, heading for a doorway he could see up ahead. He walked slowly, his mind struggling to grasp his new-found position. He was in his most hated enemy's greatest lair, and closer to Penny than ever. His final victory was mere moments away!

And it was there, in that moment, that everything went wrong...again!

Just as he was about to enter the sliding doorway of the glass facility, mere metres from it, a loud, wailing alarm started sounding, filling the entire facility, both indoors and out, with its constant, piercing cry. Bolt froze the moment he heard it, confused. He did not understand...he had so far suffered a few close calls, but he had done nothing to attract the guard's attention...how could they have known he was here?

But he tossed his confusion aside. His element of surprise had been lost now, there was nothing left to do except find Calico and Penny, fast...before Calico had time to make his escape and fade away, never to be seen again. Springing into action, the White Shepherd instantly charged at the doors, using his powers to protect himself as he crashed straight through the glass panel set into the door, not bothering to wait for it to open and admit him the usual way. Not stopping, he immediately tore through what appeared some kind of reception area, darting instantly into the hallways beyond, not even stopping to see if there was anyone there. It did not matter any more. He had been discovered, and the only thing that mattered now was finding Penny and Calico...and only stopping those who got in his way.

But as he ran through the various, identical white-washed hallways, he realised that he was not going to find Calico and Penny by simply running around blindly. He needed something to guide him, to show him how this facility was laid out...a map! Now with a definite, focused target in mind, Bolt became much more methodical in his search. He still ran blindly through hallways, but now he looked carefully at the walls around him, looking for a map of the facility, like the one Penny had used at the Bolivia place. But he ran around corner after corner, and there was still no sign of -

"Hey, what...?"

Bolt's head snapped around as he saw the source of the voice. One lowly guard, obviously in the act of running around himself. But he was poorly prepared for a confrontation, lacking a helmet or gun. But Bolt knew that the man was not defenceless, those gloves that made up the suit could be electrified in moments, and although Bolt had no idea how powerful the current that flowed through them was, he had no intention of finding out. Reacting instinctively, Bolt lunged for the man, his jaws going for his throat, planning on a quick, silent end to the battle. But just before he struck, Bolt remembered his vow, and adjusted on the fly. Twisting himself in the air, he focused his powers away from his jaws, and into his muscular torso as he curled up in mid-air, and crashed bodily into the man's chest, sending them both sprawling to the ground. But Bolt could tell that, despite landing a heavy blow, that the man was still conscious and capable of fighting. But a quick, sharp strike across the temple with his paw changed that, and the man became still and silent, the only sign of life the tiny, feeble breaths he took. This guard was not going to wake for some time.

Proud of the way he handled the situation, Bolt smiled down at the guard. "You'll live," he remarked, even though the man could never hear him. Happy with his new-found sense of restraint, Bolt turned to continue his search...

...just as something cold and hard struck him hard in the jaw, and, having stowed away his powers just seconds before, Bolt, now defenceless against such a blow, yelped once in pain, before everything went black.