Chapter 39

Samantha and the others arrived at their hotel late at night. Their flight over had taken the better part of a day, but this had given the twins plenty of time to research and plan for their infiltration.

"Our main ploy will be to arrive at the headquarters as guests for the party," Adam had explained. "We'll mingle a bit, get a lay out of the crowd and such…"

"You two want to gate crash the party," Yolanda had interjected.

"It will allow us to blend in," David explained. "It would be more suspicious to arrive and then immediately disappear. Plus, a significant portion of this will involve Mr. Duter's presentation, and while that's drawing everybody's attention, we will have an opening to sneak in."

"We'll need to do a bit more research on the facility, but our primary goal will be to gather intel," Adam continued. "We need to make sure he's dirty and has his hands on a Hero. If we can get into the network, we can plant a tracer and remotely hack in."

"And what if his cyber security is better than our cracking capabilities?" Yolanda asked.

"That's why we're sneaking in," David said. "There's no way we could gain access from a remote station on our own. But their firewalls can't be as powerful behind their closed doors; otherwise their employees would never be able to get anything done."

"Our task is just to make sure we can get behind those physical closed doors," Adam said. "And that could prove trickier, and might require some super spy techniques."

"Like the two of you have any of those to begin with," Yolanda grumbled. "We're not in a spy movie, you know."

"Myself, David, and Yolanda will be the primary infiltrators," Adam said. "Meanwhile, Erez and Dr. Snowy will provide support from a remote location. Their job will begin in earnest once we're able to plug into their systems."

"Wait, you're going to have me hack into the system of a prestigious tech company?" Erez asked. He voice had had a mixture of nervousness and excitement in it.

"You'll be using some high end software, and you'll be under Dr. Snowy's watchful eye," David said. "But, essentially, you will be the hacker extraordinaire."

"And what about me and Vicki?" Samantha had asked. "Do you not have a role for us?"

"You two will be our muscle," Adam said.

Vicki had frowned. "I know we got a little bit of training, but I don't think the two of us could really help in terms of muscle power."

"I meant, you two have your Heroes," Adam corrected. "You'll attend the party with us, just in case things go horribly sideways and we need some big robots to help us."

"What are you two planning that will require the Heroes?" Yolanda asked.

"We're not planning, per say, it's more of a precaution," David said. "Duter might have a Hero up his sleeve, and that Hero may or may not have just attacked our military compound. We're not making any assumptions that things won't escalate quickly." He had sighed. "And if it comes to that, the Heroes will primarily be there to cover our retreat. Granted, if that does happen, it does kind of cement the fact that Duter is involved with these Heroes."

"We'll need to do some more planning and research tomorrow, in order to fine tune this plan," Adam had concluded. "But that's it in a nutshell."

But while the long airplane ride had been a great chance for them to swap idea about the plan, or at least listen to Yolanda criticize it, the long flight had made Samantha restless. They landed in a military airport near the city of Tokyo, Japan, and then took a car to stay at a hotel near the Duter Institute headquarters. As they drove, Samantha could see the brilliantly lit skyline of Tokyo, which was truly breathtaking. Although it was dark out and they had a busy day planned ahead of them, Samantha was not ready to go to bed.

The same could be said of Vicki, who was hardly containing her excitement. Visiting Japan had been one of her life goals, to the point where she started learning the Japanese language far before she had any solid plans for traveling. She had already studied up on Japanese culture, and was very eager to go out and explore the city. However, as Yolanda kept reminding her, they were not visiting as tourists and couldn't spend time sightseeing.

Even as they entered the hotel, Vicki was beside herself, and kept enthusiastically greeting the employees in Japanese, although most of them already spoke English. The hotel the twins had booked was a luxury one, which often hosted rich clientele. Yolanda had balked at the price, but was forced to admit that it would help with their cover as wealthy visitors. All the same, she had insisted they all squeeze into a single room to cut down on costs.

"Ricardo won't be happy with this bill," she said, as they moved the last of their luggage inside. "And it's not like we have that big of a budget anyway."

"Well, money's one thing the Hero didn't trash back in Florida," Adam said. "Ricardo was planning to send a platoon of troops out here; in the end, this plan is costing taxpayers a lot less."

"I am curious as to how we're going to get a last minute invite to this party," Yolanda said. "We're not exactly in the tech industry, and you two already have a history of annoying our host."

"True, but we have a way to grease their palms and invite us in, opened arms," Adam said.

Yolanda frowned. "How?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "We've already made a big donation; got it organized from the plane. They've already forwarded us our invitations."

"A donation? How big?"

"A few thousands or so," Adam said offhandedly. "Per person."

"What!" shrieked Yolanda. "Are you insane? We don't have that kind of cash lying around…"

"Well, actually, we do," David said, having heard Yolanda's outburst from the hallway. "The donation was from our personal accounts. Ricardo said he can cover the other costs, but we did the bulk of the heavy lifting. Adam really should've led with that."

Yolanda was caught off guard. "But that has to be a significant part of your budget," she said slowly.

"Yep, it's a sizeable chunk, and we even had to make sure our bank would honor it, in case they thought it was fraud," Adam said. "But we've been saving for something big like this for a while. Might as well blow it on an actual mission and put it to some good."

"That's… unusually honorable of you," Yolanda said.

"Plus, we own a bunch of stock in Duter Institute," David said. "If this is not some Hero thing they've got going on, then we're expecting to make a killing off it."

"And there's you're usual deviousness, rearing its ugly head," Yolanda said with a sigh. She looked around, as everybody was finally crammed into the single room. For a hotel room, it was quite lavish, with two queen sized beds, a sizable living area, a decent bathroom, and a great view of the city. However, it was a bit small for seven people to cram into.

"I guess it's time to turn in," Yolanda said. "The sleeping arrangement will be a bit cumbersome. We can fit the kids into one bed, and then the twins can take the other. Dr. Snowden can sleep on the couch…"

"I am actually not very tired yet," Dr. Snowden said. "I got some rest of the flight, plus generally suffer from insomnia. I'll probably continue my research overnight; I'll move down into the hotel's business center, so the rest of you can relax here. I'll take a nap in the late morning, while the rest of you are out."

"Out doing what?" Vicki asked.

"Some last minute recognizance," Adam said. "We need a layout of the land, and the best way to get that is to actually scope it out on our own. Yolanda, Erez, and I will scout around the building, and we'll get Nex activated and see if she can help spot any useful routes once inside."

Erez nodded. "I think she has some sort of x-ray vision capabilities, so she'd be able to look inside the building and get a general idea where stuff is."

"I'll look up any blueprints of the building that I can access," Dr. Snowden offered. "And then we'll compare notes."

"So what about us?" Samantha asked. She was starting to find it annoying that her role appeared to be an afterthought.

"You, Vicki, and me will be getting some supplies," David said. "After all, we have a party to attend tomorrow night, and we can't go in looking like we just stepped off a military base."

Vicki grinned widely. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Hell yes!" David said. "Girl, we're going shoppin' tomorrow!"

"Shopping for what?" Yolanda asked.

"Outfits, obviously," David said. "We'll get these two girls into some respectable dresses, to make sure they look the part. We'll also have to pick you up something, Yolanda, preferably not in camo. We'll need your dress size." He paused, and added, "Also your bust size."

Yolanda sneered at him. "I will arrange for my own outfit," she said.

"Very well," David said with a shrug. "Anyway, long day tomorrow, so you children get ready for bed."

"I'm actually not that sleepy," Samantha said.

"Well, young minds need their rest," David said.

"Stop treating me like a little kid," Samantha said. She narrowed her eyes. "You do know that Yolanda taught me how to throw a better punch."

"And you were worried they'd pick up bad habits from us," David said to Yolanda.

"All the same, you should really get some rest," Yolanda said. "We can't have you burned out tomorrow."

"Wait, wait, I know something that might help!" Vicki said, pulling out the hotel pamphlet she had been browsing. "They have an authentic Japanese bathhouse here! Well, maybe not exactly authentic, but more cultured than what we're used to! We can go for a late night soak before bed."

Yolanda frowned. "I don't think it would be a good idea to let you out of our sight…"

"We'll leave the Hero Cores up here for you to watch over," Vicki said. "Please! I've always wanted to go to a Japanese bathhouse!"

"Let them have their fun," Adam said. "The pool's in the secure part of the hotel, and it's bound to be empty this time of night. Let them get some culture or whatever before bed."

"Fine," Yolanda conceded, much to Vicki's excitement. "But just make sure you don't remove your tracking bracelets!"