Exits, Part 2- Motivated
By: X
X0832001@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I still own nothing and am getting no money
The kid was on time. He saw Bobby sitting in the back. The brute had a shiner. Harper wasn't surprised. He hadn't warned Bobby or offered to take him back to the now empty place he called home. He left the space traveler on the street with the patrols, knowing it would take mere moments for him to encounter and piss off a Neitzchien hulk. Harper wasn't stupid, he knew there was no way Bobby was going to let him join his crew. Bobby could barely cover his distaste for Harper and his buddies while he was completely outnumbered by them. As soon as it was one on one he was going dump this mudfoot. But, Harper figured whatever drift, spaceport, moon, or even just a sizeable asteroid they left him on would be better than here.
"Hey Bobby"
"I'm employing you- call me 'sir'." Bobby was in a foul mood.
"Sorry sir" Harper knew to pick his battles and titles of respect were not worth the fight. "So, do we have a plan?"
"I though you were the genius kid, you've been in there, think one up." Harper leaned back in his chair. His eyes took on a far away look as he plotted. Bobby was lucky he was getting a good plotter.
Bobby was on the verge of severe boredom when the kid rejoined him in the land of the living. "I got it." The twerp announced. "We get them to transfer a shipment of the warheads. They'll think they are sending them to another Neitzchien compound, but really your ship will be the one picking them up."
"How do we make the transport?"
"Put it in their computer system; make them think someone sent it to them"
"And you can do this kid?"
"Yes sir, Bobby sir" Bobby smacked him, making his chair teeter.
"This isn't the time for jokes"
"I can do it" Harper assured him.
"Excellent" This time he actually did send Harper off the chair and onto the floor. "I gotta be getting out of here; my girl will start to worry about me.
"You aren't staying?"
"If I were going to do this, why would I have hired you? Keep me updated, I'll have the Maru here in 1 week." With that Bobby Jenson walked out of the bar and was off planet as fast as he could manage.
XXXXxxxxXXXXxxxxXXXXxxxx
Harper was sure Bobby was going to screw him the first chance he got. So he was going to have to be sure he was not expendable until they had delivered the weapons. Harper thought about his plan. In the last 4 months the rumors he had heard said the Neitzchiens had figured out how he had escaped. Harper was pretty proud it had taken a week of investigation. Unfortunately, they had finally fixed the window. He would need the item number of the warheads, the code for another Neitzchien stronghold, as well as the codes for this one. Then he could requisition the warheads right onto the Maru without the Neitzchiens being any the wiser. Well, at least long enough for them to get away. Luckily he was good with machines because that was the only way this plan was going to get pulled off. The main obstacle was getting at their computer files; he'd have to be inside the compound again.
Harper sat at the table thinking for a long time. He needed to get in, and to get to a computer on their system. So far the only computer he could think of was the one in Jerrick's office. When Jerrick had come in for a few of his sessions he had come from this little door that slid into the wall in the back corner. Through the doorway Harper had seen a desk with a computer terminal. He'd pretty much ignored it because the door slid open, into the wall so even if he wasn't strapped down he couldn't hide behind it or use it as a weapon, then it slid shut again in less than a second. He did not want Jerrick's computer. He did not want to be anywhere near that office. Those dark, copper smelling rooms he had been held in were to stay a part of his past.
The East wing with its noisy generator seemed to be his friend again. The generator was huge; it took up part of the basement and 1st floor. Built as a tall rectangular it took up a portion of the two floors rather than almost all of one. The drawback of the plan for those with superior hearing was how its rumble was clear throughout the east wing. That noise would cover any noise he made breaking in.
Then, all he would have to do was find a computer. Harper idly drew a sketch of the first floor floor plan on a bar napkin. Looking at it he realized several offices lined a back corridor. Offices would have computers. If the torture guy got a computer; then everybody had a computer. He just had to get in, get to one of these offices, access the computer requisitioning forms and supply codes and get out. With the incentive he had this was not a problem.
Harper stood up. The bar was full. It was already past 20:00 by the clock on the wall. He had spent hours planning. He stretched and left the bar, avoiding eye contact with the waitress whose table he had been clogging all day, thus denying it to someone who might actually tip her. He carefully made his way home, avoiding the Neitzchien patrols and the beatings they would bring. He didn't like to be out after dark if he could help it. His friends probably wondered what had happened to him. Since his parents died he had been at the "stronghold" at least for a couple hours everyday. Of course that excluded the month long vacation he had spent with the Neitzchiens. But there was no way he was heading there at night. There was too much of a risk that one of these Ubers might follow him.
Harper contacted Bobby the next morning and told him tomorrow night was when he planned to make the transfer. Then he went to see his friends. If this went right he didn't have that much time left here. He planned the raids and fiddled with the shriller design until dusk. He'd miss these guys. Brendan was the only real family he had left in the world. The greasy long haired kid was Mark. A born schemer Mike and Harper had planned some of the group's most affective raids. Ziggy was unique Harper would miss him too. There were a lot of them, like everyone on this planet they'd lost people. For some reason they'd banded together and started lashing out at their "masters". It took your mind off the death for a while. He felt bad about leaving all of them. But, he knew he had to get off this planet. All the death and pain was more than anyone could take. You had to look out for you on this planet.
Harper allowed himself the luxury of a little extra sleep. He didn't have any food in the house so it really didn't matter if he slept past breakfast. When he did get out of bed he threw on some clothes and started considering what he would need for that night. He had to be prepared in case something went wrong because he could not afford to get caught. All he came up with was a gun and luck. He wasn't a bad shot with a gun and so he hung the holster from his belt hoping it wouldn't come down to shooting his way out. He was ready to take a big step towards getting off this planet.
When night had fully arrived Harper headed for the Neitzchien base. He planned to slip in now, after all the changing of the guards had taken place and they were settled back on their patrols. The night was cold and clear. "The perfect weather to do something potentially suicidal" he commented softly to no one in particular.
It was easy enough to get in. As he expected the generator was as loud as it always had been. Its steady whirr move than covered the sound of breaking glass as he punched a hole in the glass and let himself in. The generator room was big and hot. The main control panel briefly caught Seamus' attention but, he followed is plan and cautiously made his way to the offices in the back.
Offices might not have been a good way to describe these rooms. Important Neitzchien men owned these rooms. They had their big expensive desk there, books, heavily perfumed air, nice furniture, but they weren't really for doing too much work. They had little betas or even kluges who handled the real filing and organizing. These offices were just designed for status and to give these people a place to look busy and feel important.
All Harper cared about was that they had computers on the network. Keeping to the shadows he made it to an office door and quickly took care of the lock with a simple piece of plastic he carried in his pocket for just these types of situations. The computer was on the desk. Harper threw himself in the chair and was pounding the buttons in front of him almost instantly.
His natural rapport with machines kicked in and he found the requisitioning information. Bobby wanted a case of warheads; item D-0983-214. "Step one, check" muttered the thief. He scrolled through a few more screens. This was Neitzchien Outpost 4722-B. "Step Two, check" Harper shifted in the chair and quickly searched for past requisition forms that would give him the code of another outpost he could forge into needing warheads. "I am a god baby" he smiled; 4732-E had borrowed 24 Gauss guns 17 months ago. If they had needed guns then why not warheads now?
Harper made the order and began rerouting it's signature to read that 4732-E had sent in the first place. He used every trick he could think of to confuse this machine into doing exactly what he wanted. Maintenance screens popped up, catalogs of programs and files popped up, all the things the genius needed to pull this off were at his nimble finger tips.
Then the problem arose. Harper heard footsteps. He ducked under the large desk just in time to avoid being seen by a patrolman. "Stupid Jenson, nobody is here" muttered the guard as he walked away. Harper couldn't believe how stupid Bobby was. He had betrayed him just as he had expected, but didn't even give him time to get the job done. The screen blinked, waiting for him to let this machine send a form to itself. Should he? Bobby wouldn't honor their deal if he could help it. The bastard had wanted him to get caught and wind up back in Jerrick's hands. The room where they had taken a month of his life away and given him a lifetime of nightmares and scars was just down a hall and around the corner. Bobby had wanted him to get sent back there.
XxXxXx
Harper turned back to the screen. He added a note, "Approval code required- URA-B00B" He was indispensable once more. Without receiving that code the transport crew was not going to let that crate of warhead out of their sight. Harper could send them that code. Bobby could not. Harper hit "Transmit".
Harper then hurried back to the generator. He could hear the Neitzchien still looking for him. The Neitzchien could smell him. The fragrant air had hidden him before, but now the guard caught a whiff of the sweat and dirt that was Harper. He chased the boy. The boy ran down a corridor, away from the generator to try and lose his pursuer. They knew someone had been inside. He turned a corner and another so he was headed back to the generator. They would be suspicious he realized. He had to make them think he had been there doing something other than messing with the computer files. Emergency doors leading back to the generator were rumbling shut to trap him. Harper slid between them at the last second, buying himself some time as the Neitzchien had to open them again to follow.
Harper looked at the main control panel of the generator. Shutting down the generator could have been this mission. He crudely tore at the wires to make it look like he had been trying to shut down the Neitzchien fortress from there. With the amount of respect Ubers had for Kluge intelligence it would seem a stupid little human would have that as a plan. When the generator was thoroughly mangled looking from a failed rebel mission Harper jumped out the window in time to avoid being seen as the emergency doors finally got open again.
He walked back to the camp slowly. Not drawing attention to himself, he pretended he was just a lost drunk trying to get home. He could see the fence around Boston in the distance. He had spent the last 20 years in this city turned refugee camp. He'd been here 20 years and now, it actually looked like he was going to get out. Not that Bobby wanted him. The jerk couldn't even wait for the job to be done before he turned on the kid who was doing all the dangerous parts. But Bobby wasn't so smart. He wasn't getting those warheads if he didn't take this mudfoot off of this planet when he showed up in 4 days.