Chapter Eight – Infiltration
Crow had thought he was done with the Facility. But, apparently, the Facility wasn't done with him. He was leaning up against the wall in the holding room to be loaded on a train that would ship him to the prison. Sector Security had stopped putting Criminal Markers on their prisoners since Armstrong was fired, and Crow was very grateful for that; he didn't need any more tattoos on his face. But that small relief did nothing to hinder his anger about the situation he was in. He was positively fuming.
Trudge had warned them that something like this might happen. But Crow could not imagine how Sector Security had gained the authority and power to go against government orders and attack those working on the bridge. Crow himself had personally met and spoken to the new warden and the Security chief of the district, and they had sworn to protect them. Looking around the room, Crow could see several of the construction workers and contractors he had been working with, and he knew that he, Jack, Yusei, and Elodie were Security's chief targets. He could only pray that they all got away, that Elodie had warned them in time and had escaped herself. Knowing Elodie, though, Crow was sure she had had no trouble losing the cops. But also, knowing Elodie, Crow was sure she would come up with some crazy plan to rescue him. He desperately hoped she wouldn't; he never wanted her to see the Facility or risk being stuck here for his sake. He'd been locked up before, and he knew he could deal with it again if he had to, but he didn't want Elodie to see any part of that place.
'Please, Elodie,' he prayed silently in his heart. 'Stay away from here! I'll be fine, just keep the others safe and don't worry about me.'
Crow looked around as the doors opened to reveal a large Security officer bringing in a struggling prisoner.
"Who is this?" one of the door guards asked looking at the prisoner in obvious disgust. Crow didn't exactly blame him; he looked like a hermit that had just crawled out of a sewer. He was dressed in a muddy, grubby coat and pants with a wide-brimmed hat, and Crow would smell him from where he was standing.
"Dunno," the officer said gruffly. "He won't give me a name."
"Darn right, I won't!" the prisoner exclaimed loudly; he had a raspy, almost girlish tenor voice and a think cockney accent and, by the way his words slurred slightly and the way he moved around unsteadily, Crow thought he might me drunk. "I 'old the right ter remain silent!"
"He doesn't look like the type to be working on a bridge," the guard commented.
"He isn't," replied the officer, jerking roughly on the prisoner's arm. "I arrested this scum because he tried to help some other workers escape and sabotage our efforts."
"That's right I did!" the prisoner yelled, making most heads turn. "An' I don't regret it neither! You lot o' traitors and blackguards are tryin' to stop the bridge from bein' finished! We won't allow it, yeh hear? We deserve freedom! Long live the Daedalus Bridge! Give me liberty or give me death, that's what I say!"
"Oh, shut up!" the officer exclaimed, bringing his hand down on the man's head. The prisoner staggered beneath it and rubbed the spot moodily, mumbling incoherently under his breath.
"Have you checked his BAC level at all?" the guard asked skeptically. "He looks like he might be a bit over the legal limit."
"Didn't really think about it," shrugged the officer. "I was more concerned about the quarry he helped to escape. We've got some other guys tracking them down."
"Very well," the guard replied, making a note on his hand-held computer. "We'll ship him off with the rest of the construction workers in about fifteen minutes. Just keep on eye on him."
The officer nodded and roughly pushed the prisoner further into the room. The man stumbled forward, waving his arms drunkenly before regaining balance and glancing around him. Crow watched with pity for the man and gratitude that he had helped their cause.
The hermit seemed to notice Crow watching him, because he ambled over clumsily and dropped to the floor next to him, his back leaning against the wall. Crow tried to smile sympathetically while being careful not to breathe through his nose; seriously, did the guy just do dumpster diving or something?
"So, bird-brain," the man said thickly, raising his head just enough for Crow to see a crooked smile and a pair of intelligent hazel eyes. "What're yeh in fer?"
Crow gasped. "Elo—."
The hermit man – or rather Elodie – silenced his cry by knocking a fist into his knee, causing him to buckle over and gasp in pain.
"Will you shut up?" she whispered furiously, talking in her normal voice. "I'm undercover!"
"What the deck are you doing here?" Crow hissed back, still rubbing his sore knee. "And dressed like a street bum?"
"I'm saving you; what does it look like?" Elodie replied. "And it's called a disguise, smarty-pants!"
"So you go and get yourself arrested?"
"Crow, I wasn't actually arrested."
"Oh, so a Sector Security guard didn't really bring you –." Crow halted his sarcastic comment as his eyes landed on the officer who had brought Elodie here. His already incredulous eyes grew even wider as he noticed the yellow hair poking out from beneath the hat and the arrogant poise of the man in the uniform. "Jack?"
"Bingo," Elodie answered with a coy grin.
"But… How did he get a uniform?"
"Well, let's just say there's an unconscious Security officer in his underpants tied up at the dump."
Crow gaped at her. "You didn't."
"Obviously, we did because Jack is here in a uniform. I don't feel bad about it either, since the guy was trying to lock us up for no good reason! Oh, and by the way, Naomi is here, too."
"The girl from last night?"
"Yup. She's gonna break into the Facility's main frame and keep an eye on the cameras for us. And just a heads up: We're going to break her brother and friend out of the Facility, too. It was the only way she would help us."
"That won't work for long. They'll notice something is up."
"That's why we're gonna have to move fast."
Crow slid down the wall to sit on the floor next to her and groaned, rubbing his fingertips against his temple. "Elodie, you really shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you. That's why we're busting you out."
"No! You and Jack and Naomi should be with Yusei and the kids, far away from here! I never want you to see the Facility!"
"A little late for that. Are you saying you want to get chucked back in jail?"
"I'm saying that I don't want you chucked in jail! I've been imprisoned before; I know how to handle it –."
"That doesn't mean you should! And you haven't done anything even remotely illegal! I'm not letting you sent to the Facility again, Crow!"
Crow saw the fire in her eyes and knew she wasn't about to budge on her position, but he didn't want to give up just yet. "But what if we all get caught? We won't be able to do anyone any good locked up in the Facility, Elodie."
"We'd better not get caught then, huh?" Elodie returned stubbornly. She glanced around at all of the innocent workers in the room, and as she did, her eyes pulsed amber and her fists clenched. "I just can't believe this," she growled, her voice shaking in fury. "The indignity of it all! All of these innocent people hunted and imprisoned for trying to make this city a better place for everyone to live…"
"I know what you mean," Crow muttered, his own anger rekindling. "It's infuriating."
"I don't understand how this happened! We met with the warden and the Security chief over the Satellite District, and they swore to protect us!"
"Maybe they lied."
"I don't think so. I think someone overthrew them or attacked them."
"Are you talking, like, a coup?"
"Something like that," Elodie replied darkly. "All I know is that I smell a rat. Someone's tipped the balance here; I can sense it in the other guards. Most of them are all for what's happening, but there are a few who are still uncomfortable with it, and they feel like they have no choice."
"So we find this rat and get him to back down," Crow mused. "But how do we do that?"
"Let's just focus on getting you and the other two guys out of here. Then we can work that out with the others."
Elodie pulled her hat back down over her eyes and struggled to her feet, trying to keep the pretense of a raging, drunken street man. "I'd better leave you alone, Crow. It'll look suspicious if I'm talking to you too much. Just sit tight and wait for the signal. Then just play along with what Jack and I do."
"What's the signal?"
"You'll know it when you see it," Elodie replied with a sly smile before stumbling away, muttering drunkenly under her breath in a cockney accent.
"So this is how a hamster feels," Naomi thought bitterly as she crawled through the ventilation ducts in the Facility. She could not believe she was here or even that she had agreed to this in the first place. The only things that kept her from turning right around and going back were thoughts of her brother, Ryan, and her best friend, Alex, locked up somewhere in this cursed building.
The scariest part of this whole ordeal was when she rode on the back of Elodie's Midnight Pegasus to the Facility roof. She was not at all accustomed to flying on a winged horse over the black waters of the bay. But, even as though she was very relieved to be off the Pegasus and on solid, well, roofing, she felt as though she had just hopped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
'It'll be worth it,' Naomi reminded herself as she came across an open vent. 'Once we get Ryan and Alex out of here, it will be worth the danger.'
Light shown up into the shaft ahead of her. As she peered down through the grate, she could see the walls lined with computer monitors, all showing a different part of the Facility. She gently pushed on the grate hoping beyond all hope that she'd be able to get it open. She was in luck: The screws were loose. Unfortunately, she failed to realize just how hard she had pressed on it. Before she had the chance to get a grip on it, the grate popped loose and started hurtling towards the floor below. Biting back a gasp, Naomi reacted automatically, reaching out and just barely grasping the edge before it fell out of reach. For a moment, she didn't move, didn't even dare to breath.
"So, Dave, how's the weather?" she heard one guard say to the other.
"Oh, it was kinda starting to cloud over when I came in," another guard answered.
Naomi let out the breath she was holding; those guys were thankfully oblivious to her presence. Slowly she brought the grate up, careful not to knock it noisily against the sides of the ventilation shaft. 'Now it's time to see what I'm up against!' Bracing herself against the sides of the shaft, she poked her head down through the hole. She was relieved to see only two men in the room, both facing the computer monitors; she may be only one person, but she had the element of surprise on her side.
Suddenly, the second man – Dave – burst out laughing. "Hey, Bill! You've gotta see this guy they just brought in!"
Bill glanced over and started hooting as well. "That guy looks like a hermit that just crawled out of a sewer!"
Naomi smiled. 'Good,' she thought, 'Jack and Elodie made it in!' It was then, while they were really distracted, that she decided to strike. Pulling her head back up, she maneuvered around to get her feet through the opening. 'Just one benefit of being so small!' she thought wryly, 'Free movement in constricting spaces!' She dropped to the floor, landing like a cat behind them. "Ya know," she stated sarcastically, causing the guards to turn in surprise, "you should probably put cameras in the vents!" Before either one quite knew what was happening, they had been thrown to the floor, knocked unconscious. "Well, that takes care of that." Removing their radios, she sat them back-to-back, tying first their hands together, arms interlinked, and then their feet. She moved over to the computer monitors and checked the screen that looked down into the holding area. It was very crowded with all of the bridge workers, but it wasn't hard to spot Crow and his vivid orange hair as he sat against the wall. Elodie, in her hermit disguise, was just walking away from him in unsteady, drunken steps. Naomi guessed that the large guard standing in the middle of the room was Jack. Everyone was in position. "Alright," Naomi told herself as her heart rate picked up with the excitement. "It's go time!"
Naomi picked up one of the radios and put it on over her head, adjusting the microphone so it was over her mouth as she sat down in one of the swivel chairs. After setting the radio to the predetermined frequency that would allow only Jack to hear her, she pressed the button over the earpiece and spoke.
"Archfiend, this is Chaos. Do you copy?"
On the screen, Naomi saw the big guard give a small start before pressing the button on his ear and speaking into his own radio. "Archfiend to Chaos," Naomi heard Jack's Aussie accent crackle in her ear. "Why the devil did we come up with these stupid code names?"
"Ask the psychic mastermind, not me."
"Then this means everything is secure on your end?"
"Obviously. I've got entire control of the Facility's mainframe. Get ready to roll on out!"
FS93: So, I've decided to do something to modivate you people to review.
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