Alright. Back with another chapter.
I hope all of you reading this story are enjoying it. I am grateful for your support. It's nice seeing all the views and reviews my stories get. It's what motivates me to keep going and continue writing.
Alright. On with the chapter.
Chapter 6- Infiltration
The normal night sounds around a governmental installation, and patrolling guards around the perimeter, are the only sign of activity around the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah. Everything suggests it's just a normal night. But this is definitely not going to be a normal night.
On the backside of the Center, near where the power substation is located just outside the perimeter fence, a black clad figure leaps over the fence, landing on his knees before hitting the dirt on one knee.
Bucky stays motionless, letting a searchlight pass over him. He's not dressed in his customary Winter Soldier uniform. He's wearing a slight different black outfit, with a black leather jacket, and a black balaclava to hide his face. Instead of his usual weapons, he's equipped with tranquilizer guns, a stun baton, and a hand tazer. He also has his arm disguise on.
Bucky waits for a moment, letting the searchlight pass over him again, then he leaps to his feet and races towards the water storage tank closest to him. Once he reaches it, he dives behind it, just avoiding being seen by a patrolling guard. He contemplates tranqing the guard, but decides against it.
Bucky waits for the guard to get out of earshot, then reaches up for his earpiece. "Alright, Felicity. Where am I headed to?" he asks Felicity over comms.
"I've been analyzing the schematics of this place. The most likely place for you to find the file is in Data Hall 2, which is in the southern storage building," Felicity replies.
"Got it," Bucky says. He waits another moment before racing over to the power buildings, which stand between the water tower and the northern data storage building. Once he reaches one of them, he fires an extension cable up and hauls himself up to the roof. There are a couple of guards stationed on the roof. Bucky immediately pulls out his tranquilizer gun and tranqs them.
Once the guards are all unconscious, Bucky runs to the other end of the roof and crouches down. For several minutes, Bucky sits there, watching the guards go by, trying to pick out a pattern in the patrols. Finally, he starts to get a feel for the pattern of the patrols. And he seizes his chance.
As soon as there's a gap big enough in the patrols, Bucky holds up a special gun and fires off an extension cable to the roof of the northern data storage building. As soon as the cable attaches, Bucky slides across it to the data storage building.
As he reaches the roof of the building, Bucky ducks down to avoid being seen by guards passing below. For a moment, Bucky finds himself somewhat disappointed. He had expected more guards and heavier security measures. However, he quickly catches himself. He doesn't want to jinx the operation.
After a moment, Bucky stands. He crouches a little bit, getting into a running stance. He takes a deep breath, then leaps forward, sprinting right towards the edge of the roof. Reaching the edge, he takes a flying leap, and manages to clear the distance to the administration building between the two data storage buildings. Without even stopping, he continues running across the roof of the administration building, then jumps across to the roof of the southern data storage building.
Bucky stops for a moment, waiting and listening for any signs that' he's been spotted. After a few tense moments, he lets out a deep breath he had been holding in. Then, he whispers into his comms and says, "Alright, Overwatch. I'm on the roof of the target building. Where exactly do I need to go?"
"From what I can tell from the blueprints I hacked from the NSA, the console you're looking for should be on the third floor, in Data Hall 2," Felicity replies.
"Got it," Bucky responds. He waits for a moment, then walks up to the edge of the building. Bucky attaches an anchor to the edge of the building, then gives the line a few tugs to test it. The anchor doesn't budge.
Bucky smiles before leaping off the roof. Keeping away from the windows, he slowly rappels down towards the third floor. As he gets down beside the third floor window, he draws out a small device worked up for him by Curtis. He holds it out, and a laser cuts a hole in the glass. Stowing the device back in his belt, Bucky reaches through the window and unlocks it from the inside.
After carefully sliding the window open, Bucky swings in and lands on one knee. He quickly stands up and hurries to shut the window, just to avoid an open window arousing suspicion. He then whispers over comms, "Alright, I'm in."
"Okay. I've been analyzing the schematics. If you go down the hallway to your right, the second door on your right, it'll take you down another hall. The third door on your right will lead you into the target room," Felicity says.
Bucky draws one of his tranquilizer guns and makes his way down the hall. Once he reaches the second door, he slowly opens it and glances into the hall. A single guard is patrolling the hall, walking away from Bucky at the moment. Bucky quickly raises his tranquilizer gun and fires a single dart into the man's back. The guard quickly slumps to the ground unconscious.
Bucky darts down the hall and into the target room. Lining the walls are multiple server towers, with a massive console in the center of the room, with cables feeding from it to the server towers. Bucky hurries up to it and plugs in a USB drive.
"Alright, I'm with the main console, and I've got the drive plugged in," Bucky says over comms.
"Alright. Plugging in that drive is gonna send an alert to the administration building. You're gonna have security all over you in about two minutes. You're gonna have to move quick," Felicity says.
Bucky doesn't respond, now totally focused. Felicity had briefed him beforehand on how to find the file. Despite not being particularly proficient with a computer, he knows enough to be able to follow Felicity's instructions. As he searches through the files, he counts down the time that Felicity gave him until security should arrive.
Finally, with about 30 seconds left, Bucky finally sees the file. "Yes, found it," he says over comms as he opens the file. He quickly searches the file's contents to make sure it's not a dummy file. And sees it's full of the information they've been looking for. Bucky quickly hurries to download the file.
"Bucky, you need to hurry. Guards are coming!" Felicity says uregently over the comms.
"I need just a few more seconds," Bucky says tersely. A few more tense seconds pass before the download finishes, and Bucky yanks the USB drive out of the port and stores it back in his belt.
Bucky turns and hurries to the door. He bursts out of the room, and sees two guards ready to burst into the room. He quickly punches the first in the face. The second tries to raise his gun, but Bucky reaches forward, grabs his wrist, yanks the guard towards him while stepping out of the way, and elbows him in the face before throwing him to the ground.
Knowing he's lost the element of secrecy, Bucky bolts back down towards where he entered the building from. Bursting into the first hallway that holds the window he entered through. Bucky finds 10 guards racing down the hall towards him.
Bucky raises his gun and tranqs the first two. A third guard gets close enough and lunges at Bucky, fist extended. Bucky jumps back and brings his fist down on top of the guy's head, knocking him out. He then easily blocks another guard's right hook before delivering a strong punch with his cybernetic arm, knocking him out too.
Two more guards try to attack Bucky. He ducks under the fist of one of them and punches the guy in the chest, knocking him back into the wall. He then dodges aside as the next guard throws a punch, grabs the guy's arm, then jumps up and kicks the guy in the side of the head.
Bucky then yanks out his stun baton and snaps it out. He takes a swing and hits one guard across the face, knocking him out. Another guard tries to hit Bucky with his own baton, but Bucky blocks it with his own. The two exchange several blows before they clash and try to push back against the other. Bucky then pulls out his hand taser and jabs the guard with it. The guy soon collapses.
The last two guard try and rush to attack Bucky. Bucky blocks the first few blows of the first one before grabbing his fist, forcing it down, then jumping up and knocking him out with a round house kick. The final guy throws a punch right at Bucky's head. Bucky grabs his fist, then kicks him the knee, making the guard crumble to his knees. Bucky finishes him off with a strong punch to the head.
Bucky stands there for a moment, then races for the window. This time, instead of being careful, punches out the window and leaps right out. He fires off a grappling hook and swings up to the roof.
As soon as he reaches the roof, Bucky takes off running, heading right towards the administration building. Reaching the edge of the roof, he leaps across the to the administration building. He continues running across the roof and leaps across to the other data storage building. Racing across that roof, he leaps off the roof, managing to break his fall by somersaulting as he hits the ground. He then books it right for the fence where he entered the facility. By now, alarms are blaring, and Bucky can hear the sounds of guards shouting behind him as they start coming out of the buildings, looking for the intruder.
Bucky puts on an extra burst of speed and manages to make it to the fence before guards manage to spot him. He leaps up onto the fence and clambers over the top, dropping down on the other side. He doesn't wait before booking it for the hills.
Finally, Bucky manages to make it out of sight of the facility and ducks into a crevice. He waits for a moment, then chuckles to himself before activating comms.
"Overwatch, do you copy?" he asks.
"Loud and clear," Felicity responds.
Bucky smiles as he says, "I got the file, and I'm in the hills behind the facility. They're not gonna find me. I'm gonna start making my way to Salt Lake City. I'll be on the first flight back to Star City." He pauses for a moment before saying, "Diggle's gonna get out."
And, I'll end there. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it wasn't as action packed as I originally wanted. Next will include John's release.
I chose to go with the Utah Data Facility because I thought it was the most likely spot, other than NSA HQ at Fort Meade, and I thought Fort Meade would be much harder for Bucky to get into and get what he needed.
Alright. I'll end right here. Please review, and stay tuned for the next chapter!