The team rejoined Kai in the lobby area, entering through the south doors and looking around. The lobby was all quiet, with Kai sitting behind the desk with an alert and attentive look on his face, doing a very passable impression of a slightly bored security guard.
"All good, Kai?" Aswon asked, getting a quick thumbs up in response.
Hunter headed over to the desk and leant the assault rifle up against one of the drawers under the desk top, making sure it was set to 'safe' before he relinquished it.
"Won't you need that?"
"I hope not. If we do, we're in trouble! But if we're going down a floor, we're much more likely to run into night shift workers, I was thinking. And seeing a maintenance guy with a gun is just gonna raise all kinds of questions. Better to stick with what we can conceal in the toolboxes."
"So, you're heading down a floor and looking for the server room?"
"We shouldn't have to look – got it narrowed down to one of two locations. We got access to a floor plan on her computer. Out the doors over there," Hunter gestured to the north doors out of the lobby, "then a right, down the passageway to the core. Ignore the lift, crack open the stairs and down one floor. Then we're north a little, to some kind of security checkpoint, and that gets us into the IT area. Only three rooms there, so it shouldn't take us too long."
"Ok, well it sounds like you…"
"Code Gazelle-7, repeat code Gazelle-7," the voice sounded from the small radio sitting on the desk, and the team all stared at it.
"that doesn't sound promising." Kai finished, the previous statement left unfinished. "What do you think they know?"
"Whatever it is, it's not good. What does the code mean – Tads. Any idea? You get that from his brain?"
"It was a mind probe, not a miracle. There's a lot of information in the average person's brain you know!" She took a breath, and then held up a slightly apologetic hand to Aswon for snapping at him. "Give me a moment." She hustled around the back of the desk and Hunter moved out of the way, letting her gently lay her fingers down on the comatose guards head and concentrate. A few seconds past, and then she spoke, her voice slightly distracted as she sifted through his mind. "Ok, Gazelle-7 means that they suspect they have intruders in the building, moving in stealth. All security teams are to go on alert, floor walks are to start and all guard posts are to report in on ten minute intervals."
"Drek! What did we do? Did we miss a pressure pad, or some other security system?"
"Don't know, Aswon. Maybe it was the computer search or use at this time of the morning. Does it matter, though?" Hunter fixed him with a stare until the merc shrugged in agreement. "We gotta get a move on." Hunter looked up as Marius moved away from them towards the door to the north and got to work on the sensor and lock, using his tools to strip off the casing so he could reach the circuits hidden underneath.
"Wait. I have more codes… someone listen or write these down. Or relay them to Marius…" Tads started to rattle off more code phrases, all based on African wildlife, each of which detailed a specific type of threat or danger to the building, which was then modified by a number that detailed the level of risk or response indicated. Hunter scrawled down notes on his deck while Marius continued to work, so that they had some reference for when Tads stopped her spell. "Also, this is station 19. He might have to use the number when he's reporting in, or making a call. But there's no coded phrases to identify himself or for a challenge and response, so nothing to remember there." She waited a moment to see if anyone else had any questions, before breaking contact with the man's head and dropping the spell, then starting to clear away the signature.
Marius was working as fast as he could, but it still took him nearly two minutes to get the casing off the door without setting off the security measures built into it, and a further two minutes to get the circuit bypassed and isolated so that he could trigger the opening sequence. The rest of the team were waiting off to the side, their nerves twisted and jangling as time spun out, made all the worse by their inability to do anything to help the situation.
"Aswon, can you stay in astral please, and keep an eye out for wards? I'm going to concentrate on a spell to try and conceal us, if people are alerted. I don't want to walk through anything by mistake." When he nodded, she pulled in mana towards her and cast a phantasmal image around them, creating an image of the far side of the group, rendering them effectively invisible. It wasn't perfect, especially as she moved – but in the dimly lit lobby, it wasn't far off.
With a snort of triumph, Marius touched a probe to one leg of a chip on the circuit board, then smiled as the door lock made a clunk, letting the door swing open a little. He pulled it open, then led the way forwards, heading towards the stairwell near the gym. When he got there he sighed again deeply, staring at the lock on the door, before pulling up his tools once more and getting to work again. His efforts with the first lock must have given him some insight into how they worked, as this time he had the case off in a little over thirty seconds, and the circuit bypass in place in less than sixty. Carefully he pulled open the door, glancing through the crack into the stairwell beyond and looking for cameras or other security measures. On seeing none, he opened the door wide and hustled inside, starting to descend the stairs swiftly while the rest of the group followed up.
The stairwell was a stark contrast to the offices and corridors outside. While the décor on the rest of the floor included sumptuous wallpaper, thick carpets, fine artwork, and rich fittings and fixtures, the stairwell was a barren concrete edifice, thrusting up through the building in a utilitarian manner. Bare walls still showed faint marks from the slips and moulds that had formed them, while overhead lighting was industrial in style, linked by exposed conduit. Basket trays hung from wire racking, carrying thick bundles of cabling, while the stairwell had a handrail made out of tubular metal that was bolted to the floor with rough castings.
Aswon headed over to the centre of the stairwell and looked down the thin gap between the flights of stairs, staring down at drop that ran it seems all the way to the bottom of the building, the distance magnified by the narrow confines of the stairwell on either side.
"We got a ward about two or three floors down, I think – probably corresponds with what Shimazu saw in the main lift shaft. My bet is they put a big boxy ward around the top three or four floors of the entire building, covering all the really sensitive stuff – but there's a few holes in it, like the roof access." He stared down again, and took another good look around before moving down the stairs, catching up with the rest of the team that had already filed past him, stacking up behind Marius who was already at work on the lock leading out from the stairwell onto the ninth floor. "All quiet still up there, Kai?"
"No changes so far, no further radio calls. Will keep you up to date. Out."
Marius had the lock bypassed in another ninety seconds, repeating his performance on the previous door, then carefully cracked open the door to glance through. The corridor outside was dimly lit, but not in complete darkness – by the looks of things only one in four of the overhead lights was illuminated, giving enough light to navigate around with relative safety for anyone working overtime, without having all of the lights on full blast.
"Get me a picture, please, Marius." Tads leant in close behind him, looking at the feed from the fibre-optic snake that he was just starting to feed through the crack in the doorway. Once she had a feel for the layout to the left and right, and the style of décor, she concentrated and reshaped the trid-phantasm to reflect the change in scenery, and bulged it out across the corridor, creating a small bubble for them to step out into. "Spells up, concealment ready. Good to go." Marius opened the door and stepped out, taking a surreptitious deep breath as he did so, while the rest of the team followed him out.
Outside, they found themselves not so much in a corridor, but a strange open plan office space. It clearly WAS a corridor, leading from one place to another, and certainly allowing access to the lift and stairwell area. But it also had desks and chairs scattered about, bookcases and little alcoves, workpods and storage shelves. As they looked to the right, they could see a large double set of doors labelled up in English, proclaiming it to be the entrance to "Demonstration Suite #3", though they couldn't see inside past the polarised glass in the doors. Looking to their left, towards the north of the building they saw another set of doors, with a matching sign next to them labelled "IT Operations Centre". Next to these doors though was a separate window and a sliding drawer set into the wall – somewhere that identification documents or permits could be passed through into the security office behind for verification. It looked like the security checkpoint was built onto the side of the passageway to the IT area, providing some kind of chokepoint for access to it.
"That is where we need to be." Marius gestured as he whispered, then set off at a slow, steady pace.
"Station 23, Possible Rhino, I say again, possible Rhino!" Kai looked down at the radio, then keyed his own microphone up to warn the team.
"Guys, just had a call from a station 23. Rhino – are you moving somewhere you can be seen?"
"Ja, though we have spell cover. Maybe they saw a ripple or something not quite right. The Rhino call was for hostile intruders. We may have been made!" Marius accelerated towards the doors, trying to close the distance and get out of sight of the window next to them, assuming that if there was anyone watching, it was probably from there. He raised his tools as he crossed the distance, and got to work on the locking mechanism, the shot of adrenaline letting him shave off a full fifteen seconds from his earlier times. He felt Aswon close up behind him, while the rest hung back near the stairwell, ready to cover them or run to provide support as needed.
"I'm gonna go check it out. I'll report back in two, either way…" Marius and Aswon heard the muffled sound through the door, and moved to the side of the doors. Aswon tapped quickly on Marius's side and leant in close.
"You go through, see if you can get to the office door before it locks, if there is one. Tads, be ready with a stunball!" Marius nodded, and he heard a click on the radio as Tads acknowledged his request. A second later, the door opened, and a security guard appeared, assault rifle held at port arms, striding through the open door and his head scanning around the corridor as he looked for whatever weird sighting had triggered his curiosity. Marius dived through the doors into the space beyond, spotting another set of double doors on the wall head and to his right, while a smaller single door lay to the left, that must lead through into the security office or booth. It was rapidly swinging shut, and he dived across the floor, arm outstretched to try and reach it in time.
As he slid across the polished floor, his fingers grasped, a fingernail catching for a moment on the gas-seal strip in the centre of the door.
The automatic door closer pushed on the heavy door, though, and the momentum was too strong. The fingernail bent back a little, and then slipped, allowing the door to close back into the doorway, locking with a definite clunk.
Behind him he heard the faint zapping sound of someone getting nobbled with a taser staff, and a quick glance behind him allowed him to see the faint shape of Aswon cushioning the fall of the guard as he reeled from Aswon's thrust before Tads' magical assault finished him off.
"This guy was pretty serious. Definitely some kind of reflex enhancers installed in him, and his movement and weapon control were good," Aswon whispered as he laid the man down on the floor as quietly as he could. "And packing heat too!" He had ejected the magazine from the assault rifle, spotting the painted tips of the armour piercing rounds loaded inside. "They're not messing around. And that's a pretty big grenade on his belt too – looks like it might be Neurostun! Here, take a couple of these, just in case you get up close and personal with anyone." Aswon passed over a couple of tranquiliser patches, discs of material about five centimetres across that were laced on one side with a powerful sedative "Now we need to get through this door, though, and quickly!"
"No problem." Marius hefted the guard up and waved his arm near the door to the security booth. The embedded scanner picked up the RFID tag implanted somewhere in the meaty flesh, firing off a request to the security server, which dutifully confirmed that this tag was in fact legitimate and also authorised to open this particular door. An audible click confirmed that the door was unlocked, and Marius grabbed the handle and then did a silent count-down, facing Aswon and mouthing the words.
As Marius finished the count-down, Aswon sprang through the door, staff raised and poised to strike. The booth was not that big, and the other guard in there was sitting at the desk, looking out of the one-way glass at the corridor beyond. He started to turn towards Aswon, probably wondering why the other guard had decided to come back in – but this only gave his profile to the rapidly moving mercenary, and the taser staff slammed into the side of his temple. Bright sparks flew across the skin and the guard writhed as Aswon hit the trigger, sending 50,000 volts dancing across the side of his face. Writhing like a fish, the unconscious form of the guard slipped out of the chair and down to the floor below, landing in an untidy heap. Aswon moved the body, laying him out straight and rolling him over into the recovery position, making sure his airway was clear – the last thing they needed was for the guard to suffer any kind of complication and die. Partly because Aswon had no desire to kill him, but also because if he did have an embedded bio-monitor, death or serious injury would definitely raise the alarm!
"Room secure, both guards neutralised." he announced over the comms, then bent over the desk to study the security system. "Marius, I think the controls here will open the inner doors, and there's a camera system too, one covering the hallway out there, and one the hallway on the inside of the second set of doors."
"On it. I will loop the footage on the cameras, rather than disabling them – no idea if they are also monitored elsewhere…"
While Marius worked on the security system, Hunter moved up and slid through the second set of doors on the eastern side of the small 'airlock' security node, and glanced down the corridor. Unlike outside, this area was brightly lit by the overhead fittings, revealing a fairly sterile and clean area. The floor was a hardwearing laminate rather than the carpets they had seen elsewhere, and down each side of the corridor were small bump-guard rails, to protect the walls from trolleys or carts smashing into them. Three doors were on the northern side of the corridor, labelled 'Machine room', 'Server operations room' and 'Backup server room'.
"Definitely in the right place." He paused for a moment and cycled through his vision modifications, looking for any trip beams or scanners, and then remembering their earlier discovery on the tenth floor, he dropped to the floor and turned his head sideways, scanning down the floor and looked for any tell-tale signs. "And we got more problems. No beams or scanners I can see, but we've got two frakking big pressure pads, one right outside each door we need to use. No sign of the weird mossy stuff though, so we should be able to use magic I think."
Shimazu stepped over him and wandered down the hallway, seemingly ignoring the pressure pads and using his powers to just glide over them.
"Both doors are locked with the same kind of lock mechanisms we've seen so far. You're going to need Marius down here to over-ride them. And it looks like the pads here go to within a few centimetres of the wall, just like the other ones. Going to be very hard not to step on them and do any work.
"Did that guard say anything as he was coming out?" Tads asked as she moved forwards to the security booth.
"Drek – you're right! He said he'd report in, in two minutes regardless. Good catch Tads." Aswon grabbed the radio on the desk and checked the settings, then keyed up the transmit button. "Station 23 reporting in. False alarm, say again, false alarm. No Rhino sighting."
"Station 23, say again your situation?" The voice that came back was quite clear, and there was definitely an edge of suspicion to it. Aswon took a calming breath and then keyed up the radio again.
"Station 23 to control, negative sighting. All quiet here. We thought we saw something, but we were mistaken. Do you want us to do a sweep?"
"Station 23, what's your employee ID?" There was a definite edge to the voice now, and Aswon felt his stomach knot. Maybe there was some kind of protocol to use – something that wasn't a challenge response that Tads had looked for, but something else. Whatever it was, he'd missed it. He heard Tads pulling open the door, knew that she'd be going to grab the guard and probe his mind, trying to find the data. But that was going to take time… time he probably didn't have.
"Station 23, this is station 19. Do you require assistance?" Kai called down, adding a faint touch of sarcasm to his voice. "Maybe I can get you a coffee, help you wake up a little? Come wipe your faceplate, help you see more clearly?" Aswon breathed a sigh of relief as Kai belittled him, chewing up valuable seconds. Tads was already tapping away on her commlink, sending over the employee ID for the guard that had been the first to fall.
"Station 19, we're fine, thanks. Control – my employee ID is N394-EA38-GH1."
The radio went quiet for a moment, and they all held their breath.
"Station 23, confirmed. We were just concerned because we got a spike on a bio-monitor is all. And station 19, keep the channel clear."
"23, yeah, we got a little excited – really thought we saw movement – turned out we didn't. Guess we got a little jumpy and thought we were going to get some action. Continuing our sweep of the area, though, out here."
Tads left the booth and headed out through the security door into the corridor, then cast her levitate spell once more, lifting Hunter up into the air a few centimetres. Hunter, in turn, grabbed Marius by the waist, then pulled him backwards and towards him, forcing Marius to stand on his feet. As Hunter adjusted his grip, holding Marius firmly in place, his groin pressed up against the back of Marius.
"Don't get excited. I'm not that kind of guy…" Marius ignored him, focussing on his tools instead as they smoothly accelerated down the corridor, Tads guiding them down and holding them in place just outside the third doorway. Moments later, Hunter's attempt at humour was forgotten as Marius stripped the case off yet another security system, then got to work on the circuit board inside.
"Station 19 – report!" The voice called over the radio, somewhat brusquely.
"This is 19, possible sounds on the floor below – just checking that out." Kai answered quickly.
"Say again, 19?"
"No, no, it's ok. I thought we had a contact – but it's nothing. I heard the team from station 23, but we've just waved at each other."
The radio went silent, and Kai stared at it for a moment, before shrugging. They seem to have bought the story – certainly they weren't asking for HIS employee ID, which was good, as Tads was too far away to get it for him…
Marius had just pushed the door open to the backup server room, stepping off Hunter's feet when he heard a snapping noise from above him. Looking up he saw a deadbolt had dropped down from the doorframe, now standing several centimetres proud of the housing. If he'd been a moment later opening the door, it would have been sealed tight. A second clunk from up the corridor told him the other door had probably just become impassable as well.
In the security booth, Aswon jumped slightly as the lights came on full, not only in his booth, but also in the small airlock chamber outside, and in fact all across the floor, everywhere he could see out of the window – it was all suddenly as bright as daylight. His gaze dropped to the monitors, and he could see the cameras all quickly adjusting, the lenses contracting to reduce the amount of light they admitted as everywhere on the floor became brightly illuminated.
"Pretty sure they've just triggered a general alert. Standby for contact." He reached into the toolbox and grabbed the shotgun, then started unpacking ammo and rapidly filling the magazine, thrusting more rounds into his pockets and starting to check his gear. It seemed the time for subtlety was fading, and loud, violent, brutal and messy violence was not only on the menu, but also what the chef was preparing…
Tads dropped the spell and then turned away from the corridor, moving back into the security booth to link up with Aswon. He was busy fiddling with his shotgun, so she squeezed past him and alternated between looking out of the window of the booth and scanning the monitors, looking for trouble.
In the server room, Hunter had found the offline host, a huge rack of computer equipment with massive storage arrays linked to it, and was busy checking it over. He started to swear under his breath as he moved around the rack, tracing cables and checking access ports.
"What is wrong Hunter? Why are you not uploading the virus."
"I'd love to mate, but there's no frakking access ports. Not one. Just network connectivity. It looks like you CAN'T access this locally. What a drekball!"
"Then how do they get data to it?"
"Down these… look, there's eight data cables coming out the back. Chunky fibre optic multipath array. Loads of bandwidth. Goes to the top of rack, then over here… bridge to here, then back down…" Hunter kept up a monologue as he traced the cables down to a small patch port in the wall, where some smaller jumper cables were dangling next to the ports. "And to here… I bet that these when linked up will connect it to the main host. When they need to refresh their backups, they plug in – push the data over the links – then break the connection, and return it to being air-gapped!" He started to frantically plug in the cables, checking each connection matched the numbered cable to the right port. "I'll need to either be in the next room to connect in the storage chip, or hack some kind of I/O port up on the host here. Get me that door open, will you!" He gestured to the small access door that connected the backup room to the primary. Marius immediately headed over and got to work with his tools, stripping off the casing with practiced familiarity now.
"I see someone. No, two… three. Four guards, just came out of a room into a corridor!" Tads called out excitedly. "No idea where they are, but they're expecting trouble!" Aswon craned his head around her as he stuffed the last of the shotgun shells into his pockets and checked the screen she was pointing at. As she had said there was a squad of guards moving down the corridor, walking carefully and with assault rifles raised to their shoulders, snugged in tightly while they sighted down the scopes. The light glimmered off their obvious combat armour, and Aswon could see that they moved with practiced ease down the corridor, each guard covering a different arc and moving in a bounding overwatch that let them clear each turning or doorway swiftly and efficiently.
"Oh, we are so blown… inbound team, moving tactically, weapons hot! They're gliding, definitely some kind of reflex enhancement. No shout over the radio, they may have realised their comms are compromised!" He watched as the security troops continued to move for a few seconds, trying to get a feel for how smoothly and quickly they advanced, watching the weapons swivel around corners with blinding speed. "These guys are wired up like Marius or Hunter – don't hesitate if we make contact, these guys are gonna be good!"
Kai flinched as he heard the door behind him get thrown open, and the ork mage strutted through, face like thunder.
"What's going on! I was just about to doze off when the alarm went off!" When he saw that he had Kai's full attention, he dramatically clicked thumb and fingers together on both hands, glowering at Kai as a pair of fire elementals materialised on either side of him. His face was bathed in the flickering yellowy-orange light, and the air above him began to shimmer from the heat haze.
Kai made a show of swallowing obviously, and tried his best to look awestruck and impressed.
"I'm sorry sir, I've only just had the call myself. Something about intruders being spotted. But you'd know far more about this than me, given your position and importance." Garick seemed to accept the comment at face value, and stalked past Kai into the lobby, looking from north to south, then back again.
"I'm going to go check it out, then."
"Of course sir. Please, let me know if I can help in any way," Kai called out to his back, as Garick stomped through the doors and turned left, heading westward down the corridor. He didn't bother calling the rest of the team – there wasn't anything they could do, and it would only distract them, he thought. And the mage was gone, at least for the moment. He'd tell them if the ork came back, and would be a problem…
"Kai, I think it's time to launch the distraction!"
"I agree!" Hunter added, crouching down over the main server terminal in the primary server room, having pushed past Marius as soon as the door was unlocked. Fortunately it seemed that the interconnecting door wasn't covered by a deadbolt – or it hadn't been engaged yet. Either way, it gave him access to the core systems, and he rapidly jacked in, looking for the access ways that would connect through into the next room.
Kai shucked his wrist out from under the slightly-too-big security uniform and sent the message to Phoss and Ury.
[Like to order a large pizza for delivery, and some garlic bread]
[With cheese!]
"They got the message, executing now. Hopefully that might give them something else to worry about." He relayed to the rest of the team. Glancing around the room, he made a grab for the assault rifle, and fiddled with the cocking handle, trying to remember exactly what to do. Hunter made it seem so easy and simple when he did it, handling his battle rifle with a panache that Kai hadn't really thought about much – until now. He worked out what to do after a few seconds though, and pulled the rifle across his lap, keeping it down under the level of the desk for now.
"If this all goes horribly sideways and we're captured, remember we're here to steal information, not plant it! Though don't give that up too easily or quickly!" Aswon called out. He grabbed one of the guard's rifles and hefted it carefully. It didn't feel quite balanced, certainly not like his normal rifle, but it would do at a pinch.
"They're here…" Tads whispered, catching sight of the first guard to the west of their position. He was moving more slowly now, easing forward and checking each of the corners and bits of furniture carefully. She wondered if she had enough time to use her influence spell on him – assuming she could overcome his strength of will at all, that is – but realised in a heartbeat that he was moving too quickly across her field of vision for that. The second member of the squad eased into view, his rifle aimed directly at her, and for a moment she forgot to breathe – then remembered he couldn't see through the polarised glass to actually get a line of sight to her.
On the tenth floor, Kai saw movement in the corridor, spying two sets of guards moving, appearing from around a corner and swiftly advancing up corridors. He wasn't sure where in the building they were, but at their speed of advance, it wasn't going to take long to reach him, no matter how far away they were. He pushed up from his chair, holding the rifle in one hand and grabbing at the large grenade in the other. Just as he was about to move away, he saw another contact on a different monitor. A figure emerged from a room, wearing a deep red robe with the hood thrown back, revealing a middle-aged human, his black skin glinting under the bright lights. His face was covered with a tattoo of a grinning skull, and in his hand was a dagger that looked to be carved from bone. A moment later another figure came out of the room opposite, and Kai didn't know which one he was more worried by.
The second figure must have been nearly as tall as Aswon, but while he was slender and wiry, this figure looked more like a mobile tank. Clad from head to toe in matt-grey armour, he had to turn sideways to fit through the doorway. An integrated helmet obscured his entire head, and every part of his body appeared to be heavily armoured. Despite the massive, bulky armour, the figure moved like a dancer, gliding out into the corridor with the grace of a ballerina, turning and bringing up a massive battle rifle to cover the passageway. This was jet-black, sleek and deadly-looking.
"We have multiple guards on the top floor, and some of the elite patrols are up and moving!" he warned, then ran for the door out of the lobby, glancing up and down the north corridor.
"Package delivered, pulling out!"
"Shimazu, can you ferry them out? Busy here!"
Tads focussed her will and created a new trid-phantasm, right at the edge of her vision, as far south as she could see down the main concourse. For a moment, a fleeting glimpse of an intruder could be seen, their leather longcoat swirling with movement as they slid around the corner and out of sight. A faint squeak echoed in the quiet office as their foot apparently turned.
"CONTACT!" The guard had caught the same glimpse out of the corner of his eye and burst into a sprint, hammering feet taking him south with the rifle held ready to attack. The rest of his squad raced after him, getting ready to pursue and give him support.
Hunter raced through into the backup room and started to pull cables out of the sockets, breaking the link between the online and offline host.
Marius pulled the door shut and pulled the jumper cable off the circuit board, then slapped the casing back in place, before heading to the outer door. He reached up and tried to push the deadbolt into place, but it was firmly wedged in the downward position.
"Come on, we have to go!" Shimazu hissed, grabbing him and lifting him bodily into the air and to one side, propelling him past the pressure pad.
"Hunter – get the deadbolt! Or they will know we were in the room!"
Hunter raced over to the door and hit the bolt with his palm, straining his muscles and pushing upwards, applying force until with a dramatic noise the deadbolt broke, sliding back up into the hole it had dropped from.
Shimazu grabbed him, and with a heave he lifted the massive ork, struggling much more with him than he had with Marius – but adrenaline lent him strength and he moved Hunter past the pressure pad, too.
"We are going to be crawling in guards soon!" Aswon warned, gesturing to the monitors where another squad of four guards seemed to be emerging from a different room.
"Sending out a watcher spirit to try and distract them!" Tads responded, focussing for a few seconds and then sending off the summoned spirit to act as a distraction. The watcher was a lot more fragile and a lot less intelligent than the normal spirits she summoned – but it could make noise and be seen just as easily, and their weaker and less substantial forms were far too inconsequential to carry her astral signature, making them effectively untraceable. They also tended to last only a few hours, but that was the least of her concerns right now.
Aswon had both of the guards trussed up with speed-ties, and tucked out of the way, and was holding open the door leading to the IT corridor, watching as Hunter and Marius moved towards the next pressure pad.
Shimazu pushed the deadbolt up just long enough to swing the door closed, hearing it drop down into place, just under the effects of gravity, before sprinting back down the corridor towards them. Moments later he'd scooped Marius up once more and carried him over the last pressure pad.
Kai had moved down to the east, and keyed up his microphone.
"19! CONTACT – GYM!" He squeezed the trigger as he did so, letting the gun buck wildly as he sprayed indiscriminate fire around, bullets punching into the walls and digging craters into the plasterboard – and definitely carrying over the radio.
On the floor below, Aswon suddenly looked up in horror, hearing the call over their own radio. What was Kai doing – the gym was right next to the stairwell they were going to retreat up in a few seconds!
Aswon ran for the door to the stairwell, weapon raised and ready to fire if a target appeared – but it looked like the guards were still distracted by Tads and her phantasmal distraction. He heard footsteps behind him, and pressed on into the stairwell, ready to ascend.
Behind him Tads hustled along, followed by Marius and Hunter, with Shimazu bringing up the rear, pulling the doors closed behind him and then sprinting to catch up with the group. He piled into the stairwell too, pushing the door shut and turning to leap up the stairs in pursuit.
On the tenth floor, Kai dropped the empty rifle, pushed the button on the grenade and threw it as hard as he could towards the changing rooms. The ungainly cylinder arced through the air, hit the wall and then bounced off at an angle, deflecting away from him before exploding just inside the entranceway to one of the rooms.
White fibrous material exploded outwards, slicing through the air in great loops that adhered to the walls, forming a thick, gelatinous mass. As the spinning grenade continued to exude material in random directions, the loops criss-crossed through the air, forming a dense web of incredibly sticky resin, quickly forming a spider's web across the corridor that made it entirely impassable.
He turned and ran, heading back to the lobby, hoping that it would draw some of the guards that way. When he got back to the desk, he spotted on the monitor that the guards had picked up the pace a little, and seemed to be closing fast – and as he looked around he realised that there really wasn't anywhere to hide out here.
"Drek! Guys, got the new mage closing from the east, I think. Guards heading for the lobby. Need help!"
Aswon jumped as he got to the top of the stairs, activated his own powers and clung to the roof, then quickly crawled out of the stairwell onto the tenth floor and looked around, spotting the damaged walls and the mass of chemical resin flowing out of the corridor, the material still expanding as it oxidised rapidly.
Well, at least he knew what the grenades were for now… he dropped off the roof when he saw no hostile guards, landing lithely and turning to the south he pulled the grenade out, primed it and then threw it swiftly towards the corridor entrance that led eastwards.
Unless his tactical senses had completely betrayed him, he was pretty certain that was the main access way towards the 'magical' chambers and the guest quarters.
His aim was far better than Kai's, and he'd pitched the grenade with a lot of backspin too – when it hit the wall and ricocheted around the corner, the cylinder was spinning like a clock face – jetting out the material in a mostly flat plane, sending questing loops of the sticky material outwards and quickly walling off the corridor.
The rest of the team had piled out of the stairwell while he was throwing the grenade, stacking up behind him and pointing their own weapons to the west or south, covering the approach routes. They saw a flicker of shadow to the west as the four guards on the north side of the lobby turned and barrelled through the doorway.
They heard a crash as another group entered the lobby from the south side.
A second passed, then another – but there were no rapid fire shots, no calls to surrender.
The team started to move forwards, stealthily. Approaching the lobby, carefully, wondering just where the hell Kai was, and how the guards hadn't seen him yet.
It was quiet, deathly quiet. They crept across the carpet, the luxurious material deadening the sounds of their footsteps, absorbing the noise of their motion.
Closer and closer they got, until they spied the doors to the east of the reception lobby. On the other side should be the two squads of guards, one on the north side, one on the south. And somewhere in there was Kai…
Meanwhile, in the lift-shaft, Kai hung on to the inside of the lift doors, holding his breath and trying not to make any noise at all. Through the tiny gap between the doors, he could see the flickering of shadows as the guards moved around, discovering the unconscious comrade under the desk, checking out the coffee area, moving to double check that he hadn't somehow hidden behind one of the statues.
He glanced back over his shoulder, down into the black abyss below him, then closed his eyes and turned back towards the door, trying to ignore the beckoning darkness.
Both of his hands were clamped onto the reinforcing strut on the inside of the door, forming a claw shape. Fingers on the top of the bar, thumb on the bottom, they pressed together as hard as he could, trying to stop his bodyweight pulling him off the narrow ledge and down however many floors to his death.
He felt the left hand starting to slip, sweat popping from his flesh as the tension rose. Taking a chance he tried to increase his grip with the right hand, released his left and wiped it back and forth on his shirt. Hurriedly he grabbed hold of the door again with his left hand, resuming his grip, then reversed the motion, releasing and wiping with the right, then grabbing the door once more. It delayed the inevitable, but he felt his grip slipping again, no matter what he did.
"Any time now…. Whenever you're ready." He whispered into the comms, and tried not to think about the drop behind him.