Chapter 26:

His first task when stepping into the hidden area behind the mural, was to find the mechanism that controlled the doorway. It wasn’t hard to find. It looked like an ancient gear and pulley set up, using weights instead of more modern technology. Will couldn’t help but wonder if someone had studied the hotel of H. H. Holmes when building this thing.

Looking at it, Will found the spot that showed the most damage from metal gears grinding together and was about to start oiling everything up, when he realized a flaw in that plan. If he lubricated it enough to make the system quiet, and it stayed quiet, someone who used it regularly would definitely notice the change.

Will considered possible solutions to his issue, but was drawing a blank. If he wanted to get out unnoticed, he couldn’t risk the squeal of the door closing. On the other hand, if he oiled the damn thing up, he highly doubted it wouldn’t give away that someone had been in here who shouldn’t have. Admittedly, he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure this was a restricted area, but given how well hidden the door was he couldn’t imagine it was well trafficked.

“Wait, I’m not alone here.”

With that thought derailing the circle his thoughts had been swirling through, he opted to see if his tag-alongs could help. Keeping his voice as low as possible, he tapped his earbud and spoke for the first time in what felt like hours.

“Hey, Artie, can this drone do anything to help me keep this door quiet when I leave?”

The reply came with only a slight delay.

“Possibly. I should be able to use the on-board microphone to pick up the sound generated when the mechanism operates. With that, the device can invert the soundwaves being picked up, and project the resulting waves to cancel the noise out.

This would be most effective if we can leave the drone behind the door to perform the sound inversion at the mechanism itself, but I am uncertain if we should risk its discovery. If you can locate a potential escape route for the drone it would be a simple matter.

Alternatively, If you can locate a place in the area behind the wall that is sufficiently hidden, we could also order the drone to go into stealth mode. It would be unable to fly without powering up, but would enter a hibernation mode that should allow it to go completely unnoticed. As a benefit, the low power mode would still allow active camouflage to be engaged should someone enter the area.”

“Got it. Moving forward, please offer any suggestions that you think would help. I’ll be switching to nonverbal communication whenever possible, but my earbud should be plenty quiet to prevent anyone overhearing your end. On my end we’ll say one tap to the bud is ‘yes.’ Two taps is ‘no.’ Rapid taps means ‘I don’t understand.’”

“Understood. Would this be a good time for me to begin examining the area?”

Will tapped his earbud once, and the drone lifted off of his arm with almost no sound.

With his energy suppressed to the point of being barely enough to maintain his low-light vision, his senses weren’t as sharp as they could be. Even so, he was fairly certain the small buzz the machine was putting off was more from his energy sense than his actual hearing.

That handled, for the moment, Will took in his surroundings in detail for the first time since entering. He stood in a small compartment, with modern doors to his left and right, and the exit behind him. He didn’t think it mattered which door he checked first, so choosing the left door, and slowly opened it.

This door was, thankfully, silent on its hinges, and Will noted cool air coming through the opening. Stepping in, he found himself in a small, insulated computer room. There were two server racks to his left, against the far wall was a machine that kept the room chilled, and to his right was a small desk with a laptop that looked like it was hardwired into whatever network the room contained.

He couldn’t be positive without looking into it, but he suspected this room was isolated from any external networks, being totally air-gapped. It wouldn’t be difficult, and the only annoying part would be that anything they wanted to store on the servers would have to be loaded directly.

Reluctantly speaking up again, Will asked Artie if the drone could connect to the laptop or servers and download the information stored there.

“I can manage that with the drone. I should inform you that I have re-routed our communication. It appears this area is contained within a faraday cage, but the extra dimensional nature of the Aether allows us to bypass that issue.

Unfortunately, uploading the data on the servers will likely cause a spike in aetheric energy, so we should wait to send the data to The Cube until you leave the sensory range of any Activated members in the area. It will limit the amount of data we can bring out to what can be stored on the removable storage of the device, but it may not wind up being an issue. We will not know until we connect with the machines in the room.”

Will tapped his earbud once, confirming he understood, and the drone moved over to the laptop to begin its job. With that being taken care of, there wasn’t anything left for Will to do in the room, so he left the room and crossed to the opposite door.

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Opening the door, he immediately noticed it was a lot warmer on the other side. Concerned about setting off any temperature sensors in the computer room, Will immediately closed the door behind him. He then stepped through the new door, and closed it behind him as well.

The room he was in now held a large metal-clad chamber with a large outlet on the back side that connected to the chimney he had seen from outside. It had a hatch facing him, with a small viewing window. Looking through, he could see a brick lined interior with a gas fed pilot light burning from the rear internal wall.

Will was fairly positive he was looking at an incinerator, of some sort. The hatch was easily large enough to put a box of documents through, and the grate lining the bottom had ash deposits visible in its cracks.

Inside, it was about five feet deep, four feet wide, and three feet tall. The contraption took up most of the room, but to his left Will found a stainless steel table he assumed would be used to prepare whatever was going into the machine.

Will knew, intellectually, that a secret organization like The Activated would have paper trails to eliminate. He could not, however, stop himself from considering that an incinerator that large could be used to destroy evidence well beyond simple documents.

His comparison to H. H. Holmes earlier likely didn’t help with where his mind was going. Especially when he remembered the stains covering the lab coat Frankston had been wearing when he left this building the previous night.

He also realized that wild speculation didn’t accomplish anything, and he would have to find actual evidence before having anything conclusive to base a theory on.

Looking around the room, he failed to find anything that offered any further insight into the purpose of the room. Looking up, however, he did notice an access hatch for an attic in the ceiling. so he once again spoke in low tones to Artie.

“I’ve got what looks like a large industrial incinerator in here. I don’t see any obvious ways to get the drone out if we lock it back here, but there is an attic. If the drone can push up on one end of the hatch with enough force, it should be able to hide out up there. We’ll want to send it up to check the area out before I leave though, just to be safe. Progress on downloading the laptop and server data to the main drone?”

“Copying of the various drives will be completed in approximately five minutes. It would be faster, but I am taking extra steps to make sure there is no record of us accessing their system. Without knowing the technical expertise of those who use this room, erasing logs of our access and data acquisition seemed prudent.”

“Ok, as soon as you finish, let me know and I’ll open the door. I take it that storage space didn’t wind up being an issue?”

“Understood. No, while there is more data than would fit on a single one of the drives here, the storage available to us is just slightly more than needed. If we leave the main drone here, you will need to carry out its storage. fortunately, removing it is a simple operation.”

Will again tapped his confirmation, and exited the incinerator room. The wash of cool air was definitely a relief. He hadn’t realised how stifling the heat had started getting in that room. While he waited, he decided to look closer at the mechanism for the main door leading into this area.

It was strange to him. The mix of an ancient looking door system with a high tech data storage area. The incongruity of it made him think of people who had lived through those eras of development. It might seem like they had simply updated their own facilities when they had to, but he knew for a fact that the branch head wasn’t that old. He was just a pretentious tool, apparently.

The lack of internal security here also bothered him. He couldn’t decide if it was purely arrogance, stupidity, laziness, or maybe they wanted absolutely zero record of this space existing. Likely, it was a mix of all of those things, but still, it bothered him.

Frankston at least had a rigged up motion sensor system for trying to detect people. He just couldn’t understand why they would leave this place even less secure than that.

Knowing he wouldn’t be having any brilliant insights, Will put his thoughts aside for the moment, as Artie told him they were ready to make their exit. Walking over to the doors, Will opened the computer room door briefly to allow the drone to exit.

“Okay, how do I pull the drive?”

“On the rear side of the drone, you will see a square in the center that can be pressed in slightly. Doing so will trigger an eject mechanism.”

Removing the rectangular piece, Will decided he would have to look more closely at it in better light, and simply placed it in his pocket. He then walked back into the incinerator room with the drone and closed the door behind him.

Grabbing the poke-y looking tool from beside the machine, Will used it to push up one side of the hatch in the ceiling enough for the drone to fly through and take a quick look around.

“This area is mostly barren. There are a few boxes, but they clearly have not moved for quite some time. It will suffice.”

With Will’s tapped acknowledgement, the drone once again joined him.

"I just realized a problem. How are we going to get the drone back into the incinerator room after you cancel the noise from the door?"

"I anticipated this. With that tool, you should be able to put a small hole in the ceiling above the mechanism. As long as it is small, it should go unnoticed, and I should be able to do my part from above."

Nodding to himself, Will walked out of the incinerator room and closed the door behind him. Walking to the hidden door's mechanism, he looked up at the ceiling.

Raising the tool, he placed it against the ceiling at a point indicated by the drone. With a quick, sharp motion, he slapped the bottom of the poker. Fortunately, he hadn't hit too hard and a small hole was punctured in the sheetrock.

"That work?" Will asked.

"Indeed. Please allow the drone into the room with the incinerator, and you can make your exit."

Following directions, Will returned to the exit from the hidden area after opening and closing the incinerator room door one more time. Tapping his earbud once, to indicate he was in position, he waited.

"The drone is in position. I have a microphone trained on the needed location, and I am ready to broadcast a noise canceling field."

With that, Will exited the hidden area and pressed the button to close the secret door.

It again required a lot of force, but soon enough the door was grinding to a close. It was somewhat surreal. He could hear very little sound from something his brain told him should be deafening. Adding to that, his energy sense was picking up what felt like an odd haze behind the door.

The last part made him wonder if the energy produced by sound waves could be channeled and used for something. Fortunately, ADHD or not, he knew now was NOT the time to find out.

The door finished closing, and Will was once again facing the ridiculous mural. Shaking his head at the stupid thing one more time, he couldn't help but hope he could mess with it at some point. Smirking at himself, he moved on to the exit.

For now, it was time to go home and see what they had managed to dig up on the drive in his pocket.