The Mission

Part 4

The chair looked like it was in the same position. And the lights were off. There were plenty of dark hiding places inside. Like under the table where I found safety. And then there was the blind spot by the door from my position.

Exactly where I would camp out if I wanted someone to hurry and do something stupid before I jabbed them in the side with a weapon. However, I knew her weapon was disabled. But I couldn't be sure she hadn't found a spare. I also couldn't be sure she hadn't just run off and I was wasting time before the entire base was on lockdown.

The second possibility was too risky for me to stay and scan a small, dark room. I backed away and checked the adjoining halls with my optic before leaning out for a good look. Clear. I needed to hurry.

My alternative route wasn't ideal, but it was the best option. I went up the stairs to the roof. From there, I could climb along an access walkway. The pipes and other service lines were large enough I only needed to duck down to keep out of sight. There were a few floodlights, but the area seemed vacant. I scanned as well as I could towards the ground. There were guards around the perimeter. That was to be expected, especially with the fire I'd started. No eyes at my level. Still, my camo was inadequate for gray surroundings.

I made sure my illusion was on. I checked the main batteries. The optics didn't drain much once they held an image, but I had a little more than an hour of illusion.

From there, I took a narrow stairwell down to one of the small energy stations connecting the two buildings. It was also devoid of patrols. I took my time to lay a small bit of the C4 with a detonator. I knew the explosion wouldn't be that strong, so I placed it towards the back near a central joint where I might do more damage. Still, it was just a bonus for later. Set it off and maybe some of the electrical and lighting systems might shutdown.

The lack of alarms or any guards hustling concerned me, especially with the trail I'd left behind. But I had to move ahead. The next access ladder was just where I expected it. After unlocking the door, I ventured into the cold, dark shaft with only a dim, residual glow from my optics. I had the option of a small LED or the low-light augmented vision in my goggles. The latter would eat into the same battery as my optics and the former might trip a silent alarm.

Of course, if they had a vibration sensor then they already knew where I was. I doubted they went even as far as a light sensor in the shaft, but I resisted using my LED. Each step down the ladder had to be slow. I took them with a methodical sinking into each rung. I didn't want them to clang. Scraping was unavoidable. One by one, I descended deeper. I wanted tools I could only imagine, tools to cancel out my sounds or provide an ultrasonic map of my surroundings. But all I had was slow and steady movement.

I could sense a change in the air when I got to the bottom. I prepared myself and touched down with less presence than a footfall in soft snow.  

I slid carefully away the railing. A quick scan told me that all the lights were deactivated. This matched what I'd been told. This access section had parts which were from the original base interior. Many of them were likely routed around with new systems. Still, they probably knew this was an open door into the central base and I suspected that in the dark they had some kind of pressure or motion systems added to close up this gap in security.

I breathed slowly and took out my EM field meter. The device face had a dim glow which added to the glimmer of my optics. Together, I could see a sketchy outline of near walls and the occasional pipe. The rest was darkness undulating with visual after-images as my eyes tried to adjust.

The meter was set to give a very dim change in color if it approached unshielded electrical sources. It would do little if they had state of the art equipment guarding this hole, but it still might pick up some residual. Probably too late for me to do anything before an alarm was tripped, but at least I would know.

I moved slowly down the corridor. Soon, air pushed at my face. Probably a positive pressure environment ahead. Clean rooms. Experiments and all the secrets I had to find but desperately did not want to know.

The meter lit up as I moved it towards one wall. A very strong hit. Probably not an alarm. I searched until I found the source. An electrical conduit with some exposed wiring. No longer used but it was still receiving electricity. Not much but enough to show up. No other spikes, so that had to be it.

I continued, inching the meter over each wall and nook to sense anything hidden. No other spikes for several feet. Then, I got a quick jump on the meter. I stopped. Just what I feared.

I took a step back. I traced the walls nearby but didn't find the spike. I probed the concrete with my fingers. Just pipes. Just bare wall. Nothing out of the ordinary. I held the meter right against the wall. No spikes. Then I brought it back to center and the spike returned. I looked up.

Like a ragged bomb range, I could tell the faint outlines of lamps to light the hallway. The bulbs had been long ago removed. But they were also receiving a little bit of electricity. Much less than the line.

All explained away, which bothered me. I wanted to see an infrared detector. I wanted to see a wire to a pressure plate. I wanted to see a sound sensor. I'd been trained for all those things. They would be bad news, but I could deal with them. The nothingness was upsetting.

I thought about the vanished guard. By now she must've been able to get a message out somehow or broken through the windows and crawled away. I would've done that. The base should be a blaze of activity and chaos and klaxons. But it was so deathly silent that every dark fear I had loomed in the oppressive shadows.

At least my body had given up on sweating and my heart was too confused to thunder. So, I moved forward with the same, careful pace.   

No more spikes. Not even from obvious lighting fixtures. Eventually, the feeling of the floor changed from cement to the texture of a metal grill. I had to step softer because it clanged easily. Then, my hands touched a cement wall. It was uneven with clear edges where something had been changed. I brought out my smallest light and probed the surface.

They had cemented the entryway into the central building. Made sense. The first thing so far which made sense about this route. It was an obvious dead end. But I knew what to do about it because that air flow was pushing on me from below. I peered through the grill and I could see it was a fair drop. The metal on the grills was dense but they were no problem for my cutting tool.

I tied a strong knot around the sturdiest-looking pipe nearby and dropped my rope down the opening. I also dropped a small light and watched it as it fell. About thirty feet. I didn't see anything strange before it clanged noisily on the cement below. I winced. I carried my meter with me and secured the rope to a hook sewn into my clothes under the optics. It probably would look strange to anyone watching but at least there were no cameras around.

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Normally, I would prefer a method of taking the rope with me (like a knot which could be easily undone when loose) when I was down at the bottom, but I needed to keep this rope in place because it would be my primary exit point when I was finished. This was the scariest part, especially if someone found the rope. Which is why this had to be the least-used, most abandoned section of the base.

I slipped on a special pair of gloves and eased myself into the hole. With one hand I managed the tension on the rope, with the other I held out the meter to see if any sensors had been placed down here. The air was much stronger, as loud as a dull roar. That probably ruled out some sensors, but I still had to be careful. The air was enough to cause me to twirl in place, which caused the pipe holding the rope to give a loud groan. I grit my teeth and descended a little faster.

No spikes. No readings. I leaned close to the walls and trained the light only on sections I'd passed. I kept breathing softly despite the unsettling sounds beyond.

Halfway down, my rope slipped with a jerk, rocking me around the shaft so much I nearly banged my head. I took a moment for it to settle. The pipe gave one last creak before it finally quieted. I didn't trust the silence, so I tried to rest some of my weight against the wall. Getting around imagined pressure plates didn't matter if I fell and injured myself with my main point of escape in question.

Of course, this also put extra tension on the rope against the edge of the hole I'd cut. At the same time, I kept my eye on the meter. No spikes.

I settled to the ground with a crouch as the pipe I'd secured to gave a creaking bounce back. I yanked on the rope a few times with my full weight to see if it would give me any more problems. It groaned, but I didn't hear it shifting or cracking. I didn't weigh that much but many of these pipes had been slowly corroding over the years and were not meant to support a person. I hoped they wouldn't mind holding me just one more time on the way out.

I regarded the old, rusted door a ways in front of me with air streaming out the sides. I set the rope in the least conspicuous corner and tied it to one side. With the low light it seemed more like a dense bit of electrical wiring which happened to be hanging down. I brushed my long hair back, made sure my illusion was set, and carefully opened the door. It blasted back with positive pressure, but I restrained it from clanging against the wall.

Despite not being that tall, I had to duck down several times to keep from hitting low-hanging pipes and lines. The meter hadn't had a hit in so long that I almost missed a sudden spike which blasted light from the display.

I could've written this hit off as a badly-exposed line, but I was cautious with probing the area. It didn't take long before I found it. My arms tensed up. It was a mine set in the wall, impossible to see normally with the tangle of pipes.

The signature was a lot stronger than I expected from something like this, so I kept looking. A second mine was just a little ahead and on the ceiling, also hidden. And then there was a small device on the other wall, though I couldn't tell what it was. Just to be sure, I checked the floor. Good idea, since there was a small pressure plate.

I staggered gently back and cupped my mouth. Close. Too close. A spike from all those things could well have been enough to send a signal back to them to activate. I wasn't entirely sure why they hadn't. Perhaps I'd held the meter ahead of me far enough to catch them? Or maybe the first one was a decoy, and the rest were real? I had to consider every possibility, and I'd have to disable each device.

The nearest mine would come first. It was a typical design from the Wars. I expected all the counter-measures. These kinds of mines were made to be found. It was the fiddling to disable them which would often set them off. Still, you couldn't avoid them either. The best way to stop them was to quickly jam both triggers at once. Fortunately, I had just the tool for that. It slipped into both trigger slots.

I slipped my mask back up. It wouldn't protect me from the nanite wash if I did this wrong, but it would at least alert me if nanites started coming out. I'd have a few moments to make my decision of what happened next before I wasn't me anymore.

For the trigger, it was a choice of a left turn or a right turn. I could test them only a little without setting it off. Most of the mines turned to the right because it was more awkward to quickly turn and kill the triggers. There was a chance my hand might dip in front of the sensor. I positioned myself carefully.

Intuitively, I knew I should've turned it to the right. It was the most logical choice. But the left side felt a little loose. Left turn mines existed but I remembered them as the ones which were laid without care. This mechanism was intentional and well-planned with redundancies on the other walls. I had to turn it to the right. It was the only logical setup.

Yet, I hesitated. I had to wonder if they expected intrusion and knew that those trying to get in would know to turn it to the right and would intentionally set it against the usual as a trick. My thoughts could easily spiral out of control from there, overthinking it more and more. I motioned to turn it to the right with the correct grip. I visualized turning it to the right.

But I didn't move. I took a breath and watched the mine. My life depending on such a small little piece of hardened plastic. Turn to the right. To the right. But, despite my grip and with horror in my thoughts, I crunched the trigger to the left. I was so stunned with myself that I nearly missed grabbing the top as it tore off. I watched my mask carefully for any warning. I made sure I didn't handle the nanite container under the mine trigger. And I waited.

No warning. I was safe.

The second mine gave me pause until I noticed the flimsy material. It was a dud, meant to distract from the most obvious mine. I thought perhaps it might have a trigger to send a signal back to the first one, but it didn't even have any wiring. The remaining wall device was a second trigger for the mine on the opposite wall but, since that one was disabled, I could remove it without any trouble. The pressure plate was small enough I could mark it with a brightly-colored spray so I wouldn't step on it during my exit.

All that cleared, I found no more spikes in the readings. The corridor continued for a bit until I came to an opening. Through the opening was a much newer area with a lot of lighting and several doors. I ducked back a moment and made sure everything was working properly. My remaining battery wasn't ideal, but it would have to be enough.

With a deep breath, I stepped through and inside the most covert Embracing Sisterhood facility in the world...