Emyr’s foot slipped on the sil of the window. His body pitched forward and fell into a roll that almost seemed intentional. As he stood up and looked around, the light from the window lacked the ability to penetrate deeply into the building. The shadows cast provided an eerie feeling of stillness and secrets. a far cry from earlier today when the room was full of people. 

emyr crept closer to the center of the room. Bypassing all the humming computers tucked neatly under the desks of all the poor peons that worked in the massive bullpen. None of those machines would have the access needed to find his prize. He had to push forward.  

In the center of the room was a large pillar from floor to ceiling. Around it were spaced several doors. Walking around it, Emyr read the plaques; janitor, men’s, woman's, 36th floor, electrical, Erickson, Frederich, Goldstein… ah there it is! Director Ferdinand. 

The door was locked, but not very well. Soon emyr was creaking it open to look inside. The desktop in here should be able to find what he's looking for. emyr checked his mission description one more time.

“infiltrate the exocorp facility, use director Ferdinand's terminal to find dirt we can use as leverage”

Too bad his client wasn't able to be more specific. But beggars cant be choosers and this job paid enough that emyr wouldn't have to worry about food for at least three months.

It would be nice to know what they were trying to get Mr. Ferdinand to do exactly. Since blackmail is a delicate business. Dirty photos of the mark with his mistress would be great and all. However, in the face of enough money, the alimony is just written off as the cost of doing business. 

With any luck this will be easy and Ferdinand keeps track of his deals in something as easy to understand as a file named “illegal trades” or something equally easy. Emyr pondered these things as the cracking stick he found went to work breaking into the terminal. 

Just when he was thinking of writing the device off as a fraud the screen flashed and a nice picture of who must have been ferdinand with a large sport fish showed up. It looked like he had paid to go fish in one of the sport fish farms over in Anaeco. He wondered what service exocorp provided that could afford that kind of luxury, but only for about as long as it took to start up the accounting software. 

As the files were transferring emyr looked around the office. He would have to go through them in a safer place, since who knows what parts of the data were gonna be useful.

There was a plaque on the wall showing off the various degrees and awards that Ferdinand had received. They were hung on a wall covered with what looked like real wood. The carpet was short but tasteful, easy to clean, and patterned to hide stains. There were groves where Mr. Ferdinand presumably liked to pace back and forth. The large tree in the corner looked like it was flash grown with its thin trunk and anemic canopy. And the lighting overhead looks like it would have been soft even as there were three large lamps for the smallish room.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Not that emyr turned on any of them. He might be alone in the building, but that doesn't mean someone wont be able to see the lights from somewhere. Best not to take chances. 

*beep beep* 

the files finished downloading.

“Finally, with this much data theres bound to be something dirty.”

emyr grabbed the stick just as he heard the elevator ding outside. His heart leapt to his throat. There wasnt supposed to be anyone here. The security is all offsite and the cleaners had already gone home. He watched them leave. 

frantic and cursing the open layout of the cubical farm, emyr slipped out of the door and tried to listen for footsteps, to dodge around the pillar. Maybe he could slip down the stairs to a different floor for extraction? 

“I'm not sure what you mean! Theres o one here. The lights aren't on, the doors are all still closed, and the computers are still off. I swear if you made me get out of bed and come all the way over here for another false alarm, we are renegotiating our contract!” 

Emyr could hear the man talking to someone, but only heard one set of footsteps. The sound let him stay on a different side of the pillar. It seems despite his best efforts he was spotted. The footsteps stopped in front of the office he was just in and he couldnt resist looking.

a man in a disheveled suit that looks like it was warn a few times already was fumbling at the lock on the door. He had a passing resemblance to the man with the fish, but it looked like he had aged a few years. His hairline had receeded at least 3 inches, his eyes had large bags underneath, and instead pf a smile there was a scowl. 

The door finally clicked and as the door swung open, the light from the monitor spilled out of the office. Emyrs hesrt dropped, and the man on the phone cursed. 

“Fuck! You were right, someone was here! You're supposed to tell me about them before they get into my office and turn on my computer! Where are they?!” He spins around and glares at the gloom. “If the project is compromised because of your incompetence your ass is grass!”

emyr found the stairs and rushed to try the handle. Locked. He's gonna have to try the window again. 

Crouching down and running he sprints to the edge of the building knowing the time for stealth is done.  

*bang! bang! bang!*

Followed by the sound of gunshots and rained on by shrapnel from busted computers rains down emyr has he dives for the window. 

“You have nowhere to run! The stairs are locked and the elevators are all shut down! Give up now and I will be merciful!” The suit who is probably Ferdinand shouts after emyr. 

emyr grabs the rope that he climbed in on and retorts. 

“Two in the back of the head isn't a mercy I want to experience, corpo!” 

emyr starts repelling down the side of the building aware that 36 floors is a lot of distance to cover. 

He was about three quarters down when he felt the rope start to move. He looked up and saw Ferdinand trying to saw through his line. 

“shit!” 

emyr stopped and pulled out his pistol and started firing at the nearest window. It shattered and he fell through just as the line went slack. 

He brushed off some of the glass from his face as he stood up. He looked around and blasted out another window on the other side of a support pillar. And wrapped the remains of his rope around the pillar before repelling the rest of the way to the ground. 

He started walking away and called his car for a pickup. the sidewalk starts to plink as the bullets rain down from the 36th floor.  

He jumps into the car and slams the door. “Damn, im glad this job pays so well cause that was a close call.” He punches in the address to his safe house and tries to calm the jitters down as he drives away.