An hour later the bus dropped me off outside a suburb. Hundreds, possibly thousands of identical houses sat in neat rows. I wasn’t sure how many there were, and hadn’t bothered to check. The feeling of sameness and conformity felt oppressive to me. I definitely wouldn’t want to live here.
I walked up to the gate and told the guard who I was there to meet. After confirming they were, indeed, someone who lived there, I was allowed in. I walked for at least 15 minutes before arriving at the correct house, passing a wide variety of people who were grilling, sunbathing, or playing in back yards. I noticed that there were no children in the streets, pets outside of fences, or loud sounds. The HOA was no doubt as powerful as a small town’s government around here.
When I got to the correct house, distinctive only for its lack of anyone outside and house number beside the door and on the mailbox, I knocked on the door. A middle aged woman with a short, side parted haircut opened the door. “Diana Sanders?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Call me Di.” She stepped aside and motioned into her house. “Please, come inside.” She stepped out of the way and I entered. She immediately locked the door behind me and I was a bit weary as she turned around. “So, Wan tells me you are a good locksmith.”
“Yeah, pretty good.”
“That’s good. You’ll need it for the mission. You’ll also need to behave properly. The only way you’ll be accepted is if you are Vegan, obsessed with animal rights and, because you are a man, completely subservient.”
“But, I’m none of those things.”
“Which is why I’m going to train you. Wan says you’re like him, you have a photographic memory and learn really quickly. So, for the next three days you’ll be living here as I teach you.”
“I’ll need to get some stuff from my house first.” I responded. I wasn’t expecting a three day bootcamp experience.
“I have yoga tomorrow morning at eight with Bev. You can go get it then. Unfortunately for you, though, the only way we’ll be able to convince her that I trust you enough to recommend you for this mission is if she thinks you’re my latest lover. Which means that you have to be seen by her and whoever else in the neighborhood is watching me as staying the night.”
“Uh, I don’t know how to put this, but you’re not really my type.” I hoped this job wouldn’t require certain things of me. I signed up to be a spy, not a gigolo.
“I didn’t say you actually had to sleep with me, just act well enough to convince them you did, and that you are the kind of guy they can accept. I have a guest room for you to sleep in.” That was good.
“Good. I can live with that.”
“Good.” she nodded. “Now, for your first lesson. It’s almost supper time and I’m hungry. I have four Vegan cookbooks in there. Pick something from one of them and cook us something to eat.”
An hour later I had completed some faux Mexican dish and we sat down to eat. “I have a question for you.” I started. “Why betray your friend like this?”
Di sat her soy taco down and paused for a minute. “I’ve known Bev since we were roommates in college. Even joined up with ASBF with her. Went to a few protests with her, back when they were just trying to shut down factory farms and the worst slaughterhouses. Then, in the late nineties, there was a split in the group. One faction wanted to stay like they were, and one wanted to do more. The second wasn’t content with just stopping the worst of it, they wanted to stop all animal abuse. Bev joined them, and, after they forcibly shut down one of those slaughterhouses with a bit of arson, that faction took over the whole organization. After that, I kind of dropped out, though not officially. I couldn’t handle the violence. They went from peaceful protesters to full blown terrorists. And now, all I can do is to try and stop them, to pull them back to where they once were.”
Three days later, on a Wednesday night, Di brought me to a meeting. I had gained an Acting skill at level 4, and had leveled up my Cooking skill quite a bit. Apparently learning to cook a completely different style of food was great for gaining XP. I had also memorized several Vegan talking points just in case I needed them and, when I got bored, watched hacking tutorials on Yourtube. The FBI agent had said that the flashdrive would do the job automatically, but it didn’t hurt to prepare for things going wrong. The three days hadn’t exactly been boring, but I didn’t want to be there in the first place, so I was glad it was over.
I activated the Surveillance skill that Wan had told me about and carried the dishes I had prepared in an insulated bag as I walked behind Di. A few seconds after Di knocked on the door, they answered it. A woman in her mid thirties welcomed Di and motioned for her to enter. The only distinguishing feature of the woman’s clothes was her pentagram necklace. “Hi, I’m Brenda. Brenda Sanders. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand and I shook it. “It’s been a while since Di brought a guy with her. I take it you’re her current boy-toy?”
“I prefer the term ‘friends with benefits’.” I responded. I had expected them to ask the question a bit more tactfully, but she had just come right out and said it.
“Well, whatever.” She looked over to the table where all of the dishes were and motioned to a man that was arranging things while wearing an apron. “Dave, do you mind coming over here?”
The man walked over and she introduced him. “This is my husband Dave. Dave, this is Di’s man….I don’t think you gave me your name.”
“Greg,” I said, holding out my hand. “Greg Larson. How do you do?” I had, of course, made up a last name while training with Jenn. No point in giving them a way to track me down if things went south on the mission.
Dave lead me over to the table and we unloaded all of the dishes I had prepared. “Is that cheese?” he asked with concern upon uncovering a squash casserole.
“Artificial cheese, made with soy powder, vegetable oil, and some food coloring to get the color right. I tried to recreate something my mom always brought to parties.”
Apparently the mention of a fake mother got his attention. “Ok, that’s fine. We just usually try to avoid artificial animal products at gatherings like this, so I was a bit surprised.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that. I’ll have to remember for next time.”
“It’s fine.” said Dave before changing the subject. “So, lockpicking. How did you get into that?”
I made up some story about breaking into my dad’s liquor cabinet as a teenager and then deciding I liked it. He responded to that by bringing me a glass of whiskey. The rest of the night was filled with idle conversation and Bev’s insistence that I demonstrate my skills on the front door and a bike lock. Not that either of those was a good test, as the facility we were going into had far better locks, but they didn’t know enough about locksmithing to even know that much.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
By the time the party had ended my Acting had leveled up to five and due to pacing myself with the alcohol out of fear I would lose control and let something slip my Poison Resistance was level 2.
Saturday at 11PM I showed up at Bev’s house again, this time wearing all black, at Bev’s insistence. I also wore a light kevlar vest under my jacket. I covered for wearing it with the excuse that I got it while living in a bad part of town as a teenager. After a few comments about how the police should handle bad neighborhoods, a few of which might border on racism, we all boarded a black van someone had rented and removed the tags from and someone drove us down to the pharmaceutical company’s main labs. Vera verified that this was where she was detecting increased activity, so I knew this would help advance my goals as well.
We got out of the van and watched the lab from a distance. Once we saw the security guard walk around the side of the building from the entrance we were aiming for, everyone pulled on their ski masks and we ran for the gate. I was able to quickly bypass the electronic pad there, and we ran the ten meters for the side door. That lock took me a bit longer, almost thirty seconds as it included several extra security measures, but I was able to bypass it and enter the building.
Once inside we followed the signs to the nearest animal holding facility and I got to work. First, a medium difficulty scan key lock on the main door, then low grade padlocks on all of the cages. The room was full of several types of primates, from chimpanzees to capuchins, several of which were running fevers.
I warned them not to open the cages until all of the locks were opened, as that would alert the guards, but before I could finish the last batch of locks a man appeared in the doorway of the lab. “Freeze! Put your hands up!” he yelled with gun drawn, slowly making his way towards an emergency panic button on the wall. Bev start to pull a pistol from her pocket, so I ran at the guy.
He froze in surprise of the sudden action and I punched his wrist, making him drop the gun. I then spun around behind him as he grabbed his wrist in pain and put him in a sleeper hold. Once he was unconscious I took the handcuffs from his belt and handcuffed him, then grabbed a roll of duct tape from a nearby shelf, tapped his legs and put a piece over his mouth so he couldn’t scream. I put the tape back on the shelf and laid his gun on top of it.
“What was that for?” Bev asked in anger. “He could have killed us.”
“Shooting him would just have the cops come down on us. So far, we’ve only done a simple Breaking and Entering, and a bit of theft. The investigation will get foisted onto some overworked detective and they might forget about it. If we kill a guy, though, not only will the gunshot draw all of the other security guards in the building, who will call the police, but they will give a homicide investigation to someone competent.” It sounded like a good enough argument in my head. In truth, I just wasn’t ok with killing a man even with FBI support.
Bev stood there staring at me in shock. “How Dare you talk back to me.” she said, raising her voice to a volume just a bit above what was safe for a covert operation like this. “You are here to help us, not to do your own thing! I’m in charge here!”
“Doing things your way would have got us caught.” I said, which seemed to anger her even further.
She gave Brenda a look and Brenda nodded, raising her hand. There was a slight shimmer in the air around her palm and I collapsed to the ground.
“Tell me,” Brenda said. “Why did you really join us?” I tried to lie, but every time the thought came into my head something stopped it, like the idea of lying to her was just a stray thought on par with wanting to strangle my boss after he fussed at me about something. It was unthinkable to lie to her.
I felt something shift a bit inside of me.
“So you’re with some anti-vax group?” she asked in surprise. I felt the pressure in my mind lessen a bit with the last skill increase and knew that I could probably slip in a bit of a lie if I wanted.
“No, the vaccine is causing a disease outbreak. Some of the monkeys here are already infected. Probably created a super-bug when they tried to fight it.” Sure, I knew the ‘disease’ was actually a corrupted form of nanites, but I didn’t want to say that.
“So you are trying to prevent a virus outbreak? How noble of you.”
I tried to stand up and found that I could make it to my feet. The mental pressure was still there, though, preventing me from outright lying. “Pretty much. I thought if I could get the info about the disease and vaccine to the right people, I might be able to stop it from getting out.”
“And how did you find out about this disease?” Brenda asked.
This time I knew that lying would be important. I couldn’t tell her about Vera detecting aberrant signals and tracking them down. Quickly brainstorming, I decided to tell her a modified version of what someone like Tim would know. “I ran into a zombie on my way home. The guy was basically a mindless violent machine that kept attacking people and got up even after the cops shot him multiple times. The next day I found a homeless man running a super high fever, and a few days later and Veterinarian at the zoo with the same symptoms.” I could tell Bev knew about the Vet from the way she looked a bit sad at the mention of him. Obviously she wasn’t over him completely. “I managed to find out that all of them were connected to here. The stoner-zombie and homeless man were test subjects in human trials, and the vet was bit by a chimp from here. So when Jenn mentioned you guys, it was like Destiny had given me an opportunity.”
“Lucky.” Brenda said, then started whispering with Bev. I knew I wouldn’t have an opportunity to complete my mission if I didn’t do it now, so I went over to one of the lab computers and plugged in the flash drive the FBI agent had handed me. It was on a login screen but after a few seconds it went to the desktop and windows started popping up and closing as the light on the flash drive blinked. “What are you doing?” asked Brenda.
“Getting the data I came here for. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything against you. I’ll even pull evidence of their animal experimentation for you, so you can use it against them.”
Brenda seemed surprised at something. “So, tell me, how were you able to resist my spell?”
“Spell?” I asked, as the flash drive finished what it was doing. I pocketed the flash drive and plugged in my burner phone. The FBI program had left the computer on the desktop, so I set the phone to data transfer mode and started looking for any files on the Vaccine, experiments, both animal and human, and Dr. Lee, as I knew Wan would want that info.
“Yes, spell. You must have realized that I used magic on you.” She stared at me for a few seconds as I transferred files. Then something seemed to dawn on her. “Wait. You seemed to resist the effect too quickly. If you were that resistant, it wouldn’t have effected you that much in the beginning.” She facepalmed. “You are part of the System, aren’t you?” The other people there looked confused at the word, like they didn’t understand what she was saying. Apparently a witch casting spells on people was normal, but an alien system which made people stronger by infecting them with nanites was a foreign concept.
Actually, I understood that position pretty well. Compared to the System, witches with magic powers were fairly normal. “I may have been initiated, but I don’t belong to any group.” Wait. Why didn’t I lie? I could have, with a bit of effort, but for some reason I didn’t feel like it. Was that an effect of the spell or had revealing the truth to Wan just caused me to drop my guard?
“Damn it.” Brenda said, and Bev looked at her in confusion. “He’s compromised,” Brenda announced. “We can trust him to finish the mission, but after this we can’t rely on him any more.” Bev seemed to accept that, and I was allowed to finish pulling the files with a promise to hand over any relevant data to Jenn once I sorted it out.
Once I finished releasing all of the locks on the cages, and covertly using Align Nanites on the monkey with the worst fever, only able to use it once, they opened all of the doors and we left. The security guard had woken up just as the last of the locks were opened, but no one cared when dozens of primates ran across him to escape the room.
Once we got back to Bev’s house, we got out of the van and Dave came out to reinstall the tags. I wasn’t invited inside for the celebration, but was warned to get them the data ASAP so that they could use it in the future.
With that, I went home and got to work editing the data. After downloading the data from the burner phone I turned it off, ran over it with my car, and threw it in a dumpster. By 6AM I had edited the info into two sets, the things that Wan would want and the things that Bev would want. I downloaded the data from my Surveillance skill, which had leveled up to Level 2 and now allowed me to add notes, and added that to Wan’s files. I decided to get in a bit of exercise and, after taking a shower and putting on clothes appropriate to working out, I started my run towards Bev’s house with her flash drive. About half way there my real phone started ringing. I picked it up and heard Wan’s voice. “Where are you? Jack is coming over, and he wants to talk.”
“Sorry about that. I’m just on my way to Bev’s house to drop off the data she wanted, but I’ll come by after that.”
“Bev, huh? I take it the mission went well?”
“Yeah, it went great. Nice people. If they hadn’t found out I was with the System, I would probably want to join them on future missions. But they still want this data, so I need to drop it off real quick.”
“Interesting. Tell me, was one of them a Witch?”
“Oh, Brenda? Yeah, she’s really nice too. Kind of my type, but she’s married, so no go there.”
Wan sighed. “I see. In that case, how about I meet you and give you a ride over there? Then I can drive you back to my office.”
“Won’t that ruin the cover though, with you showing up at Jenn’s house?”
“No, I’ll just say we were talking about another case. She’s hired me before, so no one will be suspicious.”
I nodded. “Cool then. How about we meet at the Skybucks on 37th street? I’ll buy you a coffee.”
Five minutes later Wan walked in and I handed him his order. Once we were back in his car he removed a necklace. The pendant had some sort of Asian characters on it. He handed me the necklace. “You think you could try that on? I want to see if it looks good on you.”
“Sure. No problem.” I had no idea why he was concerned with fashion all of the sudden, but I had no reason to go against him.
The second the necklace was on I felt a weird draining inside of me, and started getting dizzy. After a minute or so, though, it cleared up. “Feeling better?” he asked.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Anti-magic talisman. Blocks the effects of soul-effecting magic. You, my friend, were brainwashed by a witch.”