The clicking and whirring of gears and the slight hum of electricity were the only sounds that broke the silence of the three people sitting at the circular table, the musty smell of the small cement room in contrast with the impatient energy exuding from two of them. The third was the source of the sounds, his rough hands just starting to wrinkle with age as they tinkered with a small device, removing and adding components seemingly at random.
Finally, the silence was too much for the other man, and he spoke, almost erupting with impatience. "He should have been here by now. What's taking him so long?" He stood up and started pacing the length of the room.
"Patience, Lance. He'll be here. Have a little faith." The only woman in the room spoke in a smooth, calm voice, but her nervousness was betrayed by her hands, which fidgeted restlessly, as if searching for something to do.
The pacing man, Lance, ran his fingers through his shoulder length brown hair and opened his mouth to respond when he was interrupted by the door to the room squealing open. The three occupants tensed, but relaxed when they caught sight of the figure who entered.
"Sorry I'm late, I ran into my supervisor on the way out and couldn't get away from him as quick as I wanted."
"I take it you have what we need?" The older man set down the device he had been tinkering with, speaking for the first time since entering the room.
The new arrival grinned and pulled two jumpsuits out of a bag slung over his shoulder. "Come on, Viktor, have I ever given you a reason to doubt me? The packages are in place waiting for you, and here are the uniforms, complete with identification chips. I guarantee nobody will suspect a thing."
The older man, Viktor, ran his hands over the plasticky fabric, nostalgia caressing his mind just as gently. The woman spoke again, her posture relaxed and her tone of voice relieved.
"Good work, Jacob. Now that you've done the first part, why don't you go get yourself a drink? We'll handle it until it's your turn again."
He caught the small metal chip she tossed him and examined it. "Wow Katelyn, since when have you been this generous? That's a hefty amount of credits, especially before the job is done."
She smiled at him. "I have a good feeling about today, that's all."
Jacob shrugged. "Your loss. I'll see you guys when you're done, like we've discussed."
The other three nodded, and he left, once again leaving the three to themselves.
The woman, Katelyn, made a gesture, causing a hologram of a large building to appear above the table. "Alright, lets go over this one more time. The target is The Logren Corporation, which is located on the top floor of this megastructure. Vik and I suit up and head in the main employee's entrance here, and make our way to R&D. When we get there, Lance kills the lights and we go in, get the stuff, and get out. Then we go to maintenance hatch BV823 and take this path." As she spoke, she pointed out the locations as she said them, leaving glowing red highlights on the blue hologram. "When we reach the exit here, Jacob will be waiting with our transport, and we make our getaway. Any questions?"
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It was hard for Viktor to stay calm as he walked in the front doors of The Logren Corporation, anger, nervousness, and excitement boiling just under the surface. The only reason he was able to keep it together was that Katelyn was at his side. They had been together for every job they had ever done, and there was nobody else he'd rather have at his side for this operation. The fact that she was his wife helped as well.
They had been planning this job for more than two years, ever since the day he had been fired and his designs stolen. Finally, he would get his designs back, and that thief Logren would get his just desserts.
Kyle Logren was the owner and CEO of The Logren Corporation, and at one time had been Viktor's immediate superior and friend. But he had thrown Viktor away as easy as breathing when he got what he wanted: Viktor's designs.
Viktor was pulled from his reverie when they reached the security checkpoint, not far into the building. He and Katelyn stepped up to adjacent scanners, letting the machines register the ID chips sewn into the jumpsuits. A green light flashed and the gate in front of them opened.
Stepping through, they made their way across a wide open lobby, with a few seating options holo-ads interspersed throughout, and down a wide hallway, taking a course they had memorized through the nearly identical white halls. They passed by a few other employees, but nobody took any notice of them. If they had gotten past security, they were supposed to be there.
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Finally, they reached a set of thick grey metal doors, with a plaque that read "Research and Development" posted above it, and another scanner to one side. When they caught sight of it, Viktor feigned rubbing his ear to activate his comms, and spoke under his breath. "Time to go dark, Lance."
Not a second later there was a heavy thunk, and all the lights went out. His night vision enhancement activated with the loss of light, and everything was lit up in shades of gray. Moving quickly, he pulled a device from a hidden pocket in his jumpsuit and placed it over the door's control pad. After a few moments there was another thunk, and the thick metal door swung inwards.
He collected his device and stepped through, Katelyn just behind him. They passed a couple of unmarked doors on both sides, and Katelyn split off and entered one of them. She would be going after the files, while Viktor got the prototypes.
He reached the final door in the hallway, another thick metal door and opened it in the same fashion as the first. As it swung open, he stepped inside and looked around, expecting to see numerous half-built devices and prototypes lining the walls. Instead, he found a glass case in the center of the room with an orb within it.
A shiver ran down Viktor's spine as he considered what this orb represented. He didn't know how, but Kyle had found even this design, which Viktor had been sure he destroyed. If the empire were to get ahold of this...
Shaking his head, he stepped up to the case and tried to remove the glass, but it wouldn't budge. Retrieving another device from his jumpsuit, he placed it on the glass. A moment later a few small portions of the glass started to glow orange, and pulled away from the device, leaving a hole the perfect size to retrieve the orb, which he now did. He put the orb and his glass melter into their designated pockets of his jumpsuit, and exited the room.
He was met by Katelyn as she exited her room as well, and they made their way back towards the exit. As they walked, Viktor spoke.
"Unfortunately, it seems our intel was correct. They had it. Nothing else in that room, just the one prototype."
Katelyn nodded. "And they know how to use it. I found some really concerning schematics in their database. Here, I'll start sending them to you. It may take a while, they're rather large files."
She made a couple of gestures, and a notification appeared in the corner of Viktor's vision. He glanced at it before blinking it away. He could deal with that later. For now, it was time to go.
They made their way back out the heavy metal doors, closing them after exiting, and started down their second prearranged route. This would lead them to a maintenance hatch leading to the outside of the building where Jacob would be waiting to pick them up.
As they were nearing the hatch, Lance's voice crackled in their ears.
"Kate, Vik, I think something's up. The vehicle outside the hatch isn't the one Jacob was sure he'd be able to get."
Katelyn waved her hand as if Lance could see her, dismissing his concerns. "He probably just hit a snag with the vehicle he planned and had to make some last minute changes. Don't worry, it'll be fine."
Lance was silent after that, so he must have accepted her statement. They reached the maintenance hatch and pulled open the grate, crouching down to enter the small tunnel. Katelyn went first, and Victor closed the grate after them as they crawled along the shaft. About fifty feet in, there was another grate on their right, which Katelyn popped open, lithely sliding out into the open.
He heard her breath in sharply, but was busy exiting the shaft himself, so he didn't take much notice. Then he stood up and froze.
The small platform the maintenance hatch was built on was entirely filled with enforcers, their white and silver body armor glistening as they held their rifles trained on him and Katelyn. But what caught Viktor's eye were the two figures at the center of the formation. One was a tall broad shouldered man wearing a silver three piece suit, his spiky hair a matching hue. The other was-
"Jacob? Why?" The confusion and betrayal in Katelyn's voice almost broke Viktor's heart, even though it wasn't directed at him. The man just smiled.
"Sorry, Kate. You just happen to be on the wrong side. Oh, thanks for the credits, by the way. That was a nice bonus."
Viktor recognized the telltale signs of an imminent explosion from her, but before she had a chance, the man in the silver suit spoke. "You know, Viktor, you should be proud of your work here. If your friend here hadn't turned you in, I might never have caught you. I shouldn't have just let you walk away last time. That's a mistake I'm not going to repeat. Goodbye, old friend."
He turned and started walking away, and waved his hand. Viktor had just registered the man's words when there was a a bright flash as twenty guns fired in sync. He expected to feel pain, but after a second, he could see why he was unscathed.
Standing in front of him, blood starting to flow from over a dozen holes in her body, was Katelyn. She turned to look at him, smiled sadly, and collapsed.
"NO!" The raw scream tore its way out of his throat without his consent, and he fell to his knees, reaching for her. The whine of the energy rifles recharging threw his brain back into gear and he dove to the side, narrowly dodging the next volley.
Emotions roiling, he reached into his jumpsuit and pulled out the orb, accessing its digital interface. As he turned it on, pain shot up his left arm from his hand where the orb sat, growing stronger by the second. Unleashing a primal scream of pain, grief, and rage, he held the orb out towards the enforcers.
A blue wave of energy erupted from the orb, knocking the enforcers back a step, before it suddenly reversed direction, collapsing back to the orb. When the energy wave passed back through the enforcers, they collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.
Then all feeling in Viktor's left arm faded, replaced by a sharp pain at his shoulder. He looked down and saw his arm laying at his feet, orb still clasped in the hand. He frantically looked around, trying to find the new threat, and saw Kyle Logren, his shiny silver suit gleaming, holding a small device with a circular blade resting on top, ready to be fired.
Without even enough time to think, he deactivated the orb, grabbed it with his right hand and shoved it into his jumpsuit, hoisted Katelyn's still warm body over his shoulder, and jumped over the side of the platform.