Truth kept moving deeper into the room, eyes darting. Large plastic bins with little wheels underneath, filled with bed linens. Should be the laundry. Usually that was a job for big talisman machines, but he wasn’t seeing them. Did they send the laundry out to a big commercial operation for cleaning? He vaguely remembered hearing that some places did that. For a brief, delusional, moment, he thought about hiding in one of the bins and smuggling himself out with the rest of the laundry.

Hah. No. That wasn’t possible.

He moved deeper into the room. It was both wide and long. On the ground, a snaking path had been laid out. The plastic bins were all queued up neatly on the path, winding back and forth though the room. He skipped the line, heading for the front and, presumably, an exit.

He could hear the door open behind him. They were being quiet, but he was listening carefully. He dropped behind the laundry bins and kept creeping forward.

“Sir? This door was breached. Looks like a cutting tool was used.”

“Can you tell from which direction?”

“Sir?”

“Coming in or going out.”

“No sir. Just looks like the bolt was sheared, as was the latch.”

“Understood.” There was a pause. Now… just how many troops did whoever-this-was bring? Could he afford to split his group to check out a noise and a broken door?

“Kelso, Bu, Revi, Hoss, you check it out. Everyone else, to the Morgue.”

DAMN!

He tried to force his body to move faster. Yesterday, he could have crossed the whole room before the door finished closing. Today, he thought he might lose a foot race to a slug. Nothing to do but keep moving. Try to keep that long snake of bins between him and the hunters. He patted Perks, finding him in his usual place in his shirt. He had… a lot of questions about Perks right now, but it was also, clearly, not the time.

Shame Dr. Sun didn’t want to adopt a snake. Truth thought the old monster would do a good job of looking after his noodly friend.

The door opened again, the hunters making no real efforts to be quiet. This was about speed, not stealth. Truth could visualize them splitting up, working in teams of two to cover the room quickly and thoroughly.

“Kelso, hit the lights.”

There was silence. Were the lights out? Truth no longer really noticed the dark.

“Busted.”

“Lights in the hall worked.”

“And these are busted.” Did they share a look, silently warning each other to beware an ambush? He wished he could, but he wasn’t optimistic. He wiggled between two bins, and through the gap, he could just make out a little flash of red. An Exit sign? Maybe. Or a “CAUTION-HIGH ENERGY CONDUIT” sign, or something even less useful. It was a destination anyway, and it was on the back wall. So he started trying to make his way there.

The movement strategy changed. Rather than try and “race” down the alleys between the bins, he moved in bursts. Get between two bins, check the way was clear, cross the alley as fast as he possibly could, get back into concealment, rest and reset to do it again.

It wasn’t fast enough. They were closing in. Then- “CONTACT!” And the snap of a needler firing. “COVERING!” More fire. “Pop smoke! Pop smoke!” There was a burst of fine dust as an anti concealment charm burst, outlining any hidden figures in shining dust. “Cease Fire. Cease FIRE!”

The hell are they shooting at over there? Did someone else infiltrate? They were bombing the place earlier, so that’s not a crazy idea.

“Hoss, report!”

“It was a goddamn rat.”

The door smashed open at the back of the room. “HOSS! REPORT!”

“IT WAS A GODDAMN RAT, SIR!”

“A rat?”

“Yessir.”

There was silence like lightning brewing in the clouds.

“Sir, I saw movement, and thought it might be a concealment spell. You know how they have been on us for months about mind effecting, illusion and glamour spells. I just thought-”

“Bu, shut the Hell up. Hoss, is this room clear?”

Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes, your boss just caught you fucking up, you need to flee the scene as soon as possible-

“No, sir.”

I want you to know that, if I have to kill you people, your competent ass dies first. I want you to know that after I ambush you. Know it in Hell.

“What’s the hold up?”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“The room is nothing but cover, sir. We are making sure any infiltrators can’t double back and evade us that way. And we would see anyone making for the door, so if there is anyone in here, they are bottled up.”

Was that last line a touch loud? Maybe just his imagination.

This was met with silence.

“Sir?”

They must have found the dead guards. They definitely had. What had Dr. Sun told them? They must have rushed into the morgue already.

“Where does that exit lead to?”

“Loading dock, sir.”

More silence.

“Other than a rat, have you seen any sign of infiltrators?”

“No, sir. But like I said, the room isn’t clear.”

There was a grunt. “All four of you, snap your Breaker charms.”

“Yes sir!” In chorus. There was a sharp series of snaps, and Truth felt that greasy, gritty feeling spread through the room. There was another long pause.

“Alright, the four of you post up on this door and lock down the room and this end of the hall. Right now, I’m more worried about you messing up a trail than I am about infiltrators sneaking past. And don’t let anyone get past you!”

“Sir?”

“The package was stolen. Might be insurgents, more likely pro’s. The whole floor is going on lock down and hunters are coming in.”

“Sir, Starbrite?”

“Is being stalled by Lord Elgin. They sent Frobisher, so we don’t have long.”

Starbrite equals those eyeless horrors that will absolutely be able to track the energy I’m leaking. Fuckityfuckfuck.

“Yes sir. Sir? Who’s got external security?”

“That, corporal, is still being debated. Not your problem, not my problem either. Right now, our job is to lock everything down. Clear?”

“Clear, sir!”

They shuffled into position, the rest of the squad moving down the hall. Truth’s thoughts raced. He was in no condition to clear out the squad. He could hide where he was, but that just gave the hunters more time to close in, and he wouldn’t meaningfully heal in that short amount of time. Did he loot anything useful off those guards? Strictly speaking, yes. Lots of useful tactical tools and charms. But useful right this second? No.

He risked a peek around a bin. The competent bastards had set up with two facing into the room, two facing out into the hall. And, just to add a disgusting frosting on the diabolical cupcake, they had switched on the light fetishes on their needlers. Plus side- darker shadows to hide in. Minus side- the light was aimed mostly at the exit.

Truth silently deployed all his useful swears, and got back to slowly creeping towards the door. However things played out, he needed to get to the other side of it. So closer would be better.

Tub to tub. Careful not to jostle them. The little wheels were cheaply made, with no brakes on them. At least the laundry was weighing them down. Slip between the lines, keeping to the deep shadows. Not rushing. Just steady. Keep the panic crammed down. Right next to the knowledge of what would happen if they took him alive. Couldn’t let that happen. He just couldn’t. Those explosive charms might come in useful then.

He took a silent breath. He hadn’t breathed in a while. Funny, since his heart was beating on his ribs like a prisoner calling for the guard. Let me out! It’s scary in here! Getting closer to the door. Three rows. Two rows. Looking at the back wall now. Big double door with ram bars, so workers could just push the tubs into them, then straight through to the waiting vans outside.

Was there anything he could use? No smoke detectors he could see. Alarms? His eyes drifted to a very familiar stamped metal box by the door. Of course there would be an alarm on the exit. There was a spot right next to it for employees to put an amulet. Probably controlled the locking mechanism. No bets on whether it was still working, or if it was cooked like the lights. Still. Good to know.

Anything else of use? A plastic chair, a dirty ashtray on the floor. The anti-invisibility smoke still drifting through the air. The shadows.

He dithered for a moment, feeling the invisible pressure of some high level Starbrite drone closing in.

The four guards were some distance away, but they were actually, physically, pretty close together. He wasn’t really capable of running. At least, not more than a couple of steps. Maybe not even that. But he just didn’t have a way to silently take out all four of them.

He played it out. He should be strong enough to toss an explosive charm the length of this long room, making sure it arrives at head height in the exact middle of the doorway, taking out all four of them. That should give him almost a minute for people to react and come charging in from down the hallway. In that time, he would make it to the double doors, slam into the ram bars and then… what, exactly?

It was locked down outside. The door might be locked. Even if he could hack it open, it still took time. And exactly two seconds after the rest of the guards figured out something was popping off down here, Frobisher would come bursting through the ceiling or the wall or some damn thing.

Truth checked over his body’s condition. Still fucked. Checked his spells. They were all fine, except that they were all tied into his body and…

Load Obliteration.

Nothing.

Load Tool.

Nothing.

Truth collapsed internally. The System was gone. That meant his ability to swap in spells was gone too. The System was part of his soul, so it must still be around somewhere. Even so, Truth had never felt so alone.

He looked inside himself, over and over, trying to see something, something! Anything at all. He had cleared the little internal channels that moved magic through his body and to his apertures, but the explosive nodules of energy still perfused his flesh and bones. They were nestled in neurons and tight in his tendons. If he was ready to go, they were ready to blow. Truth could feel the despairing chuckle trying to climb up his throat.

A Level Five body cultivator, with four spells, all of which required his body to be in working condition to use. Despair felt like the exact right emotion. He kept running his eyes over his body, over his apertures, hoping to find something he hadn’t seen before. The Meditations, strong as ever. Incisive, subtle and fierce. Cup and Knife, looking very nearly complete now. Then the sprawling madness of Earth Folding step. All there. All just as they should be. One glowing aperture ready for whatever was coming next. If there would be a next.

Nowhere to run. Soon, nowhere to hide.

Something about that thought niggled at him. Nowhere to run. He couldn’t run. His body was, in a word, fucked. But Earth folding Step didn’t actually require you to run, did it? You just had to take a single step, no matter how small. And there were no eyes on him at all, right now. He had never tried to step through a wall. His body probably couldn’t take it. Which meant that there was a teensy tiny chance that it could. Desperate times, and all that.

No System to assist in the background anymore. It was all on him. Truth put the spell together carefully. He took a single tiny step, and the world folded. His body had suddenly moved thirty meters. Straight up.