“I don’t have any equipment on me!” Gremlin supported, eyes growing wide with growing unease.
“You’ve got your ‘pad, don’t you?” Rys pointed at the slim personal computer in Gremlin’s hands. “I’ve seen you hack into battleships with that thing. It should be enough to hack the system inside.”
No doubt hoping to derail his captain before he became fixated on the idea, Gremlin pointed a stern finger toward the building. “And how do you propose to get around the cameras and guards? We’re not supposed to be seen doing anything, remember?”
Rys pointed to the construction site nearby. “That.”
All three men turned to eye the tall crane standing nearby with new consideration.
Seeing them re-consider the idea, Rys outlined the plan in calm tones. “We go in and grab some hard hats. Turn on all of the equipment and start moving things randomly around like we actually belong there, and no one’s going to question us. Not at this time of night, when everyone else has gone home. Gremlin, you climb onto that huge hook on the crane and we’ll slowly swing it over the top of the roof. I don’t see any cameras covering the top, so you’ve got a clean entrance into the building.”
Erksome nodded slowly, eyes narrowed as he studied the area. “That’s really plausible.”
“Can I play with the crane?” Snails asked hopefully.
Abandoned by his teammates, Gremlin gave them a squinty glare of rebuke before protesting, “I’m not armed!”
“Improvise,” Rys ordered casually. “Alright, let’s move.”
Gremlin abandoned all attempt at protest and went for puppy eyes next. “Sir…”
“You’ll be fine,” Rys assured him with an amused twist to his mouth. “We’ll be nearby if you need backup. Don’t forget, we need intel as fast as we can get it. I’d rather not prep and wait another night. Who knows when a window of opportunity like this would open up again?”
All out of ways to protest, Gremlin just nodded his head in resignation.
They obediently trooped down the exterior stairs after Rys and went across the silent street to the construction site nearby. The place had a great deal of heavy equipment and piles of raw materials stacked at intervals. They could easily waste a great deal of time moving lumber and bricks around without looking suspicious.
A small, portable office near the front gate had all of the hard hats hanging on pegs. Rys snagged one for everyone and passed them out. Then, with a certain amount of glee, he waved everyone back out and to their machine of choice. For himself, he chose something that he’d operated before, a forklift. Erksome went straight for the bulldozer with suspicious chuckles escaping from his mouth.
Shoulders a little slumped, Gremlin followed Snails for the very tall, five-story crane.
Rys opened a mental comm link and ordered, Gremlin, I want visual while you’re in there. Rig your cell’s camera to piggyback on the comm link.
“Yes, sir. I think I can put it in my front shirt pocket and it will ride alright.”
Sounds fine. Do that.
It took a few minutes, but Gremlin found a way to turn on his phone’s camera and connect it so that Rys could see what was happening around his lieutenant. He must have ripped a hole in his shirt pocket to make it work, though.
The crane started up with a dull rumble. Rys moved very slowly with the forklift, as most of his attention was on the view he could see through the cell. The sight of open air spinning back and forth as Gremlin rose up felt very disorienting for Rys. He hoped that most of that uneasy feeling could be contributed to the fact that he knew he had both feet on the ground, but the double visual threw his body into vertigo.
Gremlin didn’t comment on his makeshift ride as the crane lifted him into the air and slowly moved over the top of the neighboring building. Erksome didn’t even slow it down as Gremlin hopped off the hook and landed in a crouch. Even from here, Rys could hear the impact as he hit the building’s roof.
Okay, Gremlin?
“Just fine, sir. There’s a door for the roof access and…no lock.”
Rys didn’t respond as he followed his lieutenant’s progress through the door and down the flight of metal stairs to the third story. From what he could see—the building had only emergency lights on and the camera couldn’t penetrate the deepest shadows—the office had no distinguishing feature about it. Just plain walls, office doors with cubicles at even intervals, and generic art hanging on the walls.
Gremlin didn’t head immediately for the stairs or the elevator leading down to the main floors, as Rys expected him to do. Instead, he headed for the supply closet to his immediate right. As everything else seemed to in this building, it had no lock on it, and Gremlin easily stepped inside the narrow space.
This particular supply closet didn’t hold just cleaning supplies but office supplies as well, which included everything from pens to packing supplies. Rys, never being able to fully predict what Gremlin would do next, tried not to comment as his man rifled through the supplies and started to put a makeshift kit together. Still, the things that Gremlin chose to pick up were so unusual that he couldn’t help but start asking questions. Gremlin, what are you doing with bubble wrap?
“I’m working with what I have available, sir.”
That did not, in any way, shape, or form, answer the question. Especially when Gremlin wrapped up the bubble wrap into what could only be described as a “knife” form. He would have asked a follow up question, only Gremlin reached for a spray bottle next and started dumping ammonia and some other cleaner (he couldn’t see the label because of the camera’s angle) into it. And the ammonia bottle?
“With all due respect, sir, shut up.”
Amused at the disgruntled tone, Rys tried to clamp down on his curiosity and just watch Gremlin at work. As Gremlin headed for the stairs, he switched his attention to the construction site to double check that no one else had entered while his mind was elsewhere. Aside from his team and the guards next door, the area still had no life to it. But then, this industrial area wouldn’t have anyone around after hours.
He went back to watching through the camera lurking in Gremlin’s pocket. His lieutenant now had gained the second floor and had started taking more precautions at this point. Judging from the perspective, and what Rys could see of his legs, Gremlin had slowed down to a bear crawl and was moving cautiously forward. His ammonia spray bottle was extended with one arm, the rolled up bubble wrap held in the other arm and in a guard position under the ammonia bottle. Granted, the stance would be the correct one to use if armed with a flashlight and a gun, but…an ammonia bottle and bubble wrap?
Rys choked on an aborted laugh before he could swallow the reaction. The scene in front of his eyes was too surreal.
“Sir, I can’t believe you’re making me break into a building with just bubble wrap and an ammonia spray bottle,” Gremlin grumbled.
“Me neither, sir,” Snails added with open amusement in his tone. “But it sure is funny to watch.”
“You’ll pay for that later, Dave.”
I wouldn’t push it, Snails, Rys advised although he too found the whole situation hilarious. I still haven’t managed to put my computer to rights.
Gremlin hissed in a breath and abruptly broke to the left, ducking under a desk in a cubicle. Everyone went still, not even daring to mentally speak for fear of distracting Gremlin at a critical moment. From the camera, Rys could just see a pair of shoes pass by. Ah, the night guard must be making his rounds at this point.
“Oww!” Gremlin abruptly flinched hard to the right.
Alarmed, Rys abruptly screeched to a stop and prepared to stand. What?! What happened?
“Who puts rat traps under their desks?” Gremlin fumed.
“Well, Bran, we’ve suspected for years that you’re a rat,” Erksome chimed in with sing-song cheerfulness. “Nice to have that confirmed.”
“ALL of your computers are going to be a snarled mess after this,” Gremlin promised darkly.
After the near brush with the guard, Gremlin avoided the hallways even more than before. He dodged from cubicle to cubicle, ready at any point to dive underneath them. When he reached the main floor, he was forced to go under two other desks. Rys ignored the commentary of sharing desk space with high heeled shoes and abandoned lunch boxes in favor of keeping track of Gremlin’s progress through the building.
“Ah-ha,” Gremlin intoned in a tone of victory. “There it is. The only door with a high security clearance reader on it. Alright, time to implement my evil plan.”
And Rys couldn’t wait to see what that would be. How could anyone, even Gremlin, break into a high security room with an ammonia spray bottle and bubble wrap?
Gremlin unrolled the bubble wrap, sprayed it liberally with his bottle, and then shoved it underneath the door. The half-inch clearance proved to be just tall enough to make this feasible. Then he spun on his heels and ducked back under a cubicle desk.
It took a few seconds, but another guard passed on his rounds. As he passed the door, Rys could hear the faints sounds of popping. Frowning, he focused more on the sound before he realized what it had to be—Gremlin’s bubble wrap. That mixture, whatever it was, had enough acidic properties to it that it could eat through the thin plastic.
Genius, Gremlin.
“I do have my moments, sir.”
The guard, also hearing the sounds, turned and came back to the door. “What in the heavens is that sound?” The door handle rattled as he checked to make sure the door was still secure. Finding it was, the guard hesitated for a moment, no doubt deliberating whether he should open it or not. But then more popping sounds came from the inside, so he pulled the card clipped to his belt up and swiped it into the system.
Before he could do more than take a step inside, Gremlin exploded from his hiding place and rammed a fist into the man’s face. The guard landed heavily on his back, out cold, and sprawled out in the middle of the room. Unconcerned, Gremlin stepped over him and headed for the nearest chair.
Rys’s view was limited because of the camera, so he didn’t get to see the entire room, but he did catch a glimpse of several hard drives stacked on top of each other and dozens of monitors arrayed on a long, L-shaped desk. Then Gremlin sat down, pulled his ‘pad out, and started hacking at lightning speed. Rys could only see the bottom third of the monitor and Gremlin’s hands flying over the keyboard. He knew better than to ask questions while Gremlin hacked, though, and kept his mental mouth shut as the computer genius worked.
For several long minutes Rys focused on looking busy outside, waiting for Gremlin to finish. He did a spot check on Snails and Erksome and found (to his relief) that they hadn’t managed to destroy anything. Yet. As neither of them had much experience with heavy machinery, he didn’t expect this miracle to last long.
“Got it, sir. It’s confirmed. They really are analyzing everything here before condensing it and forwarding it onto Nova.”
Rys let his eyes close in a moment of relief. That just made their lives much easier. Alright, let’s do a cover up and get you out of there. Gremlin, I want you to make it look like you hacked into the system but failed.
“Sir, I don’t fail at hacking!” Gremlin protested indignantly.
I said LOOK like it, Lieutenant.
“But I wouldn’t even know where to begin, sir. Hacking is easy.”
On behalf of all of the non-computer geeks in the universe, Rys took umbrage at that statement.
“Tell you what, sir. Why don’t you walk me through how’d you hack into something.”
Thereby implying that of course I’d fail?
“I never said that, sir,” Gremlin responded primly. He sounded pleased to get some of his own back.
You’ll pay for that later, Gremlin.
“Already am, sir. Now, walk me through it step by step.”
Not blind to either Snails or Erksome’s amusement at this by play, Rys blew out a breath before complying. It took several humiliating minutes for the failed hack to play out. Rys felt nothing but relief when Gremlin finally said, “That should do it, sir. Alright, what next?”
Go to Accounting and hack in there. Transfer one million dollars to whichever shareholder you want to.
Gremlin paused, half out of his chair. “Thereby making it look like a robbery and turning it into an internal dispute?”
You got it.
“You have your moments of genius too, sir.”
Why thank you, Gremlin.
Over the camera’s feed, Rys saw a guard step inside. “Hey, what’s—”
With lightning speed, Gremlin rolled free of the chair and raised his ammonia ‘gun’, firing it directly into the guard’s eyes. With a yelp of pain, the guard instinctively raised both hands to his eyes and started rubbing. Gremlin gave him no chance to recover, but grabbed him and put him into a sleeper hold.
“That’s two down, sir,” Gremlin reported as he let the guard thump to the carpet.
I know, Rys responded grimly. Two guards meant someone would notice something wrong that much sooner. Move.
Gremlin snagged the radio on the man’s belt and his security card before he turned and bolted from the room, going back down the hallway and to the accounting offices.
As Gremlin hacked into this new system, Rys used his optical implant to scan the outside of the building. He saw two guards walking their perimeter patrols, which meant that one of them was unaccounted for. That, to his mind, could be good and bad news. There’s one still inside.
“Good to know, sir. Alright, one million creds just got transferred to a shareholder’s account.”
Good, now— Out of the corner of the camera’s view, Rys saw a shadow of movement and snapped out a warning. Six o’clock!
Gremlin threw himself out of the computer chair and toward the doorway, his impromptu gun snapping up as he moved. The guard this time reacted faster than his companions had, and his gun was half out of its holster by the time that Gremlin’s ammonia hit his eyes. The guard’s aim went wild as he stumbled, instinctively grabbed at his eyes.
Without slowing, Gremlin hit him hard in the temple, knocking the man out cold. “Alright, sir, that’s really done it. I need to get out of here.”
Go, Rys ordered.
From the radio, there was a slightly static crackle of sound and then, “Jim, where are you?”
Gremlin froze for a moment before lifting the radio in front of him and responding with deliberate unconcern, “I took a pit stop.”
“Well, get out here. Time to switch up. Stevie, what about you?”
Trying to deepen his voice, Gremlin responded again. “Uhh…I’m with Jim.”
“Oookay. Well, I’m not judging. Bill, you were supposed to be out front, right?”
This time, Gremlin tried a slightly higher tone. “Yeah, I’ll be out in a second.”
A long pause and then the voice said suspiciously, “Wait, is this all the same person? Who’s inside?!”
Swearing, Gremlin dropped the radio and jumped over the prone man in front of the door. The world spun in a dizzying pattern as the camera was jostled. “I need a distraction, sir.”
I know. Rys turned his head this way and that, frantically planning out something that would catch the remaining two guards’ attention.
Gremlin, clearly not waiting for whatever his captain would come up with, continued almost immediately as he ran down the hallway. “Hey Jace, you know those monster truck programs you watch? The ones you fantasize about?”
“Yeah…” Erksome responded slowly, with a slightly hopeful note in his voice.
“Live the dream, buddy.”
Something that suspiciously sounded like a giggle of delight leaked from Erksome as he pleaded, “Captain, permission to live the dream?”
Rys didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t entirely sure what his two lie
utenants were scheming. What are monster trucks?
“Thank you, sir!” Erksome responded happily. The bulldozer’s engine made an odd rumbling sound as it was fired up.
Rys’s head snapped around as he watched in something like frozen horror. Erksome had spun the big machine around and was now charging for the chain link fence separating the construction site from the office building. Wait, that wasn’t permission—!
Too late. Erksome crashed over the fence and without even pausing ran over the three slightly dilapidated cars parked along the back parking lot. Rys winced as he studied the carnage left in Erksome’s wake. Now how was he supposed to explain all of this to the Admiral later…?
Granted, if his cover-up plan worked out right, no one would know that Bijordan was involved in any of this. No one from Fourth would even make the suspect list. Still….
The guards, hearing the tortured sounds of metal being bent out of proportion, sprinted around the building to see what was happening. Gremlin waited for their backs to be turned before he in turn sprinted for the construction site. The guards didn’t even twitch around, so no one saw his escape.
Now all Rys had to do was stop them from capturing Erksome.
Throwing himself out of the forklift, he started running at top speed along his lieutenant’s destructive wake. Erksome, you got any water handy?
“A half-downed water bottle, sir.”
Pour it over you and then act comatose.
Erksome, thankfully, didn’t bother with a reply but instead instantly responded.
Rys arrived on the scene just as the guards reached inside the now stopped bulldozer, both of them angrily yanking the ‘comatose’ lieutenant down.
“Wait!” Rys called to them, skidding to a stop next to them. “He’s a type one diabetic. He’s in a comatose state. Do either of you have any food?” he asked this in as worried a tone as he could muster, eyebrows pinched in an expression of distress as he grabbed Erksome around the shoulders and waist. “Anything? He needs some sugar in his system.”
They were still angry, that could be easily seen in their bearing and their eyes as they glared down at Erksome. But they also wanted the man awake when they tore into him, so they paused before reacting.
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