Killing Time OST – 18a – Anger

<< 17c – Gadgets

Fuelled by a seemingly endless supply of anger, I covered the remaining distance to Merrilyn Tech’s headquarters. I slid down the gutter of a building two streets corner away from my objective. The rest of my path would involve a lot of camera dodging. Luckily, it had always been a hobby of mine. Only the over the top stealth requirements of this mission kept me from relying on my skills instead of Vexx’s within Merrilyn Plaza.
But there was no control panel handy to hack into the next cameras so the fun was all mine. Besides, it wouldn’t be so bad if I was seen in the streets as long as no one saw me within either of Merrilyn’s buildings.
I played cat-and-mouse all the way to the parking garage’s entrance. The server room was the type of secret mega-corporations liked to keep in the basement – way down in the basement. The parking had limited camera security which, once dodged, led to the only elevator reaching the servers.
“The depth also isolates the room and facilitates the maintenance of a cold temperature for the mainframe.”
So on the day I would take down Merrilyn Tech, I’d make sure to throw a beach party down there to fry the monster’s heart.
“I’ll make sure to spill my beer on the motherboard.” I smiled to myself as I peered around the last corner and dropped a spider. It headed towards the elevator. “On it.”
While Vexx hacked away the roadblock, I set the timer on my watch to the sweep of the last camera I had to run past. Knowing its exact angle would be useful on the way back; I could escape while the camera looked away without drawing attention by opening the door in advance to watch its movement. Super stealth at its best.
“By the way, the buffer we had in our timing is gone.”
Noted. And unhappy about it.
My underwhelming run might come back to bite me in the ass. Especially if I messed it up again. What was taking so long now? I realized I was tapping my foot and stifled it. Gosh, stress annoyed me.
“Go.”
Without further encouragement, I bolted towards the elevator, grazing the wall to safely pass under a security camera’s sweep. I slipped through the door as it dinged open and it closed behind me before the camera noticed the weird activity. Vexx triggered the descent toward the subbasement.
I unsheathed the crowbar sticking out of my backpack and placed two fingers at the ready on my EMP device. We suspected the presence of another camera at the elevator’s door downstairs. Unfortunately, we couldn’t be sure – and even less know the timing of its sweeps – as these rooms didn’t show up on any blueprints; Vexx only knew of their existence because of his backdoor into the mainframe. Hacking the elevator didn’t grant access to the core security so our best bet was to switch off the camera so I could exit and run out of sight before it restarted. For that to work, we counted on two things: a, that my EMP had enough range; and b, that temporarily killing the camera wouldn’t ring the alarm.
This was the make it or break it moment.
“Ready in five.”
I counted down the seconds and turned on my EMP just as the elevator rang our arrival. Not losing a second I forced the crowbar between the doors and pried them open. The corridor beyond them stretched for a mile of virginal white.
Hypocrites.
Apparently, the first thing I counted on worked out; I sped right under the deactivated camera and waited for the catastrophe. It didn’t come. In the alarm-free silence, the camera resumed its sweep right over my head. I placed the last spider on the wall and it began following the unseen trail of the security system’s access point.
I heard a masculine chatter in the distance. My muscles stiffened as the chatter grew closer. The black spot I was would never escape the notice of a couple of guards. I’d be dead as soon as they rounded the corner about fifty feet away. There was one door between me and there.
“Sprint!”
I ran and turned the knob. The door opened without resistance. I closed it behind me as smoothly as I could and bowed under its window. I stood in an oversized supply closet of some sort.
“That was close!”
That was quick!
“Privilege of being dead, I guess. They didn’t retrofit security nearly as much as I feared after I left.”
Good. What now?
I felt the impatience growing within me again. I buried it as far as I could and let my eyes wonder on the shelves neatly lined with labeled boxes.
“The guards are almost in the elevator. You’ll have to take the corridor they arrived from and run it to the end.” I wrapped my hand around the doorknob. We didn’t have any time to lose. “You’re good to go in five…” I turned the knob. “WAIT!”
Vexx’s voice boomed so much I had the stupid reflex of covering my ear.
“Shit! Hide!”
I didn’t need to see anything to know the guards had come back out of the elevator. Something tipped them off.
The crowbar marks.
These guys must be enhanced with a photographic memory add-on.
Still crouching, I ran to the back of the room and pressed myself against a column of boxes. The beep of an access card preceded the door’s opening on a very large, very artificially muscled man. Adrenaline shot through my body. I could take him but that would blow the mission.
What now Vexx?
Vexx?
“Security cameras say it’s all good,” the man by the elevator said.
“Blessed be the gods of hacking,” Vexx sighed in my head.
“Someone must have hit it with a cart,” the man a few feet from me replied before the closed door muffled their conversation. I took a deep breath.
“You’re clear,” Vexx announced a few seconds later.  I sprinted to the corridor as if the devil was after me. We were running late.
But when I saw the lock on the door leading to the mainframe’s access point, I stopped dead in my track.

18b – Anger >>