Chapter 26 - Running the Gauntlet

  It was time.

  Arguably, the most dangerous part of the entire mission was leaving the tunnels in the first place. Darius hadn’t had the chance to scout out the exit he was using nearly as much as he’d wanted to. Oh, he knew where it was in relation to the office, certainly, but he didn’t know how visible the entrance was from the main streets, nor how busy the area actually was.

  Knowing his luck, he was going to open the door to find out that it opened directly out into a checkpoint.

  It was currently just after midnight, local time. Not all businesses would be shut – essential services such as the spaceport and shipyard tended to run 24/7, for example, but the majority of them should be closed by this hour. The wait had been more boring than tense. He’d thought that he would have spent the six or so hours dreading the upcoming mission, but the human body simply wasn’t designed to remain tense for that long.

  As far as his monkey brain was concerned, if he hadn’t been killed or injured within the first hour or so, then he was probably going to be fine, and there was no point wasting the energy required to remain on high alert.

  Taking a deep breath, Darius pressed his palm against the door’s release panel. The metal hatch hissed softly as it slid open, revealing the slate grey metal of a massive silo a couple of meters from the door. He had no idea what was stored in this facility, but whatever it was didn’t belong to a private company or corporation. If it had, they wouldn’t have put an entrance to a public maintenance network on the land.

  Darius didn’t particularly care about any of this information, but Echo had taken great delight in filling the hours with relatively pointless trivia about random parts of the station. Normally, he wouldn’t have bothered to listen, but he hadn’t thought of bringing a dataslate with him and thus had nothing else to do. He now knew more about the station’s sewer system than he ever wanted or needed to.

  Why Echo even knew about the topic was beyond him.

  Wrenching his thoughts back to the present, Darius leaned forward cautiously, scanning the area for any signs of movement. His heart hammered in his chest, but to his immense relief, the surroundings were utterly deserted.

  That didn’t preclude the possibility of some cameras spotting him, but realistically, there was nothing he could do about that. At least the IR system in his optics would shield his face.

  Darius slipped out into the open, letting the door slide shut behind him as quietly as he could manage. To his immediate left was a small carpark set outside an office of some kind. Thanks to the curfew, the carpark was empty, but it was visible from the road, so he hurried across it as quickly as he could.

  From the public maps of the area he’d been able to download – or, if he was being honest, Echo had been able to download – it should be possible to avoid the roads almost entirely by making his way through the storage yard. It wouldn’t get him the whole way there, but it should certainly help.

  “Alright,” he breathed. “So far, so good.”

  {I would recommend not speaking aloud.} Echo’s sudden interjection – at normal volume – took at least a decade off his lifespan. It might have only been in his augs, and thus inaudible to anyone barring himself, but it was hard to think of that when he was this tense.

  “God, don’t do that!!” he hissed, leaning against the wall and clutching at his chest.

  {I made less noise than you did,} Echo pointed out, a little petulantly.

  “Just… don’t distract me!” Darius whispered harshly, moving deeper into the storage yard.

  Some massive cooling fans built attached to the side of one of the massive pipes that stretched across the yard provided enough noise for him to feel comfortable speeding up a little as he crossed the large open area around the silos and into a small alley created by a shed on one side and another administrative building on the other.

  This alleyway extended almost the length of the storage yard, opening out onto another small parking area and then further out onto the open streets. This was where things started to get more nerve-wracking.

  The storage yard was never going to be terribly risky to cross – the massive silos and smaller tanks of chemicals provided plenty of cover to hide behind, and only a small portion of the storage yard was visible from the road itself anyway. From here on out, though, he would be walking along the streets themselves. This wasn’t a busy area even at the best of times, but the lack of cover meant that he could be spotted easily.

  Darius licked his lips nervously, peering around the corner of the alleyway at the open street ahead. “Remind me of the route again?” he whispered to Echo, more to give himself time to gather his nerve than anything else.

  {Certainly. From here, you will travel for approximately two-hundred-and-fifty meters along the street, crossing the intersection midway. This will be the riskiest portion of the journey. Then you will cut through a gap between buildings, which should bring you to the back of the target office, where you will attempt to enter through the fire door.}

  “Right. A couple of hundred meters. Easy.” he tried to hype himself up quietly.

  It wasn’t working.

  Darius took a breath and started down the street, keeping his movements quick but measured. He had to resist the urge to sprint – it may be faster, but it would also make a lot more noise. The general hum of ventilation systems and pumps running in the background might cover some noise, but that didn’t mean he could be careless.

  The industrial location worked in his favour, at least partially. Most of the buildings were featureless, looming structures with few windows or doors facing the street. The occasional flicker of dim overhead light from one of the warehouses only added to the eerie stillness. Large pipes crisscrossed between buildings overhead, carrying who-knew-what to some far-off processing plant, while a few derelict vehicles sat abandoned along the curb like silent sentinels.

  He slowed as he reached the intersection, the single riskiest part of his journey. It would leave him completely exposed, visible from every direction. No silos to duck behind, no handy alleyways to slip into. Just the wide-open street and his own questionable luck.

  “Keep it together,” he muttered under his breath, resisting the urge to check over his shoulder for the fifth time. Sidling up to the edge of one building, he cautiously poked his head around the corner, hoping for an empty street.

  An instant later, he was yanking his head back, eyes wide and heart trying its level best to leap out of his throat.

  He’d only had time to catch a glimpse, but that had been plenty to see how screwed he was. A half-dozen or so Imperial enforcers standing near a pair of armoured transports parked just off the road. Fortunately, none of them had been looking in his direction for the split second his head had been visible.

  Unfortunately, even the quick look he’d gotten had told him that they weren’t going to be moving on any time soon. None of them had been in their vehicles, and their body language suggested they weren’t exactly on high alert.

  Darius bit down on a knuckle to keep himself from swearing. This was just his luck. The patrol was a few hundred meters down the street, and they weren’t even in the direction he needed to go, but that didn’t matter. To reach the office, he’d have to cross the street. The well-lit street, in full view of the patrol.

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  “Don’t suppose you have any ideas, Echo?” he asked in a hushed tone.

  There was a moment of silence. {I believe you should simply run across the street.}

  Darius blinked. “That’s… you’re joking, right? They’re not that far away.”

  {They are also not paying close attention, and it should only take a few seconds to cross the gap.}

  Darius gaped. “Yeah, but if any of them even glance in this direction, they’ll spot me!”

  {Keep your voice down,} Echo admonished. {But yes, it is a risk. However, even in the event that they do spot you, you should be able to reach the alleyway leading to the office before they can reach the intersection. They will not know where you went.}

  “They won’t need to! They’ll just have to look around for a few minutes, and they’ll find me!”

  {The alternative is trying to find a longer way around, which greatly increases the chances of detection from other patrols, or simply giving up and attempting another night.}

  Darius grumbled, pacing in a tight circle far enough back from the corner that no one could see him. He bit his lip.

  “This is stupid,” he announced. “And I’m stupid for doing it anyway.”

  Without giving himself time to think—because thinking would inevitably lead to chickening out—Darius bolted. He pushed off from the wall and dashed across the street, each step feeling louder than a gunshot in the eerie stillness of the industrial district.

  His heart pounded in his ears as he crossed the first lane, then the second. Halfway. He forced himself not to look toward the patrol, not to even think about them. Eyes forward, Darius. Just move.

  Three more strides and he was clear of the intersection, diving into the shadowed gap between two buildings on the opposite side. He landed with a faint scuff of boots on concrete, pressing himself back against the cool metal wall to catch his breath.

  He waited, breath held, for the sound of shouting or the distinctive thud of boots on pavement. But the seconds dragged on, and no alarm came. The enforcers hadn’t seen him.

  “Okay,” he whispered, forcing himself to exhale slowly. “Okay, that wasn’t awful.”

  {I told you it would work.}

  “Don’t even try to pretend you knew that would work,” Darius muttered, peeking around the corner to ensure the patrol was still obliviously clustered around their transports before turning and hurrying down the street. He couldn’t afford to waste time here; every second spent lingering was another chance for something to go wrong.

  His nerves gradually settled as he turned down the alleyway that would lead to his target. The office loomed ahead, a blocky, utilitarian structure that was indistinguishable from any of the other buildings in the area.

  The building was two stories tall at the back, though he knew from some photos Lena had found that the front of the building was only a single story. There was a set of metal stairs enclosed by a metal fence that led up to a fire escape on the second floor – his intended entrance.

  Fortunately the gate was left unlocked, though it rattled loud enough to give Darius a heart attack when he pulled it open. He waited for a frozen moment, only relaxing when the night remained still and quiet. Or, really, as quiet as the industrial sectors of the station ever got, which is to say, not very.

  Shaking off the nerves, Darius started up the fire escape. The metal stairs groaned faintly under his weight, every creak stressful enough to take weeks off his life.

  When he reached the top, he crouched low and took a moment to scan his surroundings again. The patrol was still far enough away not to hear the occasional noise he made, but it was close enough that he couldn’t afford any major mistakes.

  The fire door loomed ahead, a sturdy slab of metal fitted with a simple keypad. This was it. He pulled out the bypass kit, the familiar hum of the tool comforting in its routine efficiency. Plugging it into the keypad, he activated the device and watched as the screen flickered, streams of code racing across the display.

  {This will only take a moment,} Echo informed him, his calm tone a stark contrast to the adrenaline still coursing through Darius’s veins. {The lock is relatively basic, and—oh.}

  “Oh?” Darius hissed through gritted teeth, glancing toward the patrol’s position before looking back at the door. “What do you mean, ‘oh’? I don’t like ‘oh.’“

  {As this is a fire escape, the door is equipped with a hard-wired alarm system. Any attempt to open it will trigger the alarm, alerting the station’s emergency response systems.}

  Darius froze, his heart sinking. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered, pulling the bypass kit free and staring at the keypad like it had personally betrayed him. “There’s no way to disable it?”

  {Not without direct access to the building’s security control panel, which I presume you do not have. The alarm is designed to operate independently of the main lock system as a failsafe.}

  Of course it was. Darius ran a hand through his hair, fighting the urge to slam a fist into the door. He couldn’t risk opening it and setting off an alarm. Sure, in theory, it would only alert the fire department, but considering there was a patrol literally down the road, there was no chance of them not checking it out.

  That left the front entrance. Darius grimaced, his stomach twisting as he thought about the prospect. He’d known about the main entrance during his research—he hadn’t planned to use it, obviously, but he’d at least made note of its location. It was a simple door with a standard lock, easy enough to bypass. The problem was its placement: it faced directly onto the same street where the patrol was stationed.

  Even if the enforcers weren’t actively watching the office, it would take at least fifteen seconds to get inside, during which the slightest glance could spell his doom.

  But there wasn’t any other choice. The fire escape was a dead end, and he couldn’t exactly sit here all night. If he wanted those records—and he really, really did—he was going to have to take the gamble.

  Plus, if he was being honest with himself, he was way too stubborn to give up now.

  “Fantastic,” he muttered under his breath, stuffing the bypass kit back into his jacket and rising to his feet. His legs felt stiff from crouching, but he ignored the discomfort. There wasn’t time to waste. “Front door it is.”

  {This is significantly more dangerous,} Echo said, though his tone wasn’t so much disapproving as resigned. {I recommend taking additional precautions to avoid detection.}

  “No kidding,” Darius replied, already descending the fire escape. The stairs seemed to groan louder on the way down, and he winced at every sound.

  He crouched low as he rounded the back corner of the office, pausing to listen for any sign of movement ahead. Nothing. Good. Taking another deep breath to steady his nerves, he crept along the side of the building, his boots making barely a whisper against the rough pavement, feeling terribly exposed the whole time.

  The building’s front entrance finally came into view as he edged closer. Just as he’d seen in the reference photos, it wasn’t much to look at: a simple glass door set into a plain metal frame, illuminated by a single overhead light that buzzed faintly in the still night. A small sign on the wall next to the door bore the construction company’s name, its logo peeling at the edges.

  Through the glass, Darius could make out the dimly lit reception area inside—a short desk with a terminal, a couple of uncomfortable-looking chairs for visitors, and not much else.

  It wasn’t designed to impress, but that didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking. The entrance was doubtlessly designed to be wide and inviting – or, from his current perspective, open and lacking in cover.

  Worse, the patrol wasn’t stationed far enough down the street to make him feel comfortable. They didn’t have a direct line of sight to the entrance, but if they decided to wander in his direction, he’d have nowhere to go.

  {Are you too scared to try?}

  Darius pulled up short, more confused than offended. “I’m sorry, what? Are you… trying to insult me?”

  {According to my research, it is a common method of goading a person into inadvisable actions,} Echo said, almost managing to sound embarrassed.

  “That… I don’t even know where to start,” Darius said, bemused. “That’s not really how it works.”

  {I see. My apologies, then.}

  Darius shook his head, a faint smile tugging at his lips. Well, if nothing else, breaking into a building barely a block away from an Imperial patrol didn’t seem quite as nerve-wracking anymore. Maybe that was the point, to take his mind off it?

  …He should have gone for it before thinking too hard about it. Now he was nervous again.

  Oh, well.

  Darius allowed himself a single deep breath before hurling himself around the corner, eyes locked on the door. His pulse thundered in his ears as he closed the distance.

  He reached the entrance and slipped the bypass kit from his jacket, fingers working quickly as he plugged it into the access panel beside the door. The seconds stretched unbearably as the device hummed faintly, its screen flickering before finally chirping in success. Darius yanked the door open and slipped inside, letting it slide shut behind him with a barely audible hiss.

  He staggered forward and sagged against the receptionist’s desk, tension flowing out of him in a rush.

  A moment later he started to laugh, relief turning to giddiness. “Hah, oh man,” he chuckled, getting himself under control. “What a rush.” He could still feel his heart pounding in his chest.

  {I believe you may be something of an adrenaline junky,} Echo commented neutrally.

  “Can you blame me?” Darius quipped, still grinning. “Man, if I’d known how fun this stuff could be, I’d have become a criminal ages ago.”

  {Technically speaking, you have been a criminal for six years now.}

  “Bah, that doesn’t count,” Darius retorted, straightening from the desk and looking around curiously. “I didn’t commit the crime; I just took the blame for it.”

  There was a beat of silence before Echo spoke up again. {Your brother’s crime, correct?}

  Darius stiffened, deliberately ignoring the question in favour of moving past the receptionist’s desk towards a door leading deeper into the office. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but so far the building was more than a little underwhelming.

  “Seen one office, seen them all, I guess,” he muttered under his breath, opening the door to reveal a pitch-black room. He paused, suddenly realising he was missing something rather important, something that hadn’t been needed until now.

  “…I forgot to bring a torch.”