Chapter 32 Felix
Felix
The snow crunched beneath our boots with each step, the only sound in the deafening mountain silence. Rory walked ahead, his breath forming clouds in the frigid air as he carved a path through the deepening drifts. I followed in his wake, grateful he wasn’t trying to talk.
My fingers had gone numb despite the stupidly expensive thermal touchscreen gloves. The tablet screen glowed weakly through the clear plastic bag I’d wrapped around it, displaying our GPS coordinates as we trudged deeper into what should have been empty wilderness.
The storm was worsening. Fat snowflakes stuck to everything—our coats, the tablet screen, our backpacks. Visibility had dropped to maybe ten metres ahead. It was highly possible we’d casually walk past whatever we were looking for at this rate.
My tablet chimed.
“Stop!” I shouted, the word cracking in the cold air.
Rory jumped, spinning around so fast he nearly toppled into the snow. “Christ, Felix! What—”
I held up my hand, staring at the screen. Blood rushed through my ears as I read the results from the automated background scan I’d been running.
“What is it?” Rory demanded, trudging back towards me. “Felix, we can’t stop. We’re one minute away from being ice pops out here.”
I ignored him, trying to tap the screen with clumsy gloved fingers. The snow wasn’t helping—each flake that hit the tablet melted and interfered with the touch response.
“Felix!” Rory’s voice carried an edge of panic. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
Finally, I gave up fighting the elements. I pulled my coat over my head, creating a makeshift tent around the tablet screen. The warm little bubble was almost a relief.
“Wi-Fi networks,” I whispered, my voice muffled by the fabric. “Multiple hidden networks with enterprise-grade encryption.”
“What does that mean?” Rory crouched beside me, his warmth seeping through the coat.
I scrolled through the data, my pulse quickening with each line. “I’m looking at the signal strengths. We’re supposedly in the middle of nowhere, but I’m detecting network traffic that suggests a facility with fifty-plus connected devices.”
“So we found them?”
“It looks like it.” I switched to the port scanner results. “I’ve got internal IP ranges, high-bandwidth research equipment, industrial-level power consumption. This must be them.”
The wind howled above us, but under the coat, everything felt suddenly still. Too still.
“Right,” I said, steeling myself. “I need to get my laptop out.”
Rory blinked at me. “Are you joking? In this storm?”
“I’m seeing enterprise-grade encryption. That means I can’t crack it with just the tablet.” My tablet could detect and map networks, but serious penetration testing required my laptop’s full toolkit—Kali Linux, custom scripts, the processing power to crack encryption protocols.
“We’re going to be completely exposed,” Rory said. “And if that thing gets wet—”
“Then we’re screwed.” I was already shrugging off my pack. “But if we don’t find a way in, Kit’s the one who’s screwed.”
The weight of that settled between us, chillier than the storm. Kit, somewhere in the facility ahead, possibly being tortured or worse while we worried about protecting the laptop from snow.
I pulled it out with shaking hands. “You’re going to have to help me cover this thing while I work. And please stay close to me. If I get too cold, I won’t even be able to type.”
Rory nodded grimly, unfolding his emergency poncho. “How long will it take?”
“Could be anywhere from ten minutes to an hour, depending on their security.”
“An hour?! We’ll die! Or, you will at least.”
Ignoring him, I powered up the laptop, the screen casting an eerie blue glow across the snow. “I need to map their network topology first, find a weak entry point.”
“What kind of weak entry point?”
“Printers are good. Environmental monitoring systems. Anything with default credentials or poor security updates.” I pulled up my scanning tools, fingers already moving across the keyboard despite the cold.
“Military facilities usually focus their security on the perimeter but leave internal networks poorly segmented.”
The laptop chimed as it detected the same networks my tablet had found, plus several more. My automated tools immediately began probing for vulnerabilities.
“There,” I breathed, watching the results populate. “Someone’s got an IoT device on the network with firmware that hasn’t been updated in two years.”
“Can you get in through that?”
“Give me fifteen minutes.” I hunched over the keyboard, already lost in the familiar rhythm of penetration testing. “Just keep the snow off the screen.”
But even as I worked, part of my mind remained focused on the mountain silence around us. We were close now—close enough to detect their networks, close enough to be detected ourselves.
Somewhere in the facility ahead, cameras might already be tracking our heat signatures through the storm.
My fingers flew across the keyboard, muscle memory taking over despite the cold. The IoT device had laughably weak security. Within minutes, I was inside their network perimeter.
“I’m in,” I said, barely containing my excitement. “Now for the fun part.”
“Fun?”
“Lateral movement.” I was already pivoting through their internal systems, escalating my privileges with each poorly configured connection. “Their network segmentation is awful. Whoever set this up clearly prioritised speed over security.”
A new window popped up on my screen—the security system interface. I could barely breathe.
“Felix,” Rory whispered. “What is it?”
“I can see everything.” The words came out in a rush.
“Every camera, every sensor, every bloody access control in the facility.” I scrolled through the camera feeds.
Corridors upon corridors. Rooms full of equipment, spaces that looked more like interrogation suites than offices.
Uniformed men and women moving about, or standing around talking.
I switched to the outdoor perimeter cameras, cross-referencing their positions with the geodata I’d mapped earlier. My screen filled with overlapping coverage zones.
“Right, look at this.” I tilted the laptop towards Rory. “I can map us a route using camera blind spots. And where there isn’t any, I can loop a few feeds so they’ll show empty footage while we pass through.”
“Can you find Kit?”
My hands slowed on the keyboard. Part of me wondered what we might see—what state Kit might be in. The not knowing had been torture, but seeing him hurt or worse…
“I can certainly try, but it might take a while.”
I cycled through internal camera feeds, checking the holding cells first. The sight made me queasy. Dozens of people—mostly men, a few women—sitting or lying unnaturally still on narrow bunks. Some stared at walls with blank expressions. But no Kit.
Then I found it—a small medical room with white walls. Kit sat in a chair wearing a pale blue medical gown, someone in scrubs taking blood from his arm.
Rory made a strangled noise. “Why is he wearing that?”
My throat closed up. “I think that means…”
“We need to go. Now.” Rory started pulling the poncho away, snow immediately hitting the laptop screen.
“Hold on, let me finalise our route.” My fingers raced across the keys, downloading the facility schematics and setting the camera loops to activate in ten minutes. Just enough time to get close.
We packed up in record time, the laptop disappearing back into my rucksack. The storm had intensified while we’d been working—the snow fell in thick sheets now, reducing visibility to almost nothing.
But we had a path.
I led this time, checking my tablet every few steps to ensure we stayed on track between the camera zones. The route took us up a steep incline, switchbacking through dense pine trees that provided some shelter from the wind.
My lungs burned in the thin mountain air. Each step became a monumental effort as we climbed higher, my legs shaking with exhaustion. The bitter cold sank its teeth into us, bone deep.
At least I was too numb to properly worry about the next part of our plan. Or lack thereof.
“There,” Rory panted, pointing ahead through the swirling snow. “Something’s there.”
I squinted through the white haze. Where the satellite images had shown nothing but empty mountainside, we found something very different. The facility wasn’t built on the mountain—it was built into it. Embedded so deeply that from above, it would appear to be natural rock and snow.
We stumbled towards what looked like a service entrance—heavy metal shutters set directly into the mountain face, nearly invisible unless you knew exactly where to look.
Rory stared at the impenetrable barrier. “What now?”
I tried to think, but my brain felt sluggish from the cold and exhaustion. The metal shutters had no visible access panel.
“Can you use your laptop to open that door?”
I pulled out my tablet with numb fingers, relief flooding through me as the screen lit up. “I can use this now,” I said, my breath forming clouds in the frigid air. “Basically, I created a secret tunnel back to their system that my tablet can use. A reverse shell.”
Rory bounced up and down. “Enough gibberish. Open it up!”
“Hold on.” I hunched over the tablet, checking the camera feeds again. “There will be soldiers about. And wolf super soldiers. We need to get everyone away from this part so we can sneak in.”
The facility sprawled across my screen—a maze of corridors and rooms carved deep into the mountain. Multiple entry points dotted the perimeter, but most were heavily guarded.
“The facility is huge,” I explained, zooming out to show Rory the full scope. “It stretches across this entire mountain. There are multiple entry points. We need to be smart about this.”
My fingers moved across the tablet screen, accessing the systems I’d compromised earlier. The holding cells from my previous reconnaissance appeared on screen—rows of unnaturally still prisoners.
Perfect.
I located the motion sensors in that corridor and triggered them manually, making it appear like someone was moving around the cells. Then I killed several cameras in the same area, feeds cutting to static and black screens.
Radio chatter immediately burst from my tablet’s speakers: “Motion in Cell Block C, cameras are down.”
“An escape attempt?” another voice crackled through.
“Or someone in the cells. All units to Cell Block C.”
On the camera feeds, guards rushed towards the distraction from every angle.
Rory stared at me. “God, you really are brilliant, aren’t you?”
I gave him a look.
“We’re still burning the place down later, right?”
“Are you ready to listen to my actual plan?”
Rory nodded, and I quickly outlined what we were going to do—the route splits, the timing, which doors led where. His face grew more serious with each instruction, but he never questioned the plan.
Activating the pre-programmed camera loops, we watched as the corridors we needed to travel began showing empty footage on repeat. How long until someone noticed?
Through the tablet, we could see a single guard still near our entrance—not directly by the shutter, thankfully, but down the corridor a bit, perched on a metal seat.
I opened the shutter door.
The metal groaned blissfully quiet as it rolled up, revealing concrete walls beyond.
My body disconnected from itself as we stepped through—we were actually doing this.
I could die at any moment. My family would never know what happened to me.
Shit, why didn’t I think of texting Lily one last message, at least?
Rory moved like a predator, all the combat training Kit had given him suddenly evident. The guard never saw him coming. One moment the man was checking his radio, the next Rory had him in a sleeper hold.
“We’re killing him, yeah?” Rory whispered as the guard went limp.
“What?! We’re not just killing everyone!” I hissed.
Rory rolled his eyes. “Fine, but we kill when we need to.”
“When we need to,” I agreed.
We dragged the unconscious guard to the nearest door—a storage room filled with winter gear, skiing equipment, and other supplies for anyone venturing back into the mountain wilderness. Perfect for hiding a body.
Rory whipped out zip-ties from his pocket, similar to the ones he’d used on Wren. He secured the guard’s hands and feet, while I grabbed the man’s access card, along with his radio and taser. Rory snatched up the firearm. I didn’t have the faintest clue how to use it.
“Ready?” I whispered.
“I think you and I were born to be partners in crime,” Rory said, and despite everything, I smiled.
I rattled off directions—second corridor, third left, through the double doors. Rory repeated them back perfectly.
“Go,” I whispered.
We split off in opposite directions, my tablet clutched in one hand as I controlled the camera feeds and monitored our routes. My new snow boots squeaked against the polished floor as I moved through the sterile corridors, following my own set of directions.
The facility felt endless—white walls and fluorescent lighting that hurt my eyes after the mountain darkness. Every door I passed could contain soldiers, scientists, wolves that would rip me to shreds.
I pulled up the camera feeds again, cycling through them frantically as I walked. Where was Kit? The medical wing had multiple rooms, and I needed to—
My steps faltered as I found the right feed.
Kit on an operating table, restraints around his wrists and ankles. A figure in surgical scrubs leaned over him, scalpel glinting under harsh lights. Blood trickled down Kit’s neck.
My vision blurred as panicked tears assaulted my eyes. They were cutting into him. Right now, while I was still corridors away.
Move faster.
My destination grew closer. Second level, through the security checkpoint using the guard’s card, past the laboratories with their reinforced glass windows.
This was madness. A few months ago, I’d been terrified of everything, jumping at my own shadow. Now I was on a suicide mission, breaking into a military facility to rescue the man who’d always protected me. Who would die for me in a heartbeat.
Who was currently in an operating theatre, a scalpel in his skull.
My pulse roared in my ears as I reached the final corridor. The door at the end was unmarked, but according to the schematics I’d downloaded, this was it.
Kit, we’re coming for you.
I burst through the door without hesitation.
The room spread before me, spy-film worthy—dozens of monitors covering every wall, showing camera feeds from throughout the facility. A single chair sat in the centre, surrounded by keyboards and control panels.
And standing wide-eyed beside that chair, a steaming cup of coffee frozen halfway to his lips, was a soldier who looked barely older than me.
He blinked at me like I was a hallucination.
All I had was the element of surprise.
And a taser.
I used both.