Chapter 5 #4
Forcing myself to refocus on my own task, I led my team down the corridor only to slow down when the first holographic bot walked out of the room we’d been heading towards.
Dhaxius immediately invoked his cooling aura—thanks to his ice powers.
It was subtle, but perfect to fool any infrared detection system that could pick up our heat signatures.
We plastered ourselves against the sidewall as the bot walked past us unaware.
A part of me wished our little brother Tharek could have joined us as a Shadow.
His nightmare and mesmerizing abilities could trick anyone into believing they were in a completely different reality with an incredible level of realism.
However, beyond the fact that he was still too young to join the Sentinels, his power only worked on organic targets.
So unless the artificial intelligence controlling these holographic projections possessed some form of organic components, he wouldn’t have been effective during this mission.
As soon as the bot was far away enough, we carefully resumed our approach.
Peering at the scanner embedded in my armband only annoyed me.
Some scrambling devices still prevented us from being able to read our surroundings.
A simple glance at Lenora sufficed for her to understand my unspoken request.
She tapped a few instructions on her own armband, and seconds later, our snitch moved through the ventilation system further into the base so that its camera could give us a heads up of what we might run into.
My heart nearly jumped into my throat when a camera pan revealed the presence of a group of seven pirates marching towards us. Just a minute later, and we would have run straight into them as we walked through the doorway into the back area of the base.
Considering the size of their party, no amount of flattening ourselves against the sidewalls would have prevented them from bumping into at least one of us.
Without hesitation, I hastened back to the edge of the pit, grateful for the sound dampening effect of our suits.
As one, my companions followed my lead, none of them questioning when I lowered myself into the pit, dangling at the edge with both hands.
With a simple thought, I issued a command to my suit through our neural connection.
My palms tingled as the nanites from my gloves rearranged themselves to form spikes that dug into the ground to give me a greater grip.
Despite how discreet the whole process was, I couldn’t help but flinch at the slight crunching sound the spikes made when they came out.
Granted, we could have used the hovering feature of our suits, but the humming sound—although very low—would have given us away at such proximity to our enemies.
We sure could have used Vahl’s levitation powers right this instant.
Seconds later, the group of pirates walked past us with a hovercart laden with a handful of large crates likely filled with contraband.
I didn’t doubt that their contents would likely be of great help to our mission, should we be bold enough to attempt to seize it without raising the alarm.
It also would probably boost our score tremendously.
But I would save such a ballsy attempt for another occasion.
Right now, I wanted us to stick to the main mission to increase our chances—slim though they were—of being the first team to ever succeed on their first try.
As soon as the party was far enough, I hoisted myself back onto the path and headed towards the backroom while checking the camera feed from the snitch. Thankfully, this time the coast was clear.
The back area opened onto a large storage space where we found stacks of more crates similar to the ones on the hovercart that had passed us earlier.
Once again, their contents piqued my curiosity, but I stayed focused and made a left towards the series of detention cells lining both sides of the corridor.
The tall glass walls and doors hid nothing inside.
I could only pray that they possessed some sort of occluding features to provide the prisoners with some measure of privacy from time to time.
The cells were all empty but for one. Finding a single human woman sitting stoically on a cot instantly made me uneasy.
She was too still, too calm, but not in that sedate way people sometimes acted when under severe shock or stress.
Granted, she was a holographic projection as part of the scenario.
But they were usually better at acting like a normal sentient being.
Although she mostly matched the photos provided with our briefs for one of our three targets, she looked a bit paler, more gaunt, and with her long hair a darker shade of brown.
While detention, mistreatment, and stress could explain some of the differences, it still struck me as a bit of a sloppy holographic reproduction.
Considering the high quality of our previous simulations, this surprised me.
Is it a decoy meant to trick us into rescuing the wrong captive to make us fail?
Still in stealth, I ran the face recognition scanner from my armband. It confirmed her identity as Betty Granger.
Despite my instincts telling me something unpleasant was about to go down, I placed the hacking device created by Aunt Mercy on the security lock next to the reinforced glass door.
It both disabled the surveillance camera and released the lock on that cell.
Simultaneously, Lenora repositioned the snitch so that it would project the illusion of the corridor being empty in a loop once we entered the cell and rescued the prisoner.
It also created a cone of silence that would dampen any sound we might make.
Although discreet, the hissing sound of the release mechanism drew Betty’s attention.
She narrowed her eyes at finding the space empty before the door slid open.
Bracing for her potential reaction, I disabled my stealth shield, revealing myself.
Her eyes widened, and her mouth parted in surprise.
However, she didn’t gasp, yelp, or otherwise display the intense shock mixed with relief one might expect from a prisoner with little hope of being rescued.
I deactivated my visor to show my face, while lifting a finger to my lips to indicate for her to remain quiet. A smile immediately settled on her face, and she nodded her understanding while rising to her feet.
I detached a bracelet from my bracer and extended it towards her.
Without a word, she clasped it around her wrist and activated it.
A stealth shield wrapped around her. This time, Betty recoiled, displaying the first ‘natural’ response when she spotted my companions behind me, still hidden by their own camouflage.
The bracelet I gave her not only allowed her to see us, but also provided sound reduction allowing her to communicate with us with reduced risks of the pirates overhearing her should they be in our vicinity.
“I’m Zharina Praghan, team lead of the unit here to rescue you,” I said in a hushed tone. “Where are your companions, Claude and Sherryl?”
She shook her head and shrugged in an apologetic fashion. “I don’t know where they are. But I know that Claude had a mental breakdown. He was completely out of control when they separated us a few days ago.”
I clamped down on the disappointment I felt and nodded.
“No problem. For now, let’s get you out of here. We’ll find the others after you’re safe,” I said in a reassuring tone.
Unsurprisingly, my attempt at telepathically updating Vahleryon failed. Even though Sohr warned us that psychic disruptors would impede some of our progress, I still groaned inwardly before opening my com to message my brother.
“We got Betty. Taking her back to the ship,” I said.
“We have Sherryl,” he immediately responded. “We didn’t find Claude. Apparently, he’s gone insane.”
“That’s what Betty said. Maybe he’s held near the ship hangar. Or there might be a hidden room in the pit,” I mused aloud as we headed out of the cell.
“My thought as well. At least, Sherryl is very calm,” Vahl replied.
The way he spoke that last sentence had all my senses on high alert.
It both reassured and unnerved me that his rescued hostage was also behaving oddly.
It was his way of giving me a warning not to let my guard down as he also smelled a rat.
I reactivated my visor. Although it would not hide my face from my companions, I could mute the sound so that only Vahl would hear me.
But that would give away my suspicions, so I didn’t.
“Same with Betty,” I replied in a non-committal fashion.
“Noted. Be safe.”
I wanted to say a lot more, but we needed to keep communications to a minimum to reduce the chances they might be intercepted.
“You too,” I replied before disconnecting.
With Lenora still controlling the snitch to monitor the safety of the way ahead, we hurried towards the exit. Just as we were stepping back through the doorway into the main area with the pit, Betty called out to me.
“How are we getting out?” she asked with a sliver of worry.
“We have a bubble for you and your other two companions to get you back to our ship,” I said in the same reassuring tone.
“Oh,” she said, sounding nervous and almost distressed. “I’m afraid of being out in space in those bubbles or just in those suits using jet propulsion.”
“I’m not a fan either, but it is safe,” I said in a commiserating tone, although annoyed having a conversation in this dangerous setting. “I feel the same, but it is safe.”
Moments later, Vahl and his team exited on the balcony before he levitated them down on the opposite side of the pit from. Sherryl also didn’t quite match the visual from the brief. It was subtle, but enough to have my nitpicking and OCD tendencies go into overdrive.