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Chapter 620 - Gettining the Data
🕑 Added 2023-03-08 13:00:05 +0000 UTC"Ok, I think I got it, but it's a bad idea. They are using that room as a break room, the one you are staring at, and there are five guards in there playing cards. The theater room on the west is empty, but the hallway right outside it has two guards. One is always there, and the other keeps rotating. Oddly enough, the best way seems to be the main entrance. The only person who passes by there is the guard who keeps patrolling the hallways. And in front of the building, there is just one guard at the moment. And he is drinking something. Hang on," Becca quickly checked the recordings, "Yeah, ok, this is his third cup of coffee, I think. I'm sure he will need to use the bathroom soon."
"Going through the front door. That's a bold move. I like it," Zestra smiled and started moving. He waited behind one of the cars, still invisible, for the guard to start heading to the bathroom. He was hoping he would use the one in the building since there wasn't any portable toilet around, "I'm giving half an hour for that. Keep track of the movements of everyone inside, and tell me if you see something different. I'm already working on a plan B."
"Roger that," Becca said and activated her [Hyper Focus] skill before continuing watching. It didn't take long until she noticed how the guard in the front of the house was pacing around. He called someone through their communicators, but one of the guys in the break room just replied and waved their hands while laughing. Unfortunately, the cameras couldn't capture sound. If they did, the invisibility spell would be much more costly, and Becca wouldn't be able to keep it up for so long. Not because the audio would cost more than the visual data but because the more sensors Becca added, the harder the invisibility had to work.
"Are you seeing this?" Becca asked when the guard in the front of the house started moving.
"I am. How are things going inside?"
"All clear. The guy who is on patrol is in one of the hallways."
"Perfect," Zestra got up and started moving. Becca couldn't see where he was, but the spy moved quickly and with confidence. Just as the man opened the door, Zestra tapped on his watch under the sleeve of his suit, making one of the cars flash and beep just as it opened.
"What the…?" the guard who was about to enter the building pulled a set of keys from his pocket and pressed the lock button to lock his car again, "Weird," he huffed before walking inside. During all that time, he kept the door open, giving a chance for Zestra to move inside, "Fuck you all. I'm going to take a piss. Someone come watch the door," the guard continued, causing the one patrolling to rush out.
Becca didn't see anything, just the car flashing and the man waiting, but the opening didn't seem large enough to allow a second person to pass through. Yet, a couple of minutes later, she noticed that the camera pointing to the office blinked a couple of times.
"That was easier than I expected," Zestra said.
"Where are you?"
"Inside the office. Let me know if anyone gets close to the door," the spy was still invisible, and he first made sure to turn off all monitors in the room. Then cast an illusion to block out the light, and only after all that was over that he opened the computer. His data drive would work better if he installed it inside it, and it didn't look like this particular machine had any spells or alarms on it, "Time to work my magic."
"Go for it. I'll keep a lookout. How long is that going to take?" Becca asked.
"Probably around 2 hours. Praise the SSD," Zestra said with a chuckle.
"SSD?"
"It's a newish tech that works better than a USB stick. It usually can download 3 TB in just two hours, but my custom version can do that in just 20 minutes, and I think this will give me enough time to…." Zestra walked over to the door and set up a couple more spells and skills to hide his tracks while the software was working, "Let me know when the path to the library is clear."
"Which one?"
"The one where there is a sale on cookbooks. Girl, what do you think I'm talking about? The one where Haddock was acting all sneaky and suspicious."
"Oh! Right, sorry," Becca felt flushed. It was an obvious thing, and she should've realized it sooner.
"That's ok. Sorry for being a bitch. I get snippy during a mission."
They waited a while until the hallway was clear before Becca told Zestra it was time. He quickly moved through the corridor and reached the library. It took a few moments, but with the help of the reporter-turned-camerawoman, he managed to find the book. Unfortunately, this one was much more protected than the computer. There were several odd spells and locks that had to be unlocked in a specific order to open it. And now that Zestra had touched the book, if everything wasn't opened in five minutes, it would trigger an alarm, and the contents would be destroyed. The spell didn't say anything about that, but the spy had faced a very similar lock. More than that, the mana signature seemed to be very similar, so whoever made this set of traps was the same person who did the trap that made him fail his last mission.
"Sneaky bastard. I got you this time."
"Who are you talking to?" Becca watched the camera that only showed a floating book. According to what she knew, this library didn't have any sensors or cameras, so Zestra could move more freely.
"This trap. I think I know who made it. Well, I know of who made it," Zestra continued.
"And did you manage to bypass it?"
"No. I failed that mission, and everything went south. But now that I touched the book, unless I disarm it, it will trigger."
"And can you?"
"If you had asked me a couple of months ago, I would have said no. But now, maybe."
"Maybe?" Becca gasped, "That doesn't sound good."
"It's not, but give me a minute. I need to focus," Zestra spoke in a very serious tone that Becca had never heard before.
"Ok. I'll let you know if anything urgent happens," Becca continued.
Time passed as Zestra continued to work on the trap. One of the guards stopped in front of the office door, which made Becca worry, but she didn't say anything not to disturb the spy's work. All that happened in the span of four minutes until Zestra finally said.
"Ok, this is the last part. If it works, great. If not, I'm running out of here," he took a deep breath and pulled the mana from the final part of the trap. There was a small spark that also showed up on Becca's screen, but everything else seemed to be ok. The spark wasn't strong enough to cause any harm, nor strong enough to make a light.
"Did it work?" Becca asked.
"Yeah. It did. Hang on. Let's see…. Holy shit. This is amazing!" Zestra gasped.
"What?"
"This looks like a journal with sensitive information. It's on a cipher, but Haddock left the key in here," Zestra chuckled, "So much for being a smart guy. Anyway, let's just take some pictures, and we can decipher it later," Zestra moved to the table on the side and started scanning every single page with a small device. Thankfully this would allow him to do it two pages at a time, and in about half an hour, he managed to complete the process, "Honestly, this is amazing. It's totally worth it to have them know someone came here."
"They will know? How?"
"Well, there is no magic in the book anymore. So he will notice that something is wrong."
"Can't you make a lock like the one that it had?"
"I don't think so. That was very different from the one I could make."
"So? Just make one. Maybe set it to be dispelled after some time. That way, Haddock will, at least, think that everything is fine for a while, and when he realizes it's not, your mana is gone, and they can't track it if that is a thing."
Zestra stopped and looked at the hidden camera in the room, "That's actually brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Probably because I'm the one eating and just watching you. You have way more stuff to worry about than I do."
"Fair point. Let me finish this, and I'll tell you when I have to go back to the office."
Zestra took a while to set up a new lock with the same pattern as the one he unlocked. Soon he went back to the office with Becca's help. Nothing happened as he waited, and when the file transfer was done, he deleted the computer logs showing it was ever turned on at this hour, took his SSD chip, and left.
He got lucky with the rotation, and just as Zestra was about to leave, Becca let him know that the way was clear.
"Thank you, darling. I'll buy you a coffee later. We leave through the front door?" the spy asked.
"Just get out of there with the data," Becca rolled her eyes, "The front door seems to be the best option, but I have no clue how long it will be before any of them opens the door," She was already used to his flirty ways and knew that 90% of those comments could only be taken at face value. He moved through the hallway toward the entrance. Just as he was about to go down the stairs, there was a noise coming from one of the meeting rooms.
"The guys on break are moving out," Becca said as she noticed them leaving that room.
"Crap… Do we know where they will stay?" Zestra moved back to the hallway, trying to be out of sight even with his invisibility but still close enough to hear any conversation.
"One moment," Becca looked at her notes, "Two stay in the entrance, one in the hallway you are currently in, and another two will be moving around the house in circles."
"Ok, the front door is a bad idea then. How long until the other team takes a break?"
"They won't. The first group that was on a break already started working, and this is the second one coming out of theirs.."
"Where are the windows?" Zestra asked.
"I saw a few in the cameras, but I didn't case the area. Is there any that is not showing on the screens you have?"
"No… Well, the bathroom had a small window, but I didn't put a camera in there."
"Why not?"
"It's not a public bathroom. There is only one toilet and nothing to hide you from another person inside. It felt like an invasion of privacy."
"We are stealing from this guy, and you are worried about his privacy?" Zestra asked.
"We are not stealing anything, just copying data. And yeah, recording people going to the bathroom is where I draw a line."
"At least we know what is too much for you. Do I have a clear shot to the bathroom?"
"You are just up the stairs, right?"
Before Zestra could reply, one of the guards started speaking.
"Everyone. I'm going to trigger the mana sensor Acryora. Run a check. You all should be wearing the bracelet. I don't want a redo of the mess that happened last week, even if this is a new thing we have here. If that shit happens again, I'll have you lot doing the paperwork," the guard said through his communicator.
"Fuck," Zestra didn't say anything else but dashed to the bathroom. He faced that sensor before. Anything that wasn't either excluded from the sensor or wasn't wearing one of the bracelets would be signaled as an intruder. Even worse, that could pinpoint his location with deadly accuracy. As he moved, he glanced to the library and got worried. Maybe the lock he placed in the book would be enough to give him away. Then again, maybe Haddock made that room as an exception for the sensor since he would want to hide that there was something in there. Either way, there was nothing Zestra could do right now but run.
The window here was tiny, but he could make it work. The problem would be to close it, not to mention the view from the outside, but Becca had no cameras in the back of the house. He quickly opened the window just a smidge before casting an illusion spell to make it seem like nothing was moving. After that, he added a mana marker on the window so he could cast a spell even without seeing it. Climbing through the small gap, he dropped down, kicking the wall as he got close to the ground so the spy would land on the grass and not the gravel that was right under the window. He tumbled forward, using a spell to reduce the noise he made. Looking back, he prepared to use his marker to close the window. The problem was that doing so would require multiple casts. In order to make perfect illusions that could trick even the most sensitive of sensors, he had to make it weak to any direct interference. It was a gamble that always paid off, but now if he had any hopes of closing the window, he would have to switch between closing it and recasting the illusion at rapid speeds. If he was even a second too late, the camera would notice the movement, and people would know someone had left this palace. To make things worse, he had to do all that before they triggered the Acryora sensor, or his mana signature would be felt by it.
Zestra started rapidly firing the spells and quickly closed the window, making some noise that he could only hope wouldn't attract anything. With that out of the way, he ran to the side as fast as he could. That sensor could have a very wide range, and if he was caught anywhere on it, he would be in a world of trouble.
Becca didn't say anything during all that time. She understood that Zestra needed to focus to deal with whatever he was doing. Five minutes later, she finally heard his voice.
"Hey. I think I'm in the clear," Zestra sounded tired. He had to run as fast as possible while keeping a soundproof spell around him. Having that kind of spell moving around took a lot of effort, even for someone proficient in it.
"Are you sure?"
"I will be when I leave this place. If no one comes after me, I think we will be ok. And it's a good thing. I'm running out of mana already," Zestra said as he approached the wall surrounding the villa. He pressed something on his watch again, and a bird struck the barrier, causing it to flare up for a moment, just like before. The spy jumped over the wall, ready to fight whatever was coming, but there was nothing. With a sigh of relief, he started moving back to his partner.
About thirty minutes passed until Zestra returned to the parking lot. Becca wanted to leave the coffee shop right away, but according to the spy, it would be better if she stayed there until the five hours she paid for passed. She did so, ate some food,, and ordered extra for both of them when she was about to leave. As she went to her car, she did the same thing as before, making some sort of excuse to keep the door open for a few moments before going in herself.
A couple of days passed, and the interview was still scheduled. It seemed like no one realized that someone had infiltrated the office. During that time Zestra was still in Becca's room decoding the journal and seeing if there were any files that could help them. One night, as the spy was working on a new page absentmindedly, he finished deciphering and stopped to actually read what he found.
"What the actual fuck?"
"What's wrong?" Becca asked as she got out of the shower.
"Look at this. How the hell did they manage to hide this?" Zestra passed a page to Becca.
The reporter took it and read it over, "This… fuck. This is messed up. How did they think they would get away with this?"
"I don't know. But let me keep going. We still have some pages left to decipher, not to mention I have my contacts combing through the data. Maybe there are more pieces of this puzzle we can put together.
"Yeah, sure," Becca nodded, "Either way. We got those bastards."
"We sure did, girl," Zestra said with a smile, but he knew deep down that things were never this easy.
Comments
Gail Burke
Yeah, so we're back to every chapter ending in cliff hangers, sigh, just one more reason I really love your work.
