May 12 (Night) cont.
The boat sliced through the dark waters, the low hum of its engine lost to the sound of the ocean. We were gearing up as the wind whipped against us, nerves taut with anticipation. This was the kind of job that could go south in an instant—an over-armed corporate compound, a steep forested hill to navigate, and a boat we needed to make it back to.
Wizkid was already busy with Matrix recon, moving cautiously, knowing that if he was too fast or too greedy, they’d spot us before we even got close. His first success was sweet: two combat drones parked on the helipad, now under our control—or, at least, overwritten to think of us as friends and the compound guards as foes. If things went bad, those drones would be a wild card in our favor. The key was not to trip the alarm. Simple, right? Yeah, sure.
As the shoreline neared, Tag eased the boat in. The rest of us—me, Vanya, Eclipse, and Fuzzy—hit the sand and started the uphill climb. Tag would stay behind with the boat, running the drones and ready to extract us fast if things got dicey.
The climb? Grueling. The hill was steep, and the forest wasn’t making it easy. By the time we hit the crest, sweat slicked my back, but at least we had the compound in our sights. There it was: the lab complex, the condos where the researchers lived, and the heliport. Three main targets, all wrapped in a perimeter fence. Fuzzy set up for overwatch while the rest of us moved down, cutting through the fence like we’d practiced.
It was going smoothly—too smoothly. That’s when Vanya spotted it first: a dog-sized lizard, some kind of guard critter. It stared at us, beady eyes glowing under the dim compound lights. Vanya wasted no time, calling on her magic to take it out before it could make a sound. A tense few seconds passed, but nothing stirred. No alarm. We moved fast.
We hit the lab building, climbing through a first-story window, and we were in. The place had that sterile, corporate feel—designed for science, not for visitors. We made our way to the stairwell and found Morran’s lab. This was it. Eclipse went to work on the files while Vanya and I kept watch.
But then, the worst-case scenario played out: a patrol found the dead lizard. Fuzzy handled it like a pro, dropping the guards with two clean shots before they could raise the alarm, but we knew time was against us now. Eclipse finished her hack, downloading the files we came for.
That’s when she got hit.
The security spider in the Matrix blindsided her as she prepped the final download. I’d been working on my own side of things, keeping tabs on the digital layout, so I dove in as Wizkid and helped her fend off the spider. It went down, but not before the general alarm blared through the compound. That was our cue. Time to leave.
We made a mad dash for the window, taking the fastest way down—straight out. It wasn’t graceful, but it beat climbing while bullets were already flying. Vanya hit the ground running, and I was right behind her. Eclipse stumbled a bit but made it through.
By then, Fuzzy and Tag had already kicked things into high gear. Fuzzy’s sniper fire kept the guards from swarming us, and Tag’s drone—a quiet but deadly presence—was ripping through anything that moved. The drones Wizkid hacked did their job, too, taking down the helicopter before the guards even knew what hit them.
On the Matrix, Wizkid—me, really—was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the compound. False alarms, fake threats, complete chaos. Even the village wasn’t spared, with me sending out decoys and wreaking havoc.
We hit the boat with no time to spare. The sun was just beginning to hint at the horizon, but we were long gone by the time the compound fully woke up. No pursuers. No one tailing us. Just the open sea and the horizon stretching ahead.
We got back to Honolulu by 10 a.m., strolled into the Ares Astoria, and sat down to brunch like we’d been out having a great night. The perfect cover. No one would ever suspect what we’d been up to.
Mission accomplished.
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