Bob appeared to be confused. “Why would it? I work for her mother—what Governor Ashikiri tells me to do is what I care about. Now, drop the bag to the ground and turn around.”
Roshike tossed the bag off into the shadows to the side. “With what’s in there, I imagine your employer will get what she wants.” Though not in the way she was likely expecting.
The enforcer sniffed. “Cute. But don’t think I’ll let myself be distracted by such a cheap trick. Now turn around and kneel on the ground.”
As if Roshike would be put at a disadvantage in such a position, but if Bob believed that, all the better. But before he even began to comply, he spotted a vague silhouette appear behind Bob. Whoever or whatever it was made a slight swishing sound, and the enforcer glanced quickly over his shoulder. But not quickly enough.
That moment of distraction was all Roshike had needed—leaping to cross the distance between them and angling off the line of the gun’s muzzle while he reached for the wrist holding the weapon. Bob was still turning his head back around in surprise as Roshike dug his thumb into the back of the enforcer’s hand, forcing it open and causing the gun to drop to the ground without a shot being fired. But Bob had already started to swing his free fist into Roshike’s stomach.
Roshike rolled up the outside of the man’s arm as he evaded the punch, locking Bob’s elbow in the process. He brought his own elbow crashing down across the back of Bob’s skull as he let the weight of his body drop backwards into the man’s stretched-out arm. Driving the enforcer down flat against the ground.
Pivoting to pin the man in that position, he saw that Bob had been knocked out cold. He felt for the man’s pulse and knew he’d be out for a while. Then he leaned down closer and spoke into the enforcer’s ear. “Add that to my account.” Taking the shadow screen from its pouch on his belt, Roshike then borrowed Bob’s access codes and registration from the screen the man was carrying somewhere on his person. Those would probably be sufficient for the job Roshike had to do tonight. Now he might not have to bother with scanning for someone else’s after he got into the administration building.
Standing slowly, Roshike stared at the shadow that had provided the moment of distraction just at the right time. “Thanks for the assist.”
Shin stepped forward out of the shadows, smiling, into the dim illumination around the two men. “I told you I was here to help. Seems I found a way to do that.”
Roshike sighed and looked down at the enforcer’s unconscious form. “But now I’ll need to tie him up, gag him, and shut him up somewhere he won’t be able to get out, where nobody will find him anytime soon.” But where he’d be found before he was in too much distress.
Shin sniffed. “Didn’t I say I was here to help? I can take care of him for you, and I promise he’ll not bother you ever again.”
He hesitated. While he could use the help—he needed to get on with the operation as planned—he wasn’t sure he liked the sound of her offer. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
She gave him that familiar, frosty glare. “I follow the code of the Kyoushi the same as you. Don’t worry about what I’m going to do, just trust me. I’ll keep him from causing you any trouble, so you can go and do what you need to do.”
Nodding reluctantly, Roshike admitted to himself that he had little choice but to trust her. And he preferred not to ask any more questions about how she intended to handle Bob, either his unconscious body or his ultimate fate. He felt certain he’d rather not know.
Shin shooed him off then and turned to the enforcer on the ground. With a shrug, Roshike flitted off into the dark and from the shadows of one building to another. As he continued to work his way toward the center of the complex. And there were few enough people about—remaining unseen presented no real difficulty.
Even when he reached the ring of houses where the enforcers were quartered, everything continued to go smoothly. From previous night’s excursions, it had become clear they kept no watch. Roshike imagined that they assumed nobody would attack the enforcers directly, much less on their home ground. And the administration building’s security seemed to be left to the guards and the Gaku-net.
But now that Roshike knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid setting off some sort of alarm in the server room, he’d have to worry about getting around the guards on the inside and getting past the alerted enforcers on the outside. But first he’d have to reach the server room and raid the database. Presuming he accomplished that, then would be the time to focus on how he’d get away with what he’d come for. And after that...
He dismissed the thought and returned his attention to approaching the administration building without being detected. There was just enough ambient light for him to see, but most people would be blind. And the fact there were so few windows looking out helped him too.
Choosing a wide stretch of wall well away from any windows, Roshike removed the grappling hook from the bag and played out a long length of the nylon cord before he started to swing the thing in a circle above his head. When he felt he’d built up sufficient kinetic energy for the hook to carry its weight to the roof, he let the swing dip down and off to one side. Then on the upswing he released it to sail in a high arc up through the sky.
The hook flew over the edge of the roof with the cord following it, and it landed on top of the building with a dull thunk even Roshike could barely discern. Hopefully no one inside had heard.
He grabbed the trailing rope and began pulling gently to drag the hook back toward the edge until it caught. Then he pulled again hard to make sure the thing was holding fast. So far, so good.
Taking the bag he’d brought with him, and two strips of cloth he’d cut from the wrap Shin had given him—which he wound around his hands to protect them from the friction of the cord—he strode to the base of the wall and began climbing. Slowly and steadily. There wasn’t anyone around to see, and he would be almost invisible in his dark attire anyway, but hurried, jerky movements were more apt to attract attention, and he was taking no chances. Not unnecessary ones.
Ascending five stories like that took some time, but there was no rush, and he needed to take it easy on himself. For when things became more difficult later. As he reached the roof, Roshike swung himself up over the edge and rested for a minute before pulling the cord up. He didn’t want to leave any obvious sign someone had scaled the wall. He hadn’t seen any indication anyone patrolled the perimeter of the building, but somebody might decide to take a walk around outside, and it was better to be safe. He left the hook where it was though. He could always throw the rope back down and descend swiftly if he ended up leaving the same way he’d come.
Then he started searching for the specific grate Seiko had described. On the roof of the administration building there were a few monstrous machines humming, air-conditioners for keeping certain sections of the building artificially cool apparently, but there were also the same kind of giant fans circulating outside air into the interior as on the roof of the candidates’ dormitory. And similar ducts reaching down through the ceiling.
Even with the detailed blueprints to study, Roshike would’ve had a difficult time discovering how to navigate through those ducts and crawlspaces or figuring out which place might be the best for entering the building proper. Thankfully, Seiko had discovered those things already and marked them out for him. So it didn’t take long to locate the grate.
The thing looked firmly fixed in place above the concrete opening—but on closer inspection he saw that the steel grill had been carefully cut away from the set-in-concrete anchors , which would have held it immobile if a certain someone hadn’t already prepared the way. He lifted the grate and slowly shifted it aside, until he had made a wide enough gap to slip through.
Lowering himself down into the air duct, he cast his mind back to the map he’d memorized from the blueprint on the button Seiko had given him. Shin may have appeared at just the right moment to aid Roshike at an awkward juncture, but Seiko and the pro
fessor had both thought things through and provided precisely the help he needed each step along the way. Their assistance was all he could’ve asked for and more, and he was glad he’d decided to trust them. But it was what Seiko had done for him that brought a smile to his face.
When he came to the place where the ductwork divided and became too small to fit through, he removed a panel and squeezed sideways into a crawlspace that was thankfully a lot cleaner than the dormitory passage. He inched his way softly along the tight, dark space and took two turnings before coming to the loose ceiling panel he’d been looking for. He slid it aside just a crack so he could check to see if there were any signs of life.
Seiko’s notes had indicated that there was a fair amount of activity in the administration building at night—not just guards patrolling the place, but also gray-suited functionaries working late. He couldn’t imagine what sort of work they would be doing here at such an hour. He probably didn’t want to know. The important thing was that this corner of the top floor was apparently away from any of that routine activity. Someone still might show up in the vicinity though. So Roshike waited and watched and listened until he was certain the coast was clear.
Then he slid the panel the rest of the way open and silently lowered himself onto the top of the tall storage cabinets lined against the wall. Turning to replace the panel, he pulled the mask he had made from the rest of Shin’s wrap out of one of the pouches on his belt and slipped it over his face. Once he’d finished this job, Roshike had a number of options. He might make straight for the wall to try and scale it and escape before dawn, or he could lie low for a few days while trying to think of some clever way to get through the gate, or he could even return to the candidate dormitory and attend the first session of guard training tomorrow to try quelling any suspicion of him the enforcers might have. Though that choice was last on his list. But whatever way he did end up choosing, it would be better if nobody knew who was responsible for what he was about to do—so he would wear a mask to hide his identity.
He slid the rest of the way to the floor and waited some more. Everything seemed still and sounded quiet, but he could feel the vibrations in the air, the gentle hum of distant activity, but nothing nearby. One of the benefits of entering through the top floor was that there was little or no activity up here at this late hour. Another was that it put him quite close to the server room.
Maybe the biggest boon, however, was that a lot of the top floor was off-limits to the normal security sweeps, greatly reducing the odds he might happen to run into a patrol. His goal was close at hand, the guards were far away. And he meant to keep them that way.
Roshike glanced down at his clothes and saw he looked a little worse for wear, but between his dust-up with Bob and then crawling through the ceiling, that was to be expected. And he hoped he could get in and out without being seen by anyone anyway.
Stealing swiftly along the thinly carpeted corridors, he did reach the server room without encountering a single soul, guard or otherwise. The reader next to the door required a physical interface with a screen, so Roshike took the shadow screen from his belt and activated the copy he’d made of Bob’s registration—and said another silent prayer before sliding it into the connection. Thankfully the door unlocked without any apparent difficulty.
He opened the door slowly and silently to peek around and make sure there wasn’t anyone inside. Seeing the room was empty, Roshike took the shadow screen from the reader and entered. Just like in Osaka, he didn’t want to close the door behind him—especially as he knew he’d be setting off an alarm and the door might lock automatically when it went off. And he hadn’t dared bring any of his spikes or those magnetic strips into the Gaku with him. The search would surely have found them.
On the other hand, if the door to such a secure location were left open for long, that too might trigger an alarm. Or at the very least cause someone to be sent to investigate. So he needed to move fast.
The room was empty except for three slim server cases sitting on a ledge against the back wall, and the large screen they were connected to. And a single chair sitting in front of that display. As smooth as everything had gone so far, this part was the one Roshike had the most doubts about, because there was no way to know if it would work. He might not even know whether it had when he was done.
According to Mark’s explanation the data transfer should be virtually instantaneous, but as soon as the Gaku-net realized the firewall around the database had been breached an alarm would alert everyone to the intrusion. Then he would have to run.
Having prepared by preprogramming the hacking code he had stored on one of his buttons so that it would hopefully collect all the files from the database, he’d plugged the rest of the slots on his shadow screen with some of the blank high-storage buttons Mark had provided. Now he fitted the adapter into the main interface on his screen, then slid that connection into the receptor on the side of the one mounted on the wall before him.
Immediately the large screen before him flared to life as a light flashed once on the side of his shadow screen. A split second later a piercing, penetrating shriek sounded from seemingly every direction. Roshike removed his shadow screen, stuffing it into its pouch on his belt as he raced for the door.
The hall just outside was clear, at the moment, and he turned to sprint down the corridor, making a split second decision to return to the roof. Some guards might be close enough to get here in time to slow him down a bit, but once he’d rappelled down the side of the building the rest of the guards would be behind him. Then he’d only have to worry about the small army of armed enforcers between himself and the rest of the compound. Once he made it past them, he was confident of his ability to continue to elude them. If he made it that far.
He made it all the way along that first corridor and around the first corner before he encountered a pair of guards running toward him, their batons in their hands and ready for a fight. Roshike dropped to the ground just before they collided, avoided the swinging sticks as he rolled between them. Springing back to his feet, he ran on.
Around the next corner an enforcer was waiting with his weapon in hand. Without slowing down a bit, Roshike launched himself at the wall to the side and ran halfway up its surface before springboarding off and curling into a ball to tumble through the air over the man’s head. Roshike landed in a crouch a couple meters behind the enforcer, and they both turned to face each other at the same time.
Unfortunately the man had taken an instinctive step backward as he swung around with his gun and left Roshike just that little bit too far away to be able to close the distance without a serious risk of getting himself shot. There was a moment of hesitation on both men’s part.
Then a whirl of maroon fabric suddenly enveloped the enforcer from behind, covering the man’s face and cutting off his cry for help and his oxygen. His unconscious body was lowered to the floor, and Roshike’s eyes met Seiko’s peeking out from within the maroon folds of the mysterious figure. But they had no time to talk.
Roshike saw her eyes widen a fraction—he immediately leaped backward, crashing into a guard who’d been rushing him from behind and bringing his baton crashing down. It would’ve cracked over Roshike’s skull if he hadn’t moved so quickly—now the man’s arm came down over Roshike’s shoulder and the stick swung through the empty space where Roshike used to be. Snatching the baton and twirling around, Roshike clipped the man behind the ear and shifted to the side to avoid another blow from a second guard. The other one of the pair he had left behind just a minute earlier.
As that guard turned to swing his stick again, a mass of maroon fabric fell over his face, and he was rendered unconscious as quickly and quietly as the other had been.
Seiko’s eyes smiled at Roshike, then she darted down the corridor and he was running to catch up. He reached the storage room where he had entered just in time to see the swirl of maroon fabric which was Seiko scrambling up the wall to land on the top of the storage ca
binets. She reached up to slide the ceiling panel open, then dropped back to the floor. Right in front of him.
Roshike whispered fiercely, in a voice barely audible. “What are you doing here? And how did you get in?”
Seiko sniffed, but kept her voice just as low. “I volunteered to work late, as I often do—no one will think there’s anything suspicious about it. Or about my taking a ten minute break to powder my nose.”
Well, there wasn’t anything he could do about it now—he’d just have to trust her ability to take care of herself. “I’m going to make copies of everything I got off the servers and leave a set for you.” He described the location of the disused conference room Mark had shown him and where he’d hide the buttons for her there. “So you can get the information to Tash if I can’t make it out right away.” Or at all, but he didn’t want to say that.
The serious look in Seiko’s eyes probably meant she was thinking it, but at least she didn’t mention it. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it alright. And when you get to the roof, you’ll see I’ve left something for you.”
He wondered what that was about, but they had no time for further talk, so he just nodded and lifted himself up onto the top of the storage cabinets and glanced back down to see she was already sprinting away. He was worried about her being discovered, but he also wanted to finish this job successfully.
The best thing he could do for both of them was to get away cleanly himself. As he climbed into the crawlspace and closed the ceiling panel behind him, he was thinking that the sooner the Batsu knew he was out of the building, the sooner they’d stop looking for an intruder inside and the safer Seiko would be. So he crawled across the cement swiftly and silently and sent a prayer her way.
Soon he’d be fighting his way through a ring of enforcers and all their efforts would be concentrated on catching Roshike. Once he got past them, he would either try to make it out of the Gaku then or wait for a more opportune time. But either way, he wouldn’t be in a position to help Seiko if she needed any assistance. Which was why he’d sent her to the same conference room where Mark would go to pick up his copies of whatever had been downloaded from the Batsu database.
Whispers of the Dead (Miraibanashi, #1) Page 17
