With the cover of darkness, setting himself up for recon was easy enough. He’d been observing them for over an hour, tiny branches cutting at his skin from the bush he’d planted himself in. Armed security passed his entry point every three minutes, always in pairs, and never as relaxed as they were on the reserve. The glowing orange panel that flicked to green when someone placed a badge on it meant he’d either need to find a new way in, or things were going to get violent from the jump.
He continued to watch, calculating his next steps. About one hundred paces to the door. With the enchantment on his suit, he’d cover that in seconds. The two security cameras facing the door from different angles were the more concerning issue. If the people watching those were anywhere close to as diligent as the guards outside, any chance of stealth would be out the window.
Marcus took another hour, slowly circling the building while staying out of sight of cameras and guards in search of another entrance. He obviously preferred to avoid violence, but the more he searched, the less that seemed to be possible. The front door was a no go. Employees and guards congregated there on smoke breaks, and it was far too well lit. The loading bay at the back could have been an option, but there were currently two semis there being unloaded.
Back to the side entrance.
Marcus pushed himself back into the bush, his imprint still fresh in the leaves, and removed his backpack to pull the stun gauntlets onto his hands. If he timed it properly, he’d only need to cross one of the cameras vision for a split second to get behind a pair of guards and take them out. He flexed his hands, charging up the gauntlets as he waited.
The guards rounded the corner.
Passed the door.
And were out of the overhead light.
Marcus took off. With the speed he was moving, anyone watching the cameras would have to be staring right at it to have any hope of seeing him. Once he was within range, Marcus leapt. His steel covered fist crashed into the back of a helmet, sending the left guard face first into the pavement. His other hand grabbed the barrel of the spell carbine in the other guard’s hands and sent a pulse of electricity through it.
“What the fuck?!” the guard yelled as he pulled the trigger only to hear an unsatisfying click.
Marcus flung his elbow back, crashing into the exposed jaw of the still standing guard. In a flash, he grabbed each of their radios, electrifying them with the remaining charge in each gauntlet, and swiped the keycard from the retractible lanyard on one of their hips. The panel beeped as he scanned the card and the lock on the door release.
He was in.
Ahead of him was a plain, white walled, white floored, hallway. He stepped quietly down it, checking the doors as he did. Conveniently, each of them had tiny placards that said what they were. Maintenance. Electrical. Storage. Security.
Security.
Marcus stared at the door for a second, then glanced around for cameras. It wouldn’t be long before the next patrol came along and found his friends on the outside, but if this was where the cameras were, then he might be able to take out any communication of where he was at any given time.
He pressed the keycard to the panel.
Beep
The lock disengaged.
Marcus burst into the room, monitors on the wall to his left and two guards sitting at consoles in front of them. It took less than a breath for his knee to collide with the skull of the first guard and him to land on top of the second. He pulled two tranquilizer darts from his bandolier, jabbing one into the neck of the man he landed on, and then spun to inject the second into the already unconscious man he’d kneed.
“Phillips and Ramirez down! Repeat Phillips and Ramirez down. West side of the building.” The radio on the desk blared.
They’d found them quicker than he’d anticipated.
Now he was on a clock.
Marcus ran out the door, stopping for a split second to bash the card reader with electrified fists, and started down the halls. He’d hoped to never be back in this building, the first time being up there on the list of the worst experiences of his life, but now he wished he’d took in more details. From the outside, the building was two stories, but Marcus knew there were several levels below.
He ducked into a maintenance closet at the sound of voices and heavy footsteps. Then the alarm sounded. He wasn’t certain what kind of building shutdown would happen, but he had a feeling leaving would be easier said than done. He needed some kind of distraction. Something that could buy him enough time to get to the second level without the entire facility on his ass.
Then he remembered where he was.
A research facility.
When the hall quieted, Marcus snuck out of the closet and started looking for a stairwell. The second unmarked door he checked brought fruit, and he started sprinting down the stairs until coming to a door labeled LABORATORY. If there was anything in this building that would sew some chaos, it would be here. He scanned his badge and pushed open the door and craned his head out to check the hallways.
Empty.
Good. Each room he passed, he stuck his head in and looked around. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, but he’d know when he saw it. To his great dismay, most of these rooms contained caged animals, all of them screeching from the now blaring alarm. He’d love nothing more than to let them all loose, but that seemed like a good way to get himself and the animals killed. Finally, he came to the door at the end of the hall. The rectangular window showed light still shining through it. Someone was still working.
Marcus yanked the door open and was on top of the man in the lab coat before he could even turn around. Glass and papers flew from the table he’d been working at as Marcus spun him around and grabbed a handful of coat and shirt collar, twisting them in his grip.
“Yell and it’s over,” Marcus growled, his other hand already cocked back.
The researcher let out a sound somewhere between a squeal and a whimper, but his lips shut tight and he put his hands up.
He glanced around the room, and a wicked grin crossed his lips at the table a few feet away. “What’s that?” He asked, dragging the man by the collar to the table. It was roughly human shaped, but the limbs were far too long compared to the torso. Where its face should have been was a blank white polymer covered in translucent plastic.
“I-its a prototype automaton.” The scientist said, placing his hands on the edge of the table to hold himself up as he hyperventilated. “It runs on elementally infused q-quartz…it’s really quite fa…”
“Yeah, don’t care.” Marcus pursed his lips and looked down at the man. “Turn it on.” He let go of him, but kept a stance that said he might hit him at any moment.
“Oh, I-I couldn’t possibly. I-It’s far too volatile.”
“Perfect. Turn it on.” Marcus repeated.
“N-No, you don’t understand. It could explode. It might go rogue and kill us all. There are t-too many variables. It might interpret the a-alarm as a battle scenario.”
Marcus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re really trying to get me to punch you in the face…” He shook his head and took a couple backward steps to check out the door again. Still clear. “How would you turn it on, if you were going to.”
“I-It’s controlled remotely.” He indicated the tablet that had clattered to the floor where he’d been working.
“What’s the range?”
“As l-long as we’re on the s-same network, there isn’t one,” the researcher stuttered out.
Marcus scooped up the tablet and held it to the man’s face. “Unlock it.”
“I r-really shouldn’t…”
Marcus flinched at him.
“Okay! Okay…” He typed in the code to unlock the tablet.
Marcus turned it in his hands and clicked on the little robot icon labeled ArcanexAtomaton.Exe. “What kinda controls does this thing have?”
“It’s just a p-prototype, so right now it’s just a c-combat drone.”
“Find a place to hide and don’t come out.” Marcus said as he flipped through the application. When the man stood there, knees clattering together, he glanced up and blinked. “Go!”
The researcher sprinted out the door, leaving a little pool of yellow liquid on the ground where he’d stood. He shook his head and hit the big green activate button on the application. The blank white face flashed three times, then turned red.
Subtle.
“Hey, Mr. Robot.” Marcus started backing up slowly as he waved. Mechanical whirring sounded, then soft plumes of rust-colored smoke sprang from it’s joints. Residual magic. The legs whirled unnaturally on rotating hips, feet touching the floor before its back left the table. It was already stalking toward him before straightening to stand at its full height, head nearly scraping the ceiling.
“You’re a big, scary robot, aren’t you?” Marcus said as he backed into the hallway, blank red face baring down on him.
It ducked to follow him into the hall, then the long legs started taking lunging steps in his direction. Marcus chucked the tablet at the automaton and turned to sprint away. Even with his enhanced speed, the elongated limbs kept it right on his heels. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched the chest open to reveal a built in miniature arcane cannon. It extended in his direction, and he barely turned the corner before a beam of green energy carved a hole in the wall.
Marcus burst through the stairwell door, taking the steps two at a time up to the ground level where he emerged to a hallway full of security. Marcus did not stop to chat. He blew through a pair of guards and kept running, unless they were willing to take out their own in the process, they wouldn’t shoot at him in here.
Twenty paces from the next turn, he heard the steel door to the stairwell burst off its hinged and collide with the stone wall. The bot turned on the guards instantly, and their reluctance to shoot faded with its arrival. He disappeared into the next stairwell, leaving a hail of projectiles in his wake.
With the echoes of the chaos he initiated downstairs as a backdrop, the second floor was eerily quiet. With each step, the air became heavier. The consequences of possible failure weighing down on him. His fingers moved along the bandolier, stopping on the vial of wyvernbane, a shiver rolling through him.
Marcus didn’t need to check each office. He’d walked this path before with feet that weren’t his in a nightmare that wasn’t real. The nameplate planted on the corner office came into view.
Yuri Volkobor
Private Consultant
Marcus turned the handle and slowly pushed the door open. A spindly crimson tendril spiraled out at him from the half-open door, and he barely spun to the side to take cover on the wall. Marcus tried to grab it before it could retreat back inside, but his hand came away wet and sticky with nothing of substance.
“Come out!” Yuri called from within. “Want to look you in the eyes before you die.”
Marcus took a deep breath, pulled two darts from his bandolier, and spun for the other side of the doorway. As he crossed the gap, he launched the darts at Yuri, lit only by a small desk lamp. Crimson tendrils exploded from Yuri’s hands, too fast for him to dodge. Much faster than his darts. He made it to the other side, but not before a piece of Yuri’s red horror show pierced through his jumpsuit and buried into his thigh.
Marcus choked on a scream as the nerves in his leg suddenly lit aflame. Somewhere in the room he heard the darts hit the floor, then Yuri’s voice call out again.
“Marcus?” Yuri laughed. “Wonderful to see you again! Please come in. We talk!”
He needed to think. He was not prepared to battle eldritch horror hands, and now he was pretty sure his leg was absolutely fucked.
We’ve got advantages over you, son, so you need to be smarter. Stronger. Faster. Don’t wait for them to catch up. Stay a step ahead.
Marcus swallowed, pushing passed the pain, and his eyes landed on his palm. It was still wet and slick with fluid. He brought it to his face and sniffed. Metallic. Pungent. It was blood. Yuri’s blood.
“Alright, I’m coming out.” Marcus called as he pumped his fists, charging up the gauntlets.
“No funny business, Mr. Funny Man.” Yuri yelled back.
Wincing, he turned enough to hold his open hand out in the threshold. As expected, the blood tentacle flew and pierced right through his palm. Marcus screamed, but clamped his hand into a fist. Lightning coiled from the overcharged stun gauntlets and electricity circuited through the blood.
Yuri let out a brief, high-pitched squeal before he and the vein of blood connecting them splashed to the wood floor.
“Thanks, Pop.” Marcus whispered, limping into the room.
It wasn’t as sudden as breaking the contract had been, but he could feel whatever was in Yuri’s blood circulating through him, dropping tiny cinders through his veins. It wasn’t something he had the time to worry about now, but it didn’t feel likely to go away.
He pulled a rope from his backpack, hogtying Yuri before he could wake up, then started digging through drawers. Lots of paperwork, but not the ones he was looking for. The bottom drawer of a nearby filing cabinet revealed a lock box that he promptly ripped out.
Where a lock should have been, an emerald cut into an elongated hexagon stared back at him. It suddenly lit up. Green light shone on one side of his face, moved up and down, then the box buzzed and the emerald shut off.
“What the fuck?”
Yuri grumbled behind him, and Marcus moved over to the desk and plopped down in the chair. He placed the lock box at his feet and reached out to tilt Yuri’s chin up to look at him. “Morning sunshine. You’ve got a fucking retinal scanner? Seriously?”
“Fuck you!” Yuri spat at him and tried to roll away, but Marcus slammed his fist into the crown of his shaved smooth head. “Stupid fuck! You think this end?” Yuri growled at him.
Marcus rolled his eyes, standing up to grab the rope connecting Yuri’s hands and ankles to tilt him back until he could line his eyes up with the box. The green light scanned the side of his face, and the box buzzed in his hand again. “Open your fucking eyes or I pop them out!” Marcus snapped, only using the same force he would have.
The next time the green light shone, the emerald popped out, tapping on the wood as it landed. Marcus let go of him and moved back to the chair to open the box and go through the paperwork. It contained hundreds of files just like his. Hundreds of people silenced by Arcanex.
Marcus pulled each of them out, stuffing them into the now overflowing backpack. “Now then,” he said, closing the now empty box and moving from the chair to sit on top of it and face Yuri. “What to do with you…”
“Does not matter.” Yuri let out a pained chuckle, a grin crossing his hairless face. “You are fucked.”
Marcus ignored him, voice quiet but shaking with fury. “You tortured my friends.” He reached down and pulled Yuri up to his knees by his throat and shoulder. “You beat James until he broke.”
“And I’d do it again.” Yuri spat in his face. “Is difference between me and you. You don’t have balls to do what needs doing,” he snarled at him, ever defiant even in such a vulnerable position.
Marcus closed his eyes as the fluid hit his face. The fingers not around Yuri’s throat moved down the bandolier. “Do you think you deserve to live?” Marcus asked genuinely, opening his eyes to stare into Yuri’s.
“More than you.” Yuri lunged forward in a last ditch effort to headbutt him. Marcus just extended his arm, the grip on his throat tightening.
The vial turned over and over in his hands. The spittle still wet on his cheek, he stared down at it. Marcus pulled Yuri toward him and onto his back, then swung his screaming leg over his torso and plugged his nose.
What scared him most wasn’t what he was about to do. That decision had been made for him when Yuri raised a hand to James. When he took away their free will. The truly terrifying bit, the part that ate at his soul, was how easy it was.
Marcus popped the cork and pushed his hips forward, laying all his weight on Yuri’s lungs. The moment he opened his mouth to gasp for air, he pushed the vial into his mouth and slammed his jaw upward, glass and all.
Yuri’s death was faster than he deserved, but still agonizing. The poison designed for beasts ten or more times his size stole his mind first. The once intimidating man went from cursing him to pleading, then completely unable to form coherent words. Then the convulsions started. His body betrayed him, twitching, thrashing, and leaking from every orifice. It all ended when Yuri’s lungs filled with his own fluid and the light in his eyes went out.
Marcus stared down at the dead man for a long time. Long after the chaos below quieted, he was still sitting on that lock box, contemplating the fact that he’d removed this piece of garbage from the world. Porter had just been a grunt. Some Arcanex lackey that maybe didn’t deserve to die. This was not the same. His leg and hand brought him back to reality. The burning was getting worse.
Exiting the building was not the struggle entering had been. He slipped out the stairwell door on the ground level to find the automaton in pieces, and the Arcanex guards tending to their dead and wounded. The walls that didn’t have enormous holes in them from the robot’s cannon were scorched with spell carbine fire. Marcus kept low and slipped out the side door he’d entered from.
Somewhere along the run from the research facility to his parents’ house, the burning in his hand and thigh had faded to nothing, leaving him feeling more unsettled than relieved. An issue for later. He had a delivery to make.
Marcus sat in the grass outside his childhood home’s front door, just outside of the light that lit up the patio. He considered walking inside. Embracing his parents. Telling them how sorry he was. Nicky and the girls should have been in school, but with the shit he’d put them through, it would have been a surprise if Mama let them go back.
When the sunrise threatened him with the light of day, Marcus finally stood and walked to the front door. He dropped the backpack filled with documents below the bell, rang it a few times, then turned and ran.