Chapter 19.3

I followed Nick as we walked through the sewers and maintenance tunnels, though honestly, if they didn't see us coming, they could have smelled us. As we entered the tunnels near where the maintenance bay was located, Nick nudged me and pulled his shemagh up and dropped a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes. I did the same, pulling my goggles up and syncing them with the tablet quickly. They scrolled a boot up code across my vision and illuminated various things in my vision, outlining and analyzing them. I shut the analysis down as we stood in front of an entrance to the warehouse.

"Open it," Kai ordered. I knelt down and got to work on the outside casing of the scanner. Popping the plastic off, I examined the motherboard and sighed. Still, even after all of these years, they haven't changed the kind of scanners they use? I took an alligator clip from my pouch and connected two of the prongs and looked up at Nick.

"Put your bionic hand on the scanner," I said.

"I can't open it," Nick said.

"Just do it," I said.

Nick put his hand on the scanner and the green bar rolled down the screen. The light flashed red twice and then green, the doors sliding open.

"Where did you learn that?"

"That is how I got into hacker training early," I said. "I'll have to tell you the story later."

The security station stood unmanned and dark. It felt so strange being there when it was empty. I remembered the one security guard who always greeted me in the morning. What did he think of me now? We moved past the station and onto the maintenance bay floor. Hundreds of stations stood completely empty, adding to the feeling in my gut. This felt wrong. Something was wrong. Anybody with a valid ID could open that door, you didn't need special access codes. Hell, Allen's little brother visited from time to time, nobody had to open the doors for him.

We moved quickly through the empty stations, passing my old one and I hesitated. Looking at the box where I used to work, I wondered who was stationed there now. If they got along with Carly, Allen and Felix. What got he or she stationed here?

Nick's hand on my shoulder drew me out of my head. He motioned for me to continue and I nodded. As we continued to move through the floor towards the storage area, I spotted several of the cameras sitting in a powered down position. I checked the tablet, only to see I wasn't actively controlling any of the cameras.

"Nick, something doesn't feel right," I whispered, hoping Kai didn't hear me.

"What?" he whispered back.

"All of the cameras are down," I whispered. "I'm not doing that."

"Security must be lax tonight," Nick shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

How could he be so relaxed about this? There was a night shift at this place, night time security guards, a High Lieutenant watched in the Commandant's place. Everything felt wrong about this. I glanced at Kai and began typing on my tablet screen, hacking into the maintenance bay's schedule to look for something to explain this.

A dead head order stared back at me, ordering all workers to stay home. I grabbed Nick's shoulder and stopped in place. "Something's wrong," I said.

"Shut up both of you," Kai snarled.

"Everything about this situation is wrong," I hissed.

"Keep moving," Kai said.

"No, this doesn't feel right, this place should be heavily populated right now and it's empty," I said. I looked around, searching the catwalks and high positions for any sign of ambush. The knot in my stomach tightened as I turned the analysis back onto my goggles and they pointed out more downed sensors.

"Keep moving," Kai repeated himself.

I jumped back in time to keep him from grabbing my arm. "No! Why are we really here? Why get the destroyed armor and gear when the fixed stuff is easier to access from the outside? This isn't making sense."

"Tawny," Nick said with caution in his voice.

"No! It's not adding up! Nothing here is adding up!" I said.

"You're too smart for your own good," Kai seethed as my goggles picked up movement on the fringes of my vision. A dozen men stood up from the shadows of work stations, and stalked towards us.

"Weapons on the ground!" a voice shouted out.

"On your knees!" came another shout.

Nick brought his weapon up, pushing me behind him. At some point, I drew my pistol and pointed it at the men behind us. Kai had his weapon pointed at the men.

"Weapons on the ground!" another one of them shouted. "You are under arrest!"

I saw Nick let his rifle hang from the strap at the bend of his elbow and raise his hands with something curled in his fingers. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Tawny, close your eyes," he whispered just loud enough for me to catch. "Run at the signal, you'll know what it is."

I complied just after he opened his fingers. Two seconds later, a deafening bang filled the space.