Eagerly, Cami pried open the cardboard flaps, cleared away the pile of packing peanuts, and picked out the object inside: a quite bizarre looking device, clearly resembling a gun in shape and function, but not at all in the conventional sense. The fishnet-clad thief smirked at this discovery, finding a place to hook it to her belt. Didn’t know Quantech was interested in weapons. Might be an interesting piece of leverage for negotiating a fatter paycheck later.
Turning once again to the door, she found another security code panel and repeated the steps she took at the gate, using another ping-impersonation disk and the EMP device. It unlatched and opened just as easily, allowing Cami access to the interior of the building. Gliding through the doorway, she allowed herself a confident smile. With this streak of good luck, I should be in an out in no time.
Though it was true she had had a few fortunate encounters that night, it turned out her encounter with that last door wasn’t one of them.
At the same moment the EMP fried the circuits of the loading bay entrance, Sam was in the middle of Corridor 2E, casually sweeping a flashlight side to side to illuminate the series of locked doors flanking her. The otherwise silent air was suddenly filled with a series of clicks, echoing against the walls both in front of or behind her. She froze warily, her ears picking up similar, fainter clicks from all over the facility and her eyes spotting the rows of small red lights over each door’s handle turning blue nearly simultaneously.
Unlike the exterior gate, the door Cami had just de-powered was part of an interconnecting system with each element not designed to function independently—arguably a significant oversight by the building’s architects. Every door was built with multiple failsafes, but they didn’t anticipate anything being able to bring them down all at once, as the EMP just did. Thus, when one door loses power, all doors in N-Hance follow suit.
“What the hell…?” Sam muttered aloud, reaching over to test one of the door handles. Finding it completely unresistant to being opened, she turned and jogged briskly out of the corridor, making her way to the nearest security station.
Despite their obvious weakness, the building doors were quite sound-proof, meaning Cami had not heard anything concerning when she had cut their power. She spent the next several minutes walking rather nonchalantly through various hallways leading deeper into the heart of the facility, she contemplated where to start her spree. I suppose I could just pick a room, but the map I saw back around the corner showed a pretty big lab in the basement. Hopefully the elevators don’t have the same dumb security panels. I wouldn’t want to take the sta—
“Hold it right there!”
While most would have froze in place at the sudden, authoritative voice, Cami’s disbelief outweighed her instinct in this moment. She turned to face the redhead guard that now squared off with her a few feet away, raising a bewildered eyebrow but also finally tensing a bit at her intimidating frame. “Really? N-Hance shells out for automated and human security? Their bottom line would probably put Quantech’s to shame if it wasn’t for all that overhead.”
“So you’re from Quantech?” Sam relaxed slightly upon full sight of the intruder, significantly smaller than her in every way. “I guess that’s explains this company’s caution, seeing as rivals will go to these lengths to get a one-up.”
“Weeellll…I wouldn’t say I’m ‘with’ them,” Cami clarified, “more of an unofficial, short-term contract. A very lucrative one, I might add. I could be persuaded to make some amendments and include a third party if you’d be willing to look the other way for just a little while.”
Sam shook her head, quickly tiring of the banter. “I don’t know how you got in, but unless you do exactly as I say, I’ll know exactly how you’ll get out, and it will involve a stretcher.”
“And handcuffs either way, I’m sure. No thanks…at least for now.”
With an impressive move reminiscent of a western, she swiftly brandished the gun and leveled it at the guard. Sam’s relaxation immediately ceased as she re-asserted her defensive stance, a hint of concern now present on her face.
“Interesting,” her change in demeanor did not go unnoticed by the blonde. “Either you don’t know what this gun does either, or you do and it’s just as bad as or worse than a normal gun. Regardless, it seems my options have improved. Now, I’ll give you one last chance to consider my offer, or you’ll be the one leaving in a stretcher…or maybe a dustbin, who’s to say?”
Sam’s alert eyes darted between her opponent’s face and the strange gun’s glowing barrel. No matter which choice she made, she knew she had to act fast…
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