He glanced at where she had kissed him while they sat and watched the stars. She had apparently picked up and left while he was sleeping. She had entered a note on his holo pad. "That was fun. Lets do it again sometime."
Finally Evan sobered up. His mother and friend were still missing, and he had a job to do. The so called Office of the Registry (colloquially referred to as the Records Office) handled all sorts of official documentation for the city. Inside their database was a set of files with the ID number he had discovered last night.
He had checked his holo pad last night to see if the information he was seeking was public, but as expected, the search yielded no results. Each sector of the city had its own Records building, but only Sector 1 stored critical classified information. Out of habit more than anything since his mother constantly worked with classified information, Evan took a bullet bike to the central Records office. Sitting down at a terminal, he plugged in the file ID into the search bar and waited for results.
Nothing. The file did not exist. Evan banged his fist on the desk, and several nearby people shushed him. He was sure this number went to the Records office. He knew of no other numbers used by the city that were eleven digits. Maybe the numbers were just another code that he had to decipher. Thinking back to anything that could help him, he thought of one desperate option. His mother's entire job premise was to transcribe paper documents that were unable to be transcribed by machines to electronic formats. It was a long shot, but the file he needed could be back with the physical filing system.
Looking around at all the security, he wondered if it was worth it. It was such a low probability of being a correct guess and such a high probability of screwing up his life. He glanced back at the terminal, and the default browser news article caught his eye. "Crime spree spreads across the city in the wake of NEXUS attack". He grimaced in determination. Leena and his mother were still out there. He had to try.
He circled to the back of the building. The records required several large servers, so there was a large fenced off area containing a high volume power transformer and several large vents for cooling the circuitry. Downtown Evan bought a toolkit and a large hooded coat. Disguising his face and form, he came back to the building, jumped the fence, and began loosening a vent cover. When it was finished, he used some spare stacks of wood lying around to boost himself up into the ventilation system.
His face was constantly blasted with hot air that grew hotter as he approached the servers. Eventually he found a narrow passage that was cool enough to reach the end of. It exited into the ceiling of a maintenance hallway. Dropping into the hall, he navigated his way to the physical library. The heavy security door was already cracked open. Cautiously he snuck in. Then, as he turned a corner, she backed up into him.
They both fell down out of shock, and all the papers she was holding scattered across the floor. Evan scrambled to run away, but when she did the same, he stopped and stared for a moment. "Kaitlyn?"
His private investigator froze and stared back at him frozen in fear. He couldn't take his eyes off her. It was probably because she was naked. Her pink skin stood at sharp contrast with the dreary grey and brown floors and shelves. Her healthy C-cups slowly stopped jiggling, and she subconsciously attempted to cover herself.
"What in Neptune's depths?" he said amazed. "What are you doing here?" Her mouth moved in a failed attempt to form a sentence, and then she suddenly vanished. "WHAT??" Evan almost yelled as he stumbled away in shock.
"Shhhshshshh" she quietly tried to shush him. "This is dangerous. You can't tell anyone, and you have to get out of here now."
"You're a Powered?" he asked. "And you can turn invisible?"
"I'll explain later. Right now, you need to go. Its not safe here."
She pushed him towards the door, but he pulled out the number on his holo pad and hurriedly began to tell her his tale. "I've got a clue. I followed that mysterious note, and it gave me a number that I think goes with a file in this room." He couldn't see her, so he had no idea if she was listening or if she was even still around him.
Finally she spoke. "Fine, but we have to hurry." They followed the cataloging system until they found the shelf of pull-out drawers containing thousands of folders. "I've got it" she said, and a large manilla folder levitated into midair. Just then a loud clang echoed in the distance. "Take it an move" she whispered to him as she shoved the folder into his arms. "I'll draw them off while you go back wherever you came from."
"Who are they? Is their security that amped up?" Evan asked.
"There are a lot of things that could be hidden here that people don't want found" she answered. Evan snuck back to the open door while Kaitlyn scouted ahead. Eventually she tapped his shoulder as an 'all clear', and he ran back down the maintenance hallway to his exit. As he used pulled himself back up into the vents he heard a loud commotion followed by a lot of shouting, but there was nothing he could do for her if she was in trouble. He hoped she would be successful in escaping.
He fell out of the vent outside, and replaced the grating. There was some sort of alarm going off in the main complex, so he hustled down the street to call a bullet bike. Back at home, he spread the files out on the kitchen table. There were a wide variety of technical engineering documents from floor plans to all sorts of strange devices. The main focus of the folder seemed to be some sort of tube shaped device similar to his water bed. It was labeled as a medical device, and the documentation described it's capabilities as a regulating fluid chamber that could apply precise doses of treatments along with dozens of other medical terms that Evan didn't really understand.
He messaged Sierra what he had found, and within five seconds, she had responded demanding to meet up. They met at the abandoned church again, and Evan showed her the documents. She seemed shocked and alarmed. "I have no idea what this has to do with my mother" he stated. "These are just some technical documents for some experimental medical technology. I don't think the numbers we found were actually a Records ID number. It doesn't make any sense. Do you know what this is?"
"No, no" she said nervously as she finished scanning the documents into her holo pad. "Listen, this could be bad. These aren't old documents. The fact that they were excluded from the electronic archive, even as a classified document means that someone really doesn't want these to be found. It might even be illegal. You need to go home and hide this stuff."
"Oh I don't know about that" said a new voice that made them both jump. A darkly clad figure and a dozen more armed soldiers moved forward to surround them.
"Who in Neptune's depths are you?" Evan stammered. "What's going on?" He wondered if they had followed him from the Records office.
He saw them slip a bag over Sierra's head before the same happened to him. He kicked out wildly, but they were far too strong, and the chemical stench began to push him towards unconsciousness.
His last thought before slipping into darkness was that he should never have gotten her involved.
Chapter 16: It Stirs
"Its all coming together" the Angler thought to himself as he watched the final preparations take place. "Win or lose, it happens tonight." The large metal crate was loaded into an industrial troop transport, and the entirety of the Dark Sun was gathering to head out to their final destination. All the prisoners had been released in a 'prison break' to reinforce the rumors of the terrorist cell. Vicious was planning to slaughter them all as a message, but word came in from an unknown benefactor to let them go. All prisoners were released, bar one.
Alina was still locked in her room. Vicious had never even looked at her or seemed to realize she was still around after her pepper spray attack, but the Angler knew better than to presume that she could ever let go of a grudge. "Now I'm on that list too" he quietly mused. He had usurped her position, and slighted her station, and now she would never forgive him. He was a dead man walking, and everyone knew it; however, quick and easy was never her style. She needed to humiliate him and assert her dominance.
Her primal need for supplicant compliance would be her downfall. "I'm not finished just yet" he smiled grimly. He had studied his mistakes. He had hurdled past so many obstacles the night he was promoted, that he grew hesitant of overstepping his bounds. Now he knew the game. Now he must have no bounds. Unbridled ambition wielded by his insight and patience could turn this city on its head. But first, he would have to survive the night. Tasked with opening the door of the captive Axolotl as she unleashed the depths upon the upper city, no one saw any escape for him. Putting a resigned look upon his face, he took his place amongst the troops.
Vicious couldn't resist a jab. "O' cometh our glorious LEADER" she mocked. She marched forward with such an air of superiority that all the troopers sitting near him shrank in an attempt to disappear. She looked down on him with a satisfied grimace. "Now you see your mistake. You should have known your place ... at my fucking boots." The Angler only lowered his eyes. He didn't even have to act to look cowed.
