Void Lord cackled with delight as the files he secured were uploaded to his deck. He quickly made a copy, to be stored in a small storage device, imbedded into his brain. While it may have seemed distasteful, the man was, if nothing else, pragmatic. He knew that if he was ever to be outed or caught, his deck would be confiscated and the data he took would be back in its owner's hands.
He had several such incidents, where he'd been in some close scrapes, having to abandon his gear. Most times, Void Lord was able to recover it, but in certain instances, where he couldn't, he'd activated the self destruct feature. Though the hardware would be lost, he would still retain the valuable knowledge he'd taken. The man smiled to himself, thinking he'd gotten away scot free, but an alert on his deck told him otherwise.
"What the... SHIT!" he cursed after looking through the data. "Son of a... the fucking cunt let me leave!"
The hacker fumed for maybe a minute before springing into action. Void Lord knew he had to move fast, or he'd risk getting caught. He'd evaded pursuers before, but after checking out the files of the
Darkstrider
crew, the man knew that tangling with them in the physical world was a fight that he'd lose. He collected everything that he brought with him and stuffed back into his bag, before bolting out of the room.
He knew the elevator was a crap shoot, so he'd have to take the stairs. He flew down the flights, reaching the ground floor in record time. The man kept going, knowing that his pursuers would likely come for him that way. He hit the first basement, then the second, before he went hunting for the vent panel. Void Lord had done his homework and planned out this route, should the worst happen.
"Fucking little cunt! I am so going to ruin her ass when I get out of here!" the man grumbled as he found his exit and dislodged the panel.
He crawled into the air vent, happy that he was a rather thin and reedy type. Had he been any bigger, this escape route would not have worked. Void Lord crawled as quickly as he was able, eventually finding his way out of the maze of ducts several minutes later.
He came out in a maintenance area that had seen little in foot traffic, as he had planned. Void Lord grunted as he brought a program from his wrist computer, securing a ghost line to Saubath. The Takharian picked up on the seventh ring, answering the hacker's call.
"What is the meaning of this? You were not supposed to contact either of us..." Saubath started before he was cut off.
"They traced me. I got what you needed, but they traced me, and I don't doubt that these people from the
Darkstrider
will find me. I need safe transport off the station, and I need it now!" Void Lord told the commodore.
"Fuck! You are not in anyone's custody at the moment?" Saubath questioned.
"Not yet. I don't know how the bitch did it, but she found me, and no one finds me! If she found me there, it's only a matter of time before her and her friends get to me," Void Lord worried.
"Make your way to the military zone of the station and head for checkpoint forty-one! I have men stationed there who will help you, if you can get there!" the commodore told him. Void Lord brought up the schematic of Veldhern station and plotted a route to the checkpoint. It was a fair distance just to get there, but it would have to do.
"I can get there! If you could send any sort of escort, that would be much appreciated!" the reedy man replied.
"Already on it. Get moving!" the Takharian ordered before he killed the line. Needing no further motivation, Void Lord hauled ass, hoping that he'd make the checkpoint before Taal'ani and her friends found him.
******************************
Jaesa had tracked the man down to his suite and accessed the security cameras in the hotel. She did so quietly, not wanting to alarm hotel security, and pulled up stills of the man's face. It wasn't just his face she had gotten shots of, but also his height, weight, build and his walk. Jaesa fabricated an algorithm to track the man based on these parameters and had one ready within minutes.
"Jaesa? What are you doing?" Natalya asked.
"Just finished a tracking algorithm, so we can find this... Void Lord," Jaesa replied with a smirk.
"You got one ready that fast?" Taal'ani asked, eyes wide with surprise.
"You know who you're talking to, right?" Jaesa sassed, while giving Talon a look.
"OK, no need to press the point," Taal'ani replied. "Any idea how we'll find him?"
"Is there any way to contact Administrator Dohbalan? He could issue the order needed to find this man and apprehend him," Jaesa replied. "Or we could go and find him ourselves."
"We don't have our weapons!" Natalya reminded Jaesa. "Hold up while I call the
Darkstrider
."
"
Darkstrider
, come in.
Darkstrider
, is anyone there?" Taal'ani called in.
"Talon, are you all right?" Inari asked in answer.
"I'm fine. You guys still on the line with Williams?" the Fel'caan woman asked.
"Yeah! We're trying to figure where Void Lord may have gone and who he is, but we're coming up empty on that. There's so little to go on, as no persons of interest were flagged over the past few days, so we got nothing!" Inari griped.
"Jaesa tracked the bastard down and got stills of him. We're sending you a data package now," Taal'ani stated as she nodded to Jaesa, who uploaded the information packet to the
Darkstrider.
"That's Void Lord? This skinny little shit?" Inari scoffed.
"Probably why he's got such an issue with me handing his ass to him," Taal'ani sniffed.
"Weak men will always fear a strong woman. Mainly because such women cannot and will not be controlled. Least of all, by men like them," Alex observed.
"Well said! Just how much data did he get?" Priya asked, fearful of what had been taken.
