Predator Code (Tales from Wildhearth #1)

Chapter 26 - Getting in is the Easy Part

Despite all the hard work and all the data they'd scraped together so painstakingly, walking through the front door of the enforcer headquarters simply wasn't an option. The secrecy of the wolfkin operation might have kept them from plastering her face on the city announcements, but she knew damn well that the enforcers themselves would recognise her in an instant, and she doubted Karno would pass as one of them. He'd scraped by as a guard, but he lacked the sheer physicality that exemplified the enforcers.

Poring over the plans, inch by infuriating inch, she couldn't help admiring the design of the enforcer bunker—or, more accurately, bunker complex. From one entrance beneath the Conclave, the structure exploded into a spider web of tunnels and secondary command centres, with hidden exits popping up all over the Silk. Some of the more audacious tunnels even made it all the way into the nearer civilian regions, connecting to all the major tram stations.

The wolfkin enforcers could strike anywhere in the city in a matter of hours.

"By the Peace," Karno muttered, lounging on the couch and pouring over a series of hard copy etchings of the floor plan. "This place is insane."

"I'd say it suits them then," she replied. She sat with her elbows on the table in the back room of Karno's shop, staring at the schematic through aching, bloodshot eyes. She'd futilely tried to get some sleep but only managed a couple of intermittent naps since they'd come back from the Conclave. The lure of the enforcer base was just too tempting.

That didn't make the apparent security measures all the more daunting. While the exterior access doors far from the main complex would be their best bet, they still needed to navigate a complex system of formidable locks, alarms, and guards.

"According to this, there's a rolling patrol in place," Karno continued. "The outer doors don't have a constant guard on them. They're linked up to the alarm system that will trigger on any unauthorised entry. Enforcer patrols check the doors periodically for any physical tampering."

She nodded thoughtfully. "We should be able to isolate the local alarm, so the thing doesn't blow our cover before we're even inside."

"Getting in is by far the easiest part of this." He slung his footpaws off the couch, holding one of the etchings up towards the light and squinting at it. "Whatever we're looking for is going to be in the operations centre."

"Well, there are maintenance shafts that run from the outer staging areas towards the centre." She pointed to the lines on the schematic. "Won't get us into the operations centre, but it'll get us close without having to dodge every single wolfkin in the place."

"That doesn't really help us if the operations centre is fully manned."

"Actually," Jett said, an edge of apprehension seeping into her voice. "I had a couple of ideas about that."

"Lay it on me."

"Well, it might be an enforcer den"—she shot him a mischievous glance—"but they have evacuation protocols like everybody else."

"Uh-huh." He nodded. "And that helps us how?"

"That atomic reactor they've got stuffed down there? Do you know the kind of carnage it would cause if that thing malfunctioned or had a meltdown?"

"I can take a guess," he replied, frown deepening. "But I really hope you're not about to suggest we sabotage that reactor into a meltdown. The risk—"

"No, no, no," she said quickly. "We just make them think it's going to meltdown."

He gave her a dubious look. "You can do that?"

"It's just a case of reading the protocol parameters and manually keying the readings to surpass them." She shrugged. "The hard part will be breaking into the system itself. If we can get into the system on-site and override the reactor safeties, that should clear out the guards that are left—at least temporarily—long enough to get what we need."