Woman of the Past

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Mason made hardly any noise as his fingers flew across the holographic keyboard built into every CP system. It was around midnight and he’d been working all day on building a map to Bouffant’s office for Sparrow. Everyone else had gone to bed hours ago but he kept working. He wanted to be as thorough as possible. They didn’t want to risk losing her too.

He felt rather than heard someone in the room with him. Looking up, he spotted Sparrow in the shadows. She noticed his stare and winked at him before opening the door to the small office room Law had claimed for himself, disappearing a second later. Mason shook his head and stretched his arms, hearing his back pop as the moved for the first time in hours. He saved his work and turned off the CP before heading to his “room” a small two-person tent in the back corner of the warehouse.

They would go over the blueprints he made in the morning and he would start writing code to leak all the information they found right after they found it. He fell asleep knowing that they would soon have the advantage to take down the Pearl District Safe Zone. It’d been two weeks since his declaration of war on the Safe Zones. Two weeks too long, with Peyton trapped with the other women of their family.

* * *

“Stick to the map Sparrow.” Law warned her as she made her way through the air ducts after breaking into the perimeter.

“Hush lover, I know what I'm doing.” Her hushed words came to them through her com-link. Mason watched the screens on the CP, running interference whenever a guard got too close. He was also monitoring General Bouffant's location. They had specifically chosen to break in on a Wednesday because he always did inspections on the upper levels of the building in the middle of the night. There was a soft shuffling sound as Sparrow dropped down onto the hardwood floor of the General's office. “I’m in.” Her voice came again.

“Good, now you just have to put the transmitter key I gave you directly under the CP box. It should fit flush against it.” His screen beeped, letting him know that it was in place and transmitting. “That's perfect Sparrow. I now have full access to everything.”

“Now get out of there.” Law ordered again.

“You boys talk too much. I'm halfway out. Now shut up and let me concentrate before you get me caught.” That shut the two of them up as Mason continued to monitor all guard activities.

One guard began walking down the hallway parallel to the vent Sparrow was pulling herself through, “Guard sighted below you. Take it easy Sparrow.” She stopped moving, waiting for the all clear. Law and Mason both held their breath as the guard passed under her location and paused, looking down. He bent down to pick a coin up off the floor before continuing on his way, whistling happily.

All three sighs of relief came through the com-link, “Alright its clear. Let's get you out of there.” Law and Mason continued to guide her through the maze of air ducts to the one she'd used to enter the building. Once out on the street she moved with catlike grace over to the manhole on the little side street. From there, it was easier to deactivate his old traps without tripping any signals by rerouting the feed to his CP first, then feeding back a looped signal to the main control room.

About a mile and a half down the way, she resurfaced. Jaxon was there in a floppy hat and dark eyeliner to disguise him. He handed her a hoodie, sweats, and a change of shoes. She peeled off the top layers of her clothes and changed right there, throwing the clothing soiled from her trek through the sewers into the dump next to the car before hopping in. She took one look at Jaxon and laughed, “Mason the charges are planted and everything’s set.” She turned to Jaxon. “Okay Captain Jack, hoist the sails and up anchor.”