The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 7: Secrets in Shadows

A wash of green light went over his right eye, then the palm plate angled forward. Lash hesitated slightly, then put his hand on it to also be scanned before reaching out and rapidly punching in the command code he used during his last stay here, nearly a decade ago. The whole access point flashed green at that point and, with an audible click, the door to Lash's right, opened.

With his rifle back up, Lash put his shoulder against the door and, with steady pressure, pushed the heavy portal out of the way and eased inside at the same time. And right into the safehouse's eating area. Currently filled to nearly overflowing with modified humans in dark uniforms, the stylized White Flame openly visible on their left shoulders. With the house equipped with thick, stone walls, they hadn't heard enough of the gunfire outside to realize it was gunfire. So they were still sitting or standing in various spots around the kitchen, talking, eating and drinking as they did.

"Is this a bad time?" Lash asked lightly in English as one, the entire room turned their heads to look at him. Then his rifle, on full auto, was opening up to fling burning hot metal into the room.

A heartbeat later seven humans were down, some slumped over the table and others untidily sprawled on the floor, their blood leaking onto the polished stone floor. Then Truk was stepping behind him, his own rifle firing in tight bursts to cut down another trio moving in from the front living area.

Before the last one could hit the floor, Narcist was beside him and together they cut down four more that boiled out of side rooms, including the security closet, handguns up and ready. Despite the two Ventru nestari getting the drop on them, the humans were fast and skilled enough to get off several shots before they were unceremoniously cut down, their bodies tumbling roughly onto the floor.

As the last body stopped moving, there was a silent flash of red light from several recessed LEDs scattered along the roof and the tops of walls.

"That's the breach alarm," Lash said tightly. "Narcist! Get into the closet and first yank out all of the network cabling, then the power from the cabinet. Go! Now!"

As the lithe tech specialist ran into the security closet, Truk and Lash followed at a slightly more leisurely place.

"I get the networking cables, to prevent a wipe command coming in from the dedicated network, but the power cable?" Truk asked.

"Each hard point in the network is wired with its own scramble, encrypt, and wipe protocols to prevent valuable data from falling into the right hands," Lash explained as they stepped into the small room set aside for the house's surveillance hardware. Just in time to watch a determined Narcist yank out the power cable from a dedicated panel, every piece of equipment in the room going dark as she did.

"Hopefully pulling the power will keep the local vault from either encrypting or wiping before we pull what we want out of it," he finished as, with a steadying breath, Narcist leaned back from the now-lifeless equipment.

"Yeah, but if it's dead, Wolf, then how do we access it?"

Lash looked at Truk then he reached into his backpack, pulling out what looked like a solid brick of obsidian. Then he tossed it to Narcist, who caught it, eyes wide.

"A Qos Viran e-ram!" she said in a voice that was barely stronger than a gasp of surprise. "This is protected tech. Only ..." Then she grinned ruefully. "Sorry. Forgot what your real job was for a second there."

"That should power the cabinet enough for us to run a search for what we want," Lash indicated as Narcist opened recessed ports on the brick to draw out plastic cables and connectors. Connectors that she quickly plugged into the cabinet. Then, after the final cable went into her tablet, she leaned back.