Shields

Chapter 16: Executing Plans

Achmetha stared me down, arms crossed. "Are you going to help me, or are you just going to stand there and wait for us to get discovered?" he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. "You kept me in a simulation for a year of my life, just to study me. Do you really think I'm just going to say, 'oh, he's asking to help, let's just tell him everything and let him into our tiny circle of people we trust'?"

"Look, I know you have every reason to distrust me. I'd distrust myself too, if I was in your shoes. I'm just asking for you to help me with this one thing."

"Alright, tell me what you want help with and I'll decide from there," I conceded. There wasn't any use in alienating a potential ally, no matter how far-fetched it seemed for Achmetha to turn his back on Julius' operation.

He'd found me as I was entering a back alley near the government building for New Jersey. I hadn't thought anyone had followed me back, but I hadn't been in any state of mind to bother checking.

He cornered me, asking for ten minutes in order to convince me that he wasn't trying to betray me. Logically, of course, this was a stupid idea, because ten minutes might have just been the amount of time reinforcements would take to get there, but I'd ignored that logic and agreed. Any help I could get would be gladly accepted, and I was feeling reckless anyway.

I didn't have anyone left anymore. Thomas was as good as dead, Narian and Alven were dead and I felt like Brikan would probably end up dead by the end of this anyway. He often complained that he was getting too old for this and he was going to be fifty this year. He should be retired, not fighting some fiendish plot hatched by a madman.

Worst of all, I was beginning to become firmly convinced that Julius was going to win. He had the resources, the men and pretty much everything else he could ever need to pull this off. I was only one person, and Julius had an army. How was I supposed to counteract that?

Stop it. You can do this. Your plan is solid, you have Brikan and Achmetha might not be lying. He could get Thomas back for you too, and then it would be four against Julius. This isn't an impossible task.

"I don't know how to turn off the soldier's control program, but if you can get me to their mainframe, I can hack it. I know I can do it, but they won't let me in there and there's no way they'll just let me hack them, so I don't know how to do it."

I raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "That isn't a plan," I pointed out. "Which is the biggest flaw in your 'plan'. If you want a plan, then first, get me the floor plans of the building that houses their mainframe. Then we'll talk." I checked my watch. "Also, ten minutes is up, and I have places to be, so bye."

I turned and walked away, leaving Achmetha standing there, probably contemplating how he was going to get the floor plans. Or wondering how he was going to trap me. Either way, I didn't particularly care.

***

Our plan was rather simple if you didn't think about it. Infiltrate the building dressed as electricians; take out the guards if they suspect, find the room with the mainframe if they don't; hack the mainframe.

Achmetha had taken only an hour to get the floor plans for the building and now they were laid out in front of us. I studied the second floor. The mainframe was marked as being there, but something seemed off about it. It was guarded like any other floor would be, whereas the top floor, marked the prison area, was guarded like, well, a prison.

After a moment, I shrugged. If the map said the mainframe was there, I would trust that it was and if it wasn't, I knew where to look. Floor twenty. How am I supposed to get there? I wondered.