The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Cutting Things Close

They were like flattened black metal boxes, each possessing a large eye hook on one edge, just in front of a pair of flexible fabric loops, the loops themselves approximately a hand span and a half long. The box itself was only a finger thick, about a hand's length long and half as wide.

Their purpose, however, quickly became apparent as the winch pulled the line taut. Hearing the soft whine of the line drawing tight, Jeriko stood and, touching a hidden stud somewhere on one of the box's edges, she swung one of the sides off, revealing a compact set of free-turning wheels attached to what appeared to be the top inside edge. The wheels fitted smoothly and easily on top of the monofilament, running through an opening in now what was the front and back of the box.

The wheels in place on top of the cord, Jeriko then 'snicked' the metal plate back into place, sealing the entire device closed once again. As Mordecai stepped back to the winch to deactivate it and put a small brake in place to insure the line didn't go slack again, she took a medium sized metal alloy cable from a pouch and attached one end to the eye hook on the box's bottom. The other end attached to a metal loop on her belt, creating a safety line. Her hands then were opening the loops to slide inside, taking a good grip before, without looking back at her companion, she flung herself off the edge of the roof and into the growing darkness.

Hearing Jeriko launch herself into space, Mordecai pulled open a small hole in space and lightly tossed the duffel bag into it before closing it to pick up the second metal box where Jeriko had left it for him. He swiftly followed Jeriko's example, attaching the device to the cord and hooking in a safety line before he too was flying into the darkness, eyes intent as they focussed on his target in the dim distance.

Lubricated by a space age blend of colloid gel and micro ball-bearings, the wheels silently and effortlessly spun in their housing. That allowed the combination of inertia, the downward slope and Mordecai's own weight to carry the hardwire quickly and quietly along the cord with enough speed to make his clothes flutter in the breeze. And then he was touching down on the concrete roof on the other side, using psyken to slow him down.

Jeriko was already working to neutralize the few wards that were in place on the roof by the time Mordecai came to a full halt. The flows of psyken she was using to block the wards' sensory nets were visible to his heightened senses as a spidery dance of wispy light stretching out from her to caressingly move over the roof. The man in black nodded in satisfaction and unhooked himself from the slide, immediately moving to a nearby ventilation shaft.

It was the most logical point of penetration: with the amount of air and loose debris that regularly spun up and out a ventilation shaft, it would be difficult to set anything other than the most basic ward. Anything more sensitive would be constantly getting triggered by airflow and whatever flew up the shaft.

He paused to pull a small cordless screwdriver from a pouch then Mordecai began undoing the anchoring screws that held the vent's massive metal grating in place. Psyken could do it just as well and quite a bit faster, but he didn't want to run the risk of discovery if he didn't have to.

The eight anchoring screws, heavy and several centimetres long apiece, were quickly removed to drop silently into a pouch. Mordecai then eased the louvered grating out of the way just as Jeriko came up behind him, already preparing a suction anchor for climbing to be placed inside the duct. As he moved the grating out of the way, she stuck in her head and peered down into the darkened shaft, her meta-senses stretching into the darkness.

As soon as the blonde hardwire was satisfied that the defenses were either negligible or non-existent, she slide the suction anchor into place, pumping the vacuum valve with her thumb without bothering to confirm it with Mordecai. Which suited the man in black just fine; one of the reasons he liked working with Jeriko so much is that she already knew what needed to be done, and went ahead and did it, without worrying about making sure it was okay with him. Powerful he may be, but Mordecai hated to micromanage those he worked with.