Bold Words

Day 13: Sound - Hose - Building

Tonight was the night that Emery had been waiting for. Dent could feel it in his circuits. Something had switched inside of him and as he rebooted, his mission was clear. He had to make a statement. Emery was nowhere in sight as Dent slipped through the streets of Mandura. His eyes glowed their usual blue, but as if to alarm someone, the brightness within them would flicker at random intervals. The only sound he could hear was Emery’s voice full of anger and contempt on a repeating loop in his head. Everything he’d ever said about Cromwell played in an endless loop, getting more and more intense and focusing the Aemata more and more with every word.

His fingers twitched beneath the leather jacket, rolling his neck as he moved, he turned sideways to scoot effortlessly move through the night crowd of the city. He didn’t have to worry about Emery getting in the way of the statement. The man had passed out from exhaustion. Not that Dent had really worried. He knew what he was doing and he would be on his way regardless of if Emery wanted him to or not. It was obvious how much his master wanted the destruction of Cromwell and Skywall and he was taking so damn long to do it. Of course Dent wasn’t going to kill Cromwell or anything, no, he wouldn’t take that pleasure away from his master, but what he was going to do was send a message. He was going to make sure Cromwell knew he wasn’t invincible. He was going to make sure that in the morning, Cromwell was afraid and Emery was filled with pride.

The train to the Garden District didn’t take long and before Dent knew it he was looking up at the Garden Mall. Even in the moonlight it was beautiful and maybe if he actually felt anything, he’d feel bad for destroying it, but considering Cromwell owned it and loved in the penthouse on the top floor, there was no getting around it. It was one of the prides of the Garden District if not only because the CEO of Skywall owned and lived in it.

Cromwell tried to give off this sense that he really cared about Atlas. Considering how Earth had died, no one was really surprised if any corporate figurehead or politician took on more care for their new home than was given to their last. That said, Cromwell went out of his way to decorate the Garden District’s mall with an abundance of plants. Outside, surrounding the mall was something of a rose garden maze. You had the option to ignore it and go straight for the building if you simply followed the white stone path straight, but there were numerous paths that strayed from the white brick that lead into the maze. The rose bushes were tall in order to hide the various paths and make the maze more difficult. It didn’t end there, however. The building itself was covered in moss and vines, decorating the structure, but making sure it didn’t look like a deserted, overgrown building.

At least Cromwell defended that it didn’t, but looking at it now, Dent thought it looked worse than any of the places in Mandura. Then again, anything Cromwell lived in was worse than the poverty stricken district.

Dent approached the screen on the front of the building, prompted for Cromwell’s password, his system hooked up with the mall’s using the internet. He navigated the control panel until he was able to hack into it, opening the door without sounding the alarm. He locked it upon entering, in hopes of slowing down whoever would be coming in after him, because he knew they would.

He continued all the way to the penthouse, remaining hidden and disabling cameras as he hacked through them, almost sounding an alarm as a short circuit shot through him and nearly disconnected him during a hack. He was able to recover, though he promptly quickened his step as he climbed into the elevator and made his way to the penthouse.

His motherboard felt hot as he licked his lips, staring at Cromwell’s large doors. The man wasn’t in there. He was away on some business trip, checking on his factories in Ireoth. It was a good thing that temptation was out of his hands. A small chuckle rolled in his throat as his hand pressed to the door. Dent lost it as his robotic fingers connected with the knob. Without even trying, he tore the door from its hinges.