| abstract
| - Tales_from_the_Hard_Side_ReLoaded / Episodes
* Alexandra Bessier The briefing room was lit by the green-blue glow of numerous monitors. As always her contract manager was present. Data drifted through her comlink, a new contract was transformed from binary data to near-human thought. Blueprints of the building to be infiltrated, names and faces, numbers of security measures took form on her retina and were stored in her external memory, decrypted on a level only AKKON ISA agents could muster. The first impression was an easy retrieval contract. A second glance on security virtual and real revealed why she was called to do the job. Black ice and red security agents crawled all over the place. Two hours later after her first encounter with security systems black ice she opened the door on the roof and let herself in. Two watcher programs told her to wait for the two guards to patrol by. Black as night and silent as snow she drifted along the walls, working her way down the halls to room number 213 on floor 61. The lock on the door was opened within seconds and the room belonged to her. Again the locking-mechanism securing the drawers in the large desk was overwritten part by her genuine hacking abilities part by her picking tools. Down from top the second drawer to the right holds the key card for room 921. The room the package was supposed to be. She recognized the noise on the door the moment her watcher program informed her about security and dived for the desk. Shadow engulfed her under the bulky desk, the light was soft and the man sloppy. One long minute later the door hissed close behind the guard. So much for level red security she thought. Checking twice with her watcher program she glided out of room 213 heading for 921 two stories up the building. Room 921 was a conference room with exquisite furniture. The walls were solid dim able glass. Center piece was a large table made of some black durable material pleasantly warm to the touch. Nearly invisible slits run through its upper side the only clue to its inset displays. One of those pieces of furniture you invest in to impress your clients. The chairs around the table where of some smooth dark material too maybe real leather she pondered. On the far wall she could see her target. An exquisite piece of old chines porcelain under a hood of bulletproof glass. The key card let her in. She smoothly crossed the room and stood before the little high tech shrine. Locked by four electronic locking mechanisms it was a mere routine run to unlock it. No further security systems around she popped the hood and concentrated on the primary target. Three seconds later one of the watcher programs shrieked as some black ice sliced its way through the watchers binary spine and discarded the small icon. She arranged the second watcher to go for hiding the moment the light went on and two heavies entered the room, emerging literally from thin air. Something science fiction tries to sell for real flooded her bloodstream. Time went slow and her thoughts went oozy. Her body moved near the physical limit. Guns ablaze she killed the first guard right where he stood half way in the room and send the second one back the way he came. Glass fractured and so did reality. Dark glass splintered and through its dissolving shards hard light flooded her eyes. So hard it brought her to tears. And with the light cold graped her body and she began to shiver. Blinking the tears away, controlling the cold with regulated metabolism she glanced around confused and naked. On her back on the cold concrete in a heap of metal and broken glass ooze all over her, she stared on a dead ork woman. Everywhere around the room where used cases of some previous gunfight. Smoke and the metallic smell of warm blood was in the air. The lock on the door to her left was broken and sparks of electricity made an eerie sound. Turning her head to the right she saw a dead norm or what was left of her. The door was blasted too and the roaring sound of fire made itself audible a few rooms too her left. Time slowed her heart too and she loosed herself from she heap of metal glass and oozing cables. Back flashes of her previous encounter hit her from time to time and made her dizzy. Two incredible long minutes later she was dressed in blood soaked trousers, top and boots stolen from the dead ork near the door. Her bio monitor showed her body overcooled and poor of nutrition but otherwise stable and fit. A five minute forward scouting through the right door and the rooms behind it left her with the impression of a hard hit on a major cloneing facility with four casualties on the intruders side and five clones destroyed. Jogging back through the destruction she passed her own tank and one other destroyed but no sign of any body around it. No time to think about it she pondered about her chances to get through the fire in the next room. Taking a leap of faith she propelled her body to the other side of the room and rolled to a halt near an overthrown table. Two more bodies and empty shell cases was all she let herself time to take in. Moving forward to secure the staircase across the room she passed a blown out door frame. With nobody on the stairs she risked a short sweep through the room behind the blown out door. It was worth it she decided. Obviously the guards room there were fresh trousers sweaters and boots. Strangely enough the sink was in tact. Reborn a second time today she cautiously edged around the corners of the staircase. The metallic shrieks of a door hinged out of its frame the cold breeze and the tension made her shiver. In annoyance she told her body to switch into combat mode and made it unopposed to the top of the flight out into the dawn of a new day, her first in a live time to come.
* MaWelt
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