The veil of the deep midnight is quickly erected in the sky, as the clock signals the twenty-second hour of the day, watching over the two of us sitting face-to-face, looking at the factory map that Mirai has traced out using her vision and the satellite. We are trying to find out how to launch a full-scale attack, bringing down the factory within the first and only attempt, drawing various lines and curves on the map to see which paths are the most appropriate.
- There are these corners that will act as blind spots. If we use these corners, we will penetrate through their first line of defence. Then the Pyro-planes will sweep through using this trajectory.
- That is a good strategy, but just a little bit change. We can send false drones here to attract their attention first. Then, we continue with your strategy.
Our strategy is definitely to cause false alarm, then breach the factory, go straight to the deepest floor and finish off the boss. Easier said than done, though.
Knock, knock. Somebody is knocking our hotel room door.
- Do you order any services, Mirai?
- No, I thought it was you...
Apparently, a hotel servant is standing in front of our room. I open the door.
- Hi, can I change your mattress covers? - He says.
- Yea, no problem. - I open the door more widely for him to come in, with his trolley of mattress covers and blankets.
As the servant does his job, Mirai and I just look at him like two statues. We cannot discuss openly in the presence of a stranger anyway.
After five minutes, the servant has changed our mattress covers to two newer and cleaner ones. He takes the old covers with him to the trolley.
- Sorry for the inconvenience. Today is a bit busy for our hotel.
- It's OK. Thanks for your service. - We greet the hotel servant as he leaves the room.
After closing the door, we both make a relief sigh. I talk to Mirai.
- Suspicious...
- Definitely. - Mirai agrees without questioning.
There is just simply no servants who would replace mattress covers in the presence of guests inside the room. This is definitely a trap.
Mirai uses her gamma vision and looks around the room. As expected, as her vision reaches the mattresses, there is a very loud beep. Something is under the mattresses.
I approach the bed and lift the mattress up. This distinct shape and connection, a timed bomb.
- Mirai, can you deal with it?
- Easy peasy. - She takes out a small photon blade.
After inspecting the bomb carefully, which is currently counting down and is at one minute left, Mirai cuts one of the wires, effectively disabling it. That is a merit of the enhanced vision, it guides you through these scenarios with wires and stuff.
- That is surprisingly easy. Not even a close call... - I question myself.
Seriously, the Intruders cannot be so obvious. This must be just a decoy. I look at the door, where the servant just left, wondering whether he would come back after the failed assassination attempt.
My spectacles beep loudly. It is even louder than Mirai's beep.
Shit.
BOOM!
I quickly erect a Force Field and a Compact Shield to protect both of us, right before another timed bomb attached behind the hotel room door detonates, causing the whole top of the hotel to collapse. The protection layers I erected just in time manage to prevent the debris falling onto us are already at their limit.
- Mirai, we need to jump out.
- Yes. Hold me tight.
As I hold tightly on Mirai's body, her agility module accelerates the both of us out of the window, sailing the night wind breezes, finally delivering a flawless landing onto a bush nearby, leaving both of us with only minor scratches. As we look up, a portion of the hotel has already vanished due to the explosion, and heavy clouds of smoke can still be seen on the sky despite it is already night.
A few minutes after the incident happens, we see Issac's car rushing towards the hotel, so we wave at him to signal that we are still safe. The car rushes towards us, making a drift as it tries to stop next to us. Issac gets out of the car, looking very worried, as if he just finished his work, is currently heading home when he sees the explosion on his way.
- Are you two OK? Do you two need an ambulance or something?
- We are OK. We are just walking and enjoying our night outside the hotel when it explodes.
- Phew, what a relief. Sorry for the uncomfortable experience you guys have to go through while staying here. I will let you stay at my place until you guys leave. - Issac manages to catch up with his breath after acknowledging that we are not seriously injured.
Well, as the saying goes, it is a blessing that your property gets to sacrifice for your own safety when crises come. Except my tablet with all of the backed up data before the explosion and my backpack, all of our hidden equipment back at the hotel are caught in the explosion and who knows if they are still working.
Issac's house is situated about half an hour away from the university, and from the hotel, it is also about half an hour ride away from his house. As the car enters the residential area, crowded with houses and buildings, it takes many left and right turns, before finally stopping in front of a two-storey house, looks sufficiently comfortable for a family of four or five.
Parking his car on the road and locking it properly, Issac leads us to the entrance. He opens the door, and a whole array of lighting systems turn on, welcoming us. As predicted, the house looks very spacious, with a large living room, a kitchen and three bedrooms with separate bathrooms.
- Hey Issac. Just a bit curious, but why would you buy such a big house for one person? - I initiate a small conversation.
- Who knows when I would suddenly get a girlfriend and marry, hehe. I just purchase these assets beforehand, when they were still affordable. Now, the price of such houses just skyrocket, literally, so quite of a bang for the buck.
Issac brings us to the second floor, where the bedrooms reside. He points towards the two rooms in the corner, signalling that we could choose any room there, because the third room is his own bedroom. After exchanging nods, we take the deepest bedroom.
- Just want to confirm again, you two are not a couple, right? You choose the same bedroom.
- Definitely not. - We both recite the same answer synchronically.
At this point in time, who cares about that anymore? We have a more urgent mission tomorrow.
After entering the room and locking the door, we change to another set of clothes and resume the discussion which was previously interrupted by a chain of misfortune.
- Mirai, you have triggered the EMP system to cut off any tracking attempts, right?
- Yes, I have already done it while we were still on Issac's car. So far, our location is still secured. But the best is still to heighten our alert a bit.
- That's great news. And OK, I will raise my guard a bit.
I take out the tablet. In a few seconds, the fully sketched to scale underground facility holographic map appears again. I tap on the tablet to resume the traces we drew out earlier.
- So, I think that this is the way to attack. We would link these two squadrons to form a large attack, then diverge again to...
- Shhh, be quiet a bit. - Mirai suddenly leaps at me, using her hand to cover my mouth.
Normally, I would feel irritated, but not this time. I also sense some imminent danger.
Mirai opens her right arm, which shows a range of buttons. She presses on one of them, but I do not really see the purpose, though.
Outside the window which we have already pull the curtains to cover, there is a shadow of a flying object, although I am not clear what specific object that is. It stops at our window for some time, rotating around, then flies away.
After that, Mirai starts speaking again to me, but with a very small voice.
- This is a defensive layer called Superpostion Barrier. Since I am a robot, I can easily be detected and identified, unlike human which are just indistinguishable using scanning methods. This barrier here uses wave superposition to emit corresponding waves that intercept any approaching waves that may be scanning me, tricking their receptor that nobody is nearby.
I am trying to resume the conversation, when another unidentified, flying object stops at our window. It seems like the Intruders would continuously deploy heavy surveillance in this area thanks to the accidental ruckus. At this rate, we cannot even talk for long.
- Argh, screw it! - I make a silent shout, but the motion and shape of my mouth make it obvious for Mirai to understand. - We will deploy all of our playing cards in hand and make a total, complete chaos there. Mirai, charge your battery to a hundred and tewnty percent tomorrow.
I scrap all of the strategies in mind, fully determined to deploy head-on, full-scale attacks. The situation is no longer the battle of the minds and the budgets. It is forced to the traditional, old-school, all or nothing.