Waiting until the elevator go down to the place they intended to inflitrate, only momentary silence and nothing else. But it ended when Geofrey gave them a brief of what to do next. As the same as before, Bryce hid himself safely while the others traversed through the standby men.
After the elevator door opened, they saw a long hallway. Various metal doors were neatly aligned, separating rooms in the place efficiently. Luckily for the group, there was no one around at the moment. Silently, they proceeded with their steps. Unlike the museum above where it was mesmerizing, the area below displayed no such. The ceiling only consisted of a repeated pattern of pipes and more pipes. Every door had a number labeled on it. Not to mention, the facility might be so huge that getting lost w ould be a normal occurence.
"So far so good. No guards spotted, yet."
"Just be careful regardless, Lucy. It couldn't be that easy to get through here."
"I'll notify you kids if I catch any-" Geofrey stopped his track. "Get inside the nearest room. Someone's coming."
The three young teens nodded, they all dashed into the nearest door. Just as they hid behind the cold and stury door, an armed man showed up casually patrolling around the area. His armor coated in silver alloy, the legging shared the same trait. A sub-machine was held firmly in his hands, other guards probably had the same set of equipments as well. That clearly indicated direct combat would be a bad choice, let alone being cornered by many like that.
It would be critical that Bryce hijacked the security to avoid a number of guards being deployed near them. First, they had to find the security room, a daunting task it indeed was.
They waited for whoever was passing by them to disappear from their sight before continuing with their track. Of course, cameras were another thing to worry about. Good thing they found a bunch of box and a cart. Mabel and Lucy would hide in the box while Geofrey and Bryce disguised themselves as staff members.
Carefully, they passed through the cameras with minimal suspicion if not none. Some guards did tell them to stop due to feeling suspicious but were too tired to check. Bryce convinced them without issues. Soon, they reached a bridge and saw a bunch of scientists working below. Bryce and Geofrey tried to eavesdrop when they heard someone mentioning a newly acquired artifact.
"So... who was chosen to manage the project regarding the item again?" Scientist A scratched his head.
"It was Dr. Greene, I think." Scientist B fidgeted with a rubik cube.
"I guess he deserves it. He's one of the greatest minds here after all."
"True... but I wish they didn't restrict access to that place."
"Same, it's unfair. It's not like anyone could actually break in and steal the thing, right?"
Bryce wanted to chuckle but he couldn't risk blowing the cover the group had been using. He couldn't help but look down on the feeble-minded scientists, stuck in their workplace so much that they never saw the dark side of reality. But anyways, it would sink in eventually if they noticed something precious was stolen.
According to the two leisuring fellas, the artifact was kept in the lowest level of the facility and security room was just a floor above it. The worst part was however, it would took ten more levels to reach there. Letting out a sigh, both Bryce and Geofrey went onward.
For better access to any level below, they must change their disguise. That was what they had in mind while waiting for unsuspecting watchmen to walk pass them in a corner hidden from the eyes. After disguising themselves as guards, they proceeded to an elevator, using the stolen ID cards to get in. The elevator stopped at B6, that was the lowest level it could go to. They would have to walk to proceed.
From what they'd seen so far, mostly guardsmen were occupying the entire place. Even so, as long as they could provide ID cards, none would suspect a thing. They eventually entered a large area where various machines and device are being tested and modified. A lot of interesting things were happening in the area. The most particular one that caught their attention was a machine two meters high that resembled an elevator but transparent.
Piqued, Bryce approached it for a closer look. One of the scientists caught him looking and gave him a formal greeting.
"Are you interested, fella? This here is my greatest invention yet, the Tele-pod."
"The what now?" Lucy's confused face is hidden behind a helmet.
"What I said, with this invention, fast travel won't just be a thing in a videogame anymore."
"Then why is there a sign attached that says failure?" Bryce asked nonchalantly.
"Um... they just couldn't give me a single chance for it." He sweated a bit. "I'm sure this time it will work. Will you please be a candidate?"
"No, I'm leaving."
"Just please!"
Suddenly, the guy tripped on his feet, dragging Bryce along. Having detected organism entering its inside, the tele-pod activated and zapped them into nothingness right in front of many eyes.
"Crap, did he just die?" Lucy looked nervously at her two companions.
"I hope not." Geofrey tried to calm himself.
A guardsman approached the three and told them to assist in carrying some wares on the lower floors. Despite the panick over Bryce's sudden disappearance, they decided to believe that he survived and took the chance to get to the floor below.
...
Opening his eyes, Bryce noticed himself sitting on someone unconscious. Next to him was the confused scientist who dragged him into the machine earlier. He was about to display his irritation but saw the neatly aligned monitors each displaying a different area. It was like a miracle, he found the secuity room by luck even though what just happened was wild. He thought he just turned to ash.
Standing up, he thanked the scientist by knocking him unconscious. He took out the suitcase hidden under the diguise and started doing his work. At the same time he hoped that the other would make it.
Like last time, there were digital walls made to prevent unauthorized access. Each of them was even harder to crack than the elevator's computer. It would take at least one hour for the hijacking. But he had no other choice regardless, security in the facility was troublesome. One alarm was all it took for them to end up death. The guards had strength in number, each of them was even equiped with bulletproof armor.
'I ain't stopping here. My two years of suffering would be meaningless if I failed this task. Bring me your worst, computer.'
With that, Bryce redoubled his focus on accessing to the security computer.
...
Standing in front of a storehouse, the guard asked three unsuspected people to carry the wares to the left wing of B9 which was the level they were in at the time. Lucy and Mabel played along and lifted some box into a cart. The guard almost found it weird to see two shortstacks, they were only a bit shorter than the average guard though. Thankfully he dismissed the thought and guessed that there would be no way kids could inflitrate the place.
Seeing that the two girls were failing miserably to act like two strong men, Geofrey knocked the unsuspecting guy down.
"Okay kids, you could drop it now. I couldn't even laugh."
Lucy and Mabel accepted defeat in physical strength which was what they weren't built up for. The three of them went onward while still hoping that Bryce was safe. They walked through a large hallway with a few guards patrolling around. They tried to act as casually as possible to avoid raising suspicion.
With deliberate steps, they blended in with flying colors thanks too the guards not noticing something different emitting from the two disguised teens. Geofrey would try his best to help the three avoid any unwanted encounter.
The air around the place felt a bit chilly, thanks to the venting system. The only sounds were the chatters of the guardsmen on duty along with a few steps. The three not only had to look casual but also not to make any out of nowhere noise that caught even the slightest attention of the unsuspecting men.
They couldn't afford to be in direct combat with a bunch of guards that could call back up as quick as breathing in and out. No matter how much combat prowess they had, a legion of armed men would be too overwhelming. All they needed was the rumored item that could take anyone to a different dimension.
Unnoticed thanks to the blissful silence, they arrived at a stairway that led to a level below. With that, only one more level to go before reaching where the item was being kept. Suddenly, Mabel bumped into someone and the sword she hid under her disguise dropped off. The guard bumped into her raised his alert and asked them to raise their hands, to which they complied. Just as Mabel raised her hands, she gripped the air and the guard felt something inside him being crushed. The man felt on the ground, unconscious.
"Mabel! Why did you use it?" Geofrey slightly panicked.
"That guy appeared in the line of sight of the camera, too." Lucy chimed in.
Yet, no alarm was raised even after what felt like a minute. They sighed in relief, guessing that Bryce had found the security room and was trying to hack the computer. They continued on their way but not forgetting to hide the body somewhere.
Thankfully there was no one else around to witness what Mabel just did. If there were indeed anyone around, they wouldn't be able to fathom what had just transpired in any way. The three tainted along with Bryce were tasked to take something as bizarre that didn't belong to mankind. Whatever answer the scientists were seeking for wouldn't be pleasant. Curiosity would only prevent someone some realizing that they were stepping right into hell.
Geofrey suggested that they let Bryce deal with the security and search for the chamber where their targetted item was, to which they agreed. They went further to search for another stairway leading downward because the other one was unfortunately under construction. There were several thick shutter door but they were able to pass through by using the stolen ID card of the guard earlier.
Having arrived at the stairway, they descended for one last time, entering the deepest floor for real. The only thing they needed to do at the moment was to retrieve the item and flee away from the place. Such a simple task, what could even go wrong?