Vanya's Journals, Chapter 65 The gunfire in the hallway outside, long since ceased, breaks out again. Dr. Russ seems completely calm as he listens to your translation of Vanya's journal, and you wonder if the reason he left earlier was to create a reason to lure the guards away. At this point, you realize that Dr. Russ is just as mysterious of a figure – if not more so – than Sally, and you risk a glance in his direction.
"Who are you?" you ask him quizzically.
"I am Dr. Thian Russ, as I told you before," he responds coolly. "I am a historian and an archaeologist, much like you, although my line of work has me frequenting the library far more than ancient, unstable ruins."
"And your friend?" you ask.
His steady gaze ventures in her direction; she returns the glance with a warning glare as he speaks. "She would prefer to keep her identity hidden at the present time," Dr. Russ replies, choosing his words carefully. "However, it is my sincere hope that she will eventually reveal herself to you. Now, please... continue reading." The next few weeks passed by slowly, despite how busy we were.
Koth proved to be a better ally than we could've hoped. I'm not sure why, but she trusted me almost the same as if I'd been a Ballpoint soldier too. I guess it might have helped that I'd told her my story, though I'm sure she never actually felt any pity for me. Despite this, she managed to get Katie's PEA address to Reudh so we could talk to him. She also tried to do the same for Eltsha, but while Koth owned a PEA, Eltsha didn't. Koth also didn't have access to Solnay's labs. I did, though, and that necessitated another trip. I would write about it, but not really anything happened that was noteworthy while I was there. I simply gave Solnay and Gareth the address to Katie's PEA.
Katie herself wasn't too happy about our friendship with Koth, and I don't think she ever got over her initial prejudice of the woman. To her, Koth was still just a Ballpoint soldier, and it would take her redeeming herself before my friend would see her as anything more than an enemy. To her credit, she kept quiet about her feelings, although she tended to keep herself too busy to think about it much.
While Jade wasn't around, Katie spent most of her time tapping or speaking at her PEA, if not on a video call. We used it to keep in touch with everyone, but she mostly wanted to spend as much time with Trebor as she could. She missed him; she missed being able to talk to him in person. Her relationship wasn't quite a long-distance one, but it might as well have been. While Koth had informed us that Jade lived in Overgrove Apartments, Trebor was worried that the "killer" might follow him there, as he'd glimpsed a shady figure stalking him on occasion. Because of this, Katie never got to see him face-to-face. At the same time, she'd been ecstatic lately, and for good reason... Trebor actually came right out and asked if she would be his girlfriend, and she'd said yes. I hadn't seen her happier since before Saemin died.
Beneath it all, though, we were still trapped in Jade's tiny apartment. My claustrophobia wasn't giving me any problems, at least, but after we'd waited for two months with no sign of the killer turning up, it was starting to look like we'd never escape, and during Koth's weekday visits, it became clear that she was starting to lose hope in us. Kenzon's private investigator, Weldon, had said it could be
years before the killer was caught, and I wanted to be back at Spearbreakers far before that.
Our plan was to break into Division 3's Intelligence Center and try to find something in the system that would give us a clue as to who was after Katie. Koth had sabotaged government facilities for all of the two years she'd been at Parasol. If anyone knew how to do it, it would be her, and she couldn't figure out a way to break in. The place was built like a fortress. Simply getting through the front gates required an access card, and there were cameras mounted almost everywhere. Even if we could disable the cameras, there were guards everywhere, too, and they would be sure to notice anyone not wearing Parasol Security gear. The doors to the building were all keyed to handprints, and on top of that, even if we managed to get inside, we'd have to hack the archive mainframe if we wanted to get any data out at all. Finally, if we managed to get past everything and exit the building safely, there were mechsuits parked right outside in a cargo bay, according to Koth's scouting reports... we wouldn't stand a chance against even
one of them, armed or not.
Early on, I suggested we teleport directly inside, but Katie shot that idea down immediately. She said the building was likely protected with portal shielding – or PIGs (for Portal Interference Generators) – to forcibly prevent portal exits from forming. She made sure to helpfully add that PIGs were common enough that all Parasol shops had them, and most houses, too, to keep burglars from porting in and stealing things. While you could remotely deactivate them, you couldn't do it unless you had the passcode.
It seemed hopeless. For a long time, I was worried about letting Gareth and Solnay in on the secret because I didn't know what they'd think, though. Reudh didn't like the idea at all, and said it wasn't right, but that he would follow me wherever I went – he's a brave, loyal dwarf. It's hard
not to like him, once you get to know him... but romance was the last thing on my mind. Day after day, night after night, I wracked my brain for solutions, but I really couldn't think of a way to get inside. As time passed, eventually, Katie and I gave up, and Koth stopped visiting us. Gradually, my progress on my journal resumed, until I'd filled my first Parasol journal with the battle of 48D, and started on the second journal that Katie had bought for me. I finally grew too frustrated to write, but not before I was well into writing about my time at Parasol.
A solution did eventually come to me, but in a way I hadn't previously imagined.
~~~
It was a regular, dreary weekday at Jade's apartment. Katie was tired, and had given me her PEA so I could talk to people while she took a quick nap. With it being a Wednesday, I couldn't talk to Reudh, as he was training with Kenzon. Solnay was busy, and the only other friend I could talk to was Gareth, Solnay's assistant. He was a nice guy, really, even if a bit awkward and clumsy. Although I wouldn't normally talk to him, I didn't have anything else I wanted to do.
I was curled up in a corner of Jade's old sofa, my legs drawn close beside me as I spoke to Gareth's image on the PEA. We'd talked about Solnay's inventions, and we'd talked about the novelty of how we were both elves, but those subjects had grown old quickly. He'd asked about my ideal career choice, and I'd answered with journalism or writing; he'd responded by saying he was best at electronics and programming, and had never really cared to read anything besides non-fiction. Before long, this topic died, too, and we found it even more difficult to continue our conversation. I was also getting the sneaking suspicion that he was trying to impress me with his vocabulary.
"So, whatever happened with... that latex armor paint?" he asked during a lull in the conversation. "Did you convince the person to, uh... cease their belligerent activities?"
Shaking my head, I answered, "I still don't know who's trying to kill my friend and me, but it wasn't the person I thought it was."
"Ah, yes, of course... so, it therefore follows naturally that... Is that why you stopped visiting?" He seemed more disappointed than confused.
"Mhm..." I was a little surprised that he'd figured it out so quickly. I suppose he's a bit more intelligent than I give him credit for. "Whoever it is, they're trying to kill Katie," I explained. "Or me... I thought it was me for a little while, but nobody else at Parasol knows who I am, so I'm guessing it's her."
Gareth frowned slightly. "So you haven't left the premises even once in the past several weeks?? Well... besides to give Katie's PEA address to Solnay, I suppose..."
"Not really... I mean, my friend's father has a private investigator looking for the killer, but he doesn't want to let us out until he's found."
It seemed to hit a nerve with him, and he opened up a little more. It was very clear he and the government weren't on good terms, and he made no attempt to hide it. "They'll never find him, you know," he said quietly with a hint of annoyance. "The Parasol government oppressively controls their accumulated data. The amount legally available to the public is limited to what the public already knows."
"What?" I didn't like the sound of what he was saying. "So, basically, I'll be trapped here forever..."
"Not necessarily," he answered tentatively, half lost in thought, and his gaze dropped to the floor as his mind worked furiously. "I said
legally, mind you..."
A tiny smile crept across my face. He was thinking along the same lines as I had... I felt a sort of kinship with him, suddenly feeling like telling him my unfinished plans, and that one tiny decision made all the difference in the world. "Katie and I were thinking of breaking into the Intelligence Center here," I cautiously mentioned, watching his face. I was prepared to play it off as a joke at the slightest sign that he didn't like the idea.
But he didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, it seemed he'd already figured it out himself: "Yes, yes," he mumbled without raising his eyes, "I've gotten that far. The question isn't
where, the question is
how... I know people have done it before in the past few thousand years... mostly terrorists, hardcore hacktivists, and the like. They don't pay particularly close attention to keeping it locked down, as they don't keep any important military secrets here, but the hard part is keeping them from knowing who we are."
"Terrorists?" I asked, surprised.
He looked up at me for a moment, giving a brief nod. "Yeah, terrorists – government facilities are prime terrorism targets. Plenty of people there to injure, so on, so forth. If you hate the government, there's no loftier goal than to strike at the government itself, you understand." It was interesting to see how his shyness had completely disappeared now that he'd focused his mind on a problem.
"Terrorists... okay," I said slowly, an idea evolving in my mind. "Gareth..." I paused for a second, afraid of looking stupid, but then pressed onwards anyway. "You said you were good with electronics... what if you were to build something that looked like a bomb..."
Gareth stopped short, his eyes flicking up to my face as he froze. A few seconds later, he nodded skeptically. "Yes, I could do that... I have a rough idea of a bomb's construction techniques, even though the chemical composition is outside of my, um... outside my area of expertise."
"It doesn't have to actually blow up," I added hastily. "You just need to scare people out of the building while they try to disarm it."
He nodded inattentively. "But I don't see how that would help conceal our identity... Unless..." He paused, a faint flicker of a smile piercing his formerly leaden expression. "...Unless we use that opportunity to disable the cameras! We could enclose a fake payload inside a canister, and they'd never know the difference until they opened it...
And, if we
rigged it so that it looked like it would explode if someone opened the canister..."
"It would buy us even more time!" I finished for him, smiling brightly. At that moment, I was so happy and excited I could've kissed him. We were finally,
finally making progress towards catching the killer, and I couldn't wait to tell Katie.
For a minute, Gareth fell silent, examining my features with a strange sort of appreciation, almost as if he felt attracted to me, but he soon caught himself and continued the conversation. "Anyway, we'll need two bombs," he said with finality. "I'll use readily available materials so they won't be able to track them to us – they need to look like something that anyone could've built at home."
I nodded. "All right."
"I'll have to wire both of them to electrical systems so they're afraid to remove them," he went on. "I'll rig it so it looks like shutting of the power will trigger an explosion, and add in a motion sensor to make them afraid to move the bombs at all... We'll put one on the main building, and one outside the facility, where one of us can draw their attention to it and make them search for the second. That introduces the problem of how we're going to get away from the security forces, though...
"I have a friend who would be able to draw their attention to the bomb and disappear without being questioned," I suggested, thinking of Eltsha. I imagined that her past as a former skulker would be perfect in helping her disappear when she needed to. "Will we actually be able to do this?"
"It'll be difficult... This is a professional-level job, you know," Gareth muttered, his brow furrowed in thought. "I can hack computers, but cameras are a different matter entirely."
"I have someone for that, too," I answered his musings. "Her name is Koth, and she's pulled a lot of smaller operations like this by herself."
At this, he leveled at me what amounted to a piercing stare. "She's an anti-government activist, then?" he asked curiously. At my hesitation, he added quickly, "No, no, um... no. It really is fine, I used to want to do that kind of thing myself. Not many people will take a stand against government oppression."
"Yes," I confirmed with a nod, "she's an activist. She's done a lot like this over the past couple years." It was a lie, but I thought it would be a lot easier than explaining how she was actually a Ballpoint contractor.
"She'll be perfect," Gareth decided with a nod. It was clear he greatly enjoyed helping me hatch our little plan. "After they start evacuating the building, we use the confusion to port into the grounds without anybody noticing us. Then, your friend – Koth, was it?"
I nodded.
"Koth can disable the cameras, and then we can approach the main building. I'll hack one of the doors when nobody's looking and we'll get inside," he continued. "From there, we just need to find the archive access areas. We'll need standardized Parasol Security uniforms to keep from looking conspicuous, and the armor Mr Frog made you isn't going to be good enough, even with the new coat of paint."
"Where are we going to find Parasol uniforms?" I asked.
Gareth shrugged, shaking his head. "I'm not sure. This gives us something to go on, at least."
"I'll need to get in touch with Koth and get her to visit Eltsha," I said, voicing my thoughts.
"Yes, good idea," he agreed. "I'll, um... I'll get to work on those two bombs. I'll talk to you another time, Vanya."
"Talk to you soon!" I said after him, and the screen went dark.
Really, Gareth had a brilliant mind, and he was eager to prove himself. More than that, I think, he liked helping people... but at the time, I'd assumed he had a crush on me, and I figured that was the main reason. Even though he never said it straight out, he'd said things that had seemed to suggest it at the time. Looking back, I may have been reading into it... I wasn't sure how to take how he'd acted, and I didn't really have any way to know for sure, so I just let it pass. Besides, that was hardly important by comparison. From the looks of it, we were finally going to figure out who the killer was.
~~~
Over the course of the next month, we were all hard at work pulling our plan together.
After Gareth had gotten off call, I got in touch with Koth on her PEA and told her everything. She said she thought it was risky, but that she would agree to assist, so long as it would help her get off of Parasol and back to her company. She seemed to think there would be something in the Parasol intelligence archives that would help her find a way to escape, and I knew better than to suggest otherwise. In addition to that, I wanted to prove to her that Joseph was real, and that I hadn't been lying.
Katie, to her credit, loved the idea Gareth and I had put together, and was able to contribute with the knowledge that her dad had once been a Parasol Security officer, pointing out that there were likely suits of Parasol armor in his armory. Getting them out was a problem all to itself, and it took Gareth, Katie and I putting our heads together to come up with a solution... and even
that took a while to completely work out.
What we finally decided on was that Reudh, during one of his Wednesday visits to Kenzon, would disable his portal shielding, so that Koth could teleport into the armory and steal several suits. Convincing Reudh was difficult, as he very strongly disliked the idea of stealing from Kenzon, and pressed me until he learned the extent of our plan. Reudh liked the idea of us breaking into Parasol's intelligence facility even less... but after a while, I managed to persuade him to help. He told me it went against everything he stood for, but that he was willing to follow me to the ends of the world, just as he'd promised me back on Everoc. He also insisted that he come along during our "heist", as Katie was starting to call it, but nobody had any trouble with his request.
As to Solnay, I avoided letting her know about any of our plans. Gareth actually
advised me against telling her, saying she would most likely put a stop to it if she could, and from what I knew of her, it seemed likely. I also didn't think there would be much reason for her to go in the first place. When I'd visited her and gotten my armor painted, she'd made a point out of saying that she didn't want anything to leave the lab because it was Parasol property, and she didn't have anything to look up in the archives that I knew of. It was all just as well... all she really brought to the table was her military experience, which Reudh already had. With her bad leg, I didn't think she'd be able to help much.
Things didn't go quite as planned when Koth went to talk to Eltsha, though. Eltsha pointed out that she had her husband and her daughter, Mina, to take care of, as well as a part time job. She also wanted Koth to take note of the fact that she had easily recognizable scars all over her face, and an unusual accent. Eltsha was right, though, and we had to decide which of us would take her place. Eventually, Katie, Gareth, and Koth decided it should be me: I was the only one who didn't have an immediate, pressing reason to be elsewhere, and they figured my skulker talents should come in handy.
Katie insisted on coming along, against my better judgment, but she had me on a few points: she would know better than anyone else who might be after her, and would recognize names that I wouldn't. Perhaps more importantly, before she'd followed Saemin into the military, she'd been training to be an archiver, and archives were exactly what we were going to be dealing with.
Finally, everything was ready... all we needed to do was wait for a Wednesday so that Reudh and Koth could steal the Parasol uniforms.
There was one small detail I'd overlooked, though... and that was what eventually proved to be my downfall.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2281939 times)