problem,” said Kate. “The comm people tell me they’re ready to hit Lark Hill with a blast of electronic chaff—enough useless information to temporarily override all their systems without seeming like any kind of attack. We don’t want them to shut down the centre, after all. So make this quick, Eddie.”
“Right, then,” I said. “I’ll just pop in for a peek and then piss off again.”
* * *
Just around the corner from the Big Ear’s corridor, and all its hidden deadly protections, I leaned against the wall and put my phone to my ear. Marvellous invention, the mobile phone. Never been a better excuse for standing around, apparently doing nothing. Everyone just assumes you’re listening to someone. A quick glance around the corner was all it took to confirm that there were heavily armed soldiers patrolling both ends of the corridor. I let Kate know I was in position, and immediately every alarm bell and siren and flashing light in the centre went off at once. People came running from all directions, glaring wildly about them, then heading for their prescribed panic stations, at speed. At speed, while still being very careful to avoid all approaches to the Big Ear, of course. I put my phone away, and took another quick peek round the corner. The armed guards were still standing their ground. Which was a pity—for them.
I subvocalised my activating Words, and my golden armour flowed out and over me in a moment. I felt stronger and sharper, as though I’d been kicked fully awake. I shot round the corner and took out both guards at my end of the corridor with two solid taps behind the ear. The guards at the other end realised something had happened, but I was off and running before they even had time to raise their weapons. I raced down the corridor at inhuman speed, driven on by the unnatural strength in my armoured legs. I was just a golden blur to the startled soldiers, right before they were suddenly unconscious too. When the guards finally woke up, none of them would be able to explain to the Commander what had happened.
I stood well back from the door that led to the Big Ear and looked it over carefully. I didn’t worry about the security cameras; Drood armour is invisible to all surveillance. How else could our field agents operate today? We move unseen through the world to do what we have to do.
The lethal security measures were very well hidden; I couldn’t see a sign of them anywhere. I kicked in all my mask’s filters, and then discovered the pressure pads cunningly concealed in the floor, the hidden panels in the walls over robot gun emplacements, and the hidden panels in the ceilings for poison gas nozzles. The Commander really wasn’t taking any chances. I considered the situation carefully. I couldn’t hang around too long. The Commander would be bound to check in with his soldiers during an emergency alert, and he’d send serious reinforcements when the guards didn’t answer.
The most obvious solution was to just stomp on the pressure pads and trust my armour to protect me, but that would confirm that someone had been here. Someone the lethal levels didn’t bother at all. So, step around the pads. But when I stepped carefully past the first pad, the others immediately rearranged themselves into a whole new pattern. Which was just downright sneaky. So I hopscotched my way past and around the pads, my mask’s filters allowing me to dodge them all no matter how fast they moved.
I can be sneaky too.
I stood in front of the door and looked it over carefully. Fairly ordinary-looking, with another computer keypad lock. I grinned under my mask. Good enough to keep most people out, but I’m not most people. I pressed a golden fingertip against the keypad and sent a filament of strange matter leaping into the electronic system. It took my armour only a moment to find and input the right entrance code, and then the door swung quietly open before me. And no, I don’t know how the armour does that. My armour does a lot of things I don’t understand, and I discovered long ago that there was absolutely no point in asking Ethel questions concerning the marvellous armour she provides for my family. The answers only make my head hurt. I stepped quickly inside the room, and the door closed and locked itself quietly but firmly behind me.