Chapter 19 - Breadcrumbs?

September 6, 2017

2:38 am, Cancun, Mexico

Handgun in front, Spectrum proceeds down the hallway. Soon, two doors on opposite sides come into view. On the left, Barracks. On the right, Office. Spectrum looks back at Aviator who is supporting Shade. Shade separates and leans on the wall. She trains her handgun to the Barracks door. Meanwhile, Aviator and Spectrum take position facing the Office door. Just as Aviator is gearing to kick in the door, Spectrum tests the door handle.

CREAK.

The door opens inwards. The rocky floor of the hallway gives way to a white tiled floor hidden beneath a mess of papers and folders. Inside is well lit with large fluorescent office lighting. The size of the room is roughly the same as the prison. Two side offices face each other. In the middle, many computers sit on well-spaced out rows of desks and chairs. The back wall is occupied by a series of whiteboards and bulletin boards that is covered up by more papers.

"They left the front door open." Spectrum says as he scans around, "Must've been in a hurry."

Aviator and Spectrum wander in but find no one. The side office on the left is labeled Security, while the one on the right is labeled Communications. Spectrum heads to Communications, followed by Aviator. They open the door to find the little office also deserted.

"I will try the comms." Spectrum says.

"I'll bring in Shade." Aviator adds as he retreats.

Spectrum gets to work trying to access the communications system. In front of him are 3 screens, a keyboard, a pair of headphones, a giant mic, and a camera. Cables connect these devices and clutter the floor. Spectrum pushes the buttons, attempting to activate the system. Frustration builds on his face. A few seconds later, Aviator returns supporting Shade.

"The entire system is under lockdown." Spectrum explains, "We need to head to Security."

"Lead the way." Aviator simply responds.

They make their way across the room with Spectrum in the lead. He tries the door handle of the security office but it is locked.

BANG! BANG!

Spectrum shoots around the door handle. He steps back, then lunges forward with a kick. The door bursts open. The setup is similar to the Communications office. A computer with 4 screens sits on a desk. The time on a screen reads 2.39 am. Spectrum dives in.

"Unlocked." Spectrum says, "Well bollocks."

"What?" Aviator asks.

"Some kind of autodestruct is active." Spectrum responds, "6 mins."

"We should escape." Aviator says.

"No need." Spectrum says, "Their security system is merely irksome."

A few tense seconds pass.

"Viola!" Spectrum says standing up, "Now I should be able to access the comms."

"Then we'll do document exploitation." Aviator says.

Shade nods then stands on her own. Wobbly yet firm.

Spectrum nods then walks across the room to the Communications office. Aviator and Shade split ways, scouring the room for any useful intel. Shade makes her way to the back wall and begins ripping out any document that seems useful.

Meanwhile, Aviator scans the computer at the security office. After a moment, he is able to find and eject the computer's hard drive. Then, he picks up any paper on the desk that he deems important. He leaves the office then walks amongst the desks. He determines that all the computers are interlinked in a cloud network meaning that none of the computers have any hard drive to take.

"Breadcrumbs it is." Aviator says to himself as he focuses on sorting and collecting papers.

"Let's see if you cooperate this time." Spectrum says as he sits in front of the 3 monitor system and puts on the headphones. The time on the screen reads 2.41 am.

Within a few seconds of operating the computer, a notification with a warning pops up.

"I need to deactivate the Hehlkappe system to proceed?" Spectrum asks, "What is the Hehlkappe system?"

"Hmm. Sounds German. I reckon Quake would know." Spectrum answers himself, "That's for later. Right now, I will disable it."

With a click, the once silent headphones began buzzing with activity.

"That worked." Spectrum said in excitement then shock, "Now who to call- Isn't that the?"

"This is not good." Spectrum says in growing panic at the image that suddenly pops up, "GUYS! Get in here now!"

"What happened?" Aviator says as he jogs in carrying a hard drive and a pile of papers.

"This is live footage from the reaper." Spectrum says, "It popped up when I disabled a system."

Shade walks in too with a pile of paper.

"They knew we were coming." Aviator says.

Suddenly, the image changes, revealing people. A notification pops up, it reads "Hehlkappe system offline. Activate?"

"The what?" Aviator asks.

"Probably a German word but I reckon it is a jamming system of sorts." Spectrum answers.

A dark textbox with a scrolling stream of green text appears.

"What's going on?" Aviator asks.

"I don't-" Spectrum answers as he scans through the quickly moving wall of text, "Wait. Oh no. This is bad. Very bad."

"Drone hacked." Shade says, her eyes also scanning the scrolling text.

The last line reads, "Activating Weapons System..."