Chapter 20: Infiltration Is Better With Friends Together

•National Academy of Science, 1st Ward•

Ambrose

The evening air bit harshly against his skin as he stared at the large white building in front of him. The facility was heavily guarded with robots, surrounded by imposing fences, and high-tech security systems.

The building had a modern feel to it. They had sleek, silver columns that supported the building's structure and LED panels were strategically integrated into the columns, occasionally displaying scrolling equations and abstract scientific patterns,

A huge, expansive glass doorway sat at the front of the building. Ambrose grabbed the keycard from the pocket of his pajamas. Ambrose looked down at his rubber duck pajamas. Perhaps he should have dressed for the occasion better. He looked over her shoulder and saw Ana looking at him expectantly in her pink fluffy pajamas and Valerian beside her crossing his arms in his black silk pajamas. Yup, they definitely should have dressed for the occasion better. He swiped the keycard and the light above the door turned green and the glass door slid open.

Ambrose gasped in amazement at the interior of the Laboratory. The ceilings were high, accented with a constellation of energy-efficient LED lights that illuminated the space without casting harsh shadows. The big dipper, Orion, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, and other famous constellations decorated the ceilings.

Ambrose stealthily crouched on the floor to avoid being seen by other scientists. He looked back only to see Valerian walking around like he owned the place and Ana froze in her feet as she looked up and stared at the constellations on the ceiling. Ambrose shook his head in disappointment. "PSTTT PSTT" Ambrose called them. He did a series of hand gestures which only got him looks of confusion from the other two. "What kind of sidekicks are you? You can't even understand secret hand gestures?!" Ambrose complained.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Ana said copying Ambrose's hand gestures. "What are you? A ninja?!" she added.

"It means: The path is clear, follow me but watch your steps," Ambrose explained

"How were we supposed to know that??"

"We don't have to sneak around there's no one here," Valerian said as he showed them his screen. The map of the laboratory was blue but there were three red blobs on the map. "Oooooh infrared. Nice thinking, V" Ambrose said patting his back profusely. Valerian shot him a glare and he immediately retracted his hands.

"Besides, since it's an exclusive lab there are only a few people allowed here in the first place. Just the Imperial 7 and some students who work for them as assistants. If we should be worried, it should be for the robots and CCTVs in this place" Ana said pointing at the numerous robots walking in the room.

"Riese, start hacking the biometrics to enter your sister's lab. And while you're at it, you should work on the CCTVs to make sure we don't appear in any of them." Valerian said with a firm voice.

"Wait wait wait I'm supposed to be the leader here," Ambrose complained.

Valerian waved his hand to close his screen then proceeded to cross his arms. "Ok, what do you want to do?" Valerian said, his voice thick with warning.

"Well, I'll start hacking the CCTVs and biometrics in my sister's lab," Ambrose said decidedly.

"Hey, guys. Look" Ana interrupted them as she pointed to the large screens in the middle of the room which showed statistics, numbers, and graphs.

The large pillars in the middle of the room were surrounded by large transparent screens with interactive digital displays showcasing real-time data, graphs, and intricate schematics. These displays acted as windows into the ongoing experiments. Ambrose approached the screens and swiped through the data to look for his sister's experiment. "Bingo," Ambrose said as he saw her sister's research title. "Exploring Sustainable Alternatives: Novel Approaches to Cultivated Meat Production and Consumption in Light of Canine Meat Utilization" he read out loud. Ambrose wanted to gag at the ambitious title. "Show-off" he muttered to himself as he checked where the coordinates to her lab were.

"Her lab room is in the East Wing of the 3rd Floor. This way." Before Ambrose could get too far, Valerian grabbed him by the collar.

"The east wing is THAT way," Valerian said pointing in the opposite direction.

As they approached the east wing, Ambrose realized how large her sister's laboratory was. It was as big as 10 of their classrooms combined! He stared at the glass sliding door with a fingerprint and eye biometric scanner.

Ambrose opened his screen and started hacking the system. His fingers danced across the keyboard, his eyes locked onto multiple screens displaying lines of code, he was on the brink of something daring and potentially dangerous. Ambrose couldn't wait to see the look on his sister's face when he was done. Aside from looking for clues, Ambrose was planning to pull a bit of a prank on her sister.

Ambrose has meticulously gathered intel, tracing digital footprints and decoding encrypted communications. He had pinpointed a vulnerability in the lab's network security system, a virtual backdoor left carelessly open by an overconfident programmer. Tonight, he was going to exploit it.

His fingers moved with practiced precision as he entered commands into his custom-built interface. Line by line, he navigated through layers of code, bypassing alarms and avoiding digital sentinels. Adrenaline surged through his veins as the lights above the door started going green one by one.

"And done!" He exclaimed wiping the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"User Verified. Welcome Amelia Riese" An automated female voice announced as the last light turned green above the door and the glass door slid open. Ambrose inwardly patted himself on the back. 'Who's the black sheep now?" Ambrose muttered

"I think an applause is in order," he added.

Ana gently clapped her hands while Valerian just rolled his eyes.

"What are we looking for again? Ana asked as they stepped into the laboratory.

Large pieces of equipment and screen monitors filled the space, To be honest, Ambrose had no idea what they were. "Anything…" he answered.

Because of the scarcity of meat, her sister's meat research garnered her the top 2 position amongst the Imperial 7. That means she had a lot of sponsors to help fund her research. Ambrose looked at the large desk at the side of the room with her sister's nameplate on the table and smirked. Ambrose ran towards the desk and opened the monitor. He hacked into the system and managed to get the monitor to turn on. "HE HE HE HE. Let's see what you say when your wallpaper becomes poop" Amrose chuckled changing the wallpaper into poop. He laughed even more when he created a virus to hack the computer system, making poop confetti explode every few minutes.

"Ambrose, focus!" Ana yelled at him.

Ambrose turned towards her voice and in the deeper parts of the laboratory, he saw giant cylinders filled with an eerie blue fluid. The cylinders towered like macabre pillars, dominated the space. Constructed from gleaming, reflective glass, they held within them an unsettling spectacle that sent shivers down the spine of any who gazed upon them. Suspended within the clear liquid that filled these chambers were human limbs – arms, legs, eyes. Tubes and wires, resembling the tendrils of some monstrous creature, connected the severed limbs to sophisticated machinery.

"What the hell?!" Ambrose cursed at the chilling sight.

Sneak peek for the next chapter:

To her surprise, Valerian suddenly leaned closer and she felt a pair of warm lips press against her wounded skin. The warmth of his breath made her freeze. Her breath hitched when he felt Valerian lightly suck against her neck.😳