"You gotta treat disguises and false credentials like they're made of paper. They'll work great for a bit, but they'll come apart in your hands eventually, especially credentials. Shit's too interconnected to ever work perfectly."

  — Narga, infiltration specialist, teaching his apprentice

  John stopped at the corner, checking his surroundings before letting out the breath he'd been holding in a huff.

  "Okay, we ready to do this?"

  Saphira, his partner in crime, nodded stiffly.

  She was currently covered by one of his holograms, appearing to the world as a mousy brown haired woman, somehow a full three inches shorter than her usual height.

  He himself was an inch taller, salt and pepper hair and beard over a weathered, scowling face in an immaculate expensive suit.

  He muttered some corporate exec adages to himself to get in character, something along the lines of "I am better than everyone else" as they rounded the corner and walked towards the entrance. As much as he knew that they casually had the firepower to walk out of this functionally unimpeded if needed, it was still more than a little unnerving to be walking into a facility with armed security so lightly.

  He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder and turned, finding Requiem giving him a smile. He winked back, then returned his focus to the task at hand.

  Michael heard the beep in his headset as someone stepped inside, giving him the necessary seconds to put his holovid on pause and minimize his tabs. He looked up with his practiced bored security guard face as a sharply dressed older man, face contorted in an angry scowl, approached. A harried looking shorter woman trailed behind him, face anxious, clutching a tablet.

  The man stormed up to the desk, fixing Michael with an icy glare before barking out an order. "Let me in, I need to use an office."

  Michael flicked his eyes over the man in another practiced gesture, before adoption a more serious expression. "Send me your credentials." It was not a request.

  He was surprised when the man sighed and complied, expecting to have to make threats first. A moment later, the Amazon ID for one Liam Davis appeared.

  Michael felt his heart lurch. He considered just letting Liam, Director Davis, in without any further trouble, but decided to risk it.

  "Nice to meet you Mr. Davis, can I ask why you're visiting the Jefferson City office? I apologize but its policy to log inter office visits."

  The man scowled, but once again surprised MIchael when he responded without push-back. "I have a meeting and need access to the secure VPN."

  While Michael digested this, the other guest sent her credentials across as well. Evelyn Weaver, Directors Assistant.

  "Very well, there's probably a spare office up on the third floor. We've had some layoffs recently."

  He mentally hit the button to unlock the door inwards, sending over the tags that would allow them to access the basics on the third floor.

  No use pissing off an executive by insisting on an escort.

  Magus and Requiem stepped into the empty office one of the passing workers had pointed out for them, shutting the door behind them. Requiem quickly stepped up and activated the privacy mode before turning back to Magus.

  "Can I get you anything, Sir? Coffee?"

  Magus shook his head. "No, later. We have half an hour before my meeting, try to catch up on my emails a little before then? You're behind."

  "Alright lovebugs, I have the cameras and mics." Watchdog spoke up in the call they had going. "You're free to relax."

  "Oh thank fuck." Magus collapsed into the chair, the arrogance leaving his posture immediately. "Did I come across as too much? Was I too rude to you?"

  Requiem chuckled, swatting him lightly on the shoulder. "You're fine, I'm more than capable of understanding its part of the act." She paused, before checking the privacy filter once more. "So, what's the plan from here."

  "Well, I have access to the basics already, but like I suspected the only access to the database is going to be in the server room." Watchdog supplied.

  Magus dug a set of his razor cards out, shuffling them as he reclined. "We can read data from in here, right? Why can't we just hack it from in here."

  "Good question!" Watchdog hummed as she pondered an explanation. "So imagine a big building where conveyor belts ship files back and forth when you ask for them. You can ask for any file from anywhere, and there's lists of useful files in many rooms but you can only get a few at a time. But there's a LOT of files, and we don't even know if the ones we want is listed anywhere. So we're breaking into the filing room and stealing the whole lot so we can just search through it later."

  "That… kind of makes sense?" Requiem took a seat herself. "So we need into the server room, undetected as possible, right?"

  "Yup!"

  Magus started up. "Idea. Can we create some sort of… disruption in the server room? Then we can pose as techs sent to fix it and get in that way."

  There was a moment while Watchdog worked before responding. "Yeah, I think that's doable. The towers they use these days are pretty fickle actually and suck a lotta water and juice, disrupt either of them and they'll throw up alarms. There's an automated alert system to page techs to deal with it, but I should be able to reroute it to you."

  She paused, tapping her fingers on something as she searched. "Got it. There's a power cable not too deep in the walls from the office of one Levi Anderson, Associate Director. If you can get into that office without him you could probably cut it from there."

  Magus nodded. "What can you tell me about him, will need an excuse."

  "32, single. Works in Weapon Automation. Uh, apparently a good employee, at least his latest employee scores are good. Fucking hell the shit they put in these is invasive as hell. Oh, his latest ones have him asking for a move, apparently he's trying to get out and go somewhere else."

  "I can work with that, ready to get to it?" Magus glanced at his fellow Samurai, standing up fully when he got a nod in return. "Where is he?"

  "Fourth floor, I've already updated your augs to have permissions for all floors, so the elevator should work."

  They took the elevator up, noting the guards patrolling each floor such that basically none of the corridor was out of sight at any point. Coming to Levi's door, Magus steeled his expression into the stern persona and knocked on the door.

  "Who are you, what do you want."

  "Liam Davis, I work out of the Minneapolis branch. I'm in town but stopped by to take a sensitive meeting but figured I'd come for a chat."

  A weary looking man, sand coloured skin providing contrast to the black bags under his eyes, opened the door.

  "Come in, I have ten minutes before my next meeting."

  The two moved in as he opened the door for them, Magus grabbing a seat in front of the desk, Requiem standing behind him attentively.

  "So, Mr. Davis, what can I do for you?"

  Magus paused for effect before launching into his fabricated spiel.

  "I've been looking for someone to add to my team, and when talking to my boss your name came up."

  Levi frowned, suspicion rising on his face. "You've been talking to Caitlyn about me switching teams?"

  Magus scrambled for a save, his mind providing one just in time.

  "Yes. She knows you're unhappy here, and at the end of the day you can only keep someone somewhere they don't want to be for so long. Better to keep your talents in house than risk you going elsewhere, right?"

  Levi's expression softened. "I see, that does make sense. Tell me about what you can about your team then."

  Requiem waited for Levi to get fully engrossed in the conversation, animatedly discussing the 'exciting opportunity' Magus was spinning on the fly for him. She sidled up to the back wall, keeping an eye on the executive as she did so to ensure he was still fully engrossed.

  "Okay, where is this wire?" she sub-vocalized.

  "120 degrees right, 270 up. I'll highlight it in your augs." Eilystraee supplied. Taking one last glance at Levi, Requiem whirled, drawing a blade from where it had been sequestered in the same moment. Activating the glowing purple portal effect she rammed it into the wall above her where the glowing line of the wire was visible, just deep enough to sever the wire and not enough to make a sound by bashing the hilt into the wall. A fraction of a second later she was re-sheathing it safely tucked away, returning to her demure stance like nothing had ever happened.

  "Done, we can move." she sub-vocalized.

  Magus didn't indicate he had heard, but he quickly wrapped up the conversation, letting Levi know he would be receiving an email with more details promptly. Taking their leave, they walked casually over to the elevator, pressing the button for the tenth floor where the server room resided.

  They stepped out with new disguises, appearing as the techs the Madison crew had caught surveillance of in the day prior. A fortified security box sad ahead, barring access to the server room, and the glint of automated turrets sat in the upper corners of the entirely too open space they stepped out into.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Hi." Magus poke up. "Got a page about a server issue? We're here to take a look."

  The guard on duty eyed them. "Why can't the guys inside handle it?"

  Magus hefted his right arm, along with simulated appearance of a toolbox he was very glad he'd thought to add. "Brownout caused some damage, need to replace some of the electricals."

  The guard just nodded. "Fine, in you go."

  Stepping in through the reinforced, almost vault like doors and through a second steel door under the watchful eye of the security guard, they made their way into the server area. A short left past a break room and what looked like a control room later and they were in.

  It was freezing near the door, but the moment they stepped towards one of the towers of alien geometries that made up what were apparently the servers the biting cold was quickly joined by a searing heat on the other side.

  "Fuck this place sucks." Requiem grumbled.

  "Tell me about it." Magus commiserated. "But doesn't this look like protector tech almost?"

  "That's because it is in part." Syl interjected. "Technologies that are now class zero, but this style of computing isn't human in origin."

  "Got it. So, Watchdog, where do we put this thing?" He fished the goober out of a pocket.

  "Any data port will be fine, really. Thankfully I made it self adapting."

  He nodded and moved over to a rack before pushing the goober up against an opening.

  "That's a power port, Magus."

  "Try the slit, magician mine." Syl said with stifled laughter.

  He glared into thin air, neither having a physical presence to glare at, and pushed the device up against the slit. Some of the pink coating around it flowed down and into the opening before rooting itself in place.

  "Okay, I have access. Give me a couple of minutes."

  True to her word, a couple of minutes later Watchdog announced her success with a deep voiced and dramatic "I'm in" before giggling and informing them they could extract. They grabbed the goober, now returned to its pink USB drive like shape, and moved towards the way out.

  They passed back by the control room, where a set of techs sat around bantering, and made their way back to the security corridor. Giving a nod to the security guard within the booth, Magus stepped forward to the outer door, eager to be out of here and done with this mission.

  The door swung open to reveal a half dozen rifles pointed at them, armoured security personnel in a spread pattern to cover as many angles as possible. The two Samurai were promptly startled out of their planning by the door behind them closing and locking with an electronic hum.

  "Hands where we can see them." The woman in front barked. "We don't know who the fuck you are, but you're coming with us quietly or with a few new holes, and we'll be asking some questions of you."

  Shit, shit. Stall, come up with something, keep the trick going. Magus raised his arms into the air, thankful he'd 'left behind' the box of tools. "I don't understand officer, we were just in fixing the wiring in one of the banks." Movement caught his eye to his right through the security box glass, but he didn't dare take his eyes off the soldiers to look.

  "John, what's the plan? We going loud?" Requiem sub-vocalized, uneasiness bleeding through in her simulated voice.

  "Do that again and you're dead, lady." The primary officer snarled. "We only need one of you."

  It was then that the door behind them hummed once again, before an older voice called out from behind.

  "What's the problem Murphy, why are you harassing my techs?"

  The security officer, Murphy apparently, sneered a response. "We had a pair of infiltrators get in, man and women, like these two. We're taking them in for questioning."

  The new conversant huffed a little as he jogged to join the two Samurai. He was an older Hispanic man, caramel skin tone and slightly receding hairline, maybe 5'5". "What do you mean like these two? Are these two them?"

  Murphy glowered. "They came in posing as an executive and his assistant, presumably they switched clothing and faces at some point."

  "Switched faces, Murphy? What the fuck are you on about. This is Mark and Angela, they started a week ago."

  The security guards looked to their leader, who was showing signs of doubt by now. "You know these two Rafael?" Her eyes shot back to the two Samurai again. "Fine, send your credentials. Now."

  A moment later after a brief data transfer and Murphy was lowering her gun with a harumph. "Fine, these two aren't it. Stand down, they're still elsewhere in the building." She shot one last glare at Rafael. "We'll be talking about this later."

  30 seconds later and Magus let out his breath as the elevator doors closed on the armed guards. Rafael glanced over at them and nodded towards the elevator. "Lets get back downstairs, I'm sorry about all that, Murphy is kind of a paranoid one. She'll chill out when she knows you better."

  He pressed the down button and glanced between the two of them. "Job been treating you alright?"

  Magus nodded. "Yeah, not too bad so far, other than that. I feel like I'm getting the hang of it."

  Rafael just nodded and gestured when the second elevator doors opened. The three stepped inside, and he clicked the button for floor -2.

  "That's good, plenty of experienced folks to lean on. I hear the R&D side is pretty cut-throat but I run the tech services like a family. We help each other out."

  They quickly stepped off and Magus followed Rafael forward.

  "What the fuck is going on, why aren't we just leaving immediately?" Requiem hissed over comms.

  "Fuck if I know, but he clearly knows something." Magus replied. "I'm playing along for now, hopefully we can still get out of this somewhat incognito."

  Watchdog chimed in. "I'm pulling up his details now, Rafael Flores, head of Technical Services for the building. I sent him your current cover identities discreetly when he started covering for you, and clearly he played along."

  She paused as they moved into a messy office, surfaces covered in electronic parts and documents. "Shit, he's indentured. Huge debt too."

  Magus clenched his fist, starting to get an idea what was going on.

  Rafael stopped in front of his desk, turning back to the two Samurai. "You two okay to talk shop in here for a bit?"

  It took her a second, but Requiem quickly picked up on the coded message. "Yeah, we can talk openly here."

  He nodded, then relaxed a little, though he was still tensed up. "I don't know who you two are, but you're clearly pretty good at what you do. I could probably try to blackmail you, but even if I was that type I half suspect I'd be painting these walls red before long,. I'm just gonna ask and hope you're willing to help, given I just saved your asses."

  Magus nodded, indicating for him to continue.

  "I want your help getting out. I've been an indebted worker for near thirty years now, and somehow my debt keeps going up, not down. I only need you to get me out of the building. If not, well I won't help those bastards out regardless, I meant what I said."

  "Fuck yeah, we'll help." Magus responded without hesitation.

  He patted his pockets briefly, before pulling out a playing card with an. "Ah! This will do the trick." He flicked it at Rafael's chest, where it stuck to his shirt.

  A moment later and his prepared janitor look was standing in front of him, all 6'5'' of lanky custodial staff.

  "We should probably get out sooner rather than later. Is there a secondary entrance somewhere?"

  Rafael shook his head confusedly, glancing down at his hands. "Only the main entrance."

  "They've got the entire building on lock-down." Watchdog added. "No-one in or out, though they haven't shut down moving around the office yet."

  "Shit, we'll need an alternative way out, then." He stated, mind already whirring with possibilities. "Syl, could I get a silent explosive, something not too obvious as Samurai tech, we could go out through a wall."

  "Of course, Magician mine. I can provide just the thing."

  He immediately started for the elevator, and they quickly rode up to the second floor before finding an empty office.

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  He grabbed the card, adorned with an animation of a magician disappearing into a hat, and flicked it at the wall in one smooth motion, where it stuck impaled by a corner. A moment later there was a muted whump, and a good portion of the wall just disapeared in a rough rectangle

  "Sorry about this." Requiem swept the portly Hispanic man up in a princess carry before dashing over and dropping out the hole to the ground below. Magus followed a moment later, tentatively jumping the story down and trusting his enhancements would prevent his bones from snapping like twigs. Thankfully his shins remained un-shattered, and the two dashed off into the urban maze before anyone could lay eyes on them.

  Looping around towards the rendezvous point, they let Rafael down to walk on his own, though they set a pace that quickly had the man puffing as they moved. Sliding into a skyscraper mall, they took the stairs up and into a Thai restaurant they'd picked out for the rendezvous. Spotting Vixinertia and Boyscout in plain clothes in a booth, picking at a plate of dumplings, Magus shuffled in and gave the two other Samurai a winning smile.

  "We were listening in, it sounded like it went well?" Elliot.

  Magus nodded and placed the goober on the table. "Yup, we copied their whole database, hopefully what you need is on there. Where's our erstwhile employer, by the way?"

  "Sitting in my mech trying not to get too antsy." Quinn spoke up in the call, voice with a tense edge. "Just in case you needed a more forceful exit plan."

  "Well we appreciate it, thankfully it wasn't needed." Requiem shrugged. "So what now?"

  "We hope that data has where she is, and if so we go break her out, violently." Quinn almost snarled. She forced herself to calm down enough to make her next sentence sincere. "But we can more than handle that. I seriously appreciate this Magus, Requiem, I owe you a serious favor, whether as a lawyer or a mech pilot samurai."

  Magus just cracked a grin. "I'll keep that in mind if I ever get a real bad parking ticket. But how about we just start with buying me dinner."

  "More than happy to!" Elliot matched Magus' grin with one of his own. "How long do we think it will take to check through all this data, though?"

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Watchdog spoke up for the first time in a while. "I've been trawling through it while you two got out, and I think I found her."

  "Your friend is in a weapons development facility in Ohio. Sending the coordinates now."