The Next Morning

You fuck all night, only rising just before noon. As the two of you make breakfast, a simple eggs, toast and bacon affair, you discuss next steps.

“Do we have the blueprints to the place?” Liz asks, nibbling on a piece of bacon. “Any sort of hard intel we can get our hands on?”

“I’ve checked our records on it, there’s not much,” you say. “A team did some preliminary scouting a couple of years back, but aborted the mission prematurely. They said it was hopeless after just one day of stakeout. You’ve seen those plans and the intel that they gathered, and yeah, that’s a fucking impregnable vault if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Well, was it a shit team that gave up?” Liz asks.

“It was Alpha-K,” you say.

“Well, shit,” Liz says.

“Yeah, pretty much,” you reply. “So our odds are not looking exceptional right now.”

“Still, we’ve got to do this. Fate of the world and all that, right?” Liz doesn’t sound very encouraged. She drops her fork, letting it clatter on the plate, slumps back in her seat, and sighs. You slowly drink your coffee, shaking your head. This mission was always going to be tough, but perhaps it was naive of you to think that you wouldn’t run into a wall this early on. However, something suddenly pops into your mind.

“Well, I guess we do have one thing going for us that Alpha-K didn’t,” you say. “And it’s a pretty big deal. The Persuasion Pill will open doors that we didn’t even consider before.”

“Good point,” Liz says, perking up. “I mean, it’s not easy to use, but we’ve got a fighting chance if we can isolate Angela. She’s got to know all the codes, will have the biometrics keyed in to herself and all that. This might even be easy then, if we can play this right.”

“I wouldn’t be so confident,” you say warily. “We’re still going to need to figure out their system somehow. I doubt we’re going to be able to do this uninvited, either, so we need to figure out some cover to get us both in. The security is, after all, top notch.”

“Well, you’ve got Emma Rain as a contact. A more than physical one, if I’m guessing correctly. Can you use her to get us in?”

“You flatter me,” you say, “but not excessively. Of course I’m in with Emma. We can leverage her at the right time to get us invited into Angela’s estate, most likely, but I’m afraid it’ll probably only extend as far as me. We’ll need to get you in through other means.”

“You’ve thought of the same idea as me, haven’t you?”

“We’ll have to play the long game, but it’s the perfect scenario,” you say. “If everything plays out correctly, the USB will fall right into your hands.”

“There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip,” Liz says, acting all highbrow, but the mirth in her eyes lets you know that you’re on the same page.

“Great. How soon do you think we can get you inside?”

“I’ll check the company for openings, see how well I can position myself. I’ll leave you to hammer the details out with HQ.”

“Sounds good,” you say, finishing up your breakfast. You’ve got a long day ahead of you now, but here’s where the fun starts.