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The stairs downwards were unguarded. To Kathryn that was little comfort, in fact it worried her. Less guards here meant more guards inside.
The metal stairs ended with a fairly sturdy door. Kathryn carefully tried the handle. It opened. Readying herself, she slipped through into the main section of the building.
The first she knew of the guard was a surprised shout from across the gantry she had stepped onto. She lined up the Multipoint and fired. No need for target acquisition on that one, just pure natural skill. The limp body of the guard crashed noisily to the floor. Kathryn crouched quickly and looked around, ready for more guards.
She had stepped onto a gantry overhanging a mass of air conditioning vents and various humming pipes. The upper maintenance section. The countermeasures package was only slightly bigger than a cassette case, and fitted nicely to one of the air vents running past the gantry. One flick of a switch on the side and the device came to life, jamming all the motion sensor trips and heat detectors in the building. Security cameras were still operative but disrupting them would have caused too much suspicion.
Satisfied that no more guards were coming, Kathryn made her way silently across the gantry and down the next set of stairs to the floor of the maintenance section. Here she could hear each individual pipe and vent humming as she crept past them. From some she could feel heat being dissipated into the air. Some form of cooling system.
There was a stairwell downwards. Kathryn followed it and found another door. This one seemed a little less sturdy than the last. Just as well, really, Kathryn thought, as when she tried it, the door proved to be locked. Reaching to her side, she produced a small mass of white material. She fixed it to the locking mechanism and took a few steps back. One well placed shot from the Multipoint and it exploded, sending a shower of splinters in all directions. Kathryn was through the door in a flash. The first guard was pistol-whipped across the head as she emerged, the second shot as she spun round, her Multipoint ready to fire as she did so. Institute training had taught her about infiltration, she was used to this kind of procedure.
The bodies of the guards were easily pulled back into the maintenance section. Kathryn closed the door behind her. From a distance, there was no obvious visible damage. Hopefully that kind of force wouldn't be required again.
The corridor she had entered bore all the markings of a high-level corporation. Dragon motif on the walls, brightly lit marble corridor, red carpet with gold trimmings, it was all there. Unfortunately, Kathryn didn't have time to appreciate it. She walked quickly down the corridor and found the lift, exactly where it was on the building plans. Thank goodness the Babylon Institute had access to those!
Stepping into the lift, Kathryn selected the floor that had been referred to in the briefing - number 377. The lift doors closed and the lift began its silent journey into the bowels of the building. Kathryn stowed the Multipoint in its holster beneath her office dress and tried to look as composed as possible. Doing espionage work was tricky enough, but in office clothes?
There was a quiet tone as the lift reached its destination. The doors slid open and Agent-cum-office worker Kathryn Harwell stepped out. She nodded a formal greeting to the guards at the lift entrance, and walked on without waiting for a response. She proceeded down the corridor and disappeared around the corner. Looking around to make sure no-one else was present, she tried the door to the lavatories.
A moment's listening confirmed that there were no other people present in the lavatories. That was lucky, things would have been much trickier otherwise. Kathryn quickly found the vent and used another small charge of white material to remove the vent cover. She climbed into the opening and replaced the cover behind her. Back at the Institute, Kathryn had memorised the route she had to take, so reaching the right room wouldn't be a problem. Almost without thinking, she checked her watch, which displayed the amount of time she had left to find her way back to the rooftop. Five minutes. This would be close.
The descent to the next floor down had been a little rougher than she had wanted, but it took only a minute or so to climb through the air vent system to the correct room. Kathryn could see the meeting room through the vent opening. Dietrich was about to greet the Board of Directors. Kathryn quickly fished out the remote surveillance device and attached it to the vent so that it could see the scene below. Kathryn opened a quick connection to the device with her implant, making sure that it was working correctly. The feed would be relayed back to the Babylon Institute, so she closed the connection and started to head back upwards. She'd see the recorded data later.
Everything went fine on her way up. The way back to the elevator, no problems. Getting to the maintenance level was easy. But as she opened the door back on to the rooftop, Kathryn was met a group of armed guards. More than her Multipoint could lock onto in one go.
"Stop right there, we've got you cornered." The lead guard levelled an automatic shotgun at Kathryn's chest. From below the gantry behind her, she could hear the sound of guards coming through the door on to the upper maintenance level. Damn, trapped!
There was no time to think. Kathryn slammed the door in the guard's face and ran back down the gantry, barely stopping to take the stairs; she opted to take them all in two jumps. With any luck, she could outrun the guards in the mass of piping for about thirty seconds, that was all she needed. One thought and the implant connection to the hoverskimmer was open.
"Agent Phoenix, we have -"
"No time," Kathryn interrupted the pilot. "What is your position?"
"Twenty seconds from pickup, ascending west side of building."
Kathryn allowed herself half a second to think.
"Lock on to my implant signal and come up underneath me." There was a confused sound from the pilot before Kathryn closed the connection. West side. Behind her. There was a window on the far wall, big enough for her needs. Levelling her Multipoint, Kathryn fired at the glass. The sound of her silenced bullets was completely drowned out by the roaring of automatic fire that erupted around her. Sparks flew off metal as the bullets ricocheted off the air vents. Kathryn started her run. She hoped this would work.
The window shattered as it was hit by four Multipoint bullets. Five seconds later they were followed by Kathryn, leaping into the air through the window, several hundred feet above Central London. Her gaze immediately shifted downwards. Beneath her, Kathryn could see the shape of the hoverskimmer rising to meet her. Its roof hit her feet hard and she was pushed flat against its surface. There was a brief moment as her hands flailed to find grips. Fortunately, the hoverskimmer pilot was well trained, and had already started to move away from the towering building. A hail of automatic fire followed it, but they were already out of range.
In a series of slow, steady movements, Kathryn pushed herself across the top of the hoverskimmer and slid open the door on the rear of the craft. In one action she slid off the roof, grabbed the handle on the inside of the door and swung herself inside, quickly sliding the door shut behind her.From her collapsed position in the back of the hoverskimmer, Kathryn activated her implant connection to the Babylon Institute.
"Babylon, this is Agent Phoenix, reporting in..."
Chris Smith, 13/10/00
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