Episode 5 - The Tide Recedes, and What it Leaves Behind
Chapter 45 - Operation: Lumpy Bird
I lean against the doorway, catching my breath from the second night in a row I’ve done the climb to the roof. Even Rhett seems winded, massaging the upper thigh of his injured leg with one hand while he stares across the skyline.
“Murasaki is that one,” I say, gesturing across the skyline to the district bathed in purple lighting.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Just sayin'."
There are seven Vespa with us. One on each of our ears, and five crawling in Rhett’s braid. How he can tolerate the feeling of all those legs I will never know. Pell stands on his shoulder, motionless as a statue.
I sling my backpack off my back and check the contents. Padded between my spare clothing is my communicator. I’m not sure if we’ll get far enough along in the work tonight to complete the install, but I wanted it with me just in case. Rhett hasn’t even agreed to help, just to check out the rooftop entry door and help me assess the best way to get the intranet connection that I need.
Rhett leans on his knees, looking between the rooftops skeptically. “Can Pooka take all of us?”
Pooka snuffs, drawing his top lip back over his flat teeth, already in his Equid form. The tail-boy is stupid to continue underestimating me.
“He is a bit,” I say aloud.
“What?”
“Nothing. He can carry us all, I think.” I zip my backpack closed again, hefting it over my shoulder and approach Pooka to rub his long face. I love the feel of his velvet muzzle, the flutter of the small muscles in his nose, and the thrill of cold his touch leaves on my fingertips. “I know this isn’t an operation, but Adrian, do we need to check if you can hear us?”
“I can hear and see you just fine. We shouldn’t need any lock in if you are just scouting.”
“Yep, just scouting,” I confirm with a slight hitch to my voice I hope they both don’t hear.
I pat Pooka’s back to show Rhett where he stands. “You’re in front again.”
He looks mildly perturbed. “Doesn’t that seem kind of weird?”
Rhett barely reacts to the stare I give him in return. “I can balance your weight better for the two of us if I sit behind.”
Cobalt blue eyes slip from meeting mine, and he peels back his jacket to reveal his weapons harness underneath, a handgun and spare magazine hanging under one armpit. He drops the jacket to the floor by the door we exited onto the roof through, and adjusts the harness by pulling one strap over his head to reposition the gun up and onto his chest. “Alright then. Let’s get this over with. What am I doing?”
I let my eyes linger on the gun just long enough for him to frown, then I sniff and turn away before his lips part to ask questions. “Here, mount first,” I say, rubbing Pooka’s back with my hands again.
He approaches, Pooka waiting with surprising obedient stillness. Rhett lays the flat of his hand on Pooka’s back and, like the first time, traces his outline. I shiver at the feeling. Pooka’s hide is so sensitive to touch. The broad strokes of his hands feel like they could almost be happening across my skin, down my own sides and back. I’m glad of the dark that hides my face. Rhett uses a mechanical enclosure as a block to mount, blinking as he gets his balance on Pooka’s back. It must be such a strange feeling to sit on something above the ground that you cannot see.
I shyly mount behind him, wrapping my arms around Rhett’s firm sides. My face is so close to the back of his head and neck. I could almost reach out a hand and touch the shaved sides of his head, except for the Vespa on his ear that’d be in the way, and that looks back at me with unsettling compound eyes. Business comes before any hesitation I feel to press our bodies close, and I lean into him to help shift our weight forward.
“It’s a bumpy ride,” I say.
Before he can even grunt a confirmation, Pooka surges forward, the momentum of the movement finally closing any gaps between us. On the first few leaps I can feel Rhett’s held breath, then his chest shudders beneath my arms, and I hear his whoop of joy as we vault downwards over one of the larger gaps between rooftops. Pooka tosses his head, letting out a whinny of amusement.
Rhett pauses at the rooftop doorway. It’s his final stop after stalking around the roof of the antenna tower. He plants a hand on each hip and stares at the doorway as if it will somehow reveal its secrets to him. Then, he shifts his weight, bringing one hand to his chin and scratching at his stubble.
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“This is Murasaki’s security tower, right Adrian?”
“I agree, from what I can tell from up here. The Vespa never flew this high the last few times you’ve been here.”
My ears definitely perk at the mention of the multiple times they’ve been in the district. I wonder what Murasaki was working on that had Aquila giving them such frequent visits? I stand not too far away from him, crouched in the shadow of the radio tower by the door.
“The other antenna is over there,” I say, pointing in the direction I mean. “But it’s lower. The cameras on the next building over definitely pick up the roof. We’re higher than everyone else here.”
Rhett stalks to my side and nods slightly as he seems to draw the same conclusions. I notice he only has three Vespa crawling on the back of his head now.
“Okay,” says Adrian suddenly. “Took a look inside via the ventilation system. Top two floors are empty; the transceiver unit looks like it’s on the top floor. You might be able to run a line up internally to the service panel.”
My heart leaps. That would be perfect. It would fit right in with everything else. No one would even think twice about just another cable running up the tower with the rest. I slink backwards while he’s distracted, making my way closer to the door across the roof.
“What’s security look like?” asks Rhett.
“Minimal. You don’t really expect someone to come in via the roof.”
He scratches at his chin again, back still turned to me. I can see the cogs turning. I can’t risk him telling me no. This is too perfect.
I take my chance and jump to my feet, punching the push-bar inwards before he or Adrian can object. Pooka follows at my side, tongue hanging jauntily as he trots under my feet.
“Conrad!” screams Rhett after me. “You fucking-”
I put my finger to my lips to shush him, and let the door shut behind me.
The blackness as the door closes overwhelms me for a minute, lit only by a lonely red status LED from the swipe panel that leads back outside. I take a deep breath. The door doesn’t immediately open again. I’m alone then. Well, it’s not like Rhett has anywhere else to go.
“You’re an idiot,” mutters Adrian in my ear.
I turn my back, hefting my backpack a little higher around my shoulders, and take a few steps down the corridor, trailing my fingers on one wall. Then, the door behind me cracks again, a single beam of light climbing at the hallway before me as the purple lights from the night sky beyond intrude.
“I should’ve killed you. Would’ve made my life so much damn easier,” mutters Rhett, shoving a length of discarded gutter pipe into the door to jam it open. Without even pausing, he pulls his wrist knife from under his sleeve and jams it into the back of the magnetic contact sensor at the top of the door, plucking it off and holding it up to the frame where it would rest when closed till it snaps back into place against its twin.
I blink processing what I just witnessed. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. If we’re gonna do this, let’s do it then.”
“You’re coming?”
“I take care of my own.”
“I’m not ‘yours’.”
“Sure.”
“Time is ticking, please.”
Rhett marches up to me, looking down his nose at me despite his eyes being slightly below my own. He raises one finger and prods me in the chest with it, Pell sitting on his shoulder somehow looking deeply amused despite lacking a face with any ability for expression. “C’mon, let’s move quick.”
“I’ll have to cut the power at the end to splice the power line in? We can’t avoid attention when that happens?”
“Let’s make it the last thing we do then,” says Rhett, bustling past me down the hall. “Where’s the transceiver, Adrian?”
“You got anything to repair the contact sensor on the roof door?”
I pause my work fiddling with the last few wires for the new intranet line we’ve run. There was conveniently a cable already running to the bank of internals within the access hatch for the transceiver. We dropped a line down from the top of the radio tower through the conduit already running up the structure, and tied it to our new cable to fish it back up where I already have the communicator mounted.
As expected of late night hours, the floor was empty. I was able to raid a maintenance closet for the parts and tools I was missing, all gathered at my feet now. Pell stands on the floor, two of her forelegs stretched to touch the panel I’m working on as her markings pulse teal.
“Uh, there’s some two-part epoxy in there somewhere?” I reply.
Rhett grunts, crouching to dig through my backpack.
“Alert. Security patrol coming up the stairs.”
We both react immediately. I drop my wires, shutting the access hatch and stumbling on the clasp as my fingers start to shake. Rhett scrambles to sling my backpack over his shoulder, then creeps forward to scoop up Pell under my feet. He leans back against the wall beneath me, holding a palm out to me that indicates he wants me to wait.
“Position?” asks Rhett in a whisper.
“Stairwell, three guards on patrol. Get out, now.”
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