It had taken the young man a few weeks of hardwork and deliberation to become an integral member of the residential cleaners. He had joined under the guise of a young man pretending to have way more money than he actually did, and trying to keep up pretenses for his extremely attractive wife. The older men in the team understood the woes of womanly vices and introduced him to their group readily. Any man willing to pull his weight was more than welcome to be a member of the Residential Janitors. It was only this evening, three weeks into knowing these men, that he had to betray their trusts.
It was a harmless medicine that reacted on contact with coffee and created a powerful laxative. The other members of his cleaning crew would be down under the weather for the evening, and would feel amazing the following day after clearing their bodies of years worth of terrible diets. One round of donuts and coffee into their nightly cleaning, and all of the men found themselves holed up in the public bathrooms. It was a planned contrivance that it was only a hundred or so meters from the domicile of one political prisoner. As low moans and the rumble of upset stomachs carried through the bathroom, the young man pulled out an earpiece and opened a small datapad. He sent a single message from the data pad and started his hacking program.
Baron, the suicidal escapade is now a go. Please don’t mess this up.
The Baron had done her part after landing, playing a ditzy young wife wandering the markets and trying to buy any flashy thing that suited her folly. To anyone who knew the uniformed military-woman, the grinning girl with a straight ponytail was a foreign entity. Christopher had been playing her young husband, much to his dismay. It had been difficult enough to forge their passports to the Colonies, and actually pinpointing the location of Ashford had been even harder.
After discovering the location of Ashford and scoping out the layers of security that the Colonies had placed on it, she had started looking for loopholes and way to circumvent the security. None had made themselves apparent, and Christopher’s intel revealed that even less was possible than she had feared. It wasn’t until he jokingly mentioned an option that the team had their ‘in’.
“An airdrop would have a twenty second window through the attic, if I put the security of the biodroids on that corner in a small loop for that window. It would require a high-altitude, low-recovery descent, using a repulsion system. Based off the dimensions of the house and the surroundings, the odds of something like that working is less than 10%.”
“10% is practically 100%, if you just hit it with enough motivation. Can you get me those 20 seconds, Chris?”
“...yes? But what about the air-drop…?"
“Don’t worry; I’m not just a casual Baron. The jumping part is easy. The computer stuff is the hard part.”
A simple exchange of money, with a firm handshake, was all it took for the young woman. It was a straightforward enough delivery; take a box from one side of the Colony to the other. It was rather large, and held some parts for computer tech. It was sensitive equipment, which required cool temperatures or so was the claim. The woman didn’t understand, but insisted it needed to be delivered at night and high in orbit.
When the delivery came, the weight was slightly over but another transaction made the captain overlook it and load with zero hesitation. He had done this kind of thing before, and knew when to keep his mouth shut.
When the ship took off, the box opened, allowing the woman to step out. She sent a third and final payment to the captain, who unlocked the bay door. She pulled out a harness, equipped with gravity-reducing equipment and repulsion systems. Adjusting her watch slightly, she grabbed the handle and waited for the ding. It came only moments later, the signal that Christopher was in position. Starting her timer, she jumped out the door into the roaring wind, clamping her arms to her sides to accelerate her speed. The clouds below obscured the view of the land below, but the woman pressed a button on the side of her helmet. A display appeared, showing a small blip on the screen. Another press caused a miniature map to appear far below, outlining the block that housed Ashford and the marked security. This wasn’t a living map of the current situation, but a simulation built from their weeks of surveillance.
She adjusted her speed and angle, before spreading her arms. She was half a minute from landing, and her time was counting down rapidly.
Christopher saw the message appear on his datapad, as the Baron made her suicidal move. He watched silently, sweat forming on his brow. The moans were more audible now, and there was a guy at the end stall begging for a friend to pass him some toilet paper. The second message came moments later, signalling the second part of their mission. He pressed a button on his pad, causing a preplaced program to execute. All of the cameras and bioroids were fed a looped camera feed from that exact moment from earlier in the week, during a night when there were zero issues.
Activating her equipment as she hurtled down towards the buildings, the Baron felt her speed slow a bit, then rapidly decelerate as she neared the roof. Erina slammed into the roof and relaxed her knees, before rolling into the impact. It hadn’t been enough with just the equipment, as the woman slid across the roof and almost fell into the street below. Catching the edge of the roof, she used her abdominal muscles and centrifugal force to swing back up onto the roof with a slight thud. She prayed it wasn’t enough to set off any sensors inside of the house. She checked her watch; the loop was already ten seconds in. Dashing and sliding down the edge of the roof, she caught the edge of the building and landed on a second story window. A quick glance showed the room was empty, save for a bed. Clearly Ashford was in his study, and the bedroom was empty. Flipping out a small tool, the Baron set it on the crack of the window. There was a flash of heat, before the clasps holding the window shut burned into nothing. Sliding it open and diving inside, the Baron landed on the ground prone, before tossing the second beacon onto the ground. It sent a pulse through the room, knocking out any sensors or cameras within the room. Her fervent hope was that only Ashford was paranoid enough to boobytraphis own room, and that the Colonies hadn’t bothered violating his trust. Rising to her feet, she shed the belt and equipment onto the ground behind the bed, before moving towards the hallway into the domicile.
Christopher tucked the datapad into his belt, before looking at the small vial in his palm. It was now his turn to undergo the same trial as his companions, to ensure that the ensuing investigation would find the same substance in his stomach.
I hope you made it inside in one piece, Boss.