Lance waved Adam forwards and they quickly ran up the huge lifter’s arm. They leapt to the scaffolding and continued to stealth their way to the top. At the top they made use of their grapple launchers again and zipped to the arm of another crane nearby, climbing even higher. The scenic view of New Atlantis which greeted them was the reward granted for their efforts.
“It always has been a beautiful sight,” Lance said as he looked over the view. “All of the lights, the night sky, the ocean surrounding us....”
Adam, who was sitting on the edge of the boom, nodded in agreement. “I guess this view is going to be one of the perks for what we are going to be doing.” He looked down at the street hundreds of feet below them. Several cars and people moved up and down the street, looking like specks of lights and darks.
Adam decided it was a good chance to test out the zoom that Lance had told him about and activated the first stage. The view on his visor jumped forwards, a small "x2" appearing in the top corner. Pushing the button again, the magnification doubled from two to four. The sidewalk below was now more easily seen, but still not as close as he wanted, so he bumped it twice more, to eight then sixteen. He could now see all the way to the street with clear detail. He watched the few people who were out at the time, passing back and forth on the walkways. Adam spotted a business man with his fancy suit and pricey looking briefcase as he locked up his storefront business. The red and blue lights of an ambulance drew his attention, and he followed the emergency vehicle. It sped down and across a bridge which spanned the channel between Sector Five and the central hub, Sector One. The ambulance turned and vanished from view, forcing Adam to search for something else to observe with his new toy.
“This zoom is pretty nifty,” he told Lance. “It’s almost weird seeing things so far away with such detail right in my face.”
“It is. I ripped the hardware and the program from a set of digital binoculars,” said Lance. “I figured that it would cut down on things we’d have to carry once we have more tools and gadgets to use.”
“More tools and gadgets...” repeated Adam. “I can’t wait!”
He suddenly noticed something suspicious: a small group of men dressed in dark clothing and gear and carrying several packs. They emerged from an alleyway and climbed over the rails marking the channel and under the bridge.
“Did you...?”
“See that?” finished Lance. “Yeah. Let’s check it out.”
They used their visors to check the surrounding rooftops for people, then used the gliders to float across the street to the roof closest where the group disappeared.
“How are we getting down there without using the gliders?” Adam thought to himself, but then an idea came to him.
“The grapple launchers can be used in reverse, right?” asked Adam. “Don’t I remember you talking about a rappel function?”
“It certainly can,” replied Lance. “Twist the dial around the barrel and that will reverse the mechanism.”
They both did so, attached the grapples to the ledge, and quickly descended the side of the building. Disengaging the hooks, they recoiled the lines and repeated the process to hang from the bridge. They dropped down just in enough time to see the men they were following in a tunnel running directly underneath the bridge and street, who just barely avoided being seen by people above. Adam being closer, he swung his legs to try to move towards the entrance of the wide tunnel to jump in. When he built up enough momentum, he disengaged the hook on his forward swing and tumbled into the opening. Lance following once he had moved out of the way. They quietly ran through the service tunnel, attempting to close the gap between them and the conspicuous lurkers ahead.
After a short while Lance and Adam could hear the men talking quietly amongst themselves, the vast service tunnel system causing everything to echo faintly. The reverberating sounds along with the occasional traffic above made it difficult to overhear much, but then they heard a name mentioned they remembered all too well: Striker. The group was a good distance ahead and around a corner, but the voices were getting louder which meant the turn was shorter in length.
Lance and Adam closed the gap to the corner and halted: they could now hear the voices more clearly and realized there were others who had been there before the men they tailed.
“Were you followed?” asked a mid-toned voice.
“No, Mamba, we weren’t followed,” answered one of the men.
“Are you sure, Fleck?” asked a woman's voice. “Last time we met like this you had some nosey teens following you.”
“Listen, Viperess, I didn’t drag my boys down here to be chewed out again over that,” Fleck stated angrily. “Besides, we had some fun with those kids last time, remember?”
A grunt of disapproval sounded. “Well in that case remember why we are here,” commented the voice referred to as Mamba. “We are organizing to bust Master Striker out of prison...”
There was a brief pause, as if for effect.
“...Tonight.”
Adam and Lance exchanged concerned glances as if to silently agree they had to act quickly.
“And you will show Viperess more respect than that, Fleck,” commanded Mamba.
“How are we getting him out?” asked one of the goons.
“GenTek has a little package we are going to steal, then we are heading straight to the prison,” stated Viperess.
“What do we even have to throw against these guys?” whispered Adam over the comm line. “We can’t exactly tackle them head on with a pair of grapple guns and our fists.”
Lance smiled.
“Did you think I came unprepared?” he asked.
He reached behind his back to the pouches on his belt and removed several orbs the size of large marbles.
“I took your smoke-bomb compound and condensed it.”
Adam took one in his hand and examined it more closely.
“You are just full of surprises these days, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Speaking of surprises, you’ll need to step up your visor’s polarization when you throw them,” said Lance. “I also added a flash-bang effect to them.”
Adam chuckled after his friend practically confirmed his previous comment, but quickly realized his chuckle was a bit too loud. The voices around the corner stopped talking and the clicks of automatic weapons being readied sounded.
“Not followed, huh?” asked Viperess. “Let’s just see who we have snooping around.”
“Oops...” breathed Adam.
Lance shook his head and dove across the opening to the other corner and caught a brief glimpse of the dozen or so people gathered in the tunnels.
“What in the world?” asked Fleck as he saw the blur of Lance’s figure go by before a bright flare exploded in all of their eyes. Several of the Ouroboros let out several wild shots into the tunnel as they were quickly surrounded by smoke.
“Did you idiots somehow get the attention of special ops people or something?” asked Mamba as he tried to regain his sight.
“I don’t know!” yelled Fleck.
“How do we get out of here?” asked one of Fleck’s men.
“The access hatch behind you,” yelled Viperess. “It’s unlocked, just open it and climb!”
The closest of the men felt for the door she spoke of and swung it open just as the yells of Fleck and another of those closest the main passage sounded through the tunnels.
Mamba shouldered his weapon and fired again through the smoke.
“Move!” he yelled as he pushed two of the Ouroboros aside and grabbed for Viperess’ arm as she tried to retaliate at their unseen opponents. Mamba tugged on her wrist and pulled her into the narrow tunnel which led nowhere but up.
“GO!” he yelled.
He fired another round of shots behind him as another set of men were taken down in the now thinning smoke. Mamba allowed the next several men to pass him, then quickly heaved the door closed.
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