Mistrunner 2 - Chapter 32 - Plans on top of Plans (Patreon)

I completely lost it today. Just snapped and killed two of my captains because they had the audacity to question whether we should consolidate our territory. As if I wasn’t strong enough to hold what we had. Beat them both to death with my bare hands. Nobody complained much after that.

Nora Lancaster

I sat across from Patrick, shoveling Nutty-Oats into my mouth. The cereal could best be described as “sugary,” which wasn’t exactly tasty, but I didn’t want to waste my ration bars when I wasn’t out in the field. They were far more expensive than the synthetic foods readily available in the Garden, and for the time being, I was on a budget. I had some ideas on how to fix my credit flow problem, but they were still in their infancy.

Sure, I could steal from Nora and the Specters, but whatever contraband I happened to get ahold of would have to be fenced. And doing that would put the spotlight directly on me. Right now, with my plans starting to bear fruit, I couldn’t afford any extra attention, complicating everything unnecessarily. So, while I had the ability to take whatever I needed, I couldn’t allow myself to fall into that trap, no matter how easy it might seem.

I glanced at Patrick, who was staring at his own bowl of cereal and just stirring it around with his spoon. Ever since I had gotten back from my mission in Biloxi, he’d been distant and standoffish. Perhaps the strain of staying under the radar was getting to him. Or maybe he was upset with me about something.

If that was the case, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what that something might be. I might have had the emotional quotient of a desk chair, but even I knew there would be repercussions for how our trip into the French Quarter had ended. He clearly wanted things to have gone differently, so it was natural that he would be a little upset about my rejection.

Or was that even the right word? In my mind, it wasn’t a firm no. Rather, it was more like, “not right now because I have way too much on my mind to deal with that kind of thing.” But did he know that? I’d hoped that it would be obvious, but clearly, it wasn’t.

Even though I could recognize the problem, I had no idea – or inclination, really – to fix it. I was in the middle of waging a guerrilla war against the whole district, so Patrick’s feelings really weren’t at the top of my list of priorities. I just needed him to grow up and focus on the important things.

Of course, that was easy for me to say. I’d just spent a week with Calvin, where I’d let off quite a bit of steam. Sure, I was working. It was all a ruse. But before Calvin descended into addiction, he was more than pleasant company, and I’d let myself get carried away by the setting.

I didn’t precisely regret sleeping with him. I was an adult, and so was he. But in retrospect, it did leave me feeling a bit…greasy. Or guilty, perhaps. Part of it was that Calvin was exactly the sort of person I’d always hated. The beautiful, wealthy aristocrats who’d had the world handed to them on a silver platter. But it was also because, misguided as it might seem, I felt like I owed Patrick something.

We weren’t together. I wasn’t even sure if our trip into the French Quarter qualified as a date. But I knew he had started to develop feelings for me; I just wasn’t sure if they were reciprocated. In any case, I was in no position to deal with relationship issues. I still needed to keep an eye on him, though, as much to keep him from growing too resentful as to keep from burning a bridge that I might one day want to cross.

I took a deep breath, then said, “Look, Patrick –”

“I’ve got to go,” he said, pushing away from the table. He grabbed his empty bowl, tipping it back and downing the soy milk. “Dr. Montague is expecting me.”

“Can we talk for a second?” I asked.

“I’ve got training,” he stated.

“I know, but…I just wanted to talk about what happened the other day,” I said. “You know, when we got back from…”

I trailed off, unsure of how to categorize our night in the French Quarter. A lot had happened since then – I’d ruined a man’s life and nearly died on more than one occasion – but it still loomed large in my mind. Before my uncle’s death, I might have pursued it. Back in Mobile, I’d had time for that kind of thing. But now? Casual sex was one thing, but a relationship? How could I let something like that happen? I couldn’t – not in good conscience.

“It’s fine, Mira,” he said, shaking his head. Then, he ran one hand through his sandy blonde hair and sighed. “Really, it is. I know how to take a hint. That doesn’t mean we can’t be friends or whatever. I’m a big boy, and I can handle a little rejection.”

But I wasn’t rejecting him. Not really. In my mind, it was just a pause until I finished what I had to do. Once I had my revenge…

That’s when it hit me that I really didn’t have any plans for my own success. My entire being had been dedicated to my quest for vengeance that I’d never even stopped to consider what I would do once I’d gotten it. Would I set myself as some local warlord like my uncle had? Or was there something else out there for me? I had no idea.

But I knew that, whatever awaited in the future, I didn’t want to be completely alone. Not forever, at least.

I said, “It wasn’t…I mean…God, why is this so difficult?”

“Just say whatever you want to say,” he stated. “No frills.”

“Fine. Okay,” I breathed, gathering my thoughts. “What happened the other night, I didn’t mean it like you think I meant it. I’m not…rejecting you, okay? I’m just saying not right now. I have so much going on. I feel like I’m juggling a hundred different plans, and if I…I don’t know…”

I trailed off, not knowing how to proceed. I hoped it would be enough to keep him from hating me.

After a second, Patrick said, “Alright.”

“Huh?”

“Alright.  Okay,” he said. “I understand. You’re too wrapped up in your plans to focus on figuring out if there’s anything between us, right?”

“Exactly!”

“I can accept that,” he said with another sigh. “But there is one thing I want to say, and I hope you’ll take it as it’s meant.” He sat back down, then leaned forward as he continued, “Remy wasn’t always the best father figure. Or mentor. Or whatever. But he did give me a lot of good advice. One thing he told me to never forget was when it came to girls, to just say things plainly. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I like you, Mira. A lot. You’re strong and pretty and driven…and I want this to happen. So, I hope that when you’re ready to figure it out, you’ll remember that. Until then, I’m still your friend.”

That just made me feel even guiltier about my dalliance with Calvin, and I had no idea how to respond. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I just nodded and said, “Okay.”

He flashed his crooked smile my way, then said, “But as much as I want to continue this awkward conversation, I really do have to head out. Dr. Montague isn’t exactly tolerant of tardiness.”

I took the conversational out he’d given me, saying, “I don’t know how you deal with her.”

“She’s not so bad,” he said. “Once you get past the ice queen exterior, she’s actually a decent person. Mostly.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I said. Dr. Montague was a means to an end, and though she was obviously good at her job as a Cybernetic Engineer, I’d have been perfectly happy if our paths never crossed again.

“Guess I’ll see you later, then,” he said, then headed toward the kitchen, where he deposited his bowl before heading for the stairs. And just like that, I was alone once again, which let me turn my mind from frivolous relationship issues to what was really important – my plans for the day.

Mia Salvatore had already assured me that Nora’s shipments of bio-enhancers would be contaminated, so I just had to sit back and wait for them to do the job they were meant to do. In the meantime, I had two main objectives. First, I needed to continue my plans to undermine the Specters’ lieutenants. I’d already taken the initial steps down that path when I’d planted the evidence of embezzlement on Echo’s terminal; Gunther would soon hold up his end of the bargain and give Nora a tip to steer her directly toward the “betrayal”. That would stir up the hornet’s nest, but I had plans for her other lieutenants as well.

First, though, I needed to poke the proverbial bear and start down the road to completing my other objective. Finally, it was time to antagonize those untouchable people in the more prosperous districts. After all, I hadn’t forgotten their role in my uncle’s death. At times, I was focused on Nora’s betrayal, but I intended to make everyone pay for Jeremiah’s demise.

To do that, I needed conflict, and I knew precisely how to accomplish that.

So, after finishing off my unpleasant meal, I went into my room, got changed into an innocuous set of coveralls that were meant to help me blend in with the crowd. I was unwilling to take any chances, so underneath it all, I wore my Infiltration suit.  Then, I used Mimic to adopt a new, unremarkable persona, and left the building. The entire block was deserted, and I quickly made my way to the monorail, which I took to the Garden.

Ignoring the other sunken-faced, malnourished passengers, I bent my mind to the task before me. It wasn’t going to be easy, I knew. I was used to infiltrating megabuildings and poorly guarded outposts like Biloxi. But my target’s defenses would be far more elaborate and advanced.

My mind was occupied with my budding plan until the monorail reached my stop, and I disembarked. I looked up, seeing a Silo looming over me, and I couldn’t help but feel a little impressed.

The huge, cylindrical building before me was at least as big as a megabuilding, but it was far more important to the city’s infrastructure. Without the Silos, not only would the earning potential of the elites be devastated, but the population would go unfed. And once people got hungry, they’d get restless, which was precisely what I needed. A war between the various tribes wasn’t enough. It was too isolated. It didn’t really affect the elites. But a rebellious populace? That would go much further toward creating the chaotic atmosphere I wanted.

I split off from the crowd of workers heading through the massive gate, instead heading down a nearby alley, where I embraced Stealth. Once there, I waited, observing the Silo’s defenses. In addition to the huge gate, which was manned by dozens of Enforcers, all of whom were armed with assault rifles, a thirty-foot wall of reinforced concrete circled the building. Atop that wall was coiled razor wire, cameras every twenty feet, and a plethora of auto-turrets. Every fifty yards, blocky towers rose far above the wall; they were manned by even more Enforcers, and I’d have been surprised if they weren’t equipped with sniper rifles. In short, the Silo was like a combination of prison and fortress, and getting inside was going to be incredibly difficult.

So, it was a good thing I had a plan.

Individually, I could have overcome any of the defenses. I’d done so in the past, and I knew I would do so again going forward. However, when they were all put together, they presented a serious problem that I couldn’t hope to defeat. So, instead of trying to go through them, I planned to bypass them altogether.

Enforcers, as a whole, were good at their jobs, but they had plenty of blind spots. First, they struggled to adjust to anything they didn’t expect. I’d exploited that a few times. Second, they tended towards overconfidence, largely because they were so rarely challenged. And third, very few of them were true believers. They were mostly just people who were doing a job. As such, they did just enough to satisfy the terms of their employment. Most of the time, that was fine. There were enough redundancies that it almost always worked the way it was supposed to. But sometimes, things slipped through the cracks.

I was going to exploit all three flaws.

After making sure that I understood the Silo’s defenses, I crept through the nearby alleys, steadily getting further and further away from the huge structure. Most of the surrounding buildings were warehouses and distribution centers intended to shoulder the logistics of handling the massive amount of produce grown within the Silos, but the further from the massive building I traveled, the more I saw variation in the buildings. As I went, I flared Observation as much as I could, noticing every tiny detail of the area.

Most of the information was useless, and I knew that, without my advanced Mind attribute, I likely couldn’t have made sense of that much sensory input. However, because I spent hours of each day training it, I had no trouble categorizing everything. And, after a couple of hours, I found exactly what I was looking for.

Located in an alley abutting an abandoned warehouse, the tunnel entrance was twelve feet across and camouflaged by scattered garbage as well as a holographic display. I saw through it immediately; after all, it was never intended to stand up to intense scrutiny, much less my Observation ability. So, noticing that the scene looped every forty-five seconds was child’s play.

Still, I planted myself in a secluded corner of the alley and settled down to watch the smuggler’s tunnel. I knelt there for hours, unmoving and cloaked by Stealth, as I watched for anything out of the ordinary.

The existence of smuggler’s tunnels was an open secret to anyone from the Garden District. In fact, I suspected that even the Enforcers were aware of the smugglers’ activities. However, so long as the losses fell into acceptable parameters, it was easier to just let it go than to spend all the time and resources to end the practice. Of course, every now and then, they’d make an example out of someone, but other than that, it was just part of doing business.

Besides, a fed populace is a subdued populace. So long as people had food and distractions, they would put up with almost anything. The moment either ran dry, there would be issues. So, it was in the city’s interests to look the other way when people stole a little extra food.

Still, I wasn’t going to stake my own safety on that assumption, so I kept an eye on the tunnel entrance for long enough that I felt certain that it didn’t pose any dangers. Once I’d satisfied my own caution, I stood up and crossed the alley. When I stepped into the holographic display, it flickered, revealing the pair of double doors beneath the illusory display. I wasted no time before bending down and pulling them open, where I was greeted by a mundane concrete ramp that led deep underground.

Casting my senses down the tunnel, I looked for defenses, both physical and Mist-based, but I found nothing but a string of lights along the tunnel’s ceiling. Still, as I descended into the passage, I strained Observation and Misthack to the maximum of their potential, finding nothing.

It made some sense, I supposed. There was little reason to guard such a tunnel. If the Enforcers found it, the smugglers would simply move on and create another before resuming business as usual. Otherwise, they just didn’t care if someone else used it, and anything more than the holographic camouflage would’ve risked notice. So, they had every reason to leave it unguarded.

Even so, it didn’t sit well with me, but given that my senses hadn’t picked anything up, I could either go forward or abandon my plan. I chose to keep pushing toward my goal. If it turned out to be a mistake, I’d just have to deal with it.

After I descended into the tunnel, I closed the doors behind me. Then, I crept forward, slowly and with immense caution. But it was all for naught. No threats presented themselves, and, after a little more than a quarter of a mile, the tunnel sloped back upwards, ending in another pair of doors.

As I approached the doors, my heart thudded in my chest. If something was going to go wrong, it would be here. I focused on Observationand Misthack, but I sensed nothing on the other side of the doors. No cameras. No security terminals. No people. Nothing.

Briefly, I considered going back and rethinking things. After all, it wouldn’t be difficult to liaise with the smugglers themselves. Doing so would make everything so much safer – for now. But that came with a couple of issues – one minor and one much more serious. The minor problem was that every time I interacted with someone, I ran the chance of revealing my secrets. I was confident in Mimic, but if someone saw through it, it was possible that my description would eventually get back to Nora. In that event, I trusted that she was intelligent enough to connect the dots. It was an unlikely eventuality, but it was possible.

The real concern, though, was that if the smugglers had any inkling of what I had planned, they would almost assuredly try to stop me. And I couldn’t run that risk. So, as far as I could tell, I had no choice but to forge ahead.

After taking a deep, steadying breath, I pushed the door open and stepped into the lowest level of the Silo.