RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 176

With the information about the traps and the map in his hand, Balthazar was very confident in getting control over the entire place quickly. He wasn’t concerned much about there being automated defenses that would activate if he failed to use proper passkey or protocols.

Automated defenses that could harm them wouldn’t be inside the control room as those would definitely cause damage to the consoles and apparatus there. Any defense automatons and robots would also be restricted entry due to the same reason. There would probably be alarms signalling the place that there is an intrusion, which they didn’t need to care about as the entire place is devoid of life except for them.

He was much less concerned of any triggers to collapse the place. Being a pirate cache, they would not put in such an extreme measure. Such measures are usually only used for intelligence hubs where sensitive information or research is done. Such a measure for a cache which has weapons and sh.i.p.s is a complete waste. These could be recovered by them even if someone manages to infiltrate the place. The only thing he needed to do was to make sure that this is indeed such a place and the map he got from the security console convinced him of that.

He shared the map and other details with the rest of them, even Lucius and Richard. He can’t have them accidentally triggering a trap or something. Though all the personnel in the place are dead, the traps were already activated. All hidden bases and caches like this one tend to have a periodic timer in which one of the personnel need to put in a password. Without that, the traps in the place have been activated.

“Go through the detail properly,” said Balthazar as he sent them to the others. “We will move in 10 minutes. Any doubts, you ask me. This is a very risky thing,” continued looking at Robert.

“Why are you looking at me for that?”

“Because you don’t have experience with this kind of thing. Also make sure to go through them thoroughly. I also sent you the schematics of the entire place. You can go through it later. It will be useful for you later. You will be asked to supervise all such things,” explained Balthazar.

“I am getting a lot of homework after this trial, right?” asked Robert rolling his eyes at his cousin.

“Ya. You are. I also have some suggested reading for you to go through. You need to know a few things which are necessary for you as an elder. You need a proper training session for all this, apart from the usual fighting training,” said Richard. “Walter hadn’t taught you many things.”

“What?”

“Yes. You need to know learn quite a few things,” said Richard in a strict tone. “Walter also suggested that I teach you a few things about security and others. I test you and found that you can maintain security of a place but you still lack basic understanding of different kind of men, which is very essential as it is the men that finally maintain and execute any implementation you have in mind,” added Richard.

“Fine. I already was thinking that it was best to have a few training sessions with him anyway. It is all for the best,” said Robert as he sat down and began to browse through the contents of the information sent to him by his cousin.

“How do you avoid floor sensors and the like. We can’t float in the air. It is ridiculous to think of getting through them,” said Robert as he began to browse through the details of the traps. There were pressure sensors on the floor at various points which triggered gunfire and alarms. Apart from that there were sensors on the walls and IR sensors and other traps. Looking at the diagrams on the hud of his suit, he felt that they needed to be an acrobat to avoid triggering these things.

“Calm down. There are only one sensor cl.u.s.ter which is hard. They require a bit of effort from us. The rest can be avoided simply,” said Balthazar as he went to the dead man on the floor and searched him pulling out a key card from his pocket.

“This would help us. The security covering the maintenance entrance would usually have access passes like these. A bit of configuration at the console would allow us to use it to reset the sensors. Using this we will have gap of a few seconds to move through specific areas without any worry,” said Balthazar showing different areas and corresponding spots where the key card could be used on the monitor.

“Keep these points in mind and follow me. I will inform you of the amount of time we have at each point. It is going to be an easy trip except for that one place. It is just before the security centre of the whole cache. I will take lead and move alone to cross that places. This cl.u.s.ter can’t be completely disabled and need quick movements while evading laser sensor which keep moving,” continued Balthazar.

“Isn’t that risky?” asked Richard instead. “You might get seriously injured if it triggers some kind of gunfire. You will be considered to fail the trial in that case. We can still consider that you passed if we go back now.”

“Oh! Come on. You already told that it wouldn’t be a failure but you take us back to the ship. The Price family wanted us to clear the area and let us play with cache. They didn’t even check the area properly and wanted to make use of us. I would like to get a few things from here if possible,” said Balthazar with a scheming glint in his eyes.

“You have something against the Price family?” asked Richard. He was already a bit concerned about this and wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t become an issue to Robert if he had Balthazar represent him in the contest for the elder position.

“Nah. I got nothing against them. I only had a decent conversation with two members. One is Marcus Price and the other is Evelyn and among the two of them, I have a clear idea who would have thought of using our trial for this and the authority and power to make it happen,” replied Balthazar. “It can be considered a test or a lesson. Either way, I am going to make sure that the concerned person is convinced of my capabilities.”

“Fine. I will stay behind with Robert for the last situation. Lucius will follow you,” said Richard shaking his head as he realized that he wouldn’t be able to curb Balthazar’s spirit or mediate between him and Evelyn.

“That is totally unnecessary. All three of you can join me once I disable the security systems,” said Balthazar smiling. He had plans on getting some profits and find out about the actual affiliation of this place, away from the prying eyes of the Lucius and Richard. The judges also would monitor the feed from their suits. So, he would have preferred if Lucius didn’t follow him till, he disabled the security.

“Why? Do you think that this old man wouldn’t be able to evade the sensors which you can cross?” asked Lucius in a gnarly tone which indicated his displeasure.

“Nope. Nothing like that. Please, keep an eye on me,” said Balthazar as he made a mental note not to accidentally anger the old people around him. He had already pissed of Evelyn Price which was clearly evident from the present circ.u.mstances and he really didn’t want to add more people to that list.

“Get moving,” said Lucius and Balthazar quickly plugged in the key card into the console to make the required configurations to it. Since, he had worked as an assassin in his past life, he had a very good grasp over the various security mechanisms that are currently used and also for the next two years. Even after he left his job as an assassin, he had been involved in the security of Rudra’s workshop and due to that he kept his knowledge up to date on various security protocols and improvements through the dark net.

With a properly configured key card which was configured with maintenance capabilities of the security systems, he had the ability to reset the sensors in various places. Security systems would also need to be frequently tested and the protocols that would be put by organizations for this purpose was being used by Balthazar currently to circ.u.mvent those security protocols.

As the got out of the security station, they had to go through the next door that led to the actual interior of the cache. This door was also slightly ajar and opened. Balthazar had already expected this. He had observed a lot of bodies in the screen at the security station and it looked like a number of the dead men realized their situation as they were about to die and started to panic and run. So, there was a high chance of several doors being open and a few traps already being sprung.

They found another dead body as soon as they opened the door. They moved through the tunnel which was well lit. There was a large dining hall at the end of the tunnel. There were other doors that diverged from it. Balthazar held up a hand after he opened the door preventing them from entering the tunnel.

“What happened?” asked Robert.

“Look at the bodies,” said Balthazar pointing at them in the tunnel. “Everyone has an gun or some arm. So, careful where you step. The tunnel is 30 meters. You got half-a-minute to cross. So, run. I am going to swipe the card here and enter a code, that would start a timer,” explained Balthazar pointing to a panel by the door.

“OK,” said Robert.

Balthazar looked at Lucius and Richard who nodded in confirmation before swiping the card at the panel and typing in a reset code. They quickly made their way through the cl.u.s.ter of dead bodies and reached the other end where Balthazar used another code at the security panel there to get in.

They were in a large dining hall with a number of tables and chairs thrown all over. It was like a tavern frequented by unruly people with a lot of stains and a number of tables were broken. The only difference was that such taverns tend to be lively while this one had dead men in it.

“Blergh!” came a sound from the side as Robert felt like vomiting. He saw the scene from the monitor before, but a closer look had caused his digestive system to fail.

“You’re kidding?!” said Richard

“That might be a mark against you,” joked Balthazar.

Robert decided to take a chair and sit down to rest.

“Don’t stray too far from the door. There are some sensors in this place too and looking at the scene it is clear that some of them were already activated by the bodies. I already have the information and marked a few safe areas. We just need to use that to get to the security room. Stay in those areas only,” said Balthazar as he saw his cousin reaching for a chair.

Robert didn’t respond and was still a bit out of it. Balthazar called for him a couple more times, but his cousin was still stuck in the same state. So, Balthazar quickly took a chair and pulled his cousin into it.

“You all right?” he asked shaking his cousin who nodded in response.

“Stay here. I will take care of the rest,” said Balthazar. It was clear that his cousin is having problems with the dead men all over the place. It was probably his first time looking at so many dead men at a time killed like that. He knew that Robert would have seen a dead body or two as a surgeon, but those bodies were usually in hospital or mortuary where everything was kept clean. It was quite different from the site of an extermination like this one where the dead could be seen in positions where they are still trying to escape and had expressions of fear all over their faces.

“I can,” said Robert in a feeble tone.

“No, you’re not,” sighed Balthazar as he heard his cousin respond in a feeble tone. “The first time is hard. People could find it a lot harder to be at peace after watching such a thing. And that is common even among the military, even when they see other human and apes who have tried to kill them just moments before their death.”

“Leave this to me. Stay here with Richard. I won’t take long,” said Balthazar to his cousin and then looked at Richard. “He might need some help. Let me go ahead with Lucius. If he doesn’t mind take him back to the ship, else let him remain. Don’t force anything. It is best if he comes to the decision on his own,” he told Richard alone after muting the others.

Richard nodded before asking Balthazar, “Are you all right?”

“I am fine. I have seen worse happen to my own men. This really doesn’t bother me much,” he said while he moved on ahead. Balthazar considered this to be the best option currently. It would be easier for him if he didn’t need to explain things to his cousin at each point. He had better confidence in Lucius and knew that Lucius will be able to evade all sensors even without his own help. The fact that Lucius is guarding them implied that he had already had enough tech on him to do that without any issue.

The security centre was the farthest located room from the rest of the cache as it was required for it to be isolated so that no one would be able to infiltrate it. They had to go through three more tunnels after resetting the security measures temporarily from the panels, before they finally reached the sensor cl.u.s.ter which was considered hard. This one couldn’t be reset completely in the same way as the others as this led directly to the door of the security centre.