“For the love of the universe, Bea, slow down!” Trell hissed as quietly as he could, but his words still came out shrill and loud to human ears. She was eager, he’d have to give her that. But over-eagerness in a situation like this could get them killed. At least Trell assumed. He’d never been trained as a field agent in any organization. This wasn’t his specialty, and saying he was a little freaked out was a major understatement.
“If we slow down they’ll catch us,” Bea responded, her feet striking the ground in an even faster repetitive pattern. The large broadcasting complex loomed in front of them, consumed by darkness. They seemed to be alone, but Bea suddenly stopped, plastering herself against a wall. Trell followed suit, not really sure what else to do.
“I don’t see anyone,” he whispered, squinting and trying to make out shapes in the darkness.
“I can hear them,” Bea said, pointing to her ear. “Drevi have a very distinctive marching pattern.”
Trell knew the Drevi were obsessed with patterns and protocol, so he didn’t really doubt her. Sure enough, a large group of soldiers marched by in perfect unison, searching the grounds in a meticulous pattern. Bea and Trell froze, holding their breath. It turned out their hiding spot was a good one, as the Drevi paraded by without so much as a glance in their direction.
“They must be on some sort of regular patrol,” Trell said, curious and a little concerned. Why would the Drevi have diverted soldiers, especially when they knew they were losing the war and a major research facility to the north was under attack, to a military news broadcast station? Did that mean someone had found out about the stolen evidence and wanted to make sure it would never come to light?
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” Bea said, as if reading his mind.
Having managed to avoid the patrol marching about outside, the two of them crawled into the building through a small fire suppressant system. With valuable equipment in the building that couldn’t get wet or be replaced easily so far from home, the Drevi had been ingenious enough to devise a vacuum that would suck all the air out of a room and extinguish any fire. Of course the Drevi had designed the spaces in the ceilings so a human couldn’t get in, much less a larger Drevi. But for Bea, who was small and thin as a stick, and Trell, who was built lighter than any human, it was a tight fit to crawl through, but not impossible.
“I wish I had blueprints of the building,” Bea whispered as she glanced down through one of the small openings that led into a room below. “That looks like a restroom.”
“Unless we’re planning on sabotaging their toilets on the way there, we might want to keep going,” Trell said, attempting to keep the mood light. They crawled to the next room and tried to see what was below them.
“Trell, what does that look like to you?” Bea asked. Trell had long ago figured out that humans couldn’t see as well in the dark or as much of the color spectrum as Koleans could. So he scooted over and looked down through the opening, squinting and trying to make out the purpose of the room below them.
“This one looks promising,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the broadcasting room proper, but there’s a lot of equipment in there that looks like it gets regular use.”
“We can’t go any farther,” Bea said in irritation, looking at the solid wall in front of them. “Meaning the room where they actually send any signals is probably connected to the other half of the fire suppressant system. We can’t get there from here.”
“We should probably drop down and go from here,” Trell said. Bea nodded reluctantly and pulled out a nearly soundless power screwdriver. She undid the screws around the vacuum vent and caught the unit before it could clatter to the floor.
“Nice catch,” Trell whispered.
“I have good reflexes,” Bea said as the two of them carefully lowered themselves through the vent to the floor. It was now normal business hours so the staff was beginning to filter in, as evidenced by the distant, jumbled voices echoing through the surprisingly-thin walls. The lights started to come on across the complex. Soon someone would be coming for the equipment stored in the room, so Trell began to look around, trying to think of where they needed to go. There was a door, but he was looking for less obvious exits. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any. This was a storage room of some kind, but there weren’t any weapons or anything else they could use to defend themselves. Each of them carried a small pistol, but those wouldn’t last long in a siege, and they weren’t powerful enough to blast anything and everything out of their way. He tried to think, fighting down panic.
“Over here,” Bea said from the lone door. She’d opened it a crack and peered out. “There’s a hall out there. And people, but there’s a small alcove on the other side where we can hide until the coast is clear.” She paused, squinting her eyes as if trying to read something in the distance. “Can you read Drevi?”
“A little,” Trell said, worried. His Drevi wasn’t that good, and Drevi was a complicated written language, but he’d have to do his best.
“Can you read that sign over there?” She pointed.
He looked over her shoulder. Fortunately, the symbols made up a word he did know. “Yeah,” he said in relief. “That’s where we want to be.”
“People are coming,” Bea hissed. Trell could hear the voices too. They needed to move fast.
The two of them dove out of the room in sync, scurrying across the hall and cramming their bodies into the small alcove.
“Did you see that?” A deep voice said from further down the hall. Trell’s heart sank.
“Yeah, I did. Call security.” They’d been seen.
Trell drew his weapon but the pair of Drevi who’d spotted them had smartly backed away to a safe distance behind a wall where he couldn’t get a clear shot at them. Within a minute, several more Drevi arrived at the scene and advanced towards the cornered intruders. Bea fired a warning shot to keep them back, and the security guards opened fire.
“Shit, we’re pinned down,” Bea said.
“They’re just going to keep coming, too,” Trell said as he fired another couple of shots. But there was a ray of hope. In the commotion, he saw two familiar figures slip behind the security guards and reach the goal.
“It looks like Alana and Vandoraa made it,” said Trell. “And we’re in the perfect position to give them cover.”
Bea sighed. “I guess that’ll have to do.”