A trail of aching derrières- next time they'll be more thoughtful

[gone_byebye]

The door opens onto an expanse of asphalt, steel, and glass. Nearby a sign reads:

WELCOME TO WHITE FLINT MALL
BEST PRICES IN THE DC AREA

4708 BETHESDA AVENUE
CHEVY CHASE, MD

It's a big parking lot, with the mall itself only visible off in the distance. Ray gives it the squint-eye before turning to the others. "Okay, people," he says. "This is it. Johnny says it's underground. Egon's best estimates indicate three miles down. Are we good?"

Comments

[masterofsoresu]

"You don't need to see our identification," Obi-Wan assures them, suppressing his amusement under the inevitable sense of what, in old Corellian, is referred to as dejys visti.

[md_donighal]

These aren't the geeks you're looking for, Michael thinks, loudly enough that Obi-Wan can probably hear it.

[gone_byebye]

There's some hasty conferencing in elevator two. Eventually, the guards turn back to the three men in the hallway. "We don't need to see your identification," the lead guard assures them.

[masterofsoresu]

"We can go about our business," Obi-Wan continues. "You'd better head up to twelve and look for Whistler."

[md_donighal]

Michael just watches with a mixture of awe and envy. I don't know whether I'll be more annoyed with him if this works or if it doesn't.

[gone_byebye]

The lead guard bites his bottom lip and looks like he's about to say something, but just then a walkie-talkie on his belt bursts into life. "Chaney! Report! What's going on out there?"

"We're on the trail, sir," Chaney responds. "We were just about to head up to twelve to look for Whistler."

"What are you waiting for? Move! He's blind as a bat and you can't catch him with two squads and both hands?"

Chaney flushes red, mutters something, and gestures to the others to get back into the elevator. Both elevators' doors close behind them.



".... can I get up now?" Whistler says, face still pointed at the floor. "And how the hell did you do that?"

[masterofsoresu]

"I think it's safe, yes." Ben takes Whistler's hand and helps him to his feet. "As to how I did it... I doubt you'd believe me if I told you. Simply put, I can be most persuasive when I put my mind to it."

[md_donighal]

Michael is in fact annoyed, but only Obi-Wan's likely to pick up on that. Despite himself, he's grinning from ear to ear.
Much like his mun, who's currently got one of the strongest cases of the Grinning Stupids he's had lately. I'm told it's possible to split the corners of your mouth from this sort of thing, but I think I'll be able to stop short of that.
"Now, let's get out of here before they come to their senses." He presses the button for the other elevator.

[steadfastknight]

Kitt, however, was looking at Obi-Wan with a sense of vague recognition.

Nah.

"Indeed," he said. "I don't want to draw too much attention."

He had counterparts in this universe.

[gone_byebye]

"Which way are you guys going?" asks Erwin- or Whistler, that being what the guards called him. "If you're going down, I think a friend of mine was still on level D when I found the elevators. Marty Bishop. Baritone voice, tall, mid-forties. Blond, assuming they didn't shave his head or something. If you see him, could you grab him?"

[masterofsoresu]

"We're headed down, yes," Ben allows as, "towards the power room, but we'll watch out for him. Can you find your own way from here?"

[gone_byebye]

"I think I can manage. I got a pretty good read on the layout of the place a while ago on this raised map they have. It's about two floors down, right outside the power room. Turn right coming out of the elevator. Can't miss it."

[md_donighal]

"Thanks," says Michael. "The power room was where we were heading, as it happens, but the map's likely to come in handy. Take care of yourself, friend."

[gone_byebye]

Whistler nods. "Will do. Give 'em hell for me." With that, he sets off, one hand fumbling along the wall next to him.

The elevator ride itself is uneventful, although it should be noted that the music playing is The Girl From Ipanema. When the doors open two levels down, Whistler was quite right; there's a map of the complex on the wall, sectors, offices, and corridors marked out in raised bronze-tone metal. It looks as if someone had too much money in the decorator budget and opted to spend it all in a hurry.

It also looks as if the power room has both a slightly uneasy security guard and a fairly complicated electronic lock on the door- in the 'thumb print and voice print' sense.

"Hey," says the guard. "You're not supposed to be down here."

[masterofsoresu]

"Surprise inspection," says Ben.

[md_donighal]

Behind him, Michael's eyes begin to glow faintly as he extends his quantum senses into the lock. If he could override the entire OpNet to deliver the Manifesto, almost a year ago once removed, he ought to be able to convince this lock to open. Unless Foliage Census are as paranoid about their security as Proteus were, anyway.

[gone_byebye]

They're not.

"Nobody said anything about a surprise inspection," says the guard, proving once again that guards the world over just don't get it.

[masterofsoresu]

"Well now, if they'd said anything, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Ben replies with a twinkle in his eyes.

[md_donighal]

Having (presumably) secured the lock, Michael starts checking for alarms it might be wired to; if there are any, he'll start disabling them. If not, he'll just pop it at the most dramatic moment.

[gone_byebye]

There is a hole in this logic somewhere, dammit. Nobody surprises anybody around here. The guard starts to reach for his walkie-talkie, just in case.

There's no alarms on the door. It's inconceivable that anybody unauthorized could get this far into the complex. If the codes are entered correctly, the door becomes capable of being opened. That's all.

[masterofsoresu]

"You don't need to call anyone," Obi-Wan assures him with a familiar wave of his hand. "After all, you wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

[md_donighal]

Last decision before the Big Reveal: would it be simpler to convince the lock that his voice and thumbprint are in the system, or to convince it it's hearing a voice and seeing a thumbprint that are in the system?

[gone_byebye]

There's a couple of extra security measures that have to be jiggered to activate the response to a thumbprint and voice that aren't physically there. Much simpler, really, to fiddle with the response to what's presented.

The guard's expression becomes extremely puzzled for a moment before he answers, "Nah. Wouldn't wanna spoil the surprise. You guys go on and inspect in there, okay?"

[masterofsoresu]

"Thank you, friend." Obi-Wan bows, then turns to his gray-suited colleague. "Doctor?"

[md_donighal]

"Ready and willing, my good man," Michael replies. A phrase he occasionally heard from Alex "Synapse" Doan, the Teragen's hacker supremo, leaps almost unbidden to his lips as he places his thumb on the print-reader. "My voice is my passport. Identify me." Even as he speaks, his node is reaching out to tweak the readings the lock receives into something it'll accept as authorization.