The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 32

"Alright," Andy said that night, the den's low dining room table covered in papers scribbled with Kat's handwriting. "Alright."

The group had been sitting there for hours, planning, considering, reworking, and they were finally settled on next steps. If they were able to disrupt the central processor for about 3 minutes it would cause catastrophic outages at Tillibenton facilities nationwide, the reliability of which was essential for their stock price. They'd have to replace their singular distributed energy system with more modern solar microgrids, which would cost them hundreds of millions and work wonders for the wellbeing of the planet.

"There are so many safeguards in place and this equipment is impossible to use," Kat started. I'd have to study for ages to be able to get in there and reprogram..."

"Who said anything about reprogramming?" asked Andy. "We douse it."

"Douse it?"

"A flashbang grenade, lots of smoke." She was still reading as she spoke, the severity of her words not matching her tone. "It'll set off the fire extinguishers which will short out the equipment, they'll be down for a lot longer than 3 minutes."

In order to accomplish this, Kat was now outfitted with 3 goals, critical pieces of information they'd learned from the guard handbook that they needed to confirm.

First and foremost, they needed to ensure the guard rotation schedule for the floor was still updated and accurate. There seemed to be a 4 minute window in which the only guard with entry visibility was the rotational guard on checkpoint and another window during floor rotation when the exit visibility to the back staircase was compromised. The floor's security checkpoint officer was also said to have a schedule for the lab workers with clearance, one that indicated when each worker should be entering and leaving.

That was her first task; Confirm the accuracy of the entry and exit windows, determine which lab workers were on the clearance schedule, and confirm what times they rotated through.

Next was the lobby. She obviously couldn't be the one to plant the flashbang, which meant whoever did would have to enter and exit the building somehow. She thought about offering Jove's private elevator but hesitated, realizing that she'd have to explain more about the time she spent with him and rationalizing that using a secret elevator only she knew about as an escape plan would be a dead giveaway.

That meant whichever member of FES that was going to plant the flashbang would have to enter and exit through the lobby's back fire exits, meaning Kat had to confirm those guard rotational schedules as well.

Lastly, she had to confirm camera layout. This was to be the most difficult task, and she still wasn't entirely sure how she'd accomplish it. Every single part of the plan would have to not only be timed to the second, but would also have to take place primarily between the building's hundreds of CCTV cams.

"Or better yet," Andy had mused, "Maybe we can get them turned off."

They all knew that getting caught on camera would be terrible at worst, deadly at best, especially depending on which member was to infiltrate. Kat wasn't an option, she would be easily identified because of her position there, but every other member of FES had gotten at least a citation, Brent and Andy having their prints done down at the station.

"We'll worry about that when it comes to it," Andy had said, quieting the room. "Right now, our main priority is determining if this stuff is correct. This is from the handbook, it could be entirely different in the field. We don't know what we don't know," she turned to Kat with a heavy look, placing a hand upon her shoulder. "But Kat is gonna find out."

She stared deep into Kat's eyes, talking to her as if they were the only two in the room.

"Be smart. Be safe. One task a day, don't draw suspicion to yourself." She pulled her in for an unexpected hug, the superfluous sign of affection unlike her.

Kat's arms fell slack for a moment in surprise before they rose up to circle Andy's back, returning her embrace.

"I'm so proud of you," Andy had whispered in her ear, her voice laden with emotion.