The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 38

At three in the morning, they'd managed to creep deep into Bern. The prison was a large building in the middle of several others. They were on the roof.

::How much longer?::

::It's tricky. I have to go through several layers. Just... shush.:: He waited as patiently as he could, knowing they had limited time to get in, do what needed to be done, and get out. After fifteen more minutes, she said, ::Done. Let's get in and do this.::

Aoloa placed his hand on the lock of the roof access door. In a moment, he heard the latch click and he opened the door. ::After you, mi'lady.::

They slipped in and rapidly descended the stairs. Hokulani had most of her concentration on whatever it was she did to keep alarms from going off, while feeding him blueprints of the building based on the security feeds. Their first step was to get to the evidence room.

Once they got there, Aoloa took over. He traveled up and down the aisles, brushing his hands over any electronics in sight. It took a little while, but it was the critical first step. In no time, every storage medium had been turned into a useless lump. No data would be recovered from them.

Unfortunately, that was the easy part. They hadn't needed to interact with any people, or go past their line of sight. Getting SherpaDerpa out was going to mean getting into the cell block. That meant human guards with weapons who were behind barriers.

They worked down the stairwell to the correct floor, then paused while Hokulani did a little more digging. After a couple minutes, the HUD lit up with a blue target and multiple red indicators for guards.

Aoloa studied their options for several minutes, shaking his head slightly. ::There isn't a good direct approach. We'll be spotted from any direction. They may not be able to raise the alarm, thanks to you, but armed humans in tight spaces can be dangerous, especially if we don't have direct access.::

They examined the floor plan in more detail, and finally found a good access. Slipping down another floor, they carefully made their way through empty offices underneath the cell block until they came to the right spot. This time it was Aoloa who had to think carefully, adjusting the nanite parameters before piercing the skin of his palm and smearing a circle of blood on the ceiling. They stood aside and waited a few more minutes, until the ceiling abruptly fell in, destroying the desk beneath it and scaring the sleeping prisoner inside half to death.

Aoloa peeked his head up and said, "Miss Eder? Would you like to leave?"

Fortunately, her scream was drowned out amongst the shouting and complaints. No alarms were going off, but human word would spread fast enough.

"Look, we don't have a lot of time. If you want out, now's the time. If not, you can stay put and explain what happened to the floor and the evidence in the evidence room. Your choice."

The woman managed to collect herself, eyes shifting between the two creatures below her feet. Then she nodded and jumped. Aoloa caught her and set her on her feet.

"Come on," he added, taking her hand and leading her to the stairwell as quickly as possible. When they got there, she started heading down until his firm grip stopped her. "Up."

"But, where to from there?"

"No time to argue. Come on!"

They ran up the stairs, Aoloa finally picking her up and carrying her on his back. They barreled through the rooftop door and ran across them for a few buildings before hitting an alleyway.

Venessa, still on Aoloa's back, screamed as he simply jumped, carrying them over the ten foot drop to the next building, Hokulani at his side. Her grip on him tightened in her terror. Guess I don't have to worry about keeping a grip on her.

The leaps continued, each one made with relative ease. Venessa managed to stop screaming, stay conscious, and hold on tight for the entire trip. They didn't stop until they were a quarter mile outside of town.

Once she was on her feet again, Venessa simply stared at them, before finally saying, "Holy shit, you're real."

"I'm real, she's unreal. I don't know how she does half of what she does with computers," Aoloa said.

"How did you find me? And why?"

Hokulani looked up. "KingKong asked us to get you out. It looks like Kodachrome turned you in when he thought you were getting too close to the truth. He's spreading word that we're actually cops. KingKong figured, if we're the real thing, we can bust you out to prove it."

She nodded thoughtfully. "They have my computer. That's going to cause a lot of problems."

"They don't have your drives, though," Aoloa responded. "I nuked their evidence room. They just lost key evidence for a lot of cases, including yours."

"They'll have copied that data to their servers."

"Wiped," Hokulani supplied. "We believe in being thorough."

Venessa looked down at herself. "Now what do I do? I can't exactly go back into town and resume my life. And prison greens aren't exactly inconspicuous."

"We'll get you set up with clothes and computing power tomorrow night. For now, I think keeping you free will be the main key," Aoloa replied.