Thunder

Chapter Six - 4

The room was lit by three up-lights at the back of the room, built in to the floor. A desk was shoved at the far end of the room on the left hand side, the door behind her. A Halo-Core sat on the desk, and a small, glowing rectangle.

Z9 moved towards it, noting that it was a key-card. Upon picking it up, she saw that it was a key-card for The Beam Hotel. Room 340. She placed it into her natural pocket and walked to the door. The door had a small glass window in it and, peering through, Z9 saw a hive of activity.

Down below was a full factory workshop. Machines grinded and sparks flew. Lights strobed as men walked past in long coats, much like a somewhat more illegal version than C.A.T's laboratory. Around this ground floor ran an entire walkway with monitors and screens on all sides. Figures and equations flashed across them all. Much to Z9's dismay, she didn't recognise anything on any of them.

And then she saw a word she did recognise. It flashed in white on one of them of a wall to her right.

Thunder.

It was only for a second, but Z9 was sure she had seen it. Before she had time to register it in relation to everything else going on, it had vanished again.

Z9 exited the room and walked out, confident and unashamed. She strode like she belonged there. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but she had a new lead and was sure that getting some information out of someone in a hotel room would be easier than stealing something from this place.

The lights from the screens shimmered as faces popped up on Halo-Cores, the sounds of hammering and blasting an orchestra below her. This wasn't just a few people in a rogue gang going after they had discovered. The man in black and Skull man had worked for an entire underground organisation. They had some serious work going on, and it all looked to be organised and well thought out. On the ground floor was the hardware being built, and the software was on the balcony around it.

A crane arm shifted along a rail before Z9 and dropped, a claw extending. It grabbed a large gun from the factory floor and lifted it high, carrying it along the stadium-sized workshop. A man walked underneath it, worried that his precious cargo might suddenly slip and fall to the hard floor below.

'Excuse me,' a voice said behind Z9. She turned to see a burly man, arms crossed and scowling down at her.

'Yes?' Z9 fluttered her eyelids, hoping it would provide an ample distraction. She extended her chest forward ever so slightly.

'What the hell are you doing? Who are you?'

'Shit. This guy must take the register at the start of the day.' She smiled. 'Just going out to give this back,' she said, extracting the hotel key-card from her dress. 'He didn't want to have to come back and collect it after the grand moment.' The man's expression didn't change. He reached into his pocket and brought out a Halo-Core. He swiped through a few menus, and then put it away again.

'Yes, there definitely has been some kind of mix-up here, I'm afraid,' he said.

'There has?'

'Yes, it would seem so. Because I definitely don't remember telling anyone to fetch my card for me.'

Inside, Z9's heart sunk. Her head began to turn over its major ignition-boost, telling itself to open up the floodgates to adrenaline. It told her heart to get ready, to get really ready.

'Shame that,' Z9 said, pulling out her gun and blowing his head off.