The Split

Chapter 27

Boston, 2085

The next hour was a confusing blur. As soon as we made it across the street, and up the manhole on the other side, Luce radioed us and told us to meet him on the other side of the building we had been using as our base of operations.

After a few minutes we arrived to see Luce sitting on top of a pile of crates, looking down at his tablet. He had moved everything he could after the alarms had gone off. With a frantic energy he described our worsening situation outside.

Bloc patrols had found the truck, which had failed to detonate after what Luce guessed was a wiring issue. Armed guards were in the process of shutting down the entire neighborhood as they looked for us. Hovercraft had been called in and swept the area with spotlights, if he had still been several stories above we would have been compromised.

Luce had contacted his friend Williamson in his desperation, who in turn had sent his driver to our address. Nervously we paced back and forth as the group waited for him to arrive, hoping that he would show up at the back entrance as requested.

Ten minutes later a beat up van pulled up outside. Hastily we loaded our cargo into the back, got in, and drove off. The trip was mostly silent as we all stared out the window at the city, all lost in our own thoughts. A half hour later we were at the scrapyard. Together we unloaded our equipment, setting it just outside the van. After we were done Cyrus thanked the driver and handed him a small wad of cash. He nodded his thanks and drove off through the side gate, back onto the road.

Once we had brought the crates into the shop we paused to take a break. As we sat on the rough stool in the corner I began to feel the exhaustion in Cy's legs. Combined with the come down of the adrenaline rush from earlier in the compound, we were exhausted. Cy's eyelids blinked away sleep, as we struggled to keep ourselves engaged.

At the table nearby Luce had pulled out his tablet and was typing away at some unknown task. Sarah got up and walked over to him, taking the chip out of her pocket and holding it out. After a few seconds of hesitation, he took it from her, setting it down next to his keyboard. His facial expression began to sour as he continued to work, Sarah looking over his shoulder.

"What's the problem Luce? You look even more distressed than when we almost got caught earlier." Cy asked him, blinking our eyes slowly as we tried to retain our composure.

"I can't find a connection, all subnets are down. Not even the proxy networks I set up are working. Whatever is on this drive... It has to be related, they really don't want anyone to see what's on here."

We frowned and stood up, "Do you need a connection to access what's on there?"

"Well... No. But I didn't know opening the files was part of our plan."

Silence fell, as we looked around the room at each other. Luce looked perplexed at my words and had finally stopped his work, to stare up at us.

"Well I don't know about you two," Cy spoke up, "But I'd like to see this information we just risked our lives for."

"But command wants this chip, I'm sure they've seen these alerts too. They know we have it." Luce was obviously uncomfortable with what he had just suggested.

"And they'll get it." Cy replied, "I just want to see what's on it, you yourself always complain they don't give enough intel to us guys in the field."

"But-" Luce protested.

Sarah cut him off, "But nothing Luce, Cap is right, we deserve to know what's going on here. I'm tired of fighting in the dark, waiting for orders that may or may not come."