Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

36. The Palisade

The number of security guards at the entrance to the Palisade had been doubled when Thanos had returned to Theta-Three. Now the numbers had been doubled again. The result bordered on comical. The entrance wasn't all that wide and the security personnel struggled to position themselves in a way that they didn't choke the flow of traffic in and out of the Palisade.

Not that Loki or Brunnhilde were laughing. A slip up here would have dire consequences.

Brunnhilde went first, handing Jalmar's identity card over to the desk clerk and trying not to cling too tightly to her bag.

'Didn't you leave like an hour ago?' the desk clerk said between an impressive succession of yawns. 'You're missing the evening meal.'

Brunnhilde shrugged her shoulders tiredly. 'You are too, aren't you?'

'The work never stops.' The desk clerk snickered, then handed Jalmar's card back to Brunnhilde. 'Enjoy your evening, darling.'

Loki made a conscious effort not to track Brunnhilde's passage past the last rings of guards. Looking anxious and watching people too intently was the first step to attracting unwanted attention from Thanos' armed thugs. So he simply passed Lysante's identity card to the clerk and commiserated about the constant necessity to work long past reasonable hours, especially now that there were two fugitives in town. By the time Loki got the card back, he was certain the desk clerk had been a missed opportunity to recruit one of Thanos' men to Loki's cause.

For every path we tread, we leave behind a dozen paths untrodden.

'Good evening, gentlemen,' Loki said pleasantly to the security guard at the back of the atrium as he moved past them, then, the moment he was out of their sight, wiped his cordial smile off his face. 'You needn't have waited for me, Jalmar.'

'The way you were going, I thought you were about to ask the clerk out on a date,' Brunnhilde replied.

Loki swallowed about half a dozen inappropriate responses and motioned in the direction they needed to go to reach the upper levels. Few people crossed their path in the labyrinthine corridors in the Palisade. Those who were still working, and there were a decent number doing so, were busy at their terminals, trying to finish off the day's work rather than idling in the hallways. More numerous were the cleaning drones, preoccupied with scrubbing the floor and removing built-up dust on the light-fixtures.

Brunnhilde took in a sharp breath as they finally reached the complex section where the inner circle's personal quarters were situated. Loki patted her on the shoulder, more relieved than anything else that he wasn't the only one struggling with his nerves.

This area of the Palisade didn't have the brutalist aesthetic dominant through much of the rest of the complex. Plush carpeting stretched out with nary a scuff-mark to be seen and in the small recessed bays set into the walls, climbing plants snaked their way out of their glazed pots. Loki could barely breathe as they passed one door after another. They weren't labelled, but Loki could imagine who occupied the suites that lay on the other side of those doors. It was imperative they weren't discovered here.

'This'll work out,' he said softly.

'Of course it will,' Brunnhilde replied.

The door to Thanos' apartments was at the end of this hallway. Its size - it had to be twelve feet tall - immediately set it apart from the rest. Brunnhilde gestured for Loki to hang back, while she strode over to the panel used to input the security code to the door. He did as bidden, although he wasn't sure what he would do if they were discovered while Brunnhilde pulled off the panel's casing and plugged in her datapad in order to break into the Palisade's security system. The small blaster hidden under his clothes didn't inspire him with confidence.