Following his map, Austin quickly made his way to the next hallway crossing, looking left to right for any sign of guards, quickly ducking back the way he came as an Avorian soldier began his patrol down the corridor. The TIB agent identified five different places he might hide from the incoming trooper, but ultimately settled for the ceiling. He was lucky that the roofs were so high, doubtless to allow for better flight room among the Avorian residence. This particular soldier, however, was on his two feet. Austin remembered from his studies of Avorian anatomy that it took more energy for them to fly than it did to walk or run. Judging by the bored, tired look on the face of this particular guard, Austin assumed that he was just at the end of his shift and was undoubtedly dog tired. He wouldn’t be doing any flying. The ceiling was a safe bet.
Bending his knees, Austin activated the jump-boost in his boots, easily propelling himself to the ceiling with a single bound. The motion was noiseless, though a slight gust of wind would be left behind him, hopefully before the guard arrived. Once on the ceiling, he suctioned to the roof using small devices in his gloves and the tips of his boots, using the strength of his back and midsection to keep himself pressed tightly to the roof. He waited silently in the shadow, watching from above as the guard stopped, sneezed, and then went on his tiresome way.
Continuing forward, Austin kept to the roof, spider-crawling along the ceiling on the path to Avantia’s chambers. Two other guards passed him by, all without any trouble. The most difficulty he’d had was clearing his final hallway, where he’d been forced to remain perfectly still for nearly ten minutes as two guards rounded the corner and stopped in the middle of the hallway for small talk. His muscles burned, but the pain was short lived. At the end of the hall, he detached himself from the roof, landing quietly on his feet. He peered around the corner, noting that Avantia’s chambers were just around this bend. He scanned the room for guards and cameras. Surprisingly, he found no tech. Just two sentries at her door. Judging by their upright postures and swift-moving eyes, Austin supposed that these were elite members of the guard. Likely fresh on their shifts too. Avantia was out and they weren’t sure when she’d be back. They didn’t want to be caught slacking off.
The agent smiled mischievously. This was going to be fun.
Kneeling back behind his cover, Austin quickly patched into his scouter, reviewing all the energy signatures he’d picked up over the night thus far. In particular, he examined Avantia’s conversation with the unknown guardsman. Although Marshall still didn’t know his identity, he was willing to make a bet that he wasn’t some random footsoldier. An officer at least. Someone with authority. He reviewed their recorded conversation, quickly selecting snippets of his conversation with Avantia. ‘Men.’ ‘You.’ ‘War.’ ‘Me.’ Things of the sort. He cut and pasted pieces of the dialogue until he’d effectively created a new sentence entirely, all the while using the guard’s original voice. He even threw in a few of his pre-coitus grunts for good measure. The words flowed perfectly together as Austin played it back to himself, but the tone was all wrong. Too quiet. Reserved and caring. He needed to make this sound angry.
“Tatyana, do you read?” Austin murmured, patching back into his AI. A chorus of cybernetic chimes sounded in his ear as he re-opened the secure comm link with his artificial intelligence back in his room.
“Back so soon, love?” a sultry voice replied, coated in a thick Russian accent. She sounded completely human, save the light metallic tinge in her words, “was that translation not enough to sate you? You promised to call me.”
“I thought we agreed to keep this professional,” Austin smirked, “not that 200 J nanochip processors aren’t my thing, but I think you might be a little young for me. Y’know. Eight months old n’all.”
“Numbers, numbers,” she taunted, “such silly restrictions. But come. Tell me. What do you need.”
“I need you to tinker with this audio transmission I’m sending you. Make him sound angry. Alarmed. Desperate. Do you think you can do that?”
“Easily. Any particular intensity?”
“Oh, eighty decibels should do. Make it as articulate as you can. I really want this to flow.”
“Da. And done. You have your decoy.”
Austin played it back to himself and smiled. “Flawless.”
Turning back around, Austin made his way to the other end of the hall. There was another opening here, leading into the corridor where the guards were stationed. This is where he wanted to lure them.
Reaching into his belt, Austin retrieved one of the most widely-used TIB gadgets: quikbits. Tiny little bug-sized devices that served a variety of purposes, in particular, energy expulsion. They could be set to release the barest whispers of sound or explode with the intensity of a grenade. Afterwards, they vaporized themselves, leaving nothing but a slightly acidic odor in the wind. Austin set up two of these: the first at the end of the hall, the second behind a glass ceramic vase resting on a table some ways off. He programmed his makeshift sentence into the first and set the latter to emit an extremely intense (though inaudible) burst of sound.
The trap set, Austin made his way back to the other end of the hall. Crouching, he activated the device. All at once, the booming voice of the Royal Guard resounded throughout the hallway.
“You men! Follow me! War! Armies!" A series of brutish grunts followed. A woman's voice let loose a desperate cry. It sounded much like Avantia's.
"NO ONE'S AROUND!" he roared, obviously in the gravest of perils.
The guards turned swiftly, their faces paling as the voice of their Matriarch and Captain called for their assistance.
“Swiftly!” the first called, already bounding around the corner, “hail the watch! Order a full lockdown!” He spread his wings, soaring down the hallway with much greater speed than any man could managed running. The second was right behind him, speaking frantically into a device clipped onto his ear.
Austin compared the rate at which the guards were flying with the length of the hallway. Eight seconds at the minimum till they passed that table with the vase. He counted down the time and then activated the second quikbit, the device exploding in an inaudible wave of jarring sound. Not enough to affect the guards, but more than enough to send the vase flying off the table and smashing into the nearby wall. If that didn’t freak them out, Austin didn’t know what would.
He needed to be quick. Bounding over to Avantia’s doors, he checked for a lock. He was dismayed to find that, not only was it secured, but it was with an unfamiliar mechanism. Where a keyhole or a tech pad should have been was a small indent in the wood, slightly crescent shaped. Gods above, what was THIS supposed to mean?
The sound of shouting in the not-so-distant hallway spurred him into action.
Stooping down on one knee, he examined the ‘keyhole’. He found small sensors in the back of the cavern. When he stuck his finger inside, they glowed red. Responding to what?
The heat of your fingers, he told himself, it’s an energy mechanism. It responds to power. He quickly patched back into his scouter.
“Tatyana, talk to me.”
“I’m seeing it,” she mused, not at all as concerned as Austin was about his current predicament, “it looks like it opens with-”
“Energy, yes. I know. What kind, how much.”
“Put your glove on the sensor.”
Austin did. Two seconds of agonizing waiting followed.
“Exactly 4.568245710947 joules of pure solar energy. You must distribute that exact quantity if you hope to open this door.”
“I have three bits left. Can you set one of them to that specification?”
“Of sound or heat? Yes. But the solar aspect of the equation is difficult. Bits carry electric charges, not radiant.” She mused to herself. “I might be able to draw some photons from our satellite. We’re lucky it’s facing the sun right no-”
“Do it. Do it. Do it.” Austin placed the bit into the groove. Despite his obvious worry, his hands did not shake, nor his voice quiver.
“Give me three seconds for transmission.”
Austin merely looked from side-to-side, dead certain that someone was going to cross the corner at any moment. He counted three seconds that felt like ten.
The door clicked open.
He was inside the very same breath later. The room he entered was sparsely furnitured giving it an open spacious feel even within the confines of the royal palace. A large silk rug claimed the floor, while the far northern wall was dominated by a pair of large latticed doors that open out onto a large balcony. A few bookcases, a wardrobe, and a writing desk claimed the walls, while the centerpiece of the room was the large four-poster bed that took up much of the open floor with a large storage chest at its foot. It was low-built and silken lace cascaded down around it in an elegant tent of cloth. A large gilded bird-cage hung near the balcony doors, but its occupant appeared to be asleep with its head nestled beneath one of its vibrant green wings. Like the rest of palace, much of the decor was of muted blues and white, and the furniture had been artfully crafted by hand and stained white.The golden metal of the various hinges and handles added a touch of color to the otherwise pale chambers.
He moved swiftly and silently, watching the animal in the cage with suspicion. He hoped to God it wasn’t one of those ‘Polly wants a cracker’ sort of birds, or his cover would be blown. He started at the writing desk, looking for anything valuable. Much of what was strewn atop it was of little interest, including various documents into local matters and a few personal letters of no noteworthy content. The only items atop it of any immediate interest was a small laptop and a copy of Stryfe’s letter to Avantia. Though the Volarians seemingly possessed archaic origins, bits of technology could be found present for those who looked for it. He took a snapshot of the letter with his scouter and began rummaging through the interior of the desk, looking for anything valuable or telling. The drawers proved about as well kept as the rest of the desk - that is to say not very - and much of what he found were as seemingly routine as the rest of the paperwork. One document of note outlined some changes in plans regarding a matter of Avantia’s son, Arun, who it would seem had been scheduled to be sent to Lósénji in southern Shintenchi in two days. The reasoning for her son’s trip remained unmentioned within the document, but it outlined intent to delay his departure for a week and to send the boy by sea rather than air due to recent violence within Volaria with an unknown foreign entity. The document goes on to outline intent to have the lad accompanied by Shanthi, to discuss matters with the Losenyu Empress in person.
Austin snapped photos of all of these. He stepped up to her laptop, removing a small flash drive from his belt and gently sliding it into the machine’s USB port. Turning around, he took a few steps back so that he was facing the whole of the room. Tapping at the bud in his ear, Austin ran a thorough scan from wall-to-wall, taking and receiving readings from several different spectrums of energy. He was searching for any hidden rooms, spaces, or particularly thick walls or materials stowed away in the room, such as a safe or a strongbox. He found nothing akin to a safe, though the chest at the foot of her bed seemed to be fairly sturdy. He knelt before it, opening it slowly and looking inside. He found various items of obviously personal importance. Small bits of expensive looking jewelry. Small hand-whittled wooden carvings. Some photographs. A few wing feathers. Of particular importance was a note signed from the Shogunate Embassy. Austin photographed it and set it back in place, gently closing the chest. He reviewed the picture from his scouter. A condolence letter... concerning Sato’s father? Why would Avantia have this in her chest? He’d known Volary and the Shogunate had been diplomatically close, but he’d never supposed that there had been something personal between the leaders of their nations.
Austin was about to continue ransacking Avantia’s room when he heard voices outside the door. Doubtless his little charade was finally catching up to him.
“Mhm. They’re going to come in,” Tatyana was practically laughing, “need to secure the room. They haven’t gotten to your chambers yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Perhaps sending the whole Palace into a frenzy wasn’t the best distraction?”
The agent only growled, snatching the USB drive out of Avantia’s laptop and quickly heading over to the nearby window. The snippets of conversation he’d managed to pull from the guard had only allowed for so many fluent and believable options. His rushed movements disturbed the bird in its cage, but other than ruffling its feathers lightly, it didn’t seem to wake. Shit. This was the hard part. He nudged the doors to the balcony, open slowly, looking down at the twinkling lights of the city. The air was cool and brisk, though the sharp wind curiously did nothing to Austin’s hair. Shutting the doors quietly behind him, he swiftly ran over to the nearby ledge, trying not to think about how high he was above the ground. Swinging his arms forward, Austin once again activated his jump boost, powering himself a good forty feet off the balcony along the side of the palace, leaping free of the view from the windows altogether. His hand shot out, suctioning to the side of the crystal palace as he attempted to stop himself. His arm jerked, his bone groaning as it stretched against the socket... but it held. He’d be feeling that in the morning.
“Taytana...” he grit his teeth, bringing his other hand up to steady himself, “...get me a way back into my room.”
“Closest window to your dormitories is in the servant’s quarters. The shower room. You’ll have to make a trip down a hall, but that’s all.”
“Perfect. Upload the coordinates to my scouter.” Once Austin had them, he began to climb, crawling across the walls of the palace, careful to avoid windows and balconies. He could hear shouts and clanking armor even from outside.
When he at last reached the intended window, he was overjoyed to find it unlocked. He wasn’t exactly in an ideal position for another improve lockpicking session. Nudging it open, he swung silently inside and landed in a vacant shower. Well. That was easier than expected.
“Well,” Austin grinned, “another job well-” He shut himself up almost immediately as he heard the sound of quick-paced Volarian dialogue nearby. Peaking around the shower curtain, he saw two Volarian women near the sinks, talking hurriedly to each other, likely about the lockdown.
“Oh, did I not mention?” Taytana purred, “this is the women’s quarter.” She laughed. “Good luck.”
Austin grit his teeth. Well. This was unexpected. Still... the situation was not unsalvageable. He just need to sneak around-
At that very moment, the agent made perhaps his first real mistake of the night. In the darkness, he hadn’t been keeping track of everything around him. His shoulder brushed up against a bottle of wing conditioner, knocking it to the tile floor below. It clattered to the ground loudly. He practically started cussing himself out. They’d surely come and investigate.
Austin drew a deep breath. There was only one way out of this now...
The women stopped talking and exchanged looks and hushed murmurs. One took hold of the others arm, trying to draw her towards the exit, but her companion it would seem was ruled by curiosity as she moved towards the shower stalls and shoved the curtain aside.
She would be greeted to the sight of Austin Marshall, all but nude save for a meager towel wrapped around his waist, sitting cross-legged on the shower bench. His arms were spread, his expression nonchalant and flirtatious. He gave the woman his most smoldering face.
“Good evening...” he said with a sophisticated flare, “...beg your pardon for intruding, but I seemed to have lost my shower scrub.” His eyebrows wiggled. “...perhaps you can... help me find it...”
One of the women let out a short scream of surprise and threw a brush at him before both of them turned and fled the room clutching their towels tightly about themselves..
Austin let out a sigh of relief once they were gone. That had been a close one. Standing up, he quickly walked over to a nearby stack of towels, checking to make sure his gear was still stashed safely under the linen. Picking the heap of towels up, he pressed them under his arm, intending to make the trek back to his room with as much dignity as possible. His alibi was set. He opened the door and strode outside into the halls, his head held high.
