Slaiton watched the girl assemble Hellard's equipment together in the dim light of the server room. He turned to Whent, who was looking on, bewildered.

“So how long has this girl -” Slaiton began.

“Satasha,” Whent said.

Slaiton grunted. “How long has Satasha been in secops?”

“Answers,” Slaiton said. “Now.” He turned his most withering gaze on the collection of security specialists crowded in front of him. The effect was likely diminished by the faint, bluish coloration cast by the emergency lights.

“All our equipment is down,” Secmaster Whent said.

“Jet,” I said. “I hate to ask, but -”

“Right there with you,” Jet said. He was already over to the terminal and logging in.

I was halfway into a stupor when everything shut off.

Now that Dee was doing whatever she was doing, Ace could see the maze shifting around them. The group was following her directions: left, right, sometimes up or down. It seemed to be reacting with a purpose. Probably an intelligence, from what Dee had told them. Ace had to get up and turn all the lights on. It was seriously starting to creep her out.

“Are you sure this thing is actually working?” Ace asked. They'd been in this new Raid for almost an hour. It had given them a chance to familiarize with the new control layout. But literally nothing had happened. They had walked endless twists and turns with no fights or other challenges in sight.

I was fairly certain by that point that some type of derangement had set it. Having successfully fended off the CSO – for now – I pondered the wisdom of my actions as Slaiton's boots stamped away down the hall. I'm not typically one for introspection. But when you realize that you've set the fate of you're entire fortune, your life's work, and your personal well-being into a piece of administrative assistant software? That doesn't seem like a particularly sane act.

I pushed the terminal closed just in time as the outer door to my “sanctuary” slammed open. I'd had just enough time after the alarms started to initiate a local lockdown. I sprawled onto my bed and tried to look bored as Slaiton barged in.

“You had damn well better explain what's going on, Hellard!” Slaiton shouted.

Once Slaiton was done with his walkthrough, he headed back up the elevator to Server Room #1. As soon as he stepped out, he was ambushed by an extremely animated Secmaster.

“You are not going to believe this!” Whent cried, waving a pad in Slaiton's face. “This is seriously crazy. Science fiction crap.”

Slaiton walked into the chamber creatively named “Server Room #3”. It was packed with a dozen men, a full inspection team. He had one assigned to every server room in the building. He did not want to appear to be going soft on this.

That was one reason, anyway. He also wanted this to be over as fast possible.

Ace stared in wonder at the complexity of what she was seeing. The linear maze of the standard Raid sim had been replaced with three dimensions of twisting passages. As she watched, the tunnels drifted, suggesting there may also be a fourth. Possibly more.

]
“You built this thing?” Zee asked.

“Whoah,” Gee said. “The sim looks... quite a bit different.” None of the others voiced any dissent. No emotes were thrown. They were all too busy looking over the new interface, the new thematics, the new everything.

So. Trapped in my own office and private quarters. As Middle Guy – apparently, Sergeant Black – had escorted me there, I was treated to a montage of CSO minions tearing apart the server rooms. Likely using tools as comparable to mine as a sledge and hammer to a manufactury robot. I wished them luck. But mostly I wished them the intelligence to not break anything beyond repair. Brutes.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Seriously? This has better be damn important. The temp holding up Jet's job for the time being had a bad habit of bothering me for the stupidest things. Didn't the agency say they knew this job? I turned to Jet.

“So do we just ignore her this time?” I asked.

“Isn't that the name of your security bot?” Jet asked.

“Yep. Cover story, so to speak. She fulfills that purpose, too, by design. Dad wanted to make sure she could cover up her presence when the CSO came knocking. He was a paranoid old coot, especially in the last few years.”

This time I called Jet into a private room. Not just a private room. The private room. The most secure room in the facility that was inhabitable by people. The most secure servers were not places a human wanted to go. After Jet had cleared the triple airlock, he looked shaken. Slightly more shaken than usual, anyway.

“You did what?” Ace shouted. Her fingers tangled over themselves figuring out which emote to throw out.

“It seemed only fair,” Dee said.

“God damn!” Zee exclaimed. He shook his virtual fists in the air, a minor new addition courtesy of Dee. “Did you all see that? How can you even think that fast, Dee, let alone move? We should've been goners!”