A guard was patrolling the top of the wall above him. Jake held his position for a few moments, waiting for the guard to move past before resuming his climb.
Upon reaching the top of the wall, Jake paused to assess the situation. The turrets remained oblivious to him, and regular activity was going on inside the base. Jake turned his head to look at the guard patrolling the wall.
The human stood stationary at the far left end of the wall, observing the area outside the compound. Just as Jake glanced at him, the guard suddenly turned in his direction, as if sensing his presence.
However, the calm expression on the guard’s face indicated he was unaware of the lethal threat perched atop the wall at the center. The guard turned and strolled toward Jake at an unhurried pace.
Jake couldn’t move quickly, because he had to avoid causing air distortions. Still, he knew he would be able to get off the top of the wall long before the guard reached his position.
He crawled down the wall and a few seconds later, stood on the ground. He took a second to look around one more time, noting both the turrets and the humans were still unaware of the invisible intruder. Satisfied, Jake began to sneak toward HQ.
Halfway across the base, a bandit suddenly began to move in his direction. He was heading directly toward Jake, and for a moment, it seemed that they were going to collide.
Reacting swiftly, but cautiously enough not to reveal himself, Jake shifted to the side. Just as he did, the guard walked through the space he had just vacated. The guard passed so closely that their shoulders brushed against each other ever so slightly.
The bandit stopped and glanced over his shoulder just as Jake did the same. The human seemed to be staring directly at him. Jake stayed perfectly still, fully aware he could remain undetected as long as he refrained from making any sudden moves.
The human stared at the spot Jake occupied for a few more seconds. They were so close that if the guard reached out, he could have touched Jake. But he refrained from doing so. In the end, he must have convinced himself that he had merely imagined touching something.
He continued to walk in the same direction. However, after a few more steps, he suddenly wheeled around and returned to the same spot. He held out his left hand while the fingers of his right wrapped tightly around the grip of the assault rifle, which was slung over his shoulder.
His left hand inched closer until it finally reached its destination. However, Jake was no longer there—he had already shifted a little farther away.
“Hey, Niko,” someone called out. “What’cha doing?”
The bandit flinched, quickly retracting his hand as if he had been caught doing something wrong. He shook his head and met the speaker’s gaze.
“Guess I’m losing my mind, Bram,” he said. “I could’ve sworn I touched something lightly as I moved past.”
Bram stared at the troublesome spot, but sure enough, he saw nothing at all.
“There’s nothing there, bro,” he said.
“Yeah. I’m just a little on edge, y’know. I can’t stop thinking about what we were told happened at Base Miller. The freaking mutant managed to sneak in all the way to HQ and silently killed everyone there without anyone noticing.”
“I just can’t stop worrying that the morphus could sneak into our base, too.”
“Ain’t gonna happen,” Bram replied. “Remember, after what happened at Base Miller, we were instructed to upgrade our defenses, and we’ve done just that. Our turrets are now stronger and more sensitive than ever. Nothing can get past them, invisible or not.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Niko said, visibly calming down.
“Of course, I’m right,” Bram said with an encouraging grin on his face. “If that freak tries to sneak into our base, our turrets will tear him apart in no time flat. So you can relax.”
“Yeah. Thanks for that. I really needed that.”
“No problem, man. Anytime.”
Little did they know that the one they were talking about had already made it all the way to the roof of HQ. Even though he was far away from Niko and Bram, he could still hear every word they uttered without any difficulty.
He glanced over the edge of the roof, studying the base for a few seconds. The humans remained unaware of his presence. If everything went according to plan, they were in for a huge surprise. He lingered at the edge of the two-story building’s roof for a moment longer, then turned and approached the rooftop access door.
It was locked, as he learned after taking a look at the control pad. A digit code was required to open the door. Now was the moment to put to the test the upgrade he had learned for Enhanced Intelligence a little while back.
He concentrated, attempting to hack into the control pad. He wasn’t sure what exactly was going to happen. He recalled that when he was a human survivor, he could hack into other people’s PDAs by solving a small, time-sensitive puzzle game. Perhaps something similar would happen now.
As it turned out, it was much easier than he expected. As he focused on the control pad, numbers began to flow through his mind. After a moment, the first number in the sequence took shape: 2. He kept concentrating, and soon the second number materialized: 5. Finally, the third number revealed itself: 7. Jake entered the three-digit code into the control pad.
With a soft click, the lock disengaged. Jake gently pushed the door open, revealing a staircase leading down. Before entering, he took one last look at the turrets.
None of them reacted, their green lights shining steadily. Clearly, the opening or closing of a door didn’t raise any alarms, even if it seemed to open on its own.
Jake entered the staircase and gently closed the door behind him. Cloak still up, he crawled along the wall, moving downward. The fun was about to begin.