system using more conventional weaponry.
Revik cautioned me about relying on things going 'smooth' before that job, too. He said all plans really did was provide an outline, a rough map to give the chaos some structure. A solid plan also helped you dig your way out again when things did shift off course.
That simple fact still proved the hardest for me to get my head around. It was difficult not to panic when things veered off into crazy at times like this.
Therefore, it took every effort of my willpower not to panic when I saw Revik suddenly vault up on top of the nearest bank counter, which stood at roughly the height of my chest. He moved so fast I found it difficult to hold the shield around him. A jolt of alarm rippled his light, and before he'd managed to turn towards me, I was already climbing on top of the standing counter nearest to where I stood.
Unfortunately, the counter by me was a lot narrower, and decorated with plastic bins filled with different-colored forms and pamphlets, so I had to struggle a bit to hold my balance as I planted a foot on either side of the racks. I'd also been stranded too far away to jump to Revik, as the counter formed an island between the rows of ropes and poles that indicated where people queued before each bank teller window.
"What?" I said in a whisper. "What happened?"
He indicated for me to be silent, pointing at the floor. I tried to follow his gesture with my eyes, then gave up and used flickers of my sight under the Barrier shield I'd somehow managed to maintain despite my panic.
Watching the space where his light indicated, I felt my stomach grow cold.
Whatever the thing was, it reminded me of those odd, organic machines Chandre used when we were running ops against Terian a few years earlier. Those had mostly been employed to detect explosives in the materials we'd been confiscating from Rook storage facilities. One also engaged in finding surveillance devices prior to our entering buildings.
They always struck me as more, well... alive ...than most organics. The only thing I'd come across with even more of that quality was that sentient wall we'd run into while breaking into the Registry mainframe storage facility. Revik told me later that we were damned lucky that thing didn't kill us. He also said he never would have approached from that angle if he'd known it was there. But that was before we knew the basement of the Black Arrow building also housed a massive organics plant.
The machine walking across the floor of the bank lobby now probably lived somewhere between those two types of machines, in terms of overall intelligence. Because of the way it moved, it also carried that oddly repulsive but fascinating quality of something that was close to being alive, but wasn't.
Even as I thought it, I saw a long, tentacle-like appendage slither out the top of its head, touching the floor. The machine paused, motionless, as if feeling the ground for vibration.
I risked a quick send to Revik.
What can it do to us? I asked him.
Besides pull the alarms? came his terse response. Explode. Take out the whole front end of the bank...it's also equipped with gas. We're lucky they didn't think to activate it earlier...they must keep it in stasis unless the ground floor is breached. I barely saw it in time to avoid its sensors, or we'd both be dead...
He glanced at me, and I saw his eyes glowing in faint rings on his face.
It's here to protect the vaults, Allie. Privately contracted...even the bank couldn't take a hit like this, not without a damned big incentive. They'd hire more seers before they'd blow up their own building...insurance covers their losses anyway. Someone paid them to put it here...
I puzzled over his words. What does that mean?
He smiled faintly. I could just see the expression under the glow of his eyes.
It means that you were right. Whatever's hidden here...it's important.
I was about to answer, when he focused back on the animal-like machine. I saw
Revik cautioned me about relying on things going 'smooth' before that job, too. He said all plans really did was provide an outline, a rough map to give the chaos some structure. A solid plan also helped you dig your way out again when things did shift off course.
That simple fact still proved the hardest for me to get my head around. It was difficult not to panic when things veered off into crazy at times like this.
Therefore, it took every effort of my willpower not to panic when I saw Revik suddenly vault up on top of the nearest bank counter, which stood at roughly the height of my chest. He moved so fast I found it difficult to hold the shield around him. A jolt of alarm rippled his light, and before he'd managed to turn towards me, I was already climbing on top of the standing counter nearest to where I stood.
Unfortunately, the counter by me was a lot narrower, and decorated with plastic bins filled with different-colored forms and pamphlets, so I had to struggle a bit to hold my balance as I planted a foot on either side of the racks. I'd also been stranded too far away to jump to Revik, as the counter formed an island between the rows of ropes and poles that indicated where people queued before each bank teller window.
"What?" I said in a whisper. "What happened?"
He indicated for me to be silent, pointing at the floor. I tried to follow his gesture with my eyes, then gave up and used flickers of my sight under the Barrier shield I'd somehow managed to maintain despite my panic.
Watching the space where his light indicated, I felt my stomach grow cold.
Whatever the thing was, it reminded me of those odd, organic machines Chandre used when we were running ops against Terian a few years earlier. Those had mostly been employed to detect explosives in the materials we'd been confiscating from Rook storage facilities. One also engaged in finding surveillance devices prior to our entering buildings.
They always struck me as more, well... alive ...than most organics. The only thing I'd come across with even more of that quality was that sentient wall we'd run into while breaking into the Registry mainframe storage facility. Revik told me later that we were damned lucky that thing didn't kill us. He also said he never would have approached from that angle if he'd known it was there. But that was before we knew the basement of the Black Arrow building also housed a massive organics plant.
The machine walking across the floor of the bank lobby now probably lived somewhere between those two types of machines, in terms of overall intelligence. Because of the way it moved, it also carried that oddly repulsive but fascinating quality of something that was close to being alive, but wasn't.
Even as I thought it, I saw a long, tentacle-like appendage slither out the top of its head, touching the floor. The machine paused, motionless, as if feeling the ground for vibration.
I risked a quick send to Revik.
What can it do to us? I asked him.
Besides pull the alarms? came his terse response. Explode. Take out the whole front end of the bank...it's also equipped with gas. We're lucky they didn't think to activate it earlier...they must keep it in stasis unless the ground floor is breached. I barely saw it in time to avoid its sensors, or we'd both be dead...
He glanced at me, and I saw his eyes glowing in faint rings on his face.
It's here to protect the vaults, Allie. Privately contracted...even the bank couldn't take a hit like this, not without a damned big incentive. They'd hire more seers before they'd blow up their own building...insurance covers their losses anyway. Someone paid them to put it here...
I puzzled over his words. What does that mean?
He smiled faintly. I could just see the expression under the glow of his eyes.
It means that you were right. Whatever's hidden here...it's important.
I was about to answer, when he focused back on the animal-like machine. I saw
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