CHAPTER 36: THE GREEN SPIRE

Rin was fighting his toughest opponent yet: a vacuum cleaner.

The mansion was too big, that was the problem, when Leo bought it, he probably imagined parties, gaming nights, maybe a secret lair, he didn’t account for the fact that dust accumulates on surfaces regardless of whether anyone is using them.

[Analysis: Dust mite population in Sector: Living Room has increased by 15% in the last week]

[Recommendation: hire a cleaning service]

[You have funds now]

"I’m not spending my hard-earned monster-killing money on a maid," Rin grunted, shoving the vacuum under the massive sectional sofa, "that’s bougie, I have principles."

[Counterpoint: You are currently wearing a silk robe you found in the guest closet]

[Your principles are flexible]

"It’s breathable fabric, shut up."

His phone buzzed on the counter, he abandoned the vacuum immediately, it was probably a mission, or Joy sending him memes about the Volker arrest.

It was a mission alert, but not the usual auto-generated kind.

ASSOCIATION DISPATCH

Priority: Normal

Type: Retrieval

Rank: D

Location: Agri-Tower 4 (The Green Spire)

Pay: 3,500 Credits + Performance Bonus

Rin wiped sweat from his forehead, Agri-Tower 4 was one of the vertical farming skyscrapers on the edge of the city, it had been hit by a dungeon outbreak three months ago, plant-type monsters, it was officially listed as "Cleared but Condemned."

Why would they need a retrieval team in a condemned building?

He tapped the group chat.

Rin: You guys see the board?

Joy: The flower pot mission? Yeah. I was looking at it. Pays weirdly high for gardening work.

Tayo: It’s listed as retrieval. Data server recovery. Apparently, the backup systems in the basement didn’t sync before the place got overrun.

Rin: 3,500 a head. That’s easy money.

Joy: Unless the plants eat us.

Rin: I have a sword made of space-void. I think I can handle a salad.

Tayo: Meet you at the depot in 30.

The Green Spire loomed over the edge of Katutura like a tombstone covered in moss, it was thirty stories of glass and steel, but the interior was a jungle, vines as thick as thighs coiled around the support pillars, and strange luminous flowers bloomed behind the cracked windows.

Rin, Joy, and Tayo stood at the perimeter fence, the air smelled like wet earth and ozone.

"Okay," Joy adjusted her gloves, "I take it back, this is creepy, it’s like nature won and is gloating about it."

"It’s a Class-2 Bio-Hazard zone," Tayo read from his tablet, "the dungeon core was destroyed, but the residual mana mutated the existing flora, so the plants aren’t monsters, technically, they’re just aggressive vegetables."

"Vegetables don’t try to strangle you," Rin said, "usually."

They checked in with the perimeter guard, a bored-looking guy who waved them through without looking up from his phone.

"Server room is on the sub-level," Rin said, leading the way to the main doors, "we go in, find the stairs, go down, grab the drive, get out, in and out, twenty minute adventure."

"If we die," Joy said, "I’m blaming that sentence."

They stepped inside.

The lobby was a wreck, the reception desk had been crushed by a massive root system that had punched up through the floor, the elevators were pried open, the shafts filled with tangled vines.

It was quiet, too quiet.

"Stay close," Rin whispered.

He pulsed his energy, on, a faint shimmer covered his skin, off.

The tracker in his shoulder remained silent, he was getting good at this.

They moved toward the stairwell, the floor was slick with moss, every step squelched.

"Movement," Tayo whispered, raising a hand.

Rin froze, he scanned the room, nothing but leaves and shadows.

Then he heard it, a dry rustling sound, like paper rubbing together.

"Up," Rin said.

Above them, attached to the ceiling, were pods, dozens of them, they looked like oversized coconuts, but they were trembling.

"Those are spore pods," Tayo said, his voice tight, "if they burst, we’re breathing toxic mold for the next week."

"Can you suppress the sound?" Rin asked, "keep them from triggering?"

"I can try to create a dampening field, but if we make a loud noise..."

Snap.

Joy had stepped on a dry branch.

The sound echoed in the dead lobby.

The pods above them stopped trembling, then simultaneously, they opened.

"Run!" Rin yelled.

They bolted for the stairs just as the pods exploded, a cloud of yellow dust rained down.

"Hold your breath!" Joy screamed, pulling her collar up over her nose.

Rin didn’t just hold his breath, he spun around, facing the cloud.

[Analysis: Toxin levels high]

[Recommendation: Do not inhale]

’No kidding.’

He focused, he didn’t have wind powers, but he had fracture energy, it displaced matter.

He pushed his hands forward and pulsed.

A wall of force slammed into the air, it wasn’t a wind blast, it was a sudden violent rejection of space in front of him, the cloud of spores hit the invisible barrier and scattered backward, pushed away from the door.

"Go!" Rin shouted, shoving Tayo and Joy through the stairwell door.

He dived in after them and slammed the heavy metal door shut, he could hear the spores hitting the other side like hail.

"That was close," Tayo wheezed, "too close."

"Aggressive vegetables," Rin muttered, checking his seals, "let’s get to the basement before the salad tries to kill us again."

The stairwell was dark, lit only by their tactical flashlights, they descended two flights, the air getting colder and damper.

"You know," Joy said, her voice echoing slightly, "for a recovery mission, this feels a lot like a horror movie."

"Don’t jinx it," Rin said.

They reached the sub-level door, it was locked, the electronic keypad dead.

"Stand back," Rin said.

He didn’t bother with lockpicks, he placed his hand over the lock mechanism.

Pulse.

Purple light flared for a microsecond, the lock mechanism simply vanished, disintegrated into dust, the door swung open.

"Show off," Joy muttered.

"Efficiency," Rin corrected.

The server room was massive, rows of black towers humming with backup power, the emergency lights bathed the room in a red glow, unlike the lobby, this room was relatively clear of vines.

"Target is Server Rack 4, Drive B," Tayo checked the mission specs.

They moved through the aisles, it felt wrong, if the building was abandoned, why were the servers still running?

Rin stopped. "Wait."

"What?"

"Look at the floor."

In the dust, there were footprints, boot prints, recent ones.

"Someone’s been here," Rin said quietly, "recently."

"Another retrieval team?" Joy asked.

"The mission was posted this morning, we’re the first team assigned."

Rin walked over to a nearby terminal, the screen was active, someone had bypassed the login.

[Analysis: System access detected]

[User: Unauthorized]

[Data transfer in progress]

"Someone is stealing the data," Rin said, "right now."

"Not stealing," a voice came from the shadows at the far end of the room, "recovering assets."

Rin spun around, fracture energy flaring to life in his hand.

Three figures stepped out from behind the server racks, they weren’t Association, they wore grey tactical gear with no insignias, full face masks, and they were armed, not just with abilities, they had actual guns.

Mercenaries.

"Step away from the console," the lead mercenary said, his voice was distorted by a modulator, "this is private property."

"This is a condemned building," Rin countered, stepping in front of Joy and Tayo, "and we have an Association contract."

"Association contracts don’t apply to Architect business," the mercenary said.

Rin went cold.

The Architect, again.

"You’re with the Collective," Rin said.

"We’re independent contractors," the mercenary corrected, "but yes, our employer pays better than yours, walk away kid, you’re D-rank, this isn’t worth dying for."

Rin looked at the data transfer bar on the screen, 85% complete.

Whatever was on that server, the Architect wanted it, which meant Rin absolutely could not let them have it.

"Tayo," Rin whispered, "flashbang."

"What?"

"Sonic flashbang, now."

Tayo didn’t ask questions, he clapped his hands.

SCREEEEEEEE—

A high-frequency shriek filled the room, amplified by the metal racks, it was agonizing, the mercenaries flinched, hands going to their helmets.

Rin moved.

He didn’t use a weapon, he used the burst.

He sprinted at the lead mercenary, sliding under the guy’s rifle aim, he grabbed the barrel of the gun.

Pulse.

The rifle snapped in half as the fracture energy compromised its structural integrity.

The mercenary shouted, dropping the useless weapon and drawing a combat knife, he swung.

Rin sidestepped, Joy was already there.

"Sleep," she commanded, her eyes glowing pink.

The mercenary faltered, his eyelids drooping heavily as Joy slammed his brain with a wave of exhaustion.

Rin kicked his leg out, sweeping the guy to the floor.

The other two mercenaries opened fire.

Bullets sparked off the server racks.

"Cover!" Rin yelled.

He grabbed a server tower, heavy, metal, expensive, and ripped it from its housing, he held it up like a shield, bullets impacted the metal, shredding data but not flesh.

"Zarek would be useful right now!" Tayo shouted, peeking out to fire a sonic blast that knocked one gunman off his feet.

"We work with what we have!" Rin shouted back.

He couldn’t use a massive blast, it would trigger the tracker, he had to be precise.

He looked at the ceiling above the gunmen, a heavy ventilation duct ran right over their heads.

"Tayo! The vent! Hit the bolts!"

Tayo looked up, understood immediately, he aimed his hands, a concentrated beam of sound hit the support bolts of the duct.

Ping, ping.

The bolts sheared.

The massive metal duct crashed down, slamming into the two gunmen, they went down in a tangle of sheet metal and dust.

Silence fell over the room, except for the groans of the mercenaries.

Rin dropped the ruined server tower and walked over to the console, the download was at 98%.

He smashed the screen with his fist, then he ripped the hard drive out of the slot.

"Asset secured," Rin said, holding up the drive.

Joy walked over to the lead mercenary, who was struggling to stay awake under her influence, she kicked his knife away.

"Who sent you?" she asked.

"Go to hell," the merc mumbled.

"Wrong answer." She leaned closer, her eyes narrowing. "Terror."

The mercenary screamed, it was a raw ugly sound, his eyes went wide, staring at something only he could see.

"Thorne!" he shrieked, "Thorne sent us! Just stop it! Please!"

Joy blinked, and the pressure vanished, the mercenary curled into a ball, sobbing.

"Thorne," Joy looked at Rin, "the Architect himself ordered this."

Rin looked at the drive in his hand, it was just a piece of hardware, but people had killed for less.

"We need to go," Rin said, "before their backup arrives."

They zip-tied the mercenaries, standard Association protocol for hostile humans, and left them for the retrieval team.

As they climbed back up the stairs, Rin felt the weight of the drive in his pocket.

It wasn’t just monster data, it was something else, something Volker had hidden here, something the Architect wanted badly enough to send armed men into a condemned building.

[Analysis: Drive contains heavy encryption]

[Similar signature to Volker’s private files]

[This is leverage]

"Yeah," Rin muttered, "or a target on my back."

They exited the Green Spire into the late afternoon sun, the perimeter guard was still playing on his phone, he didn’t even notice they were covered in dust and looking rattled.

"Mission complete," Rin said, tapping his phone to close the contract.

"We got the drive," Tayo said, "what do we do with it, give it to the Association?"

"If we give it to the Association, it disappears into evidence," Rin said, "just like the last files."

"So?" Joy asked.

"So," Rin patted his pocket, "we give it to Kira, let her see what’s on it first, then we decide."

The leash was loose, but the wolves were circling.

Rin checked his account balance, the 3,500 credits hadn’t cleared yet.

"I hate this job," he said.

"Liar," Joy smirked, punching his arm, "you love it."

Rin didn’t answer, but as he walked away from the tower, the phantom itch in his shoulder felt a little less annoying.

He was getting used to the weight.