It's been a week since meeting Mike and Aria. Both Kristen and Julia are gone without a trace. Phones are off so neither of them received my texts. At work, Jordan and Nathan were confused. With my record, it's strange for me to take two days off without notice. I told Nathan everything, from the party to Mike and Aria. We both went out to get drinks that night... his idea.
It's my first time back meeting with Mike since a week ago. Dale however, has been over there multiple times. He's struck up a deal with Mike to fix up his van, fixing it up, replacing everything. He told me that he thought he'd seen the van in his shop before but never saw the owner.
The parking garage still stands, unlike the buildings around it. Most of the mare completely demolished or are half destroyed. Dust and dirt in the air erodes them day in and day out. Masks and goggles must be worn outside to protect yourself from the dust storm conditions. Aria never seemed to care, despite the scratches and wounds on her face.
"Mikey, your boyfriends are here," Aria says in a sarcastic tone. She attends the fire alone, tearing pages out a notebook and throwing them in the fire. No Harmony this time.
Mike emerges from the office where I imagined he would be. "They aren't my boyfriends. And for the last time, stop calling me Mikey." He turns to us. "I apologize for Aria."
We walk in. It's a new atmosphere from when I have been here last. More papers are on the ground and a thick laptop from about 60 years ago is open. Not sure how they are getting internet out here.
"So? Anything new?" I ask. "Been a week."
"To put it shortly... no." He notices my frustration. Dale shifts on his feet. "It's been hard you see. Many more deaths but nothing like ours. Public archives still run nothing. Newspapers, magazines, radio shows... nothing."
"He's even slumped so low to create all of the social media accounts you can think of," Aria chimes in, entering from the door behind us.. "He's even searched BlackNet forums. I think he's wasting his time."
"But," Mike continues, "I did search some the street cams from that night. A similar black van was seen in the dead of night driving into a neighborhood. I thought, why don't we start there? But Aria didn't want to."
"Because it's illegal dipshit."
"It's not like you haven't done illegal things before."
"Breaking and entering? Nah. Plus, it's a fairly rich neighborhood, so there's probably cameras on most of the houses."
"We'll keep it in mind," I say, trying to change the subject. "Might help later."
"But it's practically impossible," Mike says. "Government cybersecurity is the best I or Aria has ever seen."
"Wow really? It's almost like they're the government and have things to keep secret," Aria says snarkily. "Layers upon layers, impossible to crack. Servers would take billions of years to hack into, even with the best supercomputer. In-person? Security checkpoints and ID badges randomize their passcodes every ten minutes. That means counterfeiting is not an option. Even getting within a mile of the government building would be almost impossible. That's not even considering the physical security measures inside of the government building."
"Almost?" Dale asks. He read my mind.
"When you get a ghost cloak let me know," Aria continues. "And they probably have infrared camera, so we would be visible clear as day. Basically impossible to get through without some sort of disruption."
"Disruption," Mike repeats, quiet enough for all of us to barely hear him. "Like an EMP?"
"That would work. Just let me go to the convenience store and snag one," she says.
"A disruption," Mike repeats again, this time staring at me in my eyes. "What about a power disruption."
"No," I say immediately, almost cutting him off. I know what he's thinking. A plan so crazy almost everyone would say no, but not Mike. "No way."
"Why not?" Mike says. "It might be our only opening. If you are scared about getting caught we can do it late tonight. It's Friday, everyone is probably gone. I would only need the power off for a few seconds."
"No, we had an agreement," I say. "Remember last week?"
"I know about last week. But think about it. Think about all that we could learn. We could finally solve this. That's why you joined right? Then maybe we could seek revenge."
"Revenge? Is that what this is about?" It's an obvious path, one that I should have seen coming way earlier. "I joined to help you, not to seek revenge or organize an attack on the country's infrastructure."
"Yo that's cool and all, but ever think about if they have always-on generators?" Aria says.
"Arles, we can do this. We can protect you. Hacking the security cameras, helping you hide your own tracks, you name it. You know the place better than any of us. This could mean so much." I stay silent. He speaks to me in a sympathetic way, like I'm some child. "And no, we aren't terrorists either. You can create some alibi for yourself. Like forgetting something. We do our work, you do yours, and no one will ever know you were there. We've done this before and it's worked. We only need the power out by the government building's sector."
"What if I say yes. Then what?" I say. Aria looks like she's about to say something but bits her lip instead. She leaves the room, gently closing the door behind her on the way out.
Mike is assuming. Assuming that the government sector runs off of our power. That's why it's so easy for him to talk his way through this, but I know the truth. We do.
"You'll know the truth," he says. He gets up, following Aria out of the room, leaving Dale and I alone without saying a word more.
"So?" Dale asks me. He has a conflicted look on his face. I probably do as well. He knows what we both agreed to, but something tells me he's all-in with them. "Your call bossman," he says after a moment of me thinking.
"Okay. Let's go try it. What could go wrong?" I say, trying to force a smile.
"Knew you would." He pats me on the back before leaving the room. What have I agreed to?
After hours of planning and negotiation, a basic floor plan was laid out and a plan was created. "A simple in-and-out stealth operation" Mike said. Though the plan seems everything but simple.
It's late at night when we leave. Somewhere close to 2 a.m. Late enough to dodge anyone staying late, early enough to miss the morning weekend crew. The van we ride in is quite old, we feel every rock and pothole in the outskirts we drive over. A simple pothole would probably be enough to knock one of the tires off the axel. Mike drives with Dale next to him. Aria and I sit in the back of the humid van. Mike insisted that she comes with me inside to help.
It's about a 40 minute drive to the city in the dark. The road switches to pavement, a relief on all of our backs. Though I can't see, the streets are empty the whole time we've been here. I wouldn't be surprised if Mike has ran multiple red lights already. The license plate and electronic signature have been removed so getting caught by automated systems is impossible. We only run the risk of getting caught by the public street cameras and getting pulled over.
The van comes to a stop at the side of the power plant quietly, thanks to the new brakes Dale installed. Everyone wears an earpiece so we can hear each other. Mine almost fell out multiple times going over bumps in the outskirts. Aria slides the door behind her open and motions me to jump out.
"We'll meet you in the back," Mike says. "Slip in, don't get caught. Cameras were hacked a minute ago." I give him a thumbs up and hop out. The door closes behind me slowly and the van drives toward the back of the building, taking the trash alley I told Mike about. A lesser taken path for vehicles.
I walk around to the front to see the dim lights through the front of the building made of glass. Something's wrong, and it stops me dead in my tracks. Someone sits at the front desk. Stacy. She sees me. Shit. She's not supposed to be here.
"There's someone in there," I say.
"What?" Mike asks. "Did they see you?"
"Yeah, I think... I don't know."
"I told you I should have gone in," Aria says.
"Shush. Arles, just go. Make up something. You can't turn back now." But I could. I'm the one in control. I could just walk around to the back and get in the van. But something Mike said was right. Plus, he would be crazy enough to do it without me.
Damn him. The doors slide open automatically as I walk in. Stacy sits at the front desk and waves at me with a big smile as always. She shouldn't be here. I shouldn't either.
"Hi Arles. You're here late," she says.
"Fuck, work it out."
"Makes two of us. Just gotta pick up something I forgot."
You could have picked it up tomorrow.
"I was awake anyways, I need my datapad anyways for the weekend."
"Oh okay. Have a good rest of your night then."
"Good, meet in the back. Aria's ready."
I swiftly walk past the front desk and open the door to the manufacturing area to open one of the garage doors. Before the door is even open, Aria ducks under it and pushes it up with force, stopping it in place. A safety feature I never knew about. Hopefully Stacy didn't hear.
"C'mon slowpoke," she says jogging past me, already making her way to the elevator.
I catch up to her, this time taking the lead. We silently make our way toward the elevator, taking it down. At the bottom, the lights to The Cube are off. The light from the screens is the only light. No one here. Thank god. They turn on with a soft hum as we enter.
"So?" Aria asks, after a moment of standing around?
"Oh... I thought you were going to do something," I say.
"Oh my god."
"You work here, I thought you could do this."
"Kind of can't you see. I'm only a technician. Not like I have the ability to flip a switch and turn off the power to the country."
Aria looks around and taps her foot. "Fine." She bends down to one of the workstation and plugs something in. Without missing a movement, she pulls out a laptop out of her backpack and opens it. Windows on the screen zip back and forth, text scrolls faster than I can read. "So you're saying you don't have access to any of these computers?" she asks me, while still doing work on her laptop.
"Well..."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"I said I worked here, not had the power to flip the power on and off at will. I'm only a technician."
A few more moments pass of Aria typing. "Out of luck. For a place this old they have pretty up-to-date hardware. I have access to the data but can't log in to anything. Your server admins were pretty smart and hardened everything. I'd need more than just a laptop."
I point Aria to behind The Cube where our server room is. After a few more minutes of plugging things in and out and running back and forth, nothing.
"I do have one other option we could consider."
We jog down the maintenance hall toward the reactors. After about 20 seconds, I duck into a cramped room, enough for a single person. It's an emergency control room, one never used. I take my keys out of my pocket and slide open a glass panel. Inside is a wall of switches, each covered by a red cover. Each switch has a label above them, nothing comprehendible. Old engraved plates, eroded from moisture, covered in residue.
We stand there for a minute, looking at all the switches. Small lights in the room shift between green and yellow. Last time this room has been cleaned was 27 years ago, at least according to our records. There's only one thing on the panel I know. I open it's plastic cover and look at Aria.
"What's it do?" she asks.
"This? This fires a piston to cut the main power line behind this wall."
"To the country?" Mike asks.
"Yeah. I think... well... not technically, but almost."
"Why would that ever be a thing?" Dale asks.
"In case of an emergency," I answer. "Pushing that would probably cause a power crisis that would last multiple weeks. Rolling blackouts, brownouts, and many more unseen consequences." Everyone is silent, thinking about what I said.
"No... this isn't it. There has to be another way," Dale says.
"Do it," Mike says confidently.
"Arles..." Dale says quietly, but he's cut off soon after.
If I cut the power, I'll be wanted around the country. I'll have the country's military on me. If I cut the power, there's no going back. I look to Aria standing behind me to see what she's thinking. It's impossible to tell. Would she do it if she were me?
"Arles, I'm ready on my end. I just need you to cut the power," Mike reminds me. I take out my ear piece and so does Aria.
"Is he crazy?" I ask. "You know how insane this'll be?"
"You've already been there too long. Person at the front desk is probably going to notice."
Aria says nothing. She begins to raise her arm up, and at first I think she's reaching out to hand me something, but no. She's going for the button. Her hand is already on the button when I realize. There's nothing I can do. She presses the button and looks at me. "I'm sorry," she says. She puts her ear piece back in and turns around. I don't put mine back in.
Alarm. The panic-inducing sound echos down the hall.
"It's done. We're coming out," she says. A feeling of betrayal fills me. It's strange, as I can't recall if I've had any true trust with Aria. I can't help but watch her, dumbfounded.