Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

1.12 Planning for a sleepless night

WIC offered good accommodation options, individual rooms, or suites of rooms or whatever people fancied. Luca and his team took a suite and then immediately shifted things around so they could sleep in the centre room together. They weren’t feeling particular about personal space given the recent attacks. Even if they’d come out of them all unscathed, the sheer frequency and growing intensity of the attacks, in conjunction with the weird phenomena that had been happening was just unsettling. Besides they had plans for the night that didn’t involve sleeping.

Dinner was a silent affair. Not that the food wasn’t good. It was. However, as there were more people notably missing even with the Suit’s assurances that they were just getting medical treatment the atmosphere could hardly be positive. Especially since some of the ones missing were very well known and team leaders of some of the groups.

The Mr Important Suit from the airport came forward to explain that there would be an adjustment and examination period of the site exterior before the contest day. A week to look around before the contest was an interesting choice. There were signs of relief on the part of some groups with the news, as the hope that there members maybe ready by contest day arose. Or in some cases that they could make a new team and work things out before the contest. What Luca found interesting is that the only mention of the state-of-the-art high security fencing was that it was to prevent further attacks. There was no mention of the contestants that had tried to leave.

Luca shared a look with Ghost and as they returned to the suit Ghost peeled off at one of the hallways saying, “Going to play.” Only Holly looked confused. Tails hooked Holly round the shoulders and towed him forward while Ghost headed off. Back in the suite Luca sat down around the centre table as Rӓv started to set up. First one device, then another, then a third before she walked around the room with a wand and scanned every surface. Holly wisely didn’t ask about what Ghost was doing while Rӓv was obviously securing the room.

Fifteen minutes later Rӓv was finally satisfied and settled down at the table opposite Luca. Tails and Holly immediately dropped what they had been fiddling with and settled at the other two sides. Rӓv clicked on one of the devices she’d placed on the table and then spoke.

[Rӓv: Alright I have secured the room and coms channels, no matter what means the suits use they will only hear some random small talk. I have also taken over the basic camera operations for all three tiers of cameras at the base, so it is safe to move around.]

[Holly: That’s what this stuff does?] Luca smiled slightly at Holly’s curiosity. The rest of them had gotten that out of there system by now. Still it was a right of passage that needed to be experienced so Luca didn’t do anything to interfere when Rӓv locked her eyes on Holly.

[Rӓv: This one sweeps for transmitters audio or video and interferes with there signal. This one replaces signals with preloaded dialogue and visual references. This…] Luca tuned the rest of the lecture out. He could almost give it in Rӓv’s place by this point. Luca expected Ghost would have already moved by now quietly disappearing from the entertainment room as he started to look for the medical centre and general layout of the building.

Rӓv had gotten a basic floor plan for all the WIC compound buildings but Luca doubted that they more than superficially resembled the actual layout. The map display confirmed this when Ghost’s marker began to walk through walls and empty space on the third floor of the building.

[Lucky: Right let’s get tonight’s investigation planned.] Luca cut short the rest of Rӓv’s explanation in favour of moving the planning session along. With Ghost doing the preliminary scouting he wouldn’t be able to say much for the planning, but he didn’t normally have much of an opinion on the matter save for his attempts to rile Rӓv.

[Holly: Scouting? Is that what Ghost is doing?]

[Lucky: Preliminary. I want to know where the injured and ‘missing’ people are.]

[Tails: What are our primary focuses?]

[Lucky: Firstly, for this one Rӓv I need you to run through historic footage of the building exterior.] Giving a brief description of his experience just before entering the building had Rӓv scrambling to check things. Luca thanked his reputation, and his friends’ trust that they didn’t question what he related. [Lucky: The most concerning factor for me apart form the complete vision deficit is that I detected no odours at the time. Even the scents of the corn field and the gravel track with the recent stir of dust vanished.]

[Rӓv: Son of a… There is no noise through your coms at the point just before I picked you up. Even the ambient noise that I normally have to apply a filter to between transmissions in absent. The coms still register as functioning normal but there is no transmission.] Rӓv’s fingers slid over her tablet and devices rapidly before she continued.

[Rӓv: In fact I think the visuals and system connection were affected as well. When I back track Lucky’s movements there are jumps in the marker positioning as if it was having signal problems for positional tracking. My system is closed specialised connection. Nothing should be able to interrupt it like that, not without the system noticing.] Rӓv continued to mutter to herself but had apparently muted herself on her coms as Luca couldn’t here clearly what she was saying.

[Tails: Well isn’t that just grand. An unknown source that produces various degrees of sensory deprivation and erases its traces after a short period.]

[Ghost: Is good joy. Like horror film.] Luca felt his left eye twitch a little as he realised that Ghost, according to his marker, appeared to be standing on air stuck to the side of the building. He really wanted the man to focus on what he was doing but didn’t think the reminder was worth the headache. He just hoped that he did what he was supposed to and didn’t just work to aggravate everyone in the process.

[Rӓv: I came for a TacWar game not ‘escape from monster highland’.]

[Tails: This just makes the point of that fence more obvious.]

[Rӓv: I’m sure that its just to keep the crazy fanatics out.]

[Holly: You mean the fanatics that have been strutting around like they own the place?]

[Ghost: Da, best to put fence up after sheep out. More fun.]

[Holly: Its fine as long as the world’s not ending how bad can it get?]

[Tails: Dear life, that was not meant as a challenge. You do not need to answer him. Lucky let’s move on.]

[Holly: Huh?]

[Lucky: Lets. Rӓv’s job is clear. The rest of us are dividing up the compound building. Ghost will take south, Tails north, Holly west and I’ll take East. If Ghost doesn’t find the medical area that is one of the key things to be found. I also want to know where they’re holding the people who tried to leave. Then look for anything that is out of the ordinary. Particularly signs of the missing academics or anything they might have been working on. I also want a proper layout of this place as soon as possible.]

[Holly: I actually have something that can help with the last bit.] Holly jumped up from the table and then went to his bags. After he riffled through them for a moment, he came back with five palm sized discs. [Holly: These are sonic mappers. Squeezing them lets them map the walls and features of a given area. It will go through up 10m of solid steel with a 2km radius so –] Holly cut himself off as he jerked back when Rӓv reached out and snatched one of the discs.

[Rӓv: Where do they record the mapping?] Holly proved himself a quick study and didn’t ask Rӓv why she wanted to know instead just handed over a GPS like device. Rӓv snatched the device and then started pressing at it and her tablet while she muttered.

[Tails: Right then so once Rӓv gets that hooked to the coms display we’re set for mapping. Any idea on what we’re looking for specifically otherwise.]

[Lucky: If I knew that we wouldn’t need to do the scouting. Be ready to move at 2am and be back by 5am. If you want any rest, I suggest you nap now. Try to avoid the other participants who will no doubt also be looking around.]

[Tails: Yeah, practically tradition to see how much you can scope out when the organisers give you time.]

Ghost flowed back into the room just before eight having returned to the entertainment room for the previous hour. [Ghost: No sign of medical here, unless in basement is in different building.]