Chapter 68

68 CyberSearch (Part 1)

“The plan is simple, really,” Mr. Drails explained. “You all will be going in undercover as construction workers. The second you see Rocke, kidnap him and then quickly tell me.”

“That’s the plan?” Mari asked. “It seems a bit...simple.”

“I know,” Mr. Drails said. “I just said that. Now when you get there, quickly go find a way to get some construction jacket. Nikki isn’t here right now, so we’ll have to do things the hard way.”

“Well that makes things much less simple,” Rin muttered, as Mr. Drails nodded. All of a sudden, he created a portal that led inside some sort of building that didn’t look like a museum in construction.

“Alright, I’ll hope to see you guys soon here and ready,” he said. “And be careful, the TSA will most likely be there.”

With that, we all walked through the portal. Once we were in, the portal closed. “So, what now?” Malachi asked. And as he looked to the side, our eyes set on the sight. We weren’t in the building in construction, but we were by it.

“I’m not sure,” I said, as I looked around. There was a guy in a construction hat and jacket walking around. “But we need to find something and quick.”

Slowly the guy began to reach Mari, but all of a sudden, she whipped her elbow back and hit him in the face. The guy grabbed his face and dropped to the ground.

“Oh, my,” Mari said, covering her face. But then September kicked him again, knocking him out. Mari looked at her in horror.

.....

“What?” September shrugged. “We needed some clothes, here they are. You put them on and just tell us on the radio what you see.”

“Why me?”

“Because you knocked him out.”

“You did!”

“Okay, this doesn’t matter, just someone does this,” Malachi said. “We don’t have time for this.” “Let me at least put it on in the bathroom first,” Mari said. She began to walk away behind the corner before she disappeared.

“Well, that was easy,” Rin said.

“Yeah, too easy,” I muttered. After a moment, or ten minutes I guess, she came back with the outfit on. “Alright,” I said. “We’ll be over here while you scout out the area, okay?”

“Okay,” Mari said. She began to walk away before she turned back. “And be careful, I don’t want anything happening to you either,” I said.

“I will,” she said before she turned around and walked away.

She took the elevator down, walking confidently before she began to make it towards the construction site. It looked more like a construction site than a museum. She walked in, looking around before she began to speak on the radio.

“Alright I’m in,” she said before she began to describe the area around her. “It looks like they’re still working on the first floor.”

“Copy that,” I responded. “Keep us updated.”

“Will do,” she said before she began to walk around. She looked around, trying to find Rocke or something I guess. It’s hard to tell when someone is walking around looking like a lost kid.

“Try to survey the construction workers,” Matt said. “They’d most likely try to blend in.”

“Okay,” Mari said before she began to walk around. But as she looked around, she didn’t see any construction workers that stood out, or I think she didn’t.

“You see anything suspicious?” I asked, over the radio. “Not really,” she responded. “But there’s one thing I noticed.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, it looks like they’re almost done with the first floor. But there’s something off about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “It just seems...strange.”

“Well, try to focus on finding one of Rocke’s minions,” Malachi ordered, over the radio. “We’ll worry about that later.”

“Alright,” she said before she sighed. But as she began to walk around, she heard something. It sounded like footsteps, but not just any footsteps. These were heavy footsteps like someone was trying to be quiet but failing miserably.

Mari tried to follow the sound, but it didn’t seem to be near her. She was now in the midst of the site so now she was in the presence of other workers, but they didn’t seem to be the source of the noise. The workers were too focused on their work to make any noise.

That’s when she heard it again, but this time it was closer. She looked around, trying to find the source before she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was a large man, walking towards her.

He was a construction guy, but he was probably seven feet with broad shoulders. He had a beard and was bald. He was wearing the standard construction guy outfit with a hard hat. But as he got closer, Mari noticed something else. He had a gun.

“Hey,” he said, in a gruff voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just looking around,” Mari said. “Trying to see what to fix.”

“Oh, okay, okay,” he said in a soft voice. “Follow me, I want to show you something.”

Fear aroused in my body, and I could see it in Mari’s eyes too. But she didn’t have a choice, so she followed him. He took her to the other side of the construction site where there was a large hole.

“This is where they’re going to put the pool,” he said. “It’s going to be beautiful.”

“There’s gonna be a pool by a museum?” Mari asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “It’s going to be great for the kids.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Mari said, trying to keep her cool.

“Come on, I’ll show you around,” he said before he began to walk away. Mari followed him, trying to keep up with his footsteps. I felt as if my legs were shaking as the suspense of the situation filled everyone’s eyes, including Mari’s.

He took her to different parts of the construction site, showing her different things that were going to be in the museum. But as he showed her around, she noticed something strange. He would always go to places where there were no other people. It was as if he was hiding something from everyone else.

“I’m going in,” I said, speeding towards the elevator. September turned her head around and looked at me with concern. “Connor, no!” she shouted, running towards me.

But I ignored her and entered the elevator, pressing the button for the first floor. The doors began to close as September ran towards me, and it shut on her. I was led to the first floor, and rushed out, speeding towards the site.

“Connor!” I heard September’s voice say, but it was getting fainter and fainter.

I reached the construction site, quickly trying to run towards Mari. But then they got behind the cargo boxes that were like a thousand feet long, and I lost them. I tried to go around the other side, but when I turned the corner, I was met with a fist.

I rocked back onto the ground, groaning in pain. When I looked up, I saw the construction guy who seemed very surprised. “Oh, I thought you were from the TSA?” he said silently.

“Huh?” Mari asked as we both looked at him in confusion.

“The TSA,” he said, in a louder voice. “They’re the ones who are supposed to be inspecting the site.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean, someone’s been stealing from the construction site,” he said. “And I thought you were one of them.”

“First things first, where are you from?” I asked. “The FMA,” he said.

“Oh!” I realized.

“So you’re in on this?”

“In on what?” Mari asked.

“The FMA’s been investigating the construction site for weeks now,” he said. “After they heard about the construction of the Cybertron for the museum, they’ve been keeping eyes on it for a long time.”

Preview:

“But what does that have to do with us?” Mari asked.

“I was getting to that,” he said. “We heard about your assumption Rocke may be coming for it, so half of the people here are from our organization. But we found some intel that those people that check up on us are from the TSA.”

“Wow,” I muttered. “So what do we do?”

“Find them,” Mari said. “And stop them.”

“Right,” I said, getting up. “Let’s go.”

We began to walk away from the area, and into the thick of the site. The smell of dust and metal filled my nose as we walked, and the sound of construction workers filled my ears. As we walked, I couldn’t help but think about what September was screaming. She sounded so genuine about it. Maybe she was afraid that I might get into the same predicament we went through back in Russia.

“So, how do you plan on finding the TSA inspectors?” Mari asked the big guy.

“Well,” he said, “I was thinking maybe we could split up and look for them.”

“That sounds like a plan, but do the inspectors wear something different?” Mari asked. The man shook his head, “They’re like informants. They don’t want anyone to know they’re there.”