Issue 1 Downtime

Cal and Eric materialized... in an alley. The sun was lower in the sky, and it was much warmer than it had been when they beamed out.

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Bodyslide complete

Eric steeled himself, keeping his stomach from spewing all over the pavement.

"Urrgh.. where in London are we, mate?"

Cal looked around. "We're not," he said. "Looks like... central United States, judging from the sun and the cars going by."

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Affirmative.  Triangulation complete.  Location: West Plains, Missouri.

Eric nodded, receiving the data transmission.

"Missouri, eh? Middle of the flippin' Colonies. brilliant. Do we have a fix on the transmission, then?"

"Yeah, we do. Right, HAL?"

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Affirmative.  Transmission was broadcast from building thirty yards east of your current location.  Confirmation of location: Southern Missouri Medical Center: Psychiatric facility.

Cal groaned slightly. "Well, this is getting better and better."

"Bloody hell," Eric agreed, peering warily around the corner towards the medical facility.

"HAL, I want a name. Now. If we're going to be breaking someone out of a psyche hospital, I want a name."

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Processing.

"Damn it," Cal muttered. "All right. We need an entry method. What do you think, pretend to work there?"

"With my accent, mate? And your arm? I say we get a bead on who we are rescuing, and get them out before anyone realizes we are here."

Cal swore. "Yeah, good point. My arm. Should've thought of that. Okay, hang on just a few minutes. Don't move." And with that, Cal vanished in another bodyslide flash.

Eric, meanwhile, pulled up his collar and tried to cover up the gun, swearing as he should have brought gloves.

Cal reappeared five minutes later with a gym bag. "All right," he said, setting it on an empty crate and opening it. "Skin-glove for me, check. Scrubs for the two of us, check. Hacking their computers to put two extra aides on the record?"

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Check

Cal looked at the extra skin-glove he brought skeptically, then tossed to Eric. "Isn't perfect, but it'll probably stand up to a casual glance. We need to get in to get a look around long enough to get them out without getting questioned a lot."

"Good deal. just have your computer pal direct us, and we'll be fine."

Putting on the scrubs and gloves, he quickly found a place for his gun under his new shirt.

"Let's go, lad."

Cal nodded, then hurried and changed. "All right," he said, glancing around. "Hal?"

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Employee data entered into the hospital computers.  ID cards set to be waiting for you at entry along with redundant assignments.

"Which we'll ignore. Fine. Now, finding our target."

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Attempting to access patient records... Access acquired.

Cal glanced at Eric. "Looks like a good job for you, Mr. Speed-Processor," he said as they walked toward the hospital.

On first glance the institution was just your basic run of the mill nut hatch. But close assessment revealed something was very off about this place. The layout and architecture was designed to be a close approximation of a place for rest and healing but the doors seemed a bit too thick, the fences just a bit taller then you'd expect and security just slightly more strict.

To a trained and thoughtful eye, this was a prison masquerading as a hospital.

As the two approached the door, a seemingly lazy and inattentive security guard eyed the two a bit too closely. Seemingly satisfied after a glance he ignored the two as they approached the door to the lobby.

"Okay, Okay.."

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OPTIMUM search initiated...

00110110110101010111010010110101110010

There was a slight tick in his left eye for the fraction of a moment needed to process the patient list, and spit out their target.

Cal noted the security guard, then led the way up to the desk. "Hi," he said, as the photo-sensitive tinting on the glasses he'd put on faded not quite all the way to clear again in the flourescent light. "Supposed to start our first day here today, they said our ID would be waiting for us?"

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Gregory Taylor and Marcus Barnes

Which one am I?

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Gregory

"Gregory Taylor?" he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Marcus Barnes," Eric added quietly, to hide his faked southern accent.

"Oh, ah didn't know we were getting new people!" the desk attendant said in a heavy southern drawl, "Just hold on a tic please."

She checks her computer for a moment before smiling and handing them ID cards.

"'Ere y'all go," she said, "I suppose you're doing those renovations on the third floor. You have fun now, ya hear? And if you need anything just ring me here at the front desk. My name's Delores, hons."

Eric smiled and nodded with a slight upturned lip, fastening his ID to his scrubs.

"We will, ma'am," Cal said, smiling at her as he took his badge. Once 'Marcus' had his, they made their way in. "All right, found anything?" he asked in a low voice. "New admissions? Suspicious new admissions?"

The only new admission of any note was one Taliyah Malik, a transfer patient who's transfer records were suspiciously sparse. She'd apparently been kept in the isolation ward for over a month.

Eric nodded, after they were away.

"Taliah Malik, Isolation ward. She's our girl."

"Awesome," Cal said, consulting a wall directory. "We want... down," he said, glancing around for a stairwell. "That way."

Eric nodded, not hesitating.

As they arrived in the isolation ward they would find the entire floor was cleared out. The lights were dimmed to just barely allow one enough light to see by. All of the rooms seemed empty.

Down the hall was what looked to be a newly installed security door with a state of the art retinal scan system.

"Well, that ain't good. can you fake a retinal scan with your special peepers?"

Cal frowned. "This is... wrong," he said, looking around. "And I don't think so. HAL, attempt a system bypass, I want that door open."

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Attempting system bypass, stand by...

Eric fidgeted, his eye darting here and there, looking for any approaching guards.

The door unlocked and swung open automatically. The door led to a small alcove leading to a single door marked with Taliyah's patient number.

The inside was completely dark. No lights whatsoever.

Cal frowned, then switched to night vision and infrared to see and look for a switch. "Hello?"

There was a switch but it had been ripped out from the wall.

"Hello?" A shaky voice called out in a shaky Swiss accent, "Who's there?"

"My name's Cal... Calvin Strong. Are you Talik? Keep your voice down, we're here to get you out of here." Scowling at the ripped-out switch, he pulled off the skin glove and tried to to get power to the lights.

The lights started to flicker on.

"No!" Taliyah cried out, "Wait!"

Suddenly a red glow started building from her cell.

"Ah! Okay, okay!" Cal said, cutting the power.

HAL, query her AI, check for program damage, incapacitation commands, the usual.

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Complying.

The lights turned back off but the room was still bathed in a red glow coming from the inside of Taliyah's cell.

There was a loud bang as something collided with the door.

"Let me out!" Taliyah shouts violently. Eric and Calvin can see red and glowing eyes at the door. Red lines run down the side of her face. They seem to be slowly dimming.

HAL's scan would have some difficulty. Taliyah's AI was acting incredibly violent at the moment and attacking any program that came close to her with various electronic security measures.

"Well, we can't bloody well rescue you if you snap at us, now can we?"

Eric frowned, dashing quickly to the side of her cell door.

A bright red line spread across the door as Taliyah tried to burn the door down with focused light.

"All right, we'll let you out!" Cal called. "Just keep it down! We don't want the people who put you in here to hear us!" As he spoke, he pulled out the power staff, flicking it to extend it and readying the shield between himself and Eric.

HAL, what the hell is going on?

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Unknown.  AI is deploying countermeasures.

Then counter the countermeasures. I want to know what the fuck's going on. And we've got to have better countermeasures... just don't hurt her!

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Acknowledged.  Complying.

The red glow died down and everything stopped. HAL immediately would notice that the countermeasures completely disappeared allowing him full access. There was various tracking software installed but nothing that would hurt her by removing her from the area.

Inside the cell, Taliyah was breathing hard, "Please...don't turn on the lights again."

The damage to the door had also activated a silent alarm that was alerting security at this very moment. Eric and Calvin didn't have much time.