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Bryce didn't think this had much chance of succeeding, but he wasn't going to profane what he was trying to do by putting some sort of Vegas Odds on it. Anyway, he convinced two others (Doug didn't count) to go along with this non-plan to infiltrate an enemy base, so it must not have looked as hopeless as Bryce thought.

It wasn't that Bryce had a death wish - he very much preferred living to the alternative - it was that society already had so many risks of deaths - were it being executed by the state for some perceived crime or getting killed on some pointless military mission - that he didn't mind taking up a little more risk if it at least meant dying on his own terms for a cause he believed… that of course being 50,000 credits tax free. Thus, it wasn't confidence that propelled Bryce in this situation, but instead it was the fact that he long ago gave up caring much about his inevitable death and thought he might as well enjoy all he could out of life before someone finally succeeded in putting a bullet in his head.

"What the hell kind of operation are you running here?" The person Bryce yelled at he assumed to be in charge since he was wearing a dress uniform and was the eldest and least befuddled of the group who met them at the Vera Research Facility lobby. Also, he was followed by two armed guards. He was also a large man who looked like he could flatten Bryce with a single swipe. The challenge was keeping him more afraid of Bryce than Bryce was of him.

"And who are you?" The man - who was named Reiter if Bryce's assumptions were correct - looked to be forcibly holding back anger. That meant he felt there was at least some possibility Bryce was actually a government official.

Bryce got in his face. "You wouldn't be asking that if you followed appropriate security procedures! I got in here with hardly any security checks!" Bryce pulled a pen from his pocket. "For all you know, I could be a deranged individual and this could be a bomb about to kill us all!" It was actually more of a flash grenade; Bryce forgot where he put his regular pen.

Reiter still looked a bit suspicious. "I never got a call..."

"Because it's a surprise inspection; why are you people having trouble with that term. You need to call them to verify me. My name is Lancaster, and I'm with the Special Security Review... though they may be a little delay verify me since the security office had another name change that hasn't propagated everywhere yet."

Reiter sighed. "Again!" Bryce's scam was based on the assumption that Emperor Asmod’s people dealt with roughly the bureaucracy has he did under Empress Proserpine. So far, that seemed to be working. And, to best imitate a bureaucrat with some power, Bryce only had to act extremely pompous and arrogant... which was easy enough.

Bryce carefully straightened his tie. "I want you to personally take me and my associate Chang on a tour of all the secure areas of this facility. Please don't inform everyone in the building we are here, as this is, once again, a surprise inspection. My two technicians - whose names escape me - need to check out the computers running your alarms and surveillance."

Reiter nodded to one of his guards. "Carlson, you handle them." Carlson led Doug and Charlene down a hallway. That left Reiter with only one guard - an attractive but intimidating looking woman. Bryce suspected much of the security here were pros and not like the grunts who got them through the front. He also knew there was a decent chance he and Lulu would have to overpower Reiter and his guard at some point, though Bryce hoped to keep things at the intellectual instead of the physical. "Lancaster, I will have to call and..."

Bryce could hear Lulu scribbling in her notepad. He had instructed her to do that every so often to keep everyone on their toes. It worked, as everyone around immediately took notice. Now Bryce had to pick out something to be what she was writing about.

"Those speakers! They're white!" Bryce looked at Reiter like he had missed that painting of the Emperor was hung upside down. "They need to be warning color such as red... or maybe yellow under certain situations."

"I never knew of any regulation--"

Bryce put his finger in Reiter's face. "Did you check the regulations today? Did you see the update?"

Reiter looked ready to get angry again, but he took a deep breath. "No, not today."

Lulu wrote some more while Bryce threw his hands in the air. "I guess it didn't matter to you, then!"

Reiter was flustered, but he regained himself. "So how did you get in this base without me hearing about it?"

"I meant to bring that up; two idiots Anders and Hill drove us in without checking on us at all. Really, what kind of operation is this?"

Reiter looked to the hapless Anders and Hill who still stood by holding bags of sandwiches. "He said this stuff about treason," Anders said, "and--"

"Blair."

Reiter's guard pulled out a pistol and shot both Anders and Hill in the head. Bryce It was a somewhat bold move to try and intimidate him, but it's not like he had never had anyone executed in front of him before. He just hoped Lulu was keeping her cool but couldn't risk turning to check on her. She had seem fit enough for this work and had done a good job so far, as at least on of her lu's seemed to stand for "lunatic". As for Bryce, he had seen this coming and had secretly put in some earplugs which he now conspicuously took out. "Finally! Some positive action! I was wondering if I'd have to do that myself… as it is not my job. Can we get on with this?"

Reiter gave Bryce one last good look over before turning. "Follow me."

Bryce had no idea how long it would take until enough phone calls were made that Reiter was certain that there were no Lancaster and Chang sent to inspect his facility. He was reasonably certain Doug would be okay then since he was with Charlene who seemed to be the type of person to be able to shoot her way out of most situations. As for what Bryce would do, he decided to surprise both them and himself when the time came.

Still, he hoped Lulu was at least a decent shot.

More importantly, Charlene and Doug had better have gotten their job done by then, or they were all dead anyway.

NEXT

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Hellbender
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