I deserve this. I was an idiot. It’s my fault, my own mistake.
Dekval leaned back against the hard surface of the brick wall and tilted his head up to look at the simulated sky. His eyes focused on some far-away point and he stared, replaying in his mind the incident that had landed him here in this exercise in the first place.
He’d been on the chat, and, like the idiot he was, had said something he shouldn’t have. Had Pilots not been vanishing as they had been, what he’d said probably would have been ignored, but as it turned out, they were, and it hadn’t, and all he could think of was how dead he was when his Commander had ordered him to her office. He’d barely been part of the Ravens for longer than a handful of months, and he was already screwing up. This was exactly what he had wanted not to do. He hadn’t wanted to fail. He hadn’t wanted to screw up. And now here he was, doing exactly that. His body had run both hot and cold as he made his way to Keiko’s office, his mind completely blank. What was the point of coming up with an excuse or justification for what he’d said? There wasn’t a point to it. There never was. The easiest thing to do was own up to it and take responsibility for it and take whatever punishment he was about to get with a smile. Not that he actually was smiling when he entered her office and stood before her, hands clasped behind his back and ramrod straight, trying to look as stoic as possible even though he was terrified of what she was going to say and do.
Standing before his Commander, he felt small and insignificant, like a child being lectured about his obvious mistake, as if he didn’t already know he’d royally screwed up. But as Keiko spoke, her tone even but firm, Dekval knew she was right, and he deserved what was coming to him; he hadn’t once thought that, if what he’d said had gotten out to certain other ears, it wouldn’t be just him being sought for questioning, but his entire squad. He’d unthinkingly put his entire squad in danger, and for what? For nothing. It certainly hadn’t been to prove something to the people from whom he was trying to earn trust. People to whom he’d been trying to prove that, just because he was young and had far less experience than anyone else, he could be just like them. One of them.
Well, he’d certainly proven something, hadn’t he?
Proved he was an idiot.
No one ever said it outright, of course, at least, not to his face. Except Prox. His best friend had come right out and said “I told you so”, not cutting corners or sugar-coating anything. Not that Dekval wanted cut corners or sugar-coated words. He didn’t deserve that kind of kindness. He definitely hadn’t deserved Keiko’s kindness. Even though standing before her scared the crap out of him because he was so certain she was going to kill him - or at least tell him to resign and go back to where he’d come from because he wasn’t Ravens material - nothing in her demeanor had been anything other than a Commander reprimanding one of her soldiers for inappropriate behavior. She didn’t care if he had fun or joked around, but she wouldn’t tolerate this kind of distasteful humor in regards to a national crisis. It would not be tolerated. She had made clear her expectations and Dekval had burned the look she’d given him into his memory.
It will never happen again.
He meant those words when he’d spoken them. He would never put his squad in danger like that ever again. He would never give Keiko cause to call him into her office ever again. He would watch what he said, scrutinize every word before he put it out into the chatroom, ensure that there would be nothing that could cause someone to take a closer look at him or his squad. He would never compromise them. He’d throw himself under the bus before he would let any harm come to his team.
All right, it’s time. Stop thinking about what’s already happened. You can’t change it. You can’t take it back. Look forward and do better.
Dekval dropped his eyes from the simulated sky and pushed away from the wall. The tall young man glided lithely away from the starting area, silent for all his height, and into the crowd of people that had been walking past his alley for the past twenty minutes. He pulled the hood of his jacket up over his head to obscure his face as he moved, then shoved his hands into his jacket’s pockets and walked along with the crowd, nameless and faceless, though his eyes were always moving, always seeking, always looking for that one tell, that one thing that would give away another predator. Once he saw that, or discovered what it was he was supposed to do here, the real game would begin.
And then he would have to do everything he could to not get caught.
Keiko’s punishment for him had been do to an extra simulation session, but he wouldn’t know what he was going to be facing until he stepped into the simulator and let the program whisk him off. The Ravens were required to do these simulations as regular training, so Dekval knew almost what to expect, but this one seemed designed especially for him, as both a test and as a reminder, of what he was supposed to be: a silent shadow, deadly and nothing more substantial than a whisper of wind.
Dekval’s specialty was a learned ability he liked to call illumopathy. When he combined his telepathy and illumokinesis together, he could render himself - and anyone else - invisible to all senses. Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell - he could block each and every one by altering the way people perceived such things with his telepathy and illumokinesis. It had been something he’d learned inadvertently, trying to protect himself as a little kid, and it had been something that had made him stand apart from others, not just because of the side-effects of his ability, but because of the way it made people feel. The people he was shielding could see everything and everyone, just not the other way around. There was no stranger sensation than going up to someone who couldn’t see you, hear you, and feel you and being completely ignored.
Dekval’s lips quirked a little bit. It was almost like real life, where people drew their own veil over their eyes when they wanted to ignore someone or something, yet they could still perceive that someone or something. Dekval’s illumopathy rendered everything to nothing.
Absolute invisibility.
Dekval continued to wend his way through the crowd, moving along with the flow of traffic with a steady gait. He hadn’t gotten much detail for this training mission other than ‘don’t get caught’, so it was up to him to figure out what, exactly, the parameters were. Most of his training missions in this setting had been to get in somewhere, do something, and get out of that somewhere, all without being noticed. He assumed this one would be the same, albeit more difficult. Not that his previous training sessions were easy - because they most certainly were not - but this one seemed... different.
He flexed his fingers in his pockets, kept his eyes straight ahead, and continued moving, trying to seek out the answers that hadn’t been given to him when this simulation had begun. He only knew two things: to begin asking questions now would only invite disaster and would only prove that he had no control over himself. He was sure someone was watching his progress through the simulation, ready to report upon his failure. He didn’t want to fail. He already felt useless, so he absolutely didn’t want to fail.
So Dekval shut certain doors in his mind. He stopped thinking of this as a simulation and started thinking of it as a real mission. He stopped thinking about what landed him here in the first place and instead began to think of what he needed to do to succeed in this mission. So far, he was doing well, he thought, since he hadn’t been approached or had an alarm raised.
Yet.
But his mission was not to engage, even if he was approached. His mission was to escape detection.
Dekval wandered with the crowd past a group of soldiers standing guard in front of a great gate. Looking up, he could see a wall at least thirty feet high ringing a massive complex of metal and glass. Cameras were stationed at every corner of the wall, and some in between, keeping an eye on the crowds and possible entry points. Realizing his target was likely in that building, Dekval understood at last what this exercise was for.
He didn’t have time to scope the place out like he would have if he’d gotten his mission parameters from the beginning instead of having to figure them out on his own.
But missions have a tendency to change parameters in the field, so a warning could become an assassination.
Having seen enough, Dekval slipped through the crowd of people toward another alleyway. He needed to get a better view of the wall and its camera layout to figure out the best point of entry. That meant he needed to get a little higher.
As he turned the corner down the alley, he searched it for something he could use to get higher. This particular part of the alley had nothing, but there was a cross-alley further down. Dekval continued down, until he was at the mouth of the cross-alley. He could see that left was going to end up as a dead end with a wall running across, but the wall at the end wasn’t that high. The right was open and led back to the street. Pausing there, Dekval pondered the alley as an escape route. It certainly had potential, but was it suitable? He wouldn’t know until he saw where the left hand side of the alley took him.
Dekval picked up speed until he was running and hit the wall with one foot and then the other, scaling it quickly. He reached the top of the wall and crouched there. Concentrating, Dekval bent the light around him, rendering him invisible to whoever might be looking. Perched there like a black shadow, Dekval studied the area around him.
The wall abutted against two buildings, and only the right building had a way to a higher vantage point. Dekval studied the way the ladder and landing came together, then slowly eased across the wall, moving slowly toward the building to his right. Still wrapped tightly in his illumokinesis, Dekval reached for the ladder and tested it. It held against his weight, didn’t show signs of movement when he shook it, so he pulled himself up, hand over hand, until he could get his foot into the bottom rung and haul himself the rest of the way up. He continued on in this manner, going up each ladder and landing, until he on the roof of the building and was high enough that he could see the target building and the wall with its cameras.
Standing there, Dekval studied the way the cameras were positioned and how often they moved. With his illumokinesis, it wouldn’t be difficult at all getting past the cameras. But the wall was too high for him to scale, at least not without equipment, help, and time. He could try and jump the distance, since he was wearing his uniform and equipment beneath his regular clothes, but he didn’t know what he’d be landing on if he made it over the wall to the other side. No, going in like that would be too risky, too much of a chance of being caught.
He dismissed that idea after another moment’s careful consideration.
Dekval lowered his gaze to the guards that milled about the outside of the wall and an idea dawned on him. There would have to be a changing of the guard at some point, right? All he would have to do was wait for that opportunity, slip in among them, and none would be the wiser. He could shield himself easily enough from their senses. But it would be making their motions look absolutely normal while he hid invisibly among them that would be a true test of his ability.
Well, if he expected the worst, chances were good he’d get out of this alive.
With something of a plan in mind, Dekval made his way carefully back down the landings and ladders until he was on the wall again, and then he dropped to the ground as silently as he could, landing in a soundless crouch. He held his position for a heartbeat, then rose and began a steady jog away from the wall, using the balls of his feet to take the brunt of his weight, rather than running heel to toe as he normally would’ve done. Running like that minimized the sound he made, and it also kept his center of gravity balanced in case he needed to make a sudden move.
Then he made his way toward the gate and the group of guards there. He would have to time it just right, combining his illumokinesis and his telepathy into his illumopathy, and slip in among them as they changed shifts. Easier said than done. He was forced to wait, invisible, until the opportunity came. It would be fine, he told himself. He could keep this up for thirty-six hours if he had to, probably more, but he didn’t think it would take that long for the guards to change shifts. Still, he was sure he going to hurt when it was over. Depending on how things went after this point, Dekval might not feel the full side-effects of his learned ability, but he’d still be tired and feel like crap to the point all he’d want to do would be to crawl into bed and stay there. Whether he’d be able to do that still remained to be seen, and he didn’t want to come across as weak and useless, so he would power through, even if he would collapse the moment his eyes drifted shut.
At last the guards’ rotation began. Invisible, silent, nothing more than a shadow, Dekval fell into step with the last man. He had to dog the man’s every step in order not to accidentally get too close to another and have that man unconsciously turn away from him. Someone dodging something invisible? Happened, but it was a rather strange occurrence. For Dekval, it would mean definite failure.
He made it through the gate and followed the guards into the building. He didn’t have to worry about any cameras from here on in; his jamming device would do that work for him, causing a blackout as he passed close, one so quick hardly anyone would notice, even if they were paying attention. Buildings like this, Dekval knew, though heavily guarded, tended not to have security personnel who paid attention to every little detail. But there always was the chance, of course, the men monitoring the cameras were hyper-attentive and the intruder alarm had already been triggered.
Dekval grimaced slightly at the pessimistic thought. Stupid. Don’t think you’ve failed until you actually do. He shoved the thought aside and continued after the guards, breaking off from them only when it looked like they seemed to be heading away from his destination. Which, he assumed, was likely the top floor of the building. The penthouse.
Standing invisible but out of the way of possibly being inadvertently run into, Dekval scanned the lobby. Elevators were a bad idea. True, while they would get him up there quicker, they were also too small a space. If he didn’t want to be discovered, it would be better to take the stairs. Could he find a staircase out of sight of the people in the lobby? His eyes alighted on a hallway that led somewhere into the rear of the building. He didn’t care where it actually led to, so long as there was a door that led to a staircase. Gliding over to the hallway, Dekval slipped down it, carefully pausing at any intersection he came to in order to make sure he didn’t inadvertently run into someone. He found the door he was looking for near the very end, a big EMERGENCY EXIT sign plastered on it. A careful check told him it wasn’t alarmed, and he pulled it open only wide enough for him to slip through. He pulled it closed after him and waited.
No sound of pursuit.
He took a deep breath, then carefully ascended the stairs, invisible still. Up and up he went, pausing by the landings to make sure there wasn’t anyone waiting for him with a nasty surprise, and that no one was about to open a door and run into him. Up and up, up and up, until he reached the last landing. Penthouse. No time to waste now, Dekval reached for the door and eased it open far enough that he could look out and see what was waiting for him without drawing attention to the fact the door he was holding seemed to be opening on its own. An empty hallway, but that meant nothing. He hesitated, giving his device a moment to work on any camera that might be paying attention, and then Dekval hurried out of the door and down the hall by a few feet. He paused to listen, his eyes scanning the hall, but he saw nothing and no one, so he continued down to the doors that led to his final destination.
He tried a doorknob and found it locked.
Okay. Take a step back. Reassess. Didn’t have time to pick the lock, so what to do? Standing off to the side, Dekval pounded hard on the door three times with a closed fist. Then, pitching his voice high, called out, “Room service!”
So maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea. After all, he didn’t know if this building really did have room service. For all he knew, it was a palace and not a hotel. But his ploy had the effect he’d hoped for.
The doors to the penthouse were pulled open at the same time, swinging inward rather than out, and Devkal dropped into a crouch immediately to scuttle past the two men that stepped out into the hall. The guards didn’t even so much as twitch as Dekval slipped past them, still shrouded as he was. A quick glance around showed him an open window - and he knew at once it would be his mode of escape - and a huge suite that had several rooms branching out from the main room that he was in. He didn’t have the time or the ability to check all of them, so he gambled that the room furthest from the open window was the one he needed. The guards were already coming back into the main room, closing the doors behind them, so Dekval moved toward the open room as quickly as he dared and slipped into it.
Sumptuous office. And a man sitting at the desk, his eyes downcast, expression a severe frown as he stared at whatever was on the desk in front of him. Dekval padded silently across the tiled floor of the office toward the man, trying to gauge whether this mission was warning or assassination. Warning, he decided, pausing when the man suddenly rose from the chair and stepped away from the desk. Too easy for an assassination, what with the ample opportunities Dekval was being given at the moment. Far too easy. Definitely a trap.
Palming a black feather out of a pocket on his uniform, Dekval carefully laid the feather across the papers on the desk, situating it where the man would definitely see it the moment he turned around. By that feather alone, he would know how close to death he’d come, and he wouldn’t know if death was still lurking in the same room as him, waiting to strike. Confident about his decision, Dekval quietly left the office and went for the open window.
Just as he was about to reach it and make his escape, the simulation ended.
Dekval released his illumopathy and reflexively reached up to touch his upper lip, just below his nose. His fingers came away dry.
He didn’t look to see if anyone was watching him, didn’t look for confirmation that he’d done the right thing or if he’d passed or not, he simply left the simulation room. He’d know soon enough whether he passed or failed.
He’d tried his best. Hopefully he’d proven something now, other than that he was an idiot.
