OP Absorption

The air changed. The dry, old stone smell of the castle was gone. Now it smelled damp and metallic, like Arclight. Cold rain immediately misted Fin's face. He stood on a flat, tarred rooftop. The city spread out around them, a tangle of dark buildings and flickering neon signs under a sky the color of dirty dishwater.

Arachne appeared beside him, a shadow in the dim light. Her head was already turning, scanning their surroundings. Scarlet showed up a second later. She stretched her arms with a satisfied groan.

"Ah, good old miserable Arclight," Scarlet said. She grinned as she looked around. "Smells like wet dog and bad decisions. Home sweet home, kinda." She bounced on the balls of her feet. "So, liaison office. Which way to the party, Boss?"

Fin did not answer her. He walked to the edge of the rooftop and crouched low. The Hunter Guild liaison office was across the narrow street. It was on the third floor of a grey, plain building. Lights burned in a few windows, dim behind rain-streaked glass. Mara's schematics showed the trackers' main workspace was on the second floor, in offices at the back.

"Target acquired," Fin said, his voice flat. He pointed. "Second floor. Two primary targets there, according to the chip. Another one roams, probably security."

Arachne knelt beside him. Her eyes scanned the target building. "Defenses?"

"Standard Guild wards on the lower levels. Window sensors," Fin said. "Nothing magical on the upper floors beyond basic office security. The trackers themselves might have personal wards." He tapped his temple. "The chip had their schedules. They should be prepping for night shift handover soon. Minimal staff otherwise."

Scarlet joined them, peering over the ledge. "So, we slip in, slit a few throats, slip out? My kind of party."

"No unnecessary noise," Fin corrected her. His gaze was fixed on the target windows. "In and out. Arachne, you take the south-side window. Scarlet, north. I'll go central. We converge on the office. Neutralize the targets. If anyone else gets in the way…" He let the sentence hang.

Arachne nodded once. "Understood, my Lord."

Scarlet cracked her knuckles. "Got it. No witnesses. Fun."

Fin looked at the gap between the buildings. It was maybe twenty feet across. A normal person could not jump it easily. They were not normal.

"On my signal," he said. He watched the windows of the liaison office. One of the lights flickered, then steadied. A shadow moved past another. He waited, counting seconds. The city hummed around them, a constant thrum of distant traffic and machinery. Rain pattered softly on the rooftop.

"Now," Fin said.

He pushed off the ledge. For a moment, he was in the air. The wet street seemed to rush up to meet him. Then he landed, light as a cat, on the narrow window ledge of the target building, second floor. His fingers found a grip on the cold, slick stone.

Arachne was already there, pressed to the wall near the south window, a black silhouette against the grey stone. Scarlet hit the north window ledge a second after Fin. Her landing was a bit harder. There was a faint scrape of her boot on stone. She shot him a grin.

Fin ignored her. He focused on the window in front of him. It was closed and locked. He pressed his palm against the glass. Faint green energy pulsed from his hand for just a second. The locking mechanism inside clicked open with a soft snick.

He slid the window upwards, slowly, careful to make no sound. Cool, stale office air brushed his face. He slipped inside and melted into the shadows of a darkened corridor. Filing cabinets lined one wall. Empty desks stood like sleeping animals.

He heard a faint scrape from the south, then from the north. Arachne and Scarlet were in.

He moved down the corridor. His boots were silent on the cheap linoleum floor. According to the internal layout from the chip, the trackers' office was the third door on the left. He reached it. He could hear faint voices from inside, muffled. Two of them.

He glanced back. Arachne appeared at the end of the corridor, a dark shape blending with the shadows. She gave a barely perceptible nod. Scarlet was not visible yet. She was probably taking a more direct route to her side of the office.

Fin reached for the doorknob. He did not try to pick the lock. He focused and pushed a sliver of his power into the metal. The internal tumblers twisted and broke. The knob turned easily in his hand.

He pushed the door open.

Two men sat at a large console littered with datapads and steaming mugs. One was older, bald, with tired eyes. The other was younger, his hair slicked back. He was nervously tapping a stylus against his desk. They both looked up, surprise flashing across their faces as Fin stepped into the room.

"Who the hell are—" the older man started. His hand reached for something under his console.

Fin did not let him finish. He moved.

He crossed the small office in two quick strides. His right hand, glowing faintly with green energy, shot out. It was not a punch. It was an open palm strike aimed at the older man's sternum.

There was a dull thud. The older man's eyes went wide, then glazed over. He slumped back in his chair, silent, unmoving. A faint wisp of green smoke curled from Fin's palm.

The younger man yelped. He scrambled back, his chair skittering loudly. He fumbled inside his jacket and pulled out a small, silver energy pistol. He aimed it at Fin, his hand shaking violently.

"Stay back!" he shrieked. "I-I'm warning you!"

Fin just looked at him. The pistol trembled.

A shadow detached itself from the ceiling behind the younger man. Arachne dropped silently. She landed on the man's shoulders. Her hands moved, a blur. There was a soft, wet tearing sound, then a choked gurgle. The young man went limp. The energy pistol clattered to the floor. Arachne stepped back as his body slid from the chair.

She looked at Fin. Her expression was neutral. "Two targets neutralized."

The office door burst open. It was not the one Fin had entered through, but a connecting door to an adjacent room. Scarlet stood there. She wiped a smear of blood from her cheek with the back of her gauntlet. A crumpled form lay on the floor behind her in the other room.

"Third one was a bit jumpy," Scarlet announced, grinning. "Tried to shout. Bad for the vocal cords." She stepped into the office, kicking the fallen energy pistol under a desk. "All clear here. Smells like fear and cheap coffee. My favorite."

Fin looked around the office. Three bodies. No alarms raised. "Good," he said. He walked over to the main console. Datapads glowed with tracking grids, lists of active bounties, secure comm channels. "Wipe it. Everything."

Arachne moved to the console. Her fingers flew across the controls. Screens went blank. Data streams corrupted. Scarlet idly poked one of the dead trackers with her boot.

"So," Scarlet said, looking at Fin. "Valerius Spire next? Or are we taking a snack break? I'm feeling a bit peckish after all that sneaking."

Fin ignored her question about snacks. He listened. The building was quiet. Maybe too quiet.

"Let's go," he said. "Same way out."

They were about to leave when Fin's head snapped up. He heard it. Faint. Distant. But getting closer. The unmistakable sound of multiple heavy boots running down the main Guild corridor, one floor below. And a shout. "Security breach! Second floor! All units respond!"

Scarlet's grin faded. "Party crashers already? Lame."

Arachne stopped wiping the console. She looked at Fin, waiting.

"They're faster than I thought," Fin murmured. The chip data must have been slightly out of date on response times. Or someone got lucky. "Change of plans."

The alarm blared from the floor below. It was a shrill, insistent cry that cut through the relative quiet of the trackers' office. Heavy boots pounded down a distant Guild corridor. The sound rapidly grew closer.

"Party's over," Fin stated, his voice flat. He glanced at Arachne, who was still at the main console. "Status?"

"Virus deployed," she reported. Her fingers were a blur across the interface. Lines of code scrolled, then screens flickered and died. "Local data corruption initiated. Their immediate tracking capabilities for this sector are offline. Spreading to networked systems will take time, but their eyes are blind here, for now."

"Good enough." There was no time for a full system wipe. He turned towards the window they had entered through. "Out. Same way."

Scarlet grinned. She wiped her daggers on a dead tracker's uniform. "My favorite kind of exit. Quick and messy." She was already moving towards the window, light on her feet.

The shouts were louder now. They echoed from the main corridor just outside the office. "Third floor! They're on the third floor! Seal the exits!" Someone clearly hadn't gotten the memo about which floor was breached.

Fin slid the window open. Rain misted in. The narrow ledge outside looked slick and treacherous in the dim city glow. He slipped out. He pressed himself flat against the cold, wet stone, finding easy purchase. The drop to the alley was a familiar darkness below.

Scarlet followed. She landed with a soft thud beside him. Her earlier nonchalance was replaced by a focused alertness. Arachne was last, a silent shadow merging with the wall.

"They know we're on the ledge," Arachne murmured. Her head was tilted, listening to the sounds from inside the office they had just vacated. Figures were already at the window, peering out. A bright flash – an energy blast – sizzled past Fin's head. It struck the brickwork above, showering them with hot fragments.

"Time to go," Fin said curtly. He looked across the twenty-foot gap to the rooftop they had started from. He pushed off the ledge. He was a dark shape arcing through the rain-filled air. He landed, rolling to absorb the impact on the tarred surface.

Scarlet launched herself a second later. She landed a little harder but still on her feet. Arachne flowed across the gap as if she were walking on solid ground. She landed without a sound.

More shouts came from the office building. Another energy blast went wide. It struck the parapet of their current rooftop, sending chunks of concrete flying.

"Service hatch," Fin ordered. He was already moving towards it.