Stray Cat Strut

Interlude K&K - Part Two

"You sure this is a good idea, Kev?" Kneebreaker asked.

"It's the best damned idea we've ever had," Kevin said. It was mostly to reassure his... friend? Yeah, he supposed that if they were in this deep, he might as well consider Kneebreaker a friend.

They were both ankle-deep in stagnant water, gasmasks and hazmat suits on. Not top-shelf stuff. These were third-hand, bought from some resupply vendor, but it would do for this.

Kevin had a tablet tucked under one arm, with an all-plastic cover on it, the sort of thing that was given to children so that when it was dropped it wouldn't break. Actually, the entire tablet was made for kids, but Kevin was a bit of a tech genius and it wasn't too hard to reinstall a fresh OS on the old tablet.

At the moment it was displaying a 3D map of the Velvet Wheel casino and, more importantly, its underground.

They were trudging through water in an in-flow pipe that he'd shut down for the next hour. Usually there'd be water up to... he glanced to the side. There was a clear mark along the wall at about waist-height where the water flowing through the pipe would usually be.

It was mostly fresh water. The casino had its own on-site reservoir that this set of pipes fed into, so chances were they wouldn't notice the cut-off, and if they did... well, he assumed that they wouldn't send anyone down here to check.

"Where's the next spot?" Kneebreaker asked.

"Just up ahead," he replied. "Oh, there it is, see that cap?"

"Got it," Kneebreaker said.

They trudged through the water, splashing along until they reached a small access point. There was a ladder held in place by a few braces and a hatch built into the top of the pipe.

Kneebreaker grunted as he climbed up, then pulled out a small device that Kevin had cobbled together and pressed it to the hatch. Kevin went still for a moment, letting Kneebreaker listen.

"Nothing," Kneebreaker said with a shake of his head. "But I'm not sure how well it would work anyway."

"It's an added precaution. Open it up," he said.

Kneebreaker did just that, grabbing onto the wheel-lock and spinning it around. It clunked as it opened, then he pushed the hatch up and held it so that it wouldn't bang against the side of the pipe.

The room it led into was poorly lit, which was, if anything, a good sign.

"Alright, scoot over," Kevin said.

He moved up the ladder, then clung onto it with one arm around the topmost rung. Pulling out another device from the bag at his side, it slid it up and out of the hole, then spun it around. It fed video right into his augs, letting him see where the camera on the end was pointed.

The room wasn't anything special. A maintenance level below the main living spaces of the casino, buried into the 'plate' that the main building was built onto. It was basically part of a network of passages and access tunnels, the kind of dusty, concrete-only space where half of each wall was nothing but exposed wiring and ductwork.

The only lighting came from some weak LED bulbs hanging from the ceiling. It was enough for him to find the only security camera in this location and aim at it for a while.

"I see it," he muttered before zooming in. It took some effort to keep his arm steady and get a bead on the make and model of the security cam, but once he had that everything from there was easy.

The camera was cheap. Everyone always cheaped out. It was connected to a remote server via bluetooth of all things, so the signal strength was probably weak.

He tapped into it, ran an old hacking program that had been out for ten years and should have been patched equally long ago, and then he was in the camera's controls.

It wasn't hard from there to record a few minutes of footage and set it on a looper. Not like there was much to show.

Some places had programs that would monitor every camera feed for discrepancies and issues, and he was assuming that the casino had the top-end of that for the main floors and secure areas above, but down here?

Well, it was a bit of a gamble (heh) but he figured that they were safe enough.

"Okay, up we go," he said before climbing up.

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He was not built for this level of physical exertion. All the walking in unfamiliar boots was killing his feet. Still, he'd kept thin--reedy, even--and he could suffer through this because the reward would be worth it.

Turning, Kevin helped Kneebreaker out, first by grabbing a satchel that the bigger man passed up, then giving him a hand when he pulled himself out of the pipe.

"So, this is it?" Kneebreaker asked as he looked around. "Don't look like much."

"What did you expect, that the casino would be all marble and gold even in the basement?" Kevin asked.

"Honestly... yeah, a little?"

Kevin snorted. "Come on. We've got to move fast. Even if I can disable all the cams, it might still send up an alert. Try to be quiet too, there might be mics around. If they have seismographs, we're fucked."

"Got it," Kneebreaker said. He shook his legs, splashing some water around onto the dusty floor. By the looks of it, no one had walked by in a few weeks, at least.

Kevin checked his tablet again, situated them, then gestured ahead. Their first bomb would go on a wall just a few paces away. Since they didn't want to just stick it onto the wall where it might be seen, then tucked it in behind a support pillar.

Honestly, not the best way to do it. He wasn't any sort of expert with explosives, or anything like an engineer, but he figured that a shaped charge would be far better at knocking a pillar out. To make up for it, he'd made sure that each bomb had about twenty percent more semtex than what he'd math'd out.

They moved in relative quiet, going from one part of the sub-basement to another, tucking little gifts behind pillars as they went and along the floor next to walls that he knew were load-bearing.

If he was right, they were just below the main room where that whole conclave thing would be taking place.

This was, in his opinion, a real stupid move, but it might just work. Plus, he figured it'd be pretty hard to track him and Kneebreaker down. They were the only two that knew. So few planners and movers would mean that there were fewer chances that anyone would figure it out, right?

This wasn't for nothing, of course. There was a goal here.

The Ball Busters had been the gang running their home mega-building for years, until the Nut Punchers came in.

Those bastards had more members, better gear, and honestly, they were a little more savvy than the Ball Busters. He might even have been okay with joining them, or backing up and letting them do their thing. He wasn't in a gang by choice, exactly.

But they just had to steal their name and gimmick. That was a line that no one could cross. It was too far.

They were led by this clever pain in the ass woman called Voe, and when the Ball Busters had confronted her, she'd beaten them up over it and punched them in the nuts.

There were things no one ought to do to a man, and Kevin wasn't going to just let bygones be bygones.

"Man, this feels like a lot," Kneebreaker said as he passed Kevin one of the last bombs.

"You mean the explosives? We had to leave half at home," Kevin said.

"No, I mean... all of this. Can't we just... not?"

Kevin glared. "Fuck off, man. If they said sorry, I'd maybe think about it, but there are some things you can't unpunch!"

He set the bomb down, then scurried over to the next area, disabling another camera as he went. That was the last one, tucked behind a large, all-steel dumpster. He hoped that it would direct the explosion well.

"Done," he said. "Now, let's get out of here, yeah?"

"Sure thing, boss," Kneebreaker said.

With a much lighter load, he ran off back to the pipe and climbed down. Kneebreaker followed, closing the hatch behind, then they started walking.

They were only a few dozen meters away when Kneebreaker spoke up. "Hey... do you hear water?"

"Huh... yeah, I think I do," Kevin said.

Wait... how long did they have in this pipe again? It couldn't be that far, right? He glanced down and noticed with a lurch in his chest that the water around his ankles was slowly rising up to his lower-calves.

"Ah," he said. He might have made a small miscalculation somewhere.

***