Mission Failed?

A gunshot resounded in the air as the commanding officer opened fire seeing the non-responsiveness of the soldiers.

His aim was on the central person, who happened to be Lance.

Lance felt a slight push from behind as he immediately became enclosed in a translucent barrier of light.

The bullet ricocheted off the barrier which became invisible again soon after.

Multiple guns started firing at them as they accelerated to a breakneck speed.

Of the 6 people, 2 were soldiers that were hypnotized. Lance had told the others to protect them with their barriers in case they were needed in the vault.

Lance and Yu Yan thus each had a soldier in front of them being protected from the gunfire. Since it was only from one direction, this was possible.

Entsy, on the other hand initially ran slower than the rest. His mission was to get into the vault as soon as possible in case any situation like this arose.

After a few seconds, he could be seen zooming past the others as he entered the vault in the blink of an eye.

Lance sighed with relief as at least one of them had entered the vault. He felt a heat on his chest from the shiny ball which he had hung there using the chain. The heat had started with the first gunshot and was slowly decreasing with each bullet that the barrier blocked. This seemed to be an intuitive way to communicate the remaining capacity of the barrier.

Just as the vault closed shut, all of the team tumbled into the vault. Miraculously, they had all made it inside in that split second before the door completely closed. One by one, a "clink" sound could be heard as each barrier broke. The trusty barriers had actually saved their skins.

If they hadn't had that running start, this would have been impossible. The distance from the ID check to the door was very little, but the door was insanely fast. Also, although the barriers blocked the bullets, the momentum was still transferred to them to some degree. Thus, it was as if each of them were kicked by a hundred people from behind at the same time.

The file that Lance had seen with the glaring words was right in front of him. He lunged forward and touched it, closing his eyes and waiting for the teleportation to take place.

After a few seconds, he could still feel the cold hard metal floor under him. The file was still in his hand and as he opened his eyes, he realized that he was still in the vault.

Lance stood up and looked around. There were many rows of shelves, and there were actually 3 files in his vision with the same words on them. He hastily touched them all but what he was waiting for didn't happen.

"Entsy, start a high speed search. Touch each and every file with the words "NIKOLA TESLA" on it. Soldiers, keep your aim at the personnel and make sure no one moves."

Lance added the last part as an afterthought. He had just remembered the key personnel and decided to see them before deciding if they needed additional supervision.

After walking a bit, a group of people could be seen standing ramrod straight. There was not a smidgen of worry in their eyes.

Instead, what could be seen was unbridled gloating.

Seeing this, Lance felt a tingling in his back as he started to think if he had missed anything.

"Something is very wrong about this situation.", he thought, as the gloating started turning into outright sneers.