Progress

K11, who was waiting under the light pole, moved as soon as she heard K1's update over on the ear piece. So far things were looking nice. She walked forward with slightly hurried pace.

She was joined by another man. She glanced at him and he nodded solemnly. He was K10. They moved as quickly as possible and arrived at the large fence that sealed off the entire base.

"You know," K10 turned to her as they were preparing their getups. "I always loved climbing fences. My uncle would worry about his fruits so much when I was a kid."

K11 smiled slightly and bent over and put on the gloves. It was supposed to help them scale the flat wall easily. "You didn't seem much like a climber when he placed pins on the top, did you?"

K10 scratched his head. "Let's move."

They threw their bags over their shoulder and placed their hands on the walls. The gloves helped to provide more friction for them to hold onto the wall. They had thrown a rope held by a hook over the fence and they held onto it with one hand while their boots propelled them up.

The climb was laborious but it was worth it. Within five minutes they had reached the top. K11 ducked back again and whispered, "Soldiers, patrolling the eastern side of the fence."

K10 nodded and didn't move upward anymore. They hung on the fence waiting for the soldiers to pass by before they jumped down.

She peeked again and ducked down. She frowned. "They're not going away. Seems like they came here to sit around and talk."

"How many?" K10 asked after a little consideration.

"Five, but don't even think about it," K11 gave him a warning gaze. "This mission is supposed to prioritise stealth over every other thing."

K10 pulled out his rifle and shifted the latch of the rope to his belt. He loaded the gun with a wolfish smile. "Tell that to K1, if we don't act now he's going to open the emergency exit and then we'll be discovered."

"Or we could do this," K11 pressed down on her ear piece and promptly said, "K11 to K1, do not open the exit, I repeat do not open the exit. We have five soldiers waiting on the outside."

There was slight pause before K1 responded. "Copy that. You know, I was just about to flip the lever?"

K10 glanced down and tapped his companions shoulder. "We can't hang down like this for more than ten minutes. Someone might discover us and raise the alarm."

K11 thought for a while and sighed. "You're right. This was supposed to last at least thirty minutes and the longer we make it drag the smaller our chances of success. Let's get down."

"You mean go up?"

"Yes. Let's go up and then go down."

She pulled her own gun and cocked it. "Won't the sounds of shooting raise alarms?"

K10 smiled and shoved his gun back. "Who said anything about killing them?"

K11 shook her head in amusement.

….

Priscilla stood slightly beside Richard as she listened to the man in lab coat explain a few things about the new experiments they were doing. The explanation was all nice and fun but she wasn't interested in it now.

Her heart kept thumping and she would glance at Richard once in a while. She felt a bit guilty. 'Am I betraying his trust?' she wondered but in the end, she steeled her resolve. 'No, this has to be done.'

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, where's the toilet around here?"

"Oh," the scientist wiped his face then pointed down the corridor. "Towards the left, third room right."

"Thank you," she smiled and turned to Richard and Pauline. "I won't take long."

She walked towards the corridor and turned the corner. The moment she turned she broke into a small run and headed back towards the entrance. The soldiers gave her suspicious looks but then they only laughed. It was a rare sight to see a beautiful lady running down the corridor with her full chest heaving. Even the female soldiers or lab scientists were too focused on their jobs for that. They laughed over it and continued to talk.

Priscilla quickly pulled her hair up into a bun as she took another turn down the small corridor where the map said the light switch would be. She soon arrived at the small control room. The room controlled most of the power outlets in the base. She stopped by the door and peeped inside but someone was in there. She paused for a while but even then she heard footsteps.

'Soldiers!' she thought, pressing her back against the wall. She listened to the sound of footsteps coming closer. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door loudly.

She waited and soon she heard shuffling of feet as the man approached the door. He opened the door and as soon as the door opened, Priscilla kicked him and punched him hard across the face. The man stumbled back a few feet.

Priscilla dashed into the room and closed the door. The man scrambled towards the control panel and tried to press some buttons that Priscilla guessed were alarm signals.

She grabbed his neck and knocked him out with another powerful punch to the lower jaw. She winced and shook her hand. There was a snapping sound and she guessed the jaw must have been dislocated. She dropped the body and walked towards the control panel. She looked at the sea of buttons and switches with a pale face. Most of them didn't even have proper labels. Some used a letter and a number.

She hovered her hand over the many switches till she came to one that was large and round. Underneath it was written a zero and a 'one' inside. She smiled.

"They always use this symbol…" she pushed down with all her strength and something snapped and electrical sparks flew out from behind the wall. The lights went out at once leaving a dark room and corridor.

She heaved a sigh and returned back to the door and peeped through to check if anyone was there. She sighed when she didn't see anyone. She quickly snuck out of the room and placed a huge lock on it.

'No one should be able to restore power to the upper floors for a while.' She nodded and pressed her ear piece. "K7 to K1, the lights have been killed."

"Copy that, K7."