Archives of the Frontier Universe: An Assassin's Assignment by Christopher Villanueva

schematics, but it seems they have upped the security. Just not the personnel. I’m locked out for now. I’ll keep trying to get in but . . . Hold on; let me assign some of my staff to this.” He paused again, and Rose kept walking around the exterior. She had nearly made it to the end of the dining room’s length, when she heard the faint murmuring of voices. Freezing, she tuned her hearing upon a floor above her. “Yes, this is Meyer!” said the Captain, startling her. “I want you to assign a team to breaking the Court’s security surrounding the Grand Hall. I need access to the structure’s schematics.”
    “Thanks a lot, Captain!” she hissed.
    “Excuse me, ma’am?” he returned, sounding confounded.
    “Nothing, sorry. There’re people outside here. I was just listening to them really closely, and you surprised me. They appear to be dinner guests, probably out on a balcony. If they’re enough of them—and it sounds like there are—I may be able to slip inside this way.”
    “Okay, I’ll be working on hacking the system. Be careful.”
    What? Be ‘normal?’ she thought with slight intolerance. “Copy that.”
    Above, the dinner guests chatted away, most of them sounding well-mannered. However, one gentleman in particular sounded far and away gone already. “ Aid for Dailunavein?! ” he nearly shouted, laughing hysterically. “ What . . . what makes them think they deserve . . . ” he paused, hiccupping. And then it sounded like he pounded his own chest. “ Ah! Anyways, they don’t deserve a single shh . . . ship! And even the Court can’t compel us to send them . . . any . . . I know exactly how to fix their problem. The Court’s . . . just got to approve my plan! ” Although the others above Rose continued their conversations with practical voices, the drunken man grew louder and louder. “ That’s what you think . . . , right? ” he demanded of someone.
    “Sounds like someone needs to be thrown overboard,” mumbled Rose. “This fool honestly thinks he knows how to solve the Court’s problems.”
    Captain Meyer laughed. “Who is that? Can you see him?”
    “Negative. It’s a wonder you can hear him. He’s about two more levels up on a patio. Everyone else seems to be having more ‘civil’ discussions. I’m going to try to get closer.” She aimed her harpoon near the railing of the patio and waited. For some reason, though, the man quieted down for the first time since she first heard him. Rose dropped her arm in irritation. “Come on, you dilettante!” she cursed. “Where’d the incessant yakking go?”
    “ And another thing! They got to —”
    Using his elevated voice to her advantage, Rose launched her harpoon and hooked the ledge under the rail. The impact made a small thud, which was masked by the man’s otherwise useless babble. “Here goes nothing,” she assured Meyer. She retracted the harpoon and rose swiftly into the air. The man’s voice intensified as she neared the railing, until finally culminating when she stopped just under a standing plant. The plant was very bushy, and she could already tell it would serve her arrival well.
    Rose reached up and grabbed the railing. Peeking through the bush, she ensured no one would see her, and then climbed all the way up. “Alright. I’m in position behind a plant. I should be able to simply walk—”
    “Hey! What in space?!” called the incorrigible drunken man. Rose froze, realizing he had seen her. “Lady!” he called. “Hey . . . Hey, lady!”
    “Oh, crap!” said Meyer. “They saw you.”
    As subtlety as she could, Rose pulled her sleeves over her harpoons, and with a certain annoyed grace, stood and walked out from behind the plant. About half of the patio guests looked at her, which amounted to at least two dozen people (much more than she expected). They were all dressed finely, even the drunk, most still wearing their official attire and weapons. She rolled her eyes, acting intolerant.
    “Hey,