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

I hope that drink isn’t going to affect you. The place is likely guarded.”
    “Please!” scoffed Rose. “There are few people, few ‘men’ even, that can out-drink me. I probably won’t even feel it.” She smiled and before exiting the dining room, used her power to snag a few mints from a nearby counter. Everyone else inside was too occupied to notice her. Stuffing the mints in her mouth, she left, still unexposed.
     
     

Chapter 8
     
     
    Reaching the end of another corridor, Rose peeked into the next hall. Only two or three people occupied the space from what she could see, all of whom were headed somewhere. She continued down the hall, passing many sets of doors. Obviously, this area served as one of several dormitories for officials traveling to Forcurrier on Court business. The walls themselves were constructed of fine material resembling marble. On the floors, long marvelous rugs were laid, dampening footsteps and adding to the high-class environment. Lastly, high on the walls burned sets of Forcurrian torches, crafted in a marvelous design. Also, every few doors down, large bowl shaped torches hung from the ceiling, similar to those which lit the Court assembly room, she remembered.
    “Okay, so you said it was ‘four’ floors down?” she whispered, after walking out of earshot.
    “Affirmative,” answered Meyer. “But if I’m reading your position correctly, you already went down a floor.”
    “Yes, I did,” she affirmed. “So, three more to go then.”
    “I believe so, yes. Sorry, we were not able to establish the most sophisticated connection. Security is still very tight, and their automated systems keep updating privileges, which is giving us trouble. I can’t even pinpoint your exact location. Looks like you’re over twenty stories above the ground and . . . apparently six thousand miles from the nearest highway.”
    At this, Rose nearly burst into laughter. “What?!” she breathed with humor. “That’s far enough to be on another continent.” She continued into a stairwell, keeping her ears held to the area.
    “That’s correct,” Meyer replied with a chuckle. “It says . . . hold on . . . Right. It keeps alternating between a strong, detailed connection and tremendous interference. This has to be because of the security they’ve got in place.”
    Rose reached the fourth floor down and then paused in curiosity. “Well, is it showing I’m at the right place?” she asked.
    “Wait a minute, it . . . yes. You’re on the floor. Any of the server rooms should—”
    “But there isn’t a door here,” she said, astonished. Moving closer to the plain wall, she listened for activity.
    “There’s not a door?”
    “No. It’s just a wall—” She leaned closer, feeling the dimensions of the next room. “But there’s certainly something here. I need an alternate route.”
    “Damn, the floor must be restricted. Which actually doesn’t surprise me.” He paused for a minute. “You’ll need to access one of the restricted stairwells or elevators. However, you’ll almost certainly need a code.”
    Rose sighed, partially disappointed in herself for not foreseeing this. She left the wall and paced across the stone. “So, where would you suggest I’d obtain such credentials? Do I just need to beat up some guard for it?”
    “No . . . well, maybe,” said Meyer. “It depends on how restricted the floor is. A guard may not have access to the floor. But I’d bet everything I owned that one of the officials around there has it. Or you may have to get to another floor where they’d be. It’s not likely that an official with the code would be a foreigner. So I wouldn’t be looking around the hotel levels.”
    Rose pulled out her glass slate. “Can you send me coordinates? Or just tell me what floor they’d be on? I need to get moving. I don’t want to risk Command bothering you again.”
    “Let me see,” began the captain. His typing and configuring of his computer took