Interlude K&K – Part Two

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.