They dragged the bodies into a recessed maintenance cavity and worked quickly.
Blyke stripped one of the wolf-masked guards of his bulletproof jacket, tossing it to Cagaro. "Wear it. These will help a lot."
The vest was heavier than it looked. Cagaro felt its weight settle over his shoulders—responsibility disguised as protection.
Arcee inspected one of the plasma guns, checking the charge meter. "Battery's at forty-three percent." she muttered.
"These things drain fast if you overheat them. Three prolonged bursts max. After that? It is a metal stick."
Henry took the second one, flipping it in his hand. "So it is not a weapon. It is something more precious... a junk."
Blyke nodded. "Whatever. Use it only if there is no longer an option."
They crouched near the dim wall lights of the tunnel. The corridor ahead split—stairs leading upward toward the arcology's service levels and deeper passageways running laterally beneath the structure.
Cagaro glanced between them. "Do we go up?"
Arcee tapped her finger against the plasma casing. "If we go up now, we have to ride the momentum. We have neutralized two gaurds. However, others might come to check them. The absence will be noticed in maybe… seven minutes."
Henry shook his head lightly. "Absence creates suspicion but silence creates assumption."
Blyke looked at him. "Whst is your point?"
Henry leaned against the wall,
"We have created controlled anomalies. Two sound disruptions, radio static, missing patrol. If we move up immediately, we confirm enemy intrusion when they start searching higher levels. But if we stay…"
"...they will assume patrol repositioning," Arcee finished, catching on.
"Exactly." Henry said. "Humans rationalize missing pieces before they assume threat. Especially under stress."
Blyke considered. "But staying too long will cause that they will regain structural awareness. They will revise their formation."
Cagaro listened, feeling like he was watching gamblers at a high-stakes table risking all probabilities in hand.
Arcee smirked. "It's like betting whether they panic first or reorganize first."
Henry crouched, drawing a rough layout in dust. "If we ascend in three minutes, not immediately, they will still be in the denial phase."
Blyke's gaze sharpened. "We will reach there in three minutes. We will let them convince themselves nothing's wrong."
Cagaro adjusted the vest steadying his heart. He was starting to understand. It was about timing. About nudging the enemy's mind into the wrong conclusion.
Blyke stood. "Three minutes is all we have." he repeated.
....
Arcee knelt beside the nearest maintenance panel, dragging the dead guard's body just enough to scan his wrist tag.
The system accepted the credential with a muted chime.
"Don't waste it." Henry murmured.
"Relax." Arcee replied, fingers moving fast across the interface. "Full shutdown brings intrusion. I am just… inconveniencing it. Let's hack the hack!"
She accessed the camera feed for the corridor junction ahead. A live angle showed the upper maintenance stairwell fully empty for now.
Instead of disabling it, she isolated a twelve-second segment of the current feed.
"Loop is ready" she whispered. "on my mark."
Blyke and Cagaro had already pulled the wolf masks over their faces. The rubber smelled faintly of oil and sweat.
Cagaro adjusted the stolen bulletproof vest beneath his jacket. His breathing slower.
Arcee tapped the screen. Just twelve seconds of an ordinary hallway.
"Go"
Blyke moved first, calm and unhurried. Cagaro followed, matching his stride exactly. They didn't sprint. Guards don't sprint in their own territory. They crossed the camera's blind spot and slipped toward the upper maintenance stairs.
Seven seconds.
Eight.
Nine.
Cagaro resisted the urge to look up at the lens.
Twelve.
The loop was released.
The camera resumed live transmission without flicker. It was a subtle time skip.
On the monitor, two wolf-masked guards were now visible walking up the stairs in normal pace and posture.
No one reviewing the footage would see intrusion. Only a lag common in a jammed communications grid.
Henry exhaled lightly. "Now we are walking infront of them and they don't even realize."
Arcee smirked. "Phew, memories are harder to question than alarms."
They waited three seconds. Then Henry pulled a second wolf mask over his face. Arcee followed. Together, they stepped deliberately into the camera's view and walked toward the same staircase in normal posture.
If anyone cross-checked timestamps, it would show routine patrol movement.
When the feed stabilized fully, it displayed exactly what the system expected to see;
security personnel maintaining upper maintenance.
Just a minor visual hiccup in a stressed network.
Arcee powered down the panel softly. "Glitches happen."
Henry adjusted his mask, eyes steady. "Hehe, people trust idealism more than perfection."
Then they moved upward into the arcology's higher levels already written into the building's own surveillance as part of its defense.
The four of them reached the upper maintenance level without any significant incident. The corridor widened gradually until it opened into a massive internal sector of the arcology.
They slipped into the shadows behind a structural support column.
The inside of Mercurion wasn't just advanced. It was also engineered elegance.
Suspended pedways stretched across vast open space, transparent walkways connecting residential blocks to commercial tiers.
Soft artificial daylight filtered from the ceiling panels far above, mimicking a pale afternoon sun. Vertical gardens climbed steel ribs of the structure.
Automated transport rails glided silently along magnetic tracks. It felt like a contained world.
Now, it was hijacked.
Cagaro had only seen Mid Strato in news projections. With the pedways inside it seems like a spider web inside the Arcology.
Standing inside it was different. The scale distorted his sense of distance. Voices came from somewhere far below.
Henry sat down casually against the wall, one knee raised, as if waiting for a delayed train. Eyes unfocused but not idle at all.
Blyke leaned slightly past the edge of the column and scanned the nearest pedway intersection.
"It is clear." he muttered. "No immediate patrol in a passage for now."
Arcee adjusted her gloves. "Let's rush in then."
Henry didn't respond. His gaze followed the rhythm of moving platforms, timing intervals between drone passes.
....
Above them, far above the column's crown where maintenance beams met darkness, a figure stood motionless.
Just a silhouette folded into shadow.
Eyes reflecting the artificial light.
A gloved hand rested lightly against a steel cable, balanced with unnatural stillness. Whoever it was had been there before they arrived and had not moved once.