Friday, February 1, 2008

Spy Game Part II (See Previous Post)

Once he had made his way out of the sentries' view, Tevan crept to the north wall of the compound's swoop garage. In a shadow outside, he took his pack off and laid it down. He then made his way, through the darkness, to the main building. There, he pulled out one of the slickest pieces of technology he'd seen: a jamming device that was virtually undetectable. Only a detailed diagnostic would find something out of place, and even then it wasn't always easy to determine what. The jammer was one of Imperial Intelligence's latest sources of pride, and Tevan had heard that developing an effective counter-method to it was a while in coming.

Tevan selected a segment of an exterior power cable that was relatively concealed and stuck the jammer on. The power flow of the conduit would further hinder any attempts to locate the jammer- not that the smugglers would be looking anyway. They were mostly asleep in the small...barracks? Could one even call it that? It was mostly just a large storage unit with some cots and bunks set up.

Tevan's observations showed that no more than six people were active at this time of night, and that was on a busy night. There were always three or four sentries patrolling the perimeter, and sometimes one or two people inside the main building.

Tevan moved to a side entrance and tested the door. It was unlocked, and Tevan slipped inside. The corridor was not dark, but the lights were relatively dim, either from low-power settings or poor maintenance. Tevan crept along quietly, listening for any sound. At each door, he pressed his ear to the metal, trying to see if he could determine whether the room was occupied. He heard nothing, though that certainly wasn't conclusive. He passed the short corridor to the stairwell, went to the first room on the left, and went inside. There, he laid a small device in the far corner of the room, then returned to the corridor. He reached the stairwell and moved up to the second floor.

As he moved along the corridor, hand on blaster in case of discovery, Tevan heard only two things: the low hum of the lights and his very quiet breathing. He knew the control romm to which he was making his way would have at least one occupant. Tevan was banking on the hope that the occupant would be alone.

He turned left into the corridor where the control room was located. Just beyond the door to the room, Tevan saw another small room, with another staircase leading back down to the first floor. Tevan crouched behind the corner in the shadows, then pulled out a slim, flat remote. Watching the door closely and listening, he pressed a button on the remote, and counted to ten. Sure enough, after ten seconds, a short, somewhat stocky man walked out, turned right, and headed down the stairs.

Tevan quickly and quietly moved into the control room. It was mostly filled with a bank of computers, moniters and consoles that ran along the walls. Tevan saw a blinking red light, indicating that something was messing up the environmental controls. That, Tevan thought with a small grin, meant his little device was working perfectly. It was meant to simulate an energy spike indicative of a faulty power coupling, and it was doing its job. But Tevan knew he only had about a minute. So he found a scomp link and pulled out a small tube. It was a modified droid scomp link access arm, meant to quickly access computer data. This one was rigged to find the central database and copy it all. Coupled with a state of the art security-slicing program, it took about thirty seconds to download all the information Tevan needed.

(Stay Tuned for the Exciting Conclusion, Coming Soon!)