The Hidden World

“The main reason for Yuki bringing up this new information was to push us to move forward at a quicker pace,” Kilik said. “In case you need a quick review, that speech still displayed over there is cause for concern.”

He waved at the projected screen with the draft of the speech.

“If it is given to the public, then it will set forth a series of events and actions that will push us to action whether we want to or not,” he said. “Now, I don’t expect you to have an opinion on this just yet as we spent the last bit of time on evaluating these three women. So, we’ll transition to discussing this.”

Halie lifted her hand into the air, calling for Kilik’s attention. He gave her a small nod.

“Thank you,” she said. “I just wanted to ask Yuki something.”

“Yes?” Yuki replied.

“Do you have a plan set out?” she asked. “I think I remember you saying something to that effect at the start of this meeting.”

“I do, actually,” Yuki nodded. “I made one that I want to share with all of you. I believe that it could help you all in your decision. I take it your main concern with moving quicker is that it limits the amount of time available to create a plan, correct?”

“That is my main concern. I can’t speak for the others,” Halie replied.

“Then hopefully my plan could alleviate that concern. Kilik, may I?”

“You have the floor,” he said. “Feel free to take as long as you need. There isn’t a set end time for the gathering.”

“Thank you,” Yuki said. “Question for everyone, though. Is the speech still needed by any of you or have you all read through it?”

“I think we are good,” Garen replied after looking around at the other councilmembers for a moment.

“Then I will take it down for now,” Yuki said. 

She waved her hand and the screen disappeared. Then she tapped on her watch to bring up a new file that she had made the night before. It held her notes and the outline of her plan. She had combined the information she gathered from the dragons on the location of the Shikaku with what she had initially and with Akira and Uriel, she created a rough plan. 

“This is the Shikaku base,” she said, gesturing at the map she pulled up. “Or at least, their main base. I looked at the security detail and also sent a few people there in order to watch the area. Some of the information is a bit out of date which I’m going to who you all.”

Tapping on her watch again, she called on Uriel. A pulsing mass of holographic orbs rose out from her watch.

“Hi, Boss,” Uriel greeted. “What do you need?”

“This is Uriel,” Yuki introduced. “She is my digital assistant. You do not need to worry about her leaking anything in this meeting as she can’t actually see anything and it's in her programming. Uriel, can you give me the analysis of the Shikaku base and their security detail?”

“Yeah, sure,” she replied. “Want me to show it too, or just talk about it?”

“Visuals are always nice.”

“Got it. So the base.” A simple rendering of the base appeared in the air, projected from Yuki’s watch. It was as barebones as it could get, just a bunch of holographic boxes stuck together in the general outline of the base. “It’s quite boring from the outside. Most of the base is underground where it’s insulated with magic and materials. There are guards that rotate every hour, both living and robotic. They’re in pairs, so that the robot can keep the living person accountable.”

On the projection, little figures moved in and out of the base. 

“The circuit they follow can be seen here,” Uriel continued. “The old information is a bit outdated. The routes have changed a bit and certain guards are assigned areas instead of rotating throughout the entire structure. The biggest change is this.”

A bubble formed over the building that encased the entire base in a dome. 

“This is a barrier,” Uriel said. “It’s the biggest hurdle if you guys are going to break into this little place. It’s magic based and coded to let certain people inside the base. So only a few of the higher ups can leave freely.”

“Where do all the guards live then?” Jared asked. 

“They live on the base,” Uriel replied. “That’s also why they have those robot guards too. Lessens the amount of people they need to hire and all that. If you’re not approved to enter, then the barrier locks you out and you have no way in. Now, I’m guessing that should you touch the barrier, it will trip off a silent alarm that notifies the people in the base that someone is there. It would make sense, so I would expect that.

“The security inside the base is less concrete since, well, I don’t have any information inside to go off of. This is just going to be observations from outside along with some tools and good old guessing.”

The hologram zoomed in closer to the building, the bubble around it disappearing. 

“So, based on their resources and capabilities, I think it would be safe to say that they have technology securing their base. Things like sensors and cameras should be plenty. Some if not all might be hidden. The sensors won’t be cheap ones as well. They’ll most likely include heat detection, motion detection, and other things. The whole nine. Camera’s will be similar.”

Various red dots appeared on the model as she spoke. Many of them were congregated around entrances.

“These things will likely be at doorways and such. Sensors I would expect to be placed at frequent intervals to maximize detection, so expect a lot. These are the easy ones to deal with though. A good old EMP would take out most. That’s why I expect there to be more than that.”

“I can take over here,” Yuki said. 

“Alrighty,” Uriel replied. “Call me if you need me.”

She disappeared, but the model of the base stayed in place. Yuki brought closer to herself and spun it around for a moment.

“There will be safeguards in place to make sure the technology isn’t take out so easily,” Yuki said. “Things like absorbent materials around the sensors and cameras or even the walls so that an EMP will be rendered useless. Other technologies like pressure plates embedded in the ground to track movement will be likely.”

She waved the model away, the model disappearing as well.

“Along with that will be magical security. Inside the base, there are most likely mages monitoring each section and will report any sudden influx of mana they detect. All this might sound excessive, but it should be expected. This is their main headquarters. They wouldn’t want it to be so easily infiltrated.

“Now this brings us to the plan,” Yuki said. “The details I laid out about the base are a worst case scenario. It is quite possible that a lot less security is in place than we believe. It wouldn’t surprise me either as the barrier is a difficult first obstacle to overcome for anyone who is trying to breach their base. However, I will act as if the worst case is true and so my plan will reflect that.”

She leaned back in her seat and raised a finger.

“One. To breach the barrier, I will need a day or two. I can’t simply break it as that would alert the Shikaku to our presence. I will need to manipulate it so that it will read my group and whoever is joining us as people with permission to enter.

“Two. When the barrier is sabotaged, Akira will be sent in to scout out the perimeter. Her job will be to find the route of least resistance in. Once she has done that, she will report to us so that we can move forward.”

Yuki gestured toward Erica as she continued explaining.

“Third. With Erica leading, we will head in as a group using magic to shield ourselves from view. Based on the scouting reports we had, there are so sensors in the small space between the bubble and the building, so we only need to trick the vision of living beings. After that, we go to the route Akira found and locate a pair of guards. Erica here will use her magic to manipulate the guard while I will deal with the robot. Yuna will provide protection and stand watch as Akira scouts ahead.

“By this time, we should have gotten in without a problem. The time of our strike needs to be precise. The time for the changing of the guard needs to be almost upon us when we go in for this to work. Once Erica does her magic, Yuna will take the position of the guard and move through the facility with the robot that we’ve now taken control of following her. The rest of us will stay behind and wait for her to complete her task. She will be given a wireless transmitter that can interface with nearly anything that gives off a signal. When it comes into contact with the first thing it can touch, a virus will spread. I’m not sure if every system is closed in the base, but she will move around for a bit to maximise the spread.”

Yuki paused for a moment as she gathered her thoughts.

“Now, of course, they might have taken steps to prevent this, so if that happens, then we need to call of the mission and start from scratch,” she said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

“Once the virus spreads, the electronic component of the base is under our control now. We will only need to focus on hiding out magical signatures which is much easier. Then we locate the area where the leadership lives and assassinate them. That’s the plan.”

Yuki smiled at the other councilmembers and clasped her hands.

“Any thoughts?” she asked.

“I’m actually stuck on the first part,” Vermilion frowned. “You said that you’re going to manipulate the barrier?”

“I did, yes.”

“How?” he asked. “You can’t simply take another person’s spell and rewrite what is engrained in it. This particular barrier is probably split into two different spells from what I understand of it right now, but what the spells are is beyond me right now. So not only do you have to manipulate the spell, you would need to understand which spell you have to change. That doesn’t seem possible.”

“Well,” Yuki said, “your observations are right. It does seem impossible. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”