“Mayor Grandas, give us back our water!”
Will, meanwhile, joined Horatio at Rhea’s side, as did the other Wardenites who were in on the plan.
Rhea carried a small sack at her hips. It wouldn’t register as a weapon to the robot scans, as within were several magnetized disks containing seemly innocuous circuitry. DragonHunter had designed that circuitry to interfere with local comm nodes, allowing her to sever objects of her choice from contact with the central AI in charge of the city, simply by attaching one of the disks. DragonHunter called them CommNixers. They wouldn’t work on the bigger comm nodes of larger units such as mechs and shuttles, but smaller combat robots and devices were fair game.
Along the crowd’s route, mechanical monstrosities gathered on the sidelines, watching but not intervening. Residents also observed from the balconies of apartments that bordered the road. Armed drones followed along overhead, below any civilian drones in the area. Gizmo was up there somewhere as well.
When the throng was halfway to the parliament area, Renaldo swung them to the right, taking an avenue that led directly to the water supply towers. The city’s robots were taken by surprise: evidently, they had been expecting the crowd to march to city hall once again. The security forces were forced to scramble as they relocated from the previous route.
Rhea grinned. They probably wouldn’t pull the entirety of their forces from the parliament area, but enough would be gone now for her to sneak past. At least, she hoped so.
She paused above a manhole. Will and the other Wardenites gathered around her, blocking her from the watching eyes of the robots. She quickly attached one of the disks DragonHunter had given her, disabling the manhole’s sensors. Then she tore it open and slipped inside.
“Good luck,” Will told her above the chanting crowd.
She nodded, then lowered the manhole cover on top of her, and blackness descended.
The stench hadn’t been too bad up until that point, but as soon as the manhole settled into place, it really hit her, and she was forced to dial her olfactory sensitivity way down.
She activated her LIDAR, and white wireframes overlaid the darkness, forming a cylindrical tunnel. She climbed down the rungs along its side.
There were sensors placed in the sewers to prevent unauthorized exploration, sensors that would activate well before Rhea was able to sever them with her disks. DragonHunter had been tasked with disabling them. She’d soon find out if he had succeeded.
She reached the bottom of the descent. The vertical tunnel joined up with a larger horizontal crosspiece, and Rhea swung onto the small ledge near the middle. That ledge would allow her to advance without stepping into the sewage that resided in the center of the passage. Its surface was represented as a layer of green polygons against the white of the tunnel.
She followed the marked route through those twisting and turning passageways.
At one point she paused, because a pair of turrets watched from the ceiling, guarding the way forward. She was relying on DragonHunter to disable these as well.
Swallowing, she stepped forward.
As she got closer, those turrets swung toward her menacingly. Tracking her.
She froze.
The seconds ticked past. When nothing happened, she took a tentative step forward. Then another. A third.
Still the turrets did not fire.
She continued forward, and finally passed beyond their range of fire. She slumped, allowing herself a quick moment of respite, then straightened to continue forward once more.
She reached the destination manhole shortly. She climbed the rungs that led to the surface, attached a CommNixer to the manhole cover, and then turned it and lifted. She opened it only a crack, then pivoted in place, one hand firmly gripping the upper rungs as she cleared the area all around her.
DragonHunter knew her full route of course, and if he had successfully hacked the cameras in the area, he would be watching her though them right now. Meanwhile, a fake feed would be furnished to the central AI, a looping video depicting an empty street. And if DragonHunter hadn’t succeeded, she would be arrested.
Or killed.
She slid the manhole cover aside and hauled herself out. She stood about half a block away from city hall, and well within the parliament area. The compound was empty around her.
She carefully replaced the manhole cover and jogged toward the outskirts of the pyramid that formed city hall. No robots came rushing at her, nor any energy bolts.
A good sign.
Still, it was slightly frustrating: DragonHunter could remotely hack the software that managed the cameras, and yet he was unable to penetrate the access point she needed. Well, she supposed she should be happy the cameras were vulnerable at all, otherwise she’d have no way of reaching her target.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. Another option was to wear a special reflective suit, one that would confuse the cameras into believing she was one of the patrolling robots. However, the central AI would send troops to investigate why this particular robot deviated from its patrol route. Yes, bypassing the cameras was the best option.
She reached the edge of the pyramid and peered past. Two robots guarded a small side entrance not far from her.
She pulled herself onto the sloping wall of the pyramid. The metallic surface was etched with small vertical channels, perhaps originally designed to carry rain; whatever their purpose, they allowed her good handholds for her climb.
While DragonHunter might be handling any nearby cameras, there was still a chance that a passing robot patrol would spot her, which is why she tried to keep her body as close to the surface as possible.
After ascending the equivalent of two stories, she found the skylight she was looking for. The glass pane began a short way inside the rectangular recess that harbored it.
She bent over, lowered her upper body to the glass, and pressed her face close. The boardroom inside was empty.
She pulled herself back up, set her hands down on
