Some Time Ago pt.10: A Sense of Urgency
05 Nov 2019Maul Montresor
3 HOURS REMAINING..."Is everything that's important to you at risk? Does it feel like your life is hanging in the balance. Stop stressing and let us save you with our new data recovery station, we have a technician who's dedicated to helping you hold onto those memories. Bring your corrupt data drives in today for a free evaluation."
"Um...excuse me sir? Are you okay?" The young man behind the counter asked. Maul was lost in thought and staring at the advertisement that was flashing on the holo display behind the young employee. It's funny how something as simple as an advertisement in a tech store can put into words exactly how one feels.
"Come on buddy, I've got places to be!" An older gentleman shouted, he was standing in the small line that had formed behind Maul.
Maul slowly turned to look at the older gentleman and smiled. "Sorry, sir. My mind must be somewhere else today."
The older gentlemen couldn't bring himself to look Maul. Perhaps it was the dried blood and bruises or the dark circles forming under his eyes from exhaustion. The name Ghoulie had never seemed more fitting to him than it did now. He certainly looked the part.
Maul turns back to the employee and apologizes as he scans over the items he was about to purchase. A laptop, a hand full of USB-like devices and a can of "All-Day Inner-J" energy drink. The can was plastered with pictures of a Cobra. It was a weak but obvious ploy to capitalize on the popularity of John Jameson at the time. The crash site of his Cobra had apparently been found about a year before now and advertisers were still riding the wave it created. You've got to love capitalism, or not, it doesn't really care what you think. It's like a snake, even if you cut it's head off, it will still live on just long enough to piss you off.
He finishes the transaction and puts his items into his backpack and leaves the store.
"Thanks for shopping at Brady Ring's No-Tech-No-Logic! We appreciate your deposit." The young man called out with fake enthusiasm from behind the counter as Maul left.
Once outside, he checks his slate. Nearly 2 hours had passed since Mr. Usher's countdown began. He'd spent more time trying to navigate the overpopulated Brady Ring station then he'd care to admit. It ate up most of his time. All he knew was that he had only 3 hours to get to The Rose Tower Hotel, hack into their public network, install a backdoor, hack into the security systems network, install another backdoor and get back to Ray Gateway. That's not taking into account any hiccups along the way.
He puts his slate back into his pocket and gulps down his energy drink. Now, to the nearest mag-lev.
***THE ROSE TOWER HOTEL***
The mag-lev finally comes to a halt near the hotel. The ride here ate up even more of his available time. Maul steps out into the busy street and looks up at the gigantic hotel. You'd think that these rich assholes were overcompensating for something. Perhaps it's to hide the fact that they're all tasteless morons who feel compelled to congregate under one roof to show off. Maul decided he wasn't here to judge. After all, he knew a few wealthy people in the past who were actually decent folk.
He approaches the building without much of a plan in mind. The doorman spots him but is hesitant to open the door.
"Um, I'm sorry sir but are you aware that you're bleeding?"
Maul reaches up and touches the previously closed gash above his eyebrow. It was indeed bleeding again.
"Yes. I'm aware. Now, if you'd kindly open the door so I can go up to my room and clean up." Okay, it wasn't the best lie but it would have to do.
The doorman smiles. "Absolutely, just show me your guest badge."
Maul's fake smile quickly melted. What kind of hotel has a fucking guest badge? Ah right, probably the kind that's used for illegal activities, like this one.
"Sure thing." Maul says reaching into his pocket, pretending to feel around for a badge as he tries to think of another lie. The doorman was clearly becoming suspicious of his act.
"Damn, they must have took it as well." Maul says.
"I'm sorry, who are "they"?" The doorman asks.
"Well as you can tell, I've clearly been mugged. They took my laptop and I guess they stole my badge during our scuffle as well." Hey, not bad, almost kind of believable.
"Okay, if you could just tell me your name. We'll get this sorted."
Maul closes his eyes and points his face upwards in defeat. He was about to walk away when suddenly a thought occurred to him.
"The names Mr. Usher. Check your guest logs. I can assure you that I've been a guest here before." He decided to take a risk. If Mr. Usher knew what was going on here then he'd have to have been here before, right?
The doorman speaks into an earpiece. "We have a Mr. Usher here he- Yes. Oh. Of course."
He turns back to face Maul. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience Mr. Usher, please do come in." He opens the door to allow Maul access.
Surprised that his plan had actually worked, he sighs with relief and steps through the door to enter the lobby. There were suits and fancy dresses as far as the eye could see. Every person was immaculately dressed. Maul was sticking out like a sore thumb. He spotted the restroom signs and headed in that direction. Perhaps if he was to clean the dried blood off his face, he'd fit in a bit better.
He enters the restroom, taking his jacket off and slinging over a stall door. He turns the sink on and begins scrubbing his face vigorously. Looking in the mirror he starts to come to a conclusion; He was most definitely not immaculately dressed and he would most definitely still stick out.
He mumbles to himself a bit as the bathroom stall that his jacket was on flies open. A well dressed man who had been in there this whole time, comes out and tries to avoid eye contact as he leaves.
"Wait wait wait wait wait." Maul says running after the man and blocking him from leaving. "I'll give you fifty thousand credits for that suit."
The man shakes his head and tries to side step Maul. Maul quickly steps in front of him again. "One hundred thousand?"
"No, just leave me alone. Besides, we're not even the same size." The man sidesteps Maul again. Maul sighs heavily and decides to stomp the man in the side of his knee, causing something to snap. The man begins to fall back and yell in pain as Maul catches him and covers his mouth. He drags him back into the stall and flops him down onto the toilet.
Maul keeps his hand over the mans mouth as he shushes him and whispers.
"Listen, I'm taking this suit and leaving this credit chip for you. It's loaded with the one hundred thousand that I offered you." He shows him the chip as he grabs the man's hand and forces him to take it. "Now, when I leave I know you're going to start yelling and shit. That's fine. I just need a minute head start. Understand?"
The man slowly nods and Maul moves his hand off of his mouth.
"Cool. Now I need you to get undressed. I'll help you if you need me too."
"No, just get away, you freak."
Maul steps out of the stall and closes the door. He leans against the wall as he waits. After a few moments a light yelp can be heard from inside the stall.
"Hey buddy, you okay in there?" Maul asks.
"Yes! Leave me alone!"
Maul smiles and leans back against the wall. After a few more minutes the stall door swings open. The man was sitting on the toilet in nothing but his underwear.
"Here, take the damn thing." He throws the clothes at Maul.
Maul nods and enters another stall to change clothes. He steps out and looks in the mirror. The man was right. The suit fit like shit. It was too tight but it was the best he could do. He shrugs and puts his backpack back on and heads for the exit.
"Alright man, remember. Give me at least a minute." He shouts to the man in the stall as he exits out into the lobby.
As he looks around the lobby for the elevators, he notices something in his pocket. It was bathroom man's badge.
"Room 307" Maul says to himself, reading the card.
A distinct ding is heard to his left. It was the elevators. He quickly makes his way to them and steps inside with a host of people. They all stared at him. It's like they'd never seen a person with face tattoos and green hair before, the uncultured swines.
The elevator arrives on the third floor and Maul steps off. He was planning on using bathroom man's room as a place to lay low and start the hack. Following the room numbers he finally arrives at room 307. Just as he is about to enter the room, he can hear a guard's radio from down the hall.
"We've had a robbery in the lobby bathrooms. Suspect is believed to have green hair, a full dark brown beard and face tattoos."
"Great. Stupid fucking green hair. Darius was right about that too, I guess." He grumbles to himself as he quickly swipes the card and enters the room.
Luckily, it was empty. Bathroom man must have been here alone. Unluckily, he didn't have much time before security would be coming to check this room. Maul begins unpacking his gear on the bed. He quickly checks the time again.
2 HOURS AND 13 MINUTES REMAINING...
After setting up his gear he grabs his newly purchased laptop and plugs in his portable storage device that held his various hacking tools and programs. He connects to the hotel's public network and begins the hack. Getting access to the public network was fairly easy considering it wasn't very secure. Now that he had access to that it was as simple as running his network sniffer to intercept all the data moving through the network. The laptop screen began filling with logs that the sniffer was intercepting.
Now, the security systems server that housed the footage from the camera's littered across the hotel was the next target. A quick scan of the LAN revealed it but none of the exploits Maul had were working. He was going to have to figure out another way. As he began brainstorming there was a knock at the door.
"James, let me in! I lost my key up at the pool!" It was a woman.
"Fuck." He thought. Turns out bathroom man wasn't here alone.
She pounded on the door a few more times. "James, I heard that. Let me in! Please!"
Maul had to stop and think. Did he just say that out loud? Was this woman reading his mind? Either way, he didn't have time for this. He grabs his gear and shovels it into his backpack and opens the door.
"Yes?"
The woman looks at Maul with a mixture of confusion and fear. She was wrapped in a towel and had oversized sunglasses on. Typical swimming attire.
"Who are you? Where's my husband."
"Oh, James is married? Wow, this is awkward. He just invited me up here. Last I saw him, he was in the lobby."
The woman sighed and pushed the door open to walk in. She scans Maul from head to toe with her eyes and scoffs. He felt goofy with his undersized suit and oversized backpack.
"Well, you're not exactly my type but whatever makes him happy, I guess." She drops her towel and walks into the bathroom. "I'm going to shower before we get started. Go ahead and get out of that ridiculous suit and wait on the bed. My husband should be up here any minute to watch. He does so love to watch."
Maul waits for the sound of the shower to turn on and slips out of the room. It was becoming clear why Mr. Usher wanted access to the footage from this hotel. These people were freaks. Better yet, they were freaks with money. He makes his way to the stairs and follows the signs to the basement where the security station was located. Alas, the door to this floor was locked and without access to the security network, there was no unlocking it. Maul spent a few minutes ramming the door before giving up and checking the time he had left.
1 HOUR 42 MINUTES REMAINING...
He leans against the wall to catch his breath and slides down to the floor.
"Think Maul think think think." He says, smacking his head. Then it dawned on him. Hotel security was looking for him. That's how he's going to get access to this floor.
He gets up and grabs his backpack off the floor and runs up the stairs to the lobby. The lobby was even more packed than it was earlier. Security guards were everywhere. James "The Bathroom Man" was even there. Maul takes off his backpack and retrieves one of his USB sticks and stuffs it into his sock. Slinging the backpack back on his shoulders her approaches James and the team of security interviewing him.
"Excuse me gentlemen, may I ask what happened down here?"
James look up at Maul with huge eyes and wagged his finger at him.
"That's him! Look, he's still wearing my suit! See how small it is!"
The security team grabbed Maul, restrained him with zip tie handcuffs and escorted him down into their holding area while they contacted station authorities.
***THE ROSE TOWER HOTEL: SECURITY STATION***
Maul was sitting on a couch in the office of The Rose Tower Hotel's Head of Security. Across from him sat behind a desk was the aforementioned Head of Security; Marty. Marty was noodling around on his computer
and glancing over at Maul occasionally. Eventually, Marty and Maul were just staring at each other in silence, waiting to see who would break first. It was Marty.
"You look like a fucking idiot in that suit."
Maul, who still had his hands zip tied behind him, nodded in agreement.
"What the fuck were you doin' anyway? Why would you steal a man's suit? What purpose did that serve? And another thing, what was with all that gear you were carrying?"
Maul was beginning question his actions as well. Why did he need the suit? He got lucky with the access key in the pocket. Regardless, he wasn't worried about his gear. He was confident enough in his skills to know that none of these guys would understand what he was doing here, even if he told them word for word exactly what he did and how he did it.
"Just going to sit there and not speak, huh?" He stared at Maul for a moment more before standing up and heading for the door. "Alright, I'm going to get some coffee. Don't you be running off now." He laughs and closes the door behind him.
Maul immediately leans back and brings his knees to his chest to attempt to get his hands around in front of him. He struggles and falls off the couch into the floor. After a moment of flailing and swearing, he successfully gets his hands in front of him. He pulls the zip tie tighter with his teeth as he stands up and lifts his arms over his head, in one quick motion he brings them down and the ties snap. After taking a moment to wipe the sweat off his face, he runs over to the clearly outdated computer that Marty was using. He reaches down and pulls the USB out of his sock.
"Now I just need to access this computer and-" Maul stopped mumbling to himself when he noticed that Marty hadn't logged out of his computer. Not only that but his username and password was written on a sticky note and stuck to the monitor. It read:
User: MartyMcSuperFly
Pass: Back2daFuture
Maul plugged the USB in and starting installing the necessary programs. He already had access thanks to Marty, now he just needed to install a way to remotely access the footage without anyone noticing. Unfortunately, Marty's computer was prehistoric and was taking forever to install the program. A muffled voice could be heard outside the door. It was Marty coming back with his coffee. Maul quickly minimized the installer and turned off the monitor. The mechanical door whooshed open and there stood Marty with his back facing the room. He was talking to someone down the hall. Maul quickly but quietly made his way back to the couch and put his hands behind his back, as if he were still cuffed.
Marty turns around and looks at Maul as the door closes behind him.
"What were you doin'?"
Maul's eyes must have been the size of VY Canis Majoris.
"Just messing with ya kid." Marty laughed. "Listen, I was just talking to the guys and it looks like there's been a bit of a mix up."
"What?" Maul finally spoke.
"Yep, that James fella said that in all of the confusion, he pointed out the wrong guy." Marty shrugs. "Kinda suspicious if you ask me but whatever. The folks that stay here are always doin' some weird shit."
He let's out a large sigh and approaches Maul.
"Alright kiddo, stand up and I'll get those cuffs off you."
Maul's eyes widened again. There were no cuffs. The zip tie cuff's they had him in were broken and laying on the floor.
"Wait!"
Marty steps back.
"What is it?"
Maul looks around nervously.
"Can I get some water?"
Marty smiles and steps towards him again.
"Sure kid, just as soon as I cut you loose."
Maul looked down at the floor at the broken cuffs that were previously on him.
"What's that?"
As Marty looked down, Maul grabbed the pistol out of Marty's hip holster and pointed it at him.
"Fuck! I'm really sorry about this Marty." He says as he takes some zip tie handcuffs off of Marty's belt.
Maul moves Marty over to the chair behind the desk and cuffs him to it. Maul slides his shoe off..or..James' shoe off and removes his sock and stuffs it into Marty's mouth. He then removes his jacket..or..uh..James' jacket and covers Marty's face, so he wouldn't see him remove the USB from the computer.
Maul lays the pistol on the desk and exits the room nonchalantly with one of his ankles now exposed due to James' small pants. A guard notices him and approaches to escort him to his belongings and back out into the lobby.
Once in the lobby he secures his backpack around him and checks the time again.
1 HOUR 15 MINUTES REMAINING...
Maul looked around the busy lobby. It started to feel like time was beginning to slow down. The All-Day Inner-J was wearing off and he was suddenly with exhaustion and a migraine.
"Excuse me, Sir!" A voice called out.
Maul looked to see who it was and to his dismay, it was James. He was limping over with a smile on his face. It appeared he had also gotten himself a clean suit from his room.
"That credit chip you gave me actually checked out. I figured you were just lying to me."
Maul bats his eyes slowly and fights with himself to not collapse on the spot.
"Hey, I gave you my word, man. I'm really sorry about the le-" He yawned before he could finish his sentence.
James reaches out and pats Maul on the shoulder.
"Ah, don't worry about it. The leg will be fine. You know, my wife was asking about you, would you perhaps like to-" Maul interrupts him.
"No no no, I've really gotta be going."
Maul walks away from James without saying another word and exits the building.
Once aboard the mag-lev outside, he takes his laptop out to make sure that the backdoors in the hotel's systems were working and that he could access them remotely. He was relived to see that everything worked perfectly. Now he just needed to get off station before Marty called the authorities and reported him for holding him at gunpoint.
The mag-lev arrives near the docks and Maul exits. He attempts to scan his badge but his permission was denied. He attempted it again and it was still denied. It was slowly becoming clear that he was now wanted in this system and he could no longer legally gain access to his ship. He didn't have the tools or time to try to hack into the badge reader so, he closes his eyes and lowers his head and tries to think.
"Cate's going to die and it's all your fault, you fucking moron. Why did you even talk to her? You're a fugitive for Christ's sake. What the fuck were you-"
He stopped talking to himself at the sound of the keypad beeping. He opens his eyes to see that it was another commander gaining access the docks.
"Hey buddy, sorry I startled ya there. Ya looked deep in thought."
Maul wanted to thank the man but there was no time. He runs through the now opened door and down the halls to the hangar. He boards The Enigma and changes out of James' too small suit and into his flight suit. Plopping down in the pilots chair and starting launch procedures, he checks the time.
45 MINUTES REMAINING...
He still had to make the jump to Diaguandri, land at Ray Gateway and ride the mag-lev to the stop near the abandon offices where Mr. Usher and his lackeys were holding Cate. He chose not to think about and quickly exits Brady Ring and lines up the jump to Diaguandri.