During the week after my team-up with Anath, only one thing happened that I felt was out of the ordinary. After school, I was ambushed by Business Barby, aka Grace, once again.

“Hello Alexandria. How was school?” she asked, with a cheery smile plastered on her face. It was eerie, over the last couple of months, she had tried to sound me out, probably trying to gain a hold on me for my father, in an attempt to know my deepest thoughts and secrets.

“Hello Grace. It was school, what do you expect? I learned a few new things and passed the time. It’s not as if I am challenged outside of a few parts the advanced curriculum offers.” I told her with a serene, smiling mask in place. No emotion, just serenity.

“I really don’t understand you, you know.” she said in an almost pondering tone. “You have so much going for you but you squander your youth. I have never seen you act like a normal teenager, meeting with friends or something like that. You are always aloof, holding yourself apart.”

For a split-second rage took me and my mask cracked. Being a ‘normal teenager’?! What ‘normal teenager’ had to worry about being sold off after finishing high school? Sold off to cement a marriage-alliance, like some thrice-cursed medieval princess? What ‘normal teenager’ had to contend with the fact that her so-called fiàncé turned her school-life into a living nightmare?

Who did this whore think she was? She had sold herself to my father as a trophy, content in being just that, a trophy and a toy for a rich man. Well, I did not want to become the trophy of Clark. I wanted to scream and shout, to smack some sense into the oh-so-graceful Grace. But as fast as the crack had developed, I managed to close it and hide my emotions behind another mask. Looking at her, I saw her recoil in shock at the hateful glare I had given her before I managed to speak.

“What normal teenager? I am the daughter of Martin King, President of KingCorps. In what way am I normal?” I asked her, letting some haughty scorn into my voice. I had to bluff and hope that she took my slip-up as anger about being compared to an average teenager, anger and arrogance would have to mask my real emotions.

“I wish you would let me in.” she said with a sad look on her face. “I have been a teenager once and I know some of the things you go through. I want to help you and be your friend.”

“Thank you for your kind intentions. If you excuse myself, I will head to my room.” I stood and walked up the stairs. She wanted to be my friend? My father’s trophy plastic doll wanted to be my friend? Well, if anyone believed that, I had a bridge in Brooklyn and a tower in Paris to sell.

After I got to my room, I took out a few small, wireless cameras and installed them looking down the stairs and in a few other spots so I knew if anyone went into my room, no matter if I was there or not. There was nothing directly connected to Metis in the room, only my computer could be used to connect with Galatea so there was nothing to find if anyone ever searched it but still, I was gripped by a general sense of unease. Grace had ramped up her attempts to cozy up to me and I had a feeling that, if she failed, my father would resort to different methods.

I had one plan in mind as a contingency but it would take some work to prepare it. But fortune favored the prepared so I would put in the effort and hope that I’d never need it.

But that contingency plan was something for the future, for now I wanted to work on my plan for a contained magnetic bottle, encasing air-plasma strong enough to keep my armour afloat. It was not impossible but there were problems with it.

Over the next three days, I kept hitting a wall and I was hitting it hard. I was certain that I was on the cusp of a breakthrough but it was eluding me. I wanted to physically hit something or someone. I needed to break through the paradigm that kept me trapped.

Well, I knew where other people were conducting research into the same concepts, I would just have to pay them a visit. Getting the overall plans for the research-facility I wanted to break into was simply, they were on file with the city. But just knowing what the building looked like and where the corridors were supposed to be did not help very much so Galatea and I teamed up, hacking into their network.

Doing so was surprisingly simple, we just went to the next coffee-shop and infected their wi-fi and used that to get into their customers mobile devices when they went there to get their caffeine-fix. Once the device connected to the labs’ network, we had our trojan horse. One fool was even dumb enough to connect his phone into their closed-circuit surveillance-system, allowing me to partially connect to it and get some inside-view of their laboratory.

With the gathered information, I knew that I would need back-up. There was no way to infiltrate the building, I had just not the skills to do so. I was sure that I could get into the outer shell without triggering any alarms but going further would require a less subtle approach. As in hitting walls. Hard. As soon as that happened, the League would know about it and deploy.

I composed a message to Anath, offering her a certain bag of cash for her assistance in a smash and grab-job, not going into any details. Like that she couldn’t betray me, even if she wanted to. Galatea was certainly happy, she told me she had a good feeling about Anath. I was intrigued that she was becoming capable of intuition, something I rated a step higher than creativity in my personal rating for sapience. So I would trust Anath for now, until she proved untrustworthy. If she ever did, I would kill her.

The overall plan for the caper was simple, install a backdoor into their system, use the backdoor to break into the outer shell using a maintenance door. As soon as I was in, move through a specific series of corridors at a specific speed to avoid their cameras while watching out for the guards.

When I managed to do so, I would be in front of a door, locked with a biometric lock. That was as far as I could get without definitely raising the alarm. That door was a bog-standard security door, able to stand up to a surprising amount of force but against my plasma-cannon in cutting-mode? No dice.

From then on, it would turn into a foot-race, I would have to get into their server-room before they shut everything down and download the contents of their servers before making my escape. Anath and I could manage to give some heroes the slip but if the entire contingent they had in New Brunsburg turned up, it would be hairy.

I took quite a bit of time, studying the location of the lab, its surroundings and discovered no less than five different escape-routes, each with individual advantages and problems so I had a degree of confidence and as they said, no risk, no reward.

On the day of the caper, I met with Anath in another clearing. She had no idea where we were going, just that we were breaking into something. I handed her the bag of money I had promised and watched as she hid it in the shrubbery. Surprising. Next, I handed her a pair of glasses similar to my visor, able to darken on command to protect from flash-bangs and display information from Galatea. I didn’t trust Anath with the secret of Galatea’s existence but she had no idea about my actual capacity so if necessary information popped up on her HUD she would likely attribute it to me. In addition, she got an earbud and a small throat-mike so she did not have to shout if she wanted to tell me something.

Using way-points displayed on her HUD I guided her through the forest, towards out target.

We watched from the shadows as the building was closed down by the evening-crew and only a few night-guards remained on the property. I knew from watching them that there would be five guards inside and while none of them posed a threat, each of them could trigger the alarm and reduce our success chances.

With a last nod towards my partner, I moved forward, beginning the operation.