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Akihiro carried himself with a casual air that no man attempting subterfuge had a right to. Fake it 'til you make it. Am I right? A faint smile appeared as he climbed the small flight of stairs and entered the glass door to the administrative building.

An older woman with her dark hair tied up in a loose bun sat before him at a tri-cornered reception desk. It was surprising to Aki that this place looked so normal. He would have expected everything to be in disarray with thugs armed to the gills guarding everything. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, it was just like any other day in the spaceport.

He approached the lady nonchalantly and leaned against the high counter. “Excuse me, Miss... I seem to be a little lost. Would you mind helping me out?”

The woman looked up with annoyance until it seemed she saw something she approved of and completely changed her attitude all in a matter of seconds. “Yes, how can I help you?”

“I've got a truck full of palettes with orders to have them loaded on the new Peregrine dropship we just acquired. Problem is, I have no idea where it's parked. Would you mind looking it up for me?” Aki really put on the charm smiling at her, letting his dark eyes soften as he waited for her reply.

“Oh, yes!” she said enthusiastically. “Let's see if we can figure out where it is then.” She said as she turned her head back to her monitor and began typing on a keyboard. “You said it was the Legion one, right?”

“Yeah, that's the one!” If Misaki could have seen him kissing up to this old lady right now, it likely would have made her puke. “Y' know. I heard one of the guys saying that Legion pig put up a fight and got killed.”

“Who? The pilot?” she asked raising an eyebrow as she looked back to him with curiosity.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered trying to act like he didn't know much.

“Oh, he's not dead. They're still holding him down at Building D,” she said with the flare of a know-it-all as the the old fashioned keyboard clacked below her fingertips. She was definitely one of those women who enjoyed keeping tabs on everything that happened in the base and Aki was thankful for it.

“Huh,” Akihiro replied playing dumb as he let his eyes drift upwards in pretend thought.

“So, Sweetie,” she said pointing at the projected monitor before her. “I don't know who told you to drop those palettes in that location, but as far as the system says... We haven't been able to override the security permissions yet. I'd go back and check with your supervisor because I highly doubt any supplies are meant for that Peregrine.”

“Well, I must have gotten something messed up then. I'll head back to the boss man and find out where they need the load to go. Thank you so much for your time, Miss.” He tipped the brim of his hat at her and gave another one of those debonair smiles.

The secretary seemed incredibly delighted with his display and even brought her hand to her chest nervously. “It was my pleasure. What did you say your name was again?” she asked as though she might have a chance with him.

“The name's Ned, Miss,” he said nodding as he turned and made for the door before she could ask anymore questions he might not want to answer. He really didn't have any time to waste either since Corwin's buddy might have already caused a stir with Misaki in his absence.

It didn't stop her from calling after him. “It was great to meet you, Ned! I'm Marjory! Don't be a stranger!”

Aki rolled his eyes to himself as he pushed the glass door open and left the building. What kind of a name is Ned? He chuckled as he flew down the steps.

- -

Building D was a couple blocks down. He had actually seen signs for it on his way to speak to the delightful Marjory. Akihiro couldn't even stay mad at her for attempting to pounce on him like a cougar considering she had offered up the exact info he had needed. The hardest part now was going to be getting into the building without raising any suspicions and then of course finding the pilot as well.

A big part of social engineering was finding whatever 'in' he could and exploiting it without appearing to be doing anything malicious. He hoped that opportunity would present itself as he got closer to his destination, but if worse came to worse he had a gun as the ultimate backup plan. He just hoped to save that ace up his sleeve until the absolute last moment instead of having to play his hand early.

As he walked along the pristine pavement walkway, he could see Misaki's towering Kuroma in the distance. It appeared she was pushing loads of cargo boxes towards the massive transport ship in the center of the lot. At least that's what it looked like from his far off vantage point. Aki was happy to see that she had managed to keep things moving along while he was busy working his magic. It couldn't be easy for her having to deal with those men without being able to talk. I need to hurry this up.

As he arrived outside of the D Building, he noticed a sidewalk branching off to the left. It likely led to another parking lot and perhaps other entrances. Liking the idea of less people seeing him enter the building, he decided to take the side path.

All of the buildings at the spaceport so far had been made in the image of some ridiculous notion of what the future should look like. It was as if the architect were holding onto the past from old Earth movies. Everything looked to be made of some kind of poly-carbonate white plastic and all of the edges were rounded. There were lines of windows as you'd expect to see in a skyscraper and all of them were a highly reflective tinted blue.

He passed a door to his right and noticed a vending machine along with bench nestled away in a little nook. Stopping to inspect the area further, he found a dumpster and several recycling cans next to it. The dumpster's lid was already flipped open and Aki took a look inside hoping to see if he could find his 'in.'

Bingo. There were two empty pizza boxes resting right on the top that were immaculate in their appearance. Someone must have just dropped them into the trash with no idea that he'd be bringing them right back inside. Akihiro scooped them both up and took a moment to work out his best pizza delivery man posture. He was beginning to feel more like an actor than a soldier, but didn't care if it got the job done.

- -

Aki passed through front doors trying not to let his creeping doubts show. He held the two pizza boxes in a stack above his shoulder as he strolled right into the main lobby. There was a huge directory inside, but he didn't want to spend too much time checking it out. He wanted to seem as though he cared as little about doing his job well as a real pizza delivery person might.

There was a reception desk in this building too, but nobody seemed to be seated at it currently. That was both a relief and a curse since he had absolutely no idea where he was going. It still could have been a bad thing to get caught out by a nosy secretary who wasn't charmed by his youthful good looks as Marjory had been.

At the desk he turned right down the big hall, hoping for an elevator or more signage to help him find his way.

“Excuse me! Mister!” a woman's high strung voice called out from behind him.

Oh great... Aki's mind raced as he pulled together some kind of response. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face her. A woman with short curly hair was kneeling beside the reception desk and looking straight at him with thick glasses magnifying the size of her eyes.

“Oh, I didn't see you there,” he said with a slight laugh as he walked forward a bit so that he was closer to her.

“Where are you headed?” she asked as she took her gaze off of him and placed a folder into the cabinet beside her.

“Got a delivery for interrogation,” Aki answered as he pulled a receipt out of the bottom box. It was sticking out of the folds from the previous delivery and the best thing he could to do was to use it as a prop for his farce.

“Are you kidding me?” she uttered with an offended scoff, “That is just like Paul to break security protocol in order to stuff his face. He makes me sick.” She continued sorting her files as though she weren't insulting whoever Paul was.

After a short pause, she continued with a vexed tone, “Well then... Down that hall,” she pointed past Akihiro. “Take the elevator up to the second floor and turn left. Just keep going straight and you'll get there.”

“Thanks, Miss!” Aki said trying to sound gullible and naive as he turned around again and headed for the elevator. It was damned near baffling how easy it was to get information out of these people with very little effort. He had thought for sure that saying something as oblique as interrogations would get him into trouble, but could have never guessed there'd be some kind of bad blood going on between them.

Talk about lucky. He allowed himself the luxury of sighing to release some of his pent up stress. It wasn't easy pretending to be oblivious in order to play secret agent while Misaki was stuck with a bunch of space rednecks. Thankfully, he was so close to being done with all of this bullshit that he wouldn't have to keep up the charade for much longer.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened before him. He'd hold onto the boxes for now given they'd make for a good distraction when he finally got to where he was going. Aki knew that he was soon approaching the point when he would have to get physical though. There was no way he could engineer a way to get that prisoner out of their hands without force. It was just a matter of getting the best opener on whoever might be in charge. He hoped for the sake of expedience that the only one watching the hostage was the man called Paul the woman from the lobby had mentioned. It would make his life a whole lot easier, especially if he was distracted with the thought of food.

Akihiro saw a sign that read 'Holding Rooms' pointed in the direction he was headed. Oftentimes spaceports had rooms like these for when travelers didn't have the proper documentation or were found to be carrying something illegal. It made sense to repurpose the rooms, although it was strange to hold a prisoner so far off the beaten path. He couldn't help but imagine the man being forced into the building against his will past a bunch of corporate types who were just going about business as usual. Aki just never got use to how strange these people were; nothing they did made any kind of rational sense. Perhaps that was how they managed to get away with kidnapping thousands, if not millions of people for so long. They were good at being unpredictable.

None of that mattered now though as he approached a solid looking set of wooden doors. He pushed the metal bar that ran across the door on the right side and entered as though he owned the place. There was a desk some fifteen feet in front of him with a very obese man sitting before a projected monitor while eating a sub sandwich.

Aki walked forward with purpose and as the man noticed him he called out, “I got a delivery for Paul?”

“Pizza? I didn't order pizza...” Paul was placing his sandwich back down onto the wrapping paper and grabbing a napkin to clean his fingers with.

Akihiro stepped around the desk quickly, dropping the pizza boxes to ground and grasping his pistol. With precision speed the gun was out of his pants, the butt rammed into the back of Paul's unsuspecting head. He lurched forward with his face landing beside his hoagie and just like that he was out cold.

Aki took a moment to look over the guard's shoulder at the image he'd been monitoring. It was a security camera positioned on a lone man who sat alone handcuffed next to a rectangular table. At the bottom of the image he could read the room number was 3B. After a quick frisk of Paul's jacket and pants, he found the keys too.

With his pistol at the ready, he rushed down the hall past the guard's desk. There were several doors all labeled in order, making it easy to find the one he needed. He pulled out the ring of keycards that he had snatched from the guard and shuffled through them until he had found 3B. With a green light and a beep the door was open and he was face to face with the pilot.

Aki wanted to drop to his knees and pray to whatever God might be listening. The idea that they might finally have a way off of this planet was almost too much to fathom. But he must hold it together for just a little bit longer. They weren't out of the shit yet.

The man looked gaunt as though he had not been fed well. He had several bruises and cuts across his brow.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked seeming incredulous.

“I'm here to save you so we can all get the fuck out of here,” Akihiro said with a deadpan seriousness. He hurried to the table and with the keyring still in his hands, went through them trying to find which one might unlock the cuffs.

“It's those little ones on the end,” the man spoke with an urgency in his voice. Aki could see the wheels turning in the man's head as he tried to put the whole picture together. “Are you with the Ares Legion? How did you even know I was here let alone where to find me?”

As the lock released, the cuffs sprang open as Aki went to free the man's other wrist. “We'll have time for that story later. For now, I'm Akihiro Saito, Come with me and try not to die.”

“Oh yeah, I'll do my best,” the man said with a guffaw as he grasped Aki's hand to shake it. “My name's Bernard. Bernard Lutz.”

Aki nodded to the man, shaking his head slightly in disapproval. There was always time for life stories later when there was no imminent danger. After peaking his head out into the hallway, he could see that it was clear. “Let's go.”