Wolfhound: Secret Heroes

Coincidentally, the vent was connected to a multi-structure ventilation system. And one of said structures was our rendezvous.

Jukebox peered through. “Clear. Jackie and Leon are already waiting for us.” He pushed the vent cover open, but caught it before it banged on the wall below.

I couldn’t see how he got out, but Shadow went for the flashy; a roll of some sort, landing on her feet on the floor, 7 feet below.

I pressed myself up against the top of the vent, switched my legs from behind me to out in front, dangling out of the vent. I was pretty much sitting now. I pushed off, and landed on my feet. Didn’t even hurt at all.

Jackie nodded to us in greeting, then reached for the radio toggle on her helmet. “Allen, we’re all here.”

As I pulled out a spare radio earpiece and tossed it to Speeding Shadow, I heard Allen say “Alright. Status?”

“All good.” Leon replied. “In fact, better than good. There’s an unguarded command terminal in here.”

No way. A command terminal was basically the one computer that had everything all its under-computers had, and then some. If we could get into it, we’d get names, locations, maps, documents, you name it. HVT’s would be not only revealed, but almost completely exposed, with this computer alone! If we pulled this mission off right, it’d stay that way for at least a week! We'd found a goldmine.

“But,” Leon continued, deflating my new-found, now-lost spirits, “it’s encrypted. And it’s password locked. My guess? Probably the worst we could get. Zulu-Barrier level firewall, on the login password alone.”

Crap. I only knew a few levels of locking, but any civilian who knows a thing about coding and encrypting knew of the Wilco-layer. Officially, the Wilco-Layer wall was only able to be cracked by experts, and it took at least four hours. That was the official record.

Because of the nature – and level – of our group’s classification, we’re allowed a much higher access to restricted files than even some Royal Guards. In reality, your average Army-level electronic technician could crack it in a few minutes.

“What’s the Zulu-Barrier?” Shadow asked.

“To put it simply,” Jackie responded, “it makes the Wilco look like a little kid’s version of bare minimum. The average Wilco codes the whole passage. The Zulu-Barrier codes only one letter at a time, using a Wilco-Layer encryption for each individual letter. No on-purpose patterns, either.”

“Oh my Stars.” Shadow trailed off, astounded just by imagining it.

“Allen,” Jackie said, “request permission to access the terminal, while the rest of the team clears the district.”

“Granted. Leon, you’re her multi-role support.”

So, I’ve got Shadow and Juke with me, again. Okay.

“Oh, tha’s jus’ great!” Jukebox exclaimed. “Oy’m stuck with her again!”

“Well, it’s not like I’m particularly fond of you, either.” Shadow replied.

“Juke.” I turned to him “Shadow.” I made sure they both were focused on me. “What is your problem?”

“Oy don’t trust ‘er.”

“Not trusting in a casual conversation is one thing. That’s fine. But this is another. We are on a high-risk mission! We have got to trust each other, whether we want to or not. Where I grew up, we respect people, unless we’re given a da** good reason not to!”

“She fu**ing attacked us!”

“She doesn’t know us, and we had her at gun point. I don’t blame her. I’m perfectly okay with you two not liking each other. But during an operation, we need to trust each other with not just our lives, but the lives of our entire team! Do you understand that?”

“I get it.” Shadow said calmly.

Jukebox huffed angrily, but nodded. He'd never been the best at keeping his emotions in check, even when he realized he was in the wrong.

Shadow hefted an SMG with the same color scheme as her rather tight-looking outfit. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know where she was keeping it. “Jukebox, kiss your fu**ing bride, and let’s go kill some sons of bit**es.”

He stared at her for a second, his mouth hanging open a bit. Then, he softly sighed, shook his head, and followed Shadow outside.

I glanced over, and saw Leon and Jackie both hunched over a computer screen, on the far end of the room. I moved to follow Juke and Shadow outside, taking one last glance at two of the people that had been with me, in one way or another, since this whole thing started. I walked out.