Chapter 5: Infiltrating the Glass Tower

The Alchemax building pierced the Calathon skyline like a chrome and glass needle, sixty stories of corporate hubris that caught the late afternoon sun and threw it back in blinding sheets. Arthur stood across the street, craning his neck to take in the full scope of what they were about to attempt, while his divine interface helpfully provided tactical assessments he really didn't want to see.

STRUCTURE ANALYSIS COMPLETE MAGICAL WARDS DETECTED: LEVEL 7 (MILITARY GRADE) PHYSICAL SECURITY: EXTREME RECOMMENDED APPROACH: PRAYER

"Cheerful as always," Arthur muttered, earning a curious look from Zara, who was crouched behind a hot dog cart with what appeared to be half her server room's worth of equipment spread around her.

"The good news," she said, not looking up from the tablet that was displaying a real-time schematic of the building's digital infrastructure, "is that their IT security is only moderately paranoid. The bad news is that their magical defenses are locked down tighter than a vampire's coffin."

Kael grunted from where he was studying the building through a pair of binoculars that definitely weren't standard civilian gear. "Figures. Corporate mages always overcompensate. Probably got wards on their wards."

Arthur could feel the magical barriers from here—a constant pressure against his consciousness like standing too close to a high-voltage power line. The divine symbol on his hand was warm, almost hot, reacting to the hostile energy.

"So what's the plan?" he asked, though he suspected he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Simple infiltration job," Kael said with the tone of someone who'd used that phrase before and watched things go horribly wrong. "Zara hacks their mundane security systems, I handle the physical locks and any guards who get curious, and you..." He looked at Arthur speculatively. "You're our secret weapon."

"I'm their what now?"

"Your divine senses," Zara explained, finally looking up from her equipment with the kind of manic grin that suggested she'd had far too much caffeine and not nearly enough sleep. "Traditional magical wards are designed to stop conventional supernatural threats—wizards, demons, your garden-variety undead. But a divine champion powered by a forgotten god? That's like trying to stop a computer virus with a medieval castle wall."

Arthur stared at the towering glass monolith. "You want me to walk through military-grade magical defenses because my god is too obscure for their security protocols?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

QUEST UPDATE: INFILTRATE THE ENEMY APPROACH CONFIRMED: Divine Stealth Infiltration WARNING: Untested technique. Catastrophic failure possible.

"This is insane," Arthur said.

"Welcome to the supernatural consulting business," Kael replied cheerfully. "Insanity is pretty much our core competency."

---

The plan, such as it was, required them to wait until the building's night shift took over. Fewer people meant fewer variables, and according to Zara's reconnaissance, the cleaning crews had access to most floors without triggering additional security protocols.

Arthur spent the waiting time trying not to think about all the ways this could go wrong. Instead, he focused on the divine energy flowing through him, learning to modulate it the way Zara had shown him with her equipment. Too much, and he'd light up every magical sensor in the building. Too little, and the wards would crush him like a bug.

"Remember," Zara said as they approached the building's service entrance at just past midnight, "once we're inside, we need to reach the research and development floors. That's where they'll keep the real data."

"And the real security," Kael added, checking his revolver one more time. The rune-etched weapon seemed to glow with anticipation.

The service entrance was guarded by a single security officer who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. Zara's fingers danced across her tablet, and suddenly the man's radio crackled with an urgent report of suspicious activity six blocks away.

"False alarm planted in their dispatch system," she whispered as the guard hurried off to investigate. "We've got maybe twenty minutes before he realizes he's been played."

Arthur approached the door, his divine senses probing the magical barriers that protected it. Up close, the wards were even more impressive—layers of protective energy woven together like a supernatural spider web. But as he reached out with his power, he began to understand what Zara had meant.

The wards recognized him as something divine, something old and powerful. But they couldn't quite categorize him. To their ancient programming, he felt like a minor deity from a pantheon that had been forgotten before the building's architects were born.

DIVINE RECOGNITION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED WARD COMPATIBILITY: UNKNOWN ENTITY RECOMMENDATION: PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Arthur pressed his hand against the door, channeling just enough divine energy to convince the wards that he belonged here. The magical barriers parted like curtains, recognizing him as something too old and too legitimate to be a threat.

"We're in," he whispered.

The building's interior was all polished marble and corporate art, the kind of sterile perfection that screamed 'we have more money than we know what to do with.' Emergency lighting cast everything in pale blue, and their footsteps echoed despite their attempts at stealth.

Zara consulted her tablet as they made their way to the elevator banks. "R&D is on floors forty-three through forty-six. But the real prize is the executive server room on forty-five. That's where they'll keep the data we need."

Arthur pressed the elevator call button and immediately felt the building's security systems take notice. Magical sensors swept over him like invisible searchlights, and for a moment he was sure they'd been discovered.

Then the elevator doors opened with a cheerful ding.

"I love being divine," he muttered as they stepped inside.

The ascent was the longest minute of Arthur's life. Every floor that passed brought them deeper into hostile territory, further from any hope of easy escape. By the time they reached the forty-third floor, he could feel the building's defenses pressing against his consciousness like a living thing.

"Motion sensors on this floor," Zara reported, studying her tablet's display. "Pressure plates in the hallway, and... oh, that's interesting. Magical trip wires keyed to detect hostile intent."

Arthur closed his eyes and reached out with his divine senses. The floor ahead of them was crisscrossed with invisible threads of energy, each one designed to trigger alarms if someone passed through while harboring ill will toward Alchemax Corporation.

"I can see them," he whispered. "But there are too many. We'll never make it through without setting something off."

Kael grinned. "Leave that to me, lad."

The dwarf pulled a small crystal from his coat pocket—a rough-cut gem that pulsed with warm amber light. As he held it up, Arthur could feel the magical trip wires beginning to resonate, their frequencies shifting and wavering.

"Dwarven harmonic crystal," Kael explained quietly. "Scrambles magical detection by making everything sound like background noise. Learned the technique during the Goblin Wars of '73."

"There were Goblin Wars in 1973?" Arthur asked.

"Different '73. Long story."

They made their way through the corridors like ghosts, Arthur using his divine senses to guide them past motion detectors while Kael's crystal kept the magical defenses confused. Zara brought up the rear, her equipment tracking the building's security systems and providing real-time updates on patrol routes.

The executive server room was behind a door that looked like it belonged on a bank vault. But as they approached, Arthur realized they had a bigger problem than locks and security cards.

"There are people in there," he whispered, his enhanced hearing picking up voices from beyond the reinforced door. "At least three, maybe four."

Zara cursed quietly in what sounded like binary code. "Night shift IT staff. They're running system maintenance."

"So much for the easy approach," Kael muttered.

Arthur pressed his ear to the door, trying to make out the conversation inside. What he heard made his blood run cold.

"...final deployment is scheduled for next week," one voice was saying. "All contamination vectors will be activated simultaneously. The board estimates a ninety-seven percent success rate for target elimination."

"What about cleanup?" another voice asked. "The transformation process isn't exactly subtle."

"Standard protocols. Once the infected population reaches critical mass, we implement the emergency response plan. Contain the outbreak, eliminate the threats, rebuild the affected areas as planned communities."

Arthur pulled back from the door, his divine nature recoiling from the casual way they discussed mass murder. Forty thousand people, transformed into monsters and then destroyed to make way for whatever twisted vision of urban planning Alchemax had in mind.

HOSTILE PRESENCE DETECTED DIVINE WRATH BUILDING WARNING: EMOTIONAL CONTROL COMPROMISED

"Arthur," Kael whispered urgently. "Whatever you're feeling right now, bottle it up. This is enemy territory."

But it was too late. Arthur's anger at the casual cruelty, his fury at the planned genocide of Calathon's forgotten population, had triggered something deeper than conscious control. Divine energy began to build around him like a storm front, golden light leaking through his clothes and dancing across his skin.

The magical alarms went off all at once.

"So much for stealth," Zara said as emergency lighting flooded the corridor and security doors began slamming shut throughout the building. "New plan: smash and grab!"

The server room door burst open, revealing four technicians in lab coats who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Behind them, Arthur could see banks of servers and data storage units that probably contained everything they needed to expose Alchemax's conspiracy.

"Intruders!" one of the technicians shouted into a radio. "Forty-fifth floor, executive server room! We need security teams now!"

Arthur stepped forward, divine light pouring off him in waves. The technicians took one look at his glowing form and decided that discretion was the better part of not being smited.

"Smart choice," he said as they fled toward the emergency stairs.

But their problems were just beginning. Through the building's intercom system, Arthur could hear security teams mobilizing throughout the structure. And these weren't ordinary guards—the magical signatures approaching their position felt like military-grade combat mages.

"How long do you need?" he asked Zara, who was already jacking her equipment into the server banks.

"Five minutes for a basic data grab, ten for everything," she replied, her fingers flying across multiple interfaces simultaneously. "How long can you keep them off us?"

Arthur looked toward the corridor, where he could sense armed figures moving in coordinated formation. His divine energy was still building, fed by righteous anger and the need to protect the innocent.

"Let's find out," he said.

ABILITY ACTIVATED: DIVINE SANCTUARY EFFECT: CREATES ZONE OF PROTECTIVE SILENCE DURATION: LIMITED BY DIVINE ENERGY RESERVES WARNING: UNTESTED UNDER COMBAT CONDITIONS

Arthur raised his hands and channeled his power outward, creating a bubble of absolute silence around the server room. Sound couldn't penetrate it in either direction—which meant they were temporarily invisible to audio detection, but also cut off from any warning of approaching threats.

Through the server room's windows, he could see muzzle flashes in the corridors as security teams fired at shadows, unable to locate their actual targets through the divine interference.

"Whatever you're doing, keep doing it," Kael said, positioning himself by the door with his revolver ready. "But this won't hold them forever."

Arthur nodded, sweat beading on his forehead as he maintained the sanctuary field. The divine energy was draining faster than he'd expected, and he could feel the building's magical defenses adapting to his presence.

DIVINE ENERGY: 60% AND FALLING SANCTUARY FIELD STABILITY: DETERIORATING ESTIMATED TIME REMAINING: 3 MINUTES

"Zara," he said through gritted teeth. "Please tell me you're almost done."

"Define 'almost,'" she replied, never looking up from her work. "I've got the contamination deployment schedules and target lists. Still working on the executive communications and funding sources."

A new alarm began sounding—this one pitched at a frequency that made Arthur's teeth ache. Through his divine senses, he could feel something powerful approaching from below. Something that made the combat mages feel like children playing with toys.

"We need to go," he said. "Now."

"Thirty more seconds," Zara insisted.

Arthur's sanctuary field flickered and died as his divine energy finally reached its limits. Immediately, the sounds of combat flooded back—shouting voices, running footsteps, and the distinctive whine of magical weapons charging up.

The server room door exploded inward in a shower of splinters and smoke.

What stepped through wasn't human.