My Infinite Investment System

Chapter 76: Night Shift

The records door bowed inward on the first hit.

Grace pushed the archive drive into its independent slot, then locked the cabinet before the second impact shook dust from the frame.

"The server room has no power," Grace said into the command channel, keeping her palm over the backup case, "and the attackers have divided into three groups."

Mika crossed the reception floor with six recruits behind her, her new jacket carrying a thin pink line beneath each shoulder seam.

"The lobby group wants witnesses," Mika said, stripping a counterfeit emblem from a man who had raised both hands, "the west group wants the records, and the third group is hunting someone."

Ryan stood behind Nia’s medical tape with the shortened Compound Spear strapped against his forearm.

The telemetry patch below his collar turned red whenever he moved too quickly.

’The monitor had become an annoying little manager,’ Ryan thought, looking at the three routes on the clinic map, ’which was unfair because it was usually right.’

"Who are they hunting?" Ryan asked, watching the dark western corridor.

"Doctor Vale," Grace replied, pulling the contractor list onto her display, "he holds access to reagent stock, server keys, and the recovery schedule."

Combat Valuation marked a route to the doctor, one to the server, then one to the patient ward.

Ryan saw each answer stop at the red patch on his chest.

’The spear could cover one problem,’ he thought, counting the recruits near the ward, ’the clinic needed people who could cover the other two.’

"Mika takes the doctor," Ryan said, keeping his injured shoulder against the wall, "Grace holds the server with the records, and Nia moves patients before the lobby reaches them."

Mika looked back at him across the reception floor near the ward. "You are staying behind the line?" she asked, visibly suspicious of the sentence.

"Until the monitor says otherwise," Ryan replied, holding the spear’s lock closed beneath his palm.

Nia pushed a recovery cart toward the ward. "Good," she said, glancing at the red indicator, "I enjoy a miracle that follows instructions."

The lobby attackers dragged a reception desk across the entrance, leaving a narrow channel between the chairs.

Nia sent patients through the therapy corridor in pairs while ordinary members held the side doors for clinic workers.

Mika’s camera caught the attackers shouting about Seven-B before she drove the nearest one into the wall.

"Keep saying it," Mika said, twisting his wrist away from his belt, "the feed will save your words beside that jacket."

He tried to kick her knee, but the replaceable panel absorbed the strike without buckling.

Mika turned him toward the camera, then gave him to two recruits with zip restraints.

’The jacket had passed its first customer review,’ Ryan thought, watching the recruits take the prisoner away, ’Dara would probably invoice the attacker for testing it.’

Grace reached the server room through a staff passage and found the external power switch cut cleanly from its box.

She opened her jacket panel, removed one body camera, then connected it to the emergency archive port.

"The server is offline," Grace said, watching green indicators return one by one, "but the backup is writing through the camera link."

"They read the old procedures," Dara replied from the supply hall, passing spare panels to a nurse, "then they missed the new jacket."

A metal tray hit the pharmacy floor, followed by Doctor Vale shouting from behind the reagent door.

Ryan moved before the telemetry warning could catch up with him.

Nia caught the back of his jacket, pulling him hard against the wall. "You can point," she said, looking through the pharmacy doorway, "then you can send somebody who is medically cleared to follow the point."

Ryan looked at the recruit beside him, whose left hand had stopped shaking after the first rush.

"Take the south route," Ryan said, pointing past the supply carts, "the pharmacy group is using the patient corridor as cover."

The recruit gathered two others and ran.

’A command could still be a fight,’ Ryan thought, following their body-camera feed, ’I just had to stop confusing movement with ownership.’

They reached the pharmacy before the contractor found Doctor Vale.

The doctor had locked himself in the reagent store with a clinic worker and a box of recovery compounds.

"Open the door, doctor," the contractor leader called, keeping a blade against the lock, "or the stock goes into the drain."

Mika arrived from the west hall, but two patients stood between the contractor and the exit.

She raised one hand to stop the recruits from rushing in.

"Move the patients first," Mika said, keeping her eyes on the contractor’s blade, "then take his arms and leave the reagent cases closed."

The recruits crossed from both sides, using therapy beds as moving cover.

The contractor threw a hard case toward the pharmacy floor.

Mika spent one Lightning Step to catch it before it broke.

Pink current pulled her between the patients and the falling box, then she caught the case against both palms before it could break.

She placed it in Doctor Vale’s hands, then put the contractor through the pharmacy wall hard enough to take the knife away.

"One step after recovery," Nia said over the channel, checking Mika’s trace on the telemetry screen, "and that is your only one tonight."

Mika kept the contractor pinned against cracked pharmacy tiles with both hands. "Recorded," she replied, setting her knee more carefully against his shoulder.

Ryan watched the patch on Mika’s display return to green, then felt the Compound Spear shift against his arm.

The new lock opened by itself beneath his waiting fingers.

A narrow gold line ran from the grip to the tip before Ryan caught the shaft and forced it closed.

’The weapon had heard the pressure here,’ he thought, holding the lock still, ’or someone else had found a way to call it.’

"Ryan," Grace said, her voice flattening through the channel, "the server has a second access request using your equipment credential."

He turned toward the equipment room, and his monitor changed from red to amber.

"Stay there," Nia said, already reading the movement in his shoulders.

"Dara takes the equipment room," Ryan said, pointing the shortened spear toward the supply hall, "and nobody lets the Compound Spear leave this building."

Dara arrived with two recruits, but the equipment-room door stood open when they reached it.

The weapon case was already gone from the equipment rack.

"The rack was full ten minutes ago," Dara said, holding the cut lock between two fingers, "so somebody opened it from the inside."

Grace pulled the independent camera feed into the secure archive display. "A counterfeit jacket entered during the power cut," she said, pausing the grainy clip, "the face was covered, and the camera pointed at the floor."

The lobby attackers began withdrawing as soon as the theft was confirmed.

Mika left the contractor restrained in the pharmacy, then returned to reception where two recruits had been hit during the retreat.

One sat against the wall with blood running from his scalp. The other pressed a towel to the wound and kept repeating his friend’s name.

"He is alive," Nia said, kneeling beside the injured recruit, "keep the pressure steady and do not turn this into a victory speech."

’We had kept the patients, doctor, and records,’ Ryan thought, looking at the empty weapon rack on Grace’s feed, ’then they had charged us for every part of the save.’

Grace secured Doctor Vale’s statement, the reagent inventory, plus the server backup before responders reached the building.

The contractor’s phone held three payment routes, two shell names, and a warehouse address attached to a purge team.

Nia checked the injured recruit one last time before she looked toward Ryan.

[Return credits: 300]

[Current balance: 400 return credits]

The number rose while the Compound Spear remained missing from the clinic.

Mika stood beneath the damaged clinic camera, dust on her jacket beside one line of blood that did not belong to her.

"We protected the patients," Mika said, looking at the archive monitor, "we kept the doctor, stock, and records, then somebody still walked out with the weapon."

Grace closed the evidence case beside the damaged monitor with one thumb. "The contractor chain ends at a warehouse," she said, lifting the address onto every screen, "and the warehouse is already preparing to erase itself."

Ryan tightened the strap around his shoulder without looking at Nia.

The next fight had started somewhere else, and it had taken his spear.