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***

Three months later.

* * *

A huge steel corridor. I walked down it without the slightest fear. Two droid saboteurs followed me, trail and trail. As I walked, I had a mental dialogue with Bercy:

- Are you sure he's in there?

- The cameras don't lie.

- I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Check it again. See if it's a hoax.

- Wait a second. The cameras show the doctor in cell six hundred and thirteen.

- What if it's a hoax? Cameras, tapes, everything? I'm used to trusting my instincts. Send a false signal to the prison system that there's been an emergency in cell six thirteen. If it's really a hoax, they'll react to the signal in an unconventional way.....

Bercy was silent for a few seconds.

- Done.

- Observe...

I continued walking down the steel tube. The laser security system had to be climbed over - too rough for a nimble guy like me. The droids were also very nimble at overcoming the laser beams...

Over the past three months - what we've done, accompanied by unchanging programmes on the local YouTube. I, Hjarti, have become, so to speak, the ultimate scarecrow for the Kree. And the main villain for Thanos. But my videos have racked up nearly a trillion views on the local YouTube! That's a pretty big number, considering the population of the Xandar Republic is only four trillion sentient beings... few people didn't know me, even interviewing Rorsch, who claimed to have known me in training. Anyway, I'm a very, very famous person now. The management doesn't know how to honour me - it seems that only one metallurgical complex is worthy of the Diamond Star, the highest award in the KR. But I blew up three major Kree enterprises, drowned two, stole intelligence from the Kree and a list of all their agents in the Xandar Republic, and killed two generals, and I blew their heads off with a sword. My commanders were horrified by my enthusiasm - after all, the tactical genius of the Bersi, plus the Force and my technical abilities, plus my natural passion for adventure... and so it turns out that I am now the most popular Xandarian on the internet. I've already been granted citizenship, and an honourable one at that.

It's good to be popular, but popularity is vanishing. They go crazy now, and then they forget... I made a joke on my page about a full-length monument, and six hours later some petty populist politician started raising money for it. And twelve hours later there were six million units there - enough to put up a solid gold monument. Yeah. Attempts to explain that I didn't mean any of this or anything, failed. You can't declare war on the local Zhirinovsky because of some statue. They say it's being built on Xandar, in the centre of the capital... in general, the popularity is temporary, but very strong.

I was even afraid to fly back - after all, I'd exceeded the plan by a couple of thousand per cent - I'd carried out fifteen sabotage operations, including explosions, computer viruses, and the elimination of the Empire's top brass....

The Kree are guys who respect power. From the point of view of liberal-democratic Xandar, they were badasses, but the Kree had their own notions of honour. They respected strength and agility as well as intelligence and honesty. They'd always despised treaties, diplomatic tinsel that meant little to them. That's why I had supporters even among the Kree, and the throne under Thanos became shakier than ever - he couldn't do anything with me. The result is well known - the official Kree authorities shot me from all propaganda guns, but ten to twenty per cent of the Empire's population considered me a worthy opponent. That didn't change the fact that they would have killed me if they had, but they didn't stick to the official version. It's understandable - clever saboteurs were among their favourites.

- He's not here. He's in the Burrow," Bercy interrupted me.

- He's not?

- He's not. The guards said he was moved to the Burrow a week ago. It must be a trap, because according to all the documents, the doctor is in the cell. There's even a video.

- Well," I kicked the ventilation shaft wall with my foot in frustration, "contact the Admiral and tell him that his intelligence was wrong. And have him check out the people who brought them in - I can't rule out the possibility that we've been leaked.

- I'll do that. You coming back?

- Yeah, I'll be right back..." I looked back at the droids, "Bersi, open all the prison cells and lock up the staff if you have to. Let's have them riot on the ship..." I turned around and activated the suit's engines and flew back.

* * *

The situation had changed. I sat in my quarters and thought. Thanos had undoubtedly decided to set a trap for me, a trap I had almost stepped into. Serious guy, that Kree emperor.

The prisoner has been transferred to the Burrow. It's Thanos' personal prison on the Kree home planet, beneath the Imperial Palace. Now, getting in there is a bit of a challenge, even for me.

- Bersie, find out everything you can about the Burrow.

- Data is scarce and contradictory.

- So we can't rely on a map?

- Absolutely not. Unfortunately, I can't come up with a more or less adequate way of getting into the Burrow. Perhaps the Force can help you.

Yeah... I sent my doubts over the thought link and started thinking further. Getting onto the planet is half the battle, you have to actually do something to get into the prison. I'm sure it's as secure as it can be. We'll have to use every resource available.

- Bersih, I have a plan. We need to distract the palace people with something.

- I'm afraid it won't work that way, Captain," the droid sent me a sort of chuckle, "the Kree are highly disciplined and will not abandon their posts.

- But the man in charge, Thanos... he is alone. It is necessary to distract him with something. I'm sure - he's waiting for me in the palace.

- Then why not go straight through? By brute force?

- Not enough resources.

- There may just be enough resources. We can attack the palace with all our forces at the same time we infiltrate the Burrow and steal our ram.

- They were very quick on Karsan," I thought doubtfully.

- However, please note that after they started storming the power plant, the droids hit them in the back. And they were caught between two fires.

* * *

The miniature ship, under complete invisibility, flew through several scanning kria checkpoints with its engines off. It was just a metal piece of space junk, the kind of thing there are a lot of in the galaxy... That's what the Kree thought as I sat inside the ship, rubbing my hands together.

There were sixteen droids in the hold, which I had made specifically for the palace operation. And, having flown to Karsan, I'd picked up a few dozen of the cute little beasts there. In the reduced version, they could only be transported in durastal crates - because their mass did not change, ordinary steel was squeezed through...

The attack on Thanos' palace was poorly planned, but there was plenty of enthusiasm. First of all, the noise in the city. I dropped containers with my surprises - droids and dinosaurs - near Kree military bases. The dinosaurs were particularly tough, so strong that they couldn't be hit with hand weapons. And rockets weren't much help. The beasts could make a lot of noise for a long time. There will probably be civilian casualties, but sorry, we're not the Red Cross here, we're trying to bring a nearly insane scientist back to Xandar... The swan song of my sabotage career should be pretty good - Burrow is a particularly important prison, only rumours about it in the galaxy, but Burrow is a rumour....

After dropping all my surprises, I changed my clothes, got ready to be thrown to the rear and talked to Bersi:

- Activate all surprises on command. All at once.

- Standing by.

- I'm going to Burrow. It certainly seems unrealistic, but... are you sure the Titans can hold out long enough?

- I am. You'll only encounter Burrow guards. The Kree have no weapons capable of destroying a Titan in direct combat. As a last resort, I'll activate quantum shields. Though in that cocoon, they'll be completely cut off from the world--

- Okay.

The ship flew towards the giant structure. The architecture of the Kree was not impressive - they were ordinary looking houses, they had few architectural delights. But they were built to last for centuries. The Emperor's Palace was the only beautifully decorated building in the entire capital. I listened to the force, it was definitely leading me in the direction of the palace. The scientist was there. Flying was not too comfortable - there were dust specks slapping the ship every now and then, which were, relative to the ship, the size of a football. However, I couldn't raise the shields - they would notice. I carefully flew past the guard post under the ceiling. Further there was a blind field, through which there was no way to penetrate, no matter how big I was. The solution came quickly - I had to get through any vent. I turned the ship around and flew out of the palace. I parked the ship on the roof and stepped out into the fresh air myself.

Yes, the atmosphere here wasn't great, but there was no other option. I ducked into the nearest chimney, deciding to check it out. The path led me into the ventilation of the palace, all I had to do was to overcome several levels of defence, designed for an unintelligent drone or a larger creature. I melted through with force and passed through without disturbing the alarm system.

Thanos obviously hadn't counted on me being in the palace.

I walked along the ventilation, listening to the conversations in the palace. I couldn't pick up anything of value. I had to leave the shaft - I was obviously on the ventilation of the first floor, and I had to go to Burrow, i.e. underground. I jumped out into the palace space, cushioning my fall with my engines. And I walked carefully along the wall. From below, it looked gigantic, incredibly gigantic. A patrol passed me, they didn't notice. Four soldiers with rifles.

So, along the wall, I reached the lift. I had to wait for someone to come. Some girl came in, and she was bald. Kree, in a rather bitchy voice, she told the guards to stay away. I jumped over the large canyon - the distance between the floor of the building and the floor of the lift. Standing in the corner.

From below, the girl didn't look too bad. She went to the ground floor, which wasn't bad anymore. I flew upstairs and hooked onto the handrail, forcefully penetrating the lift control panel.

- Bersey, I'm in the lift, next to the control panel. Can you find out if this lift can go any lower?

- Just a second. I need a connection to the electronics in the lift.

- There's a standard port, will that work?

- It's fine. Can you connect the suit to the port outputs?

I did it - melted the port contacts and pulled some wires out, in the gap between the panel. Attached the eight wires from the suit to them. The signal's coming through.

- The contact is very unstable.

- It's about to melt, captain. Yes, this lift has a subroutine and is networked with the other lifts and the programme controlling all palace systems.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can you lock down the lifts at a moment's notice?

- That doesn't make any sense.

I was still sitting on the handrail, the contact was starting to spark.

- Bersie, the key is to get to the Burrow as fast as you can!

At that moment, the contact flashed one last time and went out.

- I think I've lost contact.

- What the hell is going on? - I waved my hands in the air. It's not fair.

- Don't worry. We can take the lift shaft.

- The only thing is that the doors are hermetically sealed..." I shook my head.

I had to get clever. I had to melt through the lift shaft with force, climb the lift wall like a rock climber. The engine's radiation is such that if there are sensors here, they'll spot it immediately. There's no way to hide it. I had to go slow, slow, slow. I'll remember this descent for the rest of my life because I was the size of a fly. From my point of view it looks like descending into a ten kilometre mine, without climbing equipment, clinging to protruding parts. Good at least I could smelt myself with the force of the Ladder in the metal beams. But the beams were so set up that it was impossible to simply descend, creating a giant ladder. I spent six hours slowly and carefully descending - I had no margin for error.

Slowly but surely, I passed the ground floor, then the basement... further on the way was closed by a dozen thick steel bulkheads, in which I melted a tunnel for myself. I simply bypassed the already known power shield, melting the tunnel through the beam to which the shield emitter was bolted. I squeezed through the eye of a needle, you might say. It's good to be small, the size of an insect....

Eventually I got to the exit, but I was afraid to go to the surface - it was probably full of sensors - my sixth sense was screaming danger. I had to go the same way as before, by the mole method - to melt a tunnel inside the metal and concrete. Through the wormhole I walked about twenty metres and finally managed to get upstairs. I went out through the ventilation grate, so as not to alarm the alarms. Although there were sensors in the ventilation - sensors of noise, odour, vibration, pressure, heat, optical... You could say - at the limits of the suit. No, I could only escape from pressure by repulsors, and such radiation would be detected at once, so I had to bypass the pressure sensors and climb the wall.

- Bersih, can you find out where they're holding the scientist?

- I'm afraid it's not that simple. Burrow's system is isolated and my entry would be quickly spotted.

- You can always hack in.

- That's not the case here. Easier with a crowbar than a scalpel. All I can advise you to do is not raise the alarm before there's an uproar in town.

He shouldn't do that. I had plans for abnormal staff activity. I looked around - the place looked like some kind of underground vault. A bunker. Rough corridors, simple lighting, ventilation grills, but I'm not going there again! And there were enough people here to make a fuss. The Force has a way of influencing weak minds. I don't think there are idiots on duty here, but it's possible to gently guide them.

* * *

A relatively safe place was near the water pipes. It was practically safe to move around the Burrow. I discovered this after half an hour of walking around Thanos' super-prison. The prisoners sat in nearly open cells - there were no four walls, but instead force fields. They were more reliable than material walls, provided, of course, there was electricity. Each cell had its own reactor that powered these force fields. And there was a backup battery...

The scientist he was looking for was sitting in one of the last cells, surrounded by guards. There was a guard post near his cell, armed and wearing heavy power armour. The scientist was wearing a bomb collar around his neck, apparently Thanos had taken precautions. The man in the prison robe slept on the floor while the guards kept watch. Well... Next I had to use force. Slowly and carefully I reached for the scientist's collar. A bomb, and a tricky one at that. Anything goes, it explodes. Well done, Thanos. He didn't take the Force into account, though. I carefully disconnected the wires from the detonator, so now it's just a collar, it can't explode by definition. Next, the power suits of the guards. Standing on the camera above them, I reached for their weapons and suits-the suits' communications had been reconnected to Bersie. At the same time, I had to wait two hours before the iskin got a sample of their commander's voice.

The guards changed - I did the same with the second shift - Bersie answered them instead of the commander.

- Come on, start the surprises upstairs! - I commanded.

- Yes, sir...

At one point, fifty tyrannosaurs just appeared in the city, hungry and angry. And several anthropomorphic giant droids - about five metres tall, with powerful armour and each with a space cruiser-level reactor. The Tyrannosaurus sowed panic in the city, and the droids immediately took the Imperial Palace in a ring. That's right, now the entire garrison of the capital can't make their way to the palace - their orders are to defend the capital, and the droids are not taking hostile action towards the palace. The Kree are extremely disciplined soldiers, and that discipline can be played on. For lack of communication with the palace and having instructions to protect civilians, they will fight the Tyrannosaurians. And the Tyrannosaurians... if they held their own under the Ripper, they certainly wouldn't be afraid of local weaponry. At least, it would take a lot of effort to harm the Tyrannosaurus.

Chaos reigned overnight. Now we must act quickly. I sat and listened to the soldiers negotiate with their "commander" - Bersi. The chief reported that nothing suspicious had been seen. Immediately after that came the order to immediately switch to guard another cell, which is far away from here. The soldiers left the post and redeployed.

When the last soldier left the prison block, I switched off one of the emitters by hitting it forcefully. The emitter immediately puffed and sparked, the force field shut down.

The scientist was stunned and loaded into a stasis chamber, then the chamber into a pocket dimension. I switched on the drone-camera and took normal size, closing the steel doors of the prison block with force. Removed my helmet.

* * *

"Hello, Thanos! Do you know where I am? I'm standing in the middle of your favourite Burrow prison, near the very cell where you kept an important scientist like Mr Jose. Sure, he's got a bit of an image, but that's no reason to lock him up. I think Xandar can give him more pleasant living conditions. As you correctly observed, the cell is empty, the scientist has already left, and now it's time for me to go. I believe this is our last instalment of the Saboteur show - at the request of the most discerning viewers, I will show them the most impregnable citadel of the Kree race, the legendary Burrow hold. Congratulations, by the way, it was unrealistically difficult to break in.

This is Private Hjarti, 677th Space Marine Division, Xandar Air Force."

- Gamora! - Thanos shouted.

- Yes, Father," a green-skinned, shapely girl crouched on one knee beside the Emperor.

- Find him. Find him and bring me his head!

- Yes, father.