Shattered Glass

This was the place. Based on the information extracted from Biming, Sai had arrived at the glass foundry that had been re-appropriated by Shoushan to be Zhao's new workshop, and based on the amount of additions to the outside and Sai's knowledge of how much Shoushan enjoyed altering existing infrastructure, this was definitely the right location. The entire foundry was surrounded by a tall fence with barbed wire on top, and a "Condemned" sign on the main gate, which was chained shut. Every corner of the building had a security camera, though all were fixed in a single direction, so moving through blindspots was possible, if a bit difficult. For a condemned building, it was surprisingly well manned, with two patrols of three walking around outside the building, and one more guard stationed in a makeshift watchtower. Near the front door was a large kennel, housing between five and ten large dogs of varying breeds, but invarying aggression. The front door had two armed guards on either end, making a makeshift checkpoint. Unlike the last place Sai raided under Shoushan's control, no vehicles were entering or leaving; this place was clearly meant solely for Zhao and his work, nothing else, and he wasn't letting any unauthorized personnel in through the front.
Around the back of the building, there was a back door visible from the fence; it was heavily boarded up from the outside, also visible from that distance. A ways to the right of it, however, was a fire escape. The lower portion of it had been destroyed, so the lowest part of it was a good fifteen or so feet off the ground. Also in the back grounds here were several empty wooden crates, some pallets, and a heavily-tagged dumpster. The back grounds were unsupervised by personnel, but had two cameras positioned so that there wasn't really a blindspot inside the fence.

Sai had really done his part to survey the location. He had to hurry on this mission and couldn’t take as much time as we wanted. He wanted to be unnoticed for as long as possible, but he couldn’t wait forever. Whatever plan he came up with, Sai was going to have to execute it as quickly as he could. He was going to have to put a few new tricks to use.

Upon scanning the building, he quickly saw that the back was going to be his best option. The front would likely be suicide and provide too much attention. The back door was barricaded, but Sai believed that fire escape would provide a new entry point that would be less visible. The back way it was, but getting in unseen would be challenging.

Making his way to the back, Sai pulled out some wire cutters and began to clip the fence piece by piece. He was using his power, ensuring that the snapped metal wouldn’t make a single sound as he created a whole big enough to get in. With the fence removed, Sai quickly kicked in the wooden wall of the shed. Aiming in his rifle, Sai quickly scanned the inside of the shed to make sure no one was there. His silent field remained active.

The inside of the shed was empty of people, but it was clear that it had seen significant use. It was once a toolshed, and while tools still hung on the walls, they more resembled instruments of pain than construction now. The center of the shed held a simple chair with handcuffs on the backrest.
At the side of the shack was a broken window with a workbench underneath. The window was small, but not necessarily small enough to squeeze through, assuming Sai was alright getting a few cuts. From the window, he could see one of the security cameras pointing right at the entrance to the shack. Going out that way at the moment would surely get him spotted.

The instruments of torture really didn’t cause Sai to hesitate, especially given what he had done yesterday to Biming. The only tool that interested him was the handcuffs. Seeing them undone, Sai decided to pocket them and hold onto them for future use. Making his way to the broken window, Sai looked and saw the security camera. He knew he could make that shot. He waited for the patrols to move past the camera a good distance before lifting his rifle and firing a single shot. With his silence field, the initial blast wouldn’t be heard, only the impact of the camera. Sai hopes it was quiet enough to not draw too much attention.

The camera shattered from the shot, but sure enough, the sound was still soft enough that there was no notable reaction. Sai could hear one of the hounds at the front of the building start barking, followed by someone hitting the pen and a command for silence. It wasn't like most of Shoushan's boys; while Sai couldn't make out the exact words, the tone and rhythm of what was said was quite similar to how Mary spoke. It was safe to assume most if not all of the guards present were "retrained" instead of hired muscle.

Sai has a small window. They wouldn’t wait long to have someone go and investigate the broken camera. Sprinting out, Sai looked up at the fire escape and knew he had no chance to make that jump. Looking over, he ran to the dumpster and quickly started to roll the dumpster over to the fire escape. Thankfully his silent field was still causing no noise. As soon as the dumpster was in position, Sai attempted to leap up to grab the ladder.

Sai managed to grab hold of the bottom rung; it was well rusted, and the whole thing swayed slightly from his weight. What he was doing was risky, but he managed to make his way up the ladder without it breaking. Just as he made it to the roof, another patrol came by; they didn't seem to stop or take notice of the dumpster having been moved, though the hound they were with perked its ears up and began sniffing deliberately.
On the roof, Sai would see multiple fixtures; smoke stacks, a chimney, a door leading into the building, and a skylight. Upon trying the door, Sai would find the doorknob was locked, and if he pressed his weight against it, it was barricaded on the other side. Looking in the skylight, Sai would see a metal catwalk almost directly beneath it. It appeared to have fallen into some disrepair, multiple segments of it missing, meaning there were certainly no patrols up there. The only thing between him and the inside of the building was a locked skylight now.

Getting to the top, Sai quickly examined the skylight that was blocking his way. The entrance down past the glass looked promising, but he would have to make sure that he got in first. Looking to the lock, Sai decided to do this quietly as he could first. With his silence still going, he lifted up the butt of his rifle and kept smashing until the lock broke. If the lock wouldn’t break from that, he’d use a bullet to do it. Once he moved the glass, he dropped down quietly and checked his surroundings.

The catwalk beneath him buckled slightly as he landed on it, the sound muted by Sai's power. Still, his power didn't make the walkway feel any safer to be on. Below him was a small maze of defunct machinery and other structures, and at least five different patrols of varying sizes; each one had two armed guards with kevlar, a hound, and a man handling the hound, and two of them had what seemed to be aides, dressed differently and without the facial tattoos. All the cameras in the building seemed to be at the same level as the catwalk and angled down, so he was off camera for the moment at least. After a small patrol around on the catwalk, Sai would find a door similar to the one in the previous facility that led to the slave pens. He was too far away to see it in detail, but it was definitely the same sort as before, but there were two different cameras positioned on it. Near the entrance of the building was a ladder leading down to the main floor from the catwalk; it ran right past a camera while staying in its blindspot, so Sai could possibly dismantle it on his way down by hand so he would have a small blind spot he could hide in when he reached the ground floor.

So many guards. Damn it, these guys were always on high alert. Sai missed the days of dealing with guards who hated their damn job. Sai just kept his breathing steady, wanting to do everything he could to keep out of sight for as long as possible. From this distance the door to the spaces looked the same as before, but Sai wasn’t going to make that same mistake. He needed to get closer.

Heading over to the ladder, he began to move down silently, along with dismantling the camera on the way. With a second camera out, there was no way they’d take it ass coincidence, he needed to hurry. Sai would continue to move to the ground, trying to find a good angle of the door so he can see if there was anything different about it.

As Sai hit the ground and entered some cover, sure enough, there was some radio chatter. One of the armed guards in the nearest patrol barked something back into the radio, then turned to the aide. "There is interference with the surveillance system." Sai could barely make out. "We cannot risk both of Master Zhao's remaining aides. Shang will continue business up here. We will escort you down to the workshop." The patrol immediately made for the door; while Sai couldn't exactly see what was going on, he saw the aide went to the door first, and reached into his pocket instead of going for where the keypad would be. There was the buzzer, the light above the door switched to green, and the door slowly swung open. The patrol disappeared downstairs, and the door closed again with a loud thunk. The team with the other aide seemed to be having a similar discussion before disappearing into what seemed to be a storage room across the way from Sai's position. The remaining teams straightened and resumed their patrols.

Well that was slightly problematic. Last time there had been a keypad and Sai was hoping he could just see someone type in a code. Thus time, there seemed to be an actual card they scanned. Sai doubted he could actually grab one without being noticed, he was going to have to kill some folks.

Seeing the team with the other side going to the storage room, Sai started to make his way over there. With some luck maybe he could take out that team and take their card without anyone noticing.

Making his way across the room was difficult; the teams were very diligent in their patrolling, but there was enough debris and defunct machinery to keep him hidden. It was slow going, almost ten minutes to cross the room while staying hidden from both the cameras and the patrols, but he finally made it to cover just across from the door to the storage room. It was a simple metal door, and it was still slightly ajar. Above the door was a security camera angled directly downwards, to guarantee that whoever entered the room could be identified.

Well damn, Sai hadn’t expected something like this. Still, they were already getting suspicious of multiple cameras going out today alone. Maybe one more wouldn’t be that alarming. It was a risk, but Sai’s only other choice was to try and quietly take out this entire room without being noticed. Sai got close to the door but stayed far enough away to remain out of view. With his silence still active, Sai shot out this last camera before hurrying through the door and shutting it. With his power everyone in the room wouldn’t even hear the door slam shut.

Sure enough, inside the room, everyone's back was turned, and the aide was taking inventory of some of the supplies. None of them seemed aware of Sai's presence at first, but the dog immediately turned around at his scent and began barking hostilely. Being outside of his silence zone, its handler immediately turned around. "Intruder." He announced in a blatant monotone droll. Instantly, the two armed guards turned around and raised their auto-rifles. "Sic." The handler ordered, dropping the dog's leash, and it rushed Sai.

Thankfully, Sai was expecting the dog to notice him. Without any hesitation, he lifted up his AK-47 before the guards could fire at him and unleashed a spray of bullets throughout the entire room. The silence field would mostly silent the noise, though the bullets impacting the walls and the yells of the guards wouldn’t be silenced. Sai just kept firing, trying to down them all before they radio’d for help or got any good shots on him.

This was the downside of having such focused guards; none let out so much as a sound apart from their weapons. The guard on the far left took a stray round to the head almost instantly, causing him to drop to the ground. Sai managed to clip the other armed guard in the shoulder, forcing him into cover. The dog managed to reach Sai, however, sinking its teeth into his leg, which was likely still recovering from the last dog that attacked him. The handler immediately retreated deeper into the room, escorting the aide by the arm out of Sai's direct line of sight.

“Son of a-!” Sai shouted in pain as the dog once again sank its teeth into his leg. Why was it always the same leg?! Pulling out his combat knife, he stabbed multiple times into the dogs head before finishing it with one to the neck. Sai kicked the corpse away before sprinting forward with no sound generated, hoping to bullrush the injured guard before he launched a counter attack.

The dog collapsed soundlessly, and the injured guard turned his weapon towards Sai, firing a spray of bullets at him as Sai rushed him; the spray wasn't aimed well, but it was a desperate attempt to keep Sai at bay. The spray was dead silent due to Sai's power, and the man's clip emptied by the time Sai was at point blank range. The guard instantly dropped the weapon and reached a hand behind his back, clearly going for another weapon.

Sai was in a mad dash to try and contain this. Two were already fleeing and he needed to finish this before the entire facility figured out what was going on. Running he moved at an angle to avoid the bullets as best he could. However, a few impacted Sai’s Kevlar vest. It hurt, but multiple lives were on the line. Sai leapt forward to try and tackle the man, attempting to drive his knife into the mans stomach as he did so.

The man finished pulling out a handgun, but wasn't able to get a shot off before the knife stabbed him. Sai struggled to get enough force behind it to make a deep wound through the kevlar vest, but it was enough to force the guard to drop his firearm. Disarmed, the guard reached forward, wrapping his hands around Sai's neck. He wasn't able to squeeze hard from his position, but he was certainly able to make breathing significantly harder for Sai, and possibly slow blood flow enough to start making him dizzier.

Sai growled in anger as he felt the pressure of the man's hands around his neck. It was just enough to cause Sai a slight worry, but not enough to stop him. The knife was stuck in the kevlar, but Sai had other weapons to use. Moving his hand up, he jammed his thumb as hard and as deep in to the man's eye as he could go. Sai was going to keep going until the man found a way to stop him, or until he stopped moving altogether.

The guard struggled against Sai's thumb in his eye, releasing Sai's throat to force his hand away from his face. One hand forced Sai's finger out of his eye, while the other went to slug Sai across the jaw and force him off. The guard rolled onto his side now that Sai was off of him, and began trying to force Sai's hunting knife out of his gut and kevlar vest; his pistol was unattended on the ground behind him. Sai could hear fumbling a little ways further back behind some of the crates; from what he could see, there wasn't a back way out of this storage room, only the way the came in through.

Sai fell to his side, feeling how sore his jaw was. He turned and kicked the man, trying to knock him vulnerable for a moment. With the man stunned, Sai quickly grabbed the mans pistol and fired at the mans head to avoid the Kevlar. With him dead, Sai turned his attention to the back of the room. He started to move that direction, silently trying to approach whatever he heard.

As Sai turned the corner, he saw the man who was handling the hound standing alone near a large wooden crate, facing Sai's direction and holding a crowbar in his hand as a weapon. "You will fail. Even if you kill me. My life is forfeit. But your mission is futile." The slave said in his robotic manner once he saw Sai come around the corner. With that, he rushed at Sai, swinging the crowbar in a wide lateral sweep, closing the distance to keep Sai from effectively using his pistol.