The Systems Challenge

"Any idea what that explosion was or what caused it?" Jonas asked Heather gently.

Kim couldn't help but smile at the expression Heather gave Jonas for asking about something she'd pretty much just answered.

Heather shook her head, looking part annoyed, part depressed. "No, but I don't think it was an accident, like I just said," Heather replied,.

"If you win the competition, do you really want to go back to your world?" Owen asked. "I mean, I'd think almost any other world would be better than the one you lived in. With even your parents not seeming like they care about you as their daughter."

Heather shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it is the only world I know and even if they don't care about me, they're still my parents…" Heather trailed off, as she spoke.

"Well, if you don't make it back to your world, you can count on me to be there with you," Sonya commented.

"You'd be welcome in my world, I'm sure," Elwin added.

Heather managed a weak smile. "Thanks."

"All that's well and good, but who's next?" Owen asked.

Kim sighed. She figured she might as well get this out of the way. Especially since she could see that there wasn't any getting out of it.

"I'll go," Kim volunteered. At the very least, it would let Elin get to know her a little better, and that might make them even closer.

+++

Kim checked her email on her phone. No further contact from her client had been given, so she had to assume they were good for her to start her evaluation of their security.

She was already at the edge of the property. She'd made a quick scan of the perimeter and noticed where the cameras facing outward were. She preferred doing this in the middle of the day, mostly because then it would make it that much harder for her to go through undetected by regular people going by, which was something she often calculated in her tests, though she often did emphasize to her clients that they can't rely on people who are merely passing by to notice if something seems out of place.

As she waits for the cameras to be facing away from the path she'd decided on earlier, she scans the street to make sure no one is looking her way. As soon as she knows the cameras are facing far enough away from where she would be going, she swiftly vaults up the ten foot wall and is over, barely even pausing for the ornamental metal at the top that's supposed to keep people from doing what she just did.

However, she hardly took much notice of them. For a determined theif or intruder, those things wouldn't deter them. As far as she was concerned, they were made only to deter people from doing that who would think to do it on a whim, not from a serious attempt that the rest of the secuirty was there for.

As she quickly makes her way across the lawn of the mansion, she was stunned to see no other cameras. Though, she didn't really expect any.

Once to the main building, she quickly hides in the shadows behind a bush. Not that it would keep her from being noticed if the guard making his rounds actually looked in her direction.

First mental not she made to herself was to find the blind spots like the one she was in. After all, if the guards don't look in the blind spots, any number of problems could come up.

The second mental note she made was at the position they had the stationary guards. Pretty much at just the front and back doors. There were several windows and she was able to slip inside one that she could see didn't have anyone in it.

Quietly, she made her way over to the door in the room, careful not to make any noise. Although, she had to quickly hide when the door opened up unexpectedly and a servant almost entered the room.

However, it seemed that the servant opened the wrong door of what they were supposed to do. Maybe it was a new hire? Kim asked herself, as she continued what she was doing. After all, the new staff was always more of a concern to her when she was doing her job, since they usually hadn't gotten any habits down that would make it easier for her to do her run.

She'd seen the uniform the servant wore and she knew she wouldn't be able to replicate it on the spot, since it wasn't the stereotypical uniform so many people had, which meant she couldn't try on a disguise and pretend to be one of the staff. Which she filed away as her third mental note and moved on.

As she left the room, she made sure to close the door behind her and move carefully. She kept her ears open for any sounds of someone approaching her location. For one thing, since it was during the day, there was always more activity as servants went about their jobs.

In a way, this could almost be considered an extreme sport. After all, she definitely felt the adrenaline coursing through her with the near misses she'd already encountered so far that day.

So, not for the first time, she couldn't help but wonder if part of the reason she did these runs during the day was for the adrenaline rush from being able to get past so many people without them ever being aware of her presence. Or at least unaware enough that they didn't report it as suspicious.

Her objective currently was on the second floor of the mansion and she was still on the ground floor. What she needed was a way to get up there without going through the main route, since that was too open and was undoubtedly too busy for her to go that way and expect to remain undetected.

She knew of at least two other sets of stairs, but both were always busy at this time of day. What she needed was a way that didn't have near as much traffic. However, she did still have ideas. As towards the back door was a room that the blueprints of the mansion she'd been able to find in government's permit office showed had a way up to the second floor that wasn't likely to be used as much. Primarily because it was installed as a means to climb down from the second floor in the event a fire blocked the other paths and partly because it was installed before the room had been built, as originally it was part of the outside of the mansion. Though, also because it was a ladder, which made it difficult for the servants to go up or down it with what they typically had to be taking with them.

If she hadn't known of that place, she would have been forced to have looked for a way up there outside of the building. Not that she would have had as much difficulty doing that, but there was always a greater chance of being seen.

She carefully made her way down to the room that had the ladder she wanted and quickly entered the room before anyone could come by her.

As she did so, she almost choked on the dust that she stirred up. It seemed like the room hadn't been used in some time, which actually was a good thing for her, since that meant there was less of a chance someone would come this way in the even an unexpected complication arose.

When she reached the top of the iron rung ladder, she found a trapdoor that she carefully opened. This was definitely one of the more dangerous points of her path. As she couldn't see who might already be up there. While she'd be able to hear any footsteps, that wouldn't help if someone was here and wasn't moving.

Fortunately, she saw the coast was clear and pulled herself through. She wasn't close to where she wanted to be, but she knew that one of the bigger hurdles was getting up here.

Though, when she moved to the door of the room, she had to wait. She could hear a muffled conversation that indicated there was at least one person on the other side of the door.

"Oh, come on!" a woman's voice whispered. "No one else is up here."

"You know we're not supposed to do this," a younger woman replied.

"As long as we're quick, they won't find out," the woman replied.

Kim opened the door a crack and could see two women, one a servant, the other a maid in an embrace that made it clear what they were doing.

The maid began unbuttoning the other woman's uniform and Kim settled in to watch. The area did seem like an out-of-the-way location for the mansion, and didn't mind getting a show in the middle of her run. Besides, she couldn't do anything while they were there, so she might as well enjoy it.

"You feel so good," the maid whispered seductively.

The woman merely moaned as the maid kissed her before the woman could respond. Though, after the kiss ended, the maid ran her hands over the woman's chest. Kim couldn't help but get excited herself as she watched the two women.

When the woman's top was fully opened, it was quickly dropped onto the floor, shortly followed by her bra. The maid was stopped when the woman began kissing the maid, though the maid still worked at taking the woman's clothing off, until her panties fell to the floor, where the maid then began groping the woman's bottom and chest, which was still out of Kim's view.

Soon the woman started to remove the maid's uniform and Kim was starting to wonder if she'd get to watch them doing it as they began slowly moving to the floor, allowing Kim a better view of what they were doing to each other, but a loud noise farther down the hallway startled them. As the woman turned, she was able to see the woman's entire beauty. From her perky C-cup girls, to her neatly trimmed bush, her lower lips glistening with her juices. Then as she glanced at the maid, she could see her lovely B-cup girls framed by her uniform that was now barely hanging on her shoulders.

While Kim liked what she could see, she couldn't help but mentally curse whoever made that noise. Especially when the women started to get dressed again. Kim wished she could have take some pictures of the women, if not video, but that would be a crime and she wasn't going to go down that road. For one thing, what if her phone was hacked or she was caught in the act? The fallout certainly would be problematic for her and could cost her, her career.

When the women were fully dressed, they gave the other a quick kiss before they parted ways. So many 'what ifs' were going through her mind at that time, although, she didn't let it stop her from what she was originally there for.

Idly she wondered if she could maybe see if she could talk with those two women after she was done and see if there were up for a threesome.

The rest of her run continued without a problem. She made it to the office which held the item she'd told the client to hide, which was a glass marble, and had no trouble finding the marble, since her client had left it sitting on the desk.

When she went to leave, she retraced her steps and made it back out of the masion with just as little difficulty.

As soon as she landed on the other side of the wall, back by the street, she pulled her phone out and started typing up the report she planned on sending to her client. However, before she could send it, she was pulled into the competion.

The next thing she knew was that she was waking up in that stupid room, without any of the clothing she'd been wearing.