Brady Hawk 19 - Divide and Conquer

by R. J. Patterson

  Young raised an eyebrow. “Did you say six months?”

  Sinclair nodded. “Probably longer, but about that amount of time.”

  “I didn’t even know I was going to be here until a few days ago,” Young said. “How could you know that we would show up?”

  “All I had to do was invite you.”

  “But I didn’t even know you. We only recently met at my wife’s—”

  Young stopped as he started to extrapolate out the potential implication of this revelation.

  “Stop reading too much into my explanation,” Sinclair said. “I was only trying to give you an idea that my team here has been working tirelessly to show you something that’s going to change the world, one way or another.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Young asked.

  “You’ll see what I’m talking about soon enough,” Sinclair said before he leaned toward a console and spoke into the microphone.

  “Do you know what he’s about to show us?” Young asked Karelin.

  He shook his head. “But whatever it is, I want it.”

  Sinclair pressed a button on the panel in front of him and addressed his workers one more time. “The time has come. Initiate the launch protocol.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Two Hours Earlier

  Off the coast of

  Rutland Island, Indian Ocean

  HAWK DIDN’T MOVE as the dive instructor began his spiel about how to operate the oxygen tanks. The boat rocked back and forth just off shore. The man stormed over to Hawk and leaned down, getting in his face.

  “This is the most important thing I will tell you all day,” the man said. “If you don’t listen, you may die.”

  Hawk eyed the man before standing up, towering over him. “I’m not diving.”

  “You’re not what?” the man asked, his eyes widening. “You paid two hundred dollars for me to guide you on a dive.”

  “None of us are diving,” Hawk said, nodding toward Alex and Mia. “I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to beach this boat over there.”

  The man scowled as he looked at Hawk. “We don’t have a permit.”

  “You can leave us there,” Hawk said. “We’ll find our way back.”

  “I can’t do that, I—”

  “Two thousand dollars,” Hawk said.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll do it.”

  The instructor hustled to the back of the boat and raised the anchor. Moments later, he was steering the vessel toward the shore.

  Hawk handed the man a stack of cash. “There’s an extra thousand in there for keeping your mouth shut. If you talk, I’ll know it.”

  The man nodded as he took the money. “Not a word, my friend. Good luck on the island.”

  Hawk, Alex, and Mia lugged all their equipment off the boat and trudged across the sand. They found a shaded spot just beyond the shoreline and set up camp.

  “Are we sure this is the spot?” Mia asked.

  “If you decoded that flash drive properly, it is,” Hawk said. “If not, we’ve gone out of our way to spend an odd day at the beach.”

  “No, this is it,” Alex said. “When I entered in the coordinates to check out the location from the NSA’s satellite feed a few hours ago, there’s no question that this is the place.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Mia asked. “Or more to the point, why am I here?”

  “We need your hacking skills,” Alex said. “If Falcon Sinclair is going to demonstrate that new weapon of his, we need to be in position to shut it down. And I’d rather have one of the world’s best hackers working with me than not.”

  “I’ll do whatever you need,” Mia said. “After I saw what that weapon can do, I’ll do anything to stop it.”

  “Good,” Hawk said. “That’s the kind of attitude we need to get the job done.”

  Alex finished setting up her remote satellite dish, enabling her to communicate with the NSA’s computers as well as get online and utilize their com links. Hawk set up a perimeter alarm in case they had any unwanted visitors. While he didn’t like the idea of Alex working on a remote island with unknown inhabitants, he didn’t have much of a choice given the situation.

  Once they were done, Alex logged on. Her mouth gaped as she stared at her screen.

  “What is it?” Hawk asked.

  “It looks like Sinclair is preparing to demonstrate the weapon. They are moving rockets to the launch site.”

  Hawk let out a string of expletives as he paced around the tent. “Can you stop them?”

  “Not unless I have a direct connection,” Alex said.

  “And how are we going to do that?”

  “We need to change our plans,” she said. “Storming the facility and sabotaging the missiles isn’t going to work now. It’s too late.”

  “What do you suggest?” he asked.

  “I need you to plant a transmitter on the rockets,” Alex explained. “If you do that, I should be able to hack into the weapon’s mainframe and divert it before we witness a brazen attack.”

  “You really think Falcon Sinclair would aim these missiles at a highly populated city?” Mia asked.

  Hawk shrugged. “I sure as hell don’t want to find out the hard way. This guy is already controlling so many market sectors that we’re all subject to him whether we realize it or not. If he’s able to become a confidant to the U.S. president, we’re all in trouble.”

  “Can’t argue with that reasoning,” Mia said.

  Hawk crammed the com link device into his ear and then looked at Alex. “I need you to guide me to the rockets.”

  “I’ll do my best,” she said. “Better get going. You don’t have any time to lose.”

  Hawk took a few steps toward the tent door before he turned around and marched back over to her. He gave her a hug and kissed her.

  “Get a room,” Mia said after the prolonged lip lock.

  Hawk pulled back and then smiled before glancing at Mia. “Trust me. I fully intend to once this whole ordeal is settled.”

  He winked at Alex before darting outside and into the rain forest that covered the island. After starting with a swift jog, he increased his pace. Upon breaking into a full sprint, his lungs burned. His quads ached as he extended his stride.

  “You’re making good time,” Alex said over the coms. “Keep it up. You’ll be there before you know it.”

  Hawk wanted to respond, but he needed to save his breath. He pumped his arms and kept his eyes affixed on a gray building in the distance.

  “Up ahead, take a left,” Alex said. “I can’t tell how clear it is to you, but there appears to be a path approaching that will lead you directly to the launch site.”

  “Roger that,” Hawk said as he scanned the route for a path that veered off to the left.

  After about fifty meters, he spotted a clearing on the left that looked like it turned off the main thoroughfare.

  “Going left,” he announced. “Does this look right to you?”

  Hawk slowed his pace a bit as he waited for confirmation from Alex. Her feed was a couple seconds behind him.

  “That’s the one,” she said. “Keep going. You’re about a half-mile from the perimeter.”

  Hawk resumed his torrid pace and rushed up to the fence.

  “Talk to me, Alex. What do you see?”

  “Looks like the coast is clear,” she said. “The rockets appear to be loaded onto a vehicle that’s slowly making its way to the launch site. I can’t tell if anyone is actually driving.”

  Hawk pulled his binoculars out of his rucksack and then zeroed in on the front of the vehicle.

  “How’s it look from the ground?” she asked.

  “I think the launch vehicle is remote controlled.”

  “Still be careful as you approach it, Hawk. Even though Sinclair might feel like he’s safe in the middle of nowhere, he’s no fool. This place is covered with cameras. As soon as you attach the transmitter to the vehicle, run like hell. Mia and I will take care of the rest.”

>   “Roger that,” Hawk said.

  He dug the magnetized box containing the device out of his pocket with his left hand. In his right, he carried a Glock. The launch area was a clearing about a hundred square meters and surrounded by a twelve-foot steel fence topped with barbed wire. After surveying the area one final time, Hawk shimmied up the fence and hurtled over it, hitting the ground hard but rolling to the side to lessen the impact. Darting to his feet, he sprinted toward the vehicle.

  When he was about thirty yards away from his target, he noticed two armed men barreling toward him at full speed. Hawk veered to his left, changing the duo’s angle to give him a chance to reach his destination. He fired a couple shots, but they failed to hit either of the men. As he closed in on the launcher, he realized that he wasn’t going to make it.

  Instead of getting gunned down, Hawk slowed down and threw his hands in the air, dropping his gun. The pair of men kept their guns trained on him.

  “What do you want me to do with him?” one of the guards asked on his coms.

  After a brief moment, he responded. “Roger that.”

  “Kick that weapon over here, pal,” the other guard said as Hawk promptly complied.

  “Today’s your lucky day,” the other guard said. “You’re not going to die—yet.”

  Hawk sighed and put his head down as the launcher passed less than a foot behind him.

  “Oh, Hawk, don’t get yourself killed,” Alex said over the coms.

  Hawk placed his hands behind his back and waited for the men to bind him.

  CHAPTER 20

  ALEX PACED AROUND the tent and contemplated her next move. With Hawk in custody, stopping the rockets from firing would be an impossible challenge. She and Mia simply didn’t have the time required to hack into Sinclair’s system and thwart the launch.

  As Alex weighed all her options, Mia pumped her fist while staring at one of the laptop screens.

  “Get over here, Alex,” she said. “We have work to do.”

  Alex sighed. “Yeah, but not even you are good enough to crack the firewall Sinclair has here.”

  “I don’t need to. Hawk came through.”

  Alex rushed over to Mia’s computer and gaped at the information scrolling across the screen. From the satellite image, she never saw Hawk place the magnetic device on the rocket launcher, but based on Mia’s progress, he obviously had.

  “When did he do that?” Alex asked.

  “He must’ve slipped the transmitter on there when it rolled past him,” Mia said. “That’s the only time he got near enough to do it.”

  Breaking into the rocket’s onboard computer was far simpler than fighting through an entire computer system protected by layers of security. The weapons relayed information with the control center and were presumed to be safe from outside interference. That is, unless someone had a way of communicating directly with the rockets. Alex and Mia now had a way.

  The duo hammered away on their laptops, breaking through the simple defenses on the rockets’ mainframes and rewriting the way the weapons would communicate. They passed information back and forth, focusing on the task at hand. She still wasn’t convinced they had enough time to circumvent the mainframe, viewing the mission as a long shot. But as long as there was still time, she was going to keep working. If she and Mia didn’t establish a connection before the rockets were launched, there was little chance that the mission would be accomplished.

  Alex’s fingers were flying as she worked on the code. However, she stopped when she heard one of the guards talking over Hawk’s coms.

  “Sinclair wants to see him and make an example out of him,” the guard said.

  Alex winced, worried that she’d never see Hawk again.

  “We need to get a move on,” the guard said. “They’re about to fire up these rockets.”

  * * *

  SINCLAIR GROWLED as he studied the scene in the launch area through his binoculars.

  “I apologize for the delay, gentlemen,” he said. “It appears as though someone is attempting to sabotage my demonstration.”

  “There’s someone out there?” Young asked as he moved toward the window.

  “It’s difficult to believe, I know,” Sinclair said, “especially given how impossible it is to get on this island. But some nut job found a way and is trying to subvert my plans.”

  He watched as two of his security agents corralled the man.

  “Okay, looks like the problem has been resolved,” Sinclair announced. “My security team has apprehended the man, and we’re now safe to resume the launch sequence.”

  Sinclair placed his binoculars on the ledge in front of the window and clasped his hands behind his back. He resisted the urge to smile, though he couldn’t wait to surprise the two presidents once the weapons were airborne.

  One of the guards tried to tell the command center something, but his words were broken up by static, likely caused by electronic interference.

  “Did anyone understand what he was trying to say?” Sinclair asked.

  One of the men seated at the controls offered an explanation. “I think he was asking what to do with the prisoner.”

  “Open the channel,” Sinclair said. “Bring him to me so I can make an example out of him.”

  “Roger that,” replied the guard.

  “All right,” Sinclair said as he rubbed his hands together. “It’s show time.”

  Another man’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Launching the rockets in t-minus fifteen seconds, fourteen, thirteen, twelve . . .”

  CHAPTER 21

  HAWK RESISTED THE URGING of the two security guards until they started whacking him with night sticks. Upon relenting, he went without incident to the makeshift holding cell they had in the security office. They chained Hawk to an empty desk and dared him to move.

  He scanned the room, searching for anything to help get out of the situation. He spotted a paperclip nearby on the floor and hatched a quick plan.

  “I need to go to the restroom,” Hawk said. “Can you help a guy out?”

  The guard rolled his eyes. “Hold it.”

  “I can’t. I’m sure you understand.”

  The guard grunted. “Of course I do. But when I can’t go, I do like most adults do and hold it. Do you want me to get you a nappy?”

  “You Aussies have such strange words. So, no. I don’t want a diaper. I need to pee, and I’m not going to hold it any longer.”

  “For goodness sake, Marcus,” the guard staring at a bank of security cameras across the room chimed, “take the man the loo. Just keep his hands chained together. It’s not like he can go anywhere. Better to do it now than keep Sinclair waiting when he summons the prisoner.”

  “Fine,” the guard mumbled. “Up you go.”

  He used a zip tie to secure Hawk’s hands in front of him before removing the handcuffs. Then the guard nudged Hawk forward. Sticking with his plan, as soon as the guard made contact with Hawk, he stumbled and fell face first onto the floor. The guard growled and kicked Hawk in the side.

  “Get up!” Hawk slowly stood but not before swiping the paperclip. He tucked it in his pocket before the man could see what he was doing.

  When Hawk returned from the restroom, one of his wrists was placed in a cuff and tethered back to the desk. Waiting patiently for the guard to become interested in something else, Hawk got his opportunity and began picking the lock the moment the man looked away. The process took longer than usual since Hawk had to keep an eye out for anyone who might catch him in the act. But he loosened the latch before it flung open, springing him free.

  However, he didn’t make a run for it right away. He was at a huge disadvantage since both guards carried weapons and he didn’t have anything.

  “Is there any possibility that I could get a cup of water?” Hawk asked. “I’m really parched.”

  One of the guards rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky the boss didn’t let me shoot you on the spot. Because I would’ve gladly put you down, yo
u miserable excuse for a human being.”

  Hawk resisted any pithy comeback lines. “Please? I’m very thirsty.”

  “Marcus, get the man something to drink,” the other guard said with the wave of his hand. “You don’t have to treat him like a caged animal. Sinclair will take care of that.”

  The man huffed as he stomped out of the room. He returned a half-minute later with a cup of water, but as soon as the man handed it to Hawk, he splashed it back in the man’s face and kicked his kneecap, sending him sprawling to the floor. Before the man could regain his bearings, Hawk snatched the guard’s gun and took two shots at the man sitting behind the controls. Seconds later, he slumped forward and smacked his head on the panels.

  When Hawk looked down, he noticed the other guard squirming away. Hawk put his foot on the man’s head and applied enough pressure to pin him to the floor.

  “What’s the fastest way out of here?” Hawk asked.

  The man stuttered as he explained the quickest exit route. After he finished, Hawk shot the man then collected both access badges before shoving the bodies into a hallway closet.

  After retrieving his rucksack, Hawk put his com unit back into his ear and tried to reach Alex.

  “You out there, Alex?” he asked.

  Nothing.

  He pulled out the device and inspected it. The side was crushed, enough to let Hawk know the guards had fiddled with it somehow.

  Hawk hustled outside, following the directions the guard had related. While Hawk wasn’t completely positive the man had told the truth, if he was lying, he was convincing. But with nothing else to go on, Hawk chose to believe the man was being honest.

  Hawk rushed down several corridors before he reached the main launch area. The moment he did, he heard a roar and looked up in time to see the rockets blasting skyward.

  He shook his head and cursed. Apparently, his efforts had failed.

  Without hesitating, he scaled the wall again and headed back to Alex and Mia. They needed to regroup and come up with another plan—if there was still time.