Brock’s face was screwed up in pain. “I will be when commando training is over.” He scowled in Joel’s direction and Joel, catching his eye, smiled and nodded.
“You ok, dude?” he asked, a little smugly.
Brock raised his chin. “No,” he said flatly.
“Don’t worry,” Joel called to him across the table and the hubbub of the rest of the crew, “the first few weeks are the worst. After that you get a new pain threshold,” he added.
Pieter muttered something about weakness leaving the body, and Paige rolled her eyes at him.
Molly stood up. “Ok, folks, listen up.” She paused just long enough for the babble to die down, and for everyone to look at her.
“Phase One is underway,” she began. “We have a job. In fact, we potentially have a series of jobs that will pay us enough to reach our target. But they’re all through one company. Our first job therefore is, you guessed it, a test.” She turned to her left and signaled for Joel to continue the briefing. “Joel?” she said, sitting down again.
Joel stayed seated, but straightened to address the group. “Yes, it’s a test. They said that if we do well on this one, they will have other jobs right behind it, so we’ve got to pull out all the stops to make sure we impress.”
He pulled up the conference room holo. A company name and logo and a case file were on the screen, courtesy of his favorite place on the XtraNET, CaseHUB.
“The company is called Framan. Our contact is one Mr. Sergio Jones. They have a number of teams like ours around the Sark System, so they’re not new to this kind of arrangement, and they have a standard they expect.”
He paused, noticing that he had their rapt attention. “It’s like we’re contractors. They call us every time they have a situation. Our first case is suspected corporate espionage at one of their pharmaceutical companies called Iantrogen. They suspect their R&D intel is going to a competitor, but they’re struggling to pin it down because it keeps landing in supplier companies.”
He swiped to another screen. “Our job is to go on-site at Iantrogen, isolate the source of the leak, and apprehend both ends.”
Paige put up her hand. Joel nodded in her direction. “By both ends, you mean the mole and...”
He bobbed his head. “And the person receiving the intel,” he confirmed.
Paige nodded. “K. Got it.”
Pieter was the next to ask a question. “So do they have anything to go on, or are we just walking in blind? I mean, do we know that the source is even in the building you mentioned?”
Joel pointed at him. “Good question, and yes.” He flicked to another screen to reveal more data about the investigation. “This is a report from a previous team. They seem to have isolated the source as someone in this part of the company.”
Pieter shook his head gently, his designer hair flopping onto his forehead. “Yeah, but if they had a previous team in, why didn’t they already apprehend the suspects?”
Joel zoomed in on the report, displaying the text for them to read. “They fucked up, from what I can see.” He stood up and folded his arms. “Basically they tripped something in the connection being used to send data, and the culprits had time to scramble.”
He glanced at Paige. “At both ends,” he added.
Pieter nodded. “Ok. So we have to be extra-stealthy in our counter-counter-intelligence?”
“Correct,” Joel confirmed.
Joel addressed the whole group. “Time is of the essence here. Wheels up in two hours.” He paused, considering his next comment before blurting it out. “The good news is that because of the case you have at least three days before our next training session!”
The gang groaned. Even Molly laughed, and let her head flop on the desk in front of her.
Joel had practically killed them last night.
“Ironic,” said Molly, her voice somewhat muffled from her faceplanted position on the desk. “I’m relieved to have an actual mission so we have time to recover from our training!”
The room emptied as the team left to prepare for departure.
Gaitune-67, Phoenix Reign
“All aboard the Magical Mystery Tour.” Crash’s calm, collected and dulcet tones rang through the ship. “This is your Captain speaking.” He deliberately didn’t enunciate his words, conveying the air of aloofness that all cock-head pilots do when they’re trying to impress.
“We will shortly be cruising at an altitude of several light years above fuck all in the galaxy. Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle. Your air hostesses will be around shortly with a choice of beverages for your enjoyment on today’s flight. We shall begin take off in T-minus-four minutes and counting.”
Brock added his wit to Crash’s announcement. “That means buckle up, motherfuckers!”
The cabin erupted in laughter.
Paige giggled her head off and Pieter, sitting across the aisle from her, glanced over. He couldn’t help but grin. The newest addition to the team was starting to feel more like one of the family and less like the new guy with each passing day. Brock and Paige had helped. Although, with the strange competitive vibe between them, he couldn’t be sure they didn’t have ulterior motives.
Or maybe a bet going.
He shook the thought from his head. “Hey, how long does this flight actually take?” he asked Paige.
Paige groaned. “For-frickin’-ever!” she droned.
Joel had heard the question, and decided to chip in. “She’s right,” he told Pieter.
Pieter shook his head, a strand of hair falling slightly differently as a result. “Thanks. Thanks, Joel. Very helpful.”
Paige giggled again.
Joel reached for his seatbelt, and noticed that Molly was already buckled in a couple of seats in front of him, across the aisle. She was sitting quietly. Probably talking to Oz, he figured.
She felt him looking at her and turned around.
“You ok?” he asked.
Molly nodded. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
She shifted in her seat to see him better. “About how the mole might have set up a connection in an office and still gone untraced.”
Joel shrugged. “Is that implausible?”
Molly pulled her lips to one side and tipped her head from side to side. “Grindle-senses are tingling.”
Joel smiled at the reference. “Oz any help?”
Molly shook her head. “Probably not until we get some detail to investigate.”
The ship had been moving, and now, with less than a couple of minutes to launch, the engines were powering up and becoming noisy. Molly leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. Joel decided to relax for the ascent too. There wasn’t much you could do during the g-force acceleration Crash was about to pull, even though Joel knew full well you didn’t need to go that fast to escape the lackluster, short-range artificial gravity field of the tiny asteroid. He assumed Molly had twigged to that too, but was letting Crash do it his way.
Guess it’s just how Crash gets his ya-yas off, he concluded as the engines screamed and the thrusters launched them into space in a matter of seconds.
He closed his eyes and waited for his stomach to return to his body.
Iantrogen Offices, Downtown Spire
The gang piled out of the car the client had sent to the Spaceport for them. Their normal on-planet runaround wasn’t going to fit their growing team. Framan had arranged a high-security people carrier instead to deliver them to the offices double-time. The driver and security detail were dressed in dark grey atmosuits and worked together like clockwork, each anticipating the other’s moves and barely needing to use voices to communicate.
Joel was impressed by their slick operation. Molly was more impressed at how they navigated through traffic. She spent a good chunk of the drive thinking about the algorithm their nav device must be using in order to keep them moving through the downtown region.
They pulled into the underground parking lot and
their grey-suited detail guided them into the main office building. They didn’t sign in. Instead, they were led straight to the tenth floor.
In the elevator, Pieter took a moment to appreciate his handsome looks in the reflective surface that housed the holo control. He rubbed his fingers through his hair, and encouraged it to stand up a little more. Molly watched him, and when he realized she was paying attention he quickly finished, then straightened his shirt and stood uniformly like the others.
Grey-Suit glanced down at him and seemed to roll his eyes, even though his expression made Crash look animated.
The team followed Grey-Suit out of the elevator and out onto the tenth floor. It was only partially populated by desks, leaving it sparse as if it were either newly inhabited or someone had moved out.
In the center of the space was an array of white office tables, with chairs scattered around. Three Estarians stood or sat around. One was at a desk, on the holo. The other two stopped talking when the group arrived and came over to introduce themselves.
“Greetings of the day to you,” the first Estarian said, extending his hand and shaking each person’s hand in turn. The other guy hung back a little, but was clearly in charge.
“Greetings. Thank you for coming on short notice,” he told them sincerely. “We understand you had a great distance to cover, and appreciate the effort.”
Molly spoke for her team, stepping forward slightly. “You’re welcome. We’re looking forward to helping however we can.”
“Good,” the second Estarian nodded. “My name is Mr. Grimm. This is Mr. Iace.”
The man stepped forward and shook her hand, then stepped back to allow Mr. Iace to shake hands with Molly too.
“I’m Molly Bates, and this is my team. Joel, Paige, Pieter, Brock, and Crash.” She indicated each in turn.
Mr. Grimm smiled and bowed slightly to them. “Welcome,” he said. He gestured toward the tables and chairs. “Shall we?”
“Of course,” Molly said, and ushered her people to the conference table.
The team settled in for Mr. Grimm’s briefing.
---
Mr. Grimm finished talking forty minutes later. “So that’s everything we know.”
He indicated to Mr. Iace. “Mr. Iace is going to provide you with access to our network, and the schematics of the device we found. The last team said the only way to trace it was to trick it using a mirror device.” He had a look of uncertainty in his eyes as he looked back at Molly. “I’m assuming someone on your team knows what that is?”
Molly nodded.
What, he thinks we’re amateurs?
Oz.
Mr. Grimm left them with a final word. “We need both the mole and the person he’s sending intel to, in order to release your bonus.” He paused and glanced around the table at the whole team. “Good luck.”
Joel and Molly looked at each other as Grimm got up and walked out of the open-plan office space and back to the elevator.
Mr. Iace stayed behind for a few moments to set up a network port for Pieter, and to transfer the plans of the device the last team had used. “I’ll be in the office down the corridor if you need anything.”
Molly thanked him robotically, and then they got to work. Well, more precisely, Pieter got to work. Brock hovered, watching over his shoulder, and the others sat around turning over speculations about their new client while they waited to be of use.
As soon as Pieter had gotten a good look at the device schematic the last team had produced, he pushed the screen closer to Brock so he could see.
Brock looked at Molly, who was engrossed checking details for the task in her holo. “I know how to deal with one of these,” he told her, “but I’m going to need parts.”
Molly looked up. “Ok, take Joel and Crash and get whatever you need.” She called to Crash at the other end of the table, “Crash, see if you can requisition some wheels from Mr. Iace.”
Crash had been chewing on something, like a paper clip while he listened to the conversations between the others. He took the chew thing out of his mouth, acknowledged Molly’s instruction, and then headed down the corridor to locate Iace.
Oz, can you get onto the network and find out where the problem is?
Yep. Already located it. It’s on the fourth floor. The workstation is used by a Soraya Burns. Been with the company two years. Seems to be having financial trouble.
The perfect mark.
Hmm. And the other team was right. It’s going to take a mirror to be able to disconnect the device and then find out what it’s been transmitting and where.
“Pieter?” Molly called him from across the table. He seemed distracted by a technical discussion between Brock and Joel, but whipped his attention back to Molly.
“It seems,” she told him, “that Oz has located the workstation in question. Can we do another sweep of the building’s security and find out why they were struggling to identify it?
“Sure.” Pieter nodded, and started typing and pulling up additional screens. Paige had moved her chair closer to Pieter and watched in awe, hardly noticing that Crash had returned with keys.
“Ok,” Crash announced. “We’re good to go.” He dangled the keys, confirming they had transport. Unaccompanied transport.
Brock finished typing a note as he stood up, then grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. Joel was on his feet heading around the table too.
Joel said, “See you later” to Molly as he passed by.
She spun to look at him. He paused. “Be careful,” she told him.
He smiled at her concern. “Always,” he promised.
Molly turned back to the remaining team members. “Hey Paige, can you use the same login credentials and find out what you can about Soraya Burns? She’s been with the company for two years.”
Paige nodded. “Sure,” she said, peeling herself away from watching Pieter and opening her own holo.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Iantrogen Offices, Underground Parking Lot, Spire
Crash, Brock and Joel strode through the underground parking lot.
Joel was on high alert. Sure, nothing should go wrong, but parking lots, high stakes missions…they tended to go hand in hand with bad things going down.
He scanned the area as they walked, watching for any sign of movement.
Crash located their vehicle where Iace had told them it would be, and they piled in.
Joel sat up front to keep an eye on things as they drove. Crash located the positions of all the controls and started the engine to pull out of the lot and drive into the city.
“You know where we’re going?” he asked Crash.
Crash nodded. “We found the warehouse outlet we need. It’s in my holo. We’re good.”
Joel grunted and turned his head to talk to Brock in the back seat. “And you’ve got the list of things you need? A complete list?”
Brock pulled up his holo and pushed a screen to Joel. “Yessiree,” he told him. “This is what we’re looking for.”
Joel nodded and read down the list, trying to make sense of it. He turned back to Crash, the light in his eyes gone. “I have no idea what any of this is.”
Brock grinned devilishly. “And that is why you need my sexy ass on this mission,” he exclaimed, giving him a wink.
Joel blushed.
Crash glanced sideways at Joel and his lips turned up a little at the side.
Iantrogen Offices, Tenth Floor, Spire
Pieter was typing ferociously on the keyboard. “That’s odd,” he commented, almost to himself.
Molly heard and looked up. “What is it?” she asked curiously.
Pieter mumbled, distracted by what he was doing on the holo. “I was checking their logs to see what scans they had run to try and find the mole. But they didn’t run anything. No sweeps, no specialist-detection software, no port-check. Nothing.”
Molly frowned. “You’re sure?”
Pieter looked up and gave her a look of someone asking a rocket sci
entist if he knew about Newton’s laws of motion.
She shook her head, eyes closed for a second. “What’s your hypothesis?” she asked.
Paige jumped in, appearing from behind her holo screens, one arm on the desk, leaning toward Pieter. “They’re totally hiding something.”
Pieter glanced at Paige before looking back at Molly. Molly awaited his answer. He hooked his thumb in Paige’s direction. “What she said.”
What are we thinking, Oz? Set up?
Set up.
Molly pursed her lips. “Oz thinks this is a set up too.”
She scratched the side of her head, elbow now on the desk, and thought for a moment. “If this is correct, we need to be careful about what we tell Grimm and Iace. They’re probably in on it. It could just be a test from Framan.” She paused. “Albeit a very expensive one.”
Pieter and Paige watched her, waiting for her next insight. “We need to think differently then,” she said finally. “Trust nothing we didn’t gather ourselves. Pieter, Oz,” she instructed, “can you work to find out if there is truly intel being routed out of here covertly?”
Pieter nodded. “On it.” He pulled up a new holoscreen.
She kept looking at him. “Careful not to tip them off, though.”
Molly turned to Paige. “Paige, be ready for when Joel gets back. As soon as he arrives, you go with him to apprehend Ms. Burns. Use the intel you have to find out what is really going on. If she’s being paid to take a fall, we need to know why and by whom.”
Paige nodded. “Got it. Looking into the financials now.”
Molly narrowed one eye, considering something else. “And then get Oz to help with retrieving logs of her financials. In other words, find out who else has gone looking at that information.”
Paige nodded.
Roger that, boss.
Molly got up from the desk and wandered across to the floor-to-ceiling windows in an empty office. The view of Spire from here was incredible, but her thoughts were elsewhere, wondering what they were missing.
Something wasn’t right.
---
Arriving back at the Iantrogen building, grey-suit guy met them in the parking lot and escorted them to the workshop in the basement.
Called Page 6
