by Rod Carstens
She put the shotgun to her shoulder and said, “This is for little Stevie.”
“No, no. Please.”
The shotgun roared and tore Snake’s head off his shoulders.
“He liked little boys,” Blondie snarled.
Behind him Vin heard the other team members begin to call out.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
Weapons still up, he and Blondie stepped back into the room.
“Let’s do a secondary. And round up all the captives,” Mason said. “Ross is doing secondary on his side. They’re done too.”
The team went through all the cubicles and made sure that the gang members were dead. They had six girl captives in various stages of undress.
“Get them some clothes,” Mason said.
As Vin and the others helped the girls get dressed, Ross and his team walked in with the captives they had freed. Vin looked for Cat and Mike and they exchanged glances; his whole team was intact. There were ten captives in all, in various stages of shock. Blondie knew most of them and was talking to them quietly, explaining what had just happened.
“We were fucking lucky,” Mason said. “Not one captive hurt and we got all the bad guys.”
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Tanner said.
Ross walked up to Mason and Tanner and said, “Okay, we got ten new people we’re going to have to babysit until they can get their heads on straight.”
“Eleven, counting the girl we left across the street.”
“Are there any other gangs in the area?” Vin asked.
“No. These guys had either killed them or run them off.”
“So you guys have a clear area to start with.”
“Yeah, we do.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Mason and I talked, and our best bet is a settlement about a day’s walk from here. They had gardens and seemed well organized, but they had no real security against the gangs. They would just give them anything they wanted to keep them happy. We think they would welcome our help.”
Mason slipped a pack off her back and held it out to Vin. “Here’s the laptop you wanted. Hope it was worth all of this. The password is Bluedoor. All one word. The B is capitalized.”
Vin took it and slung it on his back. “Yeah, me too. Look, I wish we could stay and help you clean this up, but we gotta go. We’re under a tight schedule.”
“We understand. Stay frosty and good luck.”
“We need weapons. Mind if we do some scavenging?”
“Nope. Take what you need. We’ll take the rest. Between us, I don’t think we can take it all anyway. I’ll probably bury what we don’t take and come back for it later.”
Blondie was still saying goodbye to the captives she knew and assuring them they were in good hands. They couldn’t make the two-day trip back with her and the others and would have to start their new lives with Ross and Mason's team. Vin, Cat, and Matos went through the gang’s weapons stash and found several good, usable weapons: a nice .45 pistol, a 9mm, and a couple of hunting rifles that would be good for sniper work. Blondie was finishing up saying goodbye when Vin walked up to her.
“You ready?” he said.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Blondie joined Vin, Cat, Mike, and Matos and they moved out down the path that led to the gate. The sun was just beginning to show in the east. They moved quickly. They didn’t want to be in the open when the sun came up.
Chapter Thirteen
It took two full days moving through the crumbling city for Vin and the others to return to the Mall. When they emerged from the underground entrance, Cat and the others went to their quarters to get cleaned up and rest. Vin went directly to Rule’s quarters. As usual, Morgan was sitting at the computer staring intently at the screen as Johnny Johnson was pedaled away on the bike. Tanner almost chuckled at the sight. He didn’t think Morgan was ever going to give him the time of day, even if he did most of the pedaling for the computers.
Morgan looked up and saw Tanner walk in. “Hi, Vin! Did you get it?”
Vin slipped the pack off his back and put it on her makeshift desk.
“Doctor Rule! Doctor Rule! Vin’s back, and he’s got it. He got it!”
Rule walked out of his living quarters with a smile on his face. “I knew you could do it.”
Morgan pulled the laptop out of the pack and handled it as if she couldn’t quite believe she was holding one in her hands. It was the same kind that Vin had carried for years in the teams. It was ruggedized and had a battery that lasted for weeks. Morgan opened its cover and stared at it almost as if she was afraid to touch it. Vin reached into the pack and pulled out a second battery. He dropped it on the desk.
“They are extending the missions for the teams now, and they had to start carrying a second battery to make sure they had enough power.”
Finally he pulled out the solar battery charger and put it with the other equipment. “They just gave these to the teams. Thought you might like having one.”
“Wonderful,” Rand said. “Was it much trouble getting it?”
Tanner chuckled. “If you only knew.”
Rule sat down next to Morgan and pulled the computer over. “First things first, let’s find the password for this thing,” Rand said.
Morgan hooked her computer to the Resource laptop.
“Now run that program you wrote for passwords.”
“How are you going to get from this laptop to the security computers in the City?” Tanner asked.
“Fairly simple. I’ll use their satellite link back to the City. Just the way the team would when they were in the field. Once inside the Resource system, it will be fairly easy to find your, Cat’s, and Matos’s files and make you disappear. From there I can work my way around and do what I need to do. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.”
“How are we going to get you inside physically?”
“Well, I was depending on you to help figure that one out.”
“You know, doc, it’s close to ten miles of bad zones between us and the City proper.”
“Yes. As I said, that’s where you come in.”
Vin could only shake his head. “Okay, doc, then I’m going to need to get cleaned up and get some rest.”
Vin watched Rule and Morgan excitedly work on breaking the password. Then he realized he’d forgotten to tell it to them. “Hey, doc, sorry I’m so tired I forgot to tell you the password. It’s Bluedoor. All one word with B capitalized.”
The two almost looked disappointed that they weren’t going to have to break into the computer.
“Thanks,” Morgan said.
Vin went back to his quarters and stripped down. He went to the showers and found they had left him one of the tanks of hot water. He stepped in and turned it on, and he groaned with pleasure as the hot water began to wash off the grime of the last week. How in the hell was he going to get Rule, Morgan, and Cat through all of the dangerous territories between them and the City? Neither Rule nor Morgan had the skills he and Cat had, so they were going to have to be protected instead of being part of the team. Then once he got them to the City, even if Rule just walked up to the first security checkpoint, there was no guarantee that the duty dummies manning the point would know who Rule was, and he might end up in detention for weeks before it was sorted out.
No, if he was going to get Rule inside safely, he was going to have to come up with a better plan. Tanner finished his shower, dried off, and put on some clean clothes. He practically fell onto his cot and was just about asleep when he heard people arguing.
“Goddamnit, stop riding my ass.”
“No, you need to clean your weapon before you hit the rack.”
It was Blondie and Cat in the quarters next to his. Slowly, Tanner got up and went over to break it up. He couldn’t afford to have his team quarreling. Cat had been riding Blondie hard, and he felt as if Blondie had certainly proved herself by now. After the trip to get the compute
r and her work around the settlement, she had done more than most to get accepted.
He stepped into the quarters and found Blondie and Cat face-to-face. Blondie towered over Cat, but Cat’s back was up, and she didn’t back down from anybody. It was the reason they had finally called things off. He and Cat had finally found a place they could relax, and all they'd done was fight. It had been a mutual decision to move on.
“What going on here?” Vin said.
“She’s been riding my ass and won’t stop.”
“Bullshit. You are still on probation around here, and you’ve got a lot to prove.”
“Not in my eyes. Blondie proved herself on this last mission, and she works her ass off around here when she’s not on duty. So what’s the deal?” Tanner said.
Cat didn’t say anything.
Then Blondie said, “This is what's going on.” She grabbed Cat by the shoulders and kissed her hard. Cat stepped back and slapped her across the face. Blondie just smiled and kissed her again. This time Cat gave in and returned the kiss.
“Okay, I give up.” Vin left and pulled the blanket shut to give them some privacy. He was too tired to worry about who was sleeping with who. He had to figure out how to get Rule into the City safely and then get him out once he had done what he needed to do.
Chapter Fourteen
It had been two days since Vin and the team brought the computer to Rule and Morgan when Cat came up to him and said, “Rule wants to see you and me, now.”
As he crossed the Mall, Vin looked at Cat and said, “None of my business, but what’s between you and Blondie? I didn’t know you were fluid.”
Cat gave him a crooked smile and said, “Not often, but when I was a lady of the evening in the City, as they used to say, couples wanted girls, and not just for the man. So I learned I could like girls too.”
“When we were together you never saw any girls, did you?”
Again the smirk. “Not that you knew of.”
“Bitch.”
“Bastard.”
“How’s she doing? I mean with all the stuff that happened to her.”
“She’s a work in progress, but Danielle thinks she'll be all right.”
“So I guess you’re part of her therapy? The physical part.”
Cat punched him in the arm as they entered Rule’s quarters. Rule and Morgan were sitting at the desk with the Resource computer open. Morgan was beaming. Julia Rule, Brandon’s daughter, was standing behind them.
“I did it. Even when Doctor Rule couldn’t.”
Rule shook his head and smiled. “She’s right. I was stuck breaking the last firewall, but Morgan came through. We’re in, and we thought you might like to see yourself disappear.”
Cat and Vin walked over so they could stand behind Morgan and see the computer. She had Vin’s Resource service picture and identification up.
Morgan looked over her shoulder. “You ready?”
“Make me invisible.”
She touched the enter button and Vin’s likeness disappeared.
“I’m gone. Funny I don’t feel any different.”
“Oh, you are so gone you won’t believe it. I connected all your files across all the databases. You didn’t just disappear from the Resource file, you disappeared from everywhere. Now to build you a new identity. If you're going to come and get us, what should you be?”
“Internal Security. They’re the ones who are responsible for security throughout the government. There are so many of them they don’t know each other, and one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, so even if somebody asks me what I’m up to I can tell them almost anything.”
“What’s a good rank?”
“Sergeant.”
Morgan hit a few keys, and a form came up. She pasted his picture on the form and put sergeant in as his rank.
“You got a name you like?”
“Can’t think of one. You decide.”
Morgan ran a random-naming program and came up with Jake Holman. She did a quick search on the Internal Security database to make sure there were no other Jake Holmans, and when there weren’t, she put in the name. Her fake-name creator did the rest. It filled in a social security, phone number, birthday, age, e-mail address, username, browser user agent, his pay card with an expiration date, and employment date. She punched Enter and the form disappeared.
“That information didn't just go to Internal Security, but to all their databases. Jake Holman is now a real person in the eyes of the City-State of New York. Now come over here. Let me get a retinal scan and we’re done.”
Vin walked over to the computer and leaned in close as Morgan ran a scan on him and attached it to his files.
“She is really something. I was going at linking all the databases all wrong. It was going to take us weeks and then she said, ‘I’ve got an idea,’ and it worked.”
Morgan sat there beaming.
“Now, Cat, we have to decide what to do with you, Rule said. You’re in their databases as a companion and as a Resource officer. Which is not a problem. But if you’re going to go in with me we have to give you some kind of cover. Any ideas?”
“No. I hadn’t given it any thought.”
“You become me,” Julia said.
“What?” Rule said.
“She becomes me, Dad. You and I left together, she and I are about the same age, so she becomes me. All the background is already there. She just has to change the picture and the retinal scan, and we’re done.”
“But what about Rand and the others at the data center?”
“Dad, I never went to your work. Nor did I hang out with anybody from there. Even if someone does see her, it’s been years since anyone has laid eyes on me. We look enough alike to make it work.”
Vin and Brandon exchanged a look.
“Sounds like a plan,” Cat said. “I’m now Julia Rule, daughter of the famous Doctor Rule. Does this make me an heir to your fortune?”
“No, I’m afraid I’ve squandered it on these palatial surroundings.”
The all laughed, and in five minutes Cat became Julia Rule.
“Doc, how do you propose you get back into the City and to the people you need to see?”
“Why, we we'll just walk up to the first security checkpoint and turn ourselves in.”
Cat and Vin exchanged a glance.
“Doc, that won’t work. First you would have to get past the demolished zone that surrounds the City. It's overflown by drones day and night, not to mention the booby traps. If you somehow make it through all that and approach a security checkpoint, the guys manning that checkpoint would probably not know who you are, and they are trained to shoot first and ask questions later. Even if you did get inside, you would be in detention and separated from Morgan and Cat, and there's no telling how long that would last, much less what they might do to Morgan and Cat. So that one's out.”
“So how do I do it then?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Vin, I know I can’t prove it, but my gut tells me we don’t have much time. So you’ve got to come up with something soon.”
Vin and Cat turned and walked back out into the old mall’s concourse.
“You stumped?” Cat asked.
“Yeah, but I'm sure the answer is right there. I just can’t grab it somehow.”
Chapter Fifteen
Vin was tossing and turning in his bunk, unable to sleep, trying to come up with a safe plan for what he had come to think of as the insertion of Rule, Cat, and Morgan into the City, when a runner came skidding into his quarters.
“Sir, tilt-rotors.”
Vin grabbed his combat vest, rifle, and pistol and followed the boy as he ran up the escalator, to the machine room and out to one of the observation points. Matos was on duty.
“What have we got?”
“So far we’ve got three tilt-rotors inbound.”
Vin glanced at his watch. It was 0000 hours. They always liked to insert teams in the early part of the morning.
They passed over the Mall and continued north. Then they spilt up into three different directions. Matos pulled out his map, and they tracked where the tilt-rotors landed.
“The first one landed at the cemetery,” Matos said.
The second swooped down and dropped its team.
“That’s the car dealership.”
“I’ll bet you the last one will be the high school,” Tanner said.
“You’re on. It’s going to be the river.”
The tilt-rotor banked and landed on the baseball field of the high school.
“What’s going on?” Matos said.
Vin thought for a minute and then said, “When you insert teams into an area with high-value targets, you are trying to find somebody, not just observing. They’re looking for us,” Vin said.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Matos replied.
“And they may have just given me the way to get Rule and the others inside safely.”
Vin climbed down the ladder and went back to his quarters. He collapsed onto his cot and was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He had his plan, and it would work.
***
As soon as he woke he went directly to Rule’s quarters. He found Rule up and on the Resource computer.
“Morning, doc. What are you doing?”
“Just playing around in their systems. I can’t get to the GRP. It’s too well protected for even me to hack it, so I’m just roaming around trying to get some idea of why they need me. Apparently the Council is putting a lot of pressure on the Data Collection Section for more accurate predictions and time frames. I wrote the GRP almost ten years ago. I’m sure they want better output than they're getting.”
