Off The Grid

by Dan Kolbet

  “I’ve already told you everything,” he said.

  Rachel continued to check the GPS and not so subtly glance at their speed, until Luke pulled into a rest area and they switched places. Rachel seemed more comfortable behind the wheel and had stopped asking for details about Kathryn.

  They spent the drive going over and over the plan to make sure they hadn’t missed any detail. Since they only needed Kathryn for the initial phase, they were only going to let her in on the information she absolutely needed to know. Luke might trust her, but both of them agreed that it was better to compartmentalize the effort.

  “You don’t think this is too risky do you?” Luke asked when they were just outside of Las Vegas.

  “You’re going to have to be more specific,” Rachel said. “Do you mean using Kathryn or breaking in to a secure facility? Or maybe it’s because taking on one of the biggest companies in the world is a tad dangerous? No, it might be because someone tried to kill you last week? Like I said, you need to be more specific.”

  “A little bit of all of it,” Luke said.

  “Is it risky?” Rachel asked, looking over her shoulder to change lanes and exit the freeway. “Yes, but if the president signs the WES Act into law without knowing the truth about StuTech and my father, then there is no chance their monopoly will ever be broken. Millions will continue to live in the dark like Mill Creek. If we don’t do this, no one ever will.”

  That’s what he needed to hear.

  ***

  Luke saw Kathryn waiting for them in the sweltering heat under the drive-up portico of an off-strip hotel. She pulled two suitcases behind her. One bag was stuffed with Luke and Rachel’s clothes – they had to abandon their luggage at the cruise ship. Rachel eyed her like a predator as they pulled up and he pointed her out. He noticed the stiffness that had come over Rachel’s face. She clenched her jaw.

  “Breathe, babe,” he said. “It’ll be fine. Just relax.”

  Luke noticed she let the tension fall out of her shoulders and took a deep breath. She had to be bigger than her emotions today, he thought. It wasn’t going to be easy.

  There was no arguing that Kathryn was a beautiful woman, Luke thought, but he quickly erased the thought from his mind. She looked tired and stressed. She wore no make-up and her clothes seemed to hang loosely on her thin frame.

  “It’s good to meet you,” Rachel said, extending her hand. “Luke has told me a lot about you.”

  “I wish I could say the same thing,” Kathryn said.

  Rachel’s face rang with recognition at the comment. Kathryn had only known Luke by his cover story at Millennium Optics and MassEnergy. According to the myth they had built, Luke had broken up with Rachel over a year before he ever met Kathryn. It wouldn’t have made a great deal of sense for him to jabber on about his old girlfriend, now would it? All at once, her anger toward Kathryn – for kissing an engaged man – seemed to fade slightly.

  “I guess we’re going to have to fill in the gaps, then aren’t we?” Rachel said.

  Luke continued to drive as the two women sat in the backseat. Rachel wanted to get a feel for her and make the final evaluation before bringing her completely up to speed.

  For the next two hours, the two women talked and Luke listened, bewildered at how well they got along and how much they had in common. They both were avid runners who were graduates of elite schools where they belonged to sororities. It was amazing to listen to. Their competitive spirits came out as they tried to one up each other about their marathon and half marathon races. They didn’t talk about their professional lives, as it was obvious that both of them knew what they needed.

  Luke didn’t say a word the whole way to St. George, Utah, where they decided to stop for the night. But the women didn’t stop talking the entire time. If the rest of trip went this well, he thought, they were home free.

  “Seemed like you two got along really well. That’s great,” Luke said, once he and Rachel were alone in their hotel room.

  “Oh, my dear, dear Luke. You’ve got a lot to learn about women.”

  “What? You didn’t stop talking the whole drive up here.”

  “True,” she said flatly. “Just go to sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead of us if we want to be in Colorado by tomorrow.”

  “What did I miss? You two had tons in common.”

  “Just go to sleep.”

  Chapter 63

  Portland, Oregon

  “We’ve got a problem. The cruise ship manifest says Luke and Rachel never boarded in L.A.”

  “What about their credit cards?” Lunsford asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “I give you one simple job to do and you already flubbed it. Why am I not surprised? Find them. Now.”

  “They could be anywhere.”

  “Get creative, that’s what I’m paying you for,” Lunsford said. “Or maybe I don’t need to pay you at all. What exactly have you done for me so far? Do you know how much trouble your little bloodbath in Germany could have caused us? You killed seven university students. It was a damn massacre! I asked you to be subtle. That wasn’t subtle.”

  “Reynolds and I got away with it, didn’t we?”

  “You’re lucky Warren didn’t make the connection to the murders at the archeological dig and his $10 million donation that didn’t exactly make it to the university account.”

  “Isn’t it your job to keep him occupied with other things?” the man asked.

  “I know what my job is. Your job is to find them or I’m coming after you next.”

  Lunsford didn’t wait for a response and slammed down the phone.

  It wasn’t the first time that Lunsford had hung up on Amir Ghorbani. It seemed as though all of their conversations ended up with a dial tone and a veiled threat and from the older man to the younger, former Army intelligence officer. Amir wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass by him. The money was too good and Luke Kincaid had made a fool of him once already. He didn’t appreciate the feeling.

  He’d already tracked Luke once, but was ordered to keep his hands off him. But now he had the benefit of knowing where they started from and access to Luke’s credit card transactions. He had the upper hand and he wasn’t going to waste it. An electronic trail was simple to follow, but Luke wasn’t making it easy this time. He hadn’t used his credit cards in days. If he didn’t have such disdain for the man he’d been forced to befriend months ago, he’d admire his efforts. His gut told him where he could find Luke and Rachel, but it was a long shot.

  Amir was pleased that he was finally going to be able to end his charade at MassEnergy. Lunsford had promised Amir the chance to use his best traits if he came to work for him as an operative inside MassEnergy. Biding his time had not been easy. Dealing with these people had nearly driven him to drink. Something he hadn’t done in years. The endless meetings and whining about the tiniest details of pointless failed projects had pushed him over the edge. His unique skill set was meant for a dark alley and a foreboding enemy, not a suburban office building with fake flowers in the bathrooms.

  It had been Amir’s commanding officer who contacted Lunsford when Amir was dishonorably discharged from the Army. He’d served his time all across the globe, but got drunk one night too many and punched the wrong guy. The poor guy turned out to be some pansy from the French United Nation’s delegation. He didn’t stand a chance against Amir.

  His C.O. didn’t want to see Amir’s career as an excellent intelligence operative go to waste. He was unpredictable at times, but very effective at getting the information he needed. He’d never been good at the softer side of intelligence, which was what Lunsford had stressed. Keep an eye on the little things. Blend in to the background. Make friends. He felt like a caged animal, held back from unleashing himself against his prey. More than once over the past few months he wanted to drag Luke into a room with no windows and simply end him, but he knew that would do no one any good.

  He had a family to think of now. When he cam
e home each night, he kissed his wife and daughter. He was off the booze for good too. The pay from MassEnergy was twice what he ever made in the Army. Couple that amount with his pay from StuTech and his family was taken care of. But he wanted back in the game. He’d been at a desk too long. It was finally time. His heart was racing.

  He took a deep breath and opened the slider from his backyard deck and walked back inside the house to the dining room where his wife and daughter were sitting down to have dinner.

  “I’m going to have to go out of town for a few days,” he told his wife.

  “Again? But Erin’s soccer games start this weekend.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s an urgent matter that I have to attend to. I need to leave tonight.”

  “Where do you have to go?”

  “Las Vegas. I have to crash a party.”

  Chapter 64

  Pueblo Bluff, Colorado

  Pueblo Bluff was StuTech’s secure mining facility located just south of the Gunnison National Forest. The enormous building was built into the side of a mountain and didn’t look imposing from the outside. Of course, most people never got to see even the outside of the building because of the electrified eight-foot high perimeter fence. Wildlife activists had actually taken the company to court because goats and deer had been killed touching the fence. Their lawsuits had been thus far unsuccessful, but they brought a great deal of attention to the site and its dangerous security. People stayed away.

  Rachel had been on a working visit to the site once before, but only in the office building. She had never been into the mining operations, which were deemed highly sensitive and off limits to nearly everyone. She hoped that her presence here today didn’t raise any red flags. She was confident that Lunsford, who was no doubt tracking her movements, would discover her visit soon enough. She needed to get in and out quickly, hopefully giving Luke and Kathryn enough time to complete the job at hand.

  Rachel drove up to the gatehouse and handed her ID to the guard who took it back inside his little booth. Protocol dictated that the guard would check the list of visitors for the day on an electronic log sheet. If she was on the list then it was no problem. Of course, she wasn’t on the list, neither were Luke and Kathryn, who were with her in the backseat.

  “What’s your business here today?” the guard asked.

  Rachel looked at the man’s badge hanging from this breast pocket. Duane.

  “Duane, when you cross-referenced my name on that list did you happen to notice who I am?”

  Duane had been staffing his post for four years. In that time no more than a dozen people who weren’t on the list had tried to gain access to the site. Animal rights groups, government inspectors, tourists or just the curious. He liked his job, it was easy and they let him keep the windows to his gatehouse open in the summer to enjoy the breeze.

  “Yes, ma’am I did recognize your name, but you’re not on the roll today.”

  “Of course I’m not on the roll today. If I announced my presence every time I went to one of our sites, a little colony of busy bees would scrub the place clean. They would polish the floor and neatly stack the papers on all the desks. They’d give me no reason at all to be here. Does that sound like a good way to inspect my father’s property?”

  “Well no, I guess not, but you’re not on the list.”

  “Duane, do you remember that I was here a few months ago? I remember you. You didn’t look like a man whose life was ruled by a list. You can make your own decisions and actually use your judgment. Are your orders and protocols always right, Duane?”

  “No, sometimes our systems are down and we have to call the main office to check the rolls.”

  “Let me tell you what. I’ll give you a number to call. Warren Evans doesn’t typically take phone calls from his employees, but this time I think he’ll make an exception.”

  She dialed a number, pressed speaker and stuck her hand out of the car window to hand over the phone to the man. The display read, “Dad” and it was ringing.

  After two rings, the hoarse voice of an elderly man answered.

  “Hello?”

  Duane grabbed the phone and hit the end button to disconnect the call.

  “No reason to bother Mr. Evans.”

  “Good. Now, I need two visitor badges for these two,” she motioned toward the backseat.

  “And they are?”

  “Independent auditors from Turnbridge, White and Hall.”

  He made a few notations, handed over the badges and in less than 30 seconds, the gate was lifted and they were on their way. One hurdle down, a whole bunch to go.

  Luke stifled a smile. He was certain that back in Tucson, his friend Elvin Walker was cursing whoever had just hung up the phone on him.

  Chapter 65

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Amir approached the front desk in a pair of swim trunks and sandals. He was dripping wet from the pool and held two large salt-rimmed drinks with little umbrellas in them. His eyes were glossy and he made a point to bump into a bellhop. To anyone watching, he was a typical drunk vacationer who had been left in the sun a bit too long. He stumbled up to the desk. One of the drinks sloshed over the side, spilling onto the marble counter.

  “I can’t find my room key,” his words were slurred and slow. “It might be at the bottom of the pool.”

  He paused, looking down at the counter, then slowly back up to the front desk clerk.

  “You know when I was a kid I could have probably swam under there and got it, but today’s just not my day. Maybe she’s right. Maybe it is time for us to go our separate ways. What a way to spend an anniversary. What am I gonna tell the kids?”

  “Sir what’s your room number? Or can you show me your ID,” the woman said.

  “Room’s under Tate. Does it look like I got ID?”

  “Certainly sir, but I need to confirm the room number before I can give you another key.”

  “She booked everything. Like always. She’s always taking control of everything I do. Not that I’m surprised, I always liked it when she’d take control in the bedroom. You know what I mean? You do, don’t you?”

  Amir took a big, long gulp from his tropical drink and slammed it down on the counter.

  “I just need to go back to the room,” he rolled up his pool towel and rested his head on it. The line was starting to back up at the counter and guests were starting to become irritated.

  The front desk clerk saw that the only reservation for Tate was in room 2045.

  “Sir did you have to take the elevator to get to your room?”

  He nodded yes, figuring that since the hotel only had four stories that he had a three out of four chance to be right.

  “OK, sir, here’s your key, room 2045, but I’ll need you to come back down and bring me your ID. Otherwise I’ll deactivate the card in 10 minutes.”

  Amir snapped up the card shoved it in his wet pocket. Over his shoulder he said, “I’ll be right back down with the ID. I think you saved my marriage.”

  ***

  The bed in the hotel room had not been slept in, confirming what Amir originally thought. Las Vegas wasn’t a final destination. He didn’t know if Kathryn was with Luke and Rachel, but the odds were leaning that way. There was a receipt on the desk for room service. Caesar salad. It was just a meal for one. He scanned the room, looking for anything out of place. It was obvious that Kathryn hadn’t spent a great deal of time here. It was so easy to mess up the perfectly manicured nature of a hotel room. Everything in its place. Then he noticed that the cabinet for the television was slightly ajar.

  He opened the cabinet. Inside was a television, a laminated list of channels, a wired video game remote control and a keyboard for accessing the internet. All standard stuff, but the keyboard was sitting on top of the game remote. Not in perfect alignment like the rest of the room.

  He fired up the television and used the keyboard to access the Internet function and search its recent history. People were so sloppy about
this stuff. Erasing a digital trail was so simple, but most people never took the time to bother with it. Kathryn should have.

  He jotted down a few notes, changed his clothes then raced to the airport.

  Chapter 66

  Pueblo Bluff, Colorado

  Rachel made a big stink about her arrival once she was inside the building, commanding the attention of everyone in the office. The dozen or so employees were all fixated on Rachel. She had a heated exchange with the site director just out of earshot in which the portly man looked exasperated and confused. After a few moments he turned to his workers who had gathered nearby.

  “We’re being audited today,” he said. “It’s an impromptu inspection of our record keeping. I need you to drop whatever it is you were planning to do today and go to Conference Rooms A and B. I want to you to give our visitors everything they ask for. You are also required to bring your laptops with you and disconnect all e-mail and instant message programs.”

  He looked at Rachel to confirm that he’d covered everything. She held her hand up to the side of her head.

  “Right, and you need to leave your cell phones at your desks. No outside calls.”

  Once all the employees were safely put away in the conference rooms, Rachel provided them with dozens of small tasks and claim codes to keep them busy for the next few hours. She paced around the room, looking over their shoulders and directing them to answer for one thing or another. Her intimate knowledge of the company’s financial reporting systems was invaluable fodder for lengthy discussions. After about 25 minutes, no one noticed that the two serious looking auditors who had accompanied Rachel were no longer in the room.

  ***

  A massive warehouse that went deep into the mountain covered the entrance to the mine. Luke had a general overview of the facility’s layout thanks to Rachel’s digging into the operations department’s records database. But they had no intention of heading into the mine itself. There was no telling what sort of roadblocks they would find underground and they certainly wouldn’t be able to blend in. They just needed to access the loading dock. It was about 20 minutes before the armored truck would pick up the week’s load of raw material.