“Okay, so did you want me to recreate the huge, gaping hole in this one’s forehead or no?” Blaine asks. “Seriously, could you be more disgusting?”
“Just do your job,” Dimitri snaps.
Blaine affixes the latex masks he created from the videos to the two mobsters and uses putty and bits of plastic to change the shape of their faces. He paints over them with a liquid that dries with a texture similar to skin. He then uses his vast assortment of powders and creams to match the dead men’s coloring and paints in additional contours and creases. I don’t give compliments easy, but Blaine is without a doubt a true artist. When he finishes, I bet their own mothers wouldn’t know it’s not them, at least in the dark.
Lenny reappears just as Blaine is putting on the final touches. “I got the trailer hooked up. Is everyone ready?”
“Ready as we’re gonna be,” I answer.
Marvin’s complexion goes from Wesley Snipes to Tiger Woods, and he looks near to throwing up. His hands shake and his breathing is near hyperventilating as he closes up the cases containing his various electronics.
“Marvin, are you going to be okay?” I ask.
“Why shouldn’t I be? There’s two half-naked dead guys just lying on the floor, and I’m about to embark on a job where there’s bound to be a whole lot more dead guys, and these ones have guns and want to kill me. Naw, I’m fucking great. I’m a little confused at how all this came about, but I’m doing super.”
“You’re doing the right thing. You are on the right side, and I will make sure nothing happens to you.”
“These guys got you once before. How you gonna keep me safe when you can’t protect your damn self?”
“They got the jump on me. This time, we have the jump on them.”
Marvin lugs his case toward the door. “You just better be ready to jump your ass in front of any bullets coming my way, because I will come back and haunt you.”
I look to Lesile, but she is unwilling to come to my aid. Thankfully, Marvin lets it drop. Lenny is standing next to the truck and waves us to the trailer.
“Lenny, this isn’t the same trailer. It doesn’t look anything like the other one.”
“Like Yuri says, ‘is no problem,’” Lenny says using his best Yuri impression. “We’ll tell them the other trailer had some mechanical problems. They’ll check it out and wave you through.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“We all do. If this goes tits up, the feds are going to come down hard on all of us. Yuri is betting it all on black, so we want this to go smooth.”
“How do we get in this thing?”
Lenny hunkers down and waddles under the trailer near the front. He pushes against the bottom and a hatch opens up to the inside.
“The seam is almost invisible, and the hatch locks from inside. It’s a tight fit, but you won’t be in there long. The rest of the trailer is filled with fuel, so even if the feds inspect it, they’ll find what they’re looking for. Like most fuel tanks, it’s double-walled, but the space between is packed with a couple hundred pounds of explosives. Dimitri has a remote, but it also has a secondary timer in case something goes wrong. You don’t have a huge window, so don’t take too long getting your guy out. You don’t want to be inside when this thing goes off.”
“I don’t want to be inside at all,” Marvin mumbles.
“Got it.”
“Rick or Dimitri will rap on the side like this,” Lenny knocks on the metal tank, “when it’s clear to come out. They’ll stay by the truck as long as they can, but if the shit hits the fan, it’s everyone for himself. Get out however you can.”
“Understood. We best get going. We don’t want to make the feds any more suspicious than we already have.”
Marvin and Lesile climb into the belly of the aluminum beast before me. Lenny wasn’t kidding about the tight confines, but it’s not intolerable as long as Marvin doesn’t start talking. I’m hit with my first real feelings of anxiety when the truck begins to rumble down the road. This isn’t the first time I’ve thrown myself in the middle of a hornet’s nest, but it’s the first time failure will result in a catastrophe that reaches beyond me. One of the reasons I prefer to stick to myself is I don’t like being responsible for someone else if I fuck up. Man, when responsibility comes calling, it brings the whole damn family with it.
CHAPTER 15
The truck ride lasts less than an hour, but I can tell everyone is counting the seconds. Marvin’s fear is evident on his face, in his posture, and seeping from every pore in his body. Lesile is harder to read. She remains impassive and silent. She is stiff but not indifferent or aloof. The truck slows to a stop with the hiss of air brakes. I put a finger to my lips and press an ear to the tanker wall.
“Easy, guys,” I hear Rick say from the driver’s seat.
“Frank, Mark, you’re running late.”
I hear several footsteps approach the trailer from both sides. I’m assuming a small tactical squad, hidden off the road, broke cover when we pulled up and is now surrounding us.
“Why are you in a different truck?” the man at the gate asks.
“It’s the same truck, just a different trailer. The brakes took a shit on the other one, so the guys at the depot set us up with this one. It was either that or leave it there and come back in a couple of days once they get it fixed, and you know Snow doesn’t like us making extra trips or stretching our fuel supply thin.”
“Yeah, are you feeling all right? You sound a bit hoarse.”
“I think I’m coming down with the crud, and I’m not the only one. Too many people in a place with shitty ventilation, I guess. It won’t be long before we’re all seeing the doc, assuming she’s capable of more than Dr. Frankenstein-type experiments.”
The man at the gate chuckles. “Yeah, she’d probably cure your cold by injecting you with polio or something. Stand fast a minute. We need to check out the truck.”
“Knock yourselves out.”
I hear movement all around the vehicle. A scraping sound just beneath us is likely an under vehicle search mirror. Someone climbs up the back ladder and is opening the manholes on the top of the tanker. It’s a good thing these guys aren’t petroleum experts or they would know the difference between diesel and jet fuel. The hatches clang shut, and the guard climbs down to the ground.
“It’s clear.”
The truck rolls on at a sedate pace until stopping and backing up. The trailer tilts downward as we descend the ramp leading beneath the building. The droning of an industrial generator thrums through the double walls of the trailer. The truck stops and I hear Rick and Dimitri get out. A full minute passes before one of them raps out the code against the tank.
“Go straight out to the other side of me,” Rick says as I drop through the hatch.
Lesile comes out next followed by Marvin. We take up a position hunkered next to the side of the cab where Dimitri is standing.
“There are two cameras I can see. If you follow the wall and go behind the generator, you can get to the one covering the stairs leading up,” Dimitri says.
I ask, “Marvin, can you take care of the camera?”
“Probably. If it’s connected to their computer network, I can probably take care of all of them from here.”
“That would be extremely useful.”
“That’s me, extremely useful.”
“Don’t screw up, or you’ll be extremely dead.”
“What did we say about creating a hostile work environment? It is not conducive to utilizing my full genius.”
“Marvin, just do your best,” Lesile says. “Leonard, shut up.”
“Yeah, Leonard.”
I grab Marvin by a strap on his tactical vest and pull him close. “Call me Leonard again and I will burn us all here and now.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know that was one of your buttons. You have so damn many,” he mutters.
“Just keep your mouth shut and focus, if it is at all possible for you.”
“Sorry, I get shitty when I’m scared, and I’m scared as hell right now.”
“I get it. Just focus.”
“I’m focused…and a little hungry. Can we stop for pizza on the way home?”
“Marvin, that is not being focused.”
“It’s easier to focus on a full stomach.”
“And impossible when you’re dead, which you are going to be if you don’t shut up and move.”
Dimitri cuts in, “You two want to finish your little lovers’ quarrel some other time?”
I feel chagrined enough to keep my mouth shut and move against the wall. Lesile pushes Marvin ahead of her and keeps him sandwiched between us. I spot the camera in the far corner of the room catty-corner from the stairwell doorway. Dimitri was right, we can avoid its field of view if we stick to the wall and sneak behind the generator.
We sidle along the wall, watchful for both cameras’ panning, and time our movements accordingly. The second camera pans away from our hiding spot behind the generator, and we move beneath the stairwell camera. Marvin pulls a camera out of his pack and peels the sticker backing off it.
“Leo, I need you to lift me up on your shoulders.”
I hunker down, and Marvin throws his legs over my shoulders. He sticks his camera to the underside of the one in place.
“Lesile, hand me my laptop.”
Lesile hands him his computer, and he props it on my head.
“My head is not a table, Marvin.”
“This should only take a minute. I just need to spoof their MAC address and record a full pan so I can play back the loop.” Marvin waits for the camera to complete its rotation. “Got it.” He disconnects the cable from the feds’ camera and plugs it into his. “Okay, you can put me down.”
“Didn’t they see the camera lose signal when you unplugged it?”
“Yeah, but only for a few seconds as long as I can pull an IP address from their DHCP server.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, I got it. Sweet, they have their cameras running on the internal network instead of a closed circuit.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I can gain access to their computers and all the cameras attached to the network. I should be able to record a snippet from all the cameras and play it back instead of having a live feed.”
“Can you tell if they have outside internet access?”
“It will take me a minute to get access to everything, but since I’m inside the firewall, it shouldn’t take long.”
Marvin starts plucking away at the keys, and all Lesile and I can do is stand and wait.
“I’m in. The WAN port on their router is shut off, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing on the other side of it. It’s possible they could turn it on and gain access to the outside world.”
“Can you make it so they can’t turn it on?”
Marvin gives me an annoyed look. “Leo…come on.”
“Sorry I asked.”
“You should be. I left a nice little package that will crash the entire system the instant someone activates the port. I also set a trigger event to the alarm system, so if the alarms go off it will activate my data nuke.”
“Good work. Now we just have to find Vincent and get him out before we kick the anthill.”
Lesile says, “Vincent should be on the top floor in one of the secure rooms. We can take the stairwell all the way up, but the top floor is locked behind a security door.”
“Great. Don’t these people understand the importance of following building codes and fire safety?”
It’s a good thing Marvin was able to take command of the cameras from the sublevel, because we would never have made it past the first floor landing without the stairwell cam picking us up. It never panned away, and we could not have disabled it without them seeing us.
The sound of our footsteps and Marvin’s breathing echoes off the stairwell walls. The noise and our inability to see beyond half a flight of stairs make this the most dangerous section of our infiltration. If we come upon anyone in the stairwell, we may not be able to neutralize them before they sound the alarm. Marvin’s access to the security monitors would have come in handy, but he lost the wireless signal to his camera the moment we entered the stairwell.
Keeping our backs against the wall and our weapons trained on the stairs above us, we move our way to the top floor. Luck is with us, and we don’t encounter any sentries or someone sneaking into the stairwell for a quick smoke.
I try the door at the top of the stairs and find it locked just as Lesile says, “Marvin, you have any tools in your kit?”
He riffles through his pack and hands me a toolkit. I use the screwdriver to pop the cover plate off and gain access to the inner workings. Once I remove a few hex screws, I have the entire assembly in my hands within seconds. After extracting the bolt, I crack the door open just far enough to peer through with one eye.
“There are two men in the hallway. One is just beyond this door, and the other is maybe fifty feet farther down. I think he’s guarding Vincent. I should be able to put them both down before they sound the alarm.”
“Let me. They know my face and will be slower to react.”
I nod and Lesile strips out of most of her tactical gear. She slips a silenced Walther PPK into the back of her waistband and steps into the hall. I keep the door open a crack and peek through. Both men jump and bring up their guns. Lesile stops and raises her hands chest-high.
“Easy, boys, it’s just me.”
They lower their guns to their waists. “We thought you were killed in the plane crash,” the one nearest Lesile says.
“Almost. I was trapped in the wreckage for days. It’s a good thing too since Snow told me he had pushed the button to my implant to make sure.”
“What about Malone, did he make it?”
“Sure, he’s right behind me on the stairs.”
Both men’s eyes dart to the door where I’m hiding. Lesile whips out the Walther, smashes it against the nearest one’s head, and puts two rounds in the other’s chest before he can bring his firearm to bear.
She glances back at me. “Clear.”
I dart into the hallway with Marvin close on my heels. I motion to the man Lesile clobbered. “Grab him. I’ll search the other one for keys.”
I don’t bother with the search when I reach the door and see the keypad set in the wall. “It’s digital.” I raise my gun to put a bullet in the control panel.
“Stop, what are you doing?” Marvin exclaims.
“I’m going to shoot the keypad so the door will open.”
“When has breaking something ever made anything work? Man, you say I watch too many movies. If you break the thing that opens the door, we’ll never get it unlocked.”
“Fine, you do it then. We wouldn’t have this problem if Lesile hadn’t killed the guy who had the code and brained the other.”
“That’s called deflecting, Leo, and it ain’t cool. Sack up and let me work.”
“Sack up...I’ll sack you up,” I mumble and step aside.
Marvin uses an electric screwdriver to remove the panel, strips a pair of wires inside the control box, and attaches a set of clips attached to a USB cable plugged into his laptop. He executes one of his custom programs, and the door opens a few seconds later.
We drag the dead guard and the unconscious one inside the room and find Vincent chained to the wall. It’s obvious he has been a source of “Dr. Ishii’s” abusive experimentations, but he does a fantastic job of looking bored and unsurprised by our rescue.
“Ah, when Agent Snow informed me of your assumed demise, I guessed it was only a matter of time before you came for me.”
“Your faith in me is quite touching. Marvin, the bomb?”
Marvin pulls out his scanner and jammer from the bag. “Already on it.”
Lesile drops the unconscious man at Vincent’s feet. “I thought you might need dinner.”
“Indeed I do. Bless y
ou, child.” Vincent makes a slit across the man’s carotid and clamps his mouth over the spraying wound.
“Oh, now that’s just nasty,” Marvin says and keeps his eyes focused on his equipment.
Vincent looks up from his meal. “Mr. Malone, who is this young man?”
“This is Marvin, and he’s the only reason we haven’t had our brains turned to mush.”
“I presume he is not going to be a problem?”
“Marvin is always a problem, but he’s not a threat.”
“That’s me, Marvin the nonthreatening black man. Get your cameras, white people, because like a comet, you may not recognize another one for years.”
“The implant?” I ask.
“Done. It was on the same frequency and used the same countermeasures. Like yours, I can’t disable it, but I have changed the frequency so they can’t detonate it.”
“Good work, now let’s get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER 16
(Snow)
“Sir, Gatekeeper reports that Gasman has returned.”
I key my encrypted radio. “Gatekeeper, this is Frosty. Was there a situation with Gasman?”
“Roger, Frosty. Gasman had a brake failure and needed to switch out tanks. We checked the cargo and everything’s fine.”
I stare at my radio for a few seconds. “Have Gasman report to me once he finishes topping off the generators.”
“Wilco, Frosty.”
“Sir,” Agent Henning says, “seismic sensors are picking up movement to our south and east.”
I face the analyst. “Can we get eyes on it?”
“No sir, they’re outside camera range. It’s probably just deer again.”
“Probably. Have Jacobs and Eisner do an unscheduled walk of the fence.”
“Yes sir.”
Blood Conspiracy (Brooklyn Shadows Book 2) Page 20
