Shatter Point

by Jeff Altabef

  The black limo idled in the parking lot. With everyone inside, the windows darkened. “The meeting is at a secret government facility.” He turned to face Sanders and George. “I guess I’m at liberty to tell you whom we’ll be meeting at this point. We will be presenting in front of two special guests. The first one is Cooper Simmens. He is the vice president’s chief of staff.”

  “Haven’t you mentioned him to me before?” Vanessa forced a smile, keeping her tone neutral. She wished she had never heard of Cooper Simmens, and certainly wished she had never seen those photographs.

  “Yes, dear. Coop is an old friend of mine. We go way back. I’m sure I’ve spoken about him a number of times.” He paused for dramatic effect and stared at Sanders and George as if he was announcing the winner of an Academy Award and they were the expectant audience. “And the second guest will be the vice president himself. He’s very interested in these research projects, so it will be important to be upbeat and quick. He doesn’t have patience for long explanations or lots of scientific jargon.”

  The color drained from George’s face.

  Sanders chomped down on his lip so hard he drew blood.

  The limo stopped in front of an old industrial building in southern Manhattan. The driver held the door open, and the small group filed out. They followed the driver through thick glass doors into a dark lobby.

  He turned to face them. “I have to search you.” He retrieved a plastic wand from a wooden table and approached Vanessa with a sly smile on his face.

  Her eyes focused on the wand, and her chest tightened as if the perfume wrapped around her like a tight belt. They had told her that the isotope was undetectable and she had nothing to worry about, but could she trust them? Maybe other technologies existed they knew nothing about?

  “Just raise your arms out to the side.”

  He hovered the wand over her body and unnecessarily brushed against her legs and arms. She held her breath, and when he finished, she exhaled.

  After he searched everyone else, they all piled into the elevator, which stopped on the third floor.

  Designed as warehouse space, the floor’s open layout had unfinished concrete floors and walls, exposed metal support beams, twelve-foot ceilings, and harsh white lights dangling from electrical cords fixed to the ceiling.

  The driver gestured at a door on the east end of the building and strolled with looping strides. The clatter of their shoes against the concrete echoed in the quiet. The door led to a long rectangular room with plush carpeting, dark wood paneling, a long mahogany table with a dozen chairs, and framed pictures of Originalist politicians on the walls—a typical high-end boardroom.

  “Please wait here,” the driver said. “The vice president should be here shortly.” He shut the door and left them alone.

  Her father busied himself by examining the drawings on the walls.

  Vanessa settled herself at the end of the table.

  George and Doctor Sanders fidgeted with their tablets, making sure everything was in order.

  Soon the door at the end of the room swung open, and three men strode in—a beefy security guard wearing a black suit, shirt and tie, followed by Cooper Simmens and the vice president.

  Her father rushed forward to shake their hands.

  The vice president looked skittish, his eyes flashing around the room as if he had more important things to do.

  Vanessa stayed glued in her chair. Uncertainty and doubt froze her in place as her heart galloped and fear gripped her.

  For a moment, she worried she might pass out.

  Steven parked the van at the corner of a narrow one-way street. “Based upon the isotope, our informant just entered that building.” He operated sophisticated surveillance equipment and zoomed in on an industrial building two hundred feet away toward the middle of the block. “That building must be our target.”

  Mary fired up the penetrating sound wave equipment, and a green holographic image of the building floated in the center of the van. “The third floor is our goal. Three men appear to be guarding the elevator and front staircase, and three more guard the rear staircase. A cluster of people are in a large room on the east end of the third floor. The rest of the building is empty.”

  Steven pointed to the main floor. “One man patrols the lobby, and based on the surveillance cameras....” He nodded at the video feed of the front of the building. “...two others are standing out front.”

  Mary rotated the holographic image in a circle. “The front door is our only way in.”

  “What if we use the roof?” Gabriel said.

  Mary brought up a satellite view of the building. The structure was twenty feet taller than any of its neighbors.

  Steven shook his head. “The roof won’t work for us. We would need a helicopter or climbing gear. We don’t have either.”

  “So we go in the front,” Aunt Jackie said.

  “We’ll have to, but the layout is problematic. We need to dispense with all three men at the entrance before they alert their friends upstairs. If the other six know we’re coming, we’ll never gain access to the third floor. The two teams will easily hold us off until reinforcements arrive. We’ll need the element of surprise.”

  He nodded at the man in the lobby. “He’s the problem. I’ll take him out with a high-powered rifle, but I’ll need a diversion to sneak into position.”

  He pointed to a sedan across from the industrial building. “If I can reach this car here, I’ll have an angle to take out the inside man, so long as he approaches the doors. The doors are made of heavy glass, so even with the high-powered rifle I’ll need him within a few feet of the entrance. Someone else will have to simultaneously take out the other two guards before they notify the rest of the security detail. The key is creating the right diversion.”

  “What type of distraction do you want?” Tom asked.

  “It must be something that won’t put them on notice.”

  A second black limo pulled in front of the building, and Steven zoomed the cameras in tight. A well-dressed driver wearing a black suit stepped out of the car and held the door open. From his gait, it was clear he had military training. Two men exited the limo and entered the building with the driver trailing close behind. He reversed the video feed and zoomed in on their faces. The vice president and his Chief of Staff had just arrived.

  “Hello there, fellas.” Gabriel snarled.

  They watched the three-dimensional, sonar-produced version of the building and saw the three men enter the boardroom on the east end of the third floor.

  “I’ll go,” Aunt Jackie said. “They won’t suspect me of anything.”

  Steven shook his head. “Maybe, but we need to draw the inside guy to the doors so I can have a good shot.”

  “I’ll go with Aunt Jackie,” Mary offered. “I’ll pose as a call girl, and Jackie can be my handler. I’ll make the guard come to the doors.” She flipped her hair away from her face and smiled seductively.

  “Aunt Jackie’s going to be a pimp? That’s hard to believe,” Jack said.

  “You’d be surprised at what I did for our country back in the day, sonny boy. I can play the role of a pimp just fine.”

  Steven sized Mary up for a moment. Undercover work, even for only a few minutes, could be tricky. If they didn’t believe her, the entire operation would be blown, and she’d be in real risk, which he might not be able to protect her from.

  Still, no other ideas came to mind. “Okay, Mary and Jackie will go in together, but at the first sign of trouble you both run.”

  ***

  “Mary will do no such thing!” Tom sputtered. “She’s staying in the van!”

  “Why? Don’t you think I’m attractive enough to make the guard interested?”

  “It’s not that! It’s just too dangerous.” He instantly regretted his outburst. There must have been a smarter way to object to the plan. He scanned the group and got the sinking feeling he had already lost the argument.

  “Nonsense.
I won’t be doing anything dangerous. Aunt Jackie will take out the guards after Steven shoots the man in the lobby.”

  “What could go wrong?” Tom grumbled.

  Steven rummaged through one of the storage bins in the back of the van, which contained extra clothes. He retrieved a low-cut, black dress and tossed it to Mary, who dressed, applied thick make-up, and mussed her wavy red hair.

  Finished, she turned to the group. “How do I look?”

  “Great,” Jack said.

  Everyone nodded in agreement except Tom, who felt numb.

  “Here’s the plan,” Steven said. “Mary and Jackie will approach the guards, create a diversion, and I’ll get into position. I’ll need no more than thirty seconds. Mary will draw the inside guard out toward the doors.” He looked at her. “Drop your cell phone when he’s within three feet of the glass and stay down. That will be our sign, Jackie. I’ll shoot the inside guy, and you take out the two outside guards. After the guards are down, you guys join us and Mary will return to the van.”

  He glanced at the two women. “Does that sound workable?”

  “We’ll do it. Don’t worry about us,” Aunt Jackie said.

  “Good. Once the outside guards go down, we won’t have much time to reach the third floor.” He pointed toward the holographic image of the industrial building. “Jackie, Tom, and Jack will go up the front staircase, and I’ll take the back with Gabriel and Moses. At my signal, we charge onto the third floor. I’ll move a second before Jackie’s team does so they can have the benefit of the diversion. Try to finish the guards quickly with as little noise as possible. Once we secure the third floor, we’ll improvise a way into the boardroom. Are we all in?”

  Everyone agreed.

  Steven and Jackie left the van.

  Jack elbowed Tom in the ribs as Mary started to follow them.

  Tom stopped her with a squeeze of her arm. “You look fantastic, irresistible.”

  “Really? I don’t feel fantastic.”

  “I’d empty my bank account to spend time with you.”

  “You don’t have any money.” She punched him in the arm.

  “I meant it as a compliment.”

  “Thanks.” She pecked him on the cheek, searched his eyes for a long moment, and when he said nothing, she left.

  “You are hopeless. Do you know that?” Jack groused.

  “What?”

  “She probably wanted you to tell her that you love her.” Moses chuckled.

  “Sometimes, you have to speak from your heart,” Jack added.

  “Oh,” Tom mumbled, feeling like a slug.

  Brenda glanced around the deserted laboratory, and a chill swept through her. She could count on one hand how often she’d been alone in the lab over the last two years. Quiet and empty, it took on a surreal quality.

  Two hours after Darian left, she had turned to George and suggested they start the autopsy as Darian had dictated.

  George shook his head. “Wickersham called and said we could not proceed with the procedure. He thinks Lassie is too important. He didn’t give me an option.” He shrugged and turned away.

  Technically, the autopsy required Wickersham’s approval. Darian would never have asked, but George followed rules.

  She’d read something in George’s eyes that worried her, so she left without saying another word and raced to the kennel, determined to perform the autopsy on her own. When she reached the holding area, her access card wouldn’t work. On the third swipe, she realized it was fruitless and returned to the lab.

  George had given her a hard stare when she returned. He clearly knew more than he told her.

  Alone now, she floated in the lab and drifted among the desks and the equipment. How are we going to save Jack?

  The major difference between EBF-101 and EBF-202 was the dissolving agent Darian and George had created to break down the drug in the brain’s fatty tissue. It worked, but not completely. George believed he had discovered a better agent, but the new drug had to be combined with EBF-202 before adding it to the bloodstream. Designed as a psychoactive drug to sneak past the blood-brain barrier, EBF-202 was hard to reach after injected into the patient. Once administered, there was no practical way to specifically target the drug.

  Darian had focused on finding a blocker that would prevent EBF-202 from working generally in the bloodstream. EBF-202 operated as a targeted growth hormone for brain cells. There should be some way to block it from stimulating that growth, but so far, he had run into a brick wall.

  Brenda strolled past Bessie and toward Darian’s desk. She spotted his notebook tossed on top and shook her head. No one else used notebooks anymore, and this one was worn, its corner bent, doodles etched into the cover. Darian kept his journal secret, functioning as a type of diary. He usually carried it with him, but he’d left in such a hurry, he must have forgotten to take it with him.

  She reached for it without thinking and flipped to the last page. He had scrawled a message on it: Look to the brain? A crude picture of a seesaw had been drawn next to the message.

  Look to the brain?

  Brenda latched onto the idea like a life preserver. What things killed brain cells?

  She started her computer. Dozens of agents killed brain cells: various drugs, alcohol, cortisol from stress, trauma, certain proteins, dehydration, elevated testosterone levels, chemotherapy, radiation.... The list stretched on and on.

  She leaned back in her chair. Which one would Lassie have come into contact with?

  Lost in an ocean of possibilities, she had a raft, and so long as Jack lived, she would paddle. She just wished she knew which way to go.

  Mary tumbled from the back of the van, feeling awkward in the short dress and unsteady in four-inch pumps a half size too tight.

  “You’ve got to really sell it when you go undercover,” Aunt Jackie said. “Think like a hooker. You’re desperate and you’re selling yourself. Let’s see you walk.”

  She stiffly wobbled forward a few steps.

  Aunt Jackie handed her a flask. “Take a long sip.”

  She looked at it questionably, but when Aunt Jackie shoved it toward her, she grabbed it and tipped it back. Tequila burned her throat.

  “Take another pull. It’ll help you loosen up.”

  She lifted the flask again and swallowed another mouthful. The alcohol warmed her body and numbed her a little.

  “Okay. Remember, you want to attract these men. You’re not headed to some geek technology convention. Sway your hips and copy me.” Aunt Jackie led her toward the industrial building, her hips swaying aggressively from side to side.

  Mary had to smile despite the situation. She hoped Jackie didn’t dislocate a hip.

  After a few steps, she felt more comfortable and got into a rhythm as they reached the guards.

  “I’m lost. Either one of you big, strong men know where Bleecker Street is?” Jackie added a lilt to her voice Mary had never heard before.

  They ignored her and leered at Mary. “I think you’ve found the right place. What’s your name, sweet thing?” the taller of the two men asked.

  Mary placed her hand on her hips and smiled seductively. “They call me Sugar.”

  The shorter guard chuckled. “You certainly are sweet.”

  “We’re not giving anything away for free here, boys,” Jackie said. “We might have a little time before our next appointment if you boys want to party.”

  “Quiet down, you old crow.” The taller guard shoved Jackie off to the side.

  Mary peered into the lobby. “Who’s the handsome man inside? Why is he so shy?” She stepped toward the doors and beckoned him forward with a wave of her hand and a long, lingering lick of her tongue. She felt foolish, but she needed him to come close.

  The shorter guard banged on the glass. “Take a look, Ralph. She can’t hurt you.”

  Ralph cautiously stepped forward, but he was still five feet away, too far for Steven.

  The guard banged the glass again. “Don’t
be such a stick-in-the-mud. Where would she hide a gun?”

  Mary pursed her lips and bent at the waist. Her chest practically sprung free from the tight dress as she playfully tugged on the fabric.

  Come on Ralph, come closer.

  He crept toward the glass, a sick smile twisting his lips.

  That’s right. Four feet, three feet, two feet....

  She dropped her cell phone. “Oops.” She bent low to pick it up.

  Glass exploded around them, and Ralph flew backward.

  Thump, thump.

  Both guards were down. The shorter one had been shot in the head and the taller one in the chest. The taller one moaned.

  “Old crow, my ass.” Jackie stepped on his chest and shot him between the eyes.

  Gabriel and Moses dragged the two guards inside.

  “Good work,” Steven said. “We need to move. We have five minutes at most before security inside the building realizes something’s wrong.”

  ***

  Tom squeezed Mary’s shoulder. “You were great, but you’ve got to go back to the van.” He considered saying more, but the right words stuck in his throat. As hopeless as he was, he realized this was the wrong moment to tell her he loved her for the first time.

  Jackie handed her the flask, and Mary nodded, turned, and woodenly headed back to the van. The sway had vanished from her hips and blood had splattered across the front of the dress.

  Jack tugged on Tom’s arm and they raced to the front staircase. They took the stairs two at a time and reached the door to the third floor in no time.

  Jackie huffed her way, sweating profusely. She looked unsteady when she joined them.

  Tom used the enhanced vision and got a read on three men on the other side of the door. “I’ll take the guy on the left,” he whispered. “Jack, you shoot the guy on the right, and Jackie takes out the man in the middle.”

  Tom’s heart raced and adrenaline jolted through his body. Time crawled until Steven’s voice rang in his earpiece. “We go in three, two, one.”

  Tom kicked the door open and charged, dart pistol in front, Jack and Aunt Jackie close on his heels. The three guards swung their heads around to see the commotion, and he shot the guard to the left in the back before the man had a chance to turn.